ratecontrol-related error in x264

[tooron]

Please somebody help! I am a novice with x264 and with other SW for advanced users (like AVIsynth). Also sorry for my poor English. In the past I have encoded large amount of DV files in MPEG-2 mainly with CCE Basic, with results that I would call more than satisfactory. I would like now to switch to H.264 for archive-grade compression to save in an optical media library.

In the last week I have tried to use x264 on my PC (P4 HT), but without success. I have gone thorugh the forum, so I was able to solve a few issues.

I am feeding an AVI file (interlaced PAL, type 2), via AVIsynth (in the AVS script I use ConvertToYV12).
But when I run x264cli, I get the following error:

x264 [error]: ratecontrol_init: cant't open stats file

I am sorry for the elementary question, but I am stuck here without even being able to start the compression... :confused:

[Sirber]

post your CLI arguments. I think you try to run the "last pass" whitout producing a "first pass".

[tooron]

post your CLI arguments. I think you try to run the "last pass" whitout producing a "first pass".

the cli file is:

x264.exe --progress --pass 3 --bitrate 800 --stats "\x264.stats" --subme 5 --ref 1 --threads 1 --filter 0:0 --keyint 249 --min-keyint 25 --scenecut 40 --qpmin 10 --qpmax 51 --qpstep 4 --direct temporal --me hex --merange 16 --sar 1:1 --bframes 2 --weightb --b-bias 0 --ipratio 1.40 --pbratio 1.30 --qcomp 0.60 --analyse all --8x8dct --verbose -o "c:\output.mp4" "C:\Program Files\x264\script.avs"

[tooron]

many thanks, I am starting to understand that one has to create one cli for the first pass separately: it works now, and I could even playback the encoded file :D

[Sirber]

My pleasure! :D

[Doom9]

another commandline with lots of default values.. you really don't need them. I suggest MeGUI as a remedy: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96032

[Sirber]

another commandline with lots of default values.
Well, what's wrong by choosing what he want to use? IMO it's better to set what you want than to rely on some darkish defaults ;)

[Doom9]

it makes no sense to set values that are on their default already.. it just gives more potential for screwups. I see this a lot these days and it makes me very unhappy: it's no science to figure out a commandline, but those who cannot or will not should really stick to using a GUI instead of burdening the rest of the world to fix their commandlines.

[Sirber]

It's part of the learning. If everyone would stick to GUIs, would everyone use Windows?

[tooron]

another commandline with lots of default values.. you really don't need them. I suggest MeGUI as a remedy: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96032

thanks for the advice: I'm going to try MeGUI ASAP (I hope it lets the user keep full and detailed control of the compression engine)