Batch Convert AVI/OGM/MKV to DVD (anime)

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

http://aktee.t35.com/

This guide will teach you how to make a Batch (*.bat) file that will:
1- Generate Avisynth (*.avs) files
2- Convert Video to DVD-Compliant files (MPEG2, *.m2v)
3- Convert Audio to DVD-Compliant files (*.mp2)
4- Multiplex the Video + Audio (*.mpg)
Unlike other guides, this one will do that to multiple video, with a few click, seamlessly, without wasting time between each steps.

In other word, this is for layzie people, or people with 150 episode to encode ^^.

It currently support:
CCE 2.71 SP & Basic
QuENC (freeware)
FFMPEG (freeware)

Video Source supported
-AVI (FullScreen or WideScreen)
-BETA: OGM (Fullscreen or Widescreen), 2 max audio, 1 subtitle track.

OGM is in BETA STAGE. It will only works on OGM with
1 Video,
2 Audio,
1 Subtitle.
It will convert the VIDEO, Convert the Audio, and leave the Subtitle at SRT Format. All that is left to do is Author.

MKV!!!
A friend of mine over at AnimeSuki, named GHDPro, created a veeeery nice PHP script for AVI/MKV!
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=38694
It automatically detects if the source is widescreen or fullscreen... And best of all: It can queue!!! Damn Nice! Take a look! =)).

Future Plans:
-Test and test and test OGM
-Screenshots/Precise Benchmark for each encoder. Instead of encoding at high bitrate, I will encode at low (2000kbps) to see which one has the best quality at low bitrate. I also will benchmark in Single-Pass VBR (Q Factor of 35), and post the screenshot.
-Add Basic Authoring script (This will Author the files without menu. You will still have chapters, and if you have OGM, it will dual-audio and soft-sub it.)
-MKV Support! Soon Enough!

Baldrick, please update =((..
http://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=812&howtoselect=4;10#812

Ultra_Immortal · Member Joined: 13 Jun 2004 Location: South Africa

So if I use the Trial Version of CCE SP 2.66 it will leave a watermark.
Then I rather not use it then.
I checked the Price on this Program.
$1950 and that is so Over Board.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

CCE Basic works too. I just don't have it! =|.

It's 60 bucks, same price as TMPGENC Xpress.

I put the SP Trial version, because the trial of Basic only works for 3 minute + watermark
The trial on SP is unlimited, but with watermark.

Quality is the same. 1900$ of difference.

Ultra_Immortal · Member Joined: 13 Jun 2004 Location: South Africa

Are there other MPEG 2 Encoders that will be able to work. And did you get my PM.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

You can use any encoder if you want. But I use CCE because of the command-line function.
Using TMPGENC is a kind of "waste", since you can't really start it off a batch file. That means, you'll have to encode, wait 'til it finishes, and open the batch. Sucks eh? =\.

You could try QuENC. It's free and it's command-line, too.

and Yes I have received your PM, Also added you. We're jut not online at the same time =|| haha.

viqu · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Location: NY

Hey im using TMPG Encoder and the dvd author too. I am having issues with anime subtitles. I have gotten them to stop form being cut off from tht e bottom but now the sides are cut off on some long sentences. Any pointers?

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

well hmm, if you followed my guide, the subtitle aren't supposed to be cut off.

If it is, put a bigger value for the AddBorder line in the AVS Line.

With TMPGENC Encoder, I believe you just have to use its built-in filter.
When you add the file, press on Filter, and select "Resize".
Image position: Center (Custom Size)
and put 660 x 440.

It should fix your problem.

viqu · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Location: NY

alright i cannot find the filter selection settings.
All the other stuff is set up.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

which version of tmpgenc you have? the instruction I gave below was for TMPGENC Xpress.

If you have the free version (TMPGENC), open the AVS file instead of the AVI one.

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

Your guide was *exactly* what I was looking for.
I've been collection Naruto since ep 8, and always wondered how to transform the .avi's to DVD. Now I can make my Bleach (fansubbed and unlicensed) DVD's! (If you like Naruto, give Bleach a try!)

Your CCE SP 2.67 guide was straightforward and on the money.

I then started making the FOR lopps to renumber the commands in the batch file, and i see that you've taken even *that* to the next level by batch creating the .avs files!

Great stuff.

Quick ?'s:
Why the switch from CCE 2.66(67) to 2.70? is it the speed, quality, etc.?
How much more useful does CCEFront really make CCE 2.70?
In the Framserving .avs, is the quality difference *that* apparent using Lanczos4Resize over LanczosResize?

Sorry for the deluge of questions, but the PC I use to do the conversions is at work, and I figured I'd ask the person who took the time to hammer this out.

Once again, GREAT guide. You've made quite a few anime friends *very* happy!

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

WOHOOOO! Finally someone who tells me it's cool.

Some people complained a little bit because, as far as I know, CCE 2.66-267 is no longer on the market, only 2.70..

Some people like me, kept 2.66 because we liked it. Some other were new so they had to buy it..

CCEFRONT for 2.70 is a command-line extender for CCE. In our tutorial, it won't really be useful.. but, it's really useful to do other things (Like the RoBA thing for one-pass VBR). If you only intend to convert anime, don't bother =))

2.70 is somewhat slower, on my machine. I heard it was slower for AMD machines, not sure about this. Speed is great anyway (still better than TMPGENC hehe).

About LanczosResize.. I cannot see any diff with Lanczos and Lanczos4 with Naruto, but I can with hollywood movies. I guess I just put it there for people who wasn't happy wth the quality.

And yeah, I know bleach, I'm done converting it

thanks for your comments man

kodaikun · Member Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Location: USA

This was one helpful guide! Buuut, I've got some issues with what I've done thus far:

Every file I've tried to convert has the sound thrown off track with the video. If I convert using just gui4ffmpeg, it's flawless, except the subs get cut off. So I need to figure out the borders.

I tried the CCE, but don't want to have the watermark covering up the subs either, so I'm giving Tmpgenc a try. Is there a way to fix this sound problem? It just seems the sound gets mixed up when the screen is resized.....

I'll keep trying myself, but any help is appreciated!

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

Tell me your steps.
-What video encoder
-What audio encoder

I don't really understand your post (2 am in the morning, you really got to forgive me hehe). You said you had some issues with my guide, but you say you was using gui4ffmpeg and tmpgenc, which are not yet included in my guide.

First of all, you could do it by opening the AVS FILE instead of the AVI FILE with Gui4ffmpeg. Not sure if it accepts avs files, but it should.

If it's with TMPGENC, you could also load the AVS file instead of the AVI file. Maybe TMPGENC have a problem with pulldowning the video..

anyway, just tell me clearly what tools you're using

peace!

--
edit

If you want a good mpeg encoder, try QUENC. plus I got a tut for it.

edit2

I just used FFMPEG. Holy cow, it's friggin fast. Quality is not so good at 2000 but it's good, real good. Thanks to you, you convinced me into doing a batch-tutorial for it

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

OK. I converted 12 eps using the CCE 2.67 tutorial (i dont have 2.70) and it worked perfectly.

I tried 13, and the audio is not syncing. The final 13.mpg is 29 mins, but the audio of this file (and the other *good* .mpg files) are 23mins.

my starting 13.avi (and .avs) files are sync'd fine, (i did 13.avi with the other 12, and it is just like the rest.) I created the .ecl project with 13.avs using almost the same template as i used with 1-12, and the batch is untouched (only creating 13.)

The *only* change i made was decreasing the video bitrate from 1750 to 1500 in the ECL template.

yet, using the other same settings for this one solo file, the final .mpg audio is shorter than the video.

any ideas?

Thanks.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

first of all, you shouldn't be putting bitrate less than 2000. It won't be DVD-Compliant... I know mine accepts it, but just to be sure..

My guess is that, your episode 13 is ALREADY 29.970 fps.
Try to GSPOT your original episode 13, and tell me the framerate.
If it's already 29.970 (or 29, or 30, sometime program tend to roud the number), skip the PULLDOWN part for that episode.

Pulldown transform 23.976fps into 29. If the video is already 29, it will pulldown anyway, which will make a non-syncinc video.

tell me if this fix your prob. btw, just to be curious, what anime are you convertnig? =))

jimmalenko · VH Veteran Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Location: Down under

kodaikun · Member Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Location: USA

Sorry for not being totally clear on that.

I started with using CCE, but since the basic demo only does 3 minutes... I moved on. I TRIED QuEnc, but everytime I ran the created batch, it would tell me "Unable to read from file C:\encodedvideo\movie.avs" and just encode the audio. So I moved on to ffmpeg12, which as I said, converts the AVIs to MPGs with no change in quality, from what I could see, BUT it would cut off subs if run on a DVD player. Finally, I saw a post here about tmpgenc, and to use the 660X440 resolution to make it work. I tried this, and the result was audio out of sync with the video.

I've trying to convert Gundam Seed Destiny eps, in case that may help explain what I'm doing.

Thanks for the help! I'm also hitting the tut again, just to make sure I didn't miss a typo on my part.

Oh yeah, you're welcome for the info on ffmpeg12, I'm looking forward to any tutorials you do for that one as well!

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

jimmalenko · VH Veteran Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Location: Down under

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

I'm home and the workhorse PC is at work, so i cant GSpot right now, but will update tomorrow morn.

I'm doing an old Fruits Basket (great anime!) for a friend.

The final .mpg sizes are 24mins. I wanted to fit 13 (!) eps on one DVD, so i used the calc and got 1750kb for video (192 aud).

But using TMPG author i was 85MB over. So i decided to just re-encode 12 and 13 at 1500kb to make them all fit, (there's only 26 eps, so why make disc1 01-12, disc2 13-24 and disc3 25+26? just make 2 discs!) 12 worked just fine by itself, but 13 by itself is not syncing.

I also saw that the time of my original .m2v encodes (1750kb) were 24 mins, (same time as my orig .avi files), but the 1500 encoded .m2v files were 11 and 16 mins...weird. the mplex of the 11 min created the OK 24 min final .mpg. The 16 min encoded file mplex'd to a 30 min final .mpg file (which is why the 24 min audio isnt syncing.)

i'm *sure* im missing a command somewhere, but i just cant see it. even though i didnt change anything in the batch.

i dont know alot about the dvd specs and bitrates (though i'm a nerd, and enjoyed learning from everyone's posts! Thanks.) i know the 1500 eps (12 and 13) in dvd format played on my co-worker's Mac dvd playing software...i'll test it against the OLD dvd player we have in office and see if it likes the 1500kb episodes.

i hope this (longwinded notetaking) helps!

Thanks everyone.

jimmalenko · VH Veteran Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Location: Down under

This may or may not assist, but how about authoring oversize with TMPGEnc DVD Author, then using DVDShrink (or any other transcoder) to pull down the 85MB ?
_________________
If in doubt, Google it.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

I didnt think about (or have ever used) DVDShrink.

Thanks for the idea jimma! i'll try that next time.

I ended up doing all 13 over again overnight. reading your post aktee, it might be a FPS issue. i dont know. here's what i DO know after the "do-over":
-all 13 .m2v's in "workspace" are all perfectly synced and the right size and times (24mins)
-the encoded1-12.m2v's are perfect(24mins); encoded13.m2v is 16 mins. wtf?

i'm guessing this is what's throwing the mplex off.

to answer your other questions: i'm using your earlier tutorial (using CCE 2.67 and ECLCCE). I used FOR LOOPS to help with the repetition of code (yeah, DOS batch files rock.) so i dont change anything. each file is using the same commands

I have tested 1700kb on our OLD SONY dvd and it plays. the quality is pretty damn good, and i'm pretty peculiar. there's minor artifacting here and there, but it's Naruto and Fruits (and One Piece), NOT Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell. My friend has been watching Fruits and has been *very* happy with the quality.

I have been the anime freak and have .avi files for *days* but no one else could watch them. This project is helping me to share my anime with my DVD only friends. so a slight loss in quality is worth the convenience to them.

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

And I checked with GSpot.

13.avi *is* 29.9 FPS while the others are 23.9.

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

Hehehe =)

skip the Pulldown part for episode 13.

If you're doing the manual way (old tutorial), it's rather easy, just delete the part with episode 13.

If you're doing the FOR LOOPS way, edit the file named "Batch_for_episode13.bat", delete the pulldown line, and that's it.

=D Hope it works.

You know what, I think i'll develop my batch further, so that if the framerate is 23.976, it won't pulldown.
Must be easy with "IF" command, I just need a command-line prog that will detect framerate now.. =\\\\.

struelove · Member Joined: 14 Mar 2002

I followed your guide to the T (I thought). But when I run the batchconvert.bat in the OriginalAVI folder with the AVIs to convert, I get the prompt "All you have to do now is open MainConverter.bat". Six files named batch_for_famguy_1.bat (and so on) show up in the folder. And when I go to the EncodedVideo folder (I see the AviSynth files) and the Batch folder and execute the MainConverter.bat file. Nothing happens. Help, please! Thanks

soundwave4 · Member Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: East Coast, USA

Give Aktee a prize!

skipping the pulldown on the 29.9 FPS episodes and mplex'ing worked just fine. I tested it on 2 files that ended up being 29.9, and it fixed the sync issue.

Thanks for all your help guys!

aktee · Member Joined: 15 May 2005 Location: Montreal

kodaikun · Member Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Location: USA

Aktee,

I tried to run the Quenc batch here at work, following the instructions step by step, install all the needed programs, Quenc, DVD2VCD, and that dll file. I even installed the codec pack you mentioned, when I run the mainencoding.bat file, I get the following in a command window:

PULLDOWN - v0.99d, by Hard Code
[Based on sources by Brent Beyeler (beyeler@home.com)

Unable to read from file c:\EncodedVideo\Destiny32.m2v.
BeSweet v1.5b26 by DSPguru

Then it encodes the audio portion.

This happens with ANY video file I place in OriginalAVI folder.

So I'm getting the same result here as I get at home.... HELP! I gotta be doing something wrong here..........

BTW I'm waiting with baited breath for the ffmpeg tutorial