QMatOp for DVD-RB : QMat Optimization

[Hostile_Monk]

Oh ok, that's understandable. I used the animation flag on some Family Guy DVDs that I owned and felt that the results were significantly better then with it off. Of course the only way to tell would involve gathering a large sample with a wide variation of animation and comparing the results. Anyway, I'll look out for your results with live-action and/or CG when you get around to it, good luck!

[liftruck]

It's a single RAR archive split into 2 peices. YOu need both to extract, and by extracting part1, part2 will be referenced and extracted automatically.

Hello BadServo,

I extract part 1 into folder in DVRB directory and then extract part 2. Part 2 overwrites most everything. Is this the correct way as I cannot get QMAT to work.

I have downloaded the latest java, followed all the directions several times to no avail. Installed rebuilder using the installer. Still no luck.

All I get is "The system cannot find the file specified. Execing cmd-exe/c del /Q. 1 intra \x.x>nul.

Any help would be much appreciated as this is over my head now.

Thanks

Liftruck

[Hostile_Monk]

You extract everything from Part 1 and you should be good to go. Make sure you configure the settings (QMatGUI) and you shouldn't get any errors.

[BadServo]

Yes, also.. there is no reasont oe xtract the files into the DVD-RB folder. instead, make a seperate folder for QMatOp. In addition to the 2 RAR files, you need to download the DVDRebuilderInterface file and place it int eh same folder as the extracted contents of the 2 RARs.

Once this is done, open the QMatOp.ini file and fill int eh path to your DVD-RB working folder.

Start DVD-RB and prepare a disc. Once this is done, run the QMatOPGUI.exe file and set your chosen parameters, then press teh button marked with a green check. A confirmation box will appear, informing you that QMatOp will begin after the prepare stage is finished. Click "OK" and the box will disappear and be replaced by a small Progress bar windows (assuming you have Java properly installed).

Over time the progress bar will move to 100% (although this can take alot of tiem dependeing on your CPU speed and chosen options). At which time, the encoding will begin automatically in DVD-RB is you selected teh AutoEncode option int eh QMatOPGUI interface.

[liftruck]

I have done everything as you said previously and still the file missing errors. Java was installed to the default paths. Went into environmental variables and set path for Java. Nothing works.

Try install of Qmat, Rebuilder and Java on a backup computer with same results. Both computers show "The system cannot find the file specified. Execing cmd-exe/c del /Q. 1 intra \x.x>nul"

Clearly I must have something not configured right. Does the file missing error provide any clues?

[SAPSTAR]

No, at this point, I'm leaving the expirimental animation flag off. I felt this would provide a better evaluation, and also, using that flag limits the range as I understand it. I wanted to run a test with the most extreme settings possible. I intend to run a repeat of this test with a live-action or CG source later in the week.
Hmmm with animations I would highly recommend the usage of the flag, as it's not only a limitation....the way the inter-matrix is calculated is different.

[SAPSTAR]

.... I have read that after encoding, some users get QMatOp to run again at this stage before rebuilding. Is this necessary to get optimal results?...
Nope useless....as QMatOp only optimizes the parameters before the encoding....once everything was encoded....you can start rebuild without having anything else to do.

[SAPSTAR]

I have done everything as you said previously and still the file missing errors. Java was installed to the default paths. Went into environmental variables and set path for Java. Nothing works.

Try install of Qmat, Rebuilder and Java on a backup computer with same results. Both computers show "The system cannot find the file specified. Execing cmd-exe/c del /Q. 1 intra \x.x>nul"

Clearly I must have something not configured right. Does the file missing error provide any clues?
This message is normal but is not an error...just a warning..you must have something else after that !

[MaDxCrEaM]

I have a question. I was looking at some of the pics in the pic directory while qmatop is running. I've noticed that sometimes the pics are screwed up. Not sure if any of you know what the glowing edges effect like in photoshop is, but the picture is really black with wierd outlines of some of the objects, while other pictures are normal like the movie is suppose to be. Just curious if this is normal, or what the problem may be.

Hope you understand. Thanks for any info.

EDIT:

hope this is okay. Here is a sample of a screwed up picture I'm talking about:

http://webpages.charter.net/cybercream/Inter000213.jpg

[SAPSTAR]

@MaDxCrEaM : Perfectly normal as Inter frames are delta frames....difference between succesive frames as the Inter matrix is mainly used for B and P frames......

[MaDxCrEaM]

@MaDxCrEaM : Perfectly normal as Inter frames are delta frames....difference between succesive frames as the Inter matrix is mainly used for B and P frames......

Thanks for fast reply and good news even though it's too technical for me :)

[liftruck]

This message is normal but is not an error...just a warning..you must have something else after that !


SapStar

The error message is continuous as thought it cannot find the files Rebuilder has prepared and the percentage does not register anything but zero.

I have checked all paths many many times. Installed uninstalled reinstalled and the counter stays at 0 %. Any idea on what errors other than the ones mentioned I should look for?

Thanks

[SAPSTAR]

SapStar
....Any idea on what errors other than the ones mentioned I should look for?...
Thanks
Could you send me by PM the exact messages ? (copy and paste)

[MaDxCrEaM]

I am noticing something weird using QMatOP. I've been backing up Greatest american hero Season 2. I've tried using QMatOP on dvd4 and dvd5. Seems everything looks great, but the red is really blocky. Just curious why a certain color would look blocky. The rest of the color spectrum is fine. Any ideas?

Also, just tried playing it in my Philips dvd player, and I see noise in the picture coming in and out. I didn't see the noise in my other player, just the blockyness of the red.

I used HC to encode also.

[SAPSTAR]

@liftruck
Hmmm I received your PM....My only explanation would be the usage of a shortcut or something like that, without specifying the "start in" directory....Try to run directly from the dir where you unrar it, if it's working just adjust your shortcuts properties.....

@MaDxCrEaM
Interesting......did you try without QmatOp ?!? But I wonder why the red color only...I'll have to think about it....

[MaDxCrEaM]

@sapstar yes I did encode with HC without QmatOP and it turned out fine. When I did QmatOP I used range limit to 255 since using HC, tolerance 1, frame split 15. Had quality prec auto, vbr bias auto, autoencode, autobuild checked. I'm curious why on my other dvd player I see so called "noise" come in and out. Could some of the range limits be too high for the dvd player to handle?

I'm pretty newbie-ish when talking about all this stuff. If you need any info, just let me know. I deleted the directory and stuff already, but I could run qmatop on it again and send you any information you would like to look at. Thanks.

[SAPSTAR]

@sapstar yes I did encode with HC without QmatOP and it turned out fine. When I did QmatOP I used range limit to 255 since using HC, tolerance 1, frame split 15. Had quality prec auto, vbr bias auto, autoencode, autobuild checked. .
Bingo !!! The pure MPEG2 specs gives a 8-255 range for matrices, but as some encoders don't support more than 127...I suspect DVD-players are the same....you should try using some lower limits....like 127 !

[MaDxCrEaM]

will do and get back to you sapstar

[liftruck]

I had originally run the program from the directory with the same results. I guess Qmat will not work for me.

[SAPSTAR]

I had originally run the program from the directory with the same results. I guess Qmat will not work for me.Hmm why a software would work and not for others....anyway If you wished to give up that's your choice...LAST HINT: Sometimes long dir names with blank spaces can be sources of pb....as a rule,I'm always using for any tools simple path C:\QMatop and C:\DVDTemp\D2VAVS for example in our case......Something else, did you copy DCTune2.0 in you dir ?!

[alfixdvd]

Hi liftruck

Try to obtain another copy of cmd.exe ( in another PC ) and to replace yours at windows\system32

[MaDxCrEaM]

@sapster Hey, tried using range limit of 127 here is the findings.

The red still seems a little blocky on my dvd player downstairs. The bright red is what looks bad, the darker reds are ok. I'm not sure if you know Greatest american hero series, but his suit he wears you can really tell.

The dvd player upstairs no longer has the so called "Noise" I was seeing, but the bright reds didn't look blocky, just seemed to be really bright, saturated.

I'll try using CCE here today and using QMatOp and see what happens. I'll keep all the output directory of the HC one in case you want to look at any of it.

[liftruck]

anyway If you wished to give up that's your choice...L

I don't want to gvie up but nothing seems to work.

AST HINT: Sometimes long dir names with blank spaces can be sources of pb....as a rule,I'm always using for any tools simple path C:\QMatop and C:\DVDTemp\D2VAVS for example in our case......Something else, did you copy DCTune2.0 in you dir ?!

Changed all paths to as simple as they can be and updated those paths in Rebuilder and QMat.

DCTune2.0 is in the QMat directory on C drive.

I also tried the other suggestion and replaced cmd.exe with one from my laptop. Did not work

Thanks for trying

liftruck

[MaDxCrEaM]

@sapster CCE seemed a little better, but the problem still there. I'll just encode not using QMatOp on this.

[SAPSTAR]

Hi all...I thought you may be interested in knowing I just released my encoder with an improved QMatOp technology built in....
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=672309#post672309

[Carpo]

just checked out a few of the films i did uing qmat and Jawor's 1CD Quantization Matrix and played it on the pc the xbox my laptop and the cheap little dvd player i got from asda (£50) and it players sweet as you like - and looks top notch too :P

[SAPSTAR]

just checked out a few of the films i did uing qmat and Jawor's 1CD Quantization Matrix and played it on the pc the xbox my laptop and the cheap little dvd player i got from asda (£50) and it players sweet as you like - and looks top notch too :P
Good to know ! Did you test AQE ??? I improved the QMatOp built-in feature in comparison with the QMAtOp standalone.......The last version I'm to release is also faster ...and at least as good !

[Carpo]

not yet have been waiting for the little dir issue and speed increase in next rls b4 i test - makes sense - saves me doing an encode and then u rlsing the newer version (as always happens with dvdrb) hehehe :D

[MaDxCrEaM]

QMatOP is hung at 94%. My question is does QMatOP make changes during the running of the program or does it write everything at the end? I just wondering if I can encode it since what it got stuck on is the credits, which I don't care about, so if it updates while it's processing, then I would like to encode now instead of rerunning the whole process. Thanks for any info.

[Carpo]

it makes changes to the ecl as it goes - i had this before but it was because my drive was heavily fragmented - defrag the drive and give it another try

[Insane2986]

can't seem to download the files...

nm, just don't use "save as"

[Insane2986]

can anybody help me?

I'm a huge newbie to dvd encoding, and I'm wondering if there's some way I can compare a DVD encoded using the default DVDRB settings to the same one using QMatOp. Like are there graphs of the differences I can look at? I watch the two dvds and I can't tell any differences between them. For all I know they're exact duplicates! :confused:

[Fishman0919]

can anybody help me?

I'm a huge newbie to dvd encoding, and I'm wondering if there's some way I can compare a DVD encoded using the default DVDRB settings to the same one using QMatOp. Like are there graphs of the differences I can look at? I watch the two dvds and I can't tell any differences between them. For all I know they're exact duplicates! :confused:


Are there graphs... Sorry but no.... If they (the two encodings) look the same to you and you can't see any diff, then you may not need to use QMatOp... most of the time the resulting movie/disc will look better but if you can't see anything diff... why take the extra time to encode. I've probably used QMatOp (a whole bunch of testing) more then anyone and most Disc look better with QMatOp then without but it can take some bit of time to use.
Maybe reserve QMatOp for those hard to encode, real long Discs... Lord of the Rings Trillogy, Star Wars Trillogy....

[Insane2986]

Well, preferably I'd like to use QmatOp for all my encodes. I hate the trial-and-error way of guessing which VBR Bias and Quality Prec values to use. I'd much rather automate the whole process of choosing the best values for each dvd, that way I can let a computer make the decisions rather than my untrained eye. It's just wierd because the DVD I ran QMatOp on is the same size as the one I didn't use it on. It could just be a coincidence, but it's almost as if it had no effect.

Also, can anyone explain the difference between QMatOp and AutoQMatOp to me? I'm not sure which one I should be using.

[Insane2986]

so I just compared the two directories (one from qmatop, and the other without) and both are exactly the same. Does this happen often? I must've done something wrong. Prepare, run QMatOPGUI.exe, click big green check box and wait to finish, then encode/rebuild. Right? Anyone know what I did wrong :confused:


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7403/qmatop7qs.jpg

Thanks for any help

[Fishman0919]

Also, can anyone explain the difference between QMatOp and AutoQMatOp to me? I'm not sure which one I should be using.

Difference between QMatOp and AutoQMatOp, QMatOp is a matrix optimizer that will work with most encoders that works with DVD-RB (CCE SP 2.66 and up, QnEnc and HC Encoder). AutoQMatEnc is it's own encoder that can work in place for CCE SP with a highly tweak QMatOp built in. AutoQMatEnc is in the early stages of development but in some tests I did (again with the tests) AutoQMatEnc looks better then CCE SP at mid to low bitrates (say 3000k and down)

[Fishman0919]

so I just compared the two directories (one from qmatop, and the other without) and both are exactly the same. Does this happen often? I must've done something wrong. Prepare, run QMatOPGUI.exe, click big green check box and wait to finish, then encode/rebuild. Right? Anyone know what I did wrong :confused:


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7403/qmatop7qs.jpg

Thanks for any help

The only files that should be the diff are the .VOB files, they contain the video the rest should be the same.... but if you are getting the same for all files... most likely you are doing something wrong.

[gigah72]

how can i get the same qmat like from autoqmatenc?

[SAPSTAR]

how can i get the same qmat like from autoqmatenc?
You can't....the algorithm was improved in AQE, and I didn't update QMatOp yet...

[SAPSTAR]

so I just compared the two directories (one from qmatop, and the other without) and both are exactly the same. Does this happen often? I must've done something wrong. Prepare, run QMatOPGUI.exe, click big green check box and wait to finish, then encode/rebuild. Right? Anyone know what I did wrong :confused:

Thanks for any help
When you say identical ? Did you compare them byte per byte ?! Because the matrices change the visual quality...not the DVD structure !

[gigah72]

You can't....the algorithm was improved in AQE, and I didn't update QMatOp yet...

is qmatop still an active project from you, or did you drop it in favor of your encoder?
i'd like to use an other encoder, your is far too slow for me.

[Axlemar]

To give you a quick answer, it seems that all planned future development is now into the encoder. It may be slow, but if it turns out to have the highest quality overall than it will be worth it (for me at least)

[alfixdvd]

Hi Sapstar.

Qmatop 0.13b don't work with Rebuilder 1RC2.

It seems the problem is similar with version 0.93.2

When I run Qmatop, while Rebuilder is at Prepare phase, Qmatop start, show the ProgressBar and closes with the next message:


c:\DvdTools\QMatOp>QMatOP.exe
Execing cmd.exe /C .\DVDRBInterface.exe WAITPREPARE "c:\DvdTools\QMatOp\.\WAITDVDRB"
Error : no good ECL found

c:\DvdTools\QMatOp>

[Carpo]

works ok here i used it this morning on xfiles mythology dvd - used with HC - try it with cce 2.6 as i know its more geared towards that format of ecl

[alfixdvd]

@ carpo
With Rebuilder 1.0 and HC 0.15 Qmatop 0.13b at my PC don't works. I don't test with CCE, but surely don't works. I think the problem is again with DvDRbInterface.exe.

It seems the problem is similar that it happened with version 0.93.2. Sapstar released a new version od DVDRBInterface.exe to correct the problem.

Jdobbs surely has changed the button code sent when pressed, and DVDRBInterface.exe don't work again.

The problem is that Qmatop goes directly to Encode phase and the ecl file has a lenght of zero bytres.


With 0.93.2 all's rigth., with CCE and with HC.

[Carpo]

it sometimes plays up but all i do is del the file called waitfordvdrb and then goto the tray (where the clock is) and stop the qmat prog running there and then qmtaop starts working - 9/10 it goes thru without an issue anyway

[alfixdvd]

Hello Sapstar

Qmatop is dead ?

[SAPSTAR]

Hello Sapstar

Qmatop is dead ?
QMatOp is not dead....but I'm working on AQE, and I have no time to work on several projects...I'm working 9-5...I have 3 kids under 6 yo....so I don't have so much freetime !

[alfixdvd]

Hello Sapstar

Bad news.

Best regards.

[Axlemar]

Please just worry about the encoder, which has the potential to be quite awesome. We all appreciate your work.