Some questions about MeGUI Filesize/Quality

[wacco]

Hi there. I have been using MeGUI for a long time to encode anime. I've been able to cope just fine with encoding whole episodes to Xvid avi files using the Xvid'>% profiles that come with MeGUI. However, now I am trying to encode a DVD-rip (I have prepared d2v and vobs). When I crop and analyze it as usual to get my avs file there is no problem.

However, my problem is the final file size/quality. I am not very technically smart, so I tend to just use profiles. The concert DVD-rip is 1 hour and 8 minutes. But to get a decent quality Xvid avi file it seems like I cant go under 1,5 gigabyte. I know a lot of DVD-rips of full movies (2 hours) are 700MB and look great with Xvid avi files. Is there a simple way for me to just choose a profile (eventually use settings someone propose to me) and have my concert take 700Mb or less? I mean, without looking extremely blocky.

I can't see why my final xvid avi file takes so much space when there is barely one hour of video, and I have tried using the built-in Xvid'>% profiles :( The source VOBs look pretty good too thinking quality.

I'm very sorry for being so little-knowing, but I really need to have this concert decent-looking and 700mb or less. Any help will be appreciated a lot!

[naugas]

I suggest you try AutoGK. It's a good, yet simple tool. But have you resized enough?

[wacco]

AutoGK is a little too simple. I write avisynth scripts etc. I just am not familiar with the encoding profiles. Let's say I have my concert at 640 x 480 and encode with the Xvid'>58% comp HQ profile. Would it be normal for the concert (output avi file) to take 1,5 GB when it's only one hour and eight minutes :confused:

[naugas]

Looking at the (4:3) videos I have around that length, they are encoded at between 512x384 and 464x352. Sometimes I've used AutoGK to only suggest a resize, to use in a separate script.

[wacco]

Looking at the (4:3) videos I have around that length, they are encoded at between 512x384 and 464x352. Sometimes I've used AutoGK to only suggest a resize, to use in a separate script.

What are the filesize of those?

[naugas]

The smallest are 440 MB, 1/10 of a dvd, and 50-60mn long. The largest 700 MB, and that's in 464x352 and 1h 12mn long. But looking at what's common for 350 MB tv-rips in 4:3, they are 512x384 and ~50mn. The movies I have (in widescreen, look at the amount of pixels per frame), that are around 1h 30mn in 700 MB, have a resolution in between 608x336 and 544x304.

I suggest again you try AutoGK, if only just to see what size is suggested for your source! :)

[check]

autoGK is probably not useful in this case as it will likely produce a lower quality output.
It's quite possible the concert is just not compressible at all, and you need a large filesize to get acceptable quality. Try using a lower % profile instead as thatwill bring down filesize some.

[wacco]

Thanks for the help guys. I tried using the quick 1P-Goodquality x264 profile in meGUI. Compared to the xvid profiles (50% and lower ones), my putput file is now only 550mb, and looks even better than the xvid output that was almost 1GB (used xvid profiles from megui on that one). Is the difference THAT big between the two codecs when encoding movies/concerts? I am used to anime, but there, the difference in size/quality is not very big when dealing with medium resolutions.

I still find it weird that the Xvid profiles in megui produce such big files though, almost like something is wrong, now that I have compared with the x264 profiles. I mean, my Xvid output is almost twice as big and looks worse :S

[naugas]

I don't really understand how you encoded to that large filesize? I just looked at those xvid presets, and they all seem to be 2-pass?
Normally, with 2-pass, the first thing you do is deciding a filesize, then adjust the resolution to get a decent amounts of bits per pixel, perhaps tweak that if you estimate that the source is easy or hard to compress, and then you encode.

edit: ok, now I have read about enc and the presets...

And x264 can make video in low bitrates look surprisingly good, yes.

[wacco]

I don't really understand how you encoded to that large filesize? I just looked at those xvid presets, and they all seem to be 2-pass?
Normally, with 2-pass, the first thing you do is deciding a filesize, then adjust the resolution to get a decent amounts of bits per pixel, perhaps tweak that if you estimate that the source is easy or hard to compress, and then you encode.

edit: ok, now I have read about enc and the presets...

And x264 can make video in low bitrates look surprisingly good, yes.

Yeah, the xvid presets are 2pass. I use the bitrate calculator, apply what i make there, and check the config if what I applied really was applied. Everything looks good, but still the big filesize at the output .avi ;( I could of course just encode to x264, but Xvid would be so much handier. I really don't know what to do now - I have no idea what it is I am doing wrong..

[check]

so you're saying a one pass x264 encode is better than a 2pass xvid encode of twice the size?? Well x264 is almost certainly better at the compression ratio you are looking at, but not by that much. Try using the 90% xvid preset and see how it works.

[wacco]

so you're saying a one pass x264 encode is better than a 2pass xvid encode of twice the size?? Well x264 is almost certainly better at the compression ratio you are looking at, but not by that much. Try using the 90% xvid preset and see how it works.

I tried. My size got over 2GB when I did it, even if I used the bitrate calculator. Looks like I have no control over the size of my Xvid encodes. The quality was good.

[check]

you must be using the bitrate calculator wrong. Set the calculator up so you get the right bitrate, remember the number, click apply and double check that it was set right in the codec config. Also check the encoding mode for good measure. When a job starts it also outputs the commandline to the log, so you can check it there too.

[wacco]

you must be using the bitrate calculator wrong. Set the calculator up so you get the right bitrate, remember the number, click apply and double check that it was set right in the codec config. Also check the encoding mode for good measure. When a job starts it also outputs the commandline to the log, so you can check it there too.

It has to be something like that now. I recorded what I do in MeGUI, maybe you can spot what I am doing wrong?

http://rapidshare.com/files/22910014/record-0.avi.html

or

http://files.to/get/406283/2192/record-0.avi

[check]

sorry, that file was downloading at 10kb/sec for me from the latter link, and rapidshare hates my ISP, so I'm not going to watch it. Anyway, these are the steps you should take:
open bitrate calculator, set values correct so you get a good target video bitrate. Remember the target bitrate, and click 'apply'. Open the codec config, make sure the target bitrate is the same as what you just calculated, and that it is set to 2pass - automated. Then click ok, and then enqueue.

[RaynQuist]

I watched the video and I saw nothing wrong. The bitrate is clearly set to 889 kb/s in the video config dialog and all other settings were the default XVID > 58% fast profile, 2-pass automated and everything. Both passes enqueued.

The video doesn't show the log though, so maybe the settings didn't translate to the right command line options

[wacco]

Thanks for watching it RaynQuist, check too. I'm going to try this on my laptop today. I never tried MeGUI on it before. I'll post the log from there if it doesn't work out there either.

[wacco]

Now I have tried on my laptop. The output file is over 1GB here too, when I calculated that I wanted a 650MB or so filesize in the bitrate calculator, and applied. I have attached the log. The video quality is very nice on the output (I bellieve I used the 45% profile) but the size is too big. I am very grateful for your using time on my problem.

(http://pastebin.no/1228) Alternative location for log.

[check]

" desired video bitrate of this job: 827 kbit/s - obtained video bitrate (approximate): 1615 kbit/s"
Well, there's the problem. Cant see any reason for it either. As to the fix, try running the second pass commandline from a batch file and see if the output is still bad. If it is, it sounds like an xvidencraw problem and you should ask in the xvid forum.