A few questions about Xvid

[cogd115]

I got a a few questions regarding Xvid. I would appreciate it if you took time to show me how's.

First, I got Mission Impossible 2 in Xvid. One problem is that it looks so red (the faces of Cruise and Hopkins look like sunburned badly)! (I used pretty standard setting of Xvid on Gordian Knot -- Two Pass with search 4, qpel, and chromatic motion.) Is there anyway I can adjust tint and color playing back? Or while encoding? By the way, it seems that every movie I converted with Xvid suffers heavy red tint as well...

Second, any tip from how to incorporate chapters in Xvid movies and make them useful playing back?

Third, I have been trying to put two audio streams (e.g., one normal and another with director's comment). Again unsuccessfully. It seems the secondary audio stream always takes over the main audio, and there seems to be no way to play the track I want interchangeably (or I can't select the audio stream I want while playing back). How can this be done? I mean, two audio streams and using them interchangeably. Hmmm... Another q about audio is that I used ac3 for one movie. And it does not work! As good as no audio at all. Is this normal? (Not, I am assuiming) What am I doing wrong???

Have fun.. And thanks in advance to those who might take interest in.. hmm.. giving free lessons to me :D ...

Ciao..

[Nic]

For the audio side this is not the right forum. Try reading the FAQ's in the Audio Forum and see if any tips there will help you.

Also when reporting problems always always post as much info as you can. When you talk about two audio streams you don't mention what format your trying to put them in, what player you are using, etc.
(Try installing Valex's AC3Filter and using Media Player Classic to play your files, this may help)

Most importantly here though, you don't mention which version (and where you got it) of XviD your using, nor do you mention the plackback filter thats playing XviD for you (ffdshow, etc). Please look at the filters that are being used (look at the properties in Media Player 6.4 is an easy way) and report back.

My guess on the "red tint" issue is that either it is not the standard XviD filter that is playing back the video or that it is using a colorspace that isn't liked by your video card.

-Nic

ps
For chapters, please read up on using Matroska and OGM. (The New Formats forum is the best section for that)

[frodoontop]

It seems to me that motion search 4 is not that standard. Maybe it's a typo, otherwise change it to 6 and perhaps things will get better.

[cogd115]

Thanks for the reply Nic and frodoonstop. I followed Nic's suggestions, and it solved many of my q's. Thanks once again. I am using ffdshow for playback, I think... or not?? :o This shows how knowlegeable I am about the whole XVID stuff. :( I installed it a month ago, so I just suppose that it is what the windvd is using playing xvid movies. Regarding which version of xvid? Hmm.. I have been tring to figure that out but have not been successful at it. I am using the codec that came with Xmgeg 5 (which I installed about a month ago and stopped using because it often crashed inexplicably -- to me at least). I will try to get the most recent version of xivd.

Regarding red tint, Memento and Being John Malkovich look a bit reddish but do not look unnatural. However, Mission Impossible 2 and The Thing look quite reddish -- especially in the facial areas, and the overall color comes out too strong for my taste. It seems that the tint is predominantly red, yet it gets really really worse for some movies (which can be coped with if there were a player that has color and tint adjustment for xvid movies). I will try to report back as I find out more technical details.

Thank you for the good advice..

[cogd115]

Hey, I tried it with ffdshow deleted. Still the same result.. :( Oh, I am getting the same result with a DIVX player that comes with XMPEG5. Maybe I should try a diff player... Could you tell me where I can get PowerDVD? You should look the face of Hopkins in my xvid version. He looks burning with rage while speaking so calmly in a stereotypical reserved, well moderated English manner. :D

Thanks, cypher...