xvid questions

[Fragalishus]

i have a number of problems that i need some help on. i suppose ill have to start from the beginning. i started having problems opening avi's in Premiere. they would just show up black. so during the 5 day wait i went about trying to fix the situation, and only ended up making things worse i think.

at the time i was encoding them with Divx 5.11 pro. and some with xvid. but neither were showing up. tried reinstalling all of them a couple of times and using different builds, including the klite codec pack.

i've since used a few apps that i've found here, one being vidcleaner, and after having done a few other things i can now see my clip in Premiere or Vegas.

now on to my problems...

1. at one point i used an app i found here called bigfix. not really sure how much this helped but one thing it did do is make it where i can no longer see the properties of a video file. obviously i can still use gspot if i have to but i'd like to be able to see the properties again if possible.

properties box (http://mysite.verizon.net/res71imq/properties.jpg)

2. well this really isnt a problem per se. but i didnt want to start a thread on "how do i configure xvid" and get pointed to the faq's which believe me i've read them over and over. they mostly seem to deal with dvd quality movies. my area of interest is using it for a Counter Strike movie.

now i've seen a few video tutorials where someone uses xvid to compress the movie. the configuration box was quite simple with a 1 pass CBR setting and you entered a bitrate (3000) and off you go. very good quality and simple. the configuration for the build i have, which i assume is a newer build, looks quite different.

xvid configuration (http://mysite.verizon.net/res71imq/xvid.jpg)

so basically i guess im looking for

a: an older build with that simple dialogue box
b: a clue as to how to configure the build i have in a similar fashion

generally good quality CS movies weigh in around 25mb per minute w/audio. so should i just set a target file size and go with that? (i should mention i uninstalled Premiere during trying to fix these things, and have yet to reinstall it yet so i cant test anything, but reinstalling wont take long obviously)

3. this last question will be for uninstalling/reinstalling an xvid build if i find the one i want. aside from the .dll and other files in the windows/system32 folder, are there any hidden files or registry file i need to remove before reinstalling a newer build?

sorry this is long. if anyone at all can help with either 1, 2, or 3 i'd be most appreciative. i've done all kinds of forum searches on "xvid configuration" and cant quite seem to find the answer im looking for.

thanks in advance

[Teegedeck]

1) Can't help you there.
(Don't use codec packs. It's been repeated so many times, I don't know why people still get lured into using them.)
2-3) Hit the 'load defaults' button.
Then select 'two pass - 1st pass' from the 'encoding type' dropdown menue. Encode your file. There will be no usable output. Afterwards go back to the XviD config. Select 'two pass - 2nd pass' from the 'encoding type' dropdown menue. Now enter '25600' (kbytes = 25 MB) into the field below (target size). Encode.

Voila, a 25 MB result.

[Fragalishus]

thanks for the help.

my guess on #1 is that bigfix deleted some windows file somewhere and the only way to fix it will be reinstall the OS.

i had planned on doing 2-pass anyway for the final edit. so will setting a target file size use a CBR or a VBR? my guess would be CBR in that it assigns so much data per minute of footage in order to meet the target file size, and compresses it accordingly?

[mikeX]

Fragalishus,
2pass encode is VBR, you would know that if you actually read any guides/faqs!
The fact that most of them refer to DVD-ripping & encoding does not mean that the xvid configuration process they describe can only be applied to such cases.
Furthermore, falling back to an older build just because you find a guide explaining how to configure such a build is definately bad practise!
I suggest you take a better look at The Unofficial XviD FAQ (http://www.vslcatena.nl/~ronald/docs/xvidfaq.html)
It describes XviD configuration in great detail and tries to give a thorough explanation of what each and every option does!

On a side note: MPEG-4 (which is the specification XviD and DivX follows) is designed for encoding of real life video content, that's why you have trouble finding CG specific encoding guides! Though i'm really clueless about CG encoding it's possible that there are other codecs out there more suitable for the task (not that XviD should yield bad results anyway)

[Fragalishus]

lol. C17 on that page was the first place i looked when i came to the forums. "im a newbie, what settings do you recommend?"

thanks for the help. it will be a while before i actually start editing the final cut, so ill be learning more until then.

[lordadmira]

Originally posted by Fragalishus
my guess on #1 is that bigfix deleted some windows file somewhere and the only way to fix it will be reinstall the OS.

Actually it blew up the registry entry for the AVI file type. You can go back to a registry backup from before u installed that thing, reinstall windows from scratch, or have a very generous friend come over to fix ur computer. Just reinstalling windows over the top of ur existing install will probably not fix it since a reinstall imports all your old registry settings.

For your encode, with this type of encode u should set a constant quality setting somewhere between 3 - 5. Keep lowering the quantizer slightly until u have acceptable quality. No need for 2-pass or CBR here.