HPG 1.1.3 Unrealeased

[multicone]

Originally posted by TFC Did you try to encode your file without the sound? only the video without any audio stream in....
Think you have to make some more test :rolleyes:++TFC

no problem, glad i can help :)

Here is the output of a new AVS, using new AVI without PCM audio, just video :

PID1132,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/07 22:59:48,8104,Failed to Render File, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudioavi.avs, with DirectShow Reader. Check for available codec.
PID1132,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/07 22:59:48,8107,Neither uncompressed audio or video was available in DirectShow Reader
PID1132,Error,File Reader,2003/08/07 22:59:48,8406,Failed to load QuickTime libraries. QuickTime 5 or later is required.
PID1132,Informational,File Reader,2003/08/07 22:59:48,8212,Missing RIFF header. V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudioavi.avs is not a valid AVI file.
PID1132,Error,File Reader,2003/08/07 22:59:48,8322,Unexpected file format, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudioavi.avs may be a flat file.
PID1132,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/07 22:59:48,0,Failure to load reader for file V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudioavi.avs
PID1132,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/07 22:59:48,0,Unable to initialize input
PID1132,Error,Command Line,2003/08/07 22:59:48,10525,Failed to initialize inputs

[multicone]

Checked another AVS that was on my harddisk still, and also load fine in Virtualdub :

PID2024,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/07 23:03:18,8104,Failed to Render File, V:\starwars\starwars-696x288.avs, with DirectShow Reader. Check for available codec.
PID2024,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/07 23:03:18,8107,Neither uncompressed audio or video was available in DirectShow Reader
PID2024,Error,File Reader,2003/08/07 23:03:18,8406,Failed to load QuickTime libraries. QuickTime 5 or later is required.
PID2024,Informational,File Reader,2003/08/07 23:03:18,8212,Missing RIFF header. V:\starwars\starwars-696x288.avs is not a valid AVI file.
PID2024,Error,File Reader,2003/08/07 23:03:18,8322,Unexpected file format, V:\starwars\starwars-696x288.avs may be a flat file.
PID2024,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/07 23:03:18,0,Failure to load reader for file V:\starwars\starwars-696x288.avs
PID2024,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/07 23:03:18,0,Unable to initialize input
PID2024,Error,Command Line,2003/08/07 23:03:18,10525,Failed to initialize inputs

Same problem :(

Is a special version of Avisynth required ? I have the one coming with latest Gordian Knot ? Do i have to add a special line to my scripts, to convert color space ?

[karl_lillevold]

@multicone: Producer can usually encode anything that can be played in a DirectShow player, so I don't know what's wrong here. I have seen it fail for 8bit colordepth files, maybe it's a similar problem here. I am going to send you a URL where perhaps you can upload a sample so I can take a look. The sample would be just a few frames cut from the AVI in VirtualDub, and using Direct Stream Copy + the edited AVS file to use the short AVI sample. Make sure you can reproduce the problem with the short sample before uploading.

[multicone]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold @multicone: Producer can usually encode anything that can be played in a DirectShow player

So this is maybe the problem ? I dont have DShow filters installed for DV compression, WinDV is codec for Virtualdub ? I tried to play the sample in Windows Mediaplayer and TCMP, but only the first picture of the sample is shown, then screen is only black, while time is running.

But in Virtualdub, if i open AVS, it will load fine and i can see all pictures ?

The complete sample file is about 570 MB and is 3 minutes long, without audio its still 530 MB as video is not really well compressed ( DV codec, FourCC ' dvsd' ). How big file can i upload to your URL ?

[karl_lillevold]

i am sure the problem is related to DV, but DirectShow contains a wrapper for VFW, so it should work, I think, but the fact that it does not play in a DShow player is an indication your DV codec is not DShow compatible, or perhaps Windows picks up the wrong DV codec. I don't have much experience with DV, but I think there are alternative codecs available... Anyone?

570 MB would take too long to upload, but if you could use VirtualDub 'Direct stream copy' to copy a hundred frames or so, and reference this shorter sample in the AVS script, that would be really helpful. Direct stream copy is important to preserve the format of the AVI file. You can send e-mail if you have any questions regarding the procedure for making a short sample.

[karl_lillevold]

so even though your AVI is not completely uploaded yet, I tried to install the DV codec (Adaptec? WinSoft?), and extract just a short segment, but I am afraid the DV codec completely messed up my system. Just accessing the AVI file, or opening it in MPC, would lock up explorer forcing a reboot. I am afraid this codec has some serious issues, maybe it's dual CPU and threading related, maybe it's DirectShow related, but there's not much that can be done. I had to reboot 4-5 times trying this out, and then use WinXP System Restore to get back to a good state. I am not going to install these codecs again.

I think the best solution is for you to convert your AVI to another format and use this as input to Producer. You can use VirtualDub to convert, I would suggest to convert to I420 using the Helix YUV codecs (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56972). Install codecs, choose I420 as Compression in VirtualDub, and "Save As..." in VirtualDub. Or you can use HuffYUV 2.1.1, to save some space, but encoding will take longer.

[multicone]

Thanks Karl for your help, the 530 MB DV compressed version is now uploaded. I was installing a new DV codec now, the free version from Panasonic ( will send to you also for testing ). Now i can see the movie fine in WindowsMediaplayer :) . As you told me, i opened it in Virtualdub and converted into a HuffYuv movie, it turned out to be 3x bigger ( about 1.5 GB ) then the DV compressed, but still perfect picture quality.

But when i try to play the HuffYuv compressed movie in WindowsMediaplayer, its all strange colours ? Can one not play HuffYuv compressed movies in Mediaplayer ? Also trying to load this 1.5 GB movie into HPG with a new avisynth script failed, of course.

Then i made something different :

I was loading the DV compressed movie into Virtualdub again and converted into a XviD AVI with constant quantizer 1. File size was greatly compressed, down to 80 MB ( original MOV was 100 MB ), but picture looks very bad, a lot of blocks, i guess because of the very high resolution ( 1000 x 540 pixels ), maybe XviD dont like.

However, this movie looks bad but plays perfectly in all players, even at very high resolution ( this is source movie, before resizing ). Now i was trying to load into HPG, first with the following AVS script :


avisource("matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avi")
LanczosResize(640,432)

PID2004,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:37:39,8104,Failed to Render File, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs, with DirectShow Reader. Check for available codec.
PID2004,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:37:39,8107,Neither uncompressed audio or video was available in DirectShow Reader
PID2004,Error,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:37:39,8406,Failed to load QuickTime libraries. QuickTime 5 or later is required.
PID2004,Informational,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:37:39,8212,Missing RIFF header. V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs is not a valid AVI file.
PID2004,Error,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:37:39,8322,Unexpected file format, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs may be a flat file.
PID2004,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/09 08:37:39,0,Failure to load reader for file V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs
PID2004,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/09 08:37:39,0,Unable to initialize input
PID2004,Error,Command Line,2003/08/09 08:37:39,10525,Failed to initialize inputs



Then with another AVS script :

DirectShowSource("matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avi")
LanczosResize(640,432)

PID2076,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:38:53,8104,Failed to Render File, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs, with DirectShow Reader. Check for available codec.
PID2076,Warning,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:38:53,8107,Neither uncompressed audio or video was available in DirectShow Reader
PID2076,Error,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:38:53,8406,Failed to load QuickTime libraries. QuickTime 5 or later is required.
PID2076,Informational,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:38:53,8212,Missing RIFF header. V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs is not a valid AVI file.
PID2076,Error,File Reader,2003/08/09 08:38:53,8322,Unexpected file format, V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs may be a flat file.
PID2076,Error,SDK Configuration,2003/08/09 08:38:53,0,Failure to load reader for file V:\matrixTrailer\matrixnoaudio-XvidQ1.avs


Again, both AVS script load fine in Virtualdub.

What more can i do :( ? Producer only allow certain resolution and colour space ? Why do all my AVS scripts load fine in Virtualdub, but not in producer with HPG ?


@ Karl : I will upload the 80 MB Xvid compressed AVI to your FTP also, ok ? It plays fine in Mediaplayer with ffdshow, so why cant i load in producer ?

[31 Flavas]

Originally posted by multicone

But when i try to play the HuffYuv compressed movie in WindowsMediaplayer, its all strange colours ? Can one not play HuffYuv compressed movies in Mediaplayer ? Also trying to load this 1.5 GB movie into HPG with a new avisynth script failed, of course. I'm no videophile (i just dvd rips, nothing else), but I think I can clear up at least one thing here.

YUV != RGB (RGB, (Red Green Blue), is what your monitor projects)

I don't know how to expain YUV, except it is used to save diskspace (kind of like any codec), but AFAIK, it is more similar to, if not, lossless. So if you playback YUV video without converting it back to RGB video, you get the bandy freaky strange colors you got. This explains the strange colors you got in Mediaplayer. No codec has been used so no YUV->RGB conversion is happening. (Saving the YUV->RGB conversion until the codec plays the video is what decreases encode time)

Dunno, about the avs script issues though. I would think you should just have raw YUV video at his point (video that Producer understands). But, maybe you need to load HuffYUV in the avs script to decode the video for Producer? I don't know. Like I said, I only do dvd rips, quite litteraly nothing else :)

[superdump]

YUV is basically the three components of images in a different way to RGB. Y is the luminance (i.e. how bright/dark the pixel is) and U and V are the chrominance values (one is the red-green value and the other is blue-yellow, again IIRC).

It should be the job of the decoder to convert from whatever YUV format is coded into the bitstream of the video and output whatever format is required, I believe.

EDIT: Me being VERY stupid.

[karl_lillevold]

@multicone: this alternative DV codec appears to behave itself much better. I can now encode your DV source file without any problems, as well as your XviD version of same. Something must be not working correctly on your system in terms of how Producer reads files.

Looking at your error messages, it almost looks like Producer can not find its tools directory, where all the DLLs for file reading (incl DirectShow) are supposed to reside. Maybe producer got unpacked without its directory structure.. Could you check that there are sub-folders in the Producer directory. There should be a few, 'tools' and 'codecs' are two examples. 'audiences' another example.

If this is not the problem, could you create an empty file called debug.txt in Producer's directory, then retry the encoding, pipe the text output to a file, and send this to my e-mail (as I gave in PM)? Make sure the debug output contains a lot more information than before. Hopefully this will say something about what the problem is.

[multicone]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold
If this is not the problem, could you create an empty file called debug.txt in Producer's directory, then retry the encoding, pipe the text output to a file, and send this to my e-mail (as I gave in PM)? Make sure the debug output contains a lot more information than before. Hopefully this will say something about what the problem is.

I did this and tried several times again with different AVS scripts, but producer will not write anything into debug.txt . Do i have to make a setting somewhere so debug.txt is written ?
All the folders are there as you say, but i estimate that HPG will extract producer incorrect on installation, so producer dont know its homedirectory ?

TFC ?

[karl_lillevold]

Producer does not write anything into debug.txt, but having an empty file in the producer directory, causes producer to output much more information to stdout when it is run. This is the information I need to see. Thanks. However, I do think the problem is something relatively simple, but resulting in Producer not being able to load its required tools DLLs.

[TFC]

HPG 1.1.2 Realeased:

Changelog:
The main change in this version, is the new name and the new logo, in order to feet Helix™ community licenses. Also a new site adress.

- Added support for AC3 input files using AC3 filter
- Added support for Job file creation with AC3 file for video muxing
- Added support for vorbis audiences for Job file creation.
- Added Helix™ Producer Milestone 6.
- Added new system to activate EHQ (normal, high, very-high...)

- Fixed a little bug that display the wrong message box in audience generator.

You maybe have noticed that the site crashed down.
It'll take a little time to have screenshots and changelog back...

You can download this new version of HPG HERE (http://rv6.team.free.fr/binaries/HPG112.zip)

The new site address is: http://hel-xproducergui.fr.st


++
TFC

[SeeMoreDigital]

Thanks TFC

Sorry to hear you had problems with your server!

Cheers

[TFC]

I forgot this in changelog :D

- Added possibility to save, load or reset Audience generator settings

++
TFC

[TFC]

I find some issues between AC3Filter and OggDS.dll, if the OggDS.dll present and registered, the producer won't be abble to open AC3 files...
The only solution i find is to unreg OggDS.dll, delete it and reboot...

Don't know yet if there's another solution :(

++
TFC

[TFC]

Ok the problem didn't come from OggDS.dll, it comes in fact from VSfilter.dll (Don't ask me why :rolleyes: )
So just unreg VSfilter.dll to make the Producer open AC3 files

I updated the archive with OggDS.dll (If installed separately, producer cannot encode in vorbis anymore...) and a bug fixed version of HPG that u can download HERE (http://rv6.team.free.fr/binaries/HPG112.zip)

If you have allready downloaded it and don't want to redownload it, you can get this little Patch (http://rv6.team.free.fr/binaries/HPG112_BugFixPatch.zip)

++
TFC

[31 Flavas]

I just tried encoding again using HPG 1.1.2, I looked at the HPG produced audience and job file and noticed they are missing custom packet size tag. I added these in manually and told HPG to encode, but now I get the fatal error messaage in Producer Log:

Unable to set uncrecognized property customPacketSize of type uint on video codec

This is the line i'm using in both the audience and job file.

<customPacketSize type="uint">16000</customPacketSize>

Why is Producer barfing at me?

Thanks.

[karl_lillevold]

@31 Flavas: the customPacketSize codec property is no longer needed in the latest Producer, because it is set to 15,000 automatically for high bitrate VBR streams. If you would still like to set it, this will still work, but remember to place it inside the codecProperties tag:

<codecProperties type="bag">
<customPacketSize type="uint">16000</customPacketSize>
</codecProperties>

[31 Flavas]

Ok!

The reason why I asked was because on the window that pops up it says "setting video packet size to 1352" as the last line and just before the Analysis x% Errors: etc ... line. But, you know i've never actually noticed that line till just now...

I'll take your word that it is not something that needs to be set, though :)

[karl_lillevold]

if it says it is setting it to 1352, it does need to be set manually, since it should have said 15000. Is there not an option in HPG for packet size? Maybe your encoding is not at a high enough bitrate to trigger this large packet size. I am on vacation in Norway, so I can't check right away, but I seem to recall we chose around 450 kbps or so, assuming anything below this was likely to be targeted for streaming.

[31 Flavas]

@karl

Yes, this looks to be the problem. I tacked a zero on the end of the avg+max bitrate and it now says 15000.

I must have not been over the barrier. I had 475k total bitrate and 64k audio. So the video was ~~410k -ish.

@TFC

Ok, spill it :) How can I set video packet size manually :) Producer barfs if manually type (or cut&paste) in the code.

I can't really edit the audience or job file period. If for example I want to set EHQ by number in either, even with every thing correct. Producer will still bailout telling me it can't set unknown property or some such text.

[TFC]

I just tried encoding again using HPG 1.1.2, I looked at the HPG produced audience and job file and noticed they are missing custom packet size tag.

Well u can edit your audience manually, but won't be abble to create a job file....Wait for the next version, that will have some new audiences options (like the custom packet size, ehq 100 etc...)I've some hard drive pb so let me change it :( )

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TFC

[31 Flavas]

Actually I worked this out with Karl by PM.

To use the packet size option i need to surround it with a <codec properties> tag. And I wasn't. And the bit about making equivlant changes to the EHQ also needed this.

I though I was soooo smart catching the encoder/ing difference and the uint/string change, but as it always works out... There was one more thing I needed to change (in this case add). Bleh!

[TFC]

I put a poll on HPG's web site to know if HPG's users want a new interface :)

Check website (http://hel-xproducergui.fr.st)

Plz vote and let a post to tell what u want, and what kind of interface improvements u'd like

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TFC

[TFC]

Here the 1.1.3 version of HPG, this is an unrealeased version.
Changelog:
- Added EHQ Extra High setting
- Updated EHQ levels:Fast=50, Normal=60, High=70, Very High=80, Extra High=100
- Added advanced parameters (CalcPSNR, NoisyEdgeFilter, ScalingFactor and Pattern adaptivity)
- Added a temporary options to reg/unreg VSfilter to have AC3 files works correctly...
- Fixed settings saving

You can d/l it HERE (http://rv6.team.free.fr/binaries/producergui.exe)

++
TFC

Ps: Plz vote if u'd like to have a new interface or not ;)