TaZit: New tool to fully automate DVD to XviD/Vorbis/XCD conversion.

[TaZ4hvn]

Well I spent days to write it, I think it's good enough for a first release. Here is a copy of the readme:

TaZit readme file
------------------------

Abstract:
------------
This utility is designed to fully automate DVD rip to ogg container (.ogm),
video is XviD while audio is Vorbis (.ogg), using the 'state of the art' tools.
The final files will be Mode2/Form2 .bin/.cue/.toc ready to create an XCD;
program will burn and/or mount images with Daemon tools on request.
To use it simply insert a DVD in the DVD drive, a blank CDR in the burner,
launch TaZit and wait hours, the burner will eject a finalized XCD.
(program maybe a bit long to start since the first thing it does is retrieving
DVD name, so wait for authentification).
If you want to contact me send a private message on doom9 or mail me:
taz4hvn@msn.com

Features:
-------------
Initially it was intended to be a batch file to chain the most effective tools
nowdays:
- Ripping with DVDDecrypter.
- Indexing/Demuxing with DVD2AVI.
- Transcode audio to Ogg/Vorbis using BeSweet.
- Build an adequate AviSynth script.
- Convert video to XviD (2pass mode) using avs2avi.
- Force keyframes at chapters start with KFenforcer.
- Mux audio/video to ogg container with OGMuxer (while splitting into parts).
- Create mode2/form2 image(s) with mode2cdmaker.
- Mount image(s) with Daemon Tools.
- Burn to CDR with CDRDAO.
So you have to get all these tools (links to them a the end of this file.)
Open paths.ini and carefully fill required fields with correct paths.

Actually smarter parts of code are needed, mainly to do do GKnot stuff, this is
what the program does by itself (further explanation in configuration section):
- Find and use name of the DVD,
- Find audio tracks you specified to pass to besweet (up to 2).
- Find the correct pixel aspect ratio (par) for correct resizing.
- Find if the DVD is or not anamorphic, again for resizing decision.
- Find correct cropping and resizing for the video.
- Find required numbers of cd according to set compressibility bounds.
- Label video stream by name and audio tracks by language to show in Ogg parser.

Configuration:
-------------------
Here is the funny and tricky part: open settings.ini.
If you get in trouble switch back to defaults.
- PROJECT=,if set to AUTO program will use DVD name.
if set to anything else, will use this else as name.
- CD_SIZE=, size of one CD, since we are going to an XCD, size are mode2,
i.e. 795 is ok for regular 700MB CDR.
By now, audio overhead is only a quick hack: retaining 0.5% of final size,
not smart but should avoid oversized files.
- BURN=, if ON will burn final .bin file, if more than one CD, will burn the first one.
if SIM will only simulate burning (blank CDR required anyway).
if anything else, won't burn.
->see notes below for further explanations.
- MOUNT=, if ON will mount images with Daemon Tools (up to 4).
if anything else, won't mount.
- OGGQUAL=, ogg quality for audio encoding,
I may be a bit deaf but 0.100 is ok to me, others prefer 0.200.
- KFENFORCE=, if ON will force keyframes at chapters start for accurate
seeking, anything else stands for OFF. This flag is required as KFenforcer
won't work with B-frames and/or stable builds of XviD, if you plan to use one
of them, disable it. Anyway even dev. builds of XviD are stable enough providing
you avoid wrong combinations, and I find B-frames usefull for very low bitrate
encodes only.
- LANG1=, has to be the exact name you'll find in 'VTS_?? - Stream Information.txt'
created by DVDDecrypter as the search relies on parsing this file.
Pasing shouldn't fail whatever your settings are as I overwrite DVDDec registry
settings first (an restore them when rip is over).
->see notes below for further explanations.
- LANG2=, see above.
If set to none (lowercase), only LANG1 is used, resulting in a single audio file.
- MINCOMP_1CD=, this is the video quality factor, if compressibility factor
(SecondPassSize/FirstPassSize ratio) is lower than this will go for two CD.
MINCOMP_2CD=, compressibility under wich program will switch to 3CD.
MINCOMP_3CD=, compressibility under wich program will switch to 4CD.
->see notes below for further explanations.
- KILOPIX_PER_FRAME=, this is the resolution, in thousands of pixel per frame,
the resizing routine will try to achieve. The default 190 will give 'standart' resolution.
close to 640x272 or 672x272 for 2.35 movies.
close to 576x320 or 576x304 for 1.85 movies
close to 512x368 or 512x384 for 1.33 movies.
->see notes below for further explanations.
- IVTC=, if ON fire on autoIVTC/deinterlacing function. As I mostly have PAL non
interlaced DVD, I don't know how this performs, actually this function is provided
by bilu @doom9 -big thanks to him :)- and *shouldn't* harm non interlaced/NTSC DVDs.
Since I can't verify I provide a flag to disable it. Anything not ON will be as good as OFF.
- KEEP_ALL=, mainly a debug flag, if ON will keep all files produced by the program.
Be aware it can be very large (let's say up to 10GB). Can be usefull if you want to keep
some files or study what the program does. Better set it to OFF (or anything not ON ...)

Further notes:
-------------------
- About compressibility:
Let me develop this a bit, I set MINCOMP_1CD=0.65 because this is the compressibility
under wich I think 1CD will get too ugly to watch, setting it higher will give better, but less
numerous, one CD encodes.
To force 1CD set MINCOMP_1CD=0, to force 2CD (if possible) set MINCOMP_1CD=1.
I set MINCOMP_2CD=0.50 because I think 3CD is not an option, so I allow even so so
quality on 2CD to avoid switching to 3CD. If I wanted to completely disable 3CD (and 4CD)
I'd set MINCOMP_2CD=0.
I set MINCOMP_3CD=0.80 because, until I'm on tha path for 3CD, I want highest quality
and don't care to switch to 4CD then.
By now resizing is down with Lanczos filter and undot preprocessing, i will change it later.
I hope I made it clear.

- About cropping/resizing decision:
Actual resolution depends on the movie and cropping decision, cropping/resizing is made
by an AviSynth function, have a look at functions.txt. What it does is:
First simulate autocrop image, and then determine teh correct aspect ratio to target based
on the pixel aspect ratio and if image is anamorphic or not.
Then determine usable resolution (means mod32 in width and mod16 in height) giving
aspect ratio closest to targeted aspect ratio.
Calculate the real aspect ratio image will have with the chosen resolution and then does
a real crop respecting this ratio.
Resize to selected resolution.
Actually it mostly works as intended on the few tests I did (i.e. in a GKnot manner),
if you have ideas to improve it, let me know.

- About audio search:
I wanted audio search routine to act as I would. What it does is:
-------sorry this part is well formatted in original txt---------
First search for LANG1,
if LANG1 found,
if LANG2 is set, search for it, display results and go on, whether LANG2 is found or not.
if LANG2 set to none, then display results and go on.
if LANG1 doesn't exist,
if LANG2 is set, search for LANG2,
if LANG2 is found, display results and go on: movie will be single languaged.
if LANG2 doesn't exist,
if LANG2 wasn't English, search for English,
if English found, go on.
if English not found, use first available track (stream 0x80) and go on.
if LANG2 was English, use first available track (stream 0x80) and go on.
if LANG2 set to none,
if LANG1 wasn't English, search for English,
if English found, go on.
if English not found, use first available track (stream 0x80) and go on.
if LANG1 was English, use first available track (stream 0x80) and go on.
-------sorry this part is well formatted in original txt---------
Well I guess it must be tricky to read, but it was a lot more to code !

- About cdrdao:
At the moment cdrdao only supports scsi adressing so you need a working aspi on your machine.
You can get one at: http://www.dvd2svcd.org/
You have to target your burner in an scsi manner, like 1,0,0.
To find it just run 'cdrdao scanbus' at command line prompt.

Current limitations:
--------------------------
Lot's of things are still to be implemented but as it already represents an unfair amount of code
to work with I want to be sure what's done yet is working. So I need you to test, suggest and
feedback.
It has been written on XP for XP, hopefully It should work on ... XP :)
Anyone wanting to test on others platforms is expected to report behaviour to me.
Function regarding IVTC/Deinterlacing is far from perfect ... don't expect too much with NTSC
and combed materials.
Cd number decision algorithm is certainly not the clevest part. I plan to code something much
more versatile, able for instance to lower resolution and change resizing filter before switching
for one more cd. It looks really difficult to fit human tastes on this ... I'm working on it.
EDIT: Well sorry for those who tried and find it to fail, I forgot to mention you nead CALL_25.dll and NicEcho.exe in your avisynth plugin folder too :p
get it here: http://nic.dnsalias.com/Call.zip

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Get it Link removed due to update, see below

[ChristianHJW]

Out of curiosity, what application are you calling to create your OGMs ? VdubMod, OggMuxer or OGmuxer ?

EDIT : ok, i found it, you use OGmuxer ... dont know why i was overreading it in 1st reading, sorry. Please allow me to add that mkvmerger was ported to win32 meanwhile ;) ....

[DaveEL]

BIG bug in avs2avi currently better stick to old version (1.25 or before ) if you want xvid support (files produced will decode with ffdshow but not the xvid decoder) till i get it sorted sorry.

DaveEL

[TaZ4hvn]

oh good ! Thanks DaveEL, I noticed it but was sure my system is totally screwed up ! So I updated the readme.

@ChristianHJW
didn't play with matroska yet cause I was coding this, I will test it now and when win32 merger will be ready I think I can add choice between matroska and ogg container.
Also about merger, I found OGMuxer the most convenient as OGGmuxer wasn't kf accurate in my last tests and vdubmod a bit tricky to call via cli ... do you think I made the right choice ?

EDIT: Sorry ChristianHJW, looks like I missed some of your words too when I first read your initial post :D

[ChristianHJW]

Originally posted by TaZ4hvn didn't play with matroska yet cause I was coding this, I will test it now and when win32 merger will be ready I think I can add choice between matroska and ogg container. .. they are ready, latest version can always be obtained from here http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/index.html#dlinst_win32 , it even supports writing the Aspect Ratio flag for anamorphic encoding already ..
Also about merger, I found OGMuxer the most convenient as OGGmuxer wasn't kf accurate in my last tests and vdubmod a bit tricky to call via cli ... do you think I made the right choice ? .. i cant comment here, i know both devs very well and dont wonna piss any of them ... ;) ...

[TaZ4hvn]

updated readme to point to avs2avi 1.25.
updated online exe to resize with simpleresize (faster until I make the programm able to switch resizing filters by itself)
and corrected a bug in resizing decision leading to slightly wrong AR.
EDIT: looks like there's also a silly bug in audio parsing causing programm to crash when a single audio is specified. I'm working on it.

[bilu]

Way to go, TaZ!!! :D :D :D

About the automatic IVTC function, this is neuron2's opinion:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=310156#post310156

Since both Decimate(mode=1) and (mode=3) can recognize between Video and Film and the only automatic way is though D2V statistics, it seems that although not perfect, it probably couldn't get any better.

You've put together a lot of stuff, and you don't need Robot4Rip :) but I do have a request to make: include subtitle ripping to disk. You can check how R4R does it, seems easy.

As soon as I finish my resizing/compressibilty decision on R4R_ENC I'm going to get a lot of inspiration from your tool ;)

Best of luck improving it :)


Regards,
Bilu

[TaZ4hvn]

@bilu:
Thank you my friend !
I hope you tried it at least :p
About IVTC I rely on your work as I can't test, I still hope we can merge later and change the silly name I gave to my prog :p
About subtitles, this is on my mind but there's things I want to do before, like a 'batch process directory' mode so that I can rip 10 DVDs whith one clic (well, when I'm out for a week or so :) ).
Concerning subtitles I don't know if I should go for an OCR rip, that will breaks the chaining process, or a hard rip (never did this before) ...

@All:
Already changed a few things (including version number :p):
v0.11: -fixed a silly bug causing program to crash when one audio track only was selected.
-added a DAR table to the existing PAR table as resizing wasn't accurate enough.
-modified resizing function so that it never crop top/bottom anymore.

Get it:Link removed due to update, see below

[LOUIE]

Well....i like your tool and love the idea, but....i just got one lil problem ;) Every time i run it, i get this:

Missing operator.
PM was unexpected at this time.


As far as i know i've setup all my paths correctly in paths.ini and even that little bit in Filters.txt. I also have CALL_25.dll and NicEcho.exe in my aviSynth plugin folder,so thats not missing. I have no idea what PM means....maybe you could give me a hint?;) Or how to replace that missing operator (whatever that maybe). Btw, i've also got it set up to use just one langauge (English) in the first audio track. Do i have to edit anything besides Filters.txt, paths.ini, and settings.ini? If you like, next time i can attatch those files. :rolleyes:
Thanks

[TaZ4hvn]

@LOUIE: First thank you for trying and posting bugs.
Anyway I don't have a clue what PM is :p.
I need more information:
- did you use v0.11 ?
- at wich step does process fail ?
(ie: before anyop, after decrypting, after indexing ...)
- what files do you have in conversion folder when failing ?
- what is your OS ?

EDIT: well I think I had an idea ! There's a timer inside program telling you how long each step was but I built it according to my own system running a 0-24 clock and not a 0-12AM/PM.
That must be the famous PM you get ... am I right to suppose your system timing is AM/PM ?
If yes, you can try changing your local settings to set clock on 24h and tell me if it runs this way...

[LOUIE]

Thanks:D
Yes i'm running v.11

It fails after i see the black dos window change to white with red text. I had to run it in a comand prompt to accutually see the text that it outputs, which is what i gave ya. Just to clarafy a bit....it fails at step 1.....i don't even hear my dvd drive start to spin....haha...so no decryption is going on.

I have no files in my conversion folder

I'm running windows XP sp1


I followed your advice (changing to 24 hour format) and...got an interesting result:
It still gives me error text, but nothing about a missing operator and an unexpected PM. See:

TaZit v0.1 by TaZ4hvn - Job - Started at 12:29
_________________________________________________________________


A batch process to fully automate DVD rip to XviD/Vorbis Formats in Ogg files.
Will even burn to XCD and/or mount .bin images to Daemon Tools.

________________________________________________________________
CHECKING SETTINGS AND COMPONENTS
________________________________________________________________


Local environment
___________________________
Enabled command extensions.
'"G:\\ctext.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.


User settings
______________
PROJECT =
CD_SIZE = 795
BURN = ON
MOUNT = OFF
OGGQUAL = 0.200
KFENFORCE = ON
LANG1 = English
LANG2 = none
MINCOMP_1CD = 0.65
MINCOMP_2CD = 0.50
MINCOMP_3CD = 0.80
KEEP_ALL = OFF


Programs paths
______________
'"G:\\ctext.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Some components are missing. Please check your paths in paths.ini
_____________________________________________________________

'"G:\\ctext.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
___________________________________________________________________

Press any key to shutdown.




Maybe it's something to do with those command extensions it's talking about? It sure doesn't seen to like that ctext.exe.It really repeated that line about ctext.exe 10 times, i just cut it down to one. Hehehehe.....do u really need that just to color the text?? I work a lil in flash.....i'd be glad to make a GUI for ya
:cool:

[TaZ4hvn]

Ok we got it !!
The error you get now is just because the program assumes its install dir is the one it is started from, so it doesn't find the "ctext.exe" if you start from a separate command prompt ! (and it won't find its config files either !)
Just launch the exe from its own directory where all the files paths.ini, settings.ini ... lies and it will work :p
Tell me if I'm right.
At the very moment I'm working on the clock bug and a also a very exciting nex feature: expect a new release soon !

EDIT: I'm searching a way to tell the prog where its files lies ... perhaps via registry don't know.
EDIT2: Also a small tip, if you want to see if everything goes right before doing a complete encode: set CD_SIZE=80 for instance and stop decrypting near 10% it will just process a tenth of the movie.

[LOUIE]

Ahhh.....nope same thing. It gives me that if i use a command prompt or the exe.:(

[TaZ4hvn]

I wasn't far :D
Can you post you paths.ini and settings.ini please ?

EDIT: looking at the ouptup you post I wonder if you installed it at the ROOT a the G: drive ?
if this is the case please try to make a path with at least one directory, like "g:\TaZit".
I just realised it can be a problem :p

[LOUIE]

Hahahaa!! I knew you'd suggest that at same point:p Here ya go Taz:

Paths.ini
_______________________________________________________
SOURCE=E:
TARGET=0,1,0
CONVDIR=G:\DVD\TAZit\convert
AVSPLUG=C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin
DVDDEC=C:\Program Files\DVD Decrypter\DVDDecrypter.exe
DVD2AVI=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\DVD2AVI\DVD2AVI.exe
KFECLI=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\KeyFrameEnforcer\kfEC.exe
BESWEET=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe
AVS2AVI=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\avs2avi_125\avs2avi.exe
M2CDMAK=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\Mode2CDmaker\Mode2CDMaker.exe
OGMUXER=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\OGMuxer\OGMuxer.exe
DAEMON=C:\Program Files\D-Tools\Daemon.exe
CDRDAO=G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed\CDRdao\cdrdao.exe
_________________________________________________________


Settings.ini
_________________________________________________
PROJECT=1
CD_SIZE=795
BURN=ON
MOUNT=OFF
OGGQUAL=0.200
KFENFORCE=ON
LANG1=English
LANG2=none
MINCOMP_1CD=0.65
MINCOMP_2CD=0.50
MINCOMP_3CD=0.80
KILOPIX_PER_FRAME=190
IVTC=OFF
KEEP_ALL=OFF
_____________________________________________________


I have two HD's one is c:\ (duh) and the other is G:\. I put your program in "G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!" and i put the programs that didn't need installing or were already installed in "G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!!\needed" in thier own directories as you can see. Oh yeah, my dvd drive is E;\. Hehe...i have too many drives.Oh well...there ya go


;)

[TaZ4hvn]

well, first set PROJECT=AUTO and ....
above all G:\!!!!=TAZ it=!!!!! is the worst name you could find :(
Actually the "!" symbol is used internally for the *hated* delayed expansions so NONE of your path should contain "!"
(that is one of the reason i'm triyng to get rid of delayed expansions)
Change this and tell me :p

[LOUIE]

Wheeeeee!!! YEEEESS!!! :D It works!! *giggles like a school girl*
Thank you. It was the !!!!!!!!!!! that was messing it up all along. *Pats Taz on the back* Hehe...can i buy you a beer sometime?:rolleyes:

[TaZ4hvn]

...can i buy you a beer sometime?
Yes of course ... be aware i'm long to get drunk :p

Please keep reporting how it works, the quality of the output and if you're satisfied with its job.
And stay tuned a new very exciting version is coming :D

[LOUIE]

Hm....okay...now i have an official problem. I've tried 3 diffrent times now to make this work. It rips,indexes,and makes an avisynth script just fine.....but as for everything else....it acts like the files aren't even there. Here's the text:

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

TaZit v0.1 by TaZ4hvn - Job POA - Started at 2:16
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


A batch process to fully automate DVD rip to XviD/Vorbis Formats in Ogg files.
Will even burn to XCD and/or mount .bin images to Daemon Tools.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

CHECKING SETTINGS AND COMPONENTS
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


Local environment
?????????????????
Enabled command extensions.
Enabled delayed expansion.


User settings
?????????????
PROJECT = POA
CD_SIZE = 795
BURN = ON
MOUNT = OFF
OGGQUAL = 0.200
KFENFORCE = ON
LANG1 = English
LANG2 = none
MINCOMP_1CD = 0.65
MINCOMP_2CD = 0.50
MINCOMP_3CD = 0.80
KEEP_ALL = OFF


Programs paths
??????????????
SOURCE found in E:
TaZit found in G:\TAZ
CONVDIR found as G:\TAZ\DVD
AVSPLUG found as C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin
DVDDEC found as C:\Program Files\DVD Decrypter\DVDDecrypter.exe
DVD2AVI found as G:\TAZ\needed\DVD2AVI\DVD2AVI.exe
KFECLI found as G:\TAZ\needed\KeyFrameEnforcer\kfEC.exe
BESWEET found as G:\TAZ\needed\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe
AVS2AVI found as G:\TAZ\needed\avs2avi_125\avs2avi.exe
M2CDMAK found as G:\TAZ\needed\Mode2CDmaker\Mode2CDMaker.exe
OGMUXER found as G:\TAZ\needed\OGMuxer\OGMuxer.exe
CDRDAO found as G:\TAZ\needed\CDRdao\cdrdao.exe

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

STEP 1: DECRYPTING AND PARSING (2:16)
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Project name is POA
DVD files are saved in G:\TAZ\DVD\Rips\POA.
VOB name pattern should be VTS_10.

English audio track should be track 1.
(stream 0x80 type AC3 coded on 6 channels).

Video is type (NTSC) (16:9) with 720x480 resolution.
Pixel aspect ratio should be 72/79.
Display aspect ratio should be 108/79.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start 2:16 - End 2:33 - Step 0:17 - Total 0:17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

STEP 2: INDEXING AND DEMUXING (2:33)
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Project files are saved in G:\TAZ\DVD\Projects\POA.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start 2:33 - End 2:39 - Step 0:06 - Total 0:23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

STEP 3: TRANSCODING AUDIO STREAMS (2:39)
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start 2:39 - End 2:39 - Step 0:00 - Total 0:23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

STEP 4: BUILDING AVISYNTH SCRIPT (2:39)
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin\AutoCrop.dll")

Loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin\Mpeg2Dec3.dll")

Loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin\Decomb.dll")

Import("G:\TAZ\Functions.txt")
Mpeg2Source("G:\TAZ\DVD\Projects\POA\POA.d2v")

#Optionnal preprocessing filters to pass to avisynth before resizing
Loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugin\UnDot.dll")
UnDot()
Distortion =(72/79.)*(108/79.)
PerfectCropResize(190, Distortion, "SimpleResize")
Limiter()

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start 2:39 - End 2:39 - Step 0:00 - Total 0:23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

STEP 5: ENCODING VIDEO FIRST PASS (2:39)
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


AVS2AVI v1.25 (c) 2002 Christophe PARIS (christophe.paris@free.fr)
Contributions by: int21h
B-Frames and resuming support by David Leatherdale (dave@leatherdale.net)

Thanks to Avery Lee author of VirtualDub and Chia-chen Kuo author
of DVD2AVI for providing great source code of inspiration.

Source:
* Filename: G:\TAZ\DVD\Projects\POA\POA.avs

AVIFileOpen failed, unable to open G:\TAZ\DVD\Projects\POA\POA.avs : : The opera
tion completed successfully.

I just don't get it...i tried naming the project thinking that would help....but alas.:confused:

[TaZ4hvn]

Could you plz redo and tell me if there's some audio tracks demuxed after indexing, and if yes what are their names ?
I suspect there must be a problem with tracks naming ...
Also does it happen on a few set of DVDs (3 or 4 randomly chosen) or on this one only ?

Regards

EDIT: Well reading more carefully your report I saw "VOB name pattern should be VTS_10" ... I'm really doubtfull the VOBS are really named VTS_10_*.* it must be VTS_1_*.* ? Am I true ? I'll have a look a my procedure to find what could fail ...
EDIT: Humm ... no finally it's stupid as I would be VTS_01 and no VTS_1 so it must be correct ... tell me plz.
Also there is clearly two problems here:
-audio encoding didn't kickin, I guess files are not found.
-video didn't either, did you try to launch the avs with your favorite playa to see if it works at least ?

[LOUIE]

Yep...it is called vts_10_...etc. The dvd was planet of the apes. It's a multiangle too. Hmmm.....maybe you could include a switch to select angle 1 or 2? That would be quite nifty. I figured out the problem.You were right about it not finding the filter!I lookedat the logfile of besweet and it said that azid.dll couldn't be found. I went back to the website and got version 1.4 (http://dspguru.notrace.dk/BeSweetv1.4.zip) in the stable section (and i checked to see that it had azid.dll. As for the avisynth thing, i had to download another version (http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=146119) of that too. I had version 2.5 Beta before not 2.5.1 Beta :confused: ...whew So, i tried ol taz out and it works like a charm. I cut the decryption off short to see if it would work.And it does...hehe! Love the tool. Can't wait to see what's next:devil:

[TaZ4hvn]

Well, I'm glad to know finally it worked for you !
That's good cause when it works it works well :D
About the older version of besweet you had to switch back to, it's pretty strange and I can't figure out why ... :confused:
But for avisynth your guilty here since I clearly stated 2.51 was requested as I use pretty new functions only available on the latest build :p

I'm currently working at making it stronger and less sensible to errors, I suceeded at avoiding delayed extension so that you'll be able to use exclamation mark again in the paths, and moreover it should now work starting from win98.
I also made audio tracks search more robust, and finally changed some thinks so that it should work on any languaged OS.

And the last but not the least, I made an engine automatically searching for best resolution / resizing filter to fit given compressibility: that's a great feature allready :D
I know I still have to work a lot on IVTC & interlacing stuff for NTSC DVDs. That's now high priority on todo list.

EDIT: Well, perhaps I wasn't clear, all this stuff is NOT in the version you can get here at the moment, it will be in the incoming v0.2. I'll post it in one or a couple of days !

[DaveEL]

avs2avi 1.28 out should work with xvid correctly now.

http://daveel.leffe.dnsalias.com/avs2avi-128.zip

DaveEL

[olorin]

Nice tool :)

When I'm encoding movies I don't care about size, since I put them several together on dvd discs. I care more about constant quality. I also always use the ac3.

I wonder if it is possible to add some options, for ex options to bypass certains steps like image and burn? And to choose to mux the ac3 files and not convert to vorbis?

Thanx for your great work! :)

[TaZ4hvn]

for ex options to bypass certains steps like image and burn?
I know readme is pretty long but looks to me you missed some points :p
To disable burn and mount simply open "settings.ini" and set:
BURN=OFF
MOUNT=OFF

When I'm encoding movies I don't care about size
Simply set all MINCOMP to 1 in "settings.ini" and encoding will be constant quant=2 :p

I also always use the ac3.
Well that's a very easy hack to do, couple of minutes for this :D
If you really need it I will add it.

Enjoy the tool, and don't forget to report problems !

[olorin]

Originally posted by TaZ4hvn
BURN=OFF
MOUNT=OFF

Oops :p

Originally posted by TaZ4hvn

If you really need it I will add it.

:D

[TaZ4hvn]

v0.2 is out !
Here is a copy of the changelog:

-major new feature: TaZit is now able to change resolution and/or resizing filter to
best fit to a given compressibility. (see readme)
-retrieve and apply correct delays to audio tracks.
-should now work in win2k and perhaps win98/millenium.
-changed way to retrieve DVD name: should now work with non english win32.
-changed pre-gain option -g by post-gain -G in BeSweet.
-no longer compiled, as I found this was slowing down execution.

And one off the related parts in the readme:

Sizing/filtering decision:
--------------------------------
This is a totally new part from v0.1 I'm happy with, but there's still room for improvement.
Program will do compressibility checks to find best resolution and filter to resize.
COMPTESTSIZE=, is the percentage of full encode to use for compressibility tests.
If you don't want to bother, defaults are good enough.
You'd better launch the program to do a real example to follow explanations:

First you set a TARGETRES to achieve (in thousand of pixels per frames), allowing up to
LOWRESDEV resolutions under and HIGHRESDEV resolutions higher.
The LOWRESCOMP?CD are the min compressibilities to achieve for low resolutions (i.e. the
ones under TARGETRES).
The HIGHRESCOMP?CD are the min compressibilities to achieve for high resolutions (i.e.
starting from TARGETRES included).
Let's say one has a 2.35:1 image, TARGETRES=175, LOWRESDEV=2, HIGHRESDEV=2,
all LOWRESCOMP?CD set to 0.650, all HIGHRESCOMP?CD set to 0.700.
Program will find TARGETRES is (640x272) for instance and then compute the two lower and
the two higher: (576x240) (608x256) (640x272) (672x288) (704x288).
From here program does a compcheck at minimal resolution less charpening filter, i.e. (576x240)
bilinear and find compressibilities for 1/2/3/4cds are: 0.478 0.956 1.435 1.913.
Since the first compressibility to be over LOWRESCOMP?CD=0.65 is for 2cds,
movie will fit on two cds (starting from here I just give 2cds compressibilities.).
From here program will first try to reach TARGETRES, increasing resolutions (filter is
still bilinear) up to TARGETRES as long as comp. is over LOWRESCOMP?CD.
Let's say comp. at (640x272) is 0.790. From here min. comp. switches to HIGHRESCOMP?CD=
0.70. Since TARGETRES is possible (0.790>0.700), program will now start to sharpen resizing,
as long as comp. is over 0.70, in this order:
-Bilinear
-SoftBicubic (0.333,0.333)
-Simple
-NeutralBicubic (0,0.5)
-SharpBicubic (0,0.75)
-Lanczos
If comp. for (640x272) NeutralBicubic is 0.720 and comp. for (640x272) SharpBicubic is 0.680,
program will stop checking and go on with the last good one (>0.700), here (640x272) with
NeutralBicubic.
If comp. for each filter is still over 0.700, then program will switch to next resolution (672x288)
and start sharpening this resolution as long as comp. is over 0.700, retaining the last good one.
And so on...


Don't forget to edit "filters.txt" to modify paths to suit your install !
Get it: Enjoy!

Also a personal note: I see this thread has been read quite a lot, I guess prog has been downloaded too.
So why don't I get more feedback ? If something doesn't work for you, you'd better tell the author rather than throwing away prog ... that's the way things come to a mature state :)
removed due to update, see below

[ookzDVD]

@TaZ4hvn,

I really want to try your tool,
but somehow I can't download it, mind if you give me the mirror ?

thanks.

[olorin]

Originally posted by TaZ4hvn

Simply set all MINCOMP to 1 in "settings.ini" and encoding will be constant quant=2 :p



Is it possible with the new version to make ONE file with a specified comp? I said that I don't care about size, but I really meant that I don't care THAT much about size ;) Constant quant=2 will be too large.

Also if u could implement ac3 audio option that would be great :)

For making encodes for cdr I think the new resizing method seems nice :)

[TaZ4hvn]

@ ookzDVD: well I don't get why I can't post attachments to this forum :confused:

@ olorin: I didn't forget but v0.2 was ready before I begin to work on ac3 implementation.
Well for the comp. thing, you can still specify very high comp. like 0.800 and forcing resolution (i.e. lowredev=highresdev=0), but at the moment you'll anyhow end up with a number of CD i.e. 800MB or 1600MB.
You can try this: put CD_SIZE=4000 and all comps to 0.800 this way prog will produce 'undersized' (well, compared to 4000MB :p) movies with comp. just above 0.800. I think it should do the trick for you.

[DDogg]

I think my machine is just getting hot, but is anybody else having a crash toward the end of the first pass of the avs2avi stage of the process? As said, I think it is my machine but wanted to check in and see before I pull off this darn heatsink again.

/Edit: Made it through the first pass. The second pass stalled which surprised me. The log showed:

Step 4 Finished at 6:51

Step 5 Launched at 6:51
Step 5 Finished at 7:09

Step 6 Launched at 7:09
The system cannot find the file specified.


I will keep all files if you have any questions.

[TaZ4hvn]

I will keep all files if you have any questions.
Please do so. And rather post prog output: at the moment logfile is beeing implemented and not very usefull alone :)
Also a fundamental question: does it crash starting second pass, or during it, or ending it ?
Obviously if this is during pass TaZit is not responsible, but I will try to investigate anyway :)

[EDIT] that's weird, really there isn't much stuff in second pass, and if first goes well, second shouldn't fail :confused:
does keyframes forcing going well ? If not sure you may try to set KFENFORCE=OFF to see if process goes on ...

[TaZ4hvn]

v0.3 is out !
Copy of the changelog:

-now comes with an installer and all required softs packed: configuration nightmare is over :p
-can now deal with interlaced/telecined sources.
-now able to process a whole directory for batch conversion.
-direct ac3 copy is possible.

And related parts of the readme:

All required tools are now packed with the installer (links at the end of this file.)
No more "paths.ini" to edit .
Except DVDDecrypter, XviD codecs and Daemon Tools. Get them by your own and
install them first so that TaZit can automatically find them.
...
MODE=, if DVD will process DVD inserted in SOURCE.
if HDD will disable ripping and batch process every directory stored in \Rips subdir
of CONVDIR.
...
About IVTC/Deinterlacing process:
Still based on Bilu's avisynth function (thanks pal!). It has been slightly changed and should
perform much better. I also added a test routine comparing frames with or without this function
to check if use is necessary (as using it when not required can harm a bit progressive material
and anyway will slow down the whole process.)


Sorry just realized I can't upload as much as 3MB to my web site :(
I'm searching a replacement ... if someone is willing to host my little exe ?

Read below !!

[majerle]

read your PM

Andres

[TaZ4hvn]

ok thanks to majerle I now have an hosting ... dunno why I always suck at finding good free accounts :p

So get v0.3 here: Link removed due to update.

[majerle]

Succesfully downloaded !

Now trying this very interesting release !

bye

Andres

[TaZ4hvn]

Well one more time thx for the help. I f you have any trouble let me know ... if you don't tell me too :)

[majerle]

Transcoding is started (Memento 'DVD)

I am testing the hdd features, and it sound very promising.

first note
isn't that obvius that vobs must be put in xxx\rips\AUTO (at last reading help)

next notes tomorrow (at end of trascoding)

my wishlist:
will be released a version with even mp3 support ( i dislike oggds, not oggs, but DS, 'cause have several bugs and hang-up) muxed via AVIMUX (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/Video-Zeug/AVIMux%20GUI/index-eng.html) , that afaik support command line input ?

isn't possible to run tazit.bat without changing TIME SETTINGS ? (from . to : ) (i run programs going in conflicts with this time settings)

Thanks again

Andres

[TaZ4hvn]

isn't that obvius that vobs must be put in xxx\rips\AUTO (at last reading help)

Well that's perhaps it musnt't :D
Let say I want to convert: Xmen, Die Hard and Terminator (this is just for instance purposes !).
I set CONVDIR=D:\Conversion in settings.ini.
Then my files will be:

D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01 - Chapter Information - OGG.txt
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01 - Stream Information.txt
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_1.VOB
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_2.VOB
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_3.VOB
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_4.VOB
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_5.VOB
D:\Conversion\Rips\Xmen\VTS_01_6.VOB

and similar files in:

D:\Conversion\Rips\Die Hard
D:\Conversion\Rips\Terminator

Please note there is not a VIDEO_TS subdirectory (I know it should, I will mod this).
Also note there must be "Chapter Information - OGG.txt" and "Stream Information.txt" in the directory so please check your DVDDecrypter options.
Finally name used for each project is the directory name, here in bold: so keep it nice.

Sorry for ya majorle, but as I understand your post your movie will be Named "AUTO" :p
Well it will work anyway ... I hope I've been clear enought this time !

Regards.

[majerle]

Just one more question:

How XviD settings is being calculated ? Is possible that tazit don't use B frames/vhq/Threshold...?

In my last encode the movie has only P frames.

I usually use 2/150/100/255, chroma motion, vhq 1, motion precision 6, btw.

Thanks

Andres

[TaZ4hvn]

By default TaZit uses very conservative xvid settings:
- no qpel
- no bframes
- no vhq
- no GMC
the only advanced used is chroma motion.
this is just because I didn't work yet to determine wich settings I want to ship it with :)

Of course you can override defaults settings: just set xvid as you like, in vdub for instance, then export HKCU\Software\GNU\XviD registry branch to XviD_Settings.reg (in TaZit install directory).
The only think you have to care about is, at the moment, forcing Keyframes at chapter start compatibility with Bframes is yet to be checked and is most probably broken: so even if you uses Bframes in your XviD_Settings.reg TaZit will disable them if you uses KFENFORCE=ON.
If you absolutly want to use Bframes set KFENFORCE=OFF in settings.ini but then you will loose chapter jump accuracy.
That's it !

This apart please report program behaviour, is output good to your taste ? wich features are to be enhanced, wich are to be implemented ?

EDIT: and yes about the clock separator being something different than ":" I'll implement this ASAP and post a fixed version :D
thx that's a small but yet true bug report since it can screw up the prog's output !

[majerle]

Dumped Xvid reg , OK!

same test on same clips: form 640*256 bilinear to SharpBicubic 672*272 , enabling bframes (2/150/100/255), vhq1.

AWESOME !!!

About quality : great ! near all frames at quant 2 ( with my xvid settings 3.4, still good)

This apart please report program behaviour, is output good to your taste ? wich features are to be enhanced, wich are to be implemented ?

mp3 integration, in setting.ini possibility to input bframes value/vhq/threshold ..., possibility to disable making of iso/bin images


Great tool, truly.

bye

Andres

[bilu]

Hi TaZ,

A suggestion for queueing jobs: call your batch file from within another that parsed a job file to send parameters. Haven't tried such a thing but it may work.

Best regards,
Bilu

[TaZ4hvn]

@bilu:
You're right, batch mode is a very early implementation wich lacks lots of things.
The most important is certainly beeing able to specify different settings for different files and also beeing able to add jobs while others are still going.
I will work on this very soon:)

@majerle
At the moment i'm doing some cosmetic improvements, majorly to support different time format from system settings so that your "." separator would be supported as well as any separator.
About mp3 that's a thing to do, even if this isn't top priority since I don't want to begin supporting too much varied formats until I know ogg is well implemented and I don't have to work on it anymore.

[Soc]

Great work on this project TaZ (and Bilu too)! I've been wanting someone to write a program like this for quite a long time (I could see it was possible but I haven't had the time or the knowledge required to do it myself), so I'm very grateful that you've done it! :D

I haven't had any problems to speak of, once I'd spent the time to fiddle with settings.ini, export my own XviD settings, etc. I've been very happy with TaZit, and I'm looking forward to any more developement!

My only requests would be to make it easier to change the BeSweet command line parameters (it wasn't too hard to modify them in TaZit.bat, but I'd rather not have to change your code at all), and also the XviD settings (as majerle suggested), via settings.ini. These are really only minor issues though :)

Keep up the good work!

- Soc

[youngster]

OK, What am I doing wrong?

When I get to step 6 and 7 (the XVID encoding part) it takes forever. It is processing less than 8 frames/sec, which takes about 14 hours!

My computer has a 2GHz Athlon XP processor, and can usually encode 2 passes in about 4 hours.

I love the tool, but have to figure this out before I use it for backups.

[TaZ4hvn]

@soc:
well dunno if I will add configurable BeSweet cli since I don't want the number of parameters to start beeing to much numerous, after all that's the good point with the program not beeing compiled: any body can adapt it to its own need. That's virtually the most configurable code ever :D.
more seriously, I'm considering doing something like profiles for xvid and besweet settings. Or if I find someone willing to write a nice GUI I could add much much parameters without beeing unreadable ... any volonteer ?

@youngster:
go into your conversion folder, and look for "your movie_fp.avs" and "your movie_sp.avs". Look at them if something seems bad in the script, try to load in vdub and encode from there, try to encode with avs2avi from cli (you'll find the command line used by tazit in tazit.log), finally post your avs here plz. Good hunt.

[Soc]

@youngster:
This may sound like a stupid question, but could it be different XviD settings are being used? TaZit uses the settings from XviD_Settings.reg, not the registry. Also, 14 hours doesn't seem that bad, since a long movie with intensive settings (especially Qpel) can take around 30 hours on my Athlon 900! Without Qpel takes about half as long.

@Taz:
A GUI shouldn't be too hard to write, I'd be happy to have a go at it if I find some time. I'm pretty busy studying for my exams at the moment, so if anyone else wants to write it instead of me, please do :)

Profiles would a great idea, also it would be very handy if TaZit could take the path to the settings file as a parameter, rather than always using %TAZDIR%\settings.ini

Also, for people like me who take a long time to encode, is it possible to fix the time-keeping code so it doesn't go back to 0 after 12 hours?

- Soc

[TaZ4hvn]

I think I will propose 4 or 5 different settings from reasonnable low ( 175000 pix/frames, H263, bframes ....) to "studio" ( 210000 pix/frames, MPEG, no bframes, no preprocessing ...) and ask user for one of them at the very start of the process. Of course each profile can still be modified by the user.

About time issue this is already done and will be released with the next version :) just wait for it (one week max).

[youngster]

@Taz

I don't think there is anything wrong with the .avs files because I load them into Vdub and I get about 28 frames/sec. I can finish both passes in less than 4 hours.

I think the problem must be with avs2avi.