AGK optimized for speed

[ktjensen]

I am using AGK with XVID. I want to optimize it for speed. Minimal quality is fine as my source is my VHS tapes. If I want better quality I will borrow the DVD from the library.

What settings can be changed in AGK to give the fastest speed conversion to XVID? (I do not want to use DIVX as my stand alone player does not play DIVX very well.)

[manono]

Changing from the default 2-pass to a 1-pass Target Quality encode will net the biggest speed increase. Another way to speed up the encoding is to choose a very low resolution (width) in the Advanced Settings. But since it's AutoGK, there's not a whole lot you can tweak.

[ktjensen]

Changing from the default 2-pass to a 1-pass Target Quality encode will net the biggest speed increase. Another way to speed up the encoding is to choose a very low resolution (width) in the Advanced Settings. But since it's AutoGK, there's not a whole lot you can tweak.

I know how to get to the advanced menu (CONTROL F9) but I did not see the setting for doing a 1-pass Target Quality. Can someone tell me exactly where that setting is?? I might be selectively blind, or something (wife likes to remind me).

Also somehow when I was doing multiple file conversions, AGK switched back to a different quality of output file. Did anyone else notice this? Maybe I had made an incorrect setting.

[jagabo]

Recent versions of Divx at the "Balanced" setting are about 2 to 3 times faster than Xvid.

It's highly unlikely that a player won't play Divx well if it plays Xvid well. It's more likely that there's some setting in Divx you can change to fix that problem. Make sure you aren't using Global Motion Compensation and Quarter Pixel Search. Be sure not to use bitrates higher than your player supports (try the Home Theater Profile) and try disabling Bidirectional Coding (that will avoid Packed Bitstreams which causes problems for some players).

[ktjensen]

Recent versions of Divx at the "Balanced" setting are about 2 to 3 times faster than Xvid.

It's highly unlikely that a player won't play Divx well if it plays Xvid well. It's more likely that there's some setting in Divx you can change to fix that problem. Make sure you aren't using Global Motion Compensation and Quarter Pixel Search. Be sure not to use bitrates higher than your player supports (try the Home Theater Profile) and try disabling Bidirectional Coding (that will avoid Packed Bitstreams which causes problems for some players).

Okay I will try those changes that you mentioned. I was useing "Home Theater profile" when I did the conversions with DIVX. Whatever is standard settings with the downloaded version of Dr. DIVX.

I was using the latest version of DIVX free encoder (via Dr. DIVX and a download from the DIVX web site) for the encoder. I kept thinking that the encoder was creating a file format that my old DIVX DVD player could not handle well. So you are effectively saying that is not likely? Well it happend. But I will check for other issues too. One file was on a burned DVD-R disk, while the other was on a CDR disk.

[manono]

I know how to get to the advanced menu (CONTROL F9) but I did not see the setting for doing a 1-pass Target Quality.

I didn't say anything about going into the Hidden Options. Target Quality encoding is on the main screen, the first one you see when opening AutoGK. Step 3: Select Output Size->Target Quality (in percentage).

[jagabo]

So you are effectively saying that is not likely? Well it happend.

No I'm not saying you can't create a file that your player won't play well. I'm saying it's unlikely that you can't get Divx to create files that play just as well as Xvid. There are optional settings in both Xvid and Divx that will trip up many players. It just happens that whatever settings you used for Xvid worked and whatever settings you used for Divx didn't. All you have to do is figure out which of those settings is causing the problem and disable it in Divx.

[ktjensen]

jagabo - thanks and I will experiment

manomo - thanks for your email and exact answer on the other issue