TX264 0.9.8 - GUI for x264 with audio encoding support

[canTsTop]

hello, i have few problems/suggestions:


in video filters if i select only Set DAR, and no resize x264 command line is wrong: "--video-filter resize:sar=1:1", it should be "--sar 1:1"


my phone (Nokia 5230) plays video only if SAR set to 1:1, but if i set SAR 1:1, x264 command is wrong: --video-filter resize:width=352,height=288,method=bicubic,sar=1:122


if i create TX264 profile (Pre-defined) and then modify something, it should not show that i still using my saved profile


can you please add Dynamic range compression (DRC) to audio effects and/or custom sox options


Thank You

[ozok]

@Pharaoh i7
I cant say much about auto crop but i'll look into auto resize.

@canTsTop
1. Resize:sar and sar are different options. Search for "sar" here (http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings), you will see two options.
2. That SAR value is calculated to get correct DAR value. Even if says SAR in the GUI, it is actually DAR value. I shoulda fixed that ages ago.
3. Why?
4. DRC will up with next release.

[canTsTop]

@ozok
1. Then it should be not posible to select DAR in TX264 if no resize is selected, because its gives wrong results x264 --video-filter resize:sar=2:1 -out.mkv in.mkv
ffms [info]: 1280x720p 1:1 @ 3568/143 fps (vfr)
resize [info]: resizing to 640x720
x264 [info]: using SAR=2/1
2. Can You please add option to leave original Pixel aspect ratio (1:1)
3. Its confusing, lets say i create profile for my phone, then change some options. Next time when i open TX264 it still says i'm using my profile for phone, but options are changed.

[fantasmanegro]

hello!!!

i was using the gui today and i noticed that when you select to use default profiles and custom settings the custom settings does not updates according to profile and tuning selection....

is this a normal behavior or how does it works?...

[rexdeymond]

@ozok = I have a problem to tx264 last, I convert video using the file size and audio features with cbr 32, and convert the video there is a problem on the sound is slower than the video, is there a way to fix it, this log file (http://idws.us/bgjbcjh)

[ozok]

@canTsTop i will look into your suggestions in more detail.

hello!!!

i was using the gui today and i noticed that when you select to use default profiles and custom settings the custom settings does not updates according to profile and tuning selection....

is this a normal behavior or how does it works?...

It is normal. Advanced settings don't change according to selected profile etc.

@ozok = I have a problem to tx264 last, I convert video using the file size and audio features with cbr 32, and convert the video there is a problem on the sound is slower than the video, is there a way to fix it, this log file (http://idws.us/bgjbcjh)

I cannot open the link. I can't see why audio should be slower, tho. TX264 does not do anything that'd cause that.

[BK-201]

@Ozok....or anyone that can help,

Under custom options where you can enter custom x264 commands how would I add deblocking? would it be something similar to:

--vf deblock=1,1

thanks for any help that can be provided.

Edit:
just to clear any confusion I'm not talking about the advanced options but these options:

http://i46.tinypic.com/2dbv1cj.jpg

[fantasmanegro]

ComboBox Use "Presets and Custom options" and modify the deblock filter value... i guess

i have the same doubt about where to put custom values...

good luck

[Zerondar]

really nice encoding software
would be even better if allowing more soft subs and audio tracks choices and ability to add watermarks hardsub'd though :-)

[Dextor]

Hi. TX264 is really the best tool I have seen... But I have some minor problems with it:
1) Sometimes it deletes my saved settings. Either they're completely gone, or sometimes they're just set to different (mostly default) values.
2) In advanced x264 options, the values (when reset to default or on program's first start) with decimal points have commas instead of periods (dots). When I try to change the value by clicking on the tiny arrows up and down next to the value, it goes from 0 (or other lowest value) instead of incrementing/decrementing the current value. The program remembers the correct value with a decimal dot if I enter the value correctly (with the dot). Also I'm not sure that the program passes the correct values to x264 when they contain commas...
3) qcomp is always 1 in my encodes, even if I leave it at the default 60% (0.6). I have to manually add a custom "--qcomp 0.6" parameter to x264.exe. I found this by examining a file with MediaInfo (and also the file is about 25% smaller if I add the parameter). I use CRF in my encodes.

And one little feature request: Would it be possible to add an option to compress the dynamic range of audio? I hate that all movies have really loud effects and music and very quiet dialogs. When I watch a movie the explosions and stupid "dramatic" music kills my ears while I cannot hear nothing when people talk, so I would like to compress the dynamic range of the audio as much as possible...

I use Windows 8 x64 Pro EN RTM.

EDIT: I created a log for you to look at. I examined it and found out that the qcomp value is being passed to the encoder as "60" instead of "0.6"... For the encoding I use combination of presets+adv. settings, to make the file playable on my poor little Samsung Galaxy Gio.

LOG FILE (http://dextor.heliohost.org/docs/TX264.txt)

[ozok]

Hello Dextor,

1) Do you mean program settings (output folder path etc.) or profiles (pre-defined)? In both cases it is really strange. I'll need more information about that problem because i cannot think anything that may cause it.
2) I might be completely wrong but in Turkey we use "," as decimal mark. As my system is Turkish, default values are with comma. If your system uses "." as decimal mark, default values are invalid so it makes sense that it starts to change from smallest valid value.
3) Yes qcomp values were passed wrong (60 instead of 0.60). Thanks.

DRC is in my to-do list. It will be on next release but i cannot say when that will be released.

I also recommend you to use preset and profiles. With a bit of experimenting you can find best options for your device. I started TX264 to encode files my low-end android phone.

[Dextor]

Hi ozok,

1) I mean a saved "Pre-defined" state, the line just below output folder in the main window. My experience is such that it got deleted only when the program exited unexpectedly (I do not recall the reason, maybe I forced the PC to shutdown while TX264 was working) - the *.pdo file in the "PreDefs" folder was just gone. This doesn't happen if I exit the program the normal way.
2) I understand. But people from English-speaking countries (and surely other countries) where "." is used as decimal mark might have problems with TX264. I don't know if delphi has an option to input the "defaul system decimal mark" into a text field... But x264 uses a "." in its parameters so perhaps it would be acceptable to just use "." everywhere regardless of the user's regional preferences? I'm sure people would understand what "0.1" means even if their country (such as your country, Turkey, or my country, Czech rep.) uses "," as a decimal mark...
3) No problem - I will just use the manually added parameter until the next version...

Well my device is compatible with "Baseline" profile and 4.1 Level, but I like to experiment and enable as many additional features as my Gio can handle, because I convert all the videos I acquire from any source to H264/AAC mp4 files and I like the videos to have as much quality and small filesize as possible, while maintaining compatibility with my Galaxy Gio (which isn't a very good thing, as the Gio doesn't support any advanced x264 option... :( )

[Atak_Snajpera]

ofcourse you can force any decimal symbol in delphi

decimalseparator := '.';

[ozok]

TX264 converts "," to "." when it passes it to encoders. But if I missed a point where it is not converted let me know.

@Atak_Snajpera thanks, i did not know that.

[ozok]

I've decided to release a new version. With it, many backends are updated and skins are removed because they caused very annoying flickers.

Change log:

--0.8.5
-Added: Support for FHGAACENC
-Added: DRC
-Removed: Skin which caused performance issues
-Fixed: qcomp values were passed wrong (thx to Dextor)
-Fixed: Unable to use Ogg Vorbis bitrate mode
-Updated: x264 to rev 2216
-Updated: MediaInfo to 0.7.60
-Updated: QAAC to 1.43
-Updated: FFmpeg to 2012-10-10 build from ffmpeg.zeranoe.com
-Updated: mkvmerge t0 5.8.0
-Updated: mkvextract to 5.8.0

[Dextor]

The new look is really good under Windows 8. I liked the skin, but without it it's even better (at least on Win8)... FGH-AAC is a great addition, I think I'll use it now (I would use Quicktime AAC, but who wants to install Quicktime, right?) I did not check the qcomp, as I use presets now, but I believe you fixed it.

I'm having one problem now, which I did not have with the 0.8.4 version - if I use the "force constant FPS" option, the video is encoded with wrong FPS: I have a video with 23.976 FPS and it gets converted to 25 FPS. I noticed this because the audio was out of sync... In the log it is clear. 25 instead of 23.976. In 0.8.4 this error did not occur...

LOG HERE (http://dextor.heliohost.org/docs/TX264-2.txt)

I try to fix this by adding custom parameter "--fps 23.976" temporarily...

[Dextor]

Unchecking the "force constant fps" option and adding custom parameters to x264.exe ("--force-cfr --fps 23.976") worked correctly without confusing x264 with two "--fps" parameters. I hope you fix this soon though, as I will be using this excellent tool a lot now... I need constant fps, otherwise my poor Gio refuses to play the files...

[ozok]

It looks like TX264 cannot extract FPS information from source, 25 is the default value it returns in case of error. Can you send me a sample? You can extract a clip from video using Avidemux i think.

[pandy]

initial buffer occupancy suggested as % but value can be set from 0 to 1

[ozok]

initial buffer occupancy suggested as % but value can be set from 0 to 1

i will fix it asap. thank you.

[ozok]

Update:
--0.8.6
-Fixed: Range of initial buffer occupancy is now from 0 to 100 (thx to pandy)
-Fixed: Problems with some files with vfr (thx to Dextor)
-Fixed: A few UI errors
-Updated: MediaInfo to 0.7.61
-Updated: FFmpeg to 2012-10-20 from ffmpeg.zeranoe.com

[Flipe]

My old computer (with Linux only) should die in order to run across this great tool. Thanks, ozok, for it!

My knowledge of encoding and programming is very superficial, contrary to what appears to be the rule here in this forum, but I will still try my best to contribute to the development of this tool, in view of the problems I had using it the last days (and to be fair caused actually by the behaviour of ffmpeg and x.264 rather than from this tool), even if it is only by making proposals. My apologies in advance if the following proposals are plain stupid or if they were already discussed in this forum and I failed to find them:

1) Ffmpeg cannot decode some AAC streams correctly (such as. but not only, the ones in a MOV file) and exits with an error. This is documented here (http://lzone.de/aac+decoding+with+ffmpeg+doesn%27t+work) and is caused by the value of the channel element being 1.0. The solution given in the mentioned page is described in this link (http://lzone.de/node/25) and consists on extracting the audio and converting with faad before processing it further. It would be great if this solution or an alternative one would be implemented in Tx264.

2) x.264 cannot deal with certain resolutions, such as the following " ffms [info]: 450x338p 0:1 @ 15/1 fps (vfr)" causing the following error " x264 [error]: height not divisible by 4". It would be nice if the program would automatically adjust the resolution to a valid one closest to the one of the input (if you prefer with a warning so that the user knows it).

3) I am not sure of this, but I think I read somewhere that for HE-AAC encoding the 3GPP-based libaacplus ( http://tipok.org.ua/node/17 ) provides much better quality than NeroAAC. If this is the case, it would be also great if this option would be available in a similar manner than NeroAAC (that is, the user should provide a compiled ffmpeg with AACplus functionality, as a compiled version of ffmpeg with libaacplus is also not distributable).

Thanks again for this great application that simplifies encoding to h.264 for basic users like me.

[Dextor]

3) I am not sure of this, but I think I read somewhere that for HE-AAC encoding the 3GPP-based libaacplus ( http://tipok.org.ua/node/17 ) provides much better quality than NeroAAC. If this is the case, it would be also great if this option would be available in a similar manner than NeroAAC (that is, the user should provide a compiled ffmpeg with AACplus functionality, as a compiled version of ffmpeg with libaacplus is also not distributable).

You know you can use FhG AAC with TX264 since version 0.8.5, right? According to some listening tests I saw (but which did not include libaacplus, and I think they used LC-AAC @96kbps), FhG AAC, which TX264 uses, had virtually the same sound quality as QuickTime AAC, which was the winner of that test. I'm only speculating now, as I have never used libaacplus, but I think no AAC codec is much better than the FhG's one... And according to those tests FhG AAC is also a bit better than Nero AAC. I personally can confirm this, as to me, 32kbps (VBR, quality setting 1) FhG AAC (HE AAC) sounds much better than 48kbps (VBR, q 0.2) Nero AAC (also HE AAC). Just my opinion though.
The test is here: http://listening-tests.hydrogenaudio.org/igorc/aac-96-a/results.html (yeah it's LC AAC, not HE AAC)

Edit: factual correction etc.

[ozok]

...

1) Ffmpeg cannot decode some AAC streams correctly (such as. but not only, the ones in a MOV file) and exits with an error. This is documented here (http://lzone.de/aac+decoding+with+ffmpeg+doesn%27t+work) and is caused by the value of the channel element being 1.0. The solution given in the mentioned page is described in this link (http://lzone.de/node/25) and consists on extracting the audio and converting with faad before processing it further. It would be great if this solution or an alternative one would be implemented in Tx264.

I could not really reproduce that problem. Did it happen to you while using TX264? If so, can you send me a sample? (nothing larger than 50mb)


2) x.264 cannot deal with certain resolutions, such as the following " ffms [info]: 450x338p 0:1 @ 15/1 fps (vfr)" causing the following error " x264 [error]: height not divisible by 4". It would be nice if the program would automatically adjust the resolution to a valid one closest to the one of the input (if you prefer with a warning so that the user knows it).

In the next release, TX264 will check if entered width and height values are divisible by 4,8 and 16. I am also planing to check input file if resizing is disabled.


3) I am not sure of this, but I think I read somewhere that for HE-AAC encoding the 3GPP-based libaacplus ( http://tipok.org.ua/node/17 ) provides much better quality than NeroAAC. If this is the case, it would be also great if this option would be available in a similar manner than NeroAAC (that is, the user should provide a compiled ffmpeg with AACplus functionality, as a compiled version of ffmpeg with libaacplus is also not distributable).

As Dextor stated, aac encoders provided with TX264 should suffice most of the time. If you can find a ffmpeg windows build with libaacplus support, I'd be more than glad to add support for it. So far I could not find one.


Thanks again for this great application that simplifies encoding to h.264 for basic users like me.
You are welcome :)

[Flipe]

Thanks Dextor and Ozoc for your replies. Sorry for taking a while to reply, I was on holiday a couple of days.

You know you can use FhG AAC with TX264 since version 0.8.5, right? [...]

No, I did not know. As I said, I have a very superficial knowledge of encoding, let alone of all the possible encoders available. I will then use FhG AAC as you propose. Thanks for the tip!

I could not really reproduce that problem. Did it happen to you while using TX264? If so, can you send me a sample? (nothing larger than 50mb)

Yes, it happened while using TX264, but as I said, it has nothing to do with it but with ffmpeg itself. I encoded and deleted the file that gave me the problems. I have found another one which appears to have a similar problem but it is 800 Mb. I have tried to select a sample with Avidemux but I guess even if the audio and video streams are copied the extracting and reintroducing it in an mp4 container changes the value of the channel element because then the problem is then gone. Do you maybe know how could I take a sample without substantially changing the information of the container?

In the next release, TX264 will check if entered width and height values are divisible by 4,8 and 16. I am also planing to check input file if resizing is disabled.

Great! Thanks for constantly improving the application!

As Dextor stated, aac encoders provided with TX264 should suffice most of the time. If you can find a ffmpeg windows build with libaacplus support, I'd be more than glad to add support for it. So far I could not find one.

I guess it is as possible to have ffmpeg with libaacplus support in Windows as it is in Linux (although I am not 100% sure of it because I have no idea of how to do a cross compiling so that it works in Windows). There is no ffmpeg with libaacplus available because it cannot be distributed and must be compiled with this extra library by each user due to some legal limitations. I managed to compile one for linux. But anyway as Dextor and you said, probably there is already an encoder included in TX264 that I did not know of providing good quality at low bit rates, so probably it is unnecessary to complicate things, as it would require each user willing to use it to compile ffmpeg, which probably (I have not much knowledge of programming, either, so maybe I am wrong) requires Linux and cross compiling.

[ozok]

Update:

--0.8.7
-Added: A speed indicator for x264 encoding
-Added: Shutdown, log off and restart post-encode options
-Added: Option to pause between encodes
-Added: Tray icon and balloon hint
-Added: TX264 will check if specified dimensions are valid
-Added: Progress for individual files will be shown in the list
-Added: Overlay icon for Windows 7 taskbar
-Added: TX264 will not add a file twice to the list
-Added: New encoding window layout
-Added: 250 frames will be used if error occures while getting info for preview
-Fixed: File list item color problem
-Improved: Multiple file removing from list performance
-Updated: FFmpeg to 11-05-2012 from ffmpeg.zeranoe.com
-Updated: AlphaControls to 8.03

[ozok]

It seems i overlooked a small bug that caused TX264 to give error after encoding is done. I uploaded new 0.8.7 files and did not change version number as it is really small fix and not many people downloaded it.

Edit: Well, looks like it is still there. In case of that error you can close TX264. Encoded files will be there, they wont be effected.

[ozok]

Update:
--0.8.8
-Added: Reset button to audio effects window
-Added: Many UI changes
-Fixed: Deleting files from list cause visual artifacts
-Fixed: "List index out of bounds" error after encoding is done
-Updated: x264.exe to rev 2230

[ozok]

Hotfix:
--0.8.9
-Fixed: Audio ID problems with some vob files
-Fixed: Deleting selected items from list caused problems

[Hobbe]

Thanks for a great program!
Feature req: Copy video and a auto crop function. Allow subtitles from srt.
Maybe a bug report.. when I encode dts sound to aac the resulting sound have a much lower volume.. Why? Tried qaac and Fhg same result..

[ozok]

@Hobbe external srt files should be muxed to mkv/mp4. If yours dont get muxed, please send me log.txt. You can increase volume by "Effects" under "Audio" tab.

[XStylus]

I'm getting exception errors when I try to compress a Quicktime ProRes MOV. Haven't tested with any other file type yet but figured I'd chime in.

Exception message: "'23,976' is not a valid floating point value."

Bugreport attached, also at http://bit.ly/QKT2xa

A short sample of the ProRes file I'm using can also be found here: http://bit.ly/SZucGb

[Hobbe]

ozok: mux subtitle almost works.. it creats two subtitles tracks with the same subtitle. One displays very small on the screen. The other one is correct.. Any clue?

[SeeMoreDigital]

A short sample of the ProRes file I'm using can also be found here: http://bit.ly/SZucGb
According to MediaInfo, the .MOV file contains an AVC video stream, not ProRes!

[ozok]

@Hobbe i cant see why that happens. Again send log.txt.

@XStylus as SeeMoreDigital said file is not ProRes. I could encode sample without a problem with 0.8.9. If you cannot, try that exe (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9617171/TX264.7z). Just replace it with your TX264.exe.

PS: that exe will create a fps.txt in your C:\ if you have one, so please create a backup before replacing. That fps.txt is a list of FPS of all the files in your list.

[XStylus]

@XStylus as SeeMoreDigital said file is not ProRes. I could encode sample without a problem with 0.8.9. If you cannot, try that exe (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9617171/TX264.7z). Just replace it with your TX264.exe.

That fixed the problem. Did I just happen to have a corrupt .exe? The file you provided had the same build date as the one I was using.

[ozok]

That fixed the problem. Did I just happen to have a corrupt .exe? The file you provided had the same build date as the one I was using.

:D no, i just changed some routines to eleminate the problem. They are the same except these parts.

[BK-201]

Still no 10bit support? :(

Otherwise still one of the best encoders I've ever used.

[ozok]

Still no 10bit support? :(

Otherwise still one of the best encoders I've ever used.

I am working on it. Next release will have 10bit support and fix to "not float" errors.

[ozok]

Update:
--0.9.0
-Added: 10-Bit encoding
-Added: x264 profiles "High10", "High422" and "High444"
-Added: Encoding summary will be added to log
-Fixed: A possible problem causing predefs to disappear
-Fixed: "'x' is not a valid floating point value" problem
-Fixed: A possible problem disabling TX264 to force use 32bit backends
-Updated: AlphaControls to 8.04

Thanks to everyone for bug reports.

[meshaun]

Is there a way to Autocrop a source and resize to 720p ?

[Pharaoh i7]

awesome job for adding 10 bit option.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Given that some 10-bit encoding profiles have been added. I would like to request the following profiles: Lossless 4:2:0, Lossless 4:2:2 and Lossless 4:4:4


Cheers

[ozok]

Is there a way to Autocrop a source and resize to 720p ?
No.

awesome job for adding 10 bit option.
Thanks.

Given that some 10-bit encoding profiles have been added. I would like to request the following profiles: Lossless 4:2:0, Lossless 4:2:2 and Lossless 4:4:4


Cheers
Added to my to-do list.

[BK-201]

Ozok I must thank you for your continued hard work in making such a great encoder.

The addition of 10bit support now makes this not just one of the best, but THE BEST encoder I've ever used. :)

[pintcat]

Question: Is there an option to adjust audio/video delay?

[acclez]

hi ozok..i wanna ask how do i get rid of frame rate mode, what option do i chose?my player can't play mkv in frame rate mode,sry im newbie in this,thanks

and thanks for this great encoder :D

Frame rate mode : Variable / Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps

[XStylus]

Some feature requests:

First, any chance that there can be a Blu-Ray compatibility checkbox? To my understanding, such a checkbox would basically add --bluray-compat to the x264 command line, though the program might also need to lock the profile at 4.1, and also --nal-hrd and vbv parameters would need to be specified. There may be other settings as well to ensure blu-ray compatibility but those are what I know of at the moment.

Secondly, how does the "Combine with Profiles" feature work in the Tune settings? I understand that the "Tune" function built into x264 optimizes the advanced settings based depending on the particular tune profile chosen. One nice thing that Zarx264 does is that when you select a Tune profile, it adjusts the options on the advanced settings tab, thus letting you see some of the tuned options and letting you adjust further if desired. With TX264, everything in the Advanced Settings (accessed via the "Edit" button) does not adjust accordingly with the Tune profile. That puzzles me a bit because if, for example, I select a Tune profile and then choose "Combine with Profiles" yet I don't touch a thing in Advanced Settings, doesn't the untuned Advanced settings completely override and defeat the point of the Tune?

[ozok]

Question: Is there an option to adjust audio/video delay?

There is probably an option to specify that in container options, so I'm going to look at them and see what i can do.

hi ozok..i wanna ask how do i get rid of frame rate mode, what option do i chose?my player can't play mkv in frame rate mode,sry im newbie in this,thanks

and thanks for this great encoder :D

Frame rate mode : Variable / Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps

You can select "Force constant fps" option. But at the moment it causes problems with MP4 container (wrong value passed). And sometimes TX264 cannot extract nominal FPS using MediaInfo (if source is vfr), so this may not work but you must try and see for yourself.

Some feature requests:

First, any chance that there can be a Blu-Ray compatibility checkbox? To my understanding, such a checkbox would basically add --bluray-compat to the x264 command line, though the program might also need to lock the profile at 4.1, and also --nal-hrd and vbv parameters would need to be specified. There may be other settings as well to ensure blu-ray compatibility but those are what I know of at the moment.

Secondly, how does the "Combine with Profiles" feature work in the Tune settings? I understand that the "Tune" function built into x264 optimizes the advanced settings based depending on the particular tune profile chosen. One nice thing that Zarx264 does is that when you select a Tune profile, it adjusts the options on the advanced settings tab, thus letting you see some of the tuned options and letting you adjust further if desired. With TX264, everything in the Advanced Settings (accessed via the "Edit" button) does not adjust accordingly with the Tune profile. That puzzles me a bit because if, for example, I select a Tune profile and then choose "Combine with Profiles" yet I don't touch a thing in Advanced Settings, doesn't the untuned Advanced settings completely override and defeat the point of the Tune?

If anyone can confirm these options work for Blu-ray compatibility, I'd be more than happy to add that feature. But it looks like what you say is right, --bluray-compat and a few other options are needed.

There is no connection between advanced options and selected profile/tune/preset. AFAIK, profiles/tunes/preset will override advanced options if a conflict occurs. So, again AFAIK, if you set an advanced setting parameter and it violates some part of preset/tune/profile, it will be set according to that preset/tune/profile. I am not planning to add a feature to make TX264 change advanced options according to selected preset/profile/tune. I don't use advanced options, so I can't say much about them. If I am wrong feel free to correct me.

[acclez]

You can select "Force constant fps" option. But at the moment it causes problems with MP4 container (wrong value passed). And sometimes TX264 cannot extract nominal FPS using MediaInfo (if source is vfr), so this may not work but you must try and see for yourself.


well i try mkv container with "Force constant fps" it doesn't work T_T,video become defrag,its there other way to remove variable frame rate??....thanks ozok for the reply :D

sorry for my bad english >.<