WMCmd.vbs WME9 script update released - 10/11/07

[sportcenter]

[consumer alert] MySiteSpace (http://www.mysitespace.com)is a horrible web hosting service provider. Security issues abound and the customer support is the worst I've seen in ages (sometimes they don't even reply to trouble tickets). I highly recommend to everybody to stay clear of MySiteSpace. [/consumer alert]

thnx for the heads up zambelli

:thanks:

[zambelli]

it then finds another method and begins to encode....but after about 1 minute it gets VERY SLOW and eventually stops
Does it encode anything at all? If you abort the encode, is the generated .wmv file playable at all?

Have you tried playing your .avs script through WMP or GraphEdit?

-v_buffer 60000 -v_quality 100
I mentioned this several times now, perhaps not in this thread, but here it goes again:
60 seconds is a huge buffer that imposes just as huge of a memory requirement on the decoder. 6 Mbps * 60 seconds = 36 Mbits = 43 Mbytes. That'd be the amount of memory the decoder would need to allocate just to play back the video at all. That's no problem on a PC, but on any standalone CE device, even the Xbox - there could be problems.

[ACrowley]

sportcenter

I have it to ...and it pla<ys no Role

Seemst to be caused by AVS with Directshowsource Input..but its no Problem

[ACrowley]

@Sportcenter
I have the Message while Import too to, plays no Role

it encodes fine..i made dozens of enocodes with wmcmd and all had the Message. The "Alternative" Method work fine

And as i say via PN, the Problem with the slow encode etc is because you made something wrong with your VC1 Source
The Source Duration in seconds i totally wrong.
So ofcourse the Encode is slow will work a few hundred hours

Perhaps you you dont use the demuxed VC1 in your graph/avs ?
When you use the evo in your graph, it gives exactly this Problem with wrong Runtime etc.
Please use "only" the demuxed mpv from Evodemux and create this graph
Filesource(async)- SonicHDDemuxer-SonicCinemasterVideoDecoder4.2

@zambelli
Xbox360 has no Problem with a 60000Buffer
Not the Dashboard Player, not the MCE Player

[sportcenter]

@ ACrowley - that may be the problem, i am using SonicCinemasterVideoDecoder4.1 instead of SonicCinemasterVideoDecoder4.2....i only have the 4.2 for my audio

[Thunder.m]

Hi, I would like to use this script on system without sound card, but I can't encode sound. In windows media encoder I can encode sound without problems, but with this script it just crashed, I have to use -videoonly option. Is there some way to encode movies without sound card with this script? I tried old script in WME SDK, but it has the same issue.

Configuration: U1 server HP, Windows 2003 Server SE, Intel Xeon 5110

[Clown shoes]

What is your audio source and what is the script you are using?

[Thunder.m]

What is your audio source and what is the script you are using?

cscript WMCmd.vbs -input "Z:\rta_rta_exchange\Mix_FINAL\rta_mixzregionu_2007_04_13.mpg" -output "C:\test.wmv" -loadprofile "C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\Video\rta150k.prx"

I am using same profile rta150k.prx for Windows Media Encoder.

[ACrowley]

@ ACrowley - that may be the problem, i am using SonicCinemasterVideoDecoder4.1 instead of SonicCinemasterVideoDecoder4.2....i only have the 4.2 for my audio

No...4.1 VideoDecoder should work fine too

@ Zambelli

2 Questions about 2pass VBR Peak

1.
I think v_quality parameter plays no Role for 2pass VBR Peak right ?
And i can use defaults for -v_buffer and -v_Peakuffer in 2pass VBR Peak ?

2. When i encode the same Source ,same preset etc ,but with v_mode 4, i can see in WMSnoop that the encode is
Device Conformance Template AP@L2

With CBR Mode v_mode 0 its AP@L3 ??

[zambelli]

I think v_quality parameter plays no Role for 2pass VBR Peak right ?
And i can use defaults for -v_buffer and -v_Peakuffer in 2pass VBR Peak ?
Correct, v_quality doesn't do anything in 2-pass VBR modes.
In mode 4 (2pass peak VBR) v_buffer is also ignored and v_peakbuffer is used instead. You can probably set it to 10 seconds with good results. The default is 5.

2. When i encode the same Source ,same preset etc ,but with v_mode 4, i can see in WMSnoop that the encode is
Device Conformance Template AP@L2

With CBR Mode v_mode 0 its AP@L3 ??
Yeah, the profile level prediction algorithm is not completely accurate. Because that part of the header is written before the encode is finished, the encoder has to do a best guess of what the level will be before the encode has even started. In most cases it makes a conservative estimate. It's likely the true level is AP@L2 in both cases really.

[Thunder.m]

What is your audio source and what is the script you are using?

Audio is in mpeg movie, script = WMCmd.vbs

[zambelli]

I just released a minor update to the script that allows redirecting text output to a log file. See first page for details.

[dlefol]

Hello,

First thanks for the program it's really usefull. I've run a few simulations using it and it's interesting to see the results.
I am a little bit astonished with my result using different Lookahead values. I've put all the parameters at their default values except the number of B frame which is set at 1 and the lookahead which varies from 1 to 16 (1,2,4,8 and 16).
I use a 1-pass CBR to encode sequences at bitrates between 100 Kbps and 500 Kbps by increment of 50 Kbps. The input is in CIF format and i used SSIM algo. to measure the quality of the output sequences... and my cruves are nearly exactly the same!!! Is the lookahead efficient only if different options are turned ON ?

Sorry if I am a bit out of topic and thanks for any help

[mt247]

Hi,
i have a strange problem. It does not matter, what mkv (720p) file i'm trying to convert to wmv on 2 pass encoding, the result is always the same. The filesize of the encoded new file is 5kb and not playable. Here is the log of my encoding attempt:
C:\Users\MTx32>cmd /k cscript.exe c:\windows\wmcmd.vbs -input e:\1.mkv -output e
:\lost1.wmv -v_codec WVC1 -videoonly -v_mode 4 -v_preset insane -v_bitrate 80000
00 -v_keydist 30 -v_buffer 600000 -v_quality 100
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host, Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Microsoft (R) Windows Media Encoder Command Line Script Utility
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


======== Begin Pass1 ========
Read: 2434,9s (100%) Elapsed: 05:15:44 Left: 00:00:03 [0,13x]

======== Begin Pass2 ========


======== Encoding Completed ========

Video :
Codec: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
Expected bit rate: 8000000 bps
Average bit rate: 8000000 bps
Expected fps: 25
Dropped frame count: 0
Total coded frames: 0
Average sample rate: 0
Dropped bytes: 0 bytes
Total bytes: 0 bytes

Overall:
Encoding time: 18950 seconds
Average bit rate: 8000000 bps
File size: 5054 bytes
File duration: 0 seconds

C:\Users\MTx32>

Anyone has an idea, what is going wrong here? I'm using vistax32 and the latest k-lite codec (full) pack....

Thx,
Michael

[mt247]

i changed the settings a bit but got the same result... :-(

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

C:\Users\MTx32>cmd /k cscript.exe c:\windows\wmcmd.vbs -input e:\1.mkv -output
:\lost1.wmv -v_codec WVC1 -videoonly -v_mode 1 -v_preset insane -v_bitrate 8000
00 -v_keydist 30 -v_buffer 600000 -v_quality 100
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host, Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Microsoft (R) Windows Media Encoder Command Line Script Utility
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


======== Begin Pass1 ========
Read: 2434,9s (100%) Elapsed: 05:21:38 Left: 00:00:03 [0,13x]

======== Begin Pass2 ========


======== Encoding Completed ========

Video :
Codec: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
Expected bit rate: 8000000 bps
Average bit rate: 8000000 bps
Expected fps: 25
Dropped frame count: 0
Total coded frames: 0
Average sample rate: 0
Dropped bytes: 0 bytes
Total bytes: 0 bytes

Overall:
Encoding time: 19303 seconds
Average bit rate: 8000000 bps
File size: 5054 bytes
File duration: 0 seconds

C:\Users\MTx32>

[zambelli]

-input e:\1.mkv
MKV is not one of the supported input formats. It's mentioned nowhere in the documentation. I've no idea what the encoder thinks it's reading.
-v_buffer 600000
600 second buffer is HUGE. You don't want that.
Advice: Don't just copy+paste command lines you see in random threads. Read the documentation.
I'm using vistax32 and the latest k-lite codec (full) pack....
Do yourself a favor and uninstall K-Lite. It's a terrible excuse for software.

[kevo777]

I use WMCmd.vbs on three systems - all WinXP SP2, two are desktops running Pro and third is laptop running Home. All have latest WMP installed. I can *never* get WMCmd.vbs to give me duration or encoding progress besides a screen full of ".......". Yes, I use AVS as source and I'm aware that the AVI source plug-in trips a bit in this scenario.

Some background - My video and audio are "audiodubbed" together in the script. I'm using DGDecode and NicAC3Source. Also, I use ffdshow on all three systems as well. Is there anything I can do in my script or WMP to help WMCmd.vbs acquire duration? :confused:

Yeah, that's normal when using .avs as sources.


Are you encoding the video and audio separately? If you're muxing them together in the .avs file, can you verify they are the same length?
WMcmd is just relying on DirectShow and WMP to report the correct lengh of the .avs source. If you can get it to play back in WMP - it will report the correct length in Wmcmd too.

[alphabeta0]

Since upgrading to Vista, I keep getting no video, only audio for videos exported by VirtualDub (direct stream copy - no compression for audio and video)


C:\>cscript WMCmd.vbs -input "c:\Users\User1\Desktop\b.avi" -output "c:\Users\User1\Desktop\blah.wmv"
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft (R) Windows Media Encoder Command Line Script Utility
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Encoded: 15.5s (77.7%) Elapsed: 00:00:04 Left: 00:00:01 [3.89x]

======== Encoding Completed ========

Audio :
Codec: Windows Media Audio 9.2
Expected bit rate: 64040 bps
Average bit rate: 64040 bps
Expected sample rate: 5383
Average sample rate: 5383
Dropped byte count: 0 bytes
Dropped sample rate: 0
Total bytes: 165057 bytes

Video :
Codec: Windows Media Video 9
Expected bit rate: 250000 bps
Average bit rate: 250000 bps
Expected fps: 29.97
Dropped frame count: 0
Total coded frames: 0
Average sample rate: 0
Dropped bytes: 0 bytes
Total bytes: 0 bytes

Overall:
Encoding time: 5 seconds
Average bit rate: 314040 bps
File size: 174017 bytes
File duration: 20.211 seconds


windowsmedia9-kb929182-intl.exe patch applied
It happens with your WMCmd.vbs and the one included in WMEncoder.exe

[jubilex]

Is there any possibility wmcmd could ever do the first and second passes of a VBR encode separately? After 20 hours of first-passing of an encode, I finally got an hour into the 2nd pass and my computer crashed. There have been other occasions when after the first pass, wmcmd crashes or freezes (audio error sometimes). It would be nice if the first pass could be finished and the data saved (as other encoders allow) before beginning the second pass.

[jeffy]

May I please ask, is it possible to shorten the time period the script is waiting for the detection of the duration of the encoded clip?
Is there something in the code I could change?

:thanks:

EDIT: (this is what I mean)
Warning: Encoder failed to retrieve duration attribute from source plug-in.
Trying alternate method now..........

[zambelli]

Is there any possibility wmcmd could ever do the first and second passes of a VBR encode separately? After 20 hours of first-passing of an encode, I finally got an hour into the 2nd pass and my computer crashed. There have been other occasions when after the first pass, wmcmd crashes or freezes (audio error sometimes). It would be nice if the first pass could be finished and the data saved (as other encoders allow) before beginning the second pass.
Yeah, I feel your pain, but unfortunately 2-pass VBR is implemented on the codec DMO level - so there's nothing that can be changed on the SDK or application level to make it work differently. When WMV9 was being ported to VCM format, I think decoupling 1st and 2nd pass into separate processes was actually quite a signficant work item for the devs.

[zambelli]

May I please ask, is it possible to shorten the time period the script is waiting for the detection of the duration of the encoded clip?
Is there something in the code I could change?
Is the alternate duration seeking method failing, or do you just want to shorten the time it takes to retrieve the duration? I'm afraid you can't really control the latter because it entirely depends on the time necessary to open the .avs in WMP. If the .avs script is a complex one, it might take 15-20 seconds to just open it.

[buzzqw]

hi!

i have an italian user that report (using automkv) this error (several times during encoding)

[wmv1 @ 00AB2A40] warning, clipping 1 dct coefficients to -255..255kbits/s

any worry ?

do you need the full command line ?

BHH

[zambelli]

[wmv1 @ 00AB2A40] warning, clipping 1 dct coefficients to -255..255kbits/s
Whoa, I don't think I've ever seen that. That's being printed to the command prompt?

Why is the user using WMV7 anyway? :)

[buzzqw]

i have no idea why using wmv7... but automkv offer to encode with it...

and yes, these strings are printed in dos box while encoding

can i assure that encoding is going well ?

BHH

[zambelli]

i have no idea why using wmv7... but automkv offer to encode with it...
and yes, these strings are printed in dos box while encoding
can i assure that encoding is going well ?
I can only assume that it's OK if it's just a warning, not an error.

[lv-jedster]

When I use PureVideo as my MPEG-2 decoder, I get different results with the Windows Media Encoder than with the wmcmd script. With the stand-alone application, everything looks great; with the wmcmd script, the video is choppy. (Only benefit of that is smaller file size using QBR!)

It seems that with the stand-alone applications, the PureVideo decoder is outputting UYVY, but when it is invoked from cscript/wmcmd, it does YUY2. I'm guessing -- although I could be wrong -- that if somehow the PureVideo decoder would output UYVY, it would work great from the command line.

I've tried playing with all the options on the PureVideo decoder as well as explicitly telling the script to expect YUY2 and even UYVY to no avail.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Also, am I possibly trying to do something which will have no real benefit? My thinking has been that (a) PureVideo does a great job deinterlacing and (b) it uses hardware acceleration, which might decrease CPU load/speed up encoding time.

Currently, I use FFDSHOW for the Video and PureVideo for the audio (I couldn't get any audio w/o doing this). Am I getting hardware acceleration (I don't think so, but can't be sure...)

My system is Vista32.

Thanks!

[zambelli]

Also, am I possibly trying to do something which will have no real benefit?
Possibly so. UYVY and YUY2 are effectively the same thing because they're both 4:2:2 formats. There should be no difference between the two.

My thinking has been that (a) PureVideo does a great job deinterlacing and (b) it uses hardware acceleration, which might decrease CPU load/speed up encoding time.
DXVA 1.0 can't be used without a renderer. When you build a decoding graph that goes directly to the encoder, you don't get the benefit of hardware acceleration in decoding.

Does the command-line encoder report dropped frames in its final statistics?

[lv-jedster]

DXVA 1.0 can't be used without a renderer. When you build a decoding graph that goes directly to the encoder, you don't get the benefit of hardware acceleration in decoding.

So the only benefit would be PQ (assuming that HW deinterlacing looked better and that the decoder fed the graph -- if i'm using that language correctly -- to a post-processor and renderer)?

That thing I can't understand is that when using the stand-alone WM Encoder, everything encodes terrific. However using wmcmd (or the batch encoder) things don't go great.

The reason why i think it's related to the UYVY is not just because i noticed the decoder was reporting different colorspaces -- there is also a release note by nvidia about them adding support for UYVY in order to support wm encoder. it's almost like the decoder correctly feeds wmenc.exe UYVY but when the decoder sees cscript.exe it chokes.

the thing that sucks is that i can't see how to force it into UYVY mode.

Does the command-line encoder report dropped frames in its final statistics?

That's a good question I'll check.

[lv-jedster]

Does the command-line encoder report dropped frames in its final statistics?

It doesn't report dropped frames, however with using the same 20 seconds of the same file it's clear that the PV is encoding fewer frames.

FFDSHOW

======== Encoding Completed ========

Audio :
Codec: Windows Media Audio 10 Professional
Average bit rate: 126940 bps
Expected sample rate: 897
Average sample rate: 889
Dropped byte count: 0 bytes
Dropped sample rate: 0
Total bytes: 285328 bytes

Video :
Codec: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
Average bit rate: 2239101 bps
Expected fps: 30
Dropped frame count: 0
Total coded frames: 506
Average sample rate: 29.411
Dropped bytes: 0 bytes
Total bytes: 4750345 bytes

Overall:
Encoding time: 21 seconds
Average bit rate: 2366041 bps
File size: 5061514 bytes
File duration: 17.972 seconds


PUREVIDEO

======== Encoding Completed ========

Audio :
Codec: Windows Media Audio 10 Professional
Average bit rate: 126940 bps
Expected sample rate: 897
Average sample rate: 889
Dropped byte count: 0 bytes
Dropped sample rate: 0
Total bytes: 285328 bytes

Video :
Codec: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
Average bit rate: 1576845 bps
Expected fps: 30
Dropped frame count: 0
Total coded frames: 436
Average sample rate: 29.411
Dropped bytes: 0 bytes
Total bytes: 3361789 bytes

Overall:
Encoding time: 18 seconds
Average bit rate: 1703785 bps
File size: 3668122 bytes
File duration: 17.972 seconds

[zambelli]

FFDSHOW
Total coded frames: 506

PUREVIDEO
Total coded frames: 436
Looks like PureVideo decoder is set to drop frames when it can't decode in realtime. I'm not sure why it's only happening in Wmcmd.vbs (perhaps it knows not to drop frames when wmenc.exe is its parent application) but I'm pretty sure why it's happening. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a registry key that will allow PureVideo decoder to decode all frames at slower than 1.0x speed.

Is this MPEG source telecined by any chance?

[lv-jedster]

Looks like PureVideo decoder is set to drop frames when it can't decode in realtime. I'm not sure why it's only happening in Wmcmd.vbs (perhaps it knows not to drop frames when wmenc.exe is its parent application) but I'm pretty sure why it's happening. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a registry key that will allow PureVideo decoder to decode all frames at slower than 1.0x speed.

Is this MPEG source telecined by any chance?

- Not sure about telecined (how can one tell?)
- Your 1x proposition seems likely. (a) it encodes at about 1x; (b) the video is smoother on my mildly OC'd E6600 (just 2.9GHz) than on my E4300.

I assume the reason why the decoder gets choked up is because the Encoder is also eating up CPU cycles?

I'll dig around for a registry key but so far I haven't found anything that seems useful, though admittedly I wasn't looking for that particular item.

thanks.

(On a total side note: I just started playing around with the PowerDVD decoder, which unless my eyes deceive me gives the best MPEG2 quality that I've seen on Vista. However the encoder (at least command-line) totally barfs on it. I havne't tried the stand alone.)

[lv-jedster]

Looks like PureVideo decoder is set to drop frames when it can't decode in realtime.

You are right -- it had nothing to do with colorspace. It was all about the PV decoder dropping frames. Once I set it up to not drop frames (explained below) everything worked perfectly.

In fact, it's better than perfect. The overall encoding time was similar -- smidge faster with the PV decoder than ffdshow.

I tested 3 files, encoding just 30 seconds of each and found the PV decoder did 2 of the 3 1 second faster and the last one the same.

More significantly, the PQ/deinterlacing is better using the PV decoder. And moreover, the filesize is smaller! I'm using QBR, so I suspect the extra interlacing artifacts inserted by ffdshow make the file larger. (Each PV file had a tiny bit more total frames.)

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a registry key that will allow PureVideo decoder to decode all frames at slower than 1.0x speed.

There is. The NVIDIA filters key is located at:

- HKCU\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Filters\Video

(EDIT: On XP, it appers to be here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Filters\Video -- or perhaps the above is just a virtual location.)

I added the following:

- PureVideoPropPage (REG_DWORD set to 1)
- EnablePropPage (REG_DWORD set to 1)

(Note to the unitiated: You need to ADD both of the above if you don't see them.)

Adding these exposes a GUI that comes up when you click on the PV tray icon. I found the option to disable dropped frames and turned it on. You could also just add the following to the same key:

- DisableDropFrames (REGWORD set to 1)

That's it. Now everything is working perfectly. Thanks for your help!

[jeffy]

Is the alternate duration seeking method failing, or do you just want to shorten the time it takes to retrieve the duration? I'm afraid you can't really control the latter because it entirely depends on the time necessary to open the .avs in WMP. If the .avs script is a complex one, it might take 15-20 seconds to just open it.

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I know that the first detection always fails for me, so I would just like to skip it. Is it possible? The alternate detection always works for me :)

[zambelli]

That's it. Now everything is working perfectly. Thanks for your help!
I'm glad that worked for you! Thanks for posting the solution too - I'm sure that will help out others who run into a similar issue.

The reason MPEG-2 decoders often drop frames in transcoding operations is because many of them are designed to be used primarily in playback - where it's desired to drop frames when the decoder can't keep up with realtime decoding.

[zambelli]

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I know that the first detection always fails for me, so I would just like to skip it. Is it possible? The alternate detection always works for me :)
The current "alternate duration detection" method is invoked any time the default duration retrieving method fails. It's irrelevant of the input format type - I don't even check for .avs input specifically. It's a workaround, admittedly, not a proper solution, but it's just what was necessary to make 5-year old code do stuff it wasn't supposed to do in the first place. :) It's pretty much as good as it can get in the script version of the encoder, I'm afraid.

[lv-jedster]

I'm glad that worked for you! Thanks for posting the solution too - I'm sure that will help out others who run into a similar issue.

The reason MPEG-2 decoders often drop frames in transcoding operations is because many of them are designed to be used primarily in playback - where it's desired to drop frames when the decoder can't keep up with realtime decoding.

Learning that was definitely they important piece of the puzzle -- thanks again.

Do you have any thoughts on whether it matters if I tell the PureVideo Decoder to output to Overlay, VMR7, or VMR9?

Also, I think it may be possible to to tell it to prefer outputting in a certain colorspace. (I saw registry item that was something like PreferYV12 or somesuch.) If I can force it to output in a colorspace, is there any colorspace that would be best, or is the encoder agnostic?

(I assume these are actually features of NVidia's Video Post-processor, but as I'm still a relative novice, I might not be understanding something fundamental.)

Hands-down, the video quality is better now that I'm using PV as the decoder -- very happy.

p.s.: I have one unrelated question -- where would be the appropriate spot to read recommendations for Vista's decoder for simply watching MPEG2 content. I'm debating between trying to make PureVideo work, sticking with the default decoder, or using either PowerDVD or WinDVD. I'm not a huge fan of ffdshow's deinterlacing, nor I am a fan of video processing. In fact, the only post-processing that I am interested in is audio -- dynamic range compression and lip-sync, both of which are handled decently by NVIDIA.

[lv-jedster]

New question for you zambelli: I've noticed that sometimes when I'm compressing an MPEG that has been ripped, the encoder does not always encode the full clip, usually shortening it, but sometimes eliminating the middle.

is there any option in the wmcmd.vbs script that will fix this issue or any other easy solution that you know of?

i'm assuming that i'll need to reprocess the mpeg files (perhaps i need to learn what demuxing is all about...) but if there was a shortcut, that'd be great news.

[zambelli]

Do you have any thoughts on whether it matters if I tell the PureVideo Decoder to output to Overlay, VMR7, or VMR9?
It won't matter when transcoding. Those options are for rendering to screen only.

New question for you zambelli: I've noticed that sometimes when I'm compressing an MPEG that has been ripped, the encoder does not always encode the full clip, usually shortening it, but sometimes eliminating the middle.
Hm, I'm not sure what's going on there. In general most people on this forum who transcode MPEG-2 to other formats don't use DirectShow decoders. Instead they use Avisynth and DGMPGDec plugin because it allows greater control over the decoding process. DirectShow MPEG decoders are designed for realtime playback so they often include post-processing and options that aren't necessarily beneficial in transcoding. Donald Graft's DGMPGDec plugin allows you to disable post-proc entirely, ignore pulldown flags, etc. If you do a lot of MPEG-2 transcoding, I would recommend that you look into Avisynth and DGMPGdec.

[ACrowley]

MKV is not one of the supported input formats. It's mentioned nowhere in the documentation. I've no idea what the encoder thinks it's reading.

600 second buffer is HUGE. You don't want that.
Advice: Don't just copy+paste command lines you see in random threads. Read the documentation.

Do yourself a favor and uninstall K-Lite. It's a terrible excuse for software.


yes, it was a typo in one of my 1st posts about a cbr commandline with 60000Buffer


Ofcourse it must be -v_Buffer 60000

[jeffy]

Can you please answer:
1) Is it possible to create with WMCmd.vbs a file containing mp2 or
2) aac sound?

3) Is it possible to create a video only file (eg. VC-1) and mux it with the file containing mp2 or aac sound with some muxer and what is the name of such muxer (preferably free)?

I don't need whatever standalone compatibility, if I can play it on the PC only, it's okay. If possible, the container should either be WMV or AVI.

Thank you.

[Sharktooth]

if you dont need standalones compatibility then why dont you use AVC+AAC in MP4?
the advantages are: wide range of available software (for newbies and experts, opensource/free or commercial) for encoding, faster encoding, faster decoding, better quality, can be played back on all OSes (including OSx and Linux) and probably in future standalones (even if you dont care...).

[jeffy]

if you dont need standalones compatibility then why dont you use AVC+AAC in MP4?
the advantages are: wide range of available software (for newbies and experts, opensource/free or commercial) for encoding, faster encoding, faster decoding, better quality, can be played back on all OSes (including OSx and Linux) and probably in future standalones (even if you dont care...).

I do use this method, but I am testing VC-1 (and WMV9 Main Profile VFW) as well.

[benwaggoner]

Can you please answer:
1) Is it possible to create with WMCmd.vbs a file containing mp2 or
2) aac sound?
Nope. It just does Windows Media files and the codecs supported in the current Format SDK.

3) Is it possible to create a video only file (eg. VC-1) and mux it with the file containing mp2 or aac sound with some muxer and what is the name of such muxer (preferably free)?
You can make a video-only .wmv file using the -videoonly flag, but it always makes an ASF file, not an elementary stream.

We're working with a variety of companies who will be releasing products with elementary stream output support.

I don't need whatever standalone compatibility, if I can play it on the PC only, it's okay. If possible, the container should either be WMV or AVI.
If you want WMV, why not use VC-1 and WMA? Can you give some more details about what you're trying to do?

[jeffy]

Nope. It just does Windows Media files and the codecs supported in the current Format SDK.


You can make a video-only .wmv file using the -videoonly flag, but it always makes an ASF file, not an elementary stream.

We're working with a variety of companies who will be releasing products with elementary stream output support.


If you want WMV, why not use VC-1 and WMA? Can you give some more details about what you're trying to do?

Thank you for your reply. I don't want to argue, but to me both the original mp2 or recoded aac audio sounds better than Windows Media Audio, even in its last version. So I would like to have the Windows Media Video (VC-1 or WMV9 Main profile [VfW version]), but mp2 or aac audio. I know I can have an avi file with VirtualDubMod, where I can have WMV9 + mp2. But what if I want VC-1 + mp2? Am I out of options? Thank you.

[benwaggoner]

Thank you for your reply. I don't want to argue, but to me both the original mp2 or recoded aac audio sounds better than Windows Media Audio, even in its last version. So I would like to have the Windows Media Video (VC-1 or WMV9 Main profile [VfW version]), but mp2 or aac audio. I know I can have an avi file with VirtualDubMod, where I can have WMV9 + mp2. But what if I want VC-1 + mp2? Am I out of options? Thank you.
Ah. Even if you made a .wmv like that, none of the normal players would work.

I'd like to explore a bit the problems you're having with WMA audio. WMA Pro in particular is quite a bit more efficient than AC-3, and scales all the way up to lossless. Can you describe in more detail where you're hearing audio issues?

[jeffy]

Ah. Even if you made a .wmv like that, none of the normal players would work.

I'd like to explore a bit the problems you're having with WMA audio. WMA Pro in particular is quite a bit more efficient than AC-3, and scales all the way up to lossless. Can you describe in more detail where you're hearing audio issues?
Like I said, it's a subjective feeling. If you're recompressing lossy mp2 [MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2] (256 kb/s, CBR - one of the formats my analog TV capture card does) into another lossy format (AAC or WMA), aren't you always losing something more? So if possible, the original suits me best. But like I also said, I don't want to argue, it's a purely subjective feeling. Therefore I am happy I can create a file with WMV9 VCM in VirtualDubMod where the original mp2 file is included and working within the AVI container.
On the other hand, the video quality of VC-1 is better than what WMV9 VCM version allows.

[benwaggoner]

Like I said, it's a subjective feeling. If you're recompressing lossy mp2 [MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2] (256 kb/s, CBR - one of the formats my analog TV capture card does) into another lossy format (AAC or WMA), aren't you always losing something more? So if possible, the original suits me best. But like I also said, I don't want to argue, it's a purely subjective feeling. Therefore I am happy I can create a file with WMV9 VCM in VirtualDubMod where the original mp2 file is included and working within the AVI container.
On the other hand, the video quality of VC-1 is better than what WMV9 VCM version allows.
Yes, you'll lose some little bit of accuracy. But will it be audible within the noise threshold of your audio gear? At some point good enough gets good enough that you can't tell the difference between it and perfect.

Plus, you could always break down and use the lossless codec.

Coming from MP2, I imagine that a 2-pass VBR WMA encode at the same bitrate and sample rate would sound nearly identical. It's not like MP2 was that high fidelity to begin with unless you're doing up around 384 Kbps.

[jeffy]

Yes, you'll lose some little bit of accuracy. But will it be audible within the noise threshold of your audio gear? At some point good enough gets good enough that you can't tell the difference between it and perfect.

Plus, you could always break down and use the lossless codec.

Coming from MP2, I imagine that a 2-pass VBR WMA encode at the same bitrate and sample rate would sound nearly identical. It's not like MP2 was that high fidelity to begin with unless you're doing up around 384 Kbps.
Unfortunately, if you mean with my capture card, I cannot use a lossless codec. I can use up to 48 kHz/384 Kbps, but only with MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2. The card is Hauppauge PVR350. So I don't have a lossless source to begin with.
Regarding fidelity, you are probably right there are some higher losses with 256 Kbps.
Maybe I will retry 2-pass VBR WMA encode at the same bitrate and sample rate...

Added:
Is there really any difference between 1-pass CBR and 2-pass VBR WMA when the source has a constant bitrate?

[Sharktooth]

You can always mux VC1 and MP2 into MKV...