MeGUI - x264/XviD/lavc/Snow encoder with MP4/MKV/AVI output & audio

[Doom9]

however in mkvmerge gui i have to select the .idx and it works perfectlyand there's no option to select a .sub file?

[locke86]

and there's no option to select a .sub file?
selection of the sub files is done in a dialog where you can browse for media files

i cant select a .sub file with 'all supported media files' in the dropdown menu for file types but if i switch to 'all files' it is possible to select a .sub

i havent tried if it works though.. all i know is that .sub muxing in megui doesnt work right and if i select .idx in mkvtoolnix it works fine

[Doom9]

i havent tried if it works though.Could you give it a shot please?

[dbzgundam]

I'm having a problem it seems, with MeGUI... Originally I thought it was a .NET problem

http://x1.putfile.com/10/27420491042.gif

Any causes, solutions?

[berrinam]

Not much information, dbzgundam. Perhaps you are running .NET 2? Otherwise, please explain when and how you get this error (eg, when you start the program, or when you press encode, etc).

[dbzgundam]

Not much information, dbzgundam. Perhaps you are running .NET 2? Otherwise, please explain when and how you get this error (eg, when you start the program, or when you press encode, etc).

Ahh, sorry.

No... I simply have to execute the program. >> And, no, I have 1.1. In fact, I reinstalled it (twice) to make sure, but no-go.

[movax]

Sorry for the obvious question, but any recent system changes/program installation?

[locke86]

i tried out muxing .sub into .mkv and this is what i got

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/739/error8ir.th.gif (http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=error8ir.gif)

[dimzon]

Seems like MeGUI trying to read "jobs" folder from current directory (not executable directory)

[Doom9]

@locke86: thanks for testing. I suppose the fix will be to simply disallow .sub input and enable .idx subtitle input instead. I'll put that into the next build but I have no release date yet as I'm completely restructuring the dgindex part to allow queueing of multiple one click jobs.

[dbzgundam]

Sorry for the obvious question, but any recent system changes/program installation?

Reinstallation of drivers for my mobo, GPU, LAN, and Sound (LAN and Sound are onboard if that matters)... Never caused me a problem before.

[Doom9]

Seems like MeGUI trying to read "jobs" folder from current directory (not executable directory)Well, according to the .NET class library, Environment.CurrentDirectory points to the directory where the process was started from. So, as far as the megui.exe process is concerned, that's the program directory.

[stax76]

Well, according to the .NET class library, Environment.CurrentDirectory points to the directory where the process was started from. So, as far as the megui.exe process is concerned, that's the program directory.

IMHO working dir can get you easily into trouble, I always try not to work with it. In fact I've never used it, couldn't even remember this property though I'm confident once I came across.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemWindowsFormsApplicationClassStartupPathTopic.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemEnvironmentClassCurrentDirectoryTopic.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwindowsformsapplicationclassexecutablepathtopic.asp

[Doom9]

well, I'm only reading, not writing, and so far I have yet to see any evidence that it would cause any problems. After all, I'm reading this when generating the main class so I have a hard time anybody could change this, and even if it could be changed, at the point where I make note of it. Loading, saving and deleting is all based on my stored string, not getting the directory from the property again.

[FSB-SPY]

Okay, just went through 24+ pages of posts in hopes of making it fully clear on how to use this, to no avail...

lol (meaning, please don't scream or post little smiley faces that hold up the sign "SEARCH!")

1. Downloaded latest 315 build of x264
2. Downloaded AviSynth
3. Downloaded DGIndex
4. Downloaded MP4Box
5. Placed all into same directory
6. Write a totally basic AVS loading script off a created d2v project file:

# PLUGINS
LoadPlugin("F:\Apps\x264\DGDecode.dll")
# SOURCE
mpeg2source("F:\here\driven.d2v")

7. I can do everything (set-up codec, matrices, etc), but the pulldown box for Video Profile is empty, and I am guessing this is the problem. Hitting queue and then starting the job does nothing, it does not go anywhere obviously.

P.S. Someone posted a nice screen of the crop by pixel, etc options screen, I have no idea how to get there... but I am assuming this is the next step that I am failing to achieve. :P

P.P.S. Don't attack me too hard! :P

[stax76]

well, I'm only reading, not writing, and so far I have yet to see any evidence that it would cause any problems. After all, I'm reading this when generating the main class so I have a hard time anybody could change this, and even if it could be changed, at the point where I make note of it. Loading, saving and deleting is all based on my stored string, not getting the directory from the property again.

it's easily possible to launch the process in a working dir different from the startup dir e.g. from a shortcut or some other shell methods, some users have a real talent to screw things up ;)

[Doom9]

well.. I tried the shortcut but the jobs were still being loaded. Obviously it's easy to change but before I do, I really want to know in which situation the CurrentDirectory doesn't do its job.

but the pulldown box for Video Profile is empty,That's normal.. you need to go into the codec configuration, type a profile name and press the new button to create a profile.. But you can encode without a profile. Which queue button did you press? the one in the main GUI, Input tab in the video section? And there must be some entries in the log regardless of whether the job starts or not as the first thing is done before encoding starts is dumping the commandline used to the log, so where is your log?

Also, for cropping you don't need an AviSynth script.. you need to launch the AviSynth script creator, load your d2v file and do all the cropping and resizing and save the script file. This also requires your dgdecode.dll in the AviSynth plugin path as the readme states.

[Sharktooth]

@Doom9: Since i have really no time, could you please post the MeGUI-x264 2.2.6 binaries too?

[Doom9]

I will.. I basically got in the door this morning, had to answer a few voicemails and had a meeting right away so I only managed to post the full version. Now I'm at home with the flu :(

[Sharktooth]

Damn flu... sorry to bother you:(

[FSB-SPY]

@Doom9:

Alright! Now I see where the innitial confusion came from. I had previously been only using the x264 build of MeGUI, so it's no wonder I did not know where the AviSynth Script Creator was, etc. ;)

So here is my run-down with MeGUI 0.2.2.6:

I wanted to keep it really simple, and not even resize the video (from standard 720x480). Just crop the blackbars. So I check the "Crop" box, and un-grey the four field boxes of how many pixels I wish to crop vertically and horizontally. But, as soon as I try to change a value from 0, it gives me an error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.


Hitting AutoCrop, produces the same exact error.

So, I thought, ok... a bug for the time being. I can crop manually, via the AviSynth command Crop, right?

I had come up with a simple script line to get rid of the black bars manually: "Crop(0, 58, 0, -64)"

Hitting preview verifies it looks right, and I can see the video playing back just fine. So I hit Save, name the file and presto, I finally have made progress and have my AVS script ready to go. Time to encode!

Load my AviSynth Script, Video Output defined as an MP4 file, and then hit the Queue button. Click the Queue tab, and then hit Start. Nothing is happening... it is not processing any frames. :(


Next job job1-1 is a video job. encoder commandline:
"x264.exe" --pass 1 --bitrate 700 --stats "G:\Movies\Ripz\Ripz.Driven\preview.stats" --subme 6 --analyse all --8x8dct --progress --no-psnr --output NUL "G:\Movies\Ripz\Ripz.Driven\preview.avs"
successfully set up video encoder and callbacks for job job1-1
Job aborted, deleting output file...Deletion failed.


I even tried to use the most simple AVS, just the one that loads the d2v file and nothing else. Same result.

For the codec settings, I have all the macroblocks options checked, automatic 2-pass, and 6-RDO selected. I wanted the best possible quality, and did not care about encoding speed.

Any ideas? I feel so close, yet so far away. ;)

[kurt]

@FSB-SPY: did you set x264 as encoder? and place the x264.exe in the MeGUI-Folder?

[FSB-SPY]

Yep! They're all in the same folder... here's a picture, just in case:

[dimzon]

just a little suggestion for automatic huffyuv encoding support for slow avs scripts.

the idea is to automate such 3-pass encoding process
1 pass - encode provided AVS to HUFFYUV using mencoder
2 pass - first x264 pass using encoded losless video as input
3 pass - second x264 pass using encoded losless video as input
e.t.c.

[Doom9]

So I check the "Crop" box, and un-grey the four field boxes of how many pixels I wish to crop vertically and horizontally. But, as soon as I try to change a value from 0, it gives me an error:Did you load your d2v file and do you have a properly working preview of the video? the only reason I can imagine for you getting that error is that the script wasn't properly loaded.. then the image you're trying to crop is null and you get that error.

As far as encoding goes, the only way a statusupdate has the aborted flag set is if somebody presses the abort button. So I figure after waiting you pressed abort. Now your settings.. starts with the default values please.. always backtrack to something known to be working. Also, just in case configure the path to x264.exe (I don't know how you launch megui.. stax mentioned users can mess up paths and so perhaps x264 is actually not found for some wicked reason). Then go to the commandline and run that commandline and see if something happens.

@dimzon: and what about the 80 or so gigs that takes?

[fight2win]

can i use fielddeinterlace(full=false) in my avs script for use with x264 encoding?

[dbzgundam]

Still no luck with MeGUI over here... :(

I've done numerous uninstalls/reinstalls of the .NET Framework 1.1 but still nothing...

[fight2win]

dbzgundam, just use nero 7/recode, it has got awesome avc quality, no .net required, pm me for more details!

and yeah, why the friggin' hell no one answers my questions, are not not senseful mucho?

[stax76]

I've seen such weird dbzgundam screenshots from many DVX users over the years, that kind of stuff is hard to track. I would suspect it's related to how the application is launched and where it is located (network etc. cause such errors). Good look, if it cannot be solved I'll dig up my forum for those old topics regarding such issues.

[dbzgundam]

dbzgundam, just use nero 7/recode, it has got awesome avc quality, no .net required, pm me for more details!

and yeah, why the friggin' hell no one answers my questions, are not not senseful mucho?

Not all of us have money right now. :(

[haubrija]

Doom9,

I'm having an issue with encoding my HD caputres to Xvid using MeGui... First, here's my log:

Generating jobs. Desired size: 2398131200 bytes
Encoded audio file is present: D:\capture.ac3 It has a size of 116818944 bytes.
No audio encoding. Calculating desired video bitrate directly.
Setting video bitrate for the video jobs to 7498 kbit/s
Setting desired size of video to -2013655040 bytes
Next job job1-1 is a video job. encoder commandline:
"C:\MP4 Encoding\Mplayer\mencoder.exe" "D:\1.avs" -ovc xvid -o NUL: -passlogfile "2pass.log" -xvidencopts pass=1:bitrate=7498:max_key_interval=300:vhq=4:qpel:chroma_me:quant_type=mpeg:par=ntsc169:trellis:keyframe_boost=100:kfthreshold=1:kfreduction=20:overflow_control_strength=20:max_overflow_improvement=20:max_overflow_degradation=20
successfully set up video encoder and callbacks for job job1-1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log for job job1-1

xvid: bitrate setting is ignored during first pass

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
job job1-1 has been processed. This job is linked to the next job: job1-2
Next job job1-2 is a video job. encoder commandline:
"C:\MP4 Encoding\Mplayer\mencoder.exe" "D:\1.avs" -ovc xvid -passlogfile "2pass.log" -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=7498:max_key_interval=300:vhq=4:qpel:chroma_me:quant_type=mpeg:par=ntsc169:trellis:keyframe_boost=100:kfthreshold=1:kfreduction=20:overflow_control_strength=20:max_overflow_improvement=20:max_overflow_degradation=20 -o "D:\1.avi" -of avi -ffourcc XVID
successfully set up video encoder and callbacks for job job1-2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log for job job1-2

desired video bitrate of this job: 7498 kbit/s - obtained video bitrate: 6251.28895217316 kbit/s
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
job job1-2 has been processed. This job is linked to the next job: job1-3
Next job job1-3 is a mux job. mp4box commandline:
"C:\MP4 Encoding\Mplayer\mencoder.exe" "D:\1.avi" -ovc copy -oac copy -audiofile "D:\capture.ac3" -mc 0 -noskip -o "D:\\1-muxed.avi"
successfully set up muxer and callbacks for job job1-3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log for job job1-3

MEncoder dev-CVS-050813-01:18-3.4.4 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

86 audio & 201 video codecs
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x715a4032
AVI file format detected.
AVI: ODML: Building odml index (1 superindexchunks)
AVI_NI: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO: [XVID] 1280x720 12bpp 23.976 fps 6246.5 kbps (762.5 kbyte/s)
VIDEO: [XVID] 1280x720 12bpp 23.976 fps 6246.5 kbps (762.5 kbyte/s)
libavformat file format detected.
[V] filefmt:65536 fourcc:0x44495658 size:1280x720 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
videocodec: framecopy (1280x720 12bpp fourcc=44495658)
Building audio filter chain for 0Hz/0ch/s16le -> 0Hz/0ch/??...
audiocodec: framecopy (format=2000 chans=0 rate=0 bits=0 bps=0 sample-0)
Writing AVI header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
File not found: 'frameno.avi'
Failed to open frameno.avi

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Just to give u my exact procedure.

1. Capture .ts stream using MyHD.
2. Cut commercials using HDTV2MPEG2 and save back to .ts.
3. Demux .ts through Projectx.
4. Index using DGIndex 1.21.
5. Create Avisynth Script using MeGui... Script below

mpeg2source("D:\1.d2v")
SelectEven()
Decimate(cycle=5)

6. Load avs into MeGui for Automated 2pass with Turbo Checked, 2 bframes, Qpel, Overflows set to 20, VHQ 4, VHQ for B Checked, Chroma Motion, Closed GOP.

7. Hit Auto Encode, setting my desired bitrate manually. Check add audio stream and then add the ac3 that ProjectX created.

8. Go to Jobs and Start.

Now the 1st and 2nd Pass seem to go fine. But it crashes at the mux stage. When I open up the resulting .avi that MeGui had created in VirtualdubMod, I get Video Read Errors and no frames are displayed.

I've done dvd encodes using Xvid in MeGui with no problem. But I've tried two HD encodes with the same result. Is there a flaw in my procedure or did I uncover a bug? Thanks for any help.

btw... using MeGui 0.2.2.4... haven't gotten around to upgrading yet but it doesn't seem as if you've changed anything that would affect my problem.

[berrinam]

"D:\\1-muxed.avi"
From your log, it seems that this filename was suggested by the AutoEncode window. It isn't valid, and I'm guessing that that is what caused the problems. It seems that this illegal file is being suggested when the folder it is in is the root directory. You have two options for a temporary fix:
-override the output MeGUI suggests when you press AutoEncode, or
-don't encode in a root directory.

The bug should hopefully be fixed next version.

[haubrija]

From your log, it seems that this filename was suggested by the AutoEncode window. It isn't valid, and I'm guessing that that is what caused the problems. It seems that this illegal file is being suggested when the folder it is in is the root directory. You have two options for a temporary fix:
-override the output MeGUI suggests when you press AutoEncode, or
-don't encode in a root directory.

The bug should hopefully be fixed next version.

Thanks for the reply berrinam. But, if I understand you correctly, that the reason MeGui hung upon mux. However, shouldn't the video file (without the audio obviously) that MeGui encoded still be valid? why would it have all the video errors? Upon opening the file in Zoomplayer, the video just sits there at 0:00 and never moves. And like I said above, opening the file in Virtualdubmod just leads to video decode errors. Are these problems two different things or one in the same?

The main reason I ask is because, I'll run my encode again, but like I said its an HD file and I don't want to occupy my computer for 18hours if I don't have to :)

[berrinam]

Thanks for the reply berrinam. But, if I understand you correctly, that the reason MeGui hung upon mux. However, shouldn't the video file (without the audio obviously) that MeGui encoded still be valid?
Sorry, I didn't realise that the video file was also invalid. I don't know what the problem there is. From what you said in your previous post, MeGUI claims to be fine after the 2nd pass. The log doesn't indicate any failure either, so I'm not sure what is going on. Perhaps you should cut a few minute sample from your video and try re-encoding with that, to see whether it works or not.

[berrinam]

Setting desired size of video to -2013655040 bytes

There also seems to be something up with this, but according to log it didn't affect anything else.

[haubrija]

Just wanted to report back on some further testing.

I ran ProjectX on the source again, but only processed 17 second of the file. Created my .d2v on the file and set up the same script as outline above. Added my audio stream also as outlined above and started my queue. I followed Berrinam's advice and saved the output to a different directory.

This time the video output came out clean so Berrinam's quick workaround seems to have solved that problem. However, the muxing stage still did not work. Here's the log for that part of the job.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
job job1-2 has been processed. This job is linked to the next job: job1-3
Next job job1-3 is a mux job. mp4box commandline:
"C:\MP4 Encoding\Mplayer\mencoder.exe" "D:\Test\video.avi" -ovc copy -oac copy -audiofile "D:\capture.ac3" -mc 0 -noskip -o "D:\debug.avi"
successfully set up muxer and callbacks for job job1-3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log for job job1-3

MEncoder dev-CVS-050813-01:18-3.4.4 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

86 audio & 201 video codecs
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0xfa078a
AVI file format detected.
AVI_NI: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO: [XVID] 1280x720 12bpp 23.976 fps 7476.6 kbps (912.7 kbyte/s)
VIDEO: [XVID] 1280x720 12bpp 23.976 fps 7476.6 kbps (912.7 kbyte/s)
libavformat file format detected.
libavformat file format detected.
[V] filefmt:3 fourcc:0x44495658 size:1280x720 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
videocodec: framecopy (1280x720 12bpp fourcc=44495658)
Writing AVI header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.

Writing AVI index...
Fixing AVI header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.

Video stream: 7476.642 kbit/s (934580 bps) size: 16371526 bytes 17.518 secs 420 frames

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

it shows my .ac3 in the commandline but then later says no audio stream found. Mencoder can mux .ac3 streams right? I successfully muxed the stream using Virtualdub mod. So avi muxing is still an issue for me.

[haubrija]

Just noticed something while looking for something else on the forums.

Could this be my problem on the video end?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=101079

Is that a known issue? My resulting file from my first encode was 1.78 gb.

[dbzgundam]

Hmm... Is there a registry setting that .NET is not installing perhaps? When I uninstalled the package, nothing actually changed; same error as before. Could this mean the .NET package isn't even being recognized?

[dimzon]

@dimzon: and what about the 80 or so gigs that takes?
1) This must be optional feature!
2) I have enought HDD space for it :)

[leowai]

As a request from this post:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=722438#post722438
Yes that was the problem. I think this is very confusing for newbie's like myself. I wish this was made clear in a sticky somewhere.
Would it be nice to made this thread sticky on the AVC main page? Even this thread is linked from Sharktooth daily build, but not many newbies are able to caught this lovely GUI prog from there.

[fight2win]

get nero 7 from any warez site dude!

[sjchmura]

So when using the MP4MUX and besweet (to make AAC+AVC) the DELAY -922 SHOULD work - right??? That means it will make the audio start sooner?

This is wrong on my HDTV OTA transport streams. Can I just adjust this by renaming the AAC/MP4 audio file to -0ms???

[berrinam]

@sjchmura: Please be more clear. You haven't said what is wrong with the delay (whether it is changing at all, being removed, overcompensated, etc), and more importantly, you haven't said what you did which resulted in it not working

As a side note, MeGUI handles delays by fixing them upon encoding the audio. If you didn't set the delay when you encoded the audio, then I believe it won't work.

[haubrija]

So when using the MP4MUX and besweet (to make AAC+AVC) the DELAY -922 SHOULD work - right??? That means it will make the audio start sooner?

This is wrong on my HDTV OTA transport streams. Can I just adjust this by renaming the AAC/MP4 audio file to -0ms???

sjchmura, for HDTV OTA streams, you should really demux them first using ProjectX... this will give you the best streams and fix any problems you have with audio delay.

[zajc]

Moving post to http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=723496&postcount=371

:cool:

[max-holz]

I have an issue using AutoEncode button since version 0.2.2.6
Generating jobs. Desired size: 1433600 bytes
The second pass job has a desired final output size of 1433600 bytes
and video bitrate of 1637 kbit/s
The size of the first audio track is 135051582 bytes
Desired video size after substracting audio size is -132172
Setting the desired bitrate of the subsequent video jobs to -163 kbit/s
Next job job1-2 is a video job.
encoder commandline: "C:\Programmi\x264\x264.exe" --pass 1 --bitrate -163
--stats "C:\Scambio\Elaborazione Video\Febbre\Febbre_movie.stats"
--ref 5 --mixed-refs --bframes 3 --subme 6 --weightb --analyse all
--8x8dct --me umh --threads 2 --cqmfile "C:\Programmi\x264\eqm_avc_hr.cfg"
--progress --no-psnr --output NUL "C:\Scambio\Elaborazione Video\Febbre\Febbre_movie.avs"
successfully set up video encoder and callbacks for job job1-2

I set the final file size to 1400 MB and the audio track size after compression is 128 MB; I think there is a problem substracting the audio file size to the deisred final file size and this causes the application setting a negative bitrate for the encoding.

[berrinam]

The fix to the bug max-holz mentioned can be found here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=724251#post724251).

[max-holz]

Perhaps I have founded another bug; in the audio encoder configuration it seems to be impossible setting a negative value in the delay correction textbox. I suppose that this textbox has a pattern that accept only numeric values but in this case is not possible to digit the sign minus.

[stratocaster]

Hi,
Am I missing something or it's just MeGUI's rendered H264 files that are NOT COMPATIBLE with QuickTime7 ?
I simply can't play any of the rendered MP4[H.264,AAC] on QuickTime.
Please try to give me some hints, thxs a lot.

[Sharktooth]

It's not megui and neither x264/h.264 etc...
It's QuickTime fault, coz it doesnt follow the standards.