Which GUI do u use to encode ? [POLL]

[Dark-Cracker]

Hi,

after reading a post on people who have give it opinion on the best gui encoder tool, i have the idear to propose a poll to know which is the most used gui to encode.

the presented tools are (they use Vdub(mod) + avisynth ) :

- Gknot (surely the winner :) )
- Divx5Enc
- DVX
- AutoDivx5
- AutoDub

but they don't support the same codecs.
think to post a msg if your favorite gui was not in this list.

[N_F]

Well, I use two of them. Gordian Knot to create the avs-script and calculate the bitrate and DivX5Enc for the actual encoding.

[Schultz]

What if you use non and do it all by hand..?

[The Edge]

I find myself using Gordian Knot for just bitrate calculation nowadays.
I aggree with Schultz. As so everybody can vote, there should be "None of the above" in there too.

Edge

[markrb]

What about DVD2SVCD? If you do SVCD's it's pretty good.

Mark

[killingspree]

well i voted gknot, since it is the only one of them i've installed! i just use it for bitrate calc, cropping and resizing values though. everything else is done by hand!

regards
steVe

PS: method: avisynth 2.5, vdubmod, Xvid or divX 5.03 all in YV12

[MaXiMuS]

GKnot / AutoDub

[stax76]

What if you use non and do it all by hand..?

What's the advantage and what if you capture daily?

[jonny]

I have updated my signature :D:D:D :rolleyes:

[Dark-Cracker]

hum good idear i will do the same think and update my signature :)
but i think gknot kick our ass :)

[Neo Neko]

Originally posted by Dolemite
What's the advantage and what if you capture daily?

Doing it by hand does not mean doing it differently every time. I capture futurama 5 days a week. I simply load it in Virtualdub. Crop out the commercials. Load saved filtering and compression settings and then save. The hardest part of the whole thing is cropping out the commercials. Can any of the automation tools crop out commercials with 100% accuracy for me?

[stax76]

Can any of the automation tools crop out commercials with 100% accuracy for me?


take a look at my screenshots

[Neo Neko]

I see a crop button. But who's to say how it operates exactly. I can however state with 100% accuracy it will not clip commerials with 100% accuracy. No software in existance or at least in user space will do that AFAIK. It is possible though. There is a signal sent by most stations especially those re-broadcast on cable to allow the local head end to splice in commercials for local business etc.

[Justinus]

I agree with Schultz and The Edge. I've never any of those mentioned in the poll.

[ppera2]

DVD2AVI & Virtual Dub.

[jernst]

Since version 3.x I do prefer DVX and I guess that most people who vote for another GUI didn't even give DVX a try (maybe because of this anti-.net attitude).

After some days on sf, dvx is the #148th most active project...

http://sourceforge.net/project/stats/?group_id=73213

take care,

[jonny]

After 7 days on sf, dvx is the #148th most active project...

Please try to understand that there are a lot of hidden project that are really active... even if you don't see this.

This is what i think:

The spirit of me (and i think the other developers) is to make something that can be useful.
We all make this for free, we all share infos/ideas one from the others... ALL the tools you see above are the result of a collective work.
We all need the same respect.
(i personally don't like thread where different tools are compared, simply because every tool is different and fits differents needs)

My english is not perfect, i hope it's all clear.

Cheers
jonny

[jernst]

@johnny
I totally agree with you. :cool:

My post wasn't about to say "DVX is the best, all the rest is crap", but I don't understand people that vote for one tool or another without trying all (or at least more than one of) these tools. For example I won't say that DVX is better than your tool because I didn't had time to try it (I will now ;-).

Tools comparison can be good if you show what feature each offer and what needs they best fit (kind of software review) but I agree with you that just saying "This tool is the best", is a little bit useless.

My english is not perfect, i hope it's all clear.
Same here...

[jonny]

No problem jernst ;), i agree with you.
My post was not a personal attack to you.

I've posted what i think because a see a lot of "what is the best?" threads floating around in the forums.

Cheers
jonny

[Valky]

Well, I use to use Autodub or sometimes simpledivx cause it could handle the vobs directly, but lately I have used DVX only. Main reason for this is constant updating and Dolemites almost real-time support on his forum.

Lately I have been waiting for Autodub to support avisynth 2.5. Everyday I have searched what differences Dark-Cracker has made and it really seems very good to me.

But now when I already changed to use AviSynth 2.5, I dont wanna go back to older version and YUV2 :(

DVX is very good product. Cropping and codec support is definetely the best of all these from my opinion..but I still have some difficulties to understand how to add new plugin to my avisynth script or how to save that script so that I could compare them with AVScomp -software.. (great software btw).

I am using old version thought. RC14 or something..

[killingspree]

Originally posted by Valky
.but I still have some difficulties to understand how to add new plugin to my avisynth script

very simple:
download the plugin you desire to add to your script and put it in the plugin directory of your avisynth folder. afterwards add the follwoing line to the beginning of you script:

loadplugin("C:\xxx\plugin.dll") #wheras xxx stands for the pathof your avisynth plugins directory!!

then you can call the function (see the readme files for details, options etc)
but it should look something like this

plugin(options)

regards
steVe

[N_F]

@jonny

You know he did only ask what GUI we use, not which one is the best (even though these may be in direct relation to each other on many occasions). Myself I find this thread very interesting because it gives people an idea about which programs are available and which ones are being used.

Of course there could also be a negative impact: A newbie comes along, sees that GordianKnot have 70% of the votes, forgetts about the 4 other tools mentioned.


Other than that I agree with what you say. And if you don't know it already, you and everyone else who creates free programs for the "community" have my full respect.


"SwitchingToXViD"

I've been having the same thought. I haven't been very satisfied with DivX 5.03 lately (don't ask me why, but all of a sudden I don't really like the picture it gives me).

Could your next "secret" project perhaps be XviD Enc? (if it is, I'm sure you'll get a lot more users since there isn't a "Gordian Knot for XviD" (AFAIK)) :)

[jernst]

(if it is, I'm sure you'll get a lot more users since there isn't a "Gordian Knot for XviD" (AFAIK)) :)

Yes it is :D...
DVX can encode with DivX5.02, 5.03 and any XviD build.
http://planetdvb.net/dvx

[jonny]

Hi N_F

No problem, i think too this thread is useful.
I've only made a point about what i think.
jernst have tried to gain respect for DVX, and this is a really correct thing (i don't like people around blaming Dolemite for the .NET choice :devil: )
I have only "expanded" the respect for all :)

Going on the divx side...
The 5.0.3 was a bad surprise, no real improvements... seems divx.com is going more and more on the commercial side.
This is not necessary a bad thing... profiles could be really useful for standalone players... but i'd like to see real quality improvements after so long waiting, instead of those profiles/multipass.

My new tool will be very similar to divx5enc... but will be called only "Enc" :) (i'm going to support all the codecs and every old/new codec version... with accurate comp.test and size prediction)
If all goes like i expect, the end of this week i'll start betatesting (do you want to partecipate? :))

[Uli]

DVD2AVI -> FitCD (AviSynth) -> CCE

...no need for a gui-gizmo... ;)

greetz, Uli

[N_F]

Originally posted by jernst
Yes it is :D...
DVX can encode with DivX5.02, 5.03 and any XviD build.
http://planetdvb.net/dvx

Yeah, but still most people on the XviD forum seems to setup their encodings manually through Vdub (I may be wrong, just a felling I got).

[N_F]

Originally posted by jonny
do you want to partecipate? :)

Sure. Send me a message when it's ready for testing.

[stax76]

Yeah, but still most people on the XviD forum seems to setup their encodings manually through Vdub


it would be much easier to use DVX. DVX is not very popular atm, the final version is not even released yet so maybe some people find out it's easier in the future. The way programs other than DVX do codec settings has many disadvantages, they write mime encoded strings to the VirtualDub script. It is pain to program this and everytime there is a new build with a new setting it's broke. So people who use XviD had no other choice than using VirtualDub before DVX. DVX don't care about different codecs, codec versions or codec build. It saves the whole registy key of the codec in a hash table and saves this in his profile/job. Requires 3 line code and is 100% reliable.

[jonny]

Dolemite, i think there is a better method.
What i'm doing in my new app is saving the codec state with " ICGetState" and later sending the parameters to vdub via base64. I think this is a more clear method compared to saving/restoring the registry (it's only a suggestion ;)). In this way is even easyer and safe to add new codecs, you need only to know the FCC of the new codec (atm my new app have 6 slots for using custom FCC, so the user will be able to add and test new codecs like VSS codecs ecc...)


It is pain to program this and everytime there is a new build with a new setting it's broke

This is true, but using the original codec control panel have limitations and require more user intervention (i'm using the original control panel in the new app... this will require the user to configure particular settings for making comp.test/size prediction... in divx5enc you simply select the mode... it's far more simple)

What i'd like to see in the future is the definition of a standard between the codec and the encoding app (some way of retriving the list of parameters and the range of values accepted), so we'll be able to design a personal interface that is in some way indipendent from the codec.
If i'm not wrong there is something similar in the UCI specifications: http://uci.sourceforge.net/

[stax76]

Dolemite, i think there is a better method.


How do you display the codec settings in the log file and and how do you change settings like logfile paths, bitrate, filesize, credits start etc. or do you want the user to make this manually :confused:

[jonny]

i'm using the original control panel in the new app...

I'm using the original codec control panel, sure :)
The only way that changes is that i use icgetstate to retrive the codec data, instead of reading the registry. This is the way vfw work and i think it's better that using the registry.
And for sure, the log file will no more show info about the settings used (and the user will have to setup all the settings)
But saving the settings or the job list you will always be able to reopen/see/reuse the settings.
This is the only way to make an app work with all the codec (even the codecs that doesn't exists at the moment)
Take into account that my app is different from the others... i focus mainly on a powerful joblist, full settings/jobs save-restoring and accurate size prediction/comp.test (the comptest/size prediction engine will be codec indipendent too, the user will be required to setup a quality based encode for this).
I'll probably add something like a PSNR function later.
My target is to do a powerful analisys tool, not a full ripping gui.

[Justinus]

It seems that this poll wouldn't be updated so soon that I put my answer here :)


DVD2AVI
VirtualDub

[ChristianHJW]

Originally posted by jonny
What i'd like to see in the future is the definition of a standard between the codec and the encoding app (some way of retriving the list of parameters and the range of values accepted), so we'll be able to design a personal interface that is in some way indipendent from the codec.
If i'm not wrong there is something similar in the UCI specifications: http://uci.sourceforge.net/

Fully correct, thats one of the main goals of UCI. Lets hope that Alex will soon be able to invest more time into his project, currently he seems to struggle a bit with RL problems .... happens to the best :D !!