Encoding H.264...

[Zer0Her0]

Hey again,

So I've been reading up on it, and maybe it's because I've been solely a Mac user for the last 7 years and not used to the windows world but I'm unable to find a working piece of software(or getting it to work is the proper thing to state). But I've searched and read, searched and tried, so on and so on with no luck, so here I am asking for some help.

What I'm looking for is a way to output h.264 with AviSynth. It could be a stand alone program that accepts .avs files or it could be a plugin/codec. I just need a way to get h.264 compressed media out from my uncompressed(and sometimes mjpeg compressed) avi inputs.

Any pointers and/or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

--Zer0Her0

[Guest]

Please read and follow the forum rules, specifically, rule 9: use a proper thread title. You can hit Edit on your first post and then Go Advanced to get an edit box for the title to correct it.

Your question is unclear. Are you saying you need an H.264 encoder? If so, you can use the free x264 encoder. If not, please clarify your question.

[Zer0Her0]

I guess I'm looking for an encoder that outputs H.264, specifically one that will accept an AviSynth script as input. The few programs I've tried have either produced horrible video or horrible audio, while outputting the same script as uncompressed, mjpeg or wmv in other programs are fine. Hopefully this makes sense, still figuring out the terminology that is used on this side of the media creation market.

[Leak]

I guess I'm looking for an encoder that outputs H.264, specifically one that will accept an AviSynth script as input.
Well, you're looking for x264 then, like neuron2 said...

np: Kid606 - Slammin' Ragga Bootleg Track (Who Still Kill Sound?)

[Guest]

The few programs I've tried have either produced horrible video or horrible audio What have you tried?

You'll need to climb a learning curve on x264. There are lots of threads about it here.

[foxyshadis]

If you want a GUI that takes an avs and sends it to x264, letting you tweak and save settings, you can't go wrong with MeGUI. Most of the others will write the avs for you or skip it entirely and do it all through ffmpeg/mencoder. This is probably the main reason MeGUI is preferred by enthusiasts. Of course, the x264 commandline can just as easily do the same, all MeGUI does is make it simpler to set up and run (and log) the commands.

Or you can just use virtualdub or avidemux, but both of them have implementations of x264 that are hobbled (vdub by vfw and abandonment, avidemux by only exposing half the options) and without profiles.

I have no idea which commercial encoders support avisynth, if the new version of recode does it would be a decent buy too.

[Adub]

Yeah, Recode doesn't support Avisynth. At least not yet. They may in the future, but they have had a long time to do it already and it still hasn't been done, so i am not sure if it ever will be implemented.

Yeah, MeGUI and x264 are you best options.

[Zer0Her0]

Hmm, maybe I really just need to sit down and spend more time with MeGUI and x264, i know that's the first I tried and seemed to have all the options I wanted but would seem to miss/lose an i-frame(perhaps a GOP got corrupted) on encode and would become an artifacted mess till the next i-frame was displayed and it would snap back to proper video then lose it one more time right before the end. Total of like 2-3 seconds worth of lost video but enough to be frustrating. Once again, sorry for the possibly simple and dumb questions.

Gonna read these tonight, any other suggestions would be great:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/gknot-main6.htm

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=101813

http://mewiki.project357.com/index.php/Main_Page

I'll post how it goes tonight, thank you again for the input.

[foxyshadis]

Sure that's not a decoder or muxer bug, instead? It's also possible that it's a hardware fault during encoding (overheat, bad ram, etc), but those almost always end up crashing shortly after they start corrupting everything. I've seen the artifacts you mean on corrupted wmvs a lot, but never from x264.

Note that any free h.264 tool will use the same encoding engine, whether it's a standalone exe or linked-in to another program. There are several commercial encoders, but only one effective free library (no one uses JM or the several half-baked abandoned projects).

[Zer0Her0]

Thanks for the input foxyshadis. It could be a decoder bug, but I doubt it, source is off HDMI through a Blackmagic Intensity Pro card, captures have both been uncompressed and mjpeg compressed video, and PCM audio. All the hardware is brand new, as well as is software.

My guess at this point, especially with all the high regard people seem to have for MeGUI is simply human error on my part. Either a setting not set properly, or just as likely software not installed properly, especially since it's been so long since I've used a PC for media work.