Problem converting standalone incompatible clip but keep quality

[Mark69]

I've a clip which doesn't play on my standalone player (gives me the error video format not supported), which is odd as so far it's played pretty much every avi I've thrown at it. The only difference between clips which played and those which didn't appeared to be the bitrate, though I've also noticed that the dimensions are different. I tried to convert it to a different format (picked mpeg4 at random) using STOIK video converter, and got it to play, but with a big black border, and increasing sync problems. Then found your forums and used agk, which gives a very pixelated (but just watchable) result, without the sync problems. I tried uninstalling agk and reinstalling with the other standalone compatibility set (don't know if my player is ESS or the other), but no great improvement. I'd read the issue about having to resize to a width of 640, so specified that, but actually agk chose pretty much the same dimensions when left to auto. I have to admit to knowing very little about video encoding or DVD beyond the basic principles (and I've read the What is section).

Here is gspot's output for the file that won't play on the standalone, followed by the gspot output of a file from the same source which does play. There are a number of differences - interestingly the one that plays is VBR, and the one that doesn't is CBR, contrary to what I've read. I note that the one that plays has aligned audio, and the one that doesn't has interleaved audio, but as the audio plays on the one that the video is rejected on, I'm not sure that's likely to be the issue. These are the gspot logs purged of blank lines, so if you don't see a parameter, it's cos it wasn't there.

This file doesn’t play

FILE_SIZE 734,545,920
CONT_AUDIO_STREAM_COUNT 1
CONT_BASETYPE AVI(.AVI)
CONT_BYTES_MISSING 0
CONT_INTERLEAVE_ALIGN Split
CONT_INTERLEAVE_PRELOAD 384
CONT_INTERLEAVE_TIME 42
CONT_SUBTYPE OpenDML (AVI v2.0),
CONT_TOTAL_BITRATE 0
VIDEO_BITRATE 1929
VIDEO_CODEC_NAME XviD 1.0.2
VIDEO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are Installed
VIDEO_CODEC_TYPE XVID
VIDEO_DAR 1.765
VIDEO_DURATION 42:09.507
VIDEO_FRAME_COUNT 60648
VIDEO_FRAMES_PER_SEC 23.976
VIDEO_MPEG4 MPEG-4
VIDEO_MPEG4_BVOP B-VOP
VIDEO_PAR 1.000
VIDEO_PICS_PER_SEC 23.976
VIDEO_QF 0.154
VIDEO_SAR 1.765
VIDEO_SIZE_X 960
VIDEO_SIZE_Y 544
AUDIO_BITRATE 384
AUDIO_BITRATE_TYPE CBR
AUDIO_CHANNEL_COUNT 6
AUDIO_CODEC 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
AUDIO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are Installed
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE 48000

This file plays fine

FILE_SIZE 367,079,112
CONT_AUDIO_STREAM_COUNT 1
CONT_BASETYPE AVI(.AVI)
CONT_BYTES_MISSING 0
CONT_INTERLEAVE_ALIGN Aligned
CONT_INTERLEAVE_TIME 42
CONT_SUBTYPE AVI v1.0,
CONT_TOTAL_BITRATE 0
VIDEO_BITRATE 1004
VIDEO_CODEC_NAME XviD 1.1.0 Beta 2
VIDEO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are Installed
VIDEO_CODEC_TYPE XVID
VIDEO_DAR 1.773
VIDEO_DURATION 42:38.244
VIDEO_FRAME_COUNT 61337
VIDEO_FRAMES_PER_SEC 23.976
VIDEO_MPEG4 MPEG-4
VIDEO_MPEG4_BVOP B-VOP
VIDEO_PAR 1.000
VIDEO_PICS_PER_SEC 23.976
VIDEO_QF 0.191
VIDEO_SAR 1.773
VIDEO_SIZE_X 624
VIDEO_SIZE_Y 352
AUDIO_BITRATE 128
AUDIO_BITRATE_TYPE VBR
AUDIO_CHANNEL_COUNT 2
AUDIO_CODEC 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
AUDIO_CODEC_STATUS Codec(s) are Installed
AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE 48000

Any clues as to why file 1 wouldn't play in a standalone which plays file 2, and how I could convert it so it will play but maintain the quality. I don't want the file to get much bigger, if possible.

Thanks very much

[manono]

Hi-

The easy question to answer is the one about why the original file won't play at all, and the answer is the resolution, at 960x544, is too high. As for why the reencode looks so bad, I'm not real sure. Can you post the AGK log file? It might give a clue.

I don't want the file to get much bigger, if possible.

It looks to me like the reencoded one is half the size of the source file. Or is it not from AGK reencoded AVI? You might give it a larger size, or maybe try a 1-pass Target Quality encode at the default 75%.

[Mark69]

Thanks,

I get paranoid about paths, so have removed the paths from this post, otherwise here is the log - I chose 1/2CD as the size, based on the size of the file that plays

[30/01/2008 21:21:46] AutoGK 2.45
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Job started.
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Input file: ******
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Input codec: XviD
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Source duration: 42mn 9s 530ms
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Output file: *********
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Output codec: XviD
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Audio 1: 384 Kbps AC3 6ch
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Subtitles: none
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Format: AVI
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Target size: 350Mb
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Audio 1 settings: Auto
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Standalone support enabled: MTK/Sigma
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Started encoding.
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Source resolution: 960x544
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Source fps: 23.976
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Output will contain 60648 frames
[30/01/2008 21:21:46] Demuxing audio.
[30/01/2008 21:22:22] Decoding audio.
[30/01/2008 21:23:40] Normalizing audio.
[30/01/2008 21:24:02] Encoding audio.
[30/01/2008 21:29:01] Audio1 size: 35,531,328 bytes (33.89 Mb)
[30/01/2008 21:29:01] Overhead: 2,425,856 bytes (2.31 Mb)
[30/01/2008 21:29:01] Video size: 329,044,416 bytes (313.80 Mb)
[30/01/2008 21:29:01] Running compressibility test.
[30/01/2008 21:29:01] Writing the following script to *******
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrainSSE3.dll")

movie = DirectShowSource("******",23.976).KillAudio()
movie = isRGB(movie) ? ConvertToYV12(movie) : movie
movie = isYUY2(movie) ? ConvertToYV12(movie) : movie
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 640
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
SelectRangeEvery(300,15)
===========================================================
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Duration was: 2 minutes 46 seconds
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Speed was: 18.25 fps.
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Compressibility percentage is: 67.46
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Chosen resolution is: 608x352 ( AR: 1.73 )
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Predicted comptest value is: 74.24%
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Running first pass.
[30/01/2008 21:31:48] Writing the following script to ********
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrainSSE3.dll")

movie = DirectShowSource("********",23.976).KillAudio()
movie = isRGB(movie) ? ConvertToYV12(movie) : movie
movie = isYUY2(movie) ? ConvertToYV12(movie) : movie
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 608
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
===========================================================
[30/01/2008 21:54:23] Duration was: 22 minutes 35 seconds
[30/01/2008 21:54:23] Speed was: 44.74 fps.
[30/01/2008 21:54:23] Expected quality of first pass size: 64.18%
[30/01/2008 21:54:23] Running second pass.
[30/01/2008 22:22:38] Duration was: 28 minutes 14 seconds
[30/01/2008 22:22:38] Speed was: 35.80 fps.
[30/01/2008 22:22:38] Job finished. Total time: 1 hour, 0 minutes 51 seconds

Cheers for your thoughts - I wondered about the resolution, but was then surprised that the resultant converted file looked so "blocky" when it played.

One thing I notice looking at this is the demuxed video size is much smaller than the video size reported by gspot - could it be that the loss of quality is occuring at this stage?

Thanks

[manono]

One thing I notice looking at this is the demuxed video size is much smaller than the video size reported by gspot - could it be that the loss of quality is occuring at this stage?

The log is OK, and everything points to a good lookng encode. Are you saying the final size isn't the 350 MB you requested? If so, then the answer to your question is "yes" and that's the reason for the bad-looking AVI.

You're using AutoGK 2.45 which is broken for XviDs using the ESS/MTK chipset options. My suggestions are to first remove your XviD codec using Add/Remove programs and then upgrade to version 2.48 which uses a different XviD. Then try again and pay careful attention to the final size as compared to the size you requested. Either that or try with the DivX codec.

[mats.hogberg]

Another way to go about this is to use AviReComp.

/Mats

[Mark69]

The log is OK, and everything points to a good lookng encode. Are you saying the final size isn't the 350 MB you requested? If so, then the answer to your question is "yes" and that's the reason for the bad-looking AVI.

No, the file size is OK - usually significantly smaller.

You're using AutoGK 2.45 which is broken for XviDs using the ESS/MTK chipset options. My suggestions are to first remove your XviD codec using Add/Remove programs and then upgrade to version 2.48 which uses a different XviD. Then try again and pay careful attention to the final size as compared to the size you requested. Either that or try with the DivX codec.

According to the wiki, AGK development was stopped, and 2.4.8 doesn't seem to be available for download. 2.4.5 was the latest stable version, and the one I could download from here (I struggled to download even 2.45 from the author's site, although it seemed to be available, even after disabling webfilters to allow for referrer headers, and using 2 different browsers). I already had the most recent XviD codec installed independently - wouldn't AGK use that? Would that make a difference to the "breakage". I have to say that the end result didn't seem too different whichever set of standalone compatibilities I selected.

Thanks

[jagabo]

The log is OK, and everything points to a good lookng encode. Are you saying the final size isn't the 350 MB you requested? If so, then the answer to your question is "yes" and that's the reason for the bad-looking AVI.

No, the file size is OK - usually significantly smaller.

Every video is different. The bigger the frame the more bitrate you'll need. The higher the frame rate the more bitrate you'll need. The more noise, action, shakey camerawork, etc., the more bitrate you will need.