Encoding AVI

[Broka]

Hello everyone,
i have a series, most of the seasons are basic xvid mpeg-4 and layer3 sound but one or two are different and my dvd player doesn't like it so i need to convert them to the same basic format the question is how or with what?
thx.

[joepic]

Tools needed to understand source file:

GSpot
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=gspot&Submit=Search ... rfeatures=

MediaInfo
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfo

Conversion software:

ALLtoAVI
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=alltoavi&Submit=Sea ... rfeatures=

You will need to play with the VIDEO BITRATE or QUANTIZER in ALLtoAVI to get the quality you want. This is where GSpot and MediaInfo come into play as you compare the source file specs against the destination .AVI file.

[Broka]

Hmmm i need a little help with the first one , every time i press convert i get no result...
these are the specs for the first file
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/479/445pq0.jpg

[Baldrick]

Try reconvert with avi recomp.

[Broka]

Thanks a lot baldrick that program is awesome
one minor thing tho, the output video came out a little not synchronized there was a difference between the original and output of 7 kbps, i asked for the same avi size is that ok or should it be bigger or something?

also i got a season thats .ogm but it seems avi recomp only takes avi how should i deal with this?

[Broka]

Don't want to nag but i could really use an answer by tomorrow...

[mats.hogberg]

AutoGK is another tool to try. Since all these apps are reencoding, the output size may be anything. To compensate for the inevitable quality drop when reencoding, use a little higher bit rate (=bigger file).
ogm is quite a different beast to deal with; read on here:
https://www.videohelp.com/guides?searchtext=&tools=&madeby=&formatconversionselect=OGM+...or+List+Guides

/Mats

[Broka]

Thanks for the tip about AutoGK it's very simple etc but i'm not that much of a newbie besides it takes twice as much as avi recomp and gives the same result..

i think i know what to do now so thanks everyone
i'l give it a shot and we'll see...
feel free to give more advice or suggestions.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub for reencoding.

If the problem is packed bitstream you can use MPEG4Modifier to unpack without reencoding.

[Broka]

I don't really know what packed bitstream means
virtualdub is nice but it forces the sound to be fixed and i can't really control the size of the output

[jagabo]

[quote="Broka"]I don't really know what packed bitstream means

Open a file with packed Mpeg4Modifier. If the program reports packed bitstream tick the "unpack" box and save as a new file. It will only take minute or so. See if the new file plays.

virtualdub is nice but it forces the sound to be fixed and i can't really control the size of the output

I don't know what you mean about the the sound being "fixed". You control the size of the output by selecting a compression codec and the bitrate. If you use Xvid it has a built in bitrate calculator and output size setting.

[Vid-Kid]

I found this on Doom9 a while back to convert DivX3 files, which don't play on DivX players, to DivX4 format, which do work. It claims to convert the files losslessly. Someone created a customized version of FFMPEG with the functionality. I've used it for quite some time and it works well.

http://www.hardware-test.de/doom9/ffmpeg-mstomp4.rar

More info can be found here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85229

[Broka]

Ok some updates...
jagabo
first of all the output size is no accurate and i don't really know which profile and encoding to choose for xvid single pass or two pass...
and by fixing the sound i mean
AVI: Variable bitrate (VBR) audio detected. VBR audio in AVI is
non-standard and you may encounter sync errors up to 10120ms when
attempting to extract WAV files or processing the audio in Direct Stream
Copy mode. Full Processing mode is recommended to decompress or recompress
the audio. (bitrate: 141.1 ± 19.3 kbps)
thanks for Mpeg4Modifier tho i did unpack and it helped a bit.

Baldrick
avi recomp is getting weird on me it got stuck on one certain avi and always says i choose an output 100% too large even if i choose 25 mb i wish there was a reset settings button or something

Vid-Kid
thanks a lot for the great tip but it doesn't really make the audio normal and if i try to do it separately with virtualdub it's still isn't synced ...

thanks everyone for the time on me i know it's annoying

[jagabo]

You can try using VirtualDubMod instead of VirtualDub. It has better handling of the audio. It will give a similar message but ask if you want to patch the header or not. You can usually answer "no" and it will work just fine.

Regarding Xvid settings and size, do you really care about the exact size of the output file? Or is the quality more important to you? If you need your files to be 700 MB so they fit on a CD you'll want to use 2-pass VBR. But if you just want to reencode your files so you can watch them, without losing too much quality, use Xvid's default (press the Load Defaults button at the bottom of the Xvid config dialog) single pass target quantizer mode.

Target quantizer mode is basically a constant quality encoding. You pick the quality you want and the video comes out whatever size is necessary to achieve that quality (as opposed to 2-pass VBR where you pick a file size but you don't really know what the quality will be). Using a quantizer value of 2 will get you something that is nearly indistinguishable from the source. 3 will have a little macroblocking but it won't be noticeable at normal playback speed. 4 (the default) has a little more macroblocking. 3 is usually a good compromise when reencoding Xvid.

Also, put VirtualDub(Mod) in Video -> Fast Recompress mode when reencoding. It's faster than Full Processing mode and gives better quality. And enable the Xvid codec's playback deblocking and deringing. That way macroblocks in your source will be smoothed out before you reencode.

[Broka]

jagabo
i did what you said with virtualdubmod said no to fixing the sound and choose 1.60 for the Target quantizer i also checked fast recompress and after that i did some bitstream unpacking what i came up with is pretty damn good.
a few questions tho.
if i increase the video some more and have an avi larger than the original the quality should be better right,
so if i do increase the quality then the conversion between divx 3 and mpeg 4 shouldn't be that bad?
i'm wondering tho would it be better to let it fix the sound or not and why is it so bad to have a vbr audio in an avi?
and finally if i have more than 10 files like that how can i make virtualdubmod do them all at once?

[mats.hogberg]

if i increase the video some more and have an avi larger than the original the quality should be better right,

Wrong. You can never increase quality by reencoding. The very best you can hope for is "as good as". If the source video has obvious flaws (like too bright,) such deficiencies can be fixed by applying filters during reencoding, but that's it. Reencoding always resulti in a drop in quality.

/Mats

[manono]

jagabo
ii'm wondering tho would it be better to let it fix the sound or not and why is it so bad to have a vbr audio in an avi?
and finally if i have more than 10 files like that how can i make virtualdubmod do them all at once?

You don't want to let it "fix" it as it'll become out-of-synch with the video. VBR isn't bad.

To encode more than one file at a time, load each in turn, set it up, and when the time comes to save the AVI, check the "Don't run this job now..." box. When all done, go to the Job Control and start the encoding.

[Broka]

mats
strangely enough avi codec disagrees with you and says that i increased the quality by 10% when i increased the video by 100mb...

manono
so thats how you add to job control
the question with the sound is because i have some season with vbr others with cbr and some with ac3, and i need to know which one is the best so i can convert the others... now i know i don't have support for ac3 so it's between vbr cbr etc.

[mats.hogberg]

mats
strangely enough avi codec disagrees with you and says that i increased the quality by 10% when i increased the video by 100mb...

Then AVICodec is wrong. Or you're reading it wrong. How does AVICodec judge the quality? Having a look at it?
If you have a high quality source and encode it to a 900 MB file (let's say it's 75% quality), then take the same source and encode it to to a 1000 MB file (let's say 90% quality), then the latter will have a higher quality.
However, if you take the HQ source, encode it to a 900 MB file, then take the 900 (still 75%) MB file and encode that to a 1000 MB file you end up with 90% of 75%= a quality of 67.5%

/Mats

[Broka]

i think i have the first situation if i took a 230 mb file with about 60% and increased it to 320 with about 70%
or maybe i'm wrong?

[jagabo]

AviCodec's quality report only tells you the average bits per pixel. This has a relationship to quality but is not absolute. You can take the crappiest source in the world and encode it at a high bitrate and AviCodec will tell you the quality is great. Unfortunately, what you have is a crappy video encoded so well that it looks just as crappy after encoding as it did before.

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, you're wrong. My 2nd example apply.
In my example, the original HQ video is not in your possession. You have (at best) a first generation copy. As this is all you have, this is how good a copy you can ever have (unless you get access to the original, or a better first generation copy). Making a copy of a copy (or a copy of an original) may at the very best leave you with an identical copy. In realty, you'll end up with an inferior copy. Never a better version.
Take a Xerox machine. Make a copy of a paper. Take that copy, and make a copy of that. Repeat for a while. After some generations (how many depending on the quality of the copier of course!), you can't read what's on the paper.
Or take your digital camera. Take a photo. Print that out. Take a picture of the printout. Repeat.
This is what happens when you reencode a video too. No matter what quality (=bitrate) you use, some pieces go missing in each copy/reencoding.
I I can't convince you about the logic behind this - Just take my word for it - You can never increase quality of a digital recording (be it audio or video) by reencoding at a higher bitrate, or by using a different codec.

/Mats

[Broka]

ok ok i get the point of reencoding.. but what am i supposed to do? find another quality i don't even think it existed then...
still i got my chance of learning a lot of info and tools so i'm not really sorry

anyway what about the sound vbr cbr and which tool makes it?

[mats.hogberg]

What? Wasn't your initial q "I have some AVI files my standalone player wont play"? If so, the answer is: Use AUtoGK in standalone compatibility mode, or AVIRecomp. If it's possible to configure them (I think it is) to leave the audio alone, do so.

/Mats

[Broka]

mats
strangely enough avi codec disagrees with you and says that i increased the quality by 10% when i increased the video by 100mb...

manono
so thats how you add to job control
the question with the sound is because i have some season with vbr others with cbr and some with ac3, and i need to know which one is the best so i can convert the others... now i know i don't have support for ac3 so it's between vbr cbr etc.

You obviously haven't been reading the developments carefully enough

besides i got better results and shorter time using virtualdubmod so thats what i want to use for the sound too the question is which format to use?

[jagabo]

As with the video, you won't improve the audio by reencoding it. If your player handles the audio as it is, leave it that way. If you need to convert I suggest Lame MP3, CBR at 192 kbps or more.

In VirtualDubMod, assuming you've already opened the source and set up the video compression:

1) Streams -> Stream List.

2) Right click on Stream and select Full Processing Mode.

3) Optional: Right click on stream and select Conversion... change sampling rate, sample size, etc. Use High Quality setting.

4) Optional: if audio is out of sync by a constant amount all the way through, right click on the stream and select Interleaving. Under Audio Skew Correction enter the amount to shift the audio.

5) Right click on stream and select Compression... choose compression codec and parameters. For example, Lame MP3, 48 KHz, 256 kbps CBR.

6) File -> Save as.

[Broka]

I did layer-3 with 320 is that good?

also back to the ogm issue i used mencoder like in the guide
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic268844.html#2

but i came out with only half of my input
i used the basic
mencoder.exe "D:\201.ogm" -oac mp3lame -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1 -o "D:\2011.avi"

[Broka]

Can't find anything in the documentation about this

[Broka]

Is this happening because of frame skipping or what?

i do got one more question about subtitles
on my pc the subtitles appear blue and on dvd they are yellow i just burn avi + srt as data is there any way to change the color because it's too bright to read

[jagabo]

Unless your player has options for how subtitles are rendered, you're stuck. You might be able to find hacked firmware that uses different colors.