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23rd February 2011, 13:05 | #104 | Link |
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I have been a member of this forum for several years now. During this time, I have noticed a pattern which seems to happen on a relatively consistent basis.
Most people who discover doom9 usually fall into two groups; people who are looking for a result with minimal time, and people who want to know more but get bogged down without a clear path. Obviously, the former are helped most by narrow how-to guides, but the latter usually end up leaving because of the massive time commitment involved in the discovery process. What they need to know, why they need to know it, and then finally learning the material. I think it would be beneficial to the doom9 community as a whole for a path to be set down describing what one should know. In effect eliminating step 1 and decreasing the steep learning curve. Obviously generating a specific how-to guide would be a massive undertaking that is ultimately doomed to failure. While there is no substitute for experience, all technical fields have a core knowledge base from which that experience is built upon. A much more manageable proposition would be a basic list with semi-specific prerequisites knowledge and skills. Since much of the material is already out on the internet, links could be added with minimal effort and it would lower the steep learning curve. I'm no expert on multimedia encoding, but I did fall into the latter group of newbies when I first arrived here. I did a lot of reading through the forums and dedicated several hundred hours towards research before backing off. Today, I still know very little about how x264 actually works. Sure I can use it, but a lot of what the more experienced people talk about still goes right over my head. Much of what I learned was just through trial and error. Most people would be frustrated but it just tells me they've learned something which is implied, that I haven't. In other words, an avoidable a communication breakdown. I haven't been on the forums in awhile but it seems to me the experienced people are in the minority, and their time is limited. It doesn't make best use of that time answering questions which have been answered in the past. Nor does it make sense for that time to be used on trivial configuration errors. Setting up something like what I have suggested would make better use of everyone's time and give people the background needed to eliminate most of the common questions and problems while putting them on solid footing for helping others later on. What do you think? |
23rd February 2011, 17:26 | #105 | Link |
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i'm with lorek. the questions i have asked are probably able to be found elsewhere but its difficult if you don't know what it is you're looking for. the experienced people know where to look so to them, it seems lazy that the first person didn't find it for themselves. but when you type in a question and are given 400 threads which contain the word you searched for (but maybe not necessarily the answer to your problem) it's overwhelming. the ones that have been a part of this site for years are familiar with which threads can answer which problems, but the new people have no clue (i know i don't).
a guide that i had been using for several months was this scintilla's guide but apparently it's very outdated (i was still using filters such as undot, pixiedust, deen...apparently those are ancient and there are better options). if one of the experts could make an updated version of a guide like this i think it would be VERY helpful. the before and after pictures are of great help for newbies like me to somewhat know what type of problems their source may have and how to fix them. or is there such a guide already on here? |
27th February 2011, 04:47 | #106 | Link |
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I was (and in some areas still am) in the same boat as Lorek. People who use these encoding tools and codecs every day know what they need to, and forget that the answers they give that seem completely "common sense" to them can easily overwhelm someone just getting started. I'm sure that's why AutoGK is so popular despite its grossly inferior output quality to a good x264 encode. Perhaps a Doom9 wiki could be started that could be updated by forum users whenever a "newbie" question about a feature comes up.
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1st April 2011, 16:51 | #107 | Link |
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That's usually the case when some other process still holds an open file handle for that file.
The usual way to solve this would be to close all apps that did use that avi (you may check in the task manager if there is still some process hanging around that should no longer be), and wait a few seconds before trying to delete it again. Also rebooting or logging out wil usually free those handle(s). If you want a less random method go and download Process Explorer. You can get it from MS: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...sExplorer.html When you start it it has a UI entry 'Find handle or DLL' that allows you to find process that still hold a handle to the file. You need to input at least the filename or the full path including the file name. Then you can close or kill the respective processes/applications. After that you should be able to remove the file. Last edited by Mizra; 1st April 2011 at 17:06. |
2nd April 2011, 00:33 | #108 | Link |
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I'm a newbie and thus I still have a lot of basic, probably even dumb questions, even though I was reading around anywhere in the last few weeks.
Currently my focus is to encode ripped DVD/BluRay/(S)VCD content in good quality close to the original. Below is a list of questions or unclear statements I ran into so far, where I'm still unsure. Usually I added what my current understanding of the matter is. 1) Which container format to use? (Or maybe what container for what purpose?) The only up-to-date and advanced ones are mp4 and mkv. So far I understood that mkv is best for versatility of content and mp4 for widespread support of standalone players etc. 1b) What is the largest supported file size for mkv and mp4? (I've seen 10GB mkv videos of BluRay rips but have not seen the same size for mp4.) 1c) This does not seem to be an issue with mkv, but since mp4 has content restrictions, is there a tool that can verify the mp4 compliance of the resulting file? 1d) A few years ago with my less powerful notebook and when h264 was really new I often encountered internet videos where the video went out of sync with the audio and/or the subtitles. (This did never happen with xvid but only h264). Does the container format (or the audio and video formats stored in it) affect this? Or was that all due to my weak CPU? Or to rephrase this, does the container format has an effect on keeping video in sync with audio and subs? 2) Which video codec to use when? I will only consider x264 or xVid only here though. Since x264 is the better encoder and format I understood it is somewhat like this: if CPU power is not a limiting factor in encoding and playback than use x264 otherwise use xVid. Anything else? 3) When to use which audio codec? Criteria would be quality (probably flac, vorbis or AAC) versus overall playback ability (probably mp3 maybe ac3). 4) Which tooling combo to use to encode? Dropping payable solutions like Nero Recode or FairUse Wizard, and going for an hopefully easy to use GUI (that still allows to use the gory detailed features if needed) it seems there are basically three tooling combos around: a) MeGUI (with AviSynth) b) MediaCoder (mencode/ffmpeg and AviSynth) c) VirtualDub/VirtualDubMod with AviSynth and probably Advanced Substation Alpha Where are the pros and cons of each of the above combinations? Or when to use what? 4b) Is there any encoder with allows for decent flexibility that does NOT use AviSynth? That is, is AviSnyth a 'must-have' to learn? 5) What are the pros and cons of the different subtitle formats? Namely the soft sub ones. Basically I would just go for plain srt or ass format. Anything else that is worthwhile to be considered apart from the idx/sub hard subs? 5a) What tools are good for - converting between the various subtitle formats - merging them (e.g. CD1 srt and CD2 srt into a single file) - allowing for proper re-timing to adjust for changed frame rates as well as adjusting offsets? (I had just one good found about 2-3 years ago, but I forgot the name.) 5b) Just curious: What tools are used to do those Anime Karaoke subtitles? 6) Is there a tool to merge and trim different vob files? (Hopefully one that does not need any transcoding when the files belong to the same video.) I also understood that mkv allows for multiple video files. Does that mean merging is actually not necessary? 7) How to merge splitted videos back in one? (The question is targeted at those multi CD size ripped videos.) 8) I read transmuxing (from one container into another) does not need transcoding (which is great). Does that mean it is a 'simple' demuxing and muxing task? Or are there other tasks (or tools) involved as well? 8b) For others: Explain why transcoding is usually a bad idea. 9) I understand that black borders in video are a bad thing for encoding size and read that they are bad for the encoding quality as well. Thus cropping is a good idea. However I usually like my videos to be preceded and followed by a black frame before and after the actual video content. If I take them from the video itself is that a bad idea as well? If it is not bad, is it possible for AviSynth to create those two single frames? 10) As far as I understood for keeping the quality of the original video (DVD/BluRay) it is good to keep the original resolution as well. (That is as long as only computer playback is intended. PAL/NTSC conversions are naturally something else.) I also understand that down scaling can't be helped for smaller devices (lines and/or rows need to be dropped or interpolated). For the same reason upscaling is not good as well since missing lines/rows need to be added by either duplicating them or interpolation, also the size of the resulting file will increase. But in the end if the video is displayed in full screen (e.g. 1920x1080) doesn't it get resized by the player player at run time to the display resolution? If so is that a reasonable argument to do the resizing at the encoding time, where due to probably much larger encoding time better quality can be expected? Or should upscaling beyond the original video resolution still not be done (since upscaling provides only 'virtual' quality)? 11) What's the best way to handle anamorphic input data (with AviSynth)? If the original video is anamorphic (e.g. cinema-scope) the width and height of the original do not match an 1:1 aspect ration. In that case what is the best approach to keep the correct aspect ration in playback? Basically I understand there are two reasonable choices: i) keep the original width (which usually results in the video loosing some lines of heights and the resulting lines probably needed to be interpolated) ii) keep the original height (which probably results in the resulting rows being interpolated) Is there a way to keep the original pixel datas width and height (for both, rows and cols) and only tell the player what resolution or aspect ratio to use, and thus avoiding the need of interpolating data? If so how? If not, are i) and ii) equally good choices? Or is there one to prefer? (Since anamorphic is actually done by squeezing the video width I would guess that ii) would be the better choice...) 11b) How to get 11ii) done from above? So far with MeGUI and AviSynth I was unable to do so. My best result was to keep the height while loosing the aspect ratio. That is unless I added the borders that got cropped before in the AviSynth script via 'AddBorders' later on. But than the video had black bars on the top and bottom. 11c) If I add borders to the video via the AviSynth script, do they get encoded as well? That is does that increase the file size and is it troublesome to the encoding the same way as the originally cropped borders are? 12) I should have probably asked this much earlier: When encoding DVD/BluRay/SVCD content and considering playback on computer only (that is with no restriction for video resolution, frame rate, NTSC/PAL, ...): Is it correct to assume that for best quality (meaning close to the original) the original videos resolution (width and height) and the frame rate should be kept for encoding? Anything else that should be kept? Things that should/need not be kept? 13) What type of interlaced video are there, and what are the best ways for each to convert them to progressive video via AviSynth script? So far I encountered 3 variations in vob files: a) fully interlaced videos (NTSC or PAL) b) video with 2 successive interlaced frames every 5 frames. (I heard it is called hard telecined, and it's where I first heard that keeping the original frame rate might not always be the best idea.) c) A vob file with part of b) and the rest fully progressive 14) For Audio codecs like mp3 or vorbis it is a given that the best quality will be obtained by using variable bitrate encoding. Is this the same with video encoding namely x264 encoding? Also is the bitrate encoding encoding that can be set in tools like MeGUI the bitrate for a variable encoding or for a fixed bitrate encoding? 15) When to use which x264 resize filter? I heard some of them were particularly good for upscaling. Maybe others are best for anamorphic content, or for other purposes... At the least are there some sample images (or short videos) where one can compare the different results to the original? 16) How to add chapters to the file? 17) What is the best way to merge .rm or .rmvb videos and the like into one file? (Provided it is a good idea at all) 18) Can Real Video have soft subs? (At least real player does not seem to understand any of the usual formats...) 19) Sometimes I encounter video files (from the internet) where the video slide bar during play back does not work. That is when I drag it forward the image seems to freeze (usually while the audio is still playing), or sometimes it takes a long time until normal playback is resumed. What is the reason for this? Can it be post-fixed? 20) Where to learn to understand the math needed in AviSnyth when cropping and resizing normal and anamorphic content in order to keep the resulting video resolution and aspect ratio close to the original. (At least in MeGUI when cropping is applied the values for 'global MeGUI_darx' and 'global MeGUI_dary' change in ways I do not understand yet. And if I change them manually I do not seem to get any effect.) 20b) A basic introduction to the most required/useful commands of AviSynth and how to properly mix them all together (explained on a small example) will be useful. Sorry for the list being this long. ^^°° |
11th June 2011, 13:05 | #109 | Link |
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When a DVD or BD is ripped with multiple audio formats/tracks (such as AC3, DD, DTS, DTS-HDMaster), will the player (software such as 7MC or MPC-HC or hardware such as OPO) try to play the "best/highest-quality" format in the rip, or will it just play the first format it can regardless of the quality?
Should all of the audio formats/tracks be added to the rip - so the movies can be played back anywhere (such as played through a 7.1 HD receiver or if just connected directly to a TV)? Edit: I should add that I rip my BD to M2TS format (movie only) with Clown_BD and play back through a couple of different HTPCs, but this question also could apply to ripping to ISO or MKV or whatever. Thanks. Last edited by CountryBumkin; 11th June 2011 at 13:08. |
15th February 2013, 02:34 | #110 | Link |
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Welp, this thread is now officially over 10 years old, and I've yet to see the upcoming Newbies FAQ. Maybe time to get rid of the sticky?
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"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Alva Edison Illegitimi non carborundum |
29th August 2015, 13:28 | #112 | Link |
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Questions
answers to these questions:
name a moderator of the dvd2avi forum name a popular mpeg-4 asp encoder what's the software version this board is running on? name a moderator of the General Discussion forum which forum rule consists of two parts? What is the name of the script-based frame server used for processing/filtering video? name a popular mpeg-4 encoder gui that is beign discussed on this forum name a popular mpeg-4 avc encoder what software is the most popular thread in the development forum about? how many forum rules are there? how is the first category of this board called? what's the name of the last subforum in this place? which forum rule mentions the netiquette? name a moderator of the dvd2avi forum which software has two dedicated subforums on doom9? what's the successor of mpeg-4 avc? Typos and capitalizing are not by me. Last edited by theking2; 29th August 2015 at 13:32. |
14th November 2016, 13:29 | #113 | Link | |
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Quote:
I googled a question but couldn't find an answer since no one bothered to give the answers. I'm not ranting but I have to say the question are so advanced and take a lot of time to find for a newbie and that is really really annoying if you want to ask a specific question without wasting a lot of time. I would scrap this whole advanced question system before allowing to post a thread. The question in my oppinion should be one that anyone already knows. Like what is 2+2 or is there more water or land on the earth etc. Not "What is the most expensive componant when building a TV" Just so stupid imo. Either way someone pls fill out all questions to help ppl in the same position I was in the future |
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