Corona, Windows media 9 out today

[Nic]

Just of curiosity,

If you download the Windows Media 9 SDK, they have a series of examples...

In the examples directory there is one called uncompavitowmv
You can feed this .avs files.

To generate the profiles there is a profile generator which you can use.
The compiled versions of these programs are in the BIN directory.

I hope that helps with some people's testing.

-Nic

[Tom Servo]

Great find. Thanks.

[UGAthecat]

I've only had time to do a few small tests, and one full movie test, but in every single test the rate control in wme9 seems to be horrible for 2 pass vbr. the audio and video are both using a bitrate about 40% below the bitrate that I set.
I have been using the standard 2 pass vbr, with the max bitrate for both audio and video 'unconstrained' so that keyframes can use as much space as neeeded (just for testing).
I'm hoping there might just be something wrong with my installation, or it is just a bug in the beta, but since this is mostly a re-hash of MS's old stuff, I wasn't expecting the rate control to be this bad.
Any advice would be helpful if anyone has encountered and overcome this.

[Nic]

@Uga:

Ive noticed that too (ive only tried one pass)...But the VBR can be out as much as 1/6 of the set size (& the quality awful, so its not a saturation problem)

Seems like a huge bug, or im misconfiguring the profile badly.....hmmmm.

-Nic

[UGAthecat]

Thanks for the comparative results, I thought it might be me misconfiguring the profile also, so I tried the first chapter only of Blade2 using the 2mb/sec dvd quality profile by MS, with no modifications, and at the end of the second pass, the average bitrate ended up being less than 1.4mb/sec.
So I guess it's just a bug.
From the testing I've done so far, I can tell I will be definitely using this once these little 'features' have been resolved, but until then I can not invest anymore time in WME9.

[mikeson]

Is there any way to mux audio with video created separately?

Thanks

[lat3ralis]

@mikeson:

Actually there is a way to mux the audio and video. Just use the Windows Media Stream Editor tool that comes with the encoder.

However, I have used this tool to mux audio and video and have encountered a problem....

When you play back the muxed file, the video stream pauses a few seconds after playback but you can still hear the audio stream.

Has anyone else encountered this problem when muxing wma and wmv ??

lat3ralis

[Tom Servo]

That bitrate thing is a bug, I told MS about it some time ago already. If you use Peak Constrainted VBR, it actually uses all available bitrate.

[huch]

I managed to use WME9 to directly encode from AC3 to 6-channel WMA9Pro (no 6 wav) and from VOB to WMV (no avs/vfapi) by using WinDVD 4.0 multichannel.

1) get WinDVD 4.0 multichannel from intervideo.com (http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Product_Download.jsp?p=WinDVD) and register it. I think it would be better that you dont have other DVD decoder installed (or at least no other DVD DirectShow filters, you can load the VOB into GraphEdit to check if correct filters are loaded).

2) change the registry for intervideo DS filters (important):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\InterVideo\Common\AudioDec]
"Audio"=dword:00000005
(this would enable 5.1, default is 2-ch)
"LFEON"=dword:00000001
(don't know if this is useful)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\InterVideo\Common\VideoDec]
"NOVIDEODROP"=dword:00000001
(prevent the DS filter from dropping frames when CPU reaches 100%, which is going to happen when encoding the movie)

3) get one big VOB from the DVD and demux one of the 5.1 AC3 channel to a file and make sure that is the correct language (I used DVD2AVI)

4) open WME9.

under "source" tab, choose "both device and file" and specify VOB in video, AC3 in audio. Those file types won't show up when you browse for files but you can still select them (e.g. use *.*);

under "output" tab, "encode to file" only;

under "compression" tab, select "file download" and "edit..." to make sure you use "same as input" for video size. (I used "Theater Multi-channel Audio (VBR)" for audio (192kbps/48khz) and 2-pass 1300kbps VBR for video);

under "video size", do crop and/or resize if necessary;

5) click "start encoding" and off you go. (close the video panel could result faster encoding)

I hope this could help.

[lighty]

Originally posted by huch

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\InterVideo\Common\VideoDec]
"NOVIDEODROP"=dword:00000001
(prevent the DS filter from dropping frames when CPU reaches 100%, which is going to happen when encoding the movie)



Umm- I have WinDVD4 MC installed but I don't have any of those keys in registry... On the other side I do have "DsContinuousRate" keys is that the same thing?

[hulkenstrong]

I got wmp9 and wme9 and DX8.1 eng and cant capture from my webbcamera or open any *.vob files it says unsupported file format have power DVD XP installed not working and then installed winDVD 3.1 not working so how can you get it to work

[huch]

Originally posted by lighty
Umm- I have WinDVD4 MC installed but I don't have any of those keys in registry... On the other side I do have "DsContinuousRate" keys is that the same thing?

I also only had "DsContinuousRate" after a fresh install of WinDVD4 and I have no idea what's that for.

On the other hand, I used RegistryMonitor and found out about 2 dozen other keys and those I mentioned are useful (tested) for the purpose of encoding directly from AC3->WMA9Pro (6 channel) and VOB->WMV9 (no frame drop).

BTW, it seems that VOB->WMV9 encoding has some problems as some VOBs won't finish the encoding or caused WME9 to crash... could be a bug in this beta...

[huch]

Originally posted by hulkenstrong
I got wmp9 and wme9 and DX8.1 eng and cant capture from my webbcamera or open any *.vob files it says unsupported file format have power DVD XP installed not working and then installed winDVD 3.1 not working so how can you get it to work

You may try renaming .vob to .mpg and try to open it in wmp9. WMP9 seems to accept certain file extension only.

[atracus]

Originally posted by huch
I managed to use WME9 to directly encode from AC3 to 6-channel WMA9Pro (no 6 wav) and from VOB to WMV (no avs/vfapi) by using WinDVD 4.0 multichannel.


...just to confirm to you that on WinXP (ATI Radeon, all latest drivers,...) it worked for me for the AUDIO part (a nice 6ch wma straight out of an .ac3 :D ), but not for VIDEO (WMEnc closes/crashes abruptedly, with no msg or popup); instead, on Win2000 (S3 Savage) it worked out for both V&A.

thanks for the hint!

[atx]

[chris25fr]

excuse me . I have another little problem with wme9.

somebody can help me for the resize/crop please ?


in video size option , wme always indicates 540*576 in input.

What is this resolution ?? ( i choice a vob ) .
Gknot says that the input resolution is 720*576 .
i suppose is it a bug but i'm not sure.

in fact,it's a 2.35 dvd ( mission to mars .french edition)

each time i encode , the picture is too hight. the aspect ratio is not good.

i use 544*280 for the output resolution and i crop after.
gknot says that this dvd is anamorphic 16/9 . i believe that wme9 do the process like it is not an anammorphic 16/9


thinks for your help.

[huch]

Originally posted by chris25fr
wme always indicates 540*576 in input.

you might want to double check the "Compression" tab, click "Edit...", and "... Kbps" and make sure you have "Same as Video Input" checked.

otherwise, it could be a bug in WME9, you may go to msnews.microsoft.com to report this bug (public.windowsmedia.beta.encoder group)

[chris25fr]

yes ,i know this option . But even i do that, i have 540*576 in input and output.

bye

[griff30]

Originally posted by chris25fr
excuse me . I have another little problem with wme9.

somebody can help me for the resize/crop please ?
in video size option , wme always indicates 540*576 in input.
What is this resolution ?? ( i choice a vob ) .
Gknot says that the input resolution is 720*576 .
i suppose is it a bug but i'm not sure.
in fact,it's a 2.35 dvd ( mission to mars .french edition)
each time i encode , the picture is too hight. the aspect ratio is not good.
i use 544*280 for the output resolution and i crop after.
gknot says that this dvd is anamorphic 16/9 . i believe that wme9 do the process like it is not an anammorphic 16/9
thinks for your help.
I found that out too! The WME9 program it wont see any of my files as a correct size. The only way I could set up the size and crop and use .VOBS was to use the Flask plug-in that I linked to earlier on this post. Using Flask won't allow you 5.1 nor will it allow any of the cool WM9 plugins you find in the M$ WM9 Encoder program. You do get a volume boost adjustment though.
What this codec needs is a simpler DVD2WM9 program for idiots like me, that we can properly crop with, cut out credits, use 5.1 sound and all the audio/video plug-ins.
Before someone jumps on this post ands starts saying: "WIMP9 is proprietary, don't use it, I don't use it blah, blah, blah!"
I know it's proprietary codec, but most people using it will be using a M$ OS anyway. I know I'll get flamed on that because all the ALT OS guys will get upset. So what? There is nothing stopping other OS's from having a killer codec and making it only work on thier OS.
Actually, I would love to see a Linux A/V codec that only works well on Linux boxes. Thats only going to force M$ to put more effort into the next WMV.

[sirbender]

I don't care where the codec comes from - and one reason why we are all here is because of the cracked M$ codec called divX 3.11 in the beginning...and the crack didn't really change the good work of M$...

Wmv7 was weak and Wmv8 was good in my opinion, delivering real vbr etc. but was never accepted by most of the people here. Then wmv9 - if it turns out to be the best codec so far I take it - anyway all codecs are proprietary when it comes to encoding (except perhaps xvid) - i.e. if you take Divx5, how do I encode it without their encoder, or Quicktime6 or Real9 ??? Ok some of them I can play with a normal mpeg4 comp. player...and I wouldn't mind if wmv9 would dominate everything soon - I hate installing quicktime, realplayer (hell !!!) and all the othe codec you need when trying to playback most of the movies you get - it fucks up my system...

Anyway I like the 5.1 of wmv9 and will probably kick my WinNT4 and get an update for XP. Nothing is better then competition - so divx.com and co are forced to improve and also M$ has to improve to stay in the market. And I am also thankful for Linux - I mean M$ OSs are still on about 97% of all computers (please don't post something like, you are wrong it is much less). So they need competition.

I hope there will be soon some tools which make it simpler to encode in wmv9, with all the options. A Dvd2Wmv9 would be nice for the beginning.

[chris25fr]

i make avs with gknot but it's impossible to open with wme.

I don't know why.

thinks

[zulu]

i make avs with gknot but it's impossible to open with wme.

I don't know why.

thinks


MS WME can't read avs.
use nic's wm encoder. it can be found in this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33719) thread.

[chris25fr]

yes, but even with nic encoder,that is impossible.:(

[zulu]

huh?
what do you mean by impossible? do you get an error message?
are you sure there isn't anything messed up with your system?
can you open avs files in virtualdub?

[huch]

I have been using .AVS in WME9 and have encoded 2 DVDs through that. It is apparently more compatible than my previous attempt that use .VOB directly and the only thing that does not work is that I couldn't use "MarkIn/Out" or "Crop". But I figured everybody would choose to use .AVS to trim/crop the film anyway.

Also, I chose to encode Video and Audio separately and later use StreamEditor to mux them. This way, I don't need to worry about getting audio in .AVS and I'm quite happy with 6-channel WMA result...

[easyfab]

Yes I have 5.1 in input.
Play first the ac3 file with windvd and choose 5.1 output to configure the decoder, after that it should work with wme.

[easyfab]

I only drag'n'drop on my windvd shortcut and windvd play it.
didn't that work for you ?

[easyfab]

Another solution is to modify this reg entry :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\InterVideo\Common\AudioDec]
"AUDIO"=dword:00000006