CCE, MP4 and AviSynth Error

[Maikeru-sama]

Hi forum, I have a question regarding an error I am receiving when I attempt to convert an MP4 file to an CCE MPEG-2 compliant file.

I have two computers that have the exact same software for video editing, encoding etc etc.

The faster computers is able to do the conversion without issue. However, the other computer, which is just a tad slower encodes the MP4 file about half-way through and then CCE crashes. When I open the MPV file, I see that it was never encoded and it has the following error on it in red letters:

"DirectShowSource couldn't open fil no combination filters could"

I have opened the AviSynth Script in VDM and everything is fine. Also, as I mentioned, another computer on my network runs the exact same software and handles the conversion just fine.

My version of AviSynth is 2.5

Here is the script
<SCRIPT>
DirectShowSource("D:\mymovie.mp4", audio=false)
LanczosResize(640,440,2,0,636,480)
AddBorders(40,16,40,24)
ConvertToYUY2()
</SCRIPT>

[manono]

Why open a new thread about the exact same thing? OK, the script is OK in VDubMod. Good, but:

My version of AviSynth is 2.5

2.5 what? Just plain old 2.5? If so, that's why I also suggested updating your AviSynth, if it wasn't already up to date. Your version is several years old, and the older ones had serious problems with DirectShowSource.

I'm not claiming that it's going to work any better with ver 2.5.8, but only that you'll never know until you try. Personally, though, I think that's probably your problem.

[Maikeru-sama]

Manono, thanks for responding.

I opened a new thread because the question I had is different from my previous one and I thought you had to stay on topic in each thread. Since it is a somewhat similar problem, in the future I will be sure to continue to post in the same thread.

I am only looking at the "Programs Menu" on the "Start Menu" to determine which version of Avisynth I have. I have two folders, one says "AviSynth 2" and the other says "AviSynth 2.5". I may have already installed "2.5.8" but I don't think it creates a new folder on the "Programs Menu" entitled "AvisSynth 2.5.8".

Finally, I re-installed CCCP and the problem has been solved.

[manono]

What's CCCP? Some codec pack?

Anyway, to find the version of AviSynth in use make an .avs called maybe Version.avs. Inside have just one line:

Version()

Open that .avs in VDub(Mod) or some player that supports AviSynth scripts (MPC, for example), and it'll show you the version in use.

[Maikeru-sama]

What's CCCP? Some codec pack?

Anyway, to find the version of AviSynth in use make an .avs called maybe Version.avs. Inside have just one line:

Version()

Open that .avs in VDub(Mod) or some player that supports AviSynth scripts (MPC, for example), and it'll show you the version in use.

The version of AviSynth is 2.57.

I was under the impression that the Combined Community Codec Pack was the standard CP that everyone used?

[manono]

I, for one, have no codec packs installed. I install individual codecs as needed. I know nothing about CCCP, though.

[45tripp]

i've used it,
it's just
ffdshow, haali splitter, vsfilter, mpc, zoom and a few spare bits.

designed for anime playback if i recall.

it works fine,
(or used to)

[Maikeru-sama]

I wanted to revisit this thread as I am still having trouble with CCE.

Here is a print out of my codecs for FFDShow. I wanted to see if something seemed abnormal or maybe there is something I could try disabling to re-test CCE.

[Delta2]

Just open your movie in GraphEdit tool

You have a play button, see if it plays correctly

- click over the box ( in the utmost right side ) which says :

Video Renderer

and delete it, you need a free pin in order to Avisynth to connect

- save as graph

Make a AVS script

DirectShowSource("my graph.grf",audio=false)
converttoyv12()

Open that AVS file into CCE

[Maikeru-sama]

Just open your movie in GraphEdit tool

You have a play button, see if it plays correctly

- click over the box ( in the utmost right side ) which says :

Video Renderer

and delete it, you need a free pin in order to Avisynth to connect

- save as graph

Make a AVS script

DirectShowSource("my graph.grf",audio=false)
converttoyv12()

Open that AVS file into CCE

Delta2, see below:

1) Loaded the AVS Script

2) The scripted played in in GraphEdit

3) Deleted the "Video Renderer" (I am assuming I do this when the video is not playing as it would not let me delete it while it was)

4) Made the AVS script pointing to the GRF file and it loaded in CCE. I actually ran it and for all intents and purproses looked like it was encoding.

The problem I seem to have is when I load multiple AVS Scripts that point to MP4 files into CCE. If I have one, I don't think it crashes much, but when there are a bunch loaded, it will definately crash.

Any other ideas?

[Maikeru-sama]

Also, somone suggested I use FFMpegSource. What exactly is the differenc between FFMPegSource and DirectShowSource?

[Delta2]

3) Deleted the "Video Renderer" (I am assuming I do this when the video is not playing as it would not let me delete it while it was)

of course, AVISynth needs a free pin in order to connect too

That is a "must have tool", by all means

You can change/remake all pin connections...but that is another history

The problem I seem to have is when I load multiple AVS Scripts that point to MP4 files into CCE. If I have one, I don't think it crashes much, but when there are a bunch loaded, it will definately crash.

can you load any AVI files and just mux them together in Vdub ? I think not

I don't have time right now, I'm out of time but I got your MP4 - MyMovie.MP4, and I will test it later...make joins and etc with it....

be aware that CCE can be very tricky, mostly CCE SP2

some setting in Doom9's CCE tutorial are wrong, bad gops sizes for ntsc encoding for example....

if you follow that tutorial you can get just a jerky playback for ntsc output, or some problems

I know that because I deal mostly with CCE, and even a elementary stream must be perfect...but it isn't following that tutorial, it is wrong

What CCE tutorial says about a gop sizes is totally different, you must encode in a "PAL" GOP size to NTSC when you apply pulldown afterwards

I tested all, and I mean all different types of MKV samples

it is very tricky

take this MKV sample and follow Doom9 tutorial :

http://rapidshare.com/files/46131223/300.2006.nHD.720p.x264.AAC.Sample.NhaNc3.mkv

Try to convert in PAL and NTSC with CCE....with smoth playback in WMC...and I mean elementary streams

[FulciLives]

Why aren't you using DGAVCDec to do this?

Hmmm ????

Didn't I already pretty much step-by-step cover this in that other recent thread?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Maikeru-sama]

Why aren't you using DGAVCDec to do this?

Hmmm ????

Didn't I already pretty much step-by-step cover this in that other recent thread?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

I am actually testing DGAVCDec right now.

But I want to try and investigate why CCE tends to crash. The MP4 files discussed in the other thread are all on DVD now thanks to HCenc but as I said at the end of the other thread, I was going to continue to look into some things, and CCE crashing under the scenario pointed out in this thread was one of them.

[FulciLives]

I downloaded that sample file that user Delta2 posted.

I encoded it to a standard NTSC DVD Video ISO file using a variety of tools but I made sure to use CCE SP to do the encoding.

It worked for me.

I suggest to Maikeru-sama that you try and do the same and see how your CCE SP handles it.

I took a bunch of screen shots of my CCE SP settings and was planning to post that and my process but I ran out of time last night and I'll be at work all day today and probably won't be able to do much more until Wed. night at the earliest as it takes a lot of time to put together a "how to" type post and my time today will be limited as I have things I need to do after work tonight.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
The hardest part was converting the 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC-3 but I figured it out but damn it was a convoluted process.

[Delta2]

I downloaded that sample file that user Delta2 posted.

I encoded it to a standard NTSC DVD Video ISO file using a variety of tools but I made sure to use CCE SP to do the encoding.

It worked for me.

Make this test :

- convert to NTSC using all the settings in that Doom9 manual, apply that GOP settings of that manual
- pulldown your elementary stream to 29.97 FPS

don't author the DVD

open that elementary stream in Windows Media Player Classic, because is a very sensitive player

it jumps and stutters all the way, at least in my computer

[Delta2]

Open CCE manual and you will see this :

when you pulldown :

When you output DVD video stream with this option ( pulldown ), GOP sequence should be M=3, N/M=4

But the Doom9 guide says :

Change the N/M parameter to 4 for PAL content and leave it it at 5 for NTSC content

that's what I'm saying that is wrong, but that is just my interpretation, correct me if I'm wrong

[FulciLives]

Open CCE manual and you will see this :

when you pulldown :

When you output DVD video stream with this option ( pulldown ), GOP sequence should be M=3, N/M=4

But the Doom9 guide says :

Change the N/M parameter to 4 for PAL content and leave it it at 5 for NTSC content

that's what I'm saying that is wrong, but that is just my interpretation, correct me if I'm wrong

I haven't looked at that guide in YEARS ... if it is the one I think it is.

Anyways you are correct that for 23.976fps you would use the "PAL" setting of 3, 4 and not 3, 5

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[manono]

Change the N/M parameter to 4 for PAL content and leave it it at 5 for NTSC content

that's what I'm saying that is wrong, but that is just my interpretation, correct me if I'm wrong

Doom9 is assuming it's true interlaced 29.97fps NTSC. Either he's ignoring or was ignorant of encoding for progressive 23.976fps with pulldown applied to output interlaced 29.97fps. For true NTSC (interlaced or hard telecined 29.97fps), as opposed to FILM, that advice is correct. He's German; what does he know about pulldown? Joking...just joking!

[FulciLives]

I downloaded the file 300.2006.nHD.720p.x264.AAC.Sample.NhaNc3.mkv as posted by user Delta2 (see his post in this thread for that download link or just click the file name here to download it). This is a MKV with H.264 video and 5.1 AAC audio. This is my "mini-guide" on how I converted it to standard NTSC DVD Video format.

First thing I did was to load it into XviD4PSP 5.0 and I demuxed the video and saved the AviSynth file that it created. This is what it did:

DirectShowSource("C:\Z\300.2006.nHD.720p.x264.AAC.Sample.NhaNc3.mkv", fps=23.976, convertfps=true)
Lanczos4Resize(720,372)
AddBorders(0,54,0,54)

I then loaded the MKV into FitCD to check the resizing and FitCD gives slightly different numbers at the "default" settings but with some "playing around" I got it to match:



So OK I stick with that resizing but I don't trust the DirectShowSource method. So I fire up DGAVCDec and load the demuxed *.h264 file and create a dga file (which I called sample.dga). The only thing you have to change is to make sure you have it set to FORCE FILM before saving the project file (that's the dga file). So now my AviSynth script looks like this:

LoadPlugin("C:\VIDEO\dgavcdec100a23\DGAVCDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\VIDEO\FILTERS\removegrain_25_dll_20050501\RemoveGrainSSE3.dll")
AVCSource("C:\Z\sample.dga")
RemoveGrain(mode=1)
Lanczos4Resize(720,372)
AddBorders(0,54,0,54)
ConvertToYUY2()

I added in the RemoveGrain filter. It is a "video noise" filter. The setting I used is the "lite" setting. The ConvertToYUY2() part is there because I'll be using it with CCE SP which works in the YUY2 colorspace.

Now you are ready for CCE SP. I loaded my AviSynth script which I called sample.avs and here is how I set it up:







I then went ahead and encoded it so that I got a sample.mpv file.

The hard part was going from 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC-3 and I'm not really in the mood to document that right now as it was a PITA convoluted process. In short I used a guide I found over at the doom9 forum. Here is the link: CLICK HERE

I then used MUXMAN to create a simple no menu DVD Video structure and then used ImgBurn to create an ISO file which I called 300_SAMPLE.ISO

You can download that file directly from this link: CLICK HERE
Please note this file is approximately 65.8MB in file size.

You can play this with VLC media player or burn to a DVD Video disc although a warning ... technically a DVD Video under 1.0GB is "out-of-spec" so some DVD players may bark at it. I've never had an issue though with any of my DVD players so if you have a DVD-RW or DVD+RW go ahead and try it.

Again the end result is a NTSC 16x9 WS DVD Video.

What's that you say? You want it in PAL DVD Video format? Damn you people are a PITA !!! :P

Actually it isn't that hard.

First let us go back to FitCD and do the following:



So taking those resize values I made a new AviSynth script:

LoadPlugin("C:\VIDEO\dgavcdec100a23\DGAVCDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\VIDEO\FILTERS\removegrain_25_dll_20050501\RemoveGrainSSE3.dll")
AVCSource("C:\Z\sample.dga")
RemoveGrain(mode=1)
Lanczos4Resize(720,444)
AddBorders(0,66,0,66)
ConvertToYUY2()

Now you are ready for CCE SP. I loaded my AviSynth script which I called palsample.avs and I set up CCE SP as before with this change:



What did I change? Well first off I set up the other two CCE SP screens the same but on this screen all I did was uncheck the PULLDOWN option. After encoding I ended up with a file called palsampe.mpv which runs at 23.976fps without pulldown yet has a resolution of 720x576 so you could call this a "hybrid" since it has a NTSC fps but a PAL resolution.

Now you need to fire up DGPulldown and do the following:



I then took the new created file and using the same AC-3 audio file created before I used MUXMAN to create a simple no menu DVD Video structure and then used ImgBurn to create an ISO file which I called 300_PAL_SAMPLE.ISO

You can download that file directly from this link: CLICK HERE
Please note this file is approximately 65.8MB in file size.

You can play this with VLC media player or burn to a DVD Video disc although a warning ... technically a DVD Video under 1.0GB is "out-of-spec" so some DVD players may bark at it. I've never had an issue though with any of my DVD players so if you have a DVD-RW or DVD+RW go ahead and try it.

Again the end result is a PAL 16x9 WS DVD Video.

Well that's it!

I promise that I will revisit this thread at some point in the near future (this weekend at the latest) and do a step by step as to how I converted the 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC-3 but to be honest I used that not-the-best-guide on doom9 (the link is in this post).

I just realized something and it was a Homer Simpson DUH! moment. If you follow my link to the doom9 guide on 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC-3 it will bring you to a POST on how to do it using GraphEdit which is what I did. I just now realized that this was a POST in a longer THREAD but not the first POST in the thread. If you scroll up a bit you will see a POST before the GraphEdit POST that explains a way to do the conversion using a program called aacDecDrop and another called BeSweet ... this method sounds like a more sensible way of going about it. I'll have to test that out ...

Cheers !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
There are a total of 7 images in this post.

This post was edited to include a download link to the sample file that is used in this example. This link goes to my own freely hosted copy of the file. It is 100% a copy of the file first posted by user Delta2 (see his earlier post in this thread).

[manono]

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I didn't read through the entire thing, but didn't you generate FitCD scripts for 4:3 encoding, but then set up CCE for 16:9 encoding.

[FulciLives]

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I didn't read through the entire thing, but didn't you generate FitCD scripts for 4:3 encoding, but then set up CCE for 16:9 encoding.

I did it correctly but in a half assed backwards way I suppose

Here is my first FitCD screen from the post above:



This works but technically I should have done this:



You will notice that the end result is the same. So really it doesn't matter 8)

Same thing goes with my second FitCD screen from the post above:



This works again but technically I should have done this:



Again though you will notice that the end result is the same. So once again it really doesn't matter 8)

If you find something else wrong let me know :P

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
There are 4 images in this post.

[manono]

If you find something else wrong let me know

OK, correct me if I'm wrong... Beginning to sound like a broken record. The source is 1:1 Monitor. The resolution is 936x528=1.77:1. Therefore the script you generate should have no or next to no added black above and below. You leave Anamorphic unchecked on the left and check it on the right and you get:

LanczosResize(704,480,0,1,936,526)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

or if for PAL:

LanczosResize(704,576,0,1,936,526)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

But maybe I'm missing something, I don't know.

[Delta2]

This is my "mini-guide" on how I converted it to standard NTSC DVD Video format.
...

Interesting, but for a regular CCE user is just too complex to follow all that steps

First of all DirectShowSource doesn't work in all computers, so I do not recommend it either

Second I don't use converttoYUY2 because is damn slow I use ConvertToyv12 which is much faster

Third I do not recommend Closing GOPs because it will lose quality, from CCE tutorial :

If Close all GOPs is selected, image quality will be slightly
degraded. Therefore, do not select this except when necessary

Why are you closing gops ?

You can convert that in a single click :

Windows 32 bit version :

http://avi2iso.planetaclix.pt/avi2iso.rar

Windows 64 bit version :

http://avi2iso.planetaclix.pt/avi2iso64.rar

I believe you can convert any MKV ( or almost ), correct me if I'm wrong

[FulciLives]

If you find something else wrong let me know

OK, correct me if I'm wrong... Beginning to sound like a broken record. The source is 1:1 Monitor. The resolution is 936x528=1.77:1. Therefore the script you generate should have no or next to no added black above and below. You leave Anamorphic unchecked on the left and check it on the right and you get:

LanczosResize(704,480,0,1,936,526)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

or if for PAL:

LanczosResize(704,576,0,1,936,526)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

But maybe I'm missing something, I don't know.

Well I suppose it is my fault. I lied. Sorry. I didn't mean to lie but it happened

You know how they say a picture says a thousand words?

I created the following AviSynth AVS script:

LoadPlugin("C:\VIDEO\dgavcdec100a23\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("C:\Z\sample.dga")

Pretty simple right? My point is there is no resizing nor cropping going on.

I loaded this into VirtualDubMod and did a "Snapshot source frame" to a PNG file.


This image is 936x528

So the image isn't 1:1 pixel ratio as I suggested. Sorry !!!

If you re-read my post about this you will see that it was actually XviD4PSP that created an AviSynth script and came up with the resize values and that I was only using FitCD to ensure that XviD4PSP got it right. It did.

XviD4PSP is one amazing program !!!

If you still aren't convinced:

Here is my NTSC AviSynth script:

LoadPlugin("C:\Documents and Settings\John Coleman\Desktop\VIDEO\dgavcdec100a23\DGAVCDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Documents and Settings\John Coleman\Desktop\VIDEO\removegrain_25_dll_20050501\RemoveGrainSSE2.dll")
AVCSource("C:\Z\sample.dga")
RemoveGrain(mode=1)
Lanczos4Resize(720,372)
AddBorders(0,54,0,54)
ConvertToYUY2()

Here is the same frame number (frame 1080) captured from VirtualDubMod when using the above script:


This image is 720x480

Now we both know that for a proper 1:1 aspect ratio that you would take that 720x480 image and resize it to 640x360 so I loaded the above 720x480 image into GIMP and resized it to 640x360 to get this:


This image is 640x360

Now do you believe me my friend

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I am SO past my bed time ... going to bed now ... zzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh and this post has 3 images.

[FulciLives]

This is my "mini-guide" on how I converted it to standard NTSC DVD Video format.
...

Interesting, but for a regular CCE user is just too complex to follow all that steps

First of all DirectShowSource doesn't work in all computers, so I do not recommend it either

Second I don't use converttoYUY2 because is damn slow I use ConvertToyv12 which is much faster

Third I do not recommend Closing GOPs because it will lose quality, from CCE tutorial :

If Close all GOPs is selected, image quality will be slightly
degraded. Therefore, do not select this except when necessary

Why are you closing gops ?

You can convert that in a single click :

Windows 32 bit version :

http://avi2iso.planetaclix.pt/avi2iso.rar

Windows 64 bit version :

http://avi2iso.planetaclix.pt/avi2iso64.rar

I believe you can convert any MKV ( or almost ), correct me if I'm wrong

I was liking you at first. Now you are simply annoying me.

The only thing you said that has some merit is the CLOSED GOP vs OPEN GOP argument. I for one prefer CLOSED GOP and this is not an argument I care to get into at this time.

Everything else you said is bogus. Especially the colorspace argument in relation to using CCE SP.

I didn't spend all this time only to have you attempt to jack me up with silliness.

Don't make me angry ... you wouldn't like me angry.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Delta2]

Don't make me angry ... you wouldn't like me angry.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

gosh...what are you talking about ? is this a Soccer (football) forum or a Video Help forum ? I only didn't agree with you in some points, and sorry me but I still don't. I have enough sense to say that I don't know nothing and that I'm always learning

[manono]

You know how they say a picture says a thousand words?

Yep, it all makes sense now. Thanks for being patient. I guess that thing is 16:9 with the black bars removed. I'm a little curious where that resolution came from. It seems to have been created by some group that used a 720p source, and perhaps cropped, resized, and then reencoded it.

Delta2:

Second I don't use converttoYUY2 because is damn slow I use ConvertToyv12 which is much faster

That statement seems a little peculiar to me. Isn't the source already YV12? Ignoring the obvious disadvantages of doing more color conversions than necessary, why would you convert to YV12 when CCE is just going to reconvert it to YUY2 before going to work on it. I don't really see how feeding CCE a YV12 video is going to be faster than giving it one that's already in its native YUY2.

The closed GOP issue is one of which FulciLives is already aware. He does it his way and others of us do it differently. The difference is minimal, although I agree with you that except for special circumstances, using open GOPs is preferable.

[Delta2]

That statement seems a little peculiar to me. Isn't the source already YV12? Ignoring the obvious disadvantages of
doing more color conversions than necessary, why would you convert to YV12 when

CCE is just going to reconvert it to YUY2 before going to work on it. I don't really see how feeding CCE a YV12 video is going to be faster than giving it one that's already in its native YUY2.

Yes manono, and He was also right, but when you use scripts to automatizing conversions, you just use a universal script, and people just want speed. If I don't use a colorspace conversion some videos just don't work. What I was saying is that YV12 is more 20% faster than YUY2. It slows down CCE a lot, and that is just to much noticeable to be ignored, so I don't agree...sorry

Avoiding colorspace conversions should be even faster, and that is something that I must check

The closed GOP issue is one of which FulciLives is already aware. He does it his way and others of us do it differently.

I gave my opinion to FulciLives, this is not footbal, he overreacted . Wouldn't be better to say :

Delta2, look....you are wrong because of...blah...blah

I'm learning since my birth, and this forum is for helping people