uncropMKV - get your video files to AVCHD/BD compliant resolution/level/ref frames

[deank]

Please check if you have:

mkvmerge.exe

in your tools folder.

You either have to download the LATEST FULL multiAVCHD (14MB) or the full uncropMKV_0.2.exe. They both have the tools needed.

I think that if you have only the 264 file it is because mkvmerge is missing.

Don't delete these 264 files. Just use tsmuxer to demux the audio from them.. put them in a folder and name your files

movie.264
movie.ac3 (if your audio is ac3)

and multiavhcd will make a compilation.

Or you can add the 264+audio with mkvmerge to get your MKV.

Or just download the packages, check for tools\mkvmerge.exe and try again. Post back if it works for you.

If at the end of the log you see:

mkvmerge: .........

and then in 1 second program ends - it is mkvmerge problem for sure.

You can also test using "TRIM END" and cut just 1-2mins of your input file - just to see if it will work - no need to wait hours to find it doesn't work

[jj420]

thanks Dean i'll try that...

just to be clear, to do a small test i can just click on the "trim end" button to get it going?

i'll keep you posted

[deank]

Yes, move the slider to the left and click trim-end then start.

[dracore]

can this work in batch for over night work!

[deank]

No, but it can be added... probably as command-line utility... I will think of it.

[jj420]

it worked Dean, thanks very much!! now I can make compliant resolution files!!

I appreciate it! keep up the good work, you will be seeing a donation real soon...

[deank]

I'm glad to have another happy user of my tools

[rhayman]

Thankyou very much for this program. Extremely fast. I encoded a 720p movie in about 2 hours on a quad core.
Wierd thing is that encoding the same movie using a 2-pass encode on megui (blu-ray profile) took 8 hours.
Is there any way of doing a 2-pass encode using this program?

[deank]

Take a look at the quality and if you think there is need for 2 pass then use megui. I'd rather keep it 1 pass only.

[Aai em ron]

One little question: Wat are the best x264 settings for Ref. Frames and B.Frames. Their default settings are both 3.
Is that average quality? When I leave them both to 3, the quality of the uncropped movie is excellent. Can I make that even better with other x264 settings? I'm just wundering.
Thanks again for your great tools.
Ron.

[deank]

I'm using ref.4 and b-frames:4 for 1920x1080. The larger b-frame value is the better compression but quality may degrade. I'd suggest you use these 3/3 values or max. 4/4.

I've put settings that should provide real nice quality with less encoding time. Also I tried to make the output uncropped.mkv to be in size almost as the original. You can experiment with different settings in shorter clips and see the difference.

[Aai em ron]

Originally Posted by deank

I'm using ref.4 and b-frames:4 for 1920x1080. The larger b-frame value is the better compression but quality may degrade. I'd suggest you use these 3/3 values or max. 4/4.

I've put settings that should provide real nice quality with less encoding time. Also I tried to make the output uncropped.mkv to be in size almost as the original. You can experiment with different settings in shorter clips and see the difference.

So, you say, the higher the number you use, the higher the compression, butt you get less quality, is that right?
So, for example when I use 1/1 , I get a big file with perfect quality? Or can you hardly see the difference?

[deank]

I'd suggest you take a look here. There are tons of options that have impact on quality/speed/compression.

[Aai em ron]

Originally Posted by deank

I'd suggest you take a look here. There are tons of options that have impact on quality/speed/compression.

Oke,thanks.

[Selur]

@deank: since you write compliant with 720x480, 1280x720 and 1920x1080 AVCHD/BD requirements. I wonder, what vbv values do you use in your application?

[deank]

Compliant ones. I use 30/30 and tested on the slower DVD-RW with planet earth clip which shows momentum 50MBps (PS3 playback info) and there is no stutterning with 1920x1080@24fps w/ 448kbps ac3 with x264 enc bitrate @ 12Mbps.

[herrde]

Originally Posted by ACrowley

I had this Error with Avisynth too in Year 2007. Install the latest Avsiynth (beta). That was the fix for me. I never get this Error again

Thanks for the tip, that did it!

Another thing that I noticed - though the resulting uncropped MKV files now seem to be perfect, I still get a large *.264 file next to the uncropped MKV... I suppose this is only the re-encoded videostream and can thus be safely deleted, right?

Thanks again,

Gero

[deank]

Yes, if you read the first post of this thread you will notice:

The program won't demux the streams from the original file, but will only use the video (directshow) and those you decided to keep on the fly.
Your output folder will contain the new movie-uncropped.mkv + movie.264. You can delete the latest if you don't need it for further processing.

[deank]

Originally Posted by Selur

@deank: since you write compliant with 720x480, 1280x720 and 1920x1080 AVCHD/BD requirements. I wonder, what vbv values do you use in your application?

For bitrates and GOP shorter or eq. to one second (progressive video) for 1920x1080 and GOP of 24, for fps 23.976 max is 48mbps (Level 4.1), and for fps 24 it is 24mbps (Level 4.0).

Same is for 1280x720 with GOPs of 60 (fps 59.94) and 50 (fps 23.976/24).

For larger GOP as 48 or 120 (interlaced) max is 18mbps.

Not that I use all this to set proper max bitrate/buffer, but I think maxbuffer could be safely set to 30000 for all level 4.1 progressive sources.

[deank]

I updated the .exe - fixed drop-down with Ref. frames, sometimes showing values greater than 16 on lower resolutions, which is not correct.

Also tested to encode 1920x1080@23.976 with 4 ref. frames and 6 b-frames and PS3 plays it without problems.

***

edit:

I added another resize option: 540x480

If your source is 4:3 (and your player won't respect it, but stretches it to 16:9) you can choose between the following predefined resize options (at the bottom of the resize-drop-down list) to add black borders:

540x480 (for 480p)
960x720 (for 720p)
1440x1080 (for 1080p)

I performed some tests with 576i resolution to make my Playstation3 go into 576p and it worked. To use 576p mode in PS3, input file needs to be 720x576 interlaced @ 50fps. This is not included in the current version, but was a result of a test suggested by zoner.

At this point I can't find a way to make PS3 play 4:3 videos keeping their aspect ratio and not stretching it to 16:9.