MEGUI Opntions

[StephenChow]

Hello,

I try to transcode my DVDs to x264.
Should I stick "Colour Correction" or "MPEG2 Deblocking"?
I read in the forum that "Colour Correction" should be enable but for XviD/DivX encoder, how about x264 encoder?
My DVDs is retail and quality is really great? So I think I shouldn't use "Colour Correction", right?
And which Lanczos or Lanczors4 should I choose with high quality DVD?

Thank you

[Morte66]

Hello,

Should I stick "Colour Correction"

I would say definitely. This rocks. It's my single biggest reason for doing encodes (I can't run it in real time, so I have to encode its output).

or "MPEG2 Deblocking"?

Conventional wisodm is yes, but I think you have to decide for yourself by doing a few tests. IMHO it generally makes things better, but it can make bad DVDs (lots of blocking hidden by lots of noise) look worse. You need a pretty good display (contrasty, excellent shadow detail) to notice much difference.

And which Lanczos or Lanczors4 should I choose with high quality DVD?

None. Make an anamorphic backup with all the original pixels, and set a "display aspect ratio" for playback. If you're going to the trouble of using a super-high quality encoder and a fiddly GUI, instead of DivX or Nero, why would you throw away some of the DVD before encoding it?

[StephenChow]

None. Make an anamorphic backup with all the original pixels, and set a "display aspect ratio" for playback. If you're going to the trouble of using a super-high quality encoder and a fiddly GUI, instead of DivX or Nero, why would you throw away some of the DVD before encoding it?

Thanks for you message, I resize it to correct aspect ratio 16:9, but I don't know which is better? Lanczos or Lanczos4.

[Morte66]

Thanks for you message, I resize it to correct aspect ratio 16:9, but I don't know which is better? Lanczos or Lanczos4.

Instead of resizing during the encode, set an aspect ratio and let the player resize on playback. That way you lose no pixels, you get full resolution and better picture quality.

If you really must resize, it's subjective (sharpness vs ringing). You have to try both and see which you prefer, and which suits your screen better. Though really they're not so different. [And if you upgrade your monitor later, you may decide you made the wrong choice. Which wouldn't be a problem if you avoided resizing during the encode and left it to playback...] Though really they're not so different.

[StephenChow]

Instead of resizing during the encode, set an aspect ratio and let the player resize on playback. That way you lose no pixels, you get full resolution and better picture quality.

DVDs are encoded at 720x480 (NTSC), when it play on monitor, player resize it to appropriate aspect ratio.

I understood your message, but I don't know how to do it with x264 encoder. Can you help me?
I'm using MeGUI.

Thank you.

[Daodan]

Either put the SAR in the x264 config in megui (so in sample aspect ratio put 32:27 since your movie is NTSC 16/9 AR), or put th DAR when you remux in mkv. More confusing infos here:http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105809

[Morte66]

DVDs are encoded at 720x480 (NTSC), when it play on monitor, player resize it to appropriate aspect ratio.

I understood your message, but I don't know how to do it with x264 encoder. Can you help me?
I'm using MeGUI.

Well, imagine you were doing it without MeGUI for a moment. First you'd make your pixel-for-pixel 720x480 video encode in x264, and perhaps encode your audio (as you prefer). Then you'd use a "muxer", which mixes those into a combined video and audio file, probably .mp4 or .mkv format. It's the muxer which sets an aspect ratio in the output file, saying "play this back at a 720x405 ratio" or "treat these pixels as non-square with dimensions of 1:0.84375" -- the details vary, but they're logically equivalent and a good GUI takes care of it.

Now you can sit MeGUI on top of x264 and the muxer, to automate them. MeGUI will make a note of the aspect ratio when it reads the DVD rip at the beginning, and pass it on to the muxer at the end.

Now the details: in the AviSynth script creator window you'll see an option for "Clever(TM) anamorphic encoding", with some sub-options. At this point it's probably easier to use it than to explain it, so have a play around. You'll see that when you use it, it plants some code in the AviSynth script that feeds the encoder. Look in the "Edit" tab, and you'll see something like:# Set DAR in encoder to 37 : 20. The following line is for automatic signalling
global MeGUI_darx = 37
global MeGUI_dary = 20

You can play around with the options to get the behaviour you want (also see the error tolerance on the main MeGUI settings screen). Or you can just adjust that by hand and make it 16:9 or 4:3. And that will get passed on to the muxer as a display aspect ratio, then translated into whatever terms the output file uses internally.

Once you've worked out what you want, most of this stuff can be semi-automated through MeGUI's system of profiles. You'll want to use AviSynth profiles to handle the aspect ratio stuff, and you should also check out the "One Click Encoder" and its profiles which will save you a lot of mouse clicks if you're only doing simple stuff. Have a look at the MeGUI guide which is a sticky in the "MPEG4 Encoder GUIs" forum for more info.

[berrinam]

Daodan: From your description, you are using a very old version of MeGUI, so it isn't actually valid now. Despite the fact that you should update, I'll have to disagree with your recommendation here: what you really should do is set the DAR in the video preview to 16:9, which will manage the encoding fine. You might need to enter the DAR when you remux, though, as Daodan said. check's MeGUI wiki will have some details about this soon (since I plan to write them :D)

[Daodan]

Hmm, actually I always use the DAR in mkv, didn't know things changed since then. So now the SAR in x264 should be put at what value? [I always thought that SAR in megui is the pixel aspect ratio, so how should a pixel be stretched from 1:1 to make the image look right].

[StephenChow]

@Daodan: I'm using MeGUI 0.2.3.2175 and I don't see Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) anywhere. Could you please tell me more detail?

I know MP4BOX could set PAR, but when I look at command line help -par tkID=PAR: sets visual track pixel aspect ratio. Actually, it's abstract, and I don't understand what it means. Also, the homepage http://gpac.sourceforge.net/auth_mp4box.php doesn't say anything involved with PAR

@Morte66: Thank you again, I appreciate it

[Daodan]

Well, if the DAR way works for you, or the explanations Morte gave I think you should stick with those. Things changed in Megui it seems. The OLD way was that the SAR was actually PAR in the config. (I always use DAR in mkv...I'm always getting myself confused also with using 3-4 methods when there is one you already know how to use..)