Widescreen Gaming Forum

Now I just need to find the time to write a good tutorial and sharing the spreadsheet will be a part of it. Where is a good place to host a excel document?

The Insiders' FTP?

Now I just need to find the time to write a good tutorial and sharing the spreadsheet will be a part of it. Where is a good place to host a excel document?

I'd love to read it.

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The spreadsheet is done, before I make the tutorial though I want to make sure I am well versed so that I can answer any questions.

I just ran into yet another program that I like today StaxRip its like my favorite program Avidemux mixed with the compatability of what I was going to write the tutorial for HandBrake.

This one uses Avisynth so it has filter options, and it has a built in linear editor, its working great but it wont allow me to force certian settings that I would like to do manually. However the beta version of it has them.

Also I need to look into the fact it would not let me encode a video without it being divisible by 16. So I had to crop my 1920x1080 file to 1920x1074...

So far this is looking like a very good replacement to Avidemux that offers more compatibility and maybe even more options. HandBrake is still the best encoder so far for being ultra easy to use and its multi playtform so it works on linux and I think even OSX. Thats also the same reason it has less compatability with file types though. It can not read my fraps files and thus why I tried another program.

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Well this is somewhat on topic:

How do you go about making comparison videos of 4:3 and 16:10 and whatever else for the site exactly correct?

Also I need to look into the fact it would not let me encode a video without it being divisible by 16. So I had to crop my 1920x1080 file to 1920x1074...

You can encode in any resolution you want as long as it's divisible by 2. The encoders are set up 16x16 blocks, so when the width or height isn't divisible by 16, it can hurt compression. This basically means it will just take a little extra filesize than before. The higher the resolution, the less you need to worry about this since you're going to have a fairly large output filesize anyway (compared to 640x480 or something).

... and its multi playtform so it works on linux and I think even OSX. Thats also the same reason it has less compatability with file types though. It can not read my fraps files and thus why I tried another program.

This is not because it is multi-platform. This is because Fraps is VFW codec. Chances are the software you use just doesn't support VFW in general, so no VFW codec will work. You can still use an Avisynth script to load it in Windows by using DirectShowSource() because that will load VFW codecs.

Well this is somewhat on topic:

How do you go about making comparison videos of 4:3 and 16:10 and whatever else for the site exactly correct?

You can just add black borders to the left and right of the 4:3 video if you want to compare. You can do this in Avisynth with AddBorders().

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I didn't read up on the thread too much, but I did see AutoGK mentioned, and I want to throw out there, for the people who're a little more savvy into encoding, try out MeGUI. It's basically the same, cept the interface is smaller, and a lot more thorough about the detailed settings when you wanna get to that point. Also it comes with loads of encoders for all sorts of different video compression schemes, and audio compression schemes. I use it to encode my HD .ts sources into h264 MKVs. Something you all might want to look into, some of the presets are phenomenal.

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Yeah MeGui is supposed to be the most fully featured GUI, I tried it when I first got into this stuff and could not even get it to work period. I dont know why it was missing some files or something probably.

dopefish is being very kind and guiding me as I go here on our forums and doom9 forums have a lot of friendly folks too.

My goal is to learn the CLI for the mainstream programs and do it all manually like dopefish at some point so you can use each program as new releases come out on your own without dependency of a GUI.

But as far as GUI's go.

My Favorite was Avidemux it has a ton of features and built in editing and filters, built in avisynth proxy. Its a great program, has a few "catch22" you need to find like atleast when I used it often times the frame rate or apsect ratio needed to be manually set. But for some reason just one day out of the blue it did not work right for me anymore. About half my dvd rips were out of sync and now my FRAPS rips and other things have this hyperspeed issue where the first few seconds of the clip play too fast causing sync issues.

Still I can recommend it as its a good program, Lord Mulder one of the creators of it is very active on the doom9 forums and does not hesitate to offer help to every extent he can.

Next is HandBrake, used it for about a week. Its incredibly simple and streamline like AutoGK. Whats so great about it is there is no room to mess up but yet it still offers full control of editing the CLI so if say a new version of x264 is out just toss the new EXE in the program folder and edit the commands as you see fit. It just like AutoGK is just an encoder, it offers very little in the way of any filters and no editing. Its also multi platform.

Finally I came across StaxRip, its like the combo of the above 2. Its simple to use but has some editing & filters in it. I think that is all done by the fact that this program uses Avisynth for input. This was a big plus for me as I found out that HandBrake could not open FRAPS files nativly, but this program can using Avisynth to transcode (frame serve) it also means you have access to the tons of things Avisynth can do, and its tied into other nice program CLI's like Mp4box, MKVMerge, ect.

My only complaint so far with StaxRip is it's "too smart" they made it so easy to use that you just click a link on the program and it will download all of the .exe's and .dll's but if you have a newer version of something in there manually it gets upset at you. Also while it will show you the command line code being used, you cant just directly edit it like you can with HandBrake. So the latest stable reelase of this uses an older version of x264 that only had a subme 7 max and had no psy-rd. When I went to add them it crashed because x264 can not take them.

I manually updated the x264.exe and added the commands in the one window where you can add parameters and it will still use the gui values so subme 7 was the highest I could go even if I added subme 9.

My gripe is fixed with the latest beta that uses a newer x264.exe and had those options nativly but still its would just be so nice if they allowed open editing like handbrake.

Another thing is again its "too smart" and it takes you through the process in steps and one of the steps right before the final encode is it checks your resolution to make sure its divisible by 16 and if it is not it prompts you to add a crop or resize filter to make it so. There is no way the program lets you continue until you do this.... Again I found a work around added the crop filter, and then just double clicked the filter variable and edited its value to 0 crop.

You really have to check it out though, more thought has gone into this GUI than any other I have seen. Its advanced like MeGUI without the problems I had.

For me to go ever further down the full manual path of doing this without the use of the all in one GUI's above I am now exploring the audio encoding side and plan to do it just like dopefish with just the neroaacenc.exe and last I need to experiment with muxing/demuxing

Looks like VirtualDubMod will be a good demuxer and MP4Box/MKVMerge will be good muxers.

I could cook up a guide for you guys on what I know now but still want to learn more so that I can give the "best" method rather than write a guide and turn around a week later and say I found a better way.

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Update: and now I remember why I did not like MeGUI I just uninstalled my old version, got the newest one. Let it download and update all of the files itw ants on its own and it still crashes soon as I try to load or create an .avs file.

So I cant even use it. Its also a known issue looks like but this time I found two threads with some helpfull info:

http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-125121.html
http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-134434.html

They are old threads but may have valid info.

I found I have a few of the problems in existance.

I may have to:

Uninstall Microsoft Groove 2007 (just did that)
Get new MS windows updates (doing that now)

After that I will try it if no go then:

Disable the preview window
Update MediaInfo file
Downgrade Avisynth version

If that doesnt work, Im out of luck and cant use MeGUI but just from messing around with its interface its very similar to StaxRip, identical in many ways, just a different layout and maybe more options in one thing (like manual CLI entry) and less in the other.

Update: yay its working.

Between updating windows and uninstalling groove its not crashing now.

So I am doing my first encode with it now. It has all the x264 options and allows manual entry. It uses Avisynth for input so its very versitile.

What it does not have that you may like StaxRip for that I can tell is editing. StaxRip is very similar but lets you in there editing window cut/crop/ect MeGUI has a preview window where you can see the result but not do it in real time to see what you are doing.

Interesting is instead of being "all in one" MeGUI does the video and audio seperatly and then makes you mux them together. StaxRip also does the same process but automates it all.

Its too early to say which I prefer at this point.

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I may take a whack at MeGUI again if it sounds like a good experience; it has a lot of options that I would like but I was mostly too lazy to play around with. >_>

OT but recommend any programs for some simple (or maybe even elaborate) effects (like a fade)?

I may take a whack at MeGUI again if it sounds like a good experience; it has a lot of options that I would like but I was mostly too lazy to play around with. >_>

OT but recommend any programs for some simple (or maybe even elaborate) effects (like a fade)?

You can do the fade with MeGUI or StaxRip as both use Avisynth.

StaxRip you can just go to filters --> add filter --> add fade under effects.

MeGUI I have not looked too closely at yet, not sure if the GUI can add filters like that automatically for you but even if it does not you would just add this into your .avs file:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Fade

When you make your .avs file you can test it just by opening it with a media player.

Again the program that strikes me as being the most capable with editing and filters was Avidemux. No reason not to get all of the programs and try them out so you can see wich one works best for you.

You will probably come to the conclusion that I have, that none of them is the best but each one has some strengths and weaknesses.

If you made me pick just one that I had to use to be the most all encompassing, it would probably be MeGUI, though I only did one encode with it today and need to go look at its finer details.

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