Virtual Dub Error

[WebMaximus]

Yesterday I received an error message I never saw before when using AutoGK, when trying to convert a ripped DVD (vob files) to an avi contained xvid file I shortly after the 'Preparing subtitles' message get an error window saying

"Avisynth open failure:
Resize: Source image too small for this resize method. Width=2,
Support=3
(C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE TITLE\VIDEO_TS\agk_tmp\Movie Title_comptest.avs, line 19)

What exactly does this mean and is there anything I can do to fix it, maybe by tweaking some advanced AutoGK setting using CTRL-F9?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[yetanotherid]

I'm not an AVISynth expert but it sounds like AutoGK might have over-cropped the video for some reason.
I'd try going into AutoGK's hidden options (CTRL+F9) and selecting the "tune autocrop parameters" box and change the threshold to zero. Try running the encode again and if the problem goes away then I guess you'll have to set the cropping manually, or change the threshold back to default and increase the number of frames for AutoGK to examine etc.

Of course I'm only taking a guess, but it's something to try.

PS. The "tune autocrop parameters" option gets AutoGK to save a little file in the source video folder containing the modified autocrop parameters (so you can set individual crop settings for each encode). By unticking the option and selecting okay you'll get AutoGK to delete the file and return autocrop back to it's default setting.

[WebMaximus]

Thanks for your tip, seems like you're on the right track with your suggestion because when I tried what you suggested the error message didn't show up. On the other hand the whole process that normally takes about 20 minutes was now over in only a couple of seconds and below is what the Log Window said. Guess I'll have to find some info on how to use these auto crop parameters correctly since I haven't a clue how to adjust them...

[2011-01-28 18:38:46] AutoGK 2.55
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] OS: Windows Vista (6.1.7600).2
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Job started.
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Input file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Output file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\I Rymden Finns Inga Känslor.avi
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Output codec: XviD
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Audio 1: Svenska AC3 6ch
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Subtitles 1: Svenska wide
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Format: AVI
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Target size: 1400Mb
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Audio 1 settings: Auto
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Started encoding.
[2011-01-28 18:38:46] Demuxing and indexing.
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Processing file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Processing file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Processing file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Processing file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Processing file: C:\Users\Richard\Documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\MOVIE_TITLE\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_5.VOB
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Source resolution: 720x576
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Found PAL source.
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Source aspect ratio: 16:9
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Analyzing source.
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Source is considered to be progressive.
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Output will contain 11 frames
[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Preparing subtitles.
[2011-01-28 18:39:30] Picking up autocrop parameters.
[2011-01-28 18:39:30] Audio1 size: 276,584,448 bytes (263.77 Mb)
[2011-01-28 18:39:30] Overhead: 128 bytes (0.00 Mb)
[2011-01-28 18:39:30] Video size: 1,191,421,824 bytes (1136.23 Mb)
[2011-01-28 18:39:30] Running compressibility test.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Duration was: 0 seconds
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Speed was: 16,01 fps.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Compressibility percentage is: 141583104,41
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Switching b-frames off
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Chosen resolution is: 720x416 ( AR: 1,73 )
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Predicted comptest value is: 99568015,65%
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Running first pass.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Duration was: 0 seconds
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Speed was: 16,42 fps.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Expected quality of first pass size: 34483989,12%
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Trying to adjust settings.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] No adjustment is possible
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Warning: final AVI will likely be undersized.
[2011-01-28 18:39:31] Running second pass.
[2011-01-28 18:39:33] Duration was: 1 second.
[2011-01-28 18:39:33] Speed was: 8,70 fps.
[2011-01-28 18:39:33] No splitting required
[2011-01-28 18:39:33] Job finished. Total time: 46 seconds

[yetanotherid]

That's a mystery to me. It's like AutoGK couldn't open the video but remained blissfully unaware it wasn't opening the video.
"[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Output will contain 11 frames".
Well actually .... it knows it's only encoding 11 frames, but I'm not sure why it's happening. When you open the VTS_01_0.IFO file for encoding what does AutoGK report as being the video duration?

Maybe instead of opening the VTS_01_0.IFO file for encoding try opening the VTS_01_1.VOB file instead. AutoGK will still automatically include the rest of the sequentially numbered vob files in the encode.... it just won't report a duration etc. when you load it. It should though, re-encode the whole movie in exactly the same way as it would when loading the VTS_01_0.IFO file. Well in this case, let's hope not......

If that fails, I'd try re-ripping the DVD, maybe using a different program. What did you rip the DVD with this time?

I assume what's happening is AutoGK is encoding only the first 11 frames and maybe those 11 frames are totally black. So with auto crop enabled, it simply cropped the whole image and gave you the error message. With auto crop disabled, it seems like it's trying to encode only those first 11 frames.

Have you tried opening the VTS_01_0.IFO file with a video player such as Media Player Classic Home Cinema? I'm just curious as to whether the DVD plays when you do. If it doesn't try opening the first vob file instead.

[yetanotherid]

Auto Crop, from AutoGKs help file:

- Sometimes auto crop used with default parameters by AutoGK cannot totally remove black bars or removes too much of a movie material. In this case "Tune auto crop parameters" is very handy. Threshold defines how sensitive auto crop will be: the higher the value the more cropping will be done. To completely disable audio crop you can set threshold to 0. "Number of frames to examine" is useful parameter to change if movie is a mixture of full screen/wide screen shots, so by selecting different frames that auto crop examines you can improve cropping process. "Starting frame" can help auto crop in situation when you have a full screen logo as a part of widescreen movie, in which case autocrop might decide that the whole source is full screen. By selecting a different starting frames you force auto crop not to examine irrelevant starting movie sequence. "Force cropping" option allows you to crop additional pixels after autocrop operation (if you find that you need to always crop several more pixels you can use this option). If you disable autocrop with threshold 0 then "force cropping" option becomes fully manual crop. Remember always to check how movie looks like after you set new auto crop parameters using Preview function of AutoGK.

[WebMaximus]

That's a mystery to me. It's like AutoGK couldn't open the video but remained blissfully unaware it wasn't opening the video.
"[2011-01-28 18:39:10] Output will contain 11 frames".
Well actually .... it knows it's only encoding 11 frames, but I'm not sure why it's happening. When you open the VTS_01_0.IFO file for encoding what does AutoGK report as being the video duration?

Maybe instead of opening the VTS_01_0.IFO file for encoding try opening the VTS_01_1.VOB file instead. AutoGK will still automatically include the rest of the sequentially numbered vob files in the encode.... it just won't report a duration etc. when you load it. It should though, re-encode the whole movie in exactly the same way as it would when loading the VTS_01_0.IFO file. Well in this case, let's hope not......

If that fails, I'd try re-ripping the DVD, maybe using a different program. What did you rip the DVD with this time?

I assume what's happening is AutoGK is encoding only the first 11 frames and maybe those 11 frames are totally black. So with auto crop enabled, it simply cropped the whole image and gave you the error message. With auto crop disabled, it seems like it's trying to encode only those first 11 frames.

Have you tried opening the VTS_01_0.IFO file with a video player such as Media Player Classic Home Cinema? I'm just curious as to whether the DVD plays when you do. If it doesn't try opening the first vob file instead.

When opening the IFO file I'm presented by a dialog box telling me there are several PGCs and ask me to choose one. In the list there are two of them, PGC 1 with a length of 1:22:21:11 and then PGC 2 with a length of 0:00:01:21. I have tried both of them but obviously looking at the length of them PGC 1 seems to be the correct one and after choosing it indeed AutoGK reports the length to be 1:22:21:11.

When trying to open the first VOB file instead as you suggested I get the same AviSynth error message.

I've already tried ripping the DVD again but same problem, I'm using DVDFab 8.

I don't have any media player capable of opening IFO or VOB files so can't try that I'm afraid.

I really appreciate your help but this one sure seems to be a tricky one and I never encountered this type of error message before.

[yetanotherid]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the function in AutoGK for PGC selection actually works. I think it's there, but wasn't implemented before development stopped. Don't quote me on that though....

I'd assume there's something wrong regarding the way the DVD was ripped. I use RipIt4Me for ripping DVDs. It's not perfect either (every so often I find a DVD it doesn't rip properly) but it's worth trying something else. It also needs DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink to be installed.

I'd probably even try another conversion program to see what happens. HDConvertToX would be a good choice as it's fairly straightforward to use, although I think it requires ffdshow to be installed as it uses ffdshow for the decoding (but don't quote me again).

As much as I love AutoGK, and still use it for AVI conversion when I need AVIs, I've got to ask.... is there a reason why you're converting to AVI rather than a more modern format such as MKV containing x264 video? When it comes to re-encoding DVDs these days (unless it's for someone else in the house who wants to play the video using their DivX DVD player) I always encode to anamorphic MKV. You definitely retain more detail that way than you do when resizing down to a square pixel AVI. MeGUI is generally the program I use for that job.

[WebMaximus]

Actually I used RipIt4Me myself before I found DVDFab and reason I chose to switch was what you mention, that RipIt4Me used most of the times but sometimes not and with DVDFab I've had very few problems...the success ratio has been alot better. On the other hand DVDFab isn't free but I still think it's worth the money.

Anyway if you're not familiar with DVDFab it comes with different modules and so far I've only used DVD Copy which is the module I paid for but there is also a DVD Rip module and I just tried it (you have 30 free days evaluating the different modules) and it worked perfectly so appearently there is something in these VOB files that AutoGK can't handle. I will do some more testing with DVD Rip and if I like it maybe I'll buy that module as well. What I like with the DVDFab products is that you can buy a 'life-time' license and by doing so be sure you'll always get the latest version and so far my experience is they are very fast with updating their software whenever it's needed and the support it great!

The reason I convert to AVI is very simple...I'm in no way an expert and that is what I know will work and quite honetly I've been very happy with the result. I'm then using Windows Media Player to stream the movies to my PS3...not sure what formats WMP and the PS3 support...for example the MKV you mention?

[yetanotherid]

I only suggesting encoding using x264 as that way you can encode anamorphically. I don't know how WMP displays things (I never use it) but you'll find with most software players if you open a 720x? DVD, and open a 720x? AVI encode, the DVD will display using more screen real estate. That's because DVDs don't use square pixels, and generally AVIs do (non-square pixels in AVIs isn't supported well), so in order to convert a DVD to AVI you have to resize down a bit so you lose a little definition. When encoding using x264 (either using an MKV or MP4 container) instead of XviD however, you can encode using the same shaped pixels (pixel for pixel basically) so you don't lose definition by resizing.
I guess it depends on the quality of the DVD and the monitor it's being displayed on, but side by side on my two monitors (running the video full screen) I can generally see a difference.

Windows Media Player should play MKV and MP4 files as long as you have the appropriate codecs installed. I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema myself, or there's VLC Media Player. Or if you want to continue using the Windows thingy then installing ffdshow should let you play lots of file types with it. I couldn't tell you what the PS3 will or won't play as I don't own one, but if it doesn't support MKV I'm pretty sure it'd support MP4. I prefer MKV as it's very versatile (you can stick virtually any type of audio and video inside it) and it tends to be an easier container to work with than MP4.

Just in case I'm not being clear, AVI, MKV, MP4 etc are not video types, they're just containers for holding the audio and video streams. AVIs generally contain XviD, while MKV and MP4s generally contain x264 encodes.

I used to convert everything to AVI myself but now I wished I'd switched to x264/MKV a lot earlier. If you're feeling adventurous maybe try an encode using MeGUI, enable anamorphic encoding and compare the results. If you can't see a difference between the original DVD and the AVI encode on your monitor then maybe it doesn't matter, but if you can you should be able to fix that by encoding anamorphically to an appropriate quality. The only downside is you need a fairly fast, preferably quad core CPU, or it's a lot slower than XviD.

I just checked MeGUI and it has a PS3 preset for the video encoder, so I guess it'll play properly if you encode using it.

[yetanotherid]

PS. I might give DVDFab a spin myself later.... I've never used it before.