b/w-movie with DivX5

[tripex]

Hi

How can i encode a black/white movie with DivX5.x in a better way (smaller than a color movie)? Is there an option or something to do to say the encoder it's only greyscale?

Maybe there is another encoder which support greyscaled movies?

Ciao
Andreas

[bb]

All you can do is use a greyscale filter to remove color noise. XviD has a b/w option.

bb

[Acaila]

All you can do is use a greyscale filter to remove color noise. XviD has a b/w option.More specifically, the latest Avisynth (version 2.05) has the grayscale.dll filter built-in. Which means that you can just edit your .avs file and add gray() to remove all color so any codec you use will only encode in B&W.

[manono]

Hi-

Or alternatively, get the Tweak Plugin for AviSynth off DGraft's site and add Tweak(Sat=0) to the .avs to greyscale it.

[vorbis]

does this actually improve quality?
I did clerks with standard settings in gknot and it seems fine. Shouldn't the codec be able to tell the colours present anyways?

[tripex]

Ooops, i don't want to convert a color DVD to grayscaled movie. =:-O

I want to encode an existing grayscaled DVD (VOBs). My intention is to save an appreciable amount of disk space, but the quality should be the same as it would be a color DVD.

Andreas

[oddball]

I understood what you meant. How come all these other eggheads didn't? :D

Anyhow AFAIK you make no gains whether it be B&W or color becayse of the way it works in YUV colorspace (The eggheads can correct me if I am wrong).

[Acaila]

We all understood you perfectly clear. It's just that B&W movies (because they are old) can sometimes have chroma noise left over. By getting rid of this chroma noise (with the Grayscale or Tweak plugins) you save space for the luma information.

But usually this won't help you a lot. A B&W movie is not easier compressed compared than a color movie, so it will not end up higher quality or smaller size. So all you can do is get rid of the chroma noise, the rest of the settings stay the same.

[manono]

Yeah-what's up with that, oddball? In some circles, calling someone an egghead is considered insulting (smiley face or no). bb, Acaila, and I gave perfectly reasonable answers (overkill from the mods, maybe). While a modern B&W such as Clerks might not have it, I've seen plenty of color in older B&Ws, and it's always a good idea to use greyscale when encoding one.

[theReal]

I've seen plenty of color in older B&Ws, and it's always a good idea to use greyscale when encoding one

That's especially true when you want to use strong smoothing filter settings. It's very annoying to have orange and green colored chroma ghosting ind a B/W movie, believe me...

However, in some B/W movies you might want to keep a certain sepia tone - then you're having a problem with removing all color information.

[Wulven]

So why when I encode , using standard settings do I get a filesize of 200MB not 700?

[manono]

Hi Wulven-

I deleted the other thread you started on this subject. I hope that's OK.

I don't think your problem is specific to B&W movies since you said in the other thread that the result looked like crap. Could you perhaps be encoding the whole movie at End Credit Quants? Check the GKnot log. Do you see the infamous "Could Not Open Log File" line? There could be lots of possible reasons for the problem. Do another search in the DivX5 and GKnot forums because there have been lots of people reporting the problem and lots of solutions proposed. If you can't decipher the log, maybe post it for us to have a look. Have you read Doom9's GKnot-DivX5 Guide (http://www.doom9.org/gknot-main3.htm)?

[Wulven]

No Problem

Yes I have been using the Gnot guide for a long while now, never had any problem at all before encrypting a movie from DVD, just this one.
I will try it again today, and give the log a look, see if I see anything in there.
I would have thought Black and White movies would encrypt better with no colour to deal with.

[Wulven]

I just noticed that in DVD2AVI, it comes up as 98% film, at 29.9fps, is that normal?

[manono]

Yep-that's normal. It just means there might be some short interlaced sections in the pre-movie stuff, or around chapter breaks perhaps. You should be able to Force Film it.

[Wulven]

Well I did the standard encode, using the gnot guide, lowered the resolution , had to deinterlace it, still turned out 250MB, I understand that it should COMPRESS better with no colours, and lots of black, BUT should it look like absolute crap?

Any easy way to capture a still from a Divx movie to post ?
Should I post my log see if anyone else can figure it out?

[manono]

Hi-

We don't need a picture-I'll take your word for it. And I repeat that it has nothing to do with it being B&W. In fact, frequently B&Ws compress worse (the older ones anyway) because they're full frame and come from lousy source material (try working on Seven Samurai sometime-it'll give SPR a run for its money as being the least compressible film of all time). But I suggested posting the GKnot Log earlier so, yes, that would be a good idea.

[Wulven]

I have Seven Samurai on Laser Disc, but my player died, and I really dont feel the need to repair or replace it.

Ok Here is the Log, I did the last one the "Short" way, using most of the automatic functions to see if it made any difference.

9/24/2002 9:42:43 AM: Job "Movie 1" started.

o Transcode AC3 -> MP3: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.ac3
o DivX5-First Pass: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs
o DivX5-Second Pass: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs
o Mux Audio.
End of Job 1 (Movie 1).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gordian Knot 0.26.0.6
Encoding Job Data:

Type: EncD5_Both
Number: 1
Name: Movie 1
Platform: WinXP (5.1.2600).2

Files:
VirtualDubExe: C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\virtualdub\Virtualdub.exe
NandubExe: C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\nandub\Nandub.exe
AviFinal: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avi
AviMovie: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi
AviCredits: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Credits.avi
MovieFS: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs
CreditsFS:
Log : C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.log
Stats: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.stats
Ecf : C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.ecf

Options:
Quality/DRF: 0
CreditsStart: 0
UseEcf: 1
CreditsIVTC: 0
CreditsAppend: 1
DeleteInterm.: 0
EnforceBitrate:0
AntiShit: 0

Calculator:
VideoSize: 614889 kbyte.
Audio1Size: 90921 kbyte.
Audio2Size: 0 kbyte.
Overhead: 10988 kbyte.
AviSize: 716800 kbyte (700 mbyte).
FilesSize: 0 kbyte.
TotalSize: 716800 kbyte (700 mbyte).
Interleaving: vbrmp3
Bitrate: 865 k(=1000)Bits/s
Frames: 174409
FPS: 29.970
Duration: 1:36:59
Quality: 0.171 bits/(pixel*frame).
CompCheck3: 0.000 bits/(pixel*frame).
CompCheck5: 0.422 bits/(pixel*frame).
DivX5BiDirect: 1
DivX5GMC: 1
DivX5QuartPel: 0
DivX5PsyVis: 0
Resolution: 480 x 352

Audio 1:
mode: ac3 -> mp3
sourceFile: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.ac3
wavFile: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.wav
mp3File: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.mp3
azid: "-c normal"
lame: "--alt-preset 128"
delay: -66
interval: 2
preload: 500
mux: 1
recalc: 1
deleteWav: 1

Audio 2:
none.


9:42:43 AM: Started Transcoding Audio.

9:42:43 AM: Using BeSweet to transcode C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.ac3
Commandline: C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\besweet.exe -core( -input "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.ac3" -output "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.mp3" -logfile "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.log" ) -ota( -G max ) -azid( -c normal ) -lame( --alt-preset 128 --scale 1 ) -profile( Gordian Knot 0.26 )
9:55:01 AM: Finished. Duration: 12 minutes, 17 seconds.

9:55:01 AM: Audio Done.
9:55:01 AM: MP3-File-Size is 75431 kb.
9:55:01 AM: Audio 1, determined: 75431 kb
9:55:01 AM: Audio 1, calc: 90921 kb
9:55:01 AM: New Bitrate for Movie = 888 k(=1000)Bits/s

Adding this script to C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\virtualdub\VirtualDub.jobs:

// $job "DivX4 First Pass"
// $input "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs"
// $output "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi"
// $state 0
// $start_time 0 0
// $end_time 0 0
// $script

VirtualDub.Open("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded.avs",0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetSource(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetInterleave(1,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.video.SetDepth(24,24);
VirtualDub.video.SetMode(1);
VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(0,1);
VirtualDub.video.SetIVTC(0,0,-1,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompression(0x78766964,0,10000,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompData(372,"GAEAAMCMDQDQBwAACgAAABQAAAAsAQAADAAAAAIAAAAFAAAAAgAAAJABAAAAAAAAAAAAAB4AAABkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAyAAAAAAAAAAAQAACamZmZmZnJP5qZmZmZmck/QAAAAAEAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIACAADgAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOA/AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAQAAAAEAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAEAAAD/////BAAAAEM6XE1vdmllIFJpcHNcZDJ2XGF2c1xuaWdodG9mbHZuZGVkLmxvZwBjOlx0ZXN0LmRpdngAQzpcTW92aWUgUmlwc1xkMnZcYXZzXG5pZ2h0b2Zsdm5kZWQubXYAbQ==");
VirtualDub.video.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.Delete();
VirtualDub.SaveAVI("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi");
VirtualDub.Close();

// $endjob
//
//--------------------------------------------------
// $done

9:55:01 AM: Started DivX5-First Pass: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs
11:35:22 AM: Finished DivX5-First Pass. Duration: 1 hour, 40 minutes, 20 seconds.
11:35:22 AM: Trying to open Log-file.
11:35:22 AM: Error: Could not open C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.log
11:35:22 AM: Error: Could not count encoded Frames.
11:35:22 AM: Speed: 0.000 Frames per Second.
11:35:22 AM: WARNING: Number of counted frames differs from settings!
11:35:22 AM: WARNING: Settings: 174409
11:35:22 AM: WARNING: Counted: 0
11:35:22 AM: WARNING: Difference: 174409
11:35:22 AM: Correcting Bitrate...
11:35:22 AM: Original Bitrate = 888 k(=1000)Bits/s
11:35:22 AM: ERROR: Correction impossible.
11:35:22 AM: Now encoding at 888 k(=1000)Bits/s

Adding this script to C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\virtualdub\VirtualDub.jobs:

// $job "DivX4 Second Pass"
// $input "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs"
// $output "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi"
// $state 0
// $start_time 0 0
// $end_time 0 0
// $script

VirtualDub.Open("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded.avs",0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetSource(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetInterleave(1,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.video.SetDepth(24,24);
VirtualDub.video.SetMode(1);
VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(0,1);
VirtualDub.video.SetIVTC(0,0,-1,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompression(0x78766964,0,10000,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompData(372,"GAEAAMCMDQDQBwAACgAAABQAAAAsAQAADAAAAAIAAAAFAAAAAwAAAJABAAAAAAAAAAAAAB4AAABkAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAAAyAAAAAAAAAAAQAACamZmZmZnJP5qZmZmZmck/QAAAAAEAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIACAADgAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOA/AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAQAAAAEAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAEAAAD/////BAAAAEM6XE1vdmllIFJpcHNcZDJ2XGF2c1xuaWdodG9mbHZuZGVkLmxvZwBjOlx0ZXN0LmRpdngAQzpcTW92aWUgUmlwc1xkMnZcYXZzXG5pZ2h0b2Zsdm5kZWQubXYAbQ==");
VirtualDub.video.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.Delete();
VirtualDub.SaveAVI("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi");
VirtualDub.Close();

// $endjob
//
//--------------------------------------------------
// $done

11:35:22 AM: Started DivX5-Second Pass: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avs
1:15:18 PM: Finished DivX5-Second Pass. Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes, 56 seconds.
1:15:18 PM: Speed: 0.000 Frames per Second.

Adding this script to C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\nandub\VirtualDub.jobs:

// $job "DivX3 Append"
// $input "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi"
// $output "C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avi"
// $state 0
// $start_time 0 0
// $end_time 0 0
// $script

VirtualDub.Open("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi",0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetSource("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\nightoflvnded AC3 T01 1_0ch 112Kbps DELAY -66ms.mp3");
VirtualDub.audio.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetInterleave(1,500,2,0,-66);
VirtualDub.audio.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.audio2.SetSource(0);
VirtualDub.audio2.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.audio2.SetInterleave(1,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio2.SetClipMode(1,1);
VirtualDub.audio2.SetConversion(0,0,0,0,0);
VirtualDub.audio2.SetVolume();
VirtualDub.audio2.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.video.SetDepth(24,24);
VirtualDub.video.SetMode(0);
VirtualDub.video.SetFrameRate(0,1);
VirtualDub.video.SetIVTC(0,0,-1,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetRange(0,0);
VirtualDub.video.SetCompression();
VirtualDub.video.filters.Clear();
VirtualDub.subset.Delete();
VirtualDub.SaveAVI("C:\\Movie Rips\\d2v\\avs\\nightoflvnded.avi");
VirtualDub.Close();

// $endjob
//
//--------------------------------------------------
// $done

1:15:18 PM: Started Appending Credits and Muxing Audio.: C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded_Movie.avi
1:16:43 PM: Finished Appending Credits and Muxing Audio.. Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds.

1:16:43 PM: Done.
1:16:43 PM: Movie = C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.avi
Total Encoding Time: 3 hours, 34 minutes, 0 seconds.
9/24/2002 1:16:43 PM: Job "Movie 1" finished.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[jggimi]

Hmmm... Wolven, I see what appears to be a codec problem.11:35:22 AM: Finished DivX5-First Pass. Duration: 1 hour, 40 minutes, 20 seconds.
11:35:22 AM: Trying to open Log-file.
11:35:22 AM: Error: Could not open C:\Movie Rips\d2v\avs\nightoflvnded.log
This shows that the first pass did not complete properly. This is a failure of the codec, since the .log file is required for a 2-pass encoding. It is the analysis data produced by the first pass, and is manadatory input to the second pass.

There are many possible causes for a codec failure. Here are the most likely two:

1) The DivX 5 codec is not installed or has been corrupted. This happens most often -- though there are other ways -- when a full install of GKnot is done *after* installing DivX 5. The Gknot install includes DivX 4, and you can get a partial overlay of DivX 5 files with DivX 4 files if this happens, causing sometimes strange results. I'm guessing that this is your problem.

Start Virtual Dub, and check to see if DivX5 is in the codec list (alt...video...compression). If not, then this is definitely your problem.

2) Something in the .avs script -- filter settings, usually -- isn't being swallowed by the codec. This is usually cropping or resizing values, or sometimes, subtitles. In your case, I can tell it's not resizing, 480x352 are modulo 32.

If #1 isn't your problem, post the .avs file here (without the comment lines that begin with "#") and perhaps someone will see something in the .avs script that DivX5 doesn't like.

[manono]

A couple of other things. Unless I'm reading the thing wrong, you stayed with 29.97fps after telling me that it showed as 98% Film in DVD2AVI. So, you should either Force Film in DVD2AVI or IVTC the thing. That alone will improve the quality by 25%.

Also, after you check what jggimi says, and everything seems OK, try upping the resolution (by switching to 23.976fps you'll be able to). A fellow told me the other day that resolutions below 512*xxx produced that error, but when he raised it, the problem went away. I had never heard of that before, so you could help us by confirming that.

[Wulven]

Thanks, I will try to reinstall Divx5.
This was my second attempt, I actually turned Force Film off for this one, I didn't keep the log for the first. That would be why it says 29.9fps, sorry.

[Wulven]

It was Divx5 that was causing the error, I reinstalled it and voila, it worked, it actually looks great too.

Thanks
Alot

[manono]

Hi Wulven-

jggimi gets the credit for solving that one. But you must be feeling better about things now. Happy encoding.

phreak144-yep-great movie, but very difficult to compress. I put the commentary in mine, too. It's very good (the commentary, not the rip).:)