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  1. I got excited and hit the Mux button already. The process didn't take very long, said ok when it was done but....

    What I got was an MKA file. This must be audio b/c I got no video playback in VLC though the Leveled version was detected by my listening. I listened to most of the 2 hours just to get what was going on. You may be right about some of what you said about the output of Levelator and there may be some improvements to do. But all that loud stuff interfering with the spoken word was tamed in the usual way.

    Given the setup above, why did I get audio only and yet another odd file format? I must have misread it the first time-- it being mouse type down there.

    I thought I would get one video (1.) and one audio (3.) and so checked those two. I'm not getting something about the way the program looks and its options. The Handbrake file I'm using-- the MP4 changed to MKV-- all this is real confusing-- is the right size at 1.2 gb.

    There are programmers in this world, why all this juggling needed?

    Also must have missed which of the many prog.s mentioned gets the .wav into AAC again. I'll go back and peruse.

    --

    I did a default install of MeGUI but not the Nero AAC yet.

    That's as much as I can respond to.
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  2. To be honest when it comes to muxing I don't think it gets much easier than MKVMergeGUI. It maybe has a few quirks but once you're familiar with it, which shouldn't take too long....

    MKVMergeGUI can only output MKV. The fact that it can open other file types is something for which we should be offering sacrifices to the gods, or the MKVToolnix developer, otherwise every time you wanted to remux the contents of an MP4/AVI/VOB etc as MKV you'd be forced to extract them manually first. Luckily you can open lots of files, de-select the tracks you don't want, then mux as MKV.
    Try muxing MP4s with MP4Box and you'll probably want to have a cry after a while. Even using My MP4Box GUI can be a patience tester. You can't open MKVs with it, or much else aside from MP4. Want to create an M4A? Sorry..... you can't add audio until you've added video... use something else.... and compared to MKVMergeGUI it's mind-numbingly, go make a coffee, take the dog for a walk, slow.
    You can put almost any type of video/audio/subtitles in an MKV, whereas MP4.... not so much.

    MKV = matroska video
    MKA = matroska audio.

    There's other variations for 3D etc but those two are the most common. I've never experienced your problem but I ran a few little test muxes.....

    MKA is probably just MKV with a different extension.... I don't know.... but I managed to successfully create an MKA containing video too. MPC-HC opened it and displayed the video as it would for an MKV, but I have MKAs associated with foobar2000 so it opens them via a double click.

    Anyway.... MKVMergeGUI should automatically default to the best extension when you open a file and select/de-select tracks etc. It may change automatically, but normally it gets it right. If for some reason it doesn't, you can change the extension manually before you start muxing. MKVMergeGUI outputing an MKA on it's own when the muxing job contains video seems a little unusual.
    Last edited by hello_hello; 9th Jul 2014 at 05:17.
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  3. We have now established that I _am_ an old lady and touched something and broke it. Okay for that.

    I will give it another whirl and more carefully than just 'seeing what I can see' of the interface.

    If I check the file _size_ of MKA I should be able to see that it is the right size for video.
    Did that and it is.

    The thought occurred to me while reading your reply that I might try to rename the MKA to MKV and see if VLC or MPC player then shows me some video. I got a fresh MPC HC. I renamed the file to .MKV. Still nothing.

    I am starting over.

    Perhaps I am not getting things where they belong in the program and/or selecting too many
    check boxes in the lower pane where all the files are audio. The goal is get the Levelator file file called .output.wav muxed to the MP4 that Handbrake originally downsized for me and plays correctly.

    I can't do more right now than say I'll report back.

    When I return, from your previous posts (which I _do_ read) I should have an AAC made from my Levelator .WAV and use that AAC with my video in MKVMerge.


    You're right I'm pretty slow on the uptake for this. A program like MKVmerge has a Source box and a Target box with a box to select audio. When I do it, it's like the old Firesign Theater routiine called "Everything You Know Is Wrong."
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  4. I have not given up on this but I see a problem on the road to doing all these patch installs.

    Looking at my previous install of Nero AAC on XP I looked at the folder and the two folders in there said Linux and Win32. I may be heading down a blind alley with that since all these programs are now on my on Win7 x64 Ultimate. On re-reading again, I see that the Preferred Filter Tweaker may work for Win 7.

    Alternatively, since I usually depend on Goldwave to do the converting (not encoding but who knows the difference?) I looked out at Google and virtually nothing. They all want to convert my .wav to .aac online in the cloud or some such.

    --

    I think I made some sort of error using gMKVmergeGUI.

    Without all the file conversions I will go through that again (which I thought I did but had obvious errors because no video.) What should be in the top pane if I use the original 'big' mkv?

    There are no guides for gMKVmergeGUI that I can find. All I know is that what I did didn't work.

    And I have the .WAV to merge with it. No AAC b/c through all this a way is not obvious.

    ---

    And I'll add AVI Synth+ 2.6.0.5
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  5. After you download the Nero AAC encoder, all you need to do is copy neroAacEnc.exe from the win32 folder to the MeGUI\tools\eac3to foler and enable the nero aac encoder in MeGUI's options under the external program configuration tab. That's it. You can then use MeGUI to convert the wave file to AAC.
    MeGUI is a 32 bit program. It uses a 32 bit version of Avisynth. You can run 32 bit programs on a 64 bit version of Windows.

    The preferred filter tweaker doesn't really have anything to do with the encoding as such. It's for adjusting which codecs are used by default when decoding via DirectShow.

    I assume you're referring to MKVMergeGUI and not gMKVmergeGUI, given the latter doesn't have two panes?
    The top pane contains the name of any file you open, You can open multiple files at a time.
    The lower pane contains the individual streams in each of those files. Some only have one stream (ie an MP3) while others can contain multiple streams (MKV/MP4/AVI etc).

    Load the wave file into MeGUI's audio section. If you've copied neroAacEnc.exe to the correct location and enabled it in MeGUI's options you can select the Nero Encoder from the "Encoder Settings" drop down list, add the audio encoding job to the queue and run it.
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  6. I understand the win 32 folder then and that should be easy to do. I've done it before. Those other installs-- maybe tomorrow. I have phone problems now and have to get that working.

    The problem, according to what you said, is that I had the original video file container and an audio stream up in the top as well.

    The right way would be video container media (mkv) top and replacement audio stream in the other one. At least we are doing some error checking now.

    I'll be back to this when I can.

    I'm still amazed at how you can jump in and out of all these things people bring in questions about. For me concentration is not the best.
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  7. The problem, according to what you said, is that I had the original video file container and an audio stream up in the top as well.
    No. If you want to replace the existing audio in an MKV, you'd open the MKV and the new audio at the same time. They'd both be listed in the top pane.

    You can open the various files with MKVMergeGUI in any order you like. The lower pane will contain all the streams within those files. You can de-select the ones you don't want to include when muxing and the up/down boxes let you re-order them first.
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  8. Thanks for answering. I have not gone to mkv merge yet but there is progress:

    I got Avi SynthPlus-r.1576 which is the currect version for x64.

    I put on the Nero AAC 1.5.1 folder into MeGUI tools

    and I found the Haali Media Spletter for x64 which is called MatroskaSplitter as it's file name. No wonder people get confused.

    Then I have to confirm that I am using MKVMergeGUI rather than the other one starting with a lower case letter. Is it any wonder why all this juggling is frustrating.

    I think there is an FFDshow for x64 as well.

    Plus I just saw something I forgot: The Preferred Filter Tweaker which I will get directly from
    VideoHelp.

    And last, there is a LAME x64 as well. All this is involved in building to the Win 7 Ultimate environment
    layered on all that which I don't know about MKV.
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  9. One short followup. I did not know how to setup Preferred Filter Tweaker and used all the defaults. There are many more settings in it however for FFDshow and other programs. Pulling all this together in x64 seems to be a big assemblage.
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  10. I'd just stick with the 32 bit versions of everything. MeGUI is 32 bit. I'm not sure you can even use a 64 bit version of Avisynth with it. MeGUI comes with it's own portable version of Avisynth which it uses unless you tell it otherwise. I'm pretty sure it's 32 bit regardless of the version of Windows you're running. I'm pretty sure MeGUI also comes with the LAME encoder. As far as I know (I haven't started from scratch with MeGUI myself for quite a while) all you need to do is install the Haali Splitter and stick the NereoAAC enoder in the eac3to folder. You seem to be over-complicating things.

    At one stage, when you downloaded MeGUI it included all the other tools it uses in the download. That may have changed. I kind of recall some of them being automatically downloaded the first time you use them instead now, or something like that, but as I've not started from scratch with MeGUI for quite a while, I'm not 100% sure how it works now..... aside from the fact I'm fairly sure you shouldn't need to worry about anything except NeroAAC and Haali yourself. And Avisynth if you want it installed, but I don't think a 64 bit version will work. Most Avisynth plugins (especially the ones MeGUI uses) are 32 bit.

    MKVMergeGUI and the one starting with the lower case letter (gMKVExtractGUI) are two completely different programs. The former muxes, the latter extracts.

    Microsoft decided to make it harder to decode some formats via your preferred DirectShow decoder (ie ffdshow) when using Win7. If you want to use something other than the built-in Windows codecs, you might need to change them with a utility such as the Preferred Filter Tweaker. As far as I know that's a Win7 thing..... nothing to do with Win7 being 32 bit or 64 bit.
    It's not something you really need to worry about unless you need to use ffdshow for decoding a particular format and it can't. MeGUI doesn't use DirectShow for decoding unless it absolutely has to, or you tell it to. As a general rule, decoding video via DirectShow is a "last resort" method.
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  11. I'll make sure I'm using the right program though mkv this and mvk that and (lowercase)g mkv this and that is something I am still trying to organize into some sort of workable routine on the way up the ladder from AVI's.

    I'll leave off of preferred filter tweaker altogether as it has to many options to screw up.
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  12. I am back and I have almost gotten past the TMI (Too Much Information) stage of what has been given.

    Today I have loaded MKVmerge

    I added the original mkv content (6gb
    I added the Lev processed audio (1.39 gb wav

    In the lower pane it shows what has been collected as video and audio with three checked boxes.

    Video
    Audio
    Lev audio

    Now to mux these should I select 1 and 3 but not 2?

    Ok I'll try that but if I get no picture again another starting point has to be found because this everything you do is wrong stuff is enough.

    time passes

    This time the process seems to have succeeded. I've gone on to redo the MKV downsize job in Handbrake
    which will take a couple hours.

    I did not mess with making an AAC file out of the .WAV and named .output in The Levelator. MKVMerge seems to have handled it but I have to go back and proof the content by ear.

    While this job is going on I can go back and listen to your audio samples.

    (I just had a concern about disk space too-- will see if the Handbrake job completes.)
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  13. Sound clips

    I ran them all once through. I'm still partial to the quieting that Levelator does to sudden loud noises.
    My favorite sudden loud noise content is a series of anime called Appleseed. I was able to get those under control with Levelator. In old age my ears are made of tin though.

    Next jobs will be to explore your methods one and two. There is still a lot to learn for these new containers and programs.
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  14. The process at post # 42 worked fine.

    Here I am going to not that the process is easy if you look carefully at the listing in the lower pane.
    What I had done was select only audio (thinking that the upper pane contained the video for multiplexing) the first time and so got only audio as a result. My caution is that there is no error checking by the program of the "would you like fries with that?" variety saying there is only one audio stream selected to 'mux'. The job just proceeds and you get no video.

    I used Handbrake to resize the mkv and that went smoothly and the output even at 500+ mb is perfectly adequate.
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  15. That explains why you ended up with an MKA file rather than an MKV originally, as your first attempt only contained audio. That's to be expected, given MKVMergeGUI will output either. It was just doing what you told it to do.
    Once you get the hang of MKVMergeGUI it's very easy to use.
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  16. I probably wouldn't stress too much over getting my audio compression method to work if you're happy with Levelator. At least not yet. I prefer it (it's all personal taste) but you've probably got enough to get your head around for the moment if you want to use MeGUI for encoding.
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  17. As always I appreciate the patience with my frustrations and the assistance given.

    The difference in the audio methods is that I want those loud parts really _stepped on_ and that's what Levelator does. It's perfectly fine that an overly loud military drum (not quite as big as a tympani) goes down to barely audible. In these medieval plays I've found that the original wind instrumentation used is not affected much by the change.

    I will explore the MeGUI methods as well.

    We've discussed using DVDShrink to get a 'main title' into the VOB set if I'm using the term correctly.
    Is that still the starting point to prepare a dvd or bluray? If not, what are tools used to prepare the dvd for encoding with the new format?

    Ripbot264 seems to be in current development yet and has a large discussion at Doom9. I'm wondering how long DVDShrink will be viable as a tool.
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  18. Yeah.... the DVD video needs to be prepared for encoding with MeGUI the same way you'd do it for AutoGK. MeGUI doesn't open ifo files as AutoGK does though. You need to open the first vob file in a set and the rest will be included as they would be when encoding with AutoGK.

    I think DVD Shrink will still be use-able for quite a while. Even when it comes to DVDs which have copy protection it can't cope with, I still use it for ripping. Only for those discs I run AnyDVD in the background doing the decrypting.

    I haven't used Ripbot264 myself. No particular reason, other than I just haven't. I think I tried giving it a spin a while ago and discovered it requires JAVA, and I didn't have JAVA installed at the time so that put an end to the idea, because I was too lazy to install it. I do have JAVA installed now though, so maybe I should give Ripbot another look.
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  19. I am reluctant to install Java for all the effect it has on web browsing and so am glad to hear that you have noticed this requirement which I see as arbitrary and intrusive.

    Wherefore then is the path for Bluray? I still have little use for it.
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  20. JAVA is listed in Firefox's plugin list so it should be pretty easy to disable it for browsing.... at least if you use Firefox.
    I had a look at the list of plugins and discovered I have one called "Google Update". How that got onto the PC I don't know (maybe when I tried Chrome a while back) but why on earth does it need to run as a Firefox plugin?
    Wherefore then is the path for Bluray? I still have little use for it.
    I'm not sure what you mean.
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  21. Member
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    You disable Sun Java from web browsers. There is a setting in the Java applet in control panel.
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  22. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    JAVA is listed in Firefox's plugin list so it should be pretty easy to disable it for browsing.... at least if you use Firefox.
    I had a look at the list of plugins and discovered I have one called "Google Update". How that got onto the PC I don't know (maybe when I tried Chrome a while back) but why on earth does it need to run as a Firefox plugin?
    Wherefore then is the path for Bluray? I still have little use for it.
    I'm not sure what you mean.
    Let's not get into long quotes but I simply asked how you suggest to prepare a Bluray vs DVD or is it a matter of using a current version of Anydvd which is Bluray enabled?

    As to Java, after many years I read the wiki description. I sounds like an information collector
    as so much else is that I try to get off my system. I was also reluctant to move to Win 7 for the same reason.
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  23. AnyDVDHD can decrypt Bluray discs. It'll rip them too but I use the HD Streams Extractor (under MeGUI's Tools menu) to do the ripping with AnyDVDHD running in the background.
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  24. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    AnyDVDHD can decrypt Bluray discs. It'll rip them too but I use the HD Streams Extractor (under MeGUI's Tools menu) to do the ripping with AnyDVDHD running in the background.

    That would seem to take care of the foreseeable future which is what I wanted to know. I have no bluray drive at this time nor player either.
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  25. Well..... at least I tried....

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    Maybe one day in the future I'll be bored, the PC won't be in the middle of doing something, and I'll be happy to let Ripbot264 reboot it. Or I might just wait until I finish building the new PC and I'm running Win7.

    Edit: I found the missing font in the RipBot folder, installed it manually and now RipBot is running, no reboot required.
    Last edited by hello_hello; 22nd Jul 2014 at 09:01.
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  26. Well one thing I definitely like about RipBot is the way it handles manual changes to a script. MeGUI lets you make changes, but if you then adjust anything in the GUI (ie cropping or resizing etc) MeGUI re-writes the whole script and you need to re-do any manual changes. It's not the end of the world but it can be annoying. Ripbot doesn't re-write the whole script when you change something in the GUI, it only adds/changes the bits it needs to.
    Ripbot also lets you adjust the brightness and saturation etc via it's GUI, which would sometimes be handy.

    Because Ripbot and MeGUI are both Avisynth based encoders and both let you manually modify the scripts they create and preview the changes there's no real difference between them in that respect. Ripbot has a simpler interface but there's a bunch of stuff MeGUI helps you with which Ripbot doesn't.... calculating aspect ratio distortion when resizing, setting the correct aspect ratio for anamorphic encoding, that sort of thing.... RipbBot may be the only GUI I've used which doesn't at least adjust the video height as you resize the width (it does in batch mode, but not single encode mode)...... and I'm not crazy about the way it previews video (still frames only when adjusting cropping).

    There's nothing wrong with RipBot as such, but for the way I encode, which is generally to create a script from scratch for each encoding job, it's back to MeGUI for me.
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  27. Originally Posted by hello_hello View Post
    Well..... at least I tried....

    Image
    [Attachment 26525 - Click to enlarge]


    Maybe one day in the future I'll be bored, the PC won't be in the middle of doing something, and I'll be happy to let Ripbot264 reboot it. Or I might just wait until I finish building the new PC and I'm running Win7.

    Edit: I found the missing font in the RipBot folder, installed it manually and now RipBot is running, no reboot required.

    I thought this warning box was an error on my Win 7. {
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  28. I haven't kept up, but I think Microsoft has changed the way Windows displays fonts once or twice. Being a CRT user like me you're probably oblivious to it, as text displays fine and doesn't require something like Cleartype to make it semi-readable.
    I'm not 100% sure, but I think Cleartype is on the way out and there's a different font rendering method now, and maybe it requires special fonts to work correctly. I don't know.... maybe someone else does.

    As an experiment though, I used the Win7 font in question (consola.ttf) to display some text with MetaPad and compared it to good old Verdana, no Cleartype to make it look like crap. Hopefully a pic will work to show the difference, but the Win7 font looks like some sort of psuedo-cleartype thing, and my guess is Ripbot uses it to make text readable no matter which version of Windows you're running with an LCD display. But..... if you still use a CRT you get crappy looking text like everyone else. Or maybe I'm completely wrong......

    Verdana:
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    Consola:
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    Last edited by hello_hello; 22nd Jul 2014 at 11:42.
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  29. Member
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    I'll be upgrading this PC soon, or at least replacing the MB/CPU. They'll get moved to an old case and continue running XP, but I guess this PC is headed for Win7 pretty soon (no XP drivers for the MB I want).
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