MeGui failing on encode...

[Lathe]

Hello!

I hope I'm putting this in the right part of the forum. This is along the same lines of what I've asked before in having to re-encode an MKV file because of it originally being done at the wrong level (it was encoded from from Blu-ray using L5.0 which my OPPO Blu-ray player will not play)


Firstly, I saw what LOOKED like this really helpful program called H264 Level Editor which SUPPOSEDLY would change the file header or something and re-write it as L4.1. But, after burning it to disc, my player pixilated all over the place.


So, re-encode time...


I tried MeGui because it is pretty clearly understandable as to how to set it. I used the presets very carefully and set it for High, 4.1, tune-film, CRF-18, Slow. I set it to keep the same AR and not to crop or resize. I checked as it wrote the script in the box below and everything looked fine. I double-checked the advanced settings so that I could see every one individually and they all looked fine. I think I just tweaked Trellis to 2 instead of 1 and BPyramid to 'Strict' because ultimate I would be playing it on my player (don't know if that was necessary...) Other than that I left the presets in place. But, when I started the encode process, it extracted the A/V streams, and created the ffwhatever file, and then it just quit. I took a snapshot of the log; hopefully I will be able to insert it here.


Honestly, even though I am definitely NOT a pro at this, the settings are pretty self-explanatory. I'm just wondering WHY the heck it quit. The log LOOKS like it was something to do with Avisynth, like it wasn't installed (I had also previously tried STAX and got what LOOKED like a similar error with 'Not being able to read the .avs file) but I re-installed the newest version of Avisynth, just to be sure and it did it again.


I really am puzzled by why this quit on me; any help would be lovely!


Thanks!

[fryk]

If you set the output resolution to '0x0' the encoder can't make a valid video track.

[hello_hello]

I think the resolution being set to 0x0 is some sort of OneClick encoder bug when specifying "keep aspect ratio". I've seen it mentioned in the MeGUI thread at doom9. If you specify a resolution I think that'll fix it (I don't use the OneClick encoder myself), or rather than use the OnceClick encoder, do it "manually".

Open the original video using the File/Open menu, add the indexing job to the queue and run it. MeGUI will index the video and extract the audio. The AVS Script creator will open with a preview. If you want to re-encode "as-is" (no cropping or resizing etc) just save the script.
The AutoEncode button will let you set up a job which will output an MKV/MP4 containing the video and audio. If you want to keep the original audio rather than re-encode it, use the "x" button to clear the audio section first. After clicking on AutoEncode, check the box for adding additional content. That'll let you add the extracted audio.

AutoEncode lets you use the existing x264 encoder settings or specify a file size. If you choose "no target size" it'll use CRF (quality) encoding if the encoder is configured that way. If you specify a particular file size MeGUI will switch to 2 pass encoding for you.

You shouldn't need to tweak any x264 settings for MKV playback using a Bluray player. The defaults are fine and you can simply specify a desired x264 speed preset and tuning. I generally specify High Profile, Level 4.1, or selecting DXVA as the target playback device will so the same thing (it's the same as specifying High Profile, level 4.1 manually).

[Lathe]

Ah, the most very helpful Hello2!

Thanks so much; well, at least you guys could bloody well SEE why it did that. I could not for the life of me figure out why. I don't quite understand about using the one-click encoder or not. I basically set all the parameters like L4.1 and tune-film and 'Slow' and I can see all the details for all the parameters, so I didn't THINK that I was using any kind of 'one-click' encoding. I tell it to keep the same audio too. I THINK I set all this on the 'Scratchpads' for Audio and Video separately. And then when I check the 'Advanced options' I then can set or see all the settings for the video, etc.


I don't quite understand what you are telling me about running the Avs script and all that, sorry... I usually just make sure that all the settings are what I want which is basically just like you said, leave everything alone and just re-encode, and then I click 'Go'. So far it's extracted the audio, run some kind of 'Pre' encoding thing that takes a couple of minutes, and then just quits and the processing window just closes.


I WILL try though setting the output resolution to the same values as the input instead of simply selecting 'Keep same AR', because I think I DO understand that However, I WISH that I understood what you are telling me to do above, but I don't... The only part that I follow you is 'Open the input file'... From there I don't understand what to do.


Thanks though!!!

***EDIT


Oh, and I do set the CRF for the re-encode. I set it to 18 for good quality, so that is already set. Therefore I set no output size; I think it's called: Output Size: 'Don't care', something like that. So, pretty much all I am setting is the L4.1, tune-film, speed-slow, and I guess from now on I will set the output 'device' for DXVA' (I didn't quite know how to set that, thanks!)

So, when this didn't work, I went ahead and used the good ol' creaky UnCropMKV set to one pass (that SEEMS like it should be pretty good because the 'One-pass VHQ' would take like 6 hours instead of about 3 1/2 with just one-pass. All that I can really set there though is the level and maybe 4 ref frames. One thing I REALLY do like though is that it has a 'Sharpen' setting, which these others don't have, but I SUSPECT that that simply is some kind of avisynth script. I'm SURE though that since the program is SO damn old, that it must be using an ANCIENT version of x264 and settings, etc. That is why I REALLY want to use a much more updated and HOPEFULLY faster program (and one that uses updated and a hell of a lot better quality x264 parameters!)

[fryk]

You might try hybrid, the program is up-to-date, under permanent development and has a good support by the developer in the forum. You can use it to uncrop and it has Avisynth support (Windows only ).

[Lathe]

You might try hybrid, the program is up-to-date, under permanent development and has a good support by the developer in the forum. You can use it to uncrop and it has Avisynth support (Windows only ).

Hey, that sounds pretty good, thank you!

[hello_hello]

Thanks so much; well, at least you guys could bloody well SEE why it did that. I could not for the life of me figure out why. I don't quite understand about using the one-click encoder or not. I basically set all the parameters like L4.1 and tune-film and 'Slow' and I can see all the details for all the parameters, so I didn't THINK that I was using any kind of 'one-click' encoding. I tell it to keep the same audio too. I THINK I set all this on the 'Scratchpads' for Audio and Video separately. And then when I check the 'Advanced options' I then can set or see all the settings for the video, etc.

I just assumed you were using the OneClick encoder because of the problem and it seems to be a bug. There's a few ways to setup encoding jobs with MeGUI. How are you adding the encoding job? Via the OneClick button? If so, that's the OneClick encoder.

Oh, and I do set the CRF for the re-encode. I set it to 18 for good quality, so that is already set. Therefore I set no output size; I think it's called: Output Size: 'Don't care', something like that. So, pretty much all I am setting is the L4.1, tune-film, speed-slow, and I guess from now on I will set the output 'device' for DXVA' (I didn't quite know how to set that, thanks!)

In the x264 encoder configuration there's a drop down box to select a target playback device under the Main tab. DXVA is one of the choices. Selecting DXVA will automatically set High Profile Level 4.1. The end result is exactly the same as selecting High Profile, Level 4.1 manually.

[Lathe]

Thanks so much; well, at least you guys could bloody well SEE why it did that. I could not for the life of me figure out why. I don't quite understand about using the one-click encoder or not. I basically set all the parameters like L4.1 and tune-film and 'Slow' and I can see all the details for all the parameters, so I didn't THINK that I was using any kind of 'one-click' encoding. I tell it to keep the same audio too. I THINK I set all this on the 'Scratchpads' for Audio and Video separately. And then when I check the 'Advanced options' I then can set or see all the settings for the video, etc.

I just assumed you were using the OneClick encoder because of the problem and it seems to be a bug. There's a few ways to setup encoding jobs with MeGUI. How are you adding the encoding job? Via the OneClick button? If so, that's the OneClick encoder.

Oh, and I do set the CRF for the re-encode. I set it to 18 for good quality, so that is already set. Therefore I set no output size; I think it's called: Output Size: 'Don't care', something like that. So, pretty much all I am setting is the L4.1, tune-film, speed-slow, and I guess from now on I will set the output 'device' for DXVA' (I didn't quite know how to set that, thanks!)

In the x264 encoder configuration there's a drop down box to select a target playback device under the Main tab. DXVA is one of the choices. Selecting DXVA will automatically set High Profile Level 4.1. The end result is exactly the same as selecting High Profile, Level 4.1 manually.

Good to know! I look forward to the next time I have to use MeGui for re-encoding something.


Sure appreciate all the help!


Cheers!

[Lathe]

SUCCESS!

Finally, FINALLY, for the very first time I actually re-encoded something and it played properly!


Heh, as of this point it is just a BIT off-topic, my apologies. But, only because I used HYBRID for the first time and dang if the thing didn't actually work right! I almost don't know what to do with myself


So, using all of your suggestions in general and from what I've learned from all you guys, I applied it to using HYBRID and for ONCE the program didn't pull any fast ones on me (in other words I guess I didn't screw up) Anyway, I took an MKV clip of about 1 1/2 Gigs and I set the settings pretty much as we have been discussing here. I went ahead and just for the fun of it I did tweak a couple of the specific settings, but they were all SO easy to understand and see EXACTLY how the interface worked AND the tool tips were extremely helpful in each field too. For example, the default setting for Trellis was 'off', so I set it to '2' and the Psy stuff seemed to be set lower than what I've seen it elsewhere (.8 instead of 1, etc.) And, the Me & Subme default were only 'Hex' & '5' so I put it at 'Umh' & '8'. I just fiddled a little with a couple of those obvious ones. It was pretty quick I thought for a CRF setting of 18. It took about 35 minutes at an average frame rate of about 55-60, so that struck me as pretty good. Also, the file size came out like a full THIRD less! I really didn't NEED that, but it looks fine. The resulting file was about 1 Gig instead of the input size of 1 1/2 Gigs.


Any explanations as to WHY that was? I mean I wasn't using 2 passes to fit it to a certain size or anything and I THOUGHT that my settings were pretty high (Slow, Me=umh, Subme=8, Trellis=2, etc.) But, not only was it pretty fast (in my inexperienced estimation) but also it shaved off a full 1/3 of the size. Now, I don't really NEED to do that in most cases, so is there something I can do so that I can get the best quality but not have the program seem to work so hard in reducing the size? In other words, how can I go ahead and keep the same file size (or even bigger, I don't care really) and get the best quality?


Any suggestions?


I am just SO dang glad that I was FINALLY able to re-encode something properly!


Thanks!

[hello_hello]

I've not used Hybrid myself, but when I'm ruler of the world it'll be mandatory for all encoder GUIs to have a "reset" button, or a "load defaults" button which will load the default x264 settings.

Keep in mind though, the default x264 settings change according to the x264 speed preset and tuning used.

As I said I've not used Hybrid, but MeGUI is a well behaved program when it comes to it's x264 configuration (for all I know Hybrid works the same way). The "load defaults" button actually loads the x264 defaults. If you check the box to show the advanced settings you can make note of them, and switch back to the main tab and change the x264 preset and/or tuning. When you go back into the advanced settings you'll notice some of them have changed accordingly..... to reflect the change in x264's default settings. I like it because it's easy to work out exactly which x264 settings are being used. It seems like maybe you started off with one of the faster x264 speed presets, but I'm not sure....

If you really want to increase the file size lower the CRF value a little, but maybe the fact your re-encode at CRF18 was much smaller than the source is an indication the bitrate for the source video was a bit "excessive", even for a high quality encode. Normally I use CRF18 myself, but if I'm re-encoding an encode for some reason, I tend to use CRF16 as long as the file size doesn't get too out of control.

[Lathe]

Yeah, that's what I kind of figured; just set the CRF to 16 next time and try that. I set the speed to 'Slow', but like you say it could simply be that the source just didn't need that much of a bit rate. I'm not expert enough to know. Oh, I used the tune=film too...

I'm just SO dang glad that SOMETHING finally worked


Thanks so much!

[_Al_]

About those settings,...., for example, while encoding, I could think that Megui was set properly to only find out after encoding that I forgot to switch -tff to progressive or something , I was always against command lines but also realizing later that x264 sets defaults if not stated in command line. So it works for you. There is only couple of items to set. Important things are:

--ref , --vbv-bufsize , --vbv-maxrate (and --tff or --bff if interlaced) , these need to be specified , rest is defaults, and it is reasonably encoded and playable on all devices, it is important to realize that,

One can see exactly what is set there before encoding, so no mistakes there. It seemed difficult and cumbersome time ago, I tried to avoid it, but right now it seems to work well.

[Lathe]

About those settings,...., for example, while encoding, I could think that Megui was set properly to only find out after encoding that I forgot to switch -tff to progressive or something , I was always against command lines but also realizing later that x264 sets defaults if not stated in command line. So it works for you. There is only couple of items to set. Important things are:

--ref , --vbv-bufsize , --vbv-maxrate (and --tff or --bff if interlaced) , these need to be specified , rest is defaults, and it is reasonably encoded and playable on all devices, it is important to realize that,

One can see exactly what is set there before encoding, so no mistakes there. It seemed difficult and cumbersome time ago, I tried to avoid it, but right now it seems to work well.

Yes, thank you for the added suggestions!


I just did another re-encode, this time setting it for a CRF of 16 with all other settings the same as before, and the file size came out much closer to the original. So, I'm hoping that with allowing more size at a higher setting, that the quality will be that much better

Also too, just for the hell of it, I messed around with the Avisynth sharpening filter (of course, I know absolutely NOTHING about it) and it did make the picture a tad sharper. I'm just now comparing both on my 50" Plasma to see the difference...


Cheers!

[Lathe]

You might try hybrid, the program is up-to-date, under permanent development and has a good support by the developer in the forum. You can use it to uncrop and it has Avisynth support (Windows only ).

Hey, I was wondering just exactly HOW do I use HYBRID to uncrop a film that has been cropped out of spec for Blu-ray?


Since I sometimes have to do these re-encodes anyway, I might as well set the AR back to 16x9 like it supposed to be


Thanks!