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  1. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    (Note: I'm in the process of uploading the guide images, so bear with me...)

    Synopsis: Using MEGui to convert any DirectShow compatible video source to H246 (MPEG-4). With this guide you will be able to convert AVI, DVD, Blue-Ray, HD-DVD, Real Media, or any other video source that can be played via the DirectShow interface (the file plays in Windows Media Player). All of the tools listed here are open source or freeware.

    Tools Needed:
    MEGui ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui )
    Note: there are many sub tools that are loaded under MEGui. Those tools are downloaded automatically the first time you launch MEGui.

    Suggested Tools:
    FFDShow
    Haali Media Splitter
    Media Player Classic
    VirtualDubMod (for AVI Sources)
    Note: If you are having difficulty reading your source files due to codec issues, you can try demuxing your source file using TsRemux. This can be useful if you want to grab a specific audio track from an HD source.

    Testing your configuration:
    In order to properly input Blue-Ray/HD-DVD video, your PC must be capable of using DirectShow to play back the M2TS or EVO files. To test this, you can create a simple AVISynth script with Notepad. If you know yours is working, you can skip this step.

    Your AVISynth script should have only one line. In this example I'm simply checking to see if the script will play back in Media Player Classic. If you are not familiar with AVISynth, I would suggest you check the GUIDES section as that is another topic. The script in my example needs only one line. This will allow me to verify my AVISynth install is working and that DirectShow can properly decode my source. Open Notepad and use the DirectShowSource command to point to our input file:

    DirectShowSource("C:\Media\Video\HP5_PHOENIX\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts",fps=23.976,audio=false)

    Note that you could use the above example for your input, but it may not match your source, and of course the input file path wouldn't match your input. Lastly, the frame rate (FPS) may not match your source You would need to correct those three things for your specific input. In any case, once you have created and saved your sample AVISynth script with Notepad, save it as "test.avs". You can then open it with your player of choice. I prefer Media Player Classic. If your PC is properly configured, you should get video with no audio. Note that it doesn't have to play smoothly as your PC may not be capable of keeping up with 1080p video. Once you have verified that your PC is able to read the input via DirectShowSource, then you are ready to move on to the next step. If your PC will not open the file (you get filter errors with AVISynth), then you have Codec issues. This is not something that a generic guide can help you with as the possibilities are almost endless as to what you may have installed and what order your filters are using. You should post your specific issue in the main forum to resolve those issues. For my test bed, I installed Nero, FFDShow, Haali, Media Player Classic, and VirtualDubMod. There were no other codecs installed. I also disabled the Nero Splitter as it overrides the Haali splitter, preventing Haali from being used. This is an example of software causing conflicts

    I've also been told by rhegedus that .EVO files from HD-DVD in particular can be problematic for DirectShow decoding. This is most likely due to the splitter that is being used. You can manually demux the file (the splitter would normally do this for you). In any case, If you are having problems with .EVO source files, use the following steps to demux your files and then use GraphEdit to create a DirectShow compatible file.

    Demux/Rebuild the EVO with EVOdemux to remove unwanted audio streams and subs then use GraphEdit:
    Haali Media Splitter ---> WMVideo Decoder DMO
    Once you have built that filter with GraphEdit, save it as video.GRF and make and AviSyth script with Notepad or a similar text editor:

    DirectShowSource("C:\FILEPATH\video.GRF",fps=23.9759856527702,audio=false)
    ConvertToYV12()
    and save that file as a .avs file. If everything has gone well, you should be able to play that .AVS file in your media player.

    Configuring MEGUI: (Version 0.2.5.1007)

    Ensure you have a recent build of MEGUI. If you are running Windows Vista, I would suggest you run MEGUI with full admin rights (Right click the Shortcut icon, select Properties -> Advanced Button -> Check 'Run As Administrator'). The program has a self updater, however under Vista, it will not allow MeGUI to launch all outside processes or restart properly. turning on the Administrator option will allow the Update process to function properly under Vista.

    The first time you Launch MEGUI, it should inform you that updates are available. Allow it to update and restart. It will also ask you to import various Video and Audio profiles. Make sure you Shift Select all of the profiles it offers so that you import all of them. You can also hold down the Control Key to select individual profiles to import if you know you only want specific profiles.

    The only item that will not update automatically is the Nero Digital Audio codec pack. You can download it for free from the Nero site ( http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/Nero_Digital_Audio.html )
    Once you have downloaded the files, place them in a TOOLS\NeroAACenc folder of your MEGUI install (the Tools folder will be created after MEGUI updates). Just create the NeroAACenc folder. You must also point your MEGUI configuration to that folder for the Nero audio. To do so, select TOOLS -> Settings from menus, and then the Program Paths tab. Click the button next to NeroAACEnc and browse to the "neroAacEnc.exe" executable.



    MEGUI itself only accepts input from AVISynth files (.AVS). AVISynth in turn can accept input from a multitude of input sources. I assume the reason for this is just to ensure they have consistent input on a known interface. Makes troubleshooting and coding easier I suspect. No worries if your AVISynth impaired however, as it has a handy AVISynth Script Creator that will do the dirty work for you. Lets get started...

    Selecting your input:



    To select your input, you must give MEGUI an AVISynth input file to work with. For this example, I'm working on a Blue-Ray rip. You can use almost any type of input however (DVD, AVI, TS, RM, etc). If you drag and drop a source video file onto MEGUI it will typically open the AVISynth Script Creator for you. Under Vista, the drag and drop doesn't function so you always have to browse to your source. For simplicity's sake, I would suggest you just select the AVISynth Script Creator manually from the menus.



    The idea here is to browse to your MPEG, AVI, .D2V file, or whatever source your using with the AVISynth Script Creator. From that, an AVISynth script file will be created that will be used as input for MEGUI. Open the AVISynth Script Creator now from the TOOLS menu (Tools -> AVISynth Script Creator). Note that there are Keyboard shortcuts listed next to most of the tools if you like that sort of thing (Control + R).

    In the Video Input section, you select your input file. The Script Generator will accept input from any DirectShow compatible source, although the input is filtered to show only the following file types:
    Dgindex (.d2v ) files
    mpeg-2 (.m2v, .mpg )
    .avi,.mp4,.mkv, .rmvb
    VirtualDub frameserver files


    You can also just enter an asterisk "*" to force it to show all files. Again I should note that you can technically use any input that can be read via DirectShow ( files like .m2ts, .ts, etc will work as long as you have the necessary codecs installed). This allows you to convert files like Blue-Ray, HD-DVD, HDTV, etc. I would suggest you get a good splitter like Haali Media Splitter. FFDShow has also made huge leaps in quality. It's an easy addon that will allow you to decode and play just about any media file type.



    For my example, I'm going to browse to my Blue-Ray rip of The Fifth Element. The file has an .M2TS extension, so it's not an 'allowed' input type for MEGUI by default. However I have FFDShow installed and the Haali Media Splitter, meaning the file can be viewed with DirectShow. As you register files with a media player, they may show up in the list. Once you select your source file, assuming it is DirectShow compatible, it should show up in with a preview window. If you do not get a preview window, and you see an error, that would indicate your source isn't setup properly for DirectShow. Post your issue in the main forum in that case.

    If your input source is MPEG based (.MPG, .TS, .M2TS, .M2V, etc), and you do not have compatible codec installed, you can use DGIndex to create a .D2V file which can be read by MEGUI. DGIndex is one of the Tools that is updated/downloaded automatically by MEGUI. You'll find it in the tools folder of your MEGUI install. Just drag/drop your MPEG file onto DGIndex, (see the GUIDES section for help with DGIndex) and save your project as a D2V file. For my Blue-Ray project, I will use DGIndex to extract the audio track from my .M2TS and to read the file since it creates a .D2V file for me. Note I could simply use the .M2TS file directly for video if I chose to since I have FFDShow and Haalie Media Splitter installed.

    If your input source is AVI then you can simply select your AVI file directly.

    OPTIONS Tab:
    Once I select my Source .D2V file in the AVISynth Script Creator screen I see a preview window. The preview window size can be changed by dragging the window edges. Bigger sources makes the window unwieldy so I would suggest you make it small enough so that you can see the MEGUI interface underneath. Leave the preview window open as we'll be modifying some elements on the preview screen.



    The Input DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) should be displayed. In my case, my input is 16:9. Directly below that is a checkbox for 'Clever (TM) anamorphic encoding'. This option allows you to simply encode the video as is without any drastic resizing. This is desirable so that you do not have to unnecessarily resize your video. The encoding process will embed the Aspect Ratio of your video when it is encoded so that it is stretched back to the proper proportions during playback. I would highly suggest you select this option. For the Anamorphic option, I always choose "Overcrop to achieve mod 16" to avoid any resizing at all. If your a bit anal about having any of your video cropped, you can choose "Resize to Achieve Mod 16". MEGUI will require that your video's dimensions are divisible by 16. Choose on of those two options (resize to mod 16 or overcrop to mod 16).



    Below that, you'll see the 'Auto Crop' button. This function will easily remove any letterboxing that may be present. It will also remove any wasted black or noisy edges on your video. I would suggest you use it every time, even if your video appears to fill the preview with no letterboxing.
    (Before Autocrop)


    (After Autocrop)

    Once you have the preview properly cropped, then click on the FILTERS tab at the top of the MeGUI Avisynth Script Creator window.

    FILTERS Tab:



    From here you should analyze your source video for interlacing and field order. This is important and not something you should skip. I can't say how many times I've encoded a project that seemed to be entirely progressive only to find a scene that was mixed. Getting the field order right is also important. Note that if your source is Anime/CGI then you should check the option "Source is Anime (isn't detected automatically)" before analyzing your material. Once the analysis is completed you can also choose what Resizing and noise filtering options you want. Since we are using the 'Clever Anamorphic Encoding' option, we won't be resizing anything. This option is applied only if you are actually resizing the video. If you selected "Resize to achieve Mod 16" on the Options tab then I would suggest you select Lanczos4Resize as your resizing option. That would give you the sharpest resize with the least loss of detail. I would suggest you always leave "Minimal Noise" selected, even for 'clean' sources. For older source material, I would suggest you select "Little Noise". Anything beyond that can have a noticeable softening affect which you may find unpleasant. Experiment here to find what you see as acceptable. This setting can have a very beneficial effect on Bit Rate usage even when the noise isn't immediately obvious to you. Below that you also have options for Mpeg2 Deblocking and Colour Correction. The Deblocking option is useful if your source has obvious macroblocking (this would sometimes be the case on previously encoded MPEG material like home burned DVD or SVCD's). The Colour Correction option ensures the colors are calibrated properly. I tend to avoid both of these filters as I have found little use for them.

    EDIT Tab
    The EDIT tab allows you to make any final modifications to your AVISynth script before saving it. For instance if you wanted to tweak some of the filter functions, resize it or add an additional filter, etc. You can also add preconfigured text that will always show up here. You'll find those options in your MEGUI settings. If you have no other modifications to enter, you can just click SAVE in the bottom right corner of the AviSynth Script Creator window.

    From here you will have a Preview Window and you main MEGUI screen with the Input Source filled in. You can also click the 'Show DAR' option to see what your output video will look like on playback (that options displays your output properly stretched out according to the Display Aspect Ratio).

    At this point you can close the preview window.

    Choosing your Video Profile:



    Choosing a video profile may seem a bit daunting considering the options you are presented with. There are a few factors to take into consideration when you do choose one.
    What is your target player?
    What kind of processing power do you have to encode your media with?
    How much time do you want to spend?

    If you are encoding video for an iPod for example, you would want to choose an iPod compatible profile. If you have an older PC (non-dual core) then I would suggest you use CE-Mainprofile. If you have a faster CPU, or Dual-Core, then I would suggest you use the AE profiles. I always use AE-Maxquality or AE-Goodquality with a tiny bit of tweaking.

    For this example, lets choose AE-Goodquality. It's a good tradeoff for excellent quality although it requires high cpu specs. I would highly suggest you have decent CPU power (read: dual core) to use the AE profiles with the settings I'll be suggesting. Choose the profile from the Video Profile dropdown, and then click the Config button.

    Video Configuration Dialog:

    MAIN TAB



    Turbo should be enabled
    Select Automated 2pass
    For the bitrate, that would vary depending on your source. If you are encoding an AVI or DVD, you can start with the bitrate as low as 700 or so. The default is 1000 which will work fine. If your not sure you can encode a small sample by adding a the following at the end of your AVS Script:

    TRIM(1000,6000)


    That will encode a portion of the beginning of your video. Just don't forget to remove it from your AVS script before doing your final encode.

    General guidelines for encoding bitrates:
    For typical XviD/DivX AVI's I would suggest you start with 600-700 kbps for bitrate
    For DVD Rips I would suggest you start with 800-1000 kbps for bitrate
    For Blue-Ray/HD-DVD/HD @ 720p I would suggest you start with 2000 - 3000 kbps
    For Blue-Ray/HD-DVD/HD @ 1080i I would suggest you start with 3000 - 4000 kbps
    For Blue-Ray/HD-DVD/HD @ 1080p I would suggest you start with 4000 - 5000 kbps

    (note that these are guidelines only...it depends entirely on your source video)

    Set the remainder of the Main tab as shown.

    ZONES TAB
    This tab allows you to specify custom bitrate zones much like MPEG-2 encoders used. I rarely use this. Just be aware that if you have a problem scene that seems to be getting excessive macroblocking you can tweak that 'zone' here.

    RC and ME Tab - This TAB has four subsections - Rate Control, M.E., Misc, and Quant Options



    These sections contains the guts of the H264 codec. These settings also have a huge impact on the speed that your PC will encode your output. The items of interest are highlighted.

    Rate Control section
    Leave the Rate Control section at the defaults.

    M.E. Section
    Set your M.E. Algorithm to a minimum of Hexagon. If you have the CPU power I would suggest you set it on Multi-Hex.

    Subpixel Refinement:
    I would not suggest you go any higher than '6 - RDO (Slow)'. RDO Level 2 is EXTREMELY slow for very little gain. 6 - RDO is required to use 'RDO for B-Frames' on the Advanced Tab. I would suggest you select 6 - RDO.

    MISC Section
    Set your Keyframe interval to 10 times your output video's framerate. If your encoding video that is 23.976 frames per second, then set the Keyframe Interval to 240. If you wer encoding video at 29.97 fps, then set your keyframe interval to 300.
    For the Min GOP size, set this to the rounded value of your framerate (ex: for 23.976 framerate video set it to 24).

    Quant Options
    Trellis: Set this to 1 - Final MB. Optional set it to '2 - Always' but expect a bit more processing time
    Number of Reference Frames: Set this to from 5 to 8. This value can have a big impact on your processing time. The lower the number the faster the encode. The higher the number the slower the encode, but the better the quality. Note that values over 5 give marginal improvements. You can go as high as 16. Do not set this value lower than 3.

    Set the rest of the options as shown.

    ADVANCED TAB



    The only options you should tweak here are on the Macroblock section, or the B-Frames section.
    For the macroblock Options, I would suggest you enable all of them for maximum benefit.
    In the B-Frames section I would suggest you set this to 5 for maximum benefit. Don't set this value lower than 2. If a setting of 5 is too slow for your configuration, try setting this to 3. The reason I suggest 5 is that using the B-frame mode to Auto typically won't ever use more than 5 B-frames.
    The remainder of the B-Frames options should be enabled and the B-Frame mode should be set to Auto. Note that RDO for B-Frames will not be available unless you selected "6 - RDO (Slow)" or higher on the RC and ME Tab.

    Configure the remainder of the Advanced options as shown. If you want to save these settings in a new profile rather than overwriting one of the default profiles then click the 'New' button and give your profile a new name. Otherwise, just click the 'Update' button and then click OK.

    This will put you back to the Main MEGUI page. At this point, you can begin encoding your video if you like, however I would suggest you also setup your Audio option at this point.

    For you audio, you can demux it using a variety of methods depending on your source material. For any MPEG-2 type material (.m2v, mpg, .ts), use DGIndex to save the audio. For AVI material, use VirtualDubMod and the STREAMS menu to demux your audio. Once you have an audio file, simply use the Audio Input button to select your audio file.



    For the Codec select "ND AAC" if you downloaded the Nero Digital Audio codec. If not, select FAAC.
    For the Container select "MP4-AAC"
    For the Audio Profile, select NDAAC-HE-MultiChannel-128kbps if you downloaded the Nero files, or NCTAAC-HE-MultiChannel-128kbps if you did not download the Nero files.
    Click the CONFIG button to configure the selected profile.



    Select the options as shown. If your audio file needs a delay correction, then place a check in th Delay correction box. If your audio has a negative ( - ) delay correction then place a check next to the minus (-) sign and input the number of milliseconds to offset your audio.

    IMPORTANT: If you decide to encode your audio, ensure it has a different filename than your video output!! You can end up overwriting your video with your audio file. The program does not double check this for you so be warned!

    If you want to keep your original audio without re-encoding, you can mux your output as an MKV file instead of an MP4 file. If you choose to do that it is not necessary to choose an audio file at this point.

    If your ready to go, click the ENQUEUE button in the Video section, and if you are encoding Audio, click the ENQUEUE button in the Audio section. Now click the QUEUE tab at the top of the Main MEGUI window to see your queued workload.

    Click START to begin the encoding process.

    When your encode is finished, you must then mux your audio in with your video.

    TOOLS -> MUXER -> MP4/MKV Muxer

    If you chose to encode your audio to MP4 then you should choose the MP4 Muxer. If you chose to keep the original audio, then choose the MKV muxer.

    Select your .MP4 Video file for the Video Input
    Select your audio input for the Audio Input section.
    If you have an OGG compatible chapter file you can select it here. MP4 files support chapter points. If you want to rip these from a DVD you can use DVD Decryptor and select the 'Chapter Information-OGG' option. I haven't figured out how to automatically extract them from Blue-Ray just yet

    Last but not least, specify your final Output filename in the Output | Muxed Output section and click the QUEUE button.

    After a few minutes you should have a completed file.

    Note that you must have an MP4 compatible codec installed like Nero, or the freeware FFDShow to play back these files.
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  2. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    THANKYOU!!!

    I've been wanting to do something like this for the past month, but wasn't aware of AviSynth.
    Regards,

    Rob
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  3. Thanks for the great guide, DJRumpy!

    Speaking to the Hi-Def conversions, in your experience (or anyone else's), how do Bluray &/or HD-DVD encodes to x264 look? Can one get a near perfect conversion whilst saving gigabytes of space? In rough numbers, how long would it take to encode an average length Hi-Def movie to an x264 file with something like a Core 2 Duo processor?

    I think most of us who have a Hi-Def format player also have a nice HDTV to go with, so we'd want to preserve the best quality when converting to another format.

    Thanks,
    jawgee
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  4. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    The encodes look excellent. I find h.264 to be much better with fine detail than the older xvid/divx codecs. For my blue-ray I typically rescale to a 720p resolution rather than keeping the 1080p simply for space considerations. I have a very large dvd collection that I've converted entirely to 264, keeping the original dvd resolutions. They look like 1:1 copies to my eye.

    Most of your newer hd-dvd/bd disks will use MPEG4 (H.264). The older ones ones are more likely to use MPEG-2. They typically state what encoding method they use on the box.
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    Sounds good.

    Is it possible for me to rip a blue ray or hd dvd to my harddrive on a normal dvd drive using
    slysoft any dvd HD.If so, as i dont yet have a blue ray or hd disc is there any chance you could upload me a file so that i could try out your method

    Thanks
    mike1
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  6. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by mike1
    Is it possible for me to rip a blue ray or hd dvd to my harddrive on a normal dvd drive using
    slysoft any dvd HD.
    No. You need a Blu-Ray or HD DVD drive.

    Originally Posted by mike1
    If so, as i dont yet have a blue ray or hd disc is there any chance you could upload me a file so that i could try out your method


    No - the files are gigabytes in size.
    Regards,

    Rob
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    I know that the files are gigabytes in size but is there a chance that a small sample file could be given?

    Thanks
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  8. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    I'm not inclined to upload one, as anything I have would be copyrighted material. That said, I suppose you could always ask in the main forum for a sample of a file in the main forum, or just download a sample from the newsgroups if you can find one.
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  9. Originally Posted by DJRumpy
    Most of your newer hd-dvd/bd disks will use MPEG4 (H.264). The older ones ones are more likely to use MPEG-2.
    I believe most HD-DVD disks are using VC-1. Can your guide be used for VC-1 source (sorry, I haven't tried it yet).
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  10. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    The source doesn't matter as long as you have the necessary decoders installed. MEGUI uses AVISynth and DirectShow to translate input sources to a compatible input format.
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  11. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    I was just fooling around with MEGUI a few days ago and I was following some guide that was OK but not that great. So your guide is most welcomed. Too bad I didn't notice it until just now LOL

    I don't know if I had some "extreme" settings but my 3.2Ghz Prescott running WinXP Pro took something like 2 hours or less to do the first pass but then took something like 12 hours to do the 2nd pass.

    The source was a DVD Rip not a HD source.

    Time to get a faster computer I guess LOL

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
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  12. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    If you use a slightly easier set of settings..something like one of the HQ profiles instead of the AE profiles, you can get the second pass encode done in 4-6 hours on a decent'ish machine. I use the more extreme profiles since I upgraded to dual core (the first pass never takes long, even on an older pc).

    If you choose you can always up the bitrate a bit and use a lesser profile to ease up the burden on the processor. h.264 is so much better than the older implementation of mpeg-4 in DivX and XviD that bitrate is easily tweaked to fit a DVD into very low bitrates with very little obvious loss in quality.

    I encoded over 300 dvd's and I kept pushing the limits of the codec to see how low I could go on the bitrate while retaining the full DVD resolutions. Typically, assuming the DVD was a nice clean source, 500-600 kbps easily do-able although I would occasionally catch a glimmer of compression artifacts in a scene here or there. That was with the settings maxed out. I typically stick with the AE-GoodQuality profile as a good balance on a dual core PC.
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  13. This is a very good guide and very similar to how I've been using MeGUI for the past few months. There are definitely some changes you made in the way you do things that I never considered, but can't wait to try...thanks!

    Jon
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  14. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    @DJRumpy

    How do you watch your H.246 encoded files?

    Do you watch them on a computer that is connected to a TV or do you use some sort of media streamer type player or what?

    Just curious is all.

    I can't see a "good solution" other than hooking up a computer to a TV and using a high end video card (such as one of the Nvidia cards that support PureVideo or the ATI cards with AVIVO).

    I realize H.246 is better than standard DivX and XviD but the nice thing about DivX and XviD is that I can burn to a DVD disc and play it back on my TV using a MPEG-4 capable DVD player.

    I'm not crazy about having to hook a computer up to my TV especially since I have one computer and it's nowhere near the TV *sigh*

    Sorry I realize I'm ranting a bit but I am curious as to how you watch your H.264 content.

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman

    P.S.
    I understand the Apple TV supports H.264 but do I really want to spend another $299 for a media streamer box? Still cheaper than a 2nd computer I suppose.
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  15. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    I use a media PC. I can't suggest one enough. Although you can buy black-box media devices, the aren't as flexible. Depending on what you buy you may not even be able to upgrade it. I not only use my Media PC for video, I also use it for storing all of my DVD's, my music, as a backup center for my other in-house PC's, etc. Just the money I saved on burning DVD's more than pays for it..lol

    It isn't necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on a video card, although you would want a decent card capable of 1080p playback, or if you don't have a 1080p TV, at least 1080i playback. I've used both nVidia and ATI. I prefer the nVidia simply due to their superior setup in the driver area. It doesn't take a lot of hardware to handle media playback. If you just have standard def tv, then just about any video card with Component or DVI/DHMI outputs, or worse case, even Composite output would work.

    I also bought an HD capture card for it so that I can turn it into a Tivo as needed.

    My current Media PC is a Core 2 duo (2.4Ghz), 2 GB of ram, XP, and 1TB of storage and an nVidia 7600 GS.

    My previous Media PC was an old hyperthreaded 3.0 Ghz P4 with 300 GB of HD space and a gig of ram using an old ATI 9800 video card. It didn't have any performance problems with my old one. I ended up replacing it due to a mother board failure.

    I don't think I could function without it at this point.
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  16. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    @DJRumpy

    Have you tried this with HD-DVD .EVO files?

    I've ripped a HD-DVD movie and demuxed the main feature to VC1 using EVODemux but every time I point the AviSynth scrip creator at it MeGUI just chokes in a noise of hard drive activity.

    Any ideas?
    Regards,

    Rob
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  17. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    As long as you have hte necessary codecs installed, you shouldn't have a problem. You should be able to play back the raw files using DirectShow with something like Windows Media Player or something similar. The .AVS file should also be play-able as well.
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  18. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Well, I've managed to get a video stream to VirtualDub but I'm still having problems with the audio (DTS) despite GraphEdit having both Cyberlink and Nero audio decoders in its filter list.

    Anything I'm leaving out?
    Regards,

    Rob
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  19. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    You'll have to be more specific about your audio problems guy. "Still having problems" doesn't tell me enough

    You should also be able to play the DTS stream directly, just like the video. If you can't, then something is still wrong with your codecs.

    The guide assumes you have a properly and configured system. I'll try to help if I can, but you may have better luck in the main forum with your issues.
    Impossible to see the future is. The Dark Side clouds everything...
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  20. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by DJRumpy
    You'll have to be more specific about your audio problems guy. "Still having problems" doesn't tell me enough
    Sorry - newbie mistake

    Both the original EVO and the rebuilt EVO (made from the demuxed VC1 and english dts) both play in CyberlinkPowerDVD.

    I've tried loading both the original EVO and the demuxed VC1 & dts files into meGUI: the EVO gives an AviSynth script error (DirectSHowSource: RenderFile, the filter graph manager won't talk to me) and the VC1 just chokes the program.

    I've got round this by making a graph in graph edit that uses the Haali Media Splitter to output the video of the rebuilt EVO into the WMVideo Decoder DMO, and using the resultant GRF file in an avs script. This avs can be dragged straight into VirtualDub MPEG and the video stream visualised

    However, the audio is causing problems. I can't get any graph edit filters to agree on a connection and the meGUI method gives:

    Error:
    MeGUI.AviSynthException: DirectShowSource: Could not open as video or audio.

    Video returned: "DirectShowSource: RenderFile, the filter graph manager won't talk to me"

    Audio returned: "DirectShowSource: RenderFile, the filter graph manager won't talk to me"

    at MeGUI.AviSynthClip..ctor(String func, String arg, AviSynthColorspace forceColorspace, AviSynthScriptEnvironment env)
    at MeGUI.AviSynthAudioEncoder.encode()
    Essentially, I need to get the audio in a usable form (wav, mp3 etc) from either the rebuilt EVO or the dts file.
    Regards,

    Rob
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  21. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    Your DirectShow setup still isn't working properly if your getting that error. Try FFDShow for the audio (make sure it's configured to decode it in the audio filter selection), and then use GraphEdit to write the DTS to an AC3 5.1 file using ffdshow.
    Impossible to see the future is. The Dark Side clouds everything...
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  22. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    I'll re-format and re-install XP this w/e to try and get things configured right from scratch.

    This is my typical sledgehammer approach to PCs
    Regards,

    Rob
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  23. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    Try FFDShow first. If it doesn't work, you've only lost a few minutes, no?
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  24. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Just about everything I try results in a "GRF file does not have a compatible open audio pin" error.
    Regards,

    Rob
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  25. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    To take a step back, should I be working with the demuxed dts audio file or with the remuxed EVO?
    Regards,

    Rob
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  26. Member DJRumpy's Avatar
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    Whether or not hte audio is muxed or not doesn't matter. The AVISynth script will filter remove the DTS audio from the input via DirectShow. You can do it either way.

    Post your question in the main forum and see if anyone has any other suggestions. Reinstalling is a bit extreme and something more common on Windows 95/98 then XP

    It's most likely just a codec issue which could easily be fixed with a little adding/removing of programs.
    Impossible to see the future is. The Dark Side clouds everything...
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  27. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Thanks
    Regards,

    Rob
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  28. Greetings all. I was very interested in this thread, as it's the first I've seen discussing converting HD-DVD files to iPod format. Since I bought Heroes on HD-DVD, I don't want to have to re-buy the show in DVD or other formats to convert and watch on an iPod touch.

    So, starting at the top, I downloaded the applications as requested. And as best I can tell, I still don't have what I need to convert an HD-DVD file. I've ripped the HD-DVD to the hard drive with AnyDVD HD, gone to the HVDVD_TS folder, and tried selecting the 1GENESIS.EVO file with meGUI directly, AVISynth, DGIndex, etc. Looking in FFDShow, if there is a codec to configure for HD-DVD, I can't figure it out. Maybe someone else has an answer there.

    In any event, I'm crashing every program I try to open the EVO files with, and not sure how to proceed. Any help is appreciated.
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  29. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    Demux/Rebuild the EVO with EVOdemux to remove unwanted audio streams and subs then use GraphEdit:

    Haali Media Splitter ---> WMVideo Decoder DMO

    Save as video.GRF and make and AviSyth script:

    DirectShowSource("C:\FILEPATH\video.GRF",fps=23.9759856527702,audio=false)
    #Not doing anything because the source is progressive


    ConvertToYV12()
    and save as .avs

    This avs should be accepted by VirtualDub, TMPGEnc etc.


    I'm still stuck on the audio.
    Regards,

    Rob
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  30. Member Soopafresh's Avatar
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    Wow, fantastic How-To guide, DJRumpy. Really clear and precise. My only suggestion is to change your title, since you're talking about h264 and not h246
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