Incorrect Output File Sizes With AutoGK

[H3rEye51nRoam]

I'm attempting to backup TV episodes from DVD to Xvid by using DVD Shrink and AutoGK. I'm using DVD Shrink to extract a single episode from the disc to the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS subfolders. I am then using AutoGK to convert the resulting .IFO files to Xvid. I am setting a custom size of 350mb for each episode that I am converting. From there, I have it set to Auto Width, VBR MP3 128kbps, and Xvid (leaving subtitle options unchecked). I've worked through a season and I am somewhat confused by the size of the output files I've received. Although I set each episode for 350mb, I have some that are significantly smaller (250mb in one case). What is causing this and why is there such variation? On a side note, I skimmed portions of the episode at 250mb and it looks flawless. Is this anything to be concerned with?

Thanks!

[Baldrick]

Moving you to our dvd to avi section.

What's the runtime? ~23 minutes episodes?

[H3rEye51nRoam]

Yes, roughly 21 to 23 minutes. I did notice variations in the size of the VOB files (900mb to 1100mb) but if I'm setting it to 350mb, should everything come out as 350mb? Or is this simply taking each video to a specific quality level, hence the variation in output size?

[rickydavao]

I had something similar happen to me while encoding some anime episodes using Virtualdubmod (which is what AutoGK uses I think). This can happen if there are a lot of dark or dimly lit scenes during the episode. Darker scenes compress a lot better than lighter scenes, so the bitrate during these darker scenes will be very low no matter how much bitrate you throw at it. If there are very few bright scenes during the episode, then the amount of bitrate allocated to the entire episode (based on your file size of 350Mb) may be more than the episode actually needs (due to those low bitrate darker scenes). Of course, this also means that the brighter scenes will have lots of bitrate, so they should look quite good. So this is nothing to be concerned with as AutoGK is giving you the best quality it can within that episode regardless of whether you specify 350Mb or even more (and if you did specify more, the end file size would probably end up being the same anyway!)

So, IMHO, the variation in output size is simply due to the number of darker scenes in each episode. On the down side, if you have an episode that is very bright for most of the time, the quality may suffer a bit as there won't be adequate bitrate for all those bright scenes (bright scenes need more bitrate). You may want to find an episode that is mostly bright and try an encode at 350Mb to see how the quality compares to one of your undersized encodes.

[manono]

Yeah, that's what I thought at first as well; that he was saturating the codec. But he says that AutoGK is choosing the width, and that he's choosing only 350MB for the size, so I think the problem must lie elsewhere. There could be several explanations. First, H3rEye51nRoam, please post a log for one of these encodes that was off in the size.

[H3rEye51nRoam]

[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] AutoGK 2.45
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] OS: Windows Vista (6.0.6001).2
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Job started.
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Input file: E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh... Guy Who Receives\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Output file: E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\Family Guy - Season 04 - Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh...avi
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Output codec: XviD
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Audio 1: English AC3 6ch
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Subtitles: none
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Format: AVI
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Target size: 350Mb
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Audio 1 settings: VBR MP3 with average bitrate: 128Kbps
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Started encoding.
[6/19/2008 5:14:14 PM] Demuxing and indexing.
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Processing file: E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh... Guy Who Receives\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Processing file: E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh... Guy Who Receives\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Source resolution: 720x480
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Found NTSC source.
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Source aspect ratio: 4:3
[6/19/2008 5:15:39 PM] Analyzing source.
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Source has percentage of interlacing in motion areas: 61.96
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Source has percentage of telecined patterns: 96.47
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Source has percentage of progressive patterns: 0.59
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Source has percentage of interlaced patterns: 2.94
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Source is considered to be FILM.
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Output will contain 31458 frames
[6/19/2008 5:19:19 PM] Decoding audio.
[6/19/2008 5:22:32 PM] Normalizing audio.
[6/19/2008 5:22:53 PM] Encoding audio.
[6/19/2008 5:37:48 PM] Audio1 size: 18,148,632 bytes (17.31 Mb)
[6/19/2008 5:37:48 PM] Overhead: 1,258,368 bytes (1.20 Mb)
[6/19/2008 5:37:48 PM] Video size: 347,594,600 bytes (331.49 Mb)
[6/19/2008 5:37:48 PM] Running compressibility test.
[6/19/2008 5:37:48 PM] Writing the following script to E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\agk_tmp\Family Guy - Season 04 - Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh.._comptest.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dl l")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll" )

movie = mpeg2source("E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\agk_tmp\Family Guy - Season 04 - Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh...d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftad d=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
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
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=0)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,lef tadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
SelectRangeEvery(214,15)
================================================== =========
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Duration was: 7 minutes 2 seconds
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Speed was: 5.22 fps.
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Compressibility percentage is: 257.31
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Using sharper matrix
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Switching b-frames off
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Chosen resolution is: 720x544 ( AR: 1.32 )
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Predicted comptest value is: 113.37%
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Running first pass.
[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Writing the following script to E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\agk_tmp\Family Guy - Season 04 - Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh.._movie.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.d ll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dl l")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll" )

movie = mpeg2source("E:\Movies\Family Guy\Season 4\agk_tmp\Family Guy - Season 04 - Episode 12 - You May Now Kiss The... Uh...d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftad d=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
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 = 720
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
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=0)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,lef tadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
================================================== =========
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Duration was: 57 minutes 6 seconds
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Speed was: 9.18 fps.
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Expected quality of first pass size: 124.79%
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Trying to adjust settings.
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] No adjustment is possible
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Warning: final AVI will likely be undersized.
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Running second pass.
[6/19/2008 7:52:02 PM] Duration was: 1 hour, 10 minutes 4 seconds
[6/19/2008 7:52:02 PM] Speed was: 7.48 fps.
[6/19/2008 7:52:02 PM] Job finished. Total time: 2 hours 37 minutes 48 seconds

[H3rEye51nRoam]

Is it simply that it's making estimates for quality and overshooting them?

What would be the ideal size to go to? Is there any difference from converting one episode at a time as opposed to all episodes at once?

Is it worth taking everything to Xvid at the settings I am, or is there a better route to getting better quality that's universal among machines?

[manono]

rickydavaom was absolutely right-on with his guess; you've saturated the codec. You're encoding super-easy-to-compress cartoons and AutoGK can't use all the bits you've allotted. It's already giving you the best quality possible. They look good, don't they? The giveaways are here:

[6/19/2008 5:44:51 PM] Predicted comptest value is: 113.37%
.
.
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Expected quality of first pass size: 124.79%
.
.
[6/19/2008 6:41:58 PM] Warning: final AVI will likely be undersized.

When the (first) result of the compression test is over 100%, and then (second) the result of the first pass is over 100%, you'll be undersized. Use a smaller size or force an even greater width in the Advanced settings.

[H3rEye51nRoam]

Sounds good. The quality is flawless from what I've seen so far, merely curious about the differences in size. I think I'll just take every episode to 100% since I have the space and don't want to degrade it.

I encode all of my music at 128kbps CBR and plan to stick with that. Are there any downfalls of using a 128kbps CBR for these episodes and keeping the video at 100% quality?

Thanks again!

[manono]

None that I can think of. Yeah, I should have mentioned that a third alternative was to do a 1-pass Target Quality encode. That way it'll use whatever size it needs to get the quality you specify. You'll get results much more quickly also, since you're only running the one pass rather than using the default 2 pass method for a specific size.

[H3rEye51nRoam]

Thanks again, I appreciate all of the help!

[Obner]

* bump *

I just had this very problem happening to me yesterday.

I always set the custom size to 465mb for the last year or so and GK obliged.

I was running the 2.40 version until I decided to d-load the newest version
and that's when instead of getting a 465mb file, it turned into a 322mb one.

I'm guessing it had something to do with the upgrade.

If it's at all possible, i'd love to go back to my original size.

Help is much appreciated.

[2008-10-26 18:44:01] AutoGK 2.45
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Job started.
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Input file: E:\XviD\- To Encode\wedge-virgin.vob
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Output file: E:\XviD\- To Encode\wedge-virgin.avi
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Output codec: XviD
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Audio 1: Audio Stream 0 AC3
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Subtitles: none
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Format: AVI
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Target size: 465Mb
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Custom resolution settings: fixed width of 640 pixels
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Audio 1 settings: VBR MP3 with average bitrate: 128Kbps
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Standalone support enabled: ESS
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Started encoding.
[2008-10-26 18:44:01] Demuxing and indexing.
[2008-10-26 18:46:13] Processing file: E:\XviD\- To Encode\wedge-virgin.vob
[2008-10-26 18:46:13] Source resolution: 720x480
[2008-10-26 18:46:13] Found NTSC source.
[2008-10-26 18:46:13] Source aspect ratio: 4:3
[2008-10-26 18:46:13] Analyzing source.
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Source has percentage of interlacing in motion areas: 50,72
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Source has percentage of telecined patterns: 19,58
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Source has percentage of progressive patterns: 29,24
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Source has percentage of interlaced patterns: 51,18
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Source is considered to be hybrid (mostly NTSC).
[2008-10-26 18:47:48] Looking for optimal hybrid thresholds.
[2008-10-26 18:47:58] Found threshold of: 2,00
[2008-10-26 18:47:58] Output will contain 86430 frames
[2008-10-26 18:47:58] Decoding audio.
[2008-10-26 18:48:31] Normalizing audio.
[2008-10-26 18:48:42] Encoding audio.
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Picking up autocrop parameters.
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Audio1 size: 41,754,888 bytes (39.82 Mb)
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Overhead: 3,457,152 bytes (3.30 Mb)
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Video size: 442,375,800 bytes (421.88 Mb)
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Running compressibility test.
[2008-10-26 18:52:26] Writing the following script to E:\XviD\- To Encode\agk_tmp\wedge-virgin_comptest.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\XviD\- To Encode\agk_tmp\wedge-virgin.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd =8,rightadd=8,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
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
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=1,thr eshold=2)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,left add=8,rightadd=8,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
SelectRangeEvery(300,15)
================================================== =========
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Duration was: 2 minutes 37 seconds
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Speed was: 27,45 fps.
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Compressibility percentage is: 21,57
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Using softer resizer.
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Chosen resolution is: 640x480 ( AR: 1,33 )
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Predicted comptest value is: 22,78%
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Running first pass.
[2008-10-26 18:55:04] Writing the following script to E:\XviD\- To Encode\agk_tmp\wedge-virgin_movie.avs
================================================== =========
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\-PROGR~1\AutoGK\filters\decomb.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\XviD\- To Encode\agk_tmp\wedge-virgin.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples= 10,aspect=0,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,leftadd =8,rightadd=8,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 0.888888888888889
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
Telecide(movie,guide=1,post=2).Decimate(mode=1,thr eshold=2)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,asp ect=new_aspect,threshold=0,samplestartframe=0,left add=8,rightadd=8,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
BicubicResize(out_width,out_height,0,0.5)
================================================== =========
[2008-10-26 19:16:58] Duration was: 21 minutes 54 seconds
[2008-10-26 19:16:58] Speed was: 65,73 fps.
[2008-10-26 19:16:59] Expected quality of first pass size: 22,95%
[2008-10-26 19:16:59] Running second pass.
[2008-10-26 19:44:23] Duration was: 27 minutes 24 seconds
[2008-10-26 19:44:23] Speed was: 52,55 fps.
[2008-10-26 19:44:23] Job finished. Total time: 1 hour, 0 minutes 21 seconds

[manono]

While you were upgrading why didn't you get ver. 2.48? I think the version you're using was broken as far as getting the right size when using the ESS chipset option. I forget which version that was. Yes, here it is:

2.47b

- fixed external subs problem
- add command line option to start AutoGK in multi-instance mode: "-multi"
- DGMpgDec updated to version 1.5.0 beta 4
- XviD downgraded to version 1.2.0 CVS 20/12/06 to prevent undersize with ESS option enabled

Try it again. First remove the current XviD using Add/Remove Programs. Then perform your upgrade, this time to using 2.48.

[FulciLives]

XVID4PSP is a good program for doing XviD and it does have a "hardware XviD" setting which should make an XviD that will play on most if not all hardware (like DVD players that support DivX/XviD).

I mention XVID4PSP as it is newer and actively developed right now with updates when needed etc. whereas autogk is not updated anymore.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Obner]

While you were upgrading why didn't you get ver. 2.48? I think the version you're using was broken as far as getting the right size when using the ESS chipset option. I forget which version that was. Yes, here it is:

2.47b

- fixed external subs problem
- add command line option to start AutoGK in multi-instance mode: "-multi"
- DGMpgDec updated to version 1.5.0 beta 4
- XviD downgraded to version 1.2.0 CVS 20/12/06 to prevent undersize with ESS option enabled

Try it again. First remove the current XviD using Add/Remove Programs. Then perform your upgrade, this time to using 2.48.

Success!

Once again Manono you've come trough.

Much thanks to you.