Noob with auto gk dvd to avi question

[kaylec]

Hello, I'll start off by saying that I've used several conversion programs with little or no luck (cucusoft, divx converter, winavi, fairuse wizard, xilisoft and auto gk). My personal tastes are for correct aspect ratio, a step below high quality video and I can settle for mp3 320 audio for the final product. I've done a lot of searching and everyone seems to point to auto gk, but it doesn't output a finished avi file. It does come out with several other files (some small test log avi's, but not the actual product). It outputs the _.avi .avs, _test.avi test.avs frames.log interlace.log lastjob.vcf a .ac3 file .mp3 file d2v file a codec.log comptest.avi comptest.avs and movie.avs. Some background, the dvd I'm trying to convert/backup is the guyver anime volume 1 (not the new series, the old one). The main movie in dvd shirink is seperated into 6 episodes (not combined into one big movie). I read that auto gk can detect multiple chapters in a movie ifo and ask which one to select (as per my situation). I chose the first one (around 26 minutes long), selected xvid codec (not too much love out there for divx), selected cbr 128 set it for 350 mb (this was just for a test), selected english 5.1 with no subtitles. I set it for fixed with 640 (it's 4:3). I didn't bother with the preview, I just set it to start and left it alone. When I came back, I had all the above files, but no 1st episode avi. I did notice that the comptest.avi was basically all 6 episodes super compressed with no sound and very choppy and missing huge sections (but I figure that was normal if it was a test.avi). I'm guessing that even though it said it was going to do the 1st pgc only, it still wanted to copy them all. I have no problem with that if it will work, I'll just have to change the output file size to like 2+ gigs for the final result. Also, I've read that different codecs installed at different points can affect auto gk, I do have the community codec project pack installed. Here's the log below.

[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] AutoGK 2.55
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Job started.
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Input file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Output file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\Movie Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1.avi
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Output codec: XviD
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Audio 1: English AC3 6ch
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Subtitles: none
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Format: AVI
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Target size: 350Mb
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Custom resolution settings: fixed width of 640 pixels
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Audio 1 settings: CBR MP3 with bitrate: 128Kbps
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Started encoding.
[10/5/2009 9:17:51 AM] Demuxing and indexing.
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_5.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_6.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Processing file: C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\DVD Projects\The_Guyver_Vol_1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_7.VOB
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Source resolution: 720x480
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Found NTSC source.
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Source aspect ratio: 4:3
[10/5/2009 9:21:20 AM] Analyzing source.
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Source has percentage of interlacing in motion areas: 36.64
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Source has percentage of telecined patterns: 14.59
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Source has percentage of progressive patterns: 38.99
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Source has percentage of interlaced patterns: 46.42
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Source is considered to be hybrid (mostly NTSC).
[10/5/2009 9:26:56 AM] Looking for optimal hybrid thresholds.
[10/5/2009 9:27:16 AM] Found threshold of: 0.01
[10/5/2009 9:27:16 AM] Output will contain 282311 frames
[10/5/2009 9:27:16 AM] Decoding audio.
[10/5/2009 9:30:47 AM] Normalizing audio.
[10/5/2009 9:31:45 AM] Encoding audio.
[10/5/2009 9:46:35 AM] Using VAQ in XviD
[10/5/2009 9:46:35 AM] Audio1 size: 150,871,680 bytes (143.88 Mb)
[10/5/2009 9:46:37 AM] Overhead: 3,352,448 bytes (3.20 Mb)
[10/5/2009 9:46:37 AM] Video size: 212,777,472 bytes (202.92 Mb)
[10/5/2009 9:46:37 AM] Running compressibility test.
[10/5/2009 9:46:37 AM] Writing the following script to C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\Movie Projects\agk_tmp\The_Guyver_Vol_1_comptest.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dl l")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll" )
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain SSE3.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\Movie Projects\agk_tmp\The_Guyver_Vol_1.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftad d=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 640
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=1,thr eshold=0.01)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,lef tadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
SelectRangeEvery(300,15)
================================================== =========
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Duration was: 8 minutes 9 seconds
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Speed was: 28.84 fps.
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Compressibility percentage is: 5.80
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Using softer resizer.
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Chosen resolution is: 640x480 ( AR: 1.33 )
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Predicted comptest value is: 6.02%
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Running first pass.
[10/5/2009 9:54:47 AM] Writing the following script to C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\Movie Projects\agk_tmp\The_Guyver_Vol_1_movie.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.d ll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dl l")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll" )
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain SSE3.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("C:\Documents and Settings\Kaylec\My Documents\Brown Stuff\Movie Projects\agk_tmp\The_Guyver_Vol_1.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftad d=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 640
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=1,thr eshold=0.01)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,lef tadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
BicubicResize(out_width,out_height,0,0.5)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
================================================== =========
[10/5/2009 11:09:25 AM] Duration was: 1 hour, 14 minutes 38 seconds
[10/5/2009 11:09:25 AM] Speed was: 63.04 fps.
[10/5/2009 11:09:25 AM] Warning! Found different number of frames: 282605
[10/5/2009 11:09:25 AM] Audio1 size: 150,871,680 bytes (143.88 Mb)
[10/5/2009 11:09:27 AM] Overhead: 3,355,904 bytes (3.20 Mb)
[10/5/2009 11:09:27 AM] Video size: 212,774,016 bytes (202.92 Mb)
[10/5/2009 11:09:27 AM] Expected quality of first pass size: 6.39%
[10/5/2009 11:09:27 AM] Running second pass.
[10/5/2009 12:31:54 PM] Duration was: 1 hour, 22 minutes 26 seconds
[10/5/2009 12:31:54 PM] Speed was: 57.14 fps.
[10/5/2009 12:31:54 PM] Job finished. Total time: 3 hours 14 minutes 2 seconds

[Relayerman]

It looks like it tried to stuff all six 1 hour episodes into 350mb. Ain't gonna happen. Although I see no errors in the log your resulting file should be where the source was unless you changed the destination folder.

The 6.39% quality says that its gonna look like crap, though.

I don't think AutoGK will pick the episodes (at least I never found a way). I use a third party software (CloneDVD Mobile) to extract the episodes to individual VOBs and then take each VOB into AutoGK at 350mb for 1 hour episodes. Works grreat that way.

[manono]

Yes, AutoGK's PGC (episode) selection has always been broken. When doing episodic DVDs when they're all in the same VTS you have to decrypt each episode to its own folder or you'll wind up doing the whole thing. Use DVDDecrypter set up in IFO Mode (not the default) to select each episode individually.

The very choppy playing AVI you encountered was the compress test AVI that encodes only 5% of the whole thing, to get an idea of how it'll compress before doing the 'real' encoding.

[kaylec]

Thanks for the suggestions and info. Shortly after submitting this topic, I noticed a file outside the temp folder, and that was the movie file I was looking for. Yes it was horrible looking (six 26 minute episodes crammed into 500 mb does look bad indeed). So, I guessed correctly that the episode thingie don't work, and reset the megabyte size to 2501 mb and it came out looking much better. Yep, someone needs to give me my sign, I should have looked before typing.

I do have another question. I'm trying to make a 1 to 1 avi conversion of a pal dvd at 100% quality, the reasoning behind this is that I have successfully converted the pal dvd to ntsc dvd and the quality suffered for it. I would just like to see this at full quality, and I don't care if I'm watching it as an avi or dvd, but it seems avi would be the easiest with quality control. It's not something I normally would do, except this particular dvd is hard to find, and one of my fav's (akira with the streamline dub). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[manono]

Since there's no such thing as a PAL AVI, just load the IFO or VOBs into AutoGK as you would any DVD.

You don't want to convert the entire thing to NTSC DVD, not if you also want the menus, although converting just the movie is fairly easy. If done correctly the quality will suffer far less than will a conversion to AVI using AutoGK. Your previous PAL2NTSC conversion must have been flawed in some way.