Xvid4PSP and DD decoding

[CineManno]

Based on recommendation I am using Xvid4PSP to transcode my m2ts AVCHD files to another format. Well for the first time in my life I am capable of transcoding AVCHD files. But now the audio does not work. The files come from my Sony SR1 camera which automatically records with AC3 DD audio.

When I put the videofile in Graphedit I can see

m2ts --> Nero Splitter --> Nero DVD decoder --> Vide renderer
--> XformIN Microsoft MPEG1/DD Audio decoder XFormOut --> default Directsound device

SO I think I need a propoer AC3 directshow filter. Is my analysis right? Can anyone point me to one?

Unfortunately I cannot install a codec pack as it screw up the sony software that came with the camera (http://support.sony-europe.com/dime/hotnews/hotnews.aspx?site=odw_nl_NL&m=HDR-SR1E&f=PMB_tblsht)

Thansk for any help.

[poisondeathray]

install ac3filter and haali media splitter

[CineManno]

Thanks for the tip. I installed AC3 filer. This gives me audio, but I have to verify whether it is in sync with the video. Haali Splitter can not be installed as it messes up the Sony software. Don't ask why but once again Sony managed to create something proprietary.

Now when I am encoding to AppleTV format I do get a funny effect. When playing back the file in MPlayer for windows the colors are fine. When playing back in QuickTime the colors are off. It is wahsed out and too dark. Is this a known issue?

[poisondeathray]

It could be a number of things , too many to list , unless you give more specfic info

Playback depends on the splitter, decoder, levels (e.g. TV vs. PC), monitor calibration, graphics drivers, and renderer....etc, etc...

e.g. you might be using vrm9 vs. overlay mixer for renderer (vmr9 gives dull colors, overlay give darker image), but the underlying video is the same. Many software can change the levels, or renderer choice, or gamma, brightness, etc... during playback (e.g. KMplayer, VLC, SMPlayer etc...)

Also when you have 2 videos opened (e.g 1 open in xvid4psp, and playing one in QT at the same time), the available renderer usually automatically switches, so make sure you try 1 at a time.

[CineManno]

Well it only appears to be a problem when playing back in QT. VLAN or MPlayer just gives fine colors. Only QT makes them look dull. The good thing is that it did not give dull colors on my AppleTV. Must be some kind of Windows-QT bug.

What info could I give more to get more insight into the problem?

Another thing is that Xvid4PSP put audio and video way out of sync. I will look into fixing that as well.

Menno

[poisondeathray]

Both AppleTV and QT are not very good, in that they only support lower quality h.264 profiles (only AVC Main, instead of AVC High and a limited range of settings). While QT is bad, AppleTV is much worse, as it only supports an ever lower subset of settings - you are constrainted to meet this low quality profile of you want compatibility.

When you use QT Player it defaults to "apple movie hander" as the splitter so that might be the problem. Just don't use it if you don't like it. I have the pro version and it is quite limited in functionality and support. I hate it.

As for the sync issues, are your original .m2ts files in sync in a directshow player (i.e. test with MPC, NOT mplayer, which uses internal splitters and codecs, and doesn't depend on directshow)? Were there any dropouts or discontinunities during recording? This is often the cause of sync issues; the fix would be to cut out the offending sections.

Did you do any cutting/editing? or was it a straight encode?

It might be that your splitter (ie. not using Haali, or Sony software) is causing the problems. If your testing with MPC playback is fine, your directshow subsystem should be OK

The problem with xvid4psp is that it default to using DirectShowSource() in avisynth for the autogenerated script, which is not frame accurate and sometimes prone to sync issues. A more consistent method is to use DGAVCIndex and index your .m2ts, or DirectShowSource2 (DSS2), both which are frame accurate. The problem with DGAVCIndex and AVCHD clips, is that it uses an older libavcodec version that has issues with decoding interlaced h264 content - you get blocky artifacts. Most of the time, just using the default directshowsource() is fine, but you sometimes have to do a manual script, or graphedit/graphstudio .grf file, or sort out your directshow filters

If it's a constant sync issue, and the audio & video are same lengths, just offset, you can fix it easily by entering a +/- ms delay. If there were errors/discontinunities in the original stream, and your video/audio have different lengths resulting in a progressive sync issue and this is much more difficult to fix.

[CineManno]

Thanks for the elaborate information.

I solved the sync issue. XVid4PSP registered an 1040 msec delay in the audio when opening the file. The default setting is to leave it that way when encoding. When I reduce it to 0 the lipsync is perfect. I don't know why XVID4PSP thinks it should have 1040 msec elay.

Playing back in Nero (uses Nero's directshow filters), MPlayer or Sony software itself is okay. I will try MPC as well. I might try installing CoreAVC without Haali Media Splitter to see if I can improve AVCHD play back. But I would need to learn more about directshow filters and how to manipulate them with GraphEdit. Can you for example store the Nero filters, even after removing the nero software? (I am using it less and less and the software is so big)

I installed Xvid codec for the interlaced issue. It was complaining it didn;t have the YV12 codec. It looks good now.

I agree that the AppleTV is not the best device. It is basically a very scaled down Tiger OS on very limited hardware. But still one of the better Media Players with a remote. I would trust my wife with it. And I can;t say that for other devices I used. Especially since I like photography I wanted a device that can render photo's quite okay. Most Sigma 863x chipset based media players don't do well on photos. Taking into account I bought in in the US the price in euro's was decent.

Anyway, I am quite happy that I am now finding my way into AVCHD --> MP4 in one conversion. I was forced to do it in two steps. First downgrade it to MPEG-2 with Sony software and then further processing. This was a big letdown as I wanted to see it on my Plasma. Now at least I can maintain the HD resolution.

I have a few questions still:
- encoding is quite slow. 6 times the normal video lenth or so. I would have expected more from my machine. (dual core 2.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 8600GTS videocard). Is that normal to be expected speed?
- can one store it's own 'format' in XVID4PSP? Now I have to make adjustments for each video as the default AppleTV settinng is not fully okay. Music needs to go to stereo, lipsync, and I might want to increase bitrate (now 1.5 mbps)
- what other splitters are there for AVCHD m2ts?

Regards.

[poisondeathray]

Does your Sony software allow for another intermediate format, something lossless (e.g. lagarith, huffyuv)? instead of MPEG2? MPEG2 is quite lossy, and you might reduce the loss by using high bitrates, but why use the bundled Sony software at all? Is there something it does that you can't do better with free software?

I have a few questions still:
- encoding is quite slow. 6 times the normal video lenth or so. I would have expected more from my machine. (dual core 2.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 8600GTS videocard). Is that normal to be expected speed?

It depends on many factors, but encoding h264 is generally slow. Your filters, encoding settings, frame size all affect the speed. You might be deinterlacing (if you imported the native .m2ts, it will auto detect and select a deinterlacer, not sure about if you imported a converted MPEG2 intermediate). Some deinterlacers provide better quality, some more speed, so you have some choices here. By adjusting some of the x264 settings you can make it go much faster at the expense of quality, or even slower for better quality

- can one store it's own 'format' in XVID4PSP? Now I have to make adjustments for each video as the default AppleTV settinng is not fully okay. Music needs to go to stereo, lipsync, and I might want to increase bitrate (now 1.5 mbps)

Yes you can save a custom preset, just press the "E" and change some parameters and + button to add a custom profile

- what other splitters are there for AVCHD m2ts?

I don't know of any free ones that function well. Haali is the only one I'm aware of. You can get other splitters from software packages, e.g. Nero, Arcsoft, Mainconcept, but you may have to register them or change the merit on your system

[CineManno]

My Sony software does not allow for any other intermediate format (except for WMV). I think the MPEG2 was already a bonus. The Sony Camcorder stores all files as "date+time".m2ts. The nice thing about the Sony software is that it comes with a calender so that all your videofiles are plotted (thumbnails) on the date taken. That is a very friendly way to help me find back my videos. Furthermore the player allows me to easily select the next movie. It is a kind of picture browser for movies. Thay did that very nice. Because with a camcorder I usually take small clips of 30 sec - 1 min there are a lot of them. Just browser through the file structure in Explorer wouldn;t give me anything.

I tried installing CoreAVC and Gabest MPEG2 splitter. as well. But the nero codecs seem to have a really high priority. Would have to adjust this through a directshow filter manager. I will need to install a second machine to fiddle around, because I don't want to break my working system. I had to reinstall Sony Software so many times already and import all my movies again in the sony software. I am so glad I can do this after 2 years of workarounds.

The only thing is that when opening the files it takes a long time to "deinterlace and discovering field order" when opening the file. Wish I could speed that up. What filter takes care of that?

I know I can add video and audio profiles, but I just wanted to add a new "AppleTV for my machine" at the top list, which would automatically choose my video and audio encoding settings. The other thing is that I can't automate the audiodelay. Have to do this ('Configure') every time I open a video. And this is so easily forgotten. Would probably need to make an own Avisynth script. The forum of Xvid4PSP is not so heavily discussed, mostly in Russian.

Regards.