HC encoder v0.20 released

[hank315]

Just finished a new release: HC020

- support for HD resolutions, up to 1920x1152
- added some new functions: *ZONE and *MASK_SHIFT
- improved autogop function with *AUTOGOP command
- higher encoding speed for SSE2 CPU's
- supports latest DGDecode/DGIndex (fileversion 15 & 16)
- GUI updated
- more built-in matrices
- more parameter input
- as usual some bug fixes

*NOTE
This release has a lot of new code so there may be some new bugs :)

And of course, thanks to the beta testers.

[dirio49]

Thanks for the New version.
Cannot wait to try it out.
Thanks :)

[video_magic]

I actually felt my heart give a little 'skip' when I saw this thread for a new version! :D This little program really has been captivating for Me, it's nice and easy to use and the results have mostly been very good - and it's a small standalone program too that I don't have to install and has lots of features - the batch feature is so handy.
I look forward to putting a few videos through this new version - THANKS! :)

[Fishman0919]

Thank You hank315 and just in time for some new movies.

[kumi]

Thank you hank315!

For newbs like me that use it with DVD Rebuilder and don't delve too often into the HC gui or .ini files: can we expect any quality improvements over 0.19?

[Pookie]

You never fail to impress, Hank. Can't wait to test it out on some HD material. Thanks.

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Hi, I have an HD recording of Heroes and I would like to convert it to DVD. Is this the tool I need?

I was using ffmpeg tool before but looks like the my HD recording has some bad data on it. It always stops at 1.3gig on this one HD recording. It doesn't fail on my other recordings. One more thing that confuses me is that, I can watch this same HD recording in mythtv without any issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Oldeman]

Hank,
I just tried HC20 on my 3.0G HT P4 with my standard test movie
(2 hours of camcorder footage massaged by Vegas, 2 vts, 4x3 interlaced).

Using Dvd Rebuilder Pro: with No menu encoding, best mode, multiple HC encoders, encode time was 204 minutes on HC19.01 and 130 minutes on HC20. WOW guess the SSE2 kicks butt.

Haven't checked output yet as rebuild is still in process, but its a GREAT reduction in encode time.:thanks: :thanks: :thanks:

[v1rtu0s1ty]

so guys, is HC20 used for converting HD to DVD?

[Pookie]

9 minutes between bumps ?

[Rumbah]

I tested the new version on some normal DVD material and I got a speedup of about 30% on my P4 3.2GHz. Amazing!
so guys, is HC20 used for converting HD to DVD?

No, HC is used to encode in HD or in SD, it does not do any resolution convertion.

[LiquidLion]

Deleted post since no replies, as expected...yes, i did use the search feature.

[lennu]

Every time i try to run HCenc_020.exe i get
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4702/hc020sw5.png

I have 1.33 Athlon and 512 mb of ram. I know this is not that kind of a computer which should be used for video encoding, but still? Or HC is not supposed to run on older CPU's?

[Trahald]

High quality mpeg2 HD encoding for the masses! Great going hank

[Pookie]

1280x720 (all I've done so far) looks terrific :)

[Boulder]

can we expect any quality improvements over 0.19?IMO the rate control is better than in HC019 so I'd say a definite yes to that:)

[kumi]

That's great news :) I was already very impressed by the improvements made in 0.19.

Now, if only I didn't have a lowly Sempron... :(

[foxyshadis]

Every time i try to run HCenc_020.exe i get
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4702/hc020sw5.png

I have 1.33 Athlon and 512 mb of ram. I know this is not that kind of a computer which should be used for video encoding, but still? Or HC is not supposed to run on older CPU's?

It's probably the lack of SSE, so that would make P3/A-XP the minimum requirement. =\ (Along with whatever Celeron/Duron models first supported SSE.)

[dragongodz]

It's probably the lack of SSE
actually no it shouldnt be. HC still has a minimum of mmx/isse which an old athlon is of course capable of.

lennu - try running the gui and loading you avs and setting output etc. also go tto the "settings 2" tab and select "MMX" in the "CPU" box. then try to encode. what happens then ?

[lennu]

lennu - try running the gui and loading you avs and setting output etc. also go tto the "settings 2" tab and select "MMX" in the "CPU" box. then try to encode. what happens then ?

Same thing :(

[Boulder]

Every time i try to run HCenc_020.exe i get
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4702/hc020sw5.png

I have 1.33 Athlon and 512 mb of ram. I know this is not that kind of a computer which should be used for video encoding, but still? Or HC is not supposed to run on older CPU's?Maybe it's OS specific - what OS do you use?

[lennu]

I use Windows Xp Sp2.

Actually i had some problems with 0.19.1 too. It freezes my computer after 1-2 minutes of re-encoding, but only when i used HC with DVD-RB (free version).
When i load avs file into HCgui_019 - no problems. Therefore i've tested my hardware also (cpu, memory) - everything seemed fine.

And an other note. I can use CCE Trial with or without DVD-RB.

[laserfan]

I'm confused about HC's new HD encoding capability--is the idea to use it to re-encode HD-to-HD at a lesser bitrate, conserving space? What utilities would one use it with to do this?

I have only ever used Hank's wonderful encoder with DVD Rebuilder...

[Lester Burnham]

I'm confused about HC's new HD encoding capability--is the idea to use it to re-encode HD-to-HD at a lesser bitrate, conserving space? What utilities would one use it with to do this?

I have only ever used Hank's wonderful encoder with DVD Rebuilder...

What about the ability to re-encode HD broadcast captures / recordings, to HD-DVD formats?

[Boulder]

Use Avisynth for loading and processing the source. Load the Avisynth script in HC and encode.

[Lester Burnham]

Use Avisynth for loading and processing the source. Load the Avisynth script in HC and encode.

Don't know if that's in reply to my comments, or not - but I didn't make that rhetorical point to request info on procedure - it was merely a counter to questioning the purposefulness of having HC being able to encode HD resolutions.

[Boulder]

I was mostly referring to laserfan's post.

I don't think having a *free* HD-capable encoder is a bad idea at all... ;)

[v1rtu0s1ty]

I tested the new version on some normal DVD material and I got a speedup of about 30% on my P4 3.2GHz. Amazing!


No, HC is used to encode in HD or in SD, it does not do any resolution convertion.

Gotcha. Is there a reason to encode a record show that is already in HD? Or maybe, HC is use for other video sources? Please help.

[Lester Burnham]

Gotcha. Is there a reason to encode a record show that is already in HD? Or maybe, HC is use for other video sources? Please help.

eh? It's an mpeg2 encoder - so it's of use whenever you may want to encode, or re-encode mpeg2.

Now, it's capable of encoding mpeg2 to HD resolution.

So whenever you want to encode to mpeg2, up to HD (as well as SD previously) resolution, you can now use HC.

Most interested people, seemed rather pleased that Hank has upped the ante with HC, so that it can now do HD, too...

[v1rtu0s1ty]

eh? It's an mpeg2 encoder - so it's of use whenever you may want to encode, or re-encode mpeg2.

Now, it's capable of encoding mpeg2 to HD resolution.

So whenever you want to encode to mpeg2, up to HD (as well as SD previously) resolution, you can now use HC.

Most interested people, seemed rather pleased that Hank has upped the ante with HC, so that it can now do HD, too...

Ah, maybe, I can use this tool to reencode an hd recording to the same format. And hopefully, it will fix the issue on the recorded issue. I will use the new output file then for mplex.

However, I tried to use the tool yesterday but I got confused. It was not looking for an mpg file. Looks like it was looking for an avscript. My avscript is not running well too. I reinstalled many times but Microsoft Media Player still fails to play a one liner avs script which contains Version command :(

[Lester Burnham]

Ah, maybe, I can use this tool to reencode an hd recording to the same format. And hopefully, it will fix the issue on the recorded issue. I will use the new output file then for mplex.

However, I tried to use the tool yesterday but I got confused. It was not looking for an mpg file. Looks like it was looking for an avscript. My avscript is not running well too. I reinstalled many times but Microsoft Media Player still fails to play a one liner avs script which contains Version command :(

Well it (like other freeware mpeg2 encoders - eg quenc) doesn't take the video file as source - it expects the source to be frameserved by avisynth.

[Boulder]

Or you can use DGIndex and feed the d2v project file in HC if you don't need to do anything in Avisynth.

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Or you can use DGIndex and feed the d2v project file in HC if you don't need to do anything in Avisynth.

ok, actually I'm just hoping that when I reencode my hd recording, it will help my ffmpeg tool. Ok, I will look for DGIndex and try it. And yes, I don't need to do anything with avisynth. As a matter of fact, it's still not running properly on my machine. :)

EDIT:
Sorry folks, here is what I found. http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html
Is that the true home of DGIndex?

[foxyshadis]

Yep, neuron2 is the creator.

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Ok folks, here is an update. I got HC working :) I opened the file that DGindex created then, HC created an m2v file. I'm able to play m2v file in VLC. Is m2v format an mpeg format?

And also, I've been using ffmpeg on linux to convert HD into DVD so I can have a backup. I don't know of any other tool that does conversion so I think that ffmpeg is the best tool out there. Hehehe. Can you guys recommend a conversion tool from HD(1920x1080, 1280x720) to DVD(720x480)?

Thanks again! You guys have a helped me a lot. ;)

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Here is an update. I download a ts 1920x1080 example file from pchdtv.com. I reencoded it using best profile and filesize went down like 65%. However, I can see a pixelization. What do I need to do so that quality is the same as the source?

[MLS]

You can't, MPEG2 is lossy.

I think these questions should be put in the newbie forum or at least in a different thread as they have nothing to do with the new release.

Back on topic: Thanks for all your hard work Hank.

/MLS

[laserfan]

Use Avisynth for loading and processing the source. Load the Avisynth script in HC and encode.Thanks for this... having only used DVDRB before I forgot HC had its own GUI (duh). :o

[hank315]

Some remarks about SD/HD resolutions:
In fact nothing has changed, HC just takes the frames from Avisynth or DGDecode without resizing and re-encode them.
The only difference now it's not limited to DVD (720x576 max) resolutions.
Width and height should still be a multiple of 16 except for 1080 height, this one will be encoded at 1088 with a 1080 header value.

@lennu
As dragongodz already mentioned minimum requirements for HC are still MMX/ISSE so I really don't know why it doesn't run on your CPU.
Actually i had some problems with 0.19.1 too. It freezes my computer after 1-2 minutes of re-encoding, but only when i used HC with DVD-RB (free version).That's not a very good sign also...

@peter100m
The timecode issue you reported earlier should be solved.

This release also fixes an error in the pulldown code, feedback on this is appreciated.

[Smetvid]

I noticed that the m2v files are encoded as main profile/high level which has a bitrate limit of 80mbits/s and 4:2:0 color.

I have encoded a 1920x1080 HD file at 300 mbits/s and 100 mbits/s and they work fine but they still somehow manage to use MP/HL which should be an invalid format.

Are there any plans to add the 4:2:2 profile and with that the chroma 4:2:2 flag?

If not then perhaps the bitrate should be limited to 80 mbits/s to avoid any problems.

[Revgen]

Thanks Hank.

I'll try this out as soon as I can.

[peter100m]

@peter100m
The timecode issue you reported earlier should be solved.
Thank you! I tested and everything seems to be ok.

[techreactor]

Adaptive matrix is an amazing feature, but instead of leaving it to the users to do some coding, it should also have an Auto mode, wherein it should pick up matrices available from the HC package by self analysis on the source.

*ADAPTIVEMATRIX
parameter - type -
Status not required
Default -
Example *ADAPTIVEMATRIX
This command activates the code in matrix.dll. Using this command you can change matrices at
every GOP. This is meant for very experienced users only !!
See the adaptive matrices section in this manual how to create the dll.

[linx05]

Could someone make a DLL which does this automatically at every GOP?

[Boulder]

There are a few dlls included in the HC020 package.

[linx05]

But they are only for dark scenes it seems. I think techreactor was after something like QMATOpt in Autoqmatenc or the one Procoder uses.

It would be very handy.

[Asmodeus]

This release also fixes an error in the pulldown code, feedback on this is appreciated.

I did some encodes with 3:2 pulldown and they are ok. But I didn't have any problem with pulldown on any HCenc pulldown capable.

PS: I encode all via Wine on FreeBSD without problems.

[Nomolu]

When I use the built in MPEG matix with the normal mode I see random 16x16 squares (macro blocks?) spread around the frames.

If I switch to the Fast or Best modes, or choose a matrix other than "MPEG", the squares do not appear. The problem doesn't happen with the HC 19.0.1 encoder either.

My video is at the 23.976 frame rate, but changing other settings, such as pulldown or auto GOP don't fix the problem.

Anyone else see this problem with the built in MPEG matrix and the Normal mode?

[MLS]

When I use the built in MPEG matix with the normal mode I see random 16x16 squares (macro blocks?) spread around the frames.

If I switch to the Fast or Best modes, or choose a matrix other than "MPEG", the squares do not appear. The problem doesn't happen with the HC 19.0.1 encoder either.

My video is at the 23.976 frame rate, but changing other settings, such as pulldown or auto GOP don't fix the problem.

Anyone else see this problem with the built in MPEG matrix and the Normal mode?

Just did an encode with those settings at 3500 ABR and have no problems.

/MLS

[hank315]

@Nomolu
Could you please post the logfile of the encode.

[Nomolu]

Here you go. And FYI: my system has dual AMD Athlon MP 2800+ processors (not SSE2 capable).

[hank315]

Thanks...

I can replicate it, it's a bug :(
It only happens in some cases with MMX only CPU's and normal profile.

Found the error and fixed it, thanks for reporting this one.

[Kamui-]

Hi,
this is a very nice tool and the encodes really comes out HQ. I've stumbled into this problem and I dont know if its software or hardware related problem but HC did say 100% encoding done so I just assume its the software.

My problem was that the encode said 100% but it didnt encode all the 156215 frames which was showed in HC, it only encoded 78110 frames minus the pulldown since the source was progressive. I would also like to pointout that I set size (@3.9gb) and not bitrate.

Here is the pics and log.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v43aho
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2046/untitled1jg0.png
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/103/untitledkr3.png

I'll be running another encode with 0.20 tonight to see if the problem fixes itself, otherwise I'll try out 0.19. Thanks for your great work :)

System: A64 X2 3800+, 3gb ram, xxx hd space.

EDIT: Problem solved after a reencode, all frames are there now and I don't really know why the first encode didn't encode all frames. But now it works so it's all good :)

[OutSiderSP]

hank315,
Thank you for this brilliant pice of software !:thanks:
I did some encodings with HC0.20 and compared with TMPGenc, which I think generates the best quality m2v for my eyes. And I could not tell the videos apart ! Quality is superb at the same file size !!! I will quit slow TMPGEnc for HC, although TMPG runs fast in my Turion X2 (20% slower than CCE Basic). Probably because of the use of threads, I do not know.

One observation though : in the m2v file, I cannot search the video with MPC after the position at around 12/15 minutes. Image gets frozen. I am now doing another full conversion and if the problem persists, I will return.

Thanks for the good work !

[OutSiderSP]

hank315,
Forget about the search problem I said in the earlier e-mail. A 2 hour film presented NO search problems with MPC (I know MPC is a bit tricky with m2v files).

One minor issue I noted in the interface after a 5:43 hour conversion was that the progress bar was showing 100% and we still had 1:16 minutes to finish conversion. This may be the old +0.5 rounding.

One suggestion : can you insert a line showing how many bytes was already written to disk and an estimate of the file size for OPV ? Just a suggestion.

[Heini011]

hi hank315,

thanks for your great work. i have one problem:

i encoded a movie with 2 zones: maintitle and credits:


*INFILE d:\dvd\l\l-dvd.avs
*OUTFILE D:\DVD\l\v.m2v
*LOGFILE D:\DVD\l\v.log
*BITRATE 4574
*MAXBITRATE 9150
*FRAMES 0 167974
*PROFILE best
*CUSTOMMATRIX
8 14 17 20 22 24 27 31
14 17 20 22 24 27 31 33
17 20 22 24 27 31 33 36
20 22 24 27 31 34 37 43
22 24 27 31 34 38 45 53
24 27 31 34 38 46 56 65
27 31 33 37 45 56 69 79
31 33 36 43 53 65 79 96

15 16 18 20 22 24 27 31
16 18 20 22 24 27 31 33
18 20 22 24 27 31 33 35
20 22 24 27 31 34 36 41
22 24 27 31 34 37 43 49
24 27 31 34 37 43 52 58
27 31 33 36 43 52 61 69
31 33 35 41 49 58 69 83
*CHAPTER 22
0
[...]
156729
161480
*ZONE 2
0 1.0
161430 0.3


problem is: power dvd show in the credits 3-4 Mbps bitrate, and dvd bit rate viewer shows also no decreasing of bitrate at the ending.

the last zone seems not working. maybe because of the last chapter key frame ? i had count on it.. sadly...

and one plea: add the average quant used to the log-file again. i always looked at this value to check, if the aimed bitrate was sufficient for my material.

greetings.

[Heini011]

and one serious problem:

source material: sharp, low noise
same settings, but:
-no zones,

frames: 0 119600
bitrate Kb/s: 7280
max. bitrate Kb/s: 9600
2 pass:
average bitrate: 7269
minimum bitrate: 148
maximum bitrate: 9599

very good quality overall, but the single frame no. 61317, which is an i-frame in a low motion scene, is very blocky. (apparantly a very high quant used). i had never seen this behaviour in older versions.

greetings.

[Blue_MiSfit]

holy crapola.

This is such a good MPEG-2 encoder...

I re-encoded one of my high bitrate, full resolution x264/aac backups (1/2 DVDR) to HC MPEG-2 / Aften AC3, and WOW. It's literally indistinguishable from the backup. Even when loading the two versions into AviSynth with MPEG2Source / AVCSource, and interleaving the two, I am HARD pressed to tell any difference at all. If anything, the position of (small) already existing artifacts changes somewhat. For 5200kbit, total transparency. I'm VERY impressed.

Seriously, no quality degradation at all. And the speed! It ran at ~30fps!

A very happy
~MiSfit

[smok3]

has ini file format changed in any way from .19? (just asking to know if i will have to mod my batches)

[Revgen]

I'm having trouble with the speed on this version during the 2nd pass. I'm encoding a 720x480 rez, 29.97fps, 8000kbps, Best Mode, AutoGOP @ 18 GOPs and 2 B-frames,Open GOPs,Scene Change ON, Interlaced ON, TFF Enabled, DC Precision=10, Bias=0, Pulldown=No, AR=4:3, MPEG matrix. For some reason the encoding speed will slow down considerably on an intermittent basis for no reason, then it'll speed up to about 15fps then slow back down a minute or two later. Sometimes the speed will hover around 3fps. My source isn't slow and plays about 30fps just fine, so I can't see how that would be the problem. I encoded the source just fine using Xvid.

My CPU is an Athlon X2 4600+ Dual-Core.

Here's my AVS script.

LoadPlugin("E:\colormatrix.dll")
avisource("pregame-postgame denoised 1.avi","pregame-postgame denoised 2.avi")
assumetff().separatefields().selectevery(4,0,3).weave()
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.601->Rec.709",interlaced=true)

[unplugged]

0.20 seems to have a little bug by not loading the *NOSEQ_ENDCODE from the ini file
(EDIT: at least the GUI)

[video_magic]

I'm having trouble with the speed on this version during the 2nd pass. I'm encoding a 720x480 rez......,
...DC Precision=10
......

I have been advised, and also read in a few places, that DC Precision 10 is meant for high-bitrates like 12000 to 15000 and higher. Not sure if that in combination with 'BEST' might result in the HCEnc working very hard in a few places for the encode?

How greatly does DC Precision affect CPU usage for playback/decode i.e. for DC Precision 9 v 10? :confused:

[dragongodz]

I have been advised, and also read in a few places, that DC Precision 10 is meant for high-bitrates like 12000 to 15000 and higher.
precision 10 is also valid for dvd. that is it is included in the specs so players must be able to play such encodes aswell.

that said the higher the dc precision i do recommend the higher bitrate you use. so if you were encoding to low bitrates it is a good idea to lower the dc precision aswell.

[Revgen]

precision 10 is also valid for dvd. that is it is included in the specs so players must be able to play such encodes aswell.

that said the higher the dc precision i do recommend the higher bitrate you use. so if you were encoding to low bitrates it is a good idea to lower the dc precision aswell.

Well, I was encoding at 8000kbps, so I thought that was high enough to use 10-bit. 10-bit never caused me these issues in previous versions.

[video_magic]

After a few encodes, I can report the good news that HC v020 has given encodes with visually good (even excellent) results at average bitrates of around 4000 with max set of 6200, for Full-Pal & Full-NTSC, video lengths typically 90 to 120 minutes! Thank You Hank315! :)

What seems like a bug to Me is that CPU usage seems 'very' dominant against other running apps. In task-manager it reports the prioirty as normal for both hcence_020 and hcgui_020 but hcenc_020 will be running with between 95 to 100 percent reported usage and the computer will be almost unusable for other tasks like watching a vid or testing zips or zipping some files with 7-zip even though I can set that task to background priority which has worked fine for not interfering with other running apps.
Anwyay, so I think the priority cpu-usage is a bug but the app results are very good quality from HC Encoder.
My system has Windows XP SP1 or SP2, CPU is a P3. Memory is 256mb and there aren't unnecassery clutter programs running, just occasional tasks that I do which use Internet Explorer, Winamp for playing music, sometimes 7-Zip.
Thanks.

@dragongodz - thanks for the comments, and Your work on QuEnc.

[Hemmo]

HC 0.20 and alternate scan don't work here. This is the ini file:

*INFILE g:\dvd5\mm 1\mm.avs
*OUTFILE G:\DVD5\HC.m2v
*LOGFILE G:\DVD5\logi hc.log
*MAXBITRATE 8600
*FRAMES 0 1475
*PROFILE best
*GOP 12 2
*CQ_MAXBITRATE 9.400
*DC_PREC 8
*SCANMETHOD alt
*MATRIX qlb

from logfile:

scan method: ZIGZAG
BitrateViewer shows ZIGZAG + Progressive frame type.

Avisynth 2.56 & DGMPGDec 1.4.6
avs:
LoadPlugIn("C:\...\DGDecode.dll")
MPEG2Source("G:\DVD5\...d2v")
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)
SelectRangeEvery(600,12)
:confused:

[Boulder]

Weird..I just checked logfiles of two recent interlaced CQ encodes and they said 'alternate'.

[45tripp]

hi,

I have an ntsc DV sample, bff interlaced, 29.97, 16/9, 720,480.

using directshowsource to load
converttoyv12() outputs every frame,
but converttoyv12(interlaced=true)
outputs mostly grey frames.

avisource works fine.
just mentioning as i tried mainconcept and tmpg, and both didn't output grey frames with directshow and interalced option.

ty

[Hemmo]

Weird..I just checked logfiles of two recent interlaced CQ encodes and they said 'alternate'.

I'm very sorry. It was my mistake. I didn't enable 'miscellaneous: Interlaced' flag. I only enabled alternate from settings 1 page.

[enantiomer]

Hi,
I've been playing with HC 0.20 for a week or so and have been very impressed with its performance (mostly with 1920x1080p material). I generally use the "professional.cpm" quantization matrix as it doesn't have the I-frame pulsing problems I see with the default MPEG matrix.

I have noticed that the blacks are lighter in appearance than with ProCoder. It appears this program adds the NTSC 7.5 IRE pedestal to the video. If this is true, is there a way I can disable it?

Thanks.

[hank315]

I have noticed that the blacks are lighter in appearance than with ProCoder. It appears this program adds the NTSC 7.5 IRE pedestal to the video.
No, it doesn't. It just takes the planes served by Avisynth or DGDecode and encodes them without luminance scaling or filtering.
Did you also compare the HC encode and the Procoder encode with the source?

@All
Thanks for the bug reports, most of them are solved now.

[enantiomer]

No, it doesn't. It just takes the planes served by Avisynth or DGDecode and encodes them without luminance scaling or filtering.
Did you also compare the HC encode and the Procoder encode with the source?

@All
Thanks for the bug reports, most of them are solved now.

Well, I wised up and used the avisynth colorbars() pattern to compare encoders. I learned that, by default, ProCoder does not pass blacker than black. There may be a way to fix that, but indeed HCenc is preserving more black information.

Thanks for the reply. I now trust HCenc more than an expensive professional encoder. :)

[smok3]

a 'bug', or should i say limited behaviour:
hc020 (and 019) seems to think that avisynth.dll should be in windows/system32, could you fix that?

avisynth.dll path should be in:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E6D6B700-124D-11D4-86F3-DB80AFD98778}\InProcServer32]

and again, tnx for the great encoder!

p.s. related, about portable avisynth:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121588

edit: replaced 'must be' with 'should be' :)

[hank315]

hc020 (and 019) seems to think that avisynth.dll must be in windows/system32'Must be' is a bit strong, HC assumes the dll will be in windows/system32 because it's installed in that directory by Avisynth.
If you copy Avisynth.dll in the HC directory it will use it, HC uses the normal dll search method.

[smok3]

ah ok, ill just drop in the hc dir then, tnx.

[Fizick]

suggestion: add option to set process priority for HCenc by user from HCgui.
I usually set it to low by hand (to use computer for some another tasks while encoding).

[kevo777]

I've looked and searched everywhere but I have found nothing.

I need to know the command line for invoking a batch file for HC Encoder. Can someone please post their method for batch encoding with HC. If I input an individual line from my batch file HC will take to it and start encoding so I'm sure that the commands are correct.

Does HC 0.20 not recognize the *.bat extension?

Thanks!

[smok3]

kevo777, not sure what you want but here is an example;

"t:\utility\HC\HCenc_019.exe" -i "in.avs" -o "out.m2v" -ini "t:\utility\HC\43_progresive.ini"

[kevo777]

Yep, that's what I'm doing but HC isn't digging it too much. I get the following:

http://kevo777.googlepages.com/hc.png/hc-full.jpg

I understand the error. The INI files referenced in the batch file clearly have input file, output file, bitrate and maxbitrate specified. HC created the INI files so I'm really not understanding how batch encoding with HC is possible.

Here's an example of one of my INI files:

*INFILE d:\~not music\~home video work\gaspard vhs caps\tape 001\clip-reencode.avs
*OUTFILE D:\~Not Music\~Home Video Work\Gaspard VHS Caps\Tape 001\clip.01.m2v
*LOGFILE D:\~Not Music\~Home Video Work\Gaspard VHS Caps\Tape 001\clip.01.log
*BITRATE 5000
*MAXBITRATE 8000
*FRAMES 0 134429
*PROFILE best
*ASPECT 4:3
*GOP 18 2
*NOSCD
*MATRIX mpegstd

This is my batch file:

hcenc_020 -ini d:\hc\gaspard.clip.01.ini
hcenc_020 -ini d:\hc\gaspard.clip.02.ini

I placed both INI files, the batch file, and HCenc_020.exe into D:\HC on my hard drive. I then open a DOS command window and navigate to D:\HC and (attempt to) invoke HC with the following command:

hcenc_020 d:\hc\gaspard.bat

At which step am I missing something? For argument's sake, I've also placed input file, output file, bitrate, and maxbitrate parameters in each line of the batch file but I receive the same error as the screenshot above.

[kevo777]

Wow. Okay. I just (after two days) figured out what I was doing wrong. Invoking batch files for HC means not starting the command line with "hcenc_020".

[ahem] That could've been made a bit more clear in the PDF but cool, whatever. I'm batch encoding now!! Woohoo!!!

[FredThompson]

@All
Thanks for the bug reports, most of them are solved now.When will you release an update?

I've run into a bug with 0.20 a la DVD RB-Pro in which HC 0.20 freezes at about 95% of the second pass. The segment is very short, just under 1200 frames. PM me if you'd like the script, config files and the source.

[hank315]

suggestion: add option to set process priority for HCenc by user from HCgui.
I usually set it to low by hand (to use computer for some another tasks while encoding).
The HCenc gui runs at normal priority, but the actual encoding threads which are started by HCenc will run at priority THREAD_PRIORITY_LOWEST.

I've run into a bug with 0.20 a la DVD RB-Pro in which HC 0.20 freezes at about 95% of the second pass. The segment is very short, just under 1200 frames. PM me if you'd like the script, config files and the source.
Just PM'ed you, I better wait with the final update until this one is also solved.
I can't replicate it so your source might help.

[EpheMeroN]

I'm doing an AVI > DVD conversion using AviSynth w/ HC 0.20 and I was wondering if any of the built-in matrices would yield better results when dealing with possible macroblocking when going from AVI > DVD.

[dragongodz]

wondering if any of the built-in matrices would yield better results when dealing with possible macroblocking when going from AVI > DVD.

the original format makes absolutely no difference. the quality of the source and the target encode limitations, such as bitrate etc, is what you need to look at.

for example if your source is already blocky then you are better off trying to clean that up, or at least reduce it, with an avisynth filter first.
if then you are encoding to a low bitrate for the output resolution then indeed it can be advantagious to select a matrix designed for such.

as to which to use, well you should try encoding a small section of the material and compare for yourself. people will always have their own favorites and espous them as the second coming. really just try some and decide for yourself since quality is always subjective.

[tom942]

Could it be possible as Fizick said to add an option not just in HC_gui but also in HC.ini to set process priority to low and that way call it from DVD-RB Freeware?

Thanks.

[kevo777]

Wow. Okay. I just (after two days) figured out what I was doing wrong. Invoking batch files for HC means not starting the command line with "hcenc_020".

[ahem] That could've been made a bit more clear in the PDF but cool, whatever. I'm batch encoding now!! Woohoo!!!

Yeah it's not working again. Could someone please post a short tutorial for a dummy because I'm just not getting it.

1. Does the batch file need to be in the same folder as HCenc_020.exe?

2. Do the INI files need to be in the same folder as the batch file?

I created four INI files by loading my AVS files into HCgui and setting up all parameters they way I need. I then save an INI file and give it a name. I repeat this process for 3 other AVS files. I then create a batch file and reference each INI file as illustrated in hank's PDF. I'm strictly using INI files and no commandline parameters so my batch file looks like this:

hcenc_020 -ini d:\path to\movie1.ini
hcenc_020 -ini d:\path to\movie2.ini
hcenc_020 -ini d:\path to\movie3.ini
hcenc_020 -ini d:\path to\movie4.ini

I then launch a command prompt, navigate to the location of HCenc_020.exe where my batch file is, and invoke the batch file. HCenc gives me an error (screenshot above) saying INPUT FILE, OUTPUT FILE, BITRATE, and MAXBITRATE are missing. Everything is in each INI file so how can this be?

[Boulder]

Do you have the paths in quotes if there is a space? Like "d:\path to\movie1.ini" ?

[wolf82]

@tom942
You can use freeware utility called Prio to set HC (or any other process) default priority. It integrates itself with Windows Task Manager.

@hank315
Your encoder is really great. Im using it since version 0.15. I would like to say that version 0.20 is much faster not only on SSE2 cpus. I have athlon xp and it encodes at best quality as fast as 0.19.1 at normal! (normal quality is even faster, but broken :/)

Btw. Where can I find short explanation of which matrix to use? (for example - "matrix XXXX is good for low bitrate anime","matrix YYYY is good for high bitrate encoding (preserves details)").

[tom942]

@wolf82

Thanks for the tip :). I didn´t know about the existence of this little app :).

@hank315

As always your encoder is awesome and gets better with each new release. Hats off.

BTW, although I can use the Prio utility, if you want to include that little option I would be grateful.