VidCoder: Alternative HandBrake GUI for Windows

[flebber]

Was wondering would it be possible to have an audio option to choose the channels based on the source. So 'Same as Source option' so that a DTS source gets dts, stereo gets stereo etc, so that no matter what you do you always get the best aduio option automatically.

[RandomEngy]

I believe that would be a Mixdown of "None". Or Auto Passthrough if you want to leave the audio stream intact and do no re-encoding.

[flebber]

I believe that would be a Mixdown of "None". Or Auto Passthrough if you want to leave the audio stream intact and do no re-encoding.

I want to re-encode, but maitain the same channels. So AC3 5 channels to AAC 5 chanels etc.

[JohnAStebbins]

I want to re-encode, but maitain the same channels. So AC3 5 channels to AAC 5 chanels etc.

If VidCoder is using libhb api's correctly, then setting the mixdown to 6ch discrete will automatically fallback to the best mixdown for sources that have fewer channels.

[flebber]

If VidCoder is using libhb api's correctly, then setting the mixdown to 6ch discrete will automatically fallback to the best mixdown for sources that have fewer channels.

Awesome thanks.

[CommonMortal]

Probably a dumb question, still if someone is willing to answer it, it would be precious information to me.

I know that in a 2-pass (1st pass fast) encoding, the 1st pass is used to see where to put the b frames etc and then the actual encoding takes place in the 2nd pass.

In VidCoder there is apart crf encoding, also the option of 1 pass encoding with limited size. Is there a quality loss between such a 1 pass encoding and a 2 pass encoding if one chooses the same size target in both cases? I 'd assume there is, but better confirm.

:thanks:

[flebber]

Probably a dumb question, still if someone is willing to answer it, it would be precious information to me.

I know that in a 2-pass (1st pass fast) encoding, the 1st pass is used to see where to put the b frames etc and then the actual encoding takes place in the 2nd pass.

In VidCoder there is apart crf encoding, also the option of 1 pass encoding with limited size. Is there a quality loss between such a 1 pass encoding and a 2 pass encoding if one chooses the same size target in both cases? I 'd assume there is, but better confirm.

:thanks:

Single Pass - Bitrate: This mode will encode your video at an average bitrate with only one single pass. So this mode only requires half the time of a “Two Pass” encode. In contrast to CRF mode (and QP mode) the resulting average bitrate is known in advance. Therefore it's easy to predict the final file size. A higher bitrate will result in a better visual quality, but of course it will also result in a bigger file. A lower bitrate will results in a smaller file, but it will also result in a worse visual quality. Unfortunately the encoder doesn't “know” the content of the video in advance when encoding with only one pass. Hence the encoder's ability to adjust the bitrate with respect to the content of the video is extremely limited in this mode! Only “local” optimizations are possible. This results in a pretty bad video quality (compared to a “Two Pass” encode), especially at medium and lower bitrates! Therefore it's highly recommended to not use this mode, unless you really need to do it in one pass.

From http://avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.php?id=tutorial:h.264

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 1.2.5 (http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/80252):

* Added option to eject a disc after encoding.
* Added option to play a sound on encode completion.
* Changed Add to Queue to a split button with a choice to add multiple titles to the queue.
* Enqueuing and encoding are now available before picking an encode directory. Attempting to enqueue for the first time will prompt to set the encode directory.

* Fixed some number formatting bugs in the Advanced panel that occurred in some locales.
* Fixed all queue items being highlighted instead of just the one currently processing.

[mike20021969]

Thanks for the update :cool:

I was just wondering why the Handbrake svn for 1.2.5 is still 4368?
(The nightly build is up to svn 4405).

[cryphog]

Is there a way to pick a different angle on multi-angle disc? I know you can in handbrake but i dont see the option in vidcoder!

[mike20021969]

VidCoder 1.2.6 update:
http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/80284

[RandomEngy]

Thanks for the update :cool:

I was just wondering why the Handbrake svn for 1.2.5 is still 4368?
(The nightly build is up to svn 4405).

I keep tabs on the HandBrake checkin history to see if there's any new features worth picking up. I didn't see anything that jumped out at me and the current version has been relatively stable so I just decided to keep it for a bit longer.

Is there a way to pick a different angle on multi-angle disc? I know you can in handbrake but i dont see the option in vidcoder!

It's something I tried to add! The code is there but I never found a multi-angle disc to test it on. What disc (title/locale) are you testing? I could buy it and get the feature working.

[CommonMortal]

I keep tabs on the HandBrake checkin history to see if there's any new features worth picking up. I didn't see anything that jumped out at me and the current version has been relatively stable so I just decided to keep it for a bit longer.



Good! Stability is more important than being cutting edge for me. I haven't had a single crash with VidCoder to this day. Although i think that when the svn is updated to the equivalent of x264 rev2120, it should be stable too. This revision hasn't been changed for a long time now, so it must be good.

Is there a way where one can check which handbrake svn corresponds to what x264 revision? I found a "trac" webpage, but they have no changelog.

[cryphog]

The only disc that I have seen multi-angles on so far are Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and the Dragon Ball Z Series!

[The Scientist]

I haven't had a look at DVDs for a while, but from the top of my head, isn't the original "Matrix" multi-angle? Also, I think a lot of Disney DVDs may be multi-angle, especially when it comes to the end "credits", different angles = different language end credits, can't remember, would have to look, just thoughts off the top of my head.

[RandomEngy]

Here's the HandBrake checkin history:

https://trac.handbrake.fr/timeline

As for multi-angle, is that the USA DVD release of Phantom Menace?

[cryphog]

Yes! In DVDFab it shows 3 angles.

[CommonMortal]

Here's the HandBrake checkin history:

https://trac.handbrake.fr/timeline



Thanks, although i don't understand much of it. :(

Anyway, 2 things.

1) When you queue more encoding jobs, the progression bar and percentage show the percentage of all the jobs combined. Is there a way to show only the progression of the current job? For example, you put 3 jobs. The 2 are completed and the 3rd has started and the progression bar is at 66%, because it counts the previous jobs too. I think it would be more natural to have the progression bar showing only the current job.

2) Is there are way to eliminate from the log the entries about audio? I mean, often i get "audio moved 1 sec, drop 4 frames", which is annoying, because i only care about the stats of the 1st pass and SSIM and when these entries appear, it autoscrolls down and i have to scroll up again to read the stats and then a new entry comes and autoscrolls down and i have to find again the stats and so on.

[RandomEngy]

1) The progression bar is for the entire queue. The progression bar for the current job should be visible by the job itself in the queue (when there are more than one jobs in the queue). You can hover over that small bar and get the job ETA.

2) Those messages are created by HandBrake and I just pass them all through and print them in the log. In Tools -> Options -> Advanced you can change the logging verbosity. It defaults to 1 but can go to 0 (less messages) or 2 (more messages). I don't know if that will help you but that's all the control I have over it. In order to filter out the messages you're talking about I would have to parse and recognize the message types and suppress them. That kind of categorization should be done at the source if it's done at all.

[CommonMortal]

1) The progression bar is for the entire queue. The progression bar for the current job should be visible by the job itself in the queue (when there are more than one jobs in the queue). You can hover over that small bar and get the job ETA.

Thanks, i know that. But i just think that it would be better if only the current job is shown in the main progress bar. Anyway...


2) Those messages are created by HandBrake and I just pass them all through and print them in the log. In Tools -> Options -> Advanced you can change the logging verbosity. It defaults to 1 but can go to 0 (less messages) or 2 (more messages). I don't know if that will help you but that's all the control I have over it. In order to filter out the messages you're talking about I would have to parse and recognize the message types and suppress them. That kind of categorization should be done at the source if it's done at all.

Ok, thanks. I will try to set the verbosity to 0 next time it happens and see what i get.

Anyway, Vidcoder works really good. I 've done over 20 encodes and no problem so far, knock on wood. :D

[mcr]

Would it be possible to retain the original file time and either set it on the encoded file?
Embed it within the video as Tagged date/Encoded date or have a date file naming option. For my videos recorded all date references would be lost otherwise.
To manually edit the file names before encoding so the date and time are part of the file name is not feasible for more than a handful of videos.

Thank you for an easy to use yet powerful GUI.

[RandomEngy]

The original file time? You can put the encode date in the file with {date} and {time} in the custom name format.

http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Output%20File%20Naming

[RandomEngy]

Phantom Menace arrived today and sure enough it had multiple angles which were not showing up in VidCoder. Tracked the problem down and it turns out I wasn't calling a handbrake function that tells it to use libdvdnav, which is apparently needed for multi-angle.

The good news is that other than that oversight, my blind authoring of the feature seems to have been on the mark and the feature is working now. It will be in the next version.

[CommonMortal]

I am having some weird audio problem. When downmixing 24bit DTS-MA 5.1 audio to AC3 Dolbyprologic II (but i think any downmix does the same, tried AAC too and simple stereo also), i have some crackling sound sometimes. Like a half second audio interruption, always at the same place no matter how many times i encode the file. I have the same issue with Handbrake 0.9.5 and the latest nightly build. I tried AsxGUI and it encodes fine. Same for StaxRip... I am at loss. I recently upgraded to an ASUS Xonar DG, but i also tried to fall back to my onboard Realtek HD audio , while disabling the Xonar card and i get the same issue. I am baffled. I tried to install newer FFDshow, change the decoder from liba52 to libavcodec, but nothing works...

The problem goes away if i first re-encode the audio to multichannel ac3, using ClownBD (which uses EAC3to). Then it encodes fine with Vidcoder.

[cryphog]

Good Deal then! Can't wait for the new version! Thanks RandomEngy!

[mcr]

The original file time?

Yes, the original date and time. Like most picture editors keep EXIF tags and original data intact after modification.

If the original file is tagged with "Encoded date : UTC 2012-01-01 10:04:12" and file data "Sunday, 01. January 2012, 11:05:02" retain this for the new file.

[RandomEngy]

Dealing with this metadata would be the responsibility of the HandBrake core. It does not expose any features that would allow me to preserve that information.

[mike20021969]

With ordinary video (e.g. camcorder footage), I have no problems encoding with VidCoder.

I have got a 3D program for making video titles. But no matter what setting I choose - normal, high profile, CQ25, CQ20, 16x9, 4x3 - I keep getting (unacceptable) artifacts in the video. (This happens in HandBrake svn4436 too).

I've tried with both H.264 (x264) and MPEG-4 (FFmpeg) and still get artifacts. Altering the quality setting doesn't help much.
Using average bitrate doesn't help either.

Here's a sample video (MPEG2) I'm trying to encode (I've changed the title wording for this sample):
http://www.mediafire.com/?x9ja8ilq69nlw8o

This is what I'm ending up with:
http://www.mediafire.com/?as6nfmncrsaqisj

However, using DivX Plus, the encode is flawless:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dnlzz5ripb0dbz4


Any ideas how to get around this in VidCoder? Thanks.

(Edit: I also rendered the sample video to HD format:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jl2z5lufg29nq51
VidCoder/HandBrake make a mess of encoding it.
AVS Video Converter rendered a perfect MP4/H264 at a CQ of 20:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jv1b2tbc5sbqmqn)

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 1.3.0 (http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/82173):

* Enhancements to Queue Multiple Titles dialog:
** Instant static previews
** Ability to play individual DVD source titles with VLC or MPC-HC
** Ability to override the naming format for the batch
* Gave each audio encoding a background gradient to make different encodings stand apart.
* Updated to HandBrake svn 4445.

* Fixed multi-angle support not working (was missing a call to enable libdvdnav).
* Fixed reported crash for sources that scan and find no titles.
* Fixed issue with audio previews not updating when opening a window with a passthrough audio encoding.
* Fixed a problem where the auto-updater would prompt you to apply an update you already had if you had installed it manually.

[Wizecat]

I encoded a few small files today at 700 to 900 kbps with 640 resolution and found that the result was too sharp with ringing artifacts. This makes me suspect that VidCoder is using Lanczos or sharp Spline resizers. This isn't good for downsizing like it is for upsizing or encoding to the same resolution using higher bitrates. I tried the same files at 1400 kbps with 720 and 1280 and the results were good. There should be a few other resizer options like Bilinear or BicubicResize for encoding to lower resolutions and bitrates.

[vrpatilisl]

Encoded mkv always 830ms(approx.) less than original. What to do?

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 1.3.1 (http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/83505):

* Updated HandBrake core to 0.9.6 release (svn 4472).
* Removed erroneous "None" container choice.
* Change some logic and help text to stop assuming you have to pick the VIDEO_TS folder for a DVD scan. This should make previewing DVD titles on the Queue Multiple Titles window possible when you've picked the root DVD directory.

[locotus]

I guess target file is gone as in handbrake 0.9.6.

[Przemek_Sperling]

:thanks: Works gr8!

[DJ-1]

Just a query about resizing and avoiding anti-alising issues on output files, i have some animation 720P source material. The source material is perfectly crisp around circular edges etc, but even with just downsizing the resolution, no cropping etc...just with the resize set to auto resolution. I get jagged edges everywhere. I know that since I'm downscaling from the source its not gonna be as sharp as original, but the edges are awful.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

[DJ-1]

I also read about different resize methods used depending if the source is being increased or deceased in terms of resolution, Lanzsos bubic, plus many others.... which does vidcoder use and what differences are there between them all ?

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

[flebber]

Am excited about the new AAC ffmpeg encoder being included. Doing a few rips to test it now.

[Wizecat]

I also read about different resize methods used depending if the source is being increased or deceased in terms of resolution, Lanzsos bubic, plus many others.... which does vidcoder use and what differences are there between them all ?

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Using default deblocking (0,0) parameters will help as should not using psy or trellis. If Vidcoder uses the same filter as Handbrake it's probably Lanczos unless they changed it.

Bicubic with lower (softer) parameters like 0.333 would help with downsizing artifacts.

You can find explanations about the various resizers at the Avisynth page. http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Resize

[DJ-1]

Using default deblocking (0,0) parameters will help as should not using psy or trellis. If Vidcoder uses the same filter as Handbrake it's probably Lanczos unless they changed it.

Bicubic with lower (softer) parameters like 0.333 would help with downsizing artifacts.

You can find explanations about the various resizers at the Avisynth page. http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Resize
OK, cheers.... Im not using any deblocking at all, only thing there that I'm using is deininterlace (fast)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[DJ-1]

Am excited about the new AAC ffmpeg encoder being included. Doing a few rips to test it now.
Wondering what its like compared to the Nero aac, currently I'm using hdconvertx (audio only) then muxing video from vidcoder with it afterwards....

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[RandomEngy]

From what I hear the ffmpeg AAC is actually worse than faac at the moment. They're just hoping it gets better.

[flebber]

I don't think that ffmpeg aac would be worse from here http://ffmpeg.org/general.html#Audio-Codecs it appears it uses libfaac libs anyway but also utilises libaacplus and libvo-aacenc.

Not sure exactly when it uses which libs though.

[Przemek_Sperling]

Actually, ffmpeg AAC and FAAC on par, which does not mean "state of the art" but a bit below average.
ffmpeg AAC has problems with 6ch channel mapping. For stereo is IMO slightly better than FAAC (for most movie material).

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 1.3.2 (http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/85311):

* Added option for the minimum title length to scan.
* Added support to enable or disable LibDVDNav.
* Added option to prompt to delete source files after clearing successful completed items.
* Added option to disable remembering recent files and folders.
* Tweaked number box to only select all on a quick click.

[jouchan]

hi randomEngy
why this app cant working in windows 7?when i open vidcoder, always like error address (0xbla...bla..) and stop working
thx

[cengizhan]

hi randomEngy
why this app cant working in windows 7?when i open vidcoder, always like error address (0xbla...bla..) and stop working
thx

it does work in windows 7. may be you have something missing in your system live visual c runtimes, netframework 4 etc.

[mcr]

A lot of crashing going on. While batch encoding a couple of mpeg-2 files, VidCoder will crash randomly after a few files are finished. Right when it should start to encode the next file in the queue. The logged message is always the same: Application: VidCoder.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: exception code c0000005, exception address 6F31138D



Another frequent cause for crash is editing encoding settings while a video is loaded. While entering video sizes for cropping, resizing etc. there is a chance that invalid numbers are in the boxes for a short time and VidCoder crashes at that moment. It would be better to wait with reading those parameters until the user has finished changing the values.

[DJ-1]

OK, the 1st time I'm gonna try n rip a blue ray disc, is there a way of passthrough of dts-ma audio?
I understand that it can't be re-encoded like that as most GUIs do 'core only', & there is no option of passthrough of dts under audios output.....
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[RandomEngy]

It should work. Did you select "Auto Passthru" as the codec?

[RandomEngy]

A lot of crashing going on. While batch encoding a couple of mpeg-2 files, VidCoder will crash randomly after a few files are finished. Right when it should start to encode the next file in the queue. The logged message is always the same:


Another frequent cause for crash is editing encoding settings while a video is loaded. While entering video sizes for cropping, resizing etc. there is a chance that invalid numbers are in the boxes for a short time and VidCoder crashes at that moment. It would be better to wait with reading those parameters until the user has finished changing the values.

Is there a specific value that causes it to crash? The idea is to simply not try to create a new preview if it would cause issues. You might be able to get around the problem by having the preview window closed while making those changes.

As for the encoding crashes: http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Submitting%20bug%20reports