Question: Freeware AVI To MPEG-2 Batch Encoder?

[Jeremy of Many]

I have many TV episodes I wish to encode to DVD.
I would like to get as much done overnight as possible.
Currently, I am using VirtualDub as a frameserver into TMPGEnc Plus for my AVI files to MPEG-2.
Does anyone know of a freeware encoder that supports batch encoding of AVI to MPEG-2 and allows for resizing?

Thank you kindly,

Jeremy

[AlanHK]

I use HCenc.
You also need Avisynth.

For that kind of job, first make an AVS file for each AVI to resize (to 720x480 for NTSC).
FitCD can do this very quickly.

Then I work out the bit rate.
There are various calculators you can use.
I just make a single AVS file that combines all the AVIs and load that in HCEnc, and set file length to be 4 GB.

Eg, my source files are dw207.avi...dw212.avi

Example AVS:

AVISource("dw207.avi",false)
LanczosResize(704,480,0,0,624,352)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

(If all the AVIs are the same dimensions, you can just change the filenames in the AVS.)

Having determined my bitrate as 1845 (many will say this is very low, that's an argument for another thread), I make this batch file;

HCDW2a.bat

set rate=1845
set ar=16:9
::set ar=4:3
set hc=P:\HCenc\HCenc_020
set mpgd=s:\mpg\

for %%a in (
dw207
dw208
dw209
dw210
dw211
dw212
) do  %hc% -i %~dp0%%a.avs -o %mpgd%%%a.m2v -b %rate%  -aspectratio %ar%  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCenc\hc0.ini

I just change the list of filenames (just the root, no extension) and bitrate, for each project.
The last parameter, "-ini" points to a default ini file, actually you can store all the paramters in that if you like. I only use it to make sure that all frames are processed.

mpgd is the output folder.
The batch, AVS and AVI files should all be in the same folder, doesn't matter where.

HC0.ini

*LOGFILE          s:\mpg\henc.log
*MAXBITRATE       8000

So run this batch overnight and in the morning all your M2V files are done.

You can run it, abort each job after a few seconds, just to see if there are errors (missing files, etc) before you set it for real.

[Bjs]

Super = batch support
Avidemux = batch support (get windows version , make sure you rename the output file with file extension)

Avidemux > avi > mpeg2 =



Note it forgot to add the file extension .mpg ... well I knew what it was ... no one else did ... lol

[Jeremy of Many]

For that kind of job, first make an AVS file for each AVI to resize (to 720x480 for NTSC).
FitCD can do this very quickly.

Then I work out the bit rate.
There are various calculators you can use.
I just make a single AVS file that combines all the AVIs and load that in HCEnc, and set file length to be 4 GB.

Eg, my source files are dw207.avi...dw212.avi

Example AVS:

AVISource("dw207.avi",false)
LanczosResize(704,480,0,0,624,352)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

(If all the AVIs are the same dimensions, you can just change the filenames in the AVS.)

Do I make an AVS file for each AVI, or can I reference all of them in the same one?
If so, can I script it like this:

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x01-1x02 Pilot.avi")
LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x03 Fever.avi")
LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x04 Last Days.avi")
LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

or like this:

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x01-1x02 Pilot.avi")
AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x03 Fever.avi")
AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x04 Last Days.avi")
LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

...I make this batch file;

HCDW2a.bat

set rate=1845
set ar=16:9
::set ar=4:3
set hc=P:\HCenc\HCenc_020
set mpgd=s:\mpg\

for %%a in (
dw207
dw208
dw209
dw210
dw211
dw212
) do  %hc% -i %~dp0%%a.avs -o %mpgd%%%a.m2v -b %rate%  -aspectratio %ar%  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCenc\hc0.ini

I just change the list of filenames (just the root, no extension) and bitrate, for each project.
The last parameter, "-ini" points to a default ini file, actually you can store all the paramters in that if you like. I only use it to make sure that all frames are processed.

So for my .bat file, is the following correct?

set rate=1000 
set ar=16:9 
::set ar=4:3 
set hc=D:\Video Tools\HC Encoder v0.21 
set mpgd=C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\

for %%a in ( 
Sliders 1x01-1x02 Pilot
Sliders 1x03 Fever
Sliders 1x04 Last Days
Sliders 1x05 The Prince Of Wails
Sliders 1x06 Summer of Love 
Sliders 1x07 Eggheads
Sliders 1x08 The Weaker Sex
Sliders 1x09 The King is Back
Sliders 1x10 Luck Of The Draw
) do  %hc% -i %~dp0%%a.avs -o %mpgd%%%a.m2v -b %rate%  -aspectratio %ar%  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini D:\Video Tools\HC Encoder v0.21\hc0.ini

When I load any AVS file into HCgui, it gives me this error:

"error loading Avisynth script, No compatible ACM codec to decode 0x2000 audio stream to PCM. (D:\Video Tools\HC Encoder v0.21\new 4.avs, line 1)"

Can I make it ignore the audio since I am just trying to encode AVI to M2V?

When I load the HC.ini file, it gives me this error:

"USER ini file successfully processed, WARNING, input file not found"

Thanks for your input.

Jeremy

[AlanHK]

Do I make an AVS file for each AVI, or can I reference all of them in the same one?

You can write an AVS file that joins several AVI files together, then you get one long M2V file.

If you did that, you wouldn't need a batch file, you could just load this AVS file in HCEnc and run it.

But I prefer to have a separate file for each episode, and a menu screen to choose them.

Though you could make "chapter" points for the start of each episode.

If so, can I script it like this:

Not quite.

Installing Avisynth give you a folder of documentation on Avisynth commands.
To join files together you need to use the ++ operator, like:

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x01-1x02 Pilot.avi").LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432) ++\
AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x03 Fever.avi").LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)++\
AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x04 Last Days.avi").LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

You can preview this in your media player, or VirtualDubMod.

But as I said, if you do that you don't need my batch file.

So for my .bat file, is the following correct?

No. The list of filenames is used for 1) the AVS files, each of which refers to an AVI, and 2) for the output M2V file.

So I have initially dw207.avi. Then I made dw207.avs. The batch loads that as input to HCEnc, which creates dw207.m2v. And so on for each AVI file.

Also:
set hc=D:\Video Tools\HC Encoder v0.21
-- This has to point to the HC executable. Mine is at
P:\HCenc\HCenc_020.exe
(You can omit the "exe" ending.) So I'd guess your line should be:

set hc="D:\Video Tools\HC Encoder v0.21\HCenc_021.exe"

(You need to use quotemarks around your filenames if you have any spaces in them, ditto for mpgd, the ini file, and your other names -- which is why I simplify filenames as much as possible.)

Can I make it ignore the audio since I am just trying to encode AVI to M2V?

Yes. That's what the "false" parameter in my Avisource command is for.

When I load the HC.ini file, it gives me this error:
"USER ini file successfully processed, WARNING, input file not found"

The spaces in the filenames are doing that probably. The names are just chopped off at the first space. Use names without spaces, or insert quotemarks in all filename references.

[Jeremy of Many]

Ok, this is my .BAT file now:

set rate=1000
set ar=16:9 
::set ar=4:3 
set hc=D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\HCenc_021.exe
set mpgd=C:\Sliders\Season1\

for %%a in ( 
new1.2
new3
new4
new5
new6
new7
new8
new9
new10
) do  %hc% -i %~dp0%%a.avs -o %mpgd%%%a.m2v -b %rate%  -aspectratio %ar%  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\hc0.ini

When I double-click it, HCGui tells me:

"ERROR, input not complete, required input, output file, bitrate, max bitrate"

What am I doing wrong?

[AlanHK]

You can see where it's looking for the file new3.avs.
Is that where it actually is?

When the batch begins executing you should see in the DOS window it echoing its parameters before executing them -- expanding each filename variable.

If I execute my file, I see:

P:\DVD>set rate=1845

P:\DVD>set ar=16:9

P:\DVD>set hc=P:\HCenc\HCenc_021

P:\DVD>set mpgd=s:\mpg\

P:\DVD>for %a in (dw207 dw208 dw209 dw210 dw211 dw212) do P:\HCenc\HCen
c_021 -i P:\DVD\%a.avs -o s:\mpg\%a.m2v -b 1845  -aspectratio 16:9  -pu
lldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCenc\hc0.ini

P:\DVD>P:\HCenc\HCenc_021 -i P:\DVD\dw207.avs -o s:\mpg\dw207.
m2v -b 1845  -aspectratio 16:9  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCen
c\hc0.ini

P:\DVD>P:\HCenc\HCenc_021 -i P:\DVD\dw208.avs -o s:\mpg\dw208.
m2v -b 1845  -aspectratio 16:9  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCen
c\hc0.ini

P:\DVD>P:\HCenc\HCenc_021 -i P:\DVD\dw209.avs -o s:\mpg\dw209.
m2v -b 1845  -aspectratio 16:9  -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCen
c\hc0.ini

For instance:
P:\DVD>P:\HCenc\HCenc_021 -i P:\DVD\dw207.avs -o s:\mpg\dw207.
m2v -b 1845 -aspectratio 16:9 -pulldown -profile best -matrix qlb -ini P:\HCen
c\hc0.ini
Shows the fully expanded command line for the file dw207.

It's a bitch getting the syntax right, but when you do, after that it's only a minute to set up each job.

[Jeremy of Many]

Yes, that is where the AVS file exists. My AVS file is as follows:

AVISource("C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders 1x03 Fever.avi", false)
LanczosResize(720,480,0,0,576,432)

My HC.ini file is as follows:

*INFILE           d:\video.tools\hc.encoder.v0.21\HC.ini
*OUTFILE          "C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders.m2v"
*LOGFILE          "C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders.log"
*BITRATE          1000
*MAXBITRATE       1100
*FRAMES           0 126207
*AUTOGOP          12  
*PULLDOWN
*MATRIX           mpeg

[AlanHK]

It shouldn't really matter, as command line (in the batch) should take precedence over settings in the ini file, but you have:

*INFILE d:\video.tools\hc.encoder.v0.21\HC.ini

in your ini file.

That should be the AVS file. But in this case, you should just delete that line.

And also the line
*OUTFILE "C:\Torrent Downloads\Sliders Season 1\Sliders.m2v"

also looks wrong. Delete that too.

Otherwise perhaps back up a little and use HCGui first which lets you choose all the parameters by point-and click.

You can then run it and see if it works.

You can also save the paramters to a default INI file.

If all else fails, you can put all your settings in a series of INI files, one for each file.
Then have a batch that does:

D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\HCenc_021.exe -ini D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\vid1.ini
D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\HCenc_021.exe -ini D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\vid2.ini
D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\HCenc_021.exe -ini D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\vid3.ini

But backing up, the screenshot shows HC trying to open
D:\Video.Tools\HC.Encoder.v0.21\new3.avs
as input, but saying this is "incomplete"
If this AVS file is there, it should work.


Though I see you have removed spaces from your filenames, all the periods might be a problem. Remember that batch language is very old fashioned when it comes to filenames.

[kevo777]

Though I see you have removed spaces from your filenames, all the periods might be a problem. Remember that batch language is very old fashioned when it comes to filenames.

Yep. Agreed. Underscores are best with command-line.

[freebird73717]

I came across a freeware program that allows for easy batch processing of avs files. Batchccews is a gui frontend for HC, Quenc, CCE, and Procoder. No need to create bat files. Just load files, adjust encode settings for each file, and click GO.

Might be worth checking out.

[Jeremy of Many]

I got it to work properly, however, only two of the AVIs were processed into M2Vs, and the quality is worse (very blocky) than the source AVI. It even did two passes. I used the same bitrate as the AVIs (1000 kbps).
Any ideas, Alan?

[45tripp]

double bitrate, at least

[Jeremy of Many]

The original AVI's bitrate is 1000 kbps. I've used this same bitrate in TMPGenc for MPEG-2 files and the M2Vs come out looking identical to the AVIs, so you are incorrect.

[freebird73717]

The original AVI's bitrate is 1000 kbps. I've used this same bitrate in TMPGenc for MPEG-2 files and the M2Vs come out looking identical to the AVIs, so you are incorrect.

Unless you are using a resolution of 352x240(ntsc) or 352x288(pal) that bitrate will be way to low which is why your m2v's are turning out pixelated. 1000kbps is even low for vcd specs.

[Soopafresh]

"The original AVI's bitrate is 1000 kbps. I've used this same bitrate in TMPGenc for MPEG-2 files and the M2Vs come out looking identical to the AVIs, so you are incorrect. "

Yuck. People want to help you. YOU could be wrong.

[Jeremy of Many]

Why are people attacking me here?
Here's what I'm saying:
The original AVI file @ 1000 kbps:


The encoded M2V (MPEG-2) at 1000 kbps (done in TMPGenc)



Ok, now that I've explained myself to people who are questioning my knowledge instead of helping me, I'll wait to see if Alan replies.

[AlanHK]

The original AVI's bitrate is 1000 kbps. I've used this same bitrate in TMPGenc for MPEG-2 files and the M2Vs come out looking identical to the AVIs, so you are incorrect.

No, actually he's right.
1000 is really, really low for MPEG.
I don't know how TMPGEnc measures rates, but in HCEnc I've gone down to 1300, which is a bit blurry, to fit 7 hours on a DVD. Don't expect to be able to count nosehairs on the actors' faces at this resolution.
Some will say you need at least 3000; I'm happy with the results of 1800 or better on my 29" CRT. At that rate I can get a half season (11 or 12 episodes) of a 22-minute sitcom (each M2V about 320 MB) on one disc.

You have to make a few short encodes to see what suits your TV and expectations.

AVI has more efficient compression than MPEG2, so the bitrates aren't comparable.
Thus the filesize: average 45 minute AVI: 350 MB; an equivalent M2V at least 700 MB.
Though in my opinion HCEnc does smarter compression than most MPEG encoders, so its quality is slightly better for the same bitrate than some other encoders, and the variable rate means that it hardly ever goes into blockiness (at least I've never seen it do so).


I don't use TMPGEnc, so I can't comment on how its bitrates compare, but simply looking at the total filesizes will tell you -- if you make a "1000 bps" M2V in TMPGEnc, and in HCEnc, are they the same size?

[Jeremy of Many]

Well, in TMPGenc I can encode the file to M2V with a bitrate of 1000 kbps without blockiness, but in HCEnc, it gets blocky. That's what I'm saying.
Edit - I upped the bitrate to 3000 and will see how the results turn out. If the M2Vs are fine, I apologize to those who previously opposed me.

[AlanHK]

Well, in TMPGenc I can encode the file to M2V with a bitrate of 1000 kbps without blockiness, but in HCEnc, it gets blocky. That's what I'm saying.
Edit - I upped the bitrate to 3000 and will see how the results turn out. If the M2Vs are fine, I apologize to those who previously opposed me.

I can't explain that ... I do know that with HC you choose an AVERAGE rate. Perhaps TMPGEnc is setting a MINIMUM?

Anyway, look at the total filesizes to tell for sure.


PS -- so you got the batch /AVS files working.
The idea is you have flexibility to set up all the parameters as you need.

I left the major parameters I want to twiddle as variables at the top of the file.
Ones I don't change are "hard coded" in the command line (at the end of the file), though you can of course change them if you want.
HCEnc has a few pages of documentation, explaining the parameters, in a PDF in its "misc" folder.

You can get a few pages of help for batch file syntax by typing:
for /?
in a DOS command box.

For improving quality and many, many other things, read up on Avisynth scripting.
Very powerful, different and easier than DOS batch files anyway.
Any kind of scripting pays off after you've sweated out the initial script. Repeating it is almost no effort.

[Jeremy of Many]

My sincerest apologies to all.
Both TMPGEnc and HCEnc were both generating blocky image during motion scenes.
I put the bitrate in TMPGEnc to 4000 and there was no blockiness in even the fastest of motion.
Alan, how do I configure HcEnc to encode all my M2V's to the appropriate bitrates so that combined, they fill a DVD?

[AlanHK]

My sincerest apologies to all.
Both TMPGEnc and HCEnc were both generating blocky image during motion scenes.
I put the bitrate in TMPGEnc to 4000 and there was no blockiness in even the fastest of motion.
Alan, how do I configure HcEnc to encode all my M2V's to the appropriate bitrates so that combined, they fill a DVD?

My rule of thumb is total video files 4 GB, the audio (AC3, 128k) is about 2-300 MB, gives about 95% full DVD.

There are bitrate calculators, but I make an AVS file that joins all the AVI files together, load it in HCgui as input, and set the filesize to 4000000 kb. Then I take the bitrate number that gives and plug it into my batch.

For the example above, I used:

AVISource("dw207.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976) ++\
AVISource("dw208.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976) ++\
AVISource("dw209.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976) ++\
AVISource("dw210.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976) ++\
AVISource("dw211.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976) ++\
AVISource("dw212.avi",false).LanczosResize(720,480).assumefps(23.976)

The "Assumefps" command is because even a tiny difference in framerate stops a join, so this locks it. Unnecessary in each separate AVS. The (re)sizing is arbitrary too, as long as they're the same.

You see that having short filenames makes this a lot more manageable.
I write this with a text editor that supports column mode, easy to duplicate slabs and columns.
If the AVS is in the same directory as the AVI, you don't have to include the full path, just the filename. Makes for more portability, easy to copy and reuse.

[freebird73717]

You can get away with lower bitrates by using a lower frame size like 352x480 instead of 720x480. It allows for better use of the bitrate at that size. For most downloaded avi's is a perfectly good frame size.

If you got the bat files working ok that's good. If not seriously look at BatchCCEWS. It really makes batch encoding in HC much easier. I'm not the greatest batch scripter and this program has made life much easier for me. Good thing is it's freeware so if you don't like it then just delete it.

[freebird73717]

Also I routinely fit about 300 minutes of video into a dvd. So for a 45 minute show (1 hour before commercials removed) I fit 6 shows. This gives you an average bitrate of 1800 for the video and 192 for the audio. As long as you don't have a BIG screen tv you should be OK. I have also have a 29 inch tv and it works for me...

I wouldn't go any lower than that with bitrate. Just use more dvd's. Otherwise you'll have to put up with macroblocks.

[Jeremy of Many]

There are 9 episodes in Season 1 and they were originally encoded to fit on one DVD. In order for me to put the bitrate up to remove the macroblocks in the MPEG-2 files, I will have to either use a Dual Layer (which I have) or put 5 eps on DVD1 and 4 on DVD2.

I'm not sure if either of our players can use DLs, so I'll go with the latter option.

If I'm combining all AVIs into one M2V, how am I supposed to choose between episodes on the DVD? Treat each episode as a chapter?

[45tripp]

yes.

rather crude to set a single chapter per episode though,
still, effective if you don't want to mess with menus.

better,
you should chapter however you please,
manually setting at least the specific episode start points,
and create a dvd menu with buttons linking to the said chapter points.

gl

[gadgetguy]

... If I'm combining all AVIs into one M2V, how am I supposed to choose between episodes on the DVD? Treat each episode as a chapter?

I wouldn't encode them all into a single file. I would use the script that combines them, open it in VirtualDub to get the total running time for the bitrate calculator, but then encode each episode separately.

[AlanHK]

If I'm combining all AVIs into one M2V, how am I supposed to choose between episodes on the DVD? Treat each episode as a chapter?

That would work, but why would you combine them all into a single file?

Preferable to have each episode a single file, easy to make a menu for that.

[ricardouk]

i currently use KuuEss, its a Quenc batch processing tool, you create a profile, load the avs's and let it run overnight.

http://spamthemoe.sp.ohost.de/kuuess/index.htm

Simple and effective with good results, since quenc can produce ac3, i dont have to convert the audio separately, ita all done in "one go", "life saver" tool, it should be mentioned on the videohelp tools

[cheappeople]

I have a sure fire solution for getting your episodes on DVD with perfect quality.

Buy the stupid DVDs insted of trying to convert some crappy encoded downloaded files.

It amazes me how my times I read "I have shows in .avi and want to put them on DVD with perfect quality" and then complain that the solutions given are not good enough.

If you don't like the quality that your getting from re-encoding, then buy the DVDs and don't be so cheap.

MODS: Wouldn't this request be considered dealing with warez, because the last time I checked the Sliders Season 1 episodes that are on my DVDs were is the .vob format not .avis the poster clearly has.