Who wants to test a new MPEG2 encoder [Archive] - Page 3

manolito

7th February 2005, 17:39

@Hank315
It is probably too late for the upcoming GUI version, but for later versions I have two suggestions:

1. Could you add a parameter *PRIORITY LOW|NORMAL|HIGH to HC.ini? I use HC mainly together with DVD2SVCD and DVD Rebuilder, and especially with DVD Rebuilder (which starts the encoder many times) it would be very nice to not always have to set the priority to LOW manually.

2. It seems that for my "famous" 1 CD ultra low bitrate SVCD encodes (BR 800 and lower) HC's bitrate distribution favors high motion areas too much over simple scenes. In CCE there are two parameters (Bias and QC) that let the user control if relatively more bits are allocated to complicated scenes or to flat scenes.
Would it be possible to tweak this bitrate distribution strategy in HC by adding some parameter?

Cheers
manolito

hank315

7th February 2005, 18:42

@manolito
The GUI version sets the threads priority below normal, in the next version the user will be able to set it.
About your second point, I will do a complete workover of the bitrate distribution, there are more issues to solve ;)

@Mug Funky
perhaps it'd be useful for HC to keep track of VBV-induced bitrate reduction and allow the average to increase slightly to compensate (it probably does this already).It already does it but for short clips it needs a more agressive approach.

@Amnon
Didn't looked at your second test, no time, had to work today... Will do this evening.
BTW. read your last mail, think it's a good idea, will mail you.

@Lithoc
Also noticed that for short clips file size is too short, especially with a high average bitrate.
For a complete movie it will do a better job but after working on the bitrate distribution this can be solved for short clips also.

Amnon82

7th February 2005, 19:48

@dragongodz: Oh yeah I also want to see a spiky Manga.
Maybe he converts his manga-comics to an anime. Thats why it is spiky ;)

@Hank: Waiting for your mail :D My email is changed. I wrote You a new mail.

hank315

7th February 2005, 20:31

Just put the HC GUI version online.

Get it at http://hank315.dyndns.org/HC_0.1.zip

This is the first time I did such a GUI-thing, so please have mercy on me :)

Guest

7th February 2005, 20:46

It either hangs on file load or crashes when I start to encode.

EDIT: Could it be because my AVS already has DGDecode loaded to use MPEG2SOURCE()?

hank315

7th February 2005, 20:59

It either hangs on file load or crashes when I start to encode.Tested it on 3 different PC's with different sources :confused:

Basically the input method hasn't changed from the previous version.
EDIT: Used your dgindex/dgdecode version 1.0.12, are there incompatibilities with older/newer versions?

Is there anybody else who has this error?

Amnon82

7th February 2005, 21:40

Here my test-result of version 0.1

GUI: all functions working (preview of course not ;))
AVS: I had no problems to import my AVS-Scripts
Speed: On my machine the encode is now faster. In Version 0.01 it tooks 122.7 s and in 0.1 it tooks 88 s for the same source I used for the Encodertest#2.
Quality: The Quality of HC 0.1 is much better than the previous version. Great job hank :D!
INI-Files: I missed the INI-File and Batch-Option. I hope it come back in the next version.
1Pass: I didn't tested the 1 Pass CQ-Mode. I think this mode needs more time.
Bugs: The X-Button is not working. The only way to end HC is with the Exit-Button or the taskmanager. But for Your first GUI it is ok ;)

@Hank: I wrote you a email. We have work to do :p
@neuron2: Can You post Your AVS-Script? My Scripts are working. I'm using Your newest RC2 Version of DGIndex.

Doom9

7th February 2005, 22:09

Krismen

7th February 2005, 22:30

hank315

7th February 2005, 22:31

Is it just me or is neither the X button nor Alt-F4 and the corresponding clicks (click on upper left icon, then close) active? I had to go to the task manager and kill the process to exit (I didn't do any encoding so far).No it's not just you, I also noticed it just before putting it online.

Decided to put it online with this flaw (the exit button really works :) ) just to see if the logic behind all the buttons is working properly.

But I already added this one to my ToDo list (hope it won't to get too long:) )

Amnon82

7th February 2005, 22:44

@Hank: I think You know this link already: Fortran-Tools (http://www.fortran.com/tools.html)
This might be interesting for You, also: Fortran Interface Wizard (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89618)

manolito

8th February 2005, 01:26

Originally posted by Amnon82

INI-Files: I missed the INI-File and Batch-Option. I hope it come back in the next version.

I strongly second that!

Cheers
manolito

Candock

8th February 2005, 02:18

For Linux you could additionally try the free, unsupported, non-commercial Fortran90 Compiler from Intel.
http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/flin/noncom.htm

It compiled all my Fortran95 stuff with just minimal problems (my syntax was a little bit sluggish).

Guest

8th February 2005, 02:54

I must have had mismatched DGIndex and DGDecode. Imagine that!

Here's my newbie question. How do I set how many passes are made?

Guest

8th February 2005, 03:11

When I hit stop the encoded M2V file had size 0! Can't you close the file properly so I can do a quick test on the first part of a large file? All other encoders do that, even VDub does it for AVIs. Thank you.

dragongodz

8th February 2005, 03:56

When I hit stop the encoded M2V file had size 0!
just tested stopping part way through second pass and also CQ mode. both produced part files that are playable.

stopping in first pass(of 2 pass encoding) i would expect a 0 size file because its the stats pass and not producing any video.

hank315 - its a bit of a pain to have to close the gui and run it again just to do another encode etc. be nice when thats fixed. :)

FredThompson

8th February 2005, 04:29

This forum needs some kind of hit rating. Seems I can't read new posts before my inbox tells me there's more on this thread :)

Guest

8th February 2005, 04:39

Originally posted by dragongodz
stopping in first pass(of 2 pass encoding) i would expect a 0 size file because its the stats pass and not producing any video. OK, that was it. So, I ask again...how do you set how many passes are done?

dragongodz

8th February 2005, 05:28

how do you set how many passes are done?
CQ selected = 1 pass encoding
CQ unselected = 2 pass encoding.

thats all HC supports at the moment.

dream-lx

8th February 2005, 06:39

Really good mpeg2 encoder. If you could add support for HD resolutions and profiles, it would be perfect.

buzzqw

8th February 2005, 08:49

Could be possible to view in gui, during second pass, the low/average/high and current bitrate of encode ?

BHH

freelock7

8th February 2005, 09:26

@Hank
HC is working in Yuy2 color space or directly -like QuEnc- in Yv12
-You didn't mention it?

Ebobtron

8th February 2005, 13:55

Originally posted by freelock7
@Hank
HC is working in Yuy2 color space or directly -like QuEnc- in Yv12
-You didn't mention it?
I'm not Hank but from the documentation ver Beta 0.01

-----------------
Input can be a d2v project or input using Avisynth. HC expects as input YUV-planes (YV12 color space 4:2:0). During the encoding process there are no color plane conversions, the encoder keeps the color planes in YV12 color space.
-----------------

gigaset2004

8th February 2005, 14:29

@ hank
@Amnon82

I did some more tests with the new version in bitrate range of 1000.

The result is not so nice at the - best - encoding setting.

I have noticed that if there are a lot of movements in the pictures it becomes blocky around the movement.

I like to explain it a little more :

If there is a scene with one person an a static backround and the person move in the front so the area around the persons movement is blocky and the rest is less blocky.

Quenc - is more smooth in these scenes.

Question :

Could it possible that HC needs a more agressive Matrix like the `99 er from CCE or anything like that ?

Maybe Amnon82 could do more tests to get rid of these probs ?

Amnon82

8th February 2005, 15:23

@gigaset2004: I'm on it. 1000 I didn't test yet.
@hank: I wrote You a answer-mail. I hope we will communicate easier, soon ;)

Just finished my new GUI!

Download HCEnc 0.01 (http://www.brckomania.net/HCGUI/files/HCEnc001.rar)

Screenshots:

http://www.brckomania.net/HCGUI/img/HCENC1.png
http://www.brckomania.net/HCGUI/img/HCENC2.png
http://www.brckomania.net/HCGUI/img/HCENC3.png
http://www.brckomania.net/HCGUI/img/HCENC4.png

Features of the GUI:

*Very small and easy to use
*Reloads the settings of the last run
*Uses HCEnc 0.01 (Till now I don't have a newer commandline-version of HC)

I hope everybody likes it more than my last build.

Mug Funky

8th February 2005, 17:59

could possibly make a feature request? forced keyframes would be good for placing chapter points in precise places.

i've got a project ready to roll out of premiere (god, i hate that program, but it's all i've got for now) via pluginpac frameserver, but the problem is that if i make too many random accesses it'll just serve black frames, which is a huge waste of time as you could imagine. this is what's stopping me from making several HC.ini files with different begin and end points (or doing the same thing through avs).

a format like:

*FORCEIFRAME 2050 7800 9000 etc

or

*CHAPTER n1 n2 n3 etc

would be cool.

btw, i haven't tried the GUI yet... i probably should :)

[edit]

@ Amnon82:

by "spiky" i meant a clip that has moments of great complexity, hence large spikes in bitrate... doesn't matter, as hank's already answered my question :)

dream-lx

8th February 2005, 19:01

hank:

I have also noticed that CBR encoding is currently not supported, which would be very usefull.

So my personal whishlist:

1. CBR encoding
2. High Definition support (Main Profile at High level)
3. HDV compliant mpeg2 export (well I think this is not urgent at all)
4. A paypal account, so that we can donate you for your work (very urgent) :-)

robot1

8th February 2005, 20:19

@hank
I've tried your encoder for the first time today, and it did a very good job (4000 kbits/s)
I had already done the same encoding with CCE, and results were very similar.
Just a notice: I think in a couple of faster scenes HC had a bit of "grain", where CCE was cleaner (your default matrix used). In low motion scenes probably it was the opposite (less mosquito noise than CCE)
Anyway, for a 0.1 it's really really great.
Keep up the good work.

Amnon82

8th February 2005, 20:37

@Mug Funky: Chapterssupport will come in a version. When? When it's done ;)

Originally posted by hank315
@Amnon82: I was wrong when I told you I hated GUI programming, I even start to like it, actually it's great fun;)
About the chapters, I tried that in previous versions but could not get it to work properly but it is certainly something worth to be implemented.

hank315

9th February 2005, 00:48

Hi all,

Read all posts and saw all the options people wanted.
ATM I'm working on the GUI to resolve the reported errors, after that the bitrate distribution will be optimized which still has some flaws.
About the wanted options, some can be implemented easily, some will require a lot of work...

NOTE1: the encoding engine from this GUI version is still the same as the "old" 0.01 release.
NOTE2: I noticed that scanning the database for a restart takes a long time. This is caused by a call to a "sleep" function which I used to test the thing but forgot to remove. Scanning will now be 2-3 minutes longer for a 2 hour movie because of this. For the moment you have to live with it ;)

FredThompson

9th February 2005, 01:40

@Amnon82,

Good to see you have a well rounded avatar.

Amnon82

9th February 2005, 01:42

It's my girlfriend ... just kidding ...

leviat

10th February 2005, 04:52

I tried downloading the latest GUI version of HC but everytime I attempt to load an AVS script the program dies with a typical Windows death message. I tried using the HCenc GUI but again, HC appears to die almost immediately after the DOS window pops up. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to collect information?

My system:

AMB Athlon 64
Windows XP MCE (SP2)
Latest version of AviSynth2

Great work on the encoder,
Jason

PS - I'm a linux user so my Windows skills aren't the best, but I'll certainly try. :)

EDIT: Nevermind! I figured out my problem. After messing around with AviSynth for awhile I managed to discover I was using AviSynth2 instead of AviSynth25. After fixing that the problem went away. My guess is that HC was expecting a YV12 source and went it didn't find it, it got confused and crashed. You may want to try and add some error checking for that if possible :).

dragongodz

10th February 2005, 06:18

It's my girlfriend ..
you wish mate... you wish. :D

whoever she is she is much easier on the eye than your old avatar. ;)

hank315 - any news on what you are working on or problems etc would be interesting to some of us.

yaz

10th February 2005, 12:27

Originally posted by Amnon82
It's my girlfriend ... uhum ... address ... phonenumber .... whatever ? c'mon, don't lemme hangin' :-)))
the bests
y

Amnon82

10th February 2005, 16:13

@yaz: U got PM ;)

... but I think we are now a 'LITTLEBIT' offtopic ...

unixfs

10th February 2005, 19:39

Hank315,
is there any advantage at using a non-linear quantization function w.r.t to a linear one, that libavcodec uses?

Is it indicated for low-bitrate encodes or does it work better at high
bitrate?

Thanks.

hank315

10th February 2005, 21:26

hank315 - any news on what you are working on or problems etc would be interesting to some of us.ATM I'm working on problems with the GUI which are reported here and implementing the preview option. Also some cosmetic changes will be done in the encoding statistics window. Will be ready in 1 - 2 weeks (sometimes I even have to work and sleep :) )
is there any advantage at using a non-linear quantization function w.r.t to a linear one, that libavcodec uses?No not really, with a non-linear scale you have a little bit more control over the real quantisation values.
Relation between linear - non-linear Q:

quantiser_scale_code Q linear Q non-linear
0 forbidden
1 2 1
2 4 2
3 6 3
4 8 4
5 10 5
.. .. ..
.. .. ..
31 62 112
@Amnon
Your GUI really looks nice but your girlfriend even better :)
Will mail you tomorrow...

FredThompson

10th February 2005, 22:03

@Amnon,

Mail me your first girlfriend TODAY! You're obviously tired of her and I have a spare bedroom...

Amnon82

10th February 2005, 23:36

So this was it. I change the avatar ...

@Hank: Sorry ... ;)

dragongodz

11th February 2005, 01:31

Will be ready in 1 - 2 weeks (sometimes I even have to work and sleep ;) )
yep no probs. just curious what was next on your list of todo's. :)

yaz

11th February 2005, 12:42

@hank
all walking in the same (tight) shoes :)

@ammon
put that beauty back ! not 'asap' or sg but NOW ! or i will never ever ... (what a guy ... really) anyway, fred's chix are really hot too :)

the bests (and good dreaming :) )
y

Amnon82

12th February 2005, 21:49

@dragongodz: I sent You a PM. So know more about the project. Please send me a reply as soon as You readed it.

dream-lx

13th February 2005, 08:18

Amnon78: wouldn't it be possible to post this information on the project public ? As I think almost everyone reading this thread is interested about the future of HC ?

dragongodz

13th February 2005, 11:30

dream-lx - 2 things.

1. its Amnon82, not 78. :)
2. the stuff Amnon82 PM'd me about is programming stuff. not actually something most people will understand or be interested in. i am sure hank315 will post when there is actually more to say.

Amnon82

13th February 2005, 15:26

I posted dragongodz some codes. I only posted the last post here to get dragongodz attention. And yes I know a littlebit more than dragongodz about the project, cos I'm one of the betatester of this program. Till now there is no new news for the public. I can't post things from our internal talking, cos I wouldn't be fear.

Hank is here the boss and if he gives me a go I'll post it. Thats the only way I'll do it. So everybody can stop now the begging for new news.
If there are public news, everybody can read them here.

Paazabel

14th February 2005, 03:56

Newb question (maybe):

I am working on a wide variety of NTSC captured stuff. I love that HC takes the .avs file and I don't have to RGB and back through VirtualDub.

Anyway, some of the stuff is TFF (top field first) and some is BFF. If it's TFF, no problem, it encodes, muxes together with "muxman" just fine, and plays perfectly on the DVD. If the source is BFF, it seems to get field reversed (you know, video dyslexia).

Does HC expect TFF clips?

Amnon82

14th February 2005, 22:17

@Paazabel: I think till now no. Hank has PAL-Sources, so most of his DVDs are progressiv. In one post he told, that he will fix it soon.

@All: A little update. In maybe one week there will be the next release of HC.