Virtualdub compression mystery

[papilio]

Hi all,

This just started today --

When I try too compress a file (say 2GB) using Windows Media video 9 -- which so far gives me the best results -- the compressed file becomes something like 12K. Completely absurd, not to mention unplayable. Normally a 2GB file becomes something like 40MB, depending on my settings. When I compress files I've made yesterday and before, it works fine. I've been using VD for months.

I simply can't figure it out -- I've tried it over and over, many times with freshly made files. I wanted to try a System Restore, but they've all vanished. I'd re-install VD, but as I've said it's working fine on earlier files. Anyone have a clue what's going on?

Thanks,
Michael

[Dark Shikari]

Did you accidentally select the first pass of two-pass mode and save an empty AVI file?

[papilio]

The "newer" videos had still been at nearly my monitor res -- they were something like 1916x1124. I had forgotten to resize to 1080p format. Sure had me pulling my hair out for a while though!

[papilio]

any more help with wmv9 encoding?


BTW, where can you send me to get good instructs on improving the wmv9 encoder's performance, for instance how to take advantage of multi-pass as you had mentioned. (Rather a newbie here.) wmv9 is already the best of dozens of codecs I've tried, including MainConcept's H.264 which I must just be to stupid to figure out, my results were beyond horrible. Thanks for your help. I'm definitely getting there!!

Cheers,
Michael

[buzzqw]

i doubt that wmv9 is better of h.264.. better of MainConcept's h264 could be ..but better of x264 has to be proven (but don't open a flame)

one of easyest frontend for wmv9 and wvc1 is the wmcmd.vbs by Zambelli, it offers a conveninet command line application (script) with near all options for encoding with these codec

you can try encode360, nic wmv gui, or automkv that despite of name encode to wmv also

BHH

[Dark Shikari]

any more help with wmv9 encoding?


BTW, where can you send me to get good instructs on improving the wmv9 encoder's performance, for instance how to take advantage of multi-pass as you had mentioned. (Rather a newbie here.) wmv9 is already the best of dozens of codecs I've tried, including MainConcept's H.264 which I must just be to stupid to figure out, my results were beyond horrible. Thanks for your help. I'm definitely getting there!!

Cheers,
Michael
WMV9 is drastically inferior to H.264, by a huge margin. Even with Advanced Profile on settings that take days to encode an HD movie, it still pales in comparison to proper H.264 encoding. The only reason to use it is if you have CPU issues on playback, or you're encoding for a specific piece of hardware that requires it. It is better than Xvid/Divx though.

Why not just use an easy program like MeGUI to encode your videos properly in H.264?

[shon3i]

better of MainConcept's h264 could beCan't be because from my all personal tests mainconcept are better than x264 almost in all cases, i am talking about Mainconcept 2.1 application, and Elecard Converter Studio is even better because gave much more advanced options including very HQ Psy quantisation.