best method for converting HD to mpeg4

[maxpower2078]

I am trying to figure out the way for an excellent looking mpeg4 file to play on my DVP642 that is captured from HD. I have got the process of converting it down and keeping everything in sync, but the final product just doesn't look as good as the original even going with a bitrate like 3000. Are there filters I should be using or a better encoder?

[winifreid]

autogk or look at the guides for how to do it manually.

[maxpower2078]

Ok, i have tried that program, it won't take the video and audio streams seperatly, dvx works pretty good, but just wondering if a filter would smooth the picture up any, I can still see some pixeling at points. I mean the downloadable versions, that are only at like 900 bitrate look really good for what they are, I am just trying to do that, but at a even higher bitrate.

[Soopafresh]

Here's a thread on it, but read below first.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=a8ee1e112e77bb909e73a7ff81e6de17&threadid=90943


I too have a 642 and HD capture files. I tried many different methods of maintaining quality when converting to XVID. Bottom line, I found converting to 720x480 Mpeg to be the cleanest and sharpest method - also the fastest.

http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd.asp?dir=/ffmpeg

Download and extract the latest FFMPEG.EXE


Copy FFMPEG.exe to the same folder where your video stream is

Save the following line as Encode.bat and put it in the same directory as FFMPEG and your video stream file.

ffmpeg -i source.m2v -target dvd -hq -b 7000 -r 29.97 -an target.m2v

Then mux the new 720x480 back with your AC3 audio.

Try it...

OR, you can use GUI4FFMPEG if you want a front end to the encoder.

[maxpower2078]

That methods works good for transferring to to DVD, but I tried the mpeg4 and I can't get the video when I play the file. But good to know for DVD, I am also trying those scripts for avisynth, but it is saying it can't find a few of the .dlls and I went out and found them and put them in the plugin folder for avisynth, is there something I am missing? It reads "LoadPlugin: unable to load "TomsMoComp.dll" (.avs, line 35)" for example when I hit preview. Any tricks here?

[maxpower2078]

or maybe I am going about this all wrong, where does this go?

## 1080i Source to XviD output
LoadPlugin("MPEG2Dec3.dll")
Loadplugin("FDecimate.dll")
LoadPlugin("TomsMoComp.dll")
LoadPlugin("BT709ToBT601.dll")
LoadPlugin("UnDot.dll")
MPEG2Source("HDCap.d2v",cpu=0)
Trim(1,2)+Trim(2,3)+Trim(3,4)+Trim(4,5) #Modify with actual ranges
TomsMoComp(-1,5,1)
FDecimate(rate=23.976,threshold=1.0) #Modify threshold as needed
crop(8,6,-8,-10)
LanczosResize(1280,720)
BT709ToBT601()
UnDot()

I am also using DVX and editing avysynth inside the program, but it seems to be installed in the normal place and that is where I am putting the dlls in the plugin folder.

[Soopafresh]

AviSynth can be REALLY picky if you don't specify the full path of the plugins.

Just create a folder on your C or D drive called \plugins and copy your DLLs there. Then, do a LoadPlugin("C:\plugin\myplugin.dll")

Also, you need to make sure the plugin you're using is for 2.5 of AVISynth and not 2.0.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/trbarry/ is the site for Tom's latest AviSynth plugins.


A few tips on AviSynth -

Add the resize command BEFORE you apply filters to your image.

# This will give you a sharp resize - change the dimensions to your taste.
Lanczos4Resize(640,360)

This page(s) has a good (but SLOOOOOOOOW) filter for sharpening-

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=718e94aeb34810b1d41173031d913891&threadid=7091...limitedsharpen


Remember, every plugin you add to AviSynth will slow down your processing time.

Finally - Lookie Here ! http://www.samek.neostrada.pl/hdtv/hdtv2xvid.htm

[maxpower2078]

ok, almost there, how do I tell it in this line

MPEG2Source("HDCap.d2v",cpu=0)

to use the .avs file that DVX demuxed right before it got to this point?

It is saying Mpeg2source: unable to load file (.avs, line 38)

It seems like it wants a .avs file which I recall DVX using temp files as a .avs while it is processing the project.

[Soopafresh]

You can't, if I understand what you're saying, but you can add a line like this

Import("d:\mydir\avsfile.avs")


Check the syntax in the Avisynth documentation on the above command.


DVX is creating several .AVS files as it initially goes through your source file to determine the best bit rate for the project. The ones during initial analysis are useless for real encoding.

Now that you're using AVISynth, you might consider scrapping DVX and AutoGK in favor of your own custom AVS file that you can open and convert in VirtualDub, or use AVS2AVI for command line encoding.

http://www.avs2avi.org/

[maxpower2078]

That sounds great, how do I get the AVS file? It seems like I am so close but is getting a bit confusing now.

[maxpower2078]

Ok, so I have got a step farther, see if I am right, I basically write up the script in a text file, save it with an extention of .avs and open it in virtualdub. So this is my script:

## 1080i Source to XviD output
LoadPlugin("C:\plugins\MPEG2Dec3.dll")
Loadplugin("C:\plugins\FDecimate.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\plugins\TomsMoComp.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\plugins\BT709ToBT601.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\plugins\UnDot.dll")
MPEG2Source("D:\2005-03-30(Wed)PM0903-CHD22.tp",cpu=0)
Trim(1,2)+Trim(2,3)+Trim(3,4)+Trim(4,5) #Modify with actual ranges
TomsMoComp(-1,5,1)
FDecimate(rate=23.976,threshold=1.0) #Modify threshold as needed
crop(8,6,-8,-10)
LanczosResize(1280,720)
BT709ToBT601()
UnDot()

and here is the error I am getting

and if you check out line 7 you will see that, I have tried putting all sorts of files there, mpeg from HDTV2MPEG2, demuxed .d2v and the raw .tp file any thoughts?

[maxpower2078]

Ok, I got it to work, just changed line 7 to DirectShowSource("C:\SmallvilleIntro.mpg")

but now it looks even worse than before with just using generic DVX, can you suggests any good scripts out there.

[Soopafresh]

http://www.samek.neostrada.pl/hdtv/hdtv2xvid.htm

[maxpower2078]

Soopafresh, you have really helped me a lot, I can't thank you enough. I will give this a shot tonight, but looks pretty easy. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Soopafresh]

Thank YOU for your kind words. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

[maxpower2078]

well I got it and am very happy with the results, the only thing I don't think was in that guide was taking out the comercials from the original, but I was able to just output to mpeg from hdtvtompeg2 and it seemed to work from there.

Thanks again for all the help, now I just need to get a player that will play HD size mpeg4 files, but someday.