VidCoder: Alternative HandBrake GUI for Windows

[RandomEngy]

Yes, leaving anamorphic checked and Downscale Only will get you the best results.

Anamorphic is useful if your source is anamorphic, like most DVDs. It allows you to preserve the same storage resolution, which is always best because you don't have to resample/smear the pixels.
Downscale Only is the best bet because upscaling does not increase video quality. In most cases, changing the resolution of a video will decrease the quality as most pixels will need to be spread out across multiple pixels in the output. Picture a big grid of square boxes, each with a different color sand inside. Now you make another grid of the same physical size, only it's 50% larger, partitioned into smaller and more numerous boxes. You put the smaller grid under the larger one and let the sand fall down into the new grid. Some of those boxes (pixels) will have an original color of sand in them. But many of them will end up with color from multiple different boxes, as the grid lines don't line up exactly. Those mix and "average out" to a new color. But you wouldn't expect your "sand picture" to look any better at any distance, just because you've re-boxed it.

Anyway the general rule of thumb when transcoding is efficiently storing the video in a standard format with minimal quality loss. You can't add quality or detail that wasn't there in the original.

[dr_ml422]

This here gives me a rough time with quick reply. It almost always tells me to refresh after I did so already and I lose what I had posted. Anyway I think it's time that these transcoding apps come with the ability to do just that, and give us the best of both worlds. They do it when you purchase so why not in the apps? Right? We get Full and Anamorphic if we want. Microsoft's version of VidCoder will not let you play on the preview! Something about not letting you use additional processes. M$! Always meddling in the wrong way! Anyway I played around and hit manual on the Sizing and left it at 1920x1080 PAR 1:! and the preview looked good. I'll give it a go. Thanks very much! That whole DAR, PAR, thing is very, very, in depth stuff to take in. I'll have to study that with much patience. You simplified it amap let me tell you. I'll be hitting the original download site asap. Unbelievable! If I hadn't been fooling around looking for answers, I never would have known there is no playback with the M$ version of VidCoder.

Something is not right with your download. Microsoft's download the Picker worked. Your download the picker didn't want to pick the subtitle. I had the same setting as before. Pick 1st subtitle. I have no idea what you mean in Languages where you say if not your language? I'm sorry but a Guide is necessary. If I drag and drop a file with a subtitle in the folder then that's the first and only subtitle. I think VidCoder is thinking that the picker just works with DVDs? That's the only reason why it wouldn't pick the subtitle.Now I don't trust this download. I should have left Microsoft's in even though it wouldn't play back the preview.

[napouser]

request

is it possible to change the progress from whole queue into the progress of current job regarding the taskbar icon

[carlmart]

Hi, I may need some help because I'm having what seems to be throttling problems when processing a conversion with Vidcoder and doing ethernet video streaming at the same time.

As it did happen in the past, and I wasn't sure of the relation between both things, I didn't pay much attention and let it be. But now it does seems there's a relationship.

The problem manifested itself as the streaming stopping a few seconds, then going on, then stopping again. After a few times, and not knowing what was going on I stopped the streaming.

Yesterday I tried again without using Vidcoder and things streamed fine.

My CPU is an Intel i7 4790K, no overdrive or anything. with 32GB memory, also not overclocked. No intention to do any over.

How can I setup the Vidcoder 2.62 so as not to interfere with my streaming?

[RandomEngy]

Look in Global Options -> Process. Worker process priority and CPU throttling might help you here. Try lowering the priority first.

[napouser]

bug (hard to reproduce)

when changing encodeing settings :
from the drop down menu select "xxprofile"
then select something else
the drop down still is open

[zappa]

thank you for your excellent work, I want to ask you, is it possible to add support for Avisynth+ ?

to be able to use as input = .avs

Avisynth scripts.

thanks

[RandomEngy]

The HandBrake core that VidCoder uses would need to add support for it. I don't think they'll be doing that though.

[dr_ml422]

Hi Random, I just noticed that although NVenc .265 is way faster it'll put out a larger file size than regular .h265 encoding. Why is that?

Also when you first open up VidCoder what exactly is the default setting for encoding? Is it Fast 720P 30 H.264? If so if I change it to Fast 1080P 30 and leave Downscaling checked as you suggested, what would change if anything since I'm not upscaling to the 1080p Thanks.

[RandomEngy]

NVenc is much faster but less efficient than CPU encoding. It was designed to do real-time encoding (like streaming).

The 720p/1080p in the case is the maximum size. So if you have a source that's smaller than 720p it won't make a difference. But if you started with a 4k source, one would downscale to 720p and the other to 1080p. The setting is useful to optimize to the output display you plan on watching on. If you only have a 720p display there is no point in encoding more than that, since it will just end up 720p anyway and will look worse since you resampled the pixels twice.

[dr_ml422]

Oh so since I have a 1080P HDTV and use it as my monitor as well, I'm okay leaving it at Fast 1080p 30 correct? No wonder for DVDs it's better to leave it at Fast 720p 30 since DVDs are 720x480. I just re-encoded The Ten Commandments which I had done in 10 bit, though had a file size of 4.22 GB. I ran it through at regular 8 bits HEVC and it went down to 3.82 GB. Now some of my 10 bit encodes are actually nice and small in size, so I don't know why that is. Some poster suggested not encoding to 10 bit with VidCoder or anywhere I guess, though he never mentioned why. It looks really sharp at 10 bits imhp.

[RandomEngy]

720p actually refers to the height, so it's 1280x720 - this is more than the DVD's 720x480. I would set the max size to your intended display size. Or remove the max size if you are just trying to archive the video. I think the reason you might not do 10 bit is that it doesn't have as good player support. But if it plays just fine everywhere that you care about, go for it.

[dr_ml422]

720p actually refers to the height, so it's 1280x720 - this is more than the DVD's 720x480. I would set the max size to your intended display size. Or remove the max size if you are just trying to archive the video. I think the reason you might not do 10 bit is that it doesn't have as good player support. But if it plays just fine everywhere that you care about, go for it.

I never thought about this. I've been using the Fast 720p or Fast 1080p setting since the beginning. You mean that since the DVD is 720x480, I should be just leaving the size alone and just converting it to w/e I want, say MKV HEVC in my case? You see there's no guide so I just figured I'd use one of the presets and be good. So if it's a DVD source then I should be using say Fast 480p and I'd still get a nice MKV HEVC file? How would I even get rid of the Max size anyway since it's automatically configured no matter what preset I use? How would VidCoder know what to use if there's nothing in the Max Width or Max Height box? Help me out here if you would, so I can get the best out of VidCoder. With High-Def files the presets are great because now I can either leave the original size, or if I want a smaller yet quality file, I can just go from 1080p to 720p with great results. I been scouring the web for tips and never has one poster talked about leaving it as the original size in the converted file. At least I think they never did. I understand now. Even at 480p Height if it's 16x9 to begin with it'll still look great. Maybe there should be some preset that specifically says for "DVD to ...". Remember not everyone is specifically using VidCoder for DVDs/Bluray. I know most of my encoding jobs are from .MP4 to .MKV HEVC AC3 since to me MKV and AC3 sounds a helluva lot better than .MP4 AAC.

I see now. You mean set the Max size to the size of my HDTV which is my display. I'd just have to look at my settings and see what it actually is. I would have to save that as my own preset because VidCoder goes back to w/e you set before. Basically I've been lucky all these years since I had no idea about this setting for the DVDs.

[RandomEngy]

You can delete the number inside the Max Width/Height box to remove the restriction. Then it will just use the source resolution.

[dr_ml422]

You can delete the number inside the Max Width/Height box to remove the restriction. Then it will just use the source resolution.

It also just has the "No Size or None" option there. This makes for an even smaller, though still quality encode as it keeps the original Size and doesn't take away from anything. If it's Anamorphic it will still be Anamorphic.

I ran into a glitch the other day and then saw the reason why. For some reason it was cutting off 2 frames or w/e it's called from both Height and Width and so not a denominator of x16. Rarely it does this anymore. Anyway I just put it back to its original size and it encoded properly without any adjustments. You know it always wants to cut off a bit with the output I guess for what it deems best setting.

[napouser]

bug

tons of failed encodes when doing 2 at the same time (about 50% success rate)
when going back to 1 at a time it goes back to normal (90+%)

[napouser]

bug

when add to queue multiple titles to queue from a bluray
they all added with the same name (bd name) so eventually all 15 titles are encoded with the same output so each encode overwrites the other!

[Zetti]

HandBrake v1.3.0 is released.
https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=33&p=186762

[RandomEngy]

@napouser: Did you have any custom file naming options enabled? By default it should include the title number in the file name on a Blu-ray encode.

[napouser]

@napouser: Did you have any custom file naming options enabled? By default it should include the title number in the file name on a Blu-ray encode.


hmmm
interesting
apparently default settings are {source} - {quality} {preset}

but picker is {source} so i guess thats ovveriding it

shit i guess i have to switch them

[RandomEngy]

Working on a stable release based on HandBrake 1.3, shooting for this Sunday to give translators time.

[napouser]

Working on a stable release based on HandBrake 1.3, shooting for this Sunday to give translators time.


just in time
coisidently after 15 months of constant encoding with ur program and after 3500 movies i am about to encode my first 4k blu ray disc so i am waiting for new version for it custom dlls fdk-aac etc all ready for the release

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 5.13 (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v5.13):


Releasing v5 to Stable!
Updated HandBrake core to 1.3.0. This brings many new features, including:

Support for encoding to WebM container format
Support for reading Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (without copy protection)
Updated Intel Quick Sync Video to use Direct3D 11 API

Overhauled log system

Each scan and encode has its own separate log, and general app messages are put into the General log.
Logs for past scan and encode events are visible on the Log window.
Added button to upload the log to Pastebin and copy a link to it.
Added option to copy logs to a custom directory.
Removed in-memory log copy which should reduce VidCoder memory consumption.

Added support for importing SSA/ASS subtitles.
Improved behavior for dragging imported subtitle files: It pops up a non-blocking status message rather than opening a dialog.
Removed Advanced tab. It had not been updated in years, is missing a ton of options, bad defaults, inaccurate tooltips and no protection from invalid settings. The recommended way to alter these settings is now through the More Settings box and referring to up-to-date documentation on the settings: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MeGUI/x264_Settings
The full x264 parameter list is now displayed side-by-side with the "More Settings" box to let you know exactly what you're getting.
Added option to keep failed and stopped output video files. Global options -> Advanced -> Keep files from failed or stopped encodes .
Updated to disable move/remove/edit context menu items for jobs on the queue that are currently encoding.
Picker changes:

Added ability to automatically select chapter ranges.
Added ability to drag/drop rearrange them.
New picker will always open beside the picker it was based off of, rather than the end of the list.

Added shortcut buttons to source panel to change audio and video encoding settings.
Added keyboard tips to the ribbon when pressing Alt.
Added F5 keyboard shortcut to Encode or Resume.
Added context menu option to remove all items from the queue.
Added options to clear succeeded or clear failed from the completed items list.
Changed "Delete" menu option on queue to "Remove from queue" to make it less ambiguous.
Replaced worker process communication with a new .NET Core compatible library.
And many bug fixes and other small improvement.

[dr_ml422]

Nice! I didn't even notice the update until checking the About section. Everything's done afterwards instead of before. I have a question. If I want to change the container from a file to another one, and keep everything else the same except for maybe Audio, as I like AC3 for my .mkv files instead of AAC, what should the sizing settings be set to? If it's an original 1080p .mp4 file and I want everything the same except for Audio and Container, what is the optimal setting for such? Reason I ask is that I noticed a significant file size increase for some encodings, and a decrease for others? I know that AC3 5.1 would definitely cause an increase over AAC, though that should be about it. Thanks. I'm definitely going to keep the original Aspect Ratio and Max Width and Height as in DVD encodes. It gets tricky when going from Hi-Def to Hi-Def and container to container. Thanks.

I don't know what happened with the new version, but I encoded the same DVD to HEVC and this time it was 600mb larger? That's a helluva difference with same settings etc...

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.0 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.0-beta):


First v6 Beta release. A few minor fixes to start with.
Changed to take container/subtitle type compatibility into account when choosing multiple subtitles via the picker.
Added support for preserving an audio track's name during encoding. We now show the name in the track list in the main window.
Removed the advanced option to edit the audio track name; now it is always visible.
Removed some unused resources.
Fixed the (none) placeholder text not appearing when max width/height is not set.
Fixed missing DRC label.
Fixed a problem where the pause and stop buttons could get disabled at the end of an queue with simultaneous encodes.
Fixed crash on trying to apply current preset to queue when the only items in queue are encoding.

[dr_ml422]

Hi RandomEngy, Please let me know what went wrong if anything on my part as it's been a while since I get a failed! Thanks.

No upgrade option in my version at all? What happened?

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.1 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.1-beta):


Changed window title bars to use custom UI. This makes dark mode look much better.
Added ability to automatically pause encoding when battery or disk space is low. (Global Options -> Process)
Added shortcut buttons to go to audio and subtitle picker options.
Added desktop shortcut option to installer.
Fixed app hang when Windows ManagementEventWatcher call hangs.

[RandomEngy]

From the log, this is the error:

ERROR: Could not rename to final output path. Output is left as 'C:\Users\Noloc42\Videos\VidCoder Encodes\Godfather P2 Dom.mkv.part'
System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\Noloc42\Videos\VidCoder Encodes\Godfather P2 Dom.mkv' because it is being used by another process.

Looks like the encode succeeded but something had the old file open, so it couldn't rename to get to the final file name.

[Zetti]

HandBrake v1.3.1 is released.
https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=39732

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 5.14 (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v5.14):


Updated HandBrake core to 1.3.1.
Updated translations.

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.2 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.2-beta):


Updated HandBrake core.
Reverted ManagementEventWatcher change as it caused shutdown after encode complete to stop working.
Fixed a startup error when the toast notification service is unavailable.

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 5.15 (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v5.15):


Fixed some bad interaction between padding, rotation and anamorphic.
Fixed a startup error when the toast notification service is unavailable.
Fixed missing resource in Options.

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.3 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.3-beta):


Fixed some bad interaction between padding, rotation and anamorphic.
Removed the "exception is automatically reported" text for Windows Store version as the built-in crash analytics don't seem to be working.
Added custom TextBox control template so Dark mode can work correctly on Windows 7.

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.4 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.4-beta):


Fixed more issues with anamorphic, padding and rotation.
Fixed possible crash when preview window is open and padding is enabled.
Fixed issue with preview window not updating properly when switching encoding presets.
Updated HandBrake core.

[dr_ml422]

Here's the logs for the last errors I received. Already about 3 stopped jobs at early stages of encoding.

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 5.16 (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v5.16):


Fixed more issues with anamorphic, padding and rotation.
Fixed possible crash when preview window is open and padding is enabled.
Fixed issue with preview window not updating properly when switching encoding presets.
Updated translations.

[RandomEngy]

dr_ml422: Those logs looks like the encode succeeded. Can you give me some more details on what exactly is going wrong?

[dr_ml422]

Ok so Windows 10 won't let me preview anything, even when I downloaded the latest build from here. I uninstalled everything with a clean uninstall and it still won't let me open up a player and preview anything. Can you help me with that if you can, thanks.

Those previous files were a bad rip. I used something else and all went well, but I can't preview anything still. Can you provide a working link so I can download it, install it and see if it works? Thanks.

[RandomEngy]

Are you using the built-in player to preview? Or are you using the system player? If the built-in player is having trouble (which it does for certain codecs) you can go to Global Options -> General -> Players and uncheck "Use built-in player for previews". You are asking for a "working link". A working link to what?

[gonca]

You are asking for a "working link". A working link to what?
I believe he is asking for a working link to download vidcoder
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1394427#post1394427

[RandomEngy]

https://vidcoder.net/

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 6.5 Beta (https://github.com/RandomEngy/VidCoder/releases/tag/v6.5-beta):


Made the selected window more obvious by changing the title bar background color and window border color on selection.
Added Arabic translation. Enabled right-to-left layout for languages that use it.

[dr_ml422]

https://vidcoder.net/

This is not just with a certain codec, this is with any source and even when I downloaded it from this link, it told me that the Store version doesn't allow opening up a player. Is this link here the same one as the store version from Microsoft?

After all these years and I just now noticed that under Audio/Codec/ there was an option for Pass-Thru. What I've done all this time was select the encoder, and then check the Pass-Thru if possible option. There's just no definitive Guide, and I've had to go to HandBrake's site and copy what they offer as it's almost the same except for the obvious.

Just a small tip here for anyone using HEVC: For DVDs if you want the smallest, most efficient size use the 720p 30 setting, as anything else will definitely give you a much larger size, especially if you go to 1080p 30. We're talking about a gigabyte more or less extra.

If this link here is the same as the Store's version then it won't make a difference.

Where is the update option? I can't find it anywhere, thanks.

[gonca]

Are you talking about the preview player?

[dr_ml422]

Are you talking about the preview player?

Yes the preview player. Windows will not let me open it up saying the store version of VidCoder doesn't allow for that.

Where is the update option? Is there an update option where you can specify when it can look for updates and either notify or download and update VidCoder?

[napouser]

program crashes when adding drag and drop disc while loading an other disc

[gonca]

Yes the preview player. Windows will not let me open it up saying the store version of VidCoder doesn't allow for that.

Where is the update option? Is there an update option where you can specify when it can look for updates and either notify or download and update VidCoder?

Go to Global Options > General and make sure Use built in player for previews is checked
If the problem still persists uninstall the microsoft store version and use one of the other ones
Don't think there is an update option
Click on Help and select Homepage and manually check

[dr_ml422]

Go to Global Options > General and make sure Use built in player for previews is checked
If the problem still persists uninstall the microsoft store version and use one of the other ones
Don't think there is an update option
Click on Help and select Homepage and manually check


I've downloaded from the VidCoder homepage, and I still get that it's the store version. I might just have to check on Users Rights as Windows 10 has notoriously played too much with that. Preview is checked for the built-in player.

[RandomEngy]

dr_ml422: If you want to launch a specific external player, you need to install via the "Installer (.exe)" link. The Microsoft Store version has security restrictions that prevent it from directly launching external processes.

napouser: Thanks for the report. Will fix this in the next release. It also looks like scan canceling was broken by a change the HandBrake team made in the interop library. Will also fix that one.

Also by the way, the Visual Studio tool to renew my Microsoft Store certificate is not working, so I can't publish updates to the Store version. You'll have to use the Installer or Portable version to get updates.

[napouser]

bug with 5.13

restoring a completed movie with 20 audio tracks while completed had selected only 1 brings back the full 20 audio tracks selected for encoding while picker says only 1/20 selected. however the 20 selected is ghost. if u switch the qrf setting lets say from 21 to 23 the audio tab switch from 20 to 1 again
so generally just a visual bug probably