tremendous
24th March 2005, 01:16
i'm on my way to getting decent xvid files from dvds. i chose GK because i want a good level of control over what i end up with. i followed a few tutorials and have so far ended up empty handed. something different seems to go wrong every time.
an error i get a lot is after the first pass finishes. it says the frame count doesn't match that which is in the settings. after some experimentation i found that the number of frames it has is often correct (sometimes it isn't, god knows what causes that), and the amount which it "should have been" is the number in the "frames" box on the bottom left of the GK screen. i'm not sure if this is where the number is found, but it seems to match. the thing is, i may have loaded in a different .d2v file since i sorted out the first job, so the box will show the number of frames of the last movie in the queue. so i think i have solved the problem i had when i left the thing going all night: it was encoding four episodes off one dvd, and they all screwed up (ended up much too short) except the fourth. (the fourth actually ended up way oversized, but i haven't experimented enough to ask questions about that.)
so what i'm asking here is what's with it finding the wrong number of frames - could it stupidly be basing the number it should have on whichever .d2v was loaded last? and how do i get around this if so?
secondly, i'm confused about the compressibility test. is it just for my information (i do the test and then adjust resolution etc if it turns out it's harder or easier to compress) or is it actually a useful part of encoding? and if so, and i say "now" and it finishes it, where does it save/how does it remember the results? what if i do the encoding later, or this is one of a queue of encoding jobs?
if it's a useful part of encoding is there no way to make it do the check as part of the "job" rather than doing it beforehand? i found that if i tick "use compressibility test" before saving the .avs file, i'll end up with a .avi file in fast forward. i understand what's happened but don't see what i'm meant to do. so what i did in everything i tried out after this is to run the check, then turn the check off and save the .avs and then encoding. seems like a waste of time as i know the resolution and size i'm aiming for regardless of the test (these episodes i'm told all compress roughly equally).
after enough had failed i gave up and got auto GK. i set one episode to encode and it all seemed to be going well and of course something went wrong just before it was going to finish. it stopped without an error, but at 90% or so. said it had finished. it was heading right for the target 350mb as well. the .avi file i got out doesn't play.
here's part of the log:
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Compressibility percentage is: 49.59
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Chosen resolution is: 640x368 ( AR: 1.74 )
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Predicted comptest value is: 49.59
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Running first pass.
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Writing the following script to E:\SMALLVILLE_DISC_1\VIDEO_TS\output\agk_tmp\101_movie.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\UTILIT~1\DVD\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
..... (if you need to see any more of this i'll post it) .....
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
===========================================================
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Duration was: 32 minutes 46 seconds
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Speed was: 36.20 fps.
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Expected quality of first pass size: 50.19
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Running second pass.
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Duration was: 37 minutes 7 seconds
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Speed was: 31.96 fps.
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Job finished.
so it thought it had finished, but it didn't get to the end and the .avi is no good.
i'd prefer to use the proper GK in the end, but i could settle for auto GK.
so after auto GK didn't deliver i spoke to a buddy who said he uses flask. i downloaded that and couldn't even crop the picture how i wanted so i thought sod that. haha
any insight?
thanks very much
edit:
*sigh*... just ripped a 5 minute .vob (the intro chapter to one episode) so i could do some experimenting. everything seemed to go well, but then the final .avi ended up at 65MB when it should have been 42. did the compressibility test and everything. could any of the log/settings files help find out what went wrong here?
then i loaded up the same .avs file, but manually edited the "frames" box on the bottom left of the interface. sure enough - after the first pass i get errors saying it's expecting 1234 frames but horror of horrors it has the correct number. but this time the second pass has gone past the 1234 mark without a problem. produced an .avi of identical (50% too large) size. i just don't understand this.
an error i get a lot is after the first pass finishes. it says the frame count doesn't match that which is in the settings. after some experimentation i found that the number of frames it has is often correct (sometimes it isn't, god knows what causes that), and the amount which it "should have been" is the number in the "frames" box on the bottom left of the GK screen. i'm not sure if this is where the number is found, but it seems to match. the thing is, i may have loaded in a different .d2v file since i sorted out the first job, so the box will show the number of frames of the last movie in the queue. so i think i have solved the problem i had when i left the thing going all night: it was encoding four episodes off one dvd, and they all screwed up (ended up much too short) except the fourth. (the fourth actually ended up way oversized, but i haven't experimented enough to ask questions about that.)
so what i'm asking here is what's with it finding the wrong number of frames - could it stupidly be basing the number it should have on whichever .d2v was loaded last? and how do i get around this if so?
secondly, i'm confused about the compressibility test. is it just for my information (i do the test and then adjust resolution etc if it turns out it's harder or easier to compress) or is it actually a useful part of encoding? and if so, and i say "now" and it finishes it, where does it save/how does it remember the results? what if i do the encoding later, or this is one of a queue of encoding jobs?
if it's a useful part of encoding is there no way to make it do the check as part of the "job" rather than doing it beforehand? i found that if i tick "use compressibility test" before saving the .avs file, i'll end up with a .avi file in fast forward. i understand what's happened but don't see what i'm meant to do. so what i did in everything i tried out after this is to run the check, then turn the check off and save the .avs and then encoding. seems like a waste of time as i know the resolution and size i'm aiming for regardless of the test (these episodes i'm told all compress roughly equally).
after enough had failed i gave up and got auto GK. i set one episode to encode and it all seemed to be going well and of course something went wrong just before it was going to finish. it stopped without an error, but at 90% or so. said it had finished. it was heading right for the target 350mb as well. the .avi file i got out doesn't play.
here's part of the log:
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Compressibility percentage is: 49.59
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Chosen resolution is: 640x368 ( AR: 1.74 )
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Predicted comptest value is: 49.59
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Running first pass.
[16/03/05 19:08:10] Writing the following script to E:\SMALLVILLE_DISC_1\VIDEO_TS\output\agk_tmp\101_movie.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\UTILIT~1\DVD\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
..... (if you need to see any more of this i'll post it) .....
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
===========================================================
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Duration was: 32 minutes 46 seconds
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Speed was: 36.20 fps.
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Expected quality of first pass size: 50.19
[16/03/05 19:40:56] Running second pass.
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Duration was: 37 minutes 7 seconds
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Speed was: 31.96 fps.
[16/03/05 20:18:04] Job finished.
so it thought it had finished, but it didn't get to the end and the .avi is no good.
i'd prefer to use the proper GK in the end, but i could settle for auto GK.
so after auto GK didn't deliver i spoke to a buddy who said he uses flask. i downloaded that and couldn't even crop the picture how i wanted so i thought sod that. haha
any insight?
thanks very much
edit:
*sigh*... just ripped a 5 minute .vob (the intro chapter to one episode) so i could do some experimenting. everything seemed to go well, but then the final .avi ended up at 65MB when it should have been 42. did the compressibility test and everything. could any of the log/settings files help find out what went wrong here?
then i loaded up the same .avs file, but manually edited the "frames" box on the bottom left of the interface. sure enough - after the first pass i get errors saying it's expecting 1234 frames but horror of horrors it has the correct number. but this time the second pass has gone past the 1234 mark without a problem. produced an .avi of identical (50% too large) size. i just don't understand this.