Lyris
2nd March 2010, 13:26
This version is now OBSOLETE - if you're using Cinema Craft SP3, get CCE Assist for SP3 instead here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=159972
I've been using this program that I wrote (actually an AutoHotKey script originally) for a while now to compare different encoder settings. So I threw a GUI on it, compiled it, and thought that other people might find it useful.
Tested using my own copy of CCE SP2. It may work if you have an older version. I see also that SP3 has just been announced on the Cinema Craft web site, which offers segment re-encoding of its own. If I get a copy of that I'll see if this program is still needed for it :)
The situation: you're encoding MPEG-2 video and there is a problematic shot in the film. You want to make sure that the problematic shot looks as non-horrible as possible. So you test out a bunch of different encoder settings: lowpass filter (eugh, but occasionally a helpful necessary evil), dithered quantization, and the somewhat elusive "Quantizer characteristics". It takes so long to compare the different versions and you stare at the results for so long that you lose objectivity.
Not any more! CCE Assist shows you results in a side-by-side view (with optional sharpening to make compression artefacts really stand out) and thanks to LeFungus' SSIM plugin for AVISynth, it gives you an SSIM result so if your eyes are failing you, it can tell you which one most resembles the source for something of a second opinion.
It is probably quite a crude program (I code DVD VM, not Windows tools!) and just calls various required tools from the command line, but it's worked for me and will hopefully work for you.
Download and setup instructions: http://www.davidmackenzie.me/cceassist/
Required:
AVISynth 2.5
DGmpegdec / DGindex (http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html)
AVISynth SSIM plugin (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=370323)
VirtualDub
CCE SP2 (of course)
Screen grabs:
Main window
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/assist.jpg
Since this just uses AVISynth scripts under the hood, if you enter the range of frames as 0 to -0, it will encode the whole clip.
Labels tab: this just labels the 5 different videos to make them easier to remember. All of the encoding parameters are set as named templates on the CCE SP2 side.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/labels.jpg
Paths: give these as paths to the programs, not to the folders!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/paths.jpg
The result:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/view.jpg
:thanks:
I've been using this program that I wrote (actually an AutoHotKey script originally) for a while now to compare different encoder settings. So I threw a GUI on it, compiled it, and thought that other people might find it useful.
Tested using my own copy of CCE SP2. It may work if you have an older version. I see also that SP3 has just been announced on the Cinema Craft web site, which offers segment re-encoding of its own. If I get a copy of that I'll see if this program is still needed for it :)
The situation: you're encoding MPEG-2 video and there is a problematic shot in the film. You want to make sure that the problematic shot looks as non-horrible as possible. So you test out a bunch of different encoder settings: lowpass filter (eugh, but occasionally a helpful necessary evil), dithered quantization, and the somewhat elusive "Quantizer characteristics". It takes so long to compare the different versions and you stare at the results for so long that you lose objectivity.
Not any more! CCE Assist shows you results in a side-by-side view (with optional sharpening to make compression artefacts really stand out) and thanks to LeFungus' SSIM plugin for AVISynth, it gives you an SSIM result so if your eyes are failing you, it can tell you which one most resembles the source for something of a second opinion.
It is probably quite a crude program (I code DVD VM, not Windows tools!) and just calls various required tools from the command line, but it's worked for me and will hopefully work for you.
Download and setup instructions: http://www.davidmackenzie.me/cceassist/
Required:
AVISynth 2.5
DGmpegdec / DGindex (http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html)
AVISynth SSIM plugin (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=370323)
VirtualDub
CCE SP2 (of course)
Screen grabs:
Main window
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/assist.jpg
Since this just uses AVISynth scripts under the hood, if you enter the range of frames as 0 to -0, it will encode the whole clip.
Labels tab: this just labels the 5 different videos to make them easier to remember. All of the encoding parameters are set as named templates on the CCE SP2 side.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/labels.jpg
Paths: give these as paths to the programs, not to the folders!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/paths.jpg
The result:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/lyris-lite/view.jpg
:thanks: