Best video converter for QUALITY

[creamyhorror]

I really do want something as simple as drag/drop source file, click on target format, click on MaxQuality preset, click on Start. Making the quality settings editable would be nice as well, but I hope I don't have to use that.

Honestly I wouldn't have recommended MeGUI to you myself, since you want something simple. Try Ripbot264, which should satisfy your needs because it's pretty simple and the default quality level is medium. Handbrake fits your needs too, and allows you to specify the quality level, but you seem to have rejected it for unspecified reasons (too complicated?).

[ricardouk]

My first look at MeGUI is that it does way more than I need and is a lot more complex than I want it to be. I really do want something as simple as drag/drop source file, click on target format, click on MaxQuality preset, click on Start.

i would recommend MicroX264 , drag, select preset, video bitrate, audio bitrate, thats it.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=151272

[TT1]

Hopes dashed with WinFF...

Have you tried Xmedia Recode? A slightly busier GUI, but still simple.

Did SMPlayer work for you? (http://smplayer.berlios.de/downloads.php?tr_lang=en) I wasn't sure why you needed to do any recoding if you had a player that could handle the files natively. I haven't found anything that SMPlayer won't play, without any additional codecs, and a wonderful interface. Try using the latest MPlayer build from here... http://kovensky.project357.com/

[madmartian]

MicroX264 - the presets are based on encoding speed (?!) not quality. Also failed the first file I tried.

Xmedia Recode - the presets are all brands of cell phones. I tried converting to H.264 anyway and it claimed it converted the 8 gig file successfully - in less than 1 second! A little buggy and geared towards the smaller platforms and couldn't handle the first file I tried.

RipBot264 - requires 2 additional programs I do not wish to install presently.

Anything else I should try?

[madmartian]

Ok, I'm going to have to try some things again. Nothing will convert this one MP4 MOV file. According to MediaInfo, the bitrate is 60.9 Mbps. The crazy things Mac people send me! It does seem to play ok, though. Amazingly. Thanks to CoreAVC, no doubt.

[creamyhorror]

MicroX264 - the presets are based on encoding speed (?!) not quality.

The slower the setting, the higher the quality. That's how x264's settings work. As far as I can tell, MicroX264 simply uses x264's own presets, which are labeled after their speed (e.g. fast, medium, slow, very slow).

RipBot264 - requires 2 additional programs I do not wish to install presently.

I can understand if you don't want to bother downloading the .NET framework, but Avisynth, ffdshow and Haali's splitter are very useful and commonly used (it's very likely you have them already, in fact). If you don't want to bother with prerequisite files, Handbrake is self-contained. Or maybe someone has a better idea.

There's still StaxRip I guess. You can look in Doom9's MPEG-4 Encoder GUI forum for additional choices.

[madmartian]

It's not that I don't want to bother. ffdshow could potentially conflict with other codecs, such as CoreAVC. I have had Haali installed in the past and had an issue that was solved by uninstalling it, though I can't remember what the issue was or why I even had it installed then. When I tried handbrake, with increased bitrate, it still delivered a low contrast file. Handbrake also can't handle the uber Mbps Mac file. I need to cut color bars off that monster too.

[poisondeathray]

sounds like you have playback and configuration issues

also there is a known gamma shift bug with .mov container

btw, while coreavc was a great performer years ago, it is a poor choice these days. It is slower than divx h.264 ,and diavc (the former is free), and decodes out of spec motion vectors with errors

Here is some testing on a dual-core (divx h.264 isn't show in the 1st example, but it's faster than ffdshow and coreavc, but slower than diavc)

ffdshow 3316
User: 4s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 4s, fps: 45.4, dfps: 43.2
User: 4s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 4s, fps: 44.1, dfps: 43.2
User: 4s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 4s, fps: 44.1, dfps: 43.2
 
ffdshow-mt 3316
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 760.5, dfps: 74.3
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 808.0, dfps: 73.9
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 680.4, dfps: 74.3
 
ffdshow-mt 3316 DXVA
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 4309.3, dfps: 65.0
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 4309.3, dfps: 65.0
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 4309.3, dfps: 64.6
 
CoreAVC 2.0.0
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 562.1, dfps: 79.3
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 478.8, dfps: 78.8
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 404.0, dfps: 78.8
 
CoreAVC 2.0.0 (CUDA)
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 445.8, dfps: 64.0
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 538.7, dfps: 64.6
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 3s, fps: 380.2, dfps: 64.0
 
DiAVC 1.0.3
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 923.4, dfps: 88.6
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 680.4, dfps: 88.6
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 2s, fps: 1077.3, dfps: 89.8

source:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1382905#post1382905


this is on a quadcore

E:\HD\freedom EP1 sample.mkv, 1920x1080, High@L4.1

[ffdshow, rev2509, 4 threads]
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 22s, fps: 142.8, dfps: 27.2
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 22s, fps: 142.8, dfps: 27.2 <-- 100%
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 25s, fps: 140.8, dfps: 24.2

[ffdshow, rev2527, Pre-Beta 6, 4 threads]
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 22s, fps: 149.3, dfps: 27.5
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 3s, real: 22s, fps: 155.2, dfps: 27.4 <-- 101%
User: 3s, kernel: 0s, total: 4s, real: 24s, fps: 147.1, dfps: 24.9

[ffdshow-MT, rev2515, 4 threads]
User: 2s, kernel: 0s, total: 2s, real: 8s, fps: 219.0, dfps: 68.7
User: 2s, kernel: 0s, total: 2s, real: 8s, fps: 252.7, dfps: 68.7  <-- 254%
User: 2s, kernel: 0s, total: 2s, real: 9s, fps: 220.2, dfps: 67.2

[CoreAVC, Version 1.8.5]
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 7s, fps: 679.7, dfps: 82.3
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 1s, real: 7s, fps: 616.0, dfps: 82.1  <-- 304%
User: 0s, kernel: 0s, total: 0s, real: 7s, fps: 691.6, dfps: 82.0

[DivX H.264 Decoder, Beta-3]
User: 1s, kernel: 0s, total: 1s, real: 6s, fps: 458.4, dfps: 88.4
User: 1s, kernel: 0s, total: 1s, real: 6s, fps: 512.0, dfps: 88.4  <-- 327%
User: 1s, kernel: 0s, total: 1s, real: 7s, fps: 499.0, dfps: 87.6

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1248920#post1248920

[madmartian]

CoreAVC 2 doesn't have problems with non-compliant motion vectors anymore. Since I'm 2 weeks away from the fest, I prefer not to experiment with any more player/codec combinations. I just have a couple videos I need to "fix". If I have to, I can play the original MPGs off the DVD, but I prefer to play the HD files if I can.

Any suggestions for getting better contrast out of Handbrake?

[creamyhorror]

There shouldn't be any change of contrast at all when you encode, whatever the tool. Some sort of decoder issue? Does it happen even for non-MOV files? Maybe you can post a source and encode screenshot showing the problem.

I don't like using CoreAVC as a decoder for encoding myself, because I couldn't get it to match the original levels perfectly (it was close, though). ffmpegsource2 (an Avisynth filter relying on ffmpeg) worked fine. But this may not be the same problem you're having with Handbrake.

[thymej]

If you want to continue to use WinFF with your problem videos, try remuxing the problem videos (no re-encoding). I did this once when an encoder had problems with a video I had. I used tsMuxerGUI and remuxed into a m2ts and then used the m2ts file in the encoder (WinFF).

[madmartian]

Thanks - tsMuxerGUI did not solve the MOV issue, since it doesn't handle MOV, however it did allow my uber bitrate MPG2 file to be edited with another program so I could remove the several minutes of black the film maker had included. One problem solved, at least.

Now if I could find a similar program that works with remuxing from an MOV container to an MP4 container, I might be able to solve the other as well. I tried several, but they seem to have trouble with the video portion as I end up with audio and no video, even though the mp4-encoded MOV plays fine. Apparently Quicktime Pro will solve the problem, but I don't want to pay $30 to remove color bars from one film.

[thymej]

I've never tried it but I read AviDemux can remux mov somewhere:

AviDemux:

Video Sidebar -> Copy
Audio Sidebar -> Copy
Format -> MKV
Press "Save"

[madmartian]

Unfortunately, AVIdemux is one I tried that can't read the video from the file. MediaInfo says this of the file:

MPEG-4 (QuickTime): 7.3g GiB, 16mn 51s
1 video stream: ProRes (HQ)
English, 60.9 Mbps, 960*720 (16:9), at 23.976 fps, ProRes (HQ)
1 audio stream: PCM
English, 1536 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 2 channels, PCM (Little / Signed)

[thymej]

ffmpeg command line can demux, when demuxing you use the -copy options for both the audio and video. You can setup a batch file to use the ffmpeg.exe from the WinFF install folder.

Only demux/copy video: ffmpeg -i input.mov -an -vcodec copy video.raw
Only demux/copy audio: ffmpeg -i input.mov -vn -acodec copy audio.raw

Change the .raw at the end to the extension it should be for the codec type it is, e.g. AVC or h264 = .264, etc. Or just leave it as .raw and hope tsMuxerGUI will recognize it and remux into a format WinFF will except this time.

The "-vcodec copy" tells it to just copy the video, and "-acodec copy" tells it to just copy the audio, no encoding.

ProjectX is the only other possibility that might be able to demux it. The last time I tried ProjectX it was not user friendly to me but might be worth a try. Google how to demux with ProjectX.

[TT1]

One again, I think SMPlayer might be able to hande your files without having to do any conversion.
http://smplayer.berlios.de/downloads.php?tr_lang=en
I think the Portable version includes a recent copy of MPlayer with it. You won't need any other codecs.

I didn't mention my favorite converter earlier since it sounded like you were almost looking for a 'one-click' solution, but in case you're up to something a little more capable you might try Avanti. ( https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Avanti ). I haven't found anything it won't do...