AutoGK: Option to disable B-Frames (required for standalone players)

[Milaa]

Hi!

Could you implement an (hidden) option that forces AutoGK to disable B-Frames for Xvid (and DivX) encoding?

I experience problem to play files encoded with B-Frames on various DivX/Xvid/MPEG4 standalone players!! :-(

So, for a better "compatibility" with all standalone players, I think it should be good to have this option to force to encode with ONLY I and P frames.

THANKS :-)

Milaa_

[len0x]

Originally posted by Milaa
I experience problem to play files encoded with B-Frames on various DivX/Xvid/MPEG4 standalone players!! :-(


please be spesific which players have this issue? I'm yet to discover such a player...

[Milaa]

In fact, I have tried 3 cheap standalone DVD/DivX/Xvid/MPEG-4 players that all had the same problem playing B-frames.

The one that I have at home is the "Qonix DVD 5000". Another one that I tried with exactly the same problems is a player from "Standard", I'll send you more details on Monday about this model and the third one if you are interested.

On all this player, the files containing B-frames can be played but are "jerked".
What is also interesting, is that files with B-frames using the default "packed bitstream" option (in Xvid) are more "jerked" that files encoded without "packed bitstream". But all files are "jerked" and not played "smoothly" and "fluently".

Bye :-)

[len0x]

B-frames are hardly the problem. Are you sure that its not the matrix?

[manono]

Yeah, Milaa, I don't think it's the B-Frames that are the problem. Your standalone must be using the ESS chipset. Try reinstalling AutoGK using the ESS Chipset option/workaround. This will force it to use a different set of matrices more compatible with standalones with the ESS chipset. There aren't any standalones I'm aware of that have problems with single B-Frames (which is what AutoGK uses). Nor does AutoGK use Packed Bitstream (which you found out you shouldn't use).

[ydobon]

Hello, there.

Now that manono mentions it, I've always wanted to know what's the downside of using the "ESS-based standalone players" support (the .ess hidden file).

I guess there must be something or it would simply be the standard matrix, mustn't there?


Regards,

[manono]

Hi-

No downside. ESS standalones don't support Custom Matrices. AutoGK uses HVS_Best and HVS_Better which are Custom Matrices. So for ESS chipset based standalones, the only difference is that you get the more standard MPEG and H.263 Matrices instead. Anyone else that might prefer the Standard Matrices can also install the ESS workaround.

I guess there must be something or it would simply be the standard matrix, mustn't there?

HVS_Best is slightly more compressible than the MPEG Matrix with (maybe) just as good quality. Although I use the HVS series matrices, I don't think you give up anything by using the MPEG/H.263 Matrices.

[Milaa]

Very interesting!!

I'm testing quite "deeply" Xvid with my standalone player.

To do this test, I encode only 2~3 minutes of a movie with different Xvid options. So, I don't use AutoGK for this particular testings, I do the encoding "manually", so I have a full control of all Xvid options!

My question is the following:
What is the Matrix that has to be used, in the Xvid encoder configuration, to produce a file compatible with ESS standalone players?? (and using B-frames)

I tried the "default" MPEG and H.263 quantization matrix, but both produce "jerked" movies. In the Xvid folder, I also unzip the "XviD_Quant_Matrices.zip", but there is no ESS matrix. Which one is the most compatible one?

Thanks for all this interesting information and for your support ;-)

[len0x]

I'd rather you provide us with info about rips done by AutoGK. Are rips made with ESS compatibility option play jerky ?

[manono]

You're probably using Packed Bitstream in your own encodings (it's a default setting). Disable it and see if the jerkiness goes away. Or stick with AutoGK. :)