ConvertXtodvd 3 and 2 pass encode

[mazinz]

If this was covered already I could not bring it up in the search. Because of the one format to another I hope I am posting this in the right forum

I had a particular mkv container that has ac3 but the video used was made with the Wvc1 codec. At any rate concertXtodvd 3 worked fine with this file while other preferred methods (other programs that would use cce) failed because of the VC-1 format.

While I ran a test I noticed that the bottom of the convertX window had this "pass 1/1". I have used this program before and never really paid much mind to it until now.

I searched the program's options, but saw nothing about using a 2 pass method (which would be a nice welcome). I then looked in the program folder for an ini file with options. I lastly checked the registry options for this program and sure enough it does have a 2 pass mode but as default has it set to "false". I changed this to "true" and exited out of the registry and restarted the program. As it encoded my files it was now doing a double pass (the pass info on the bottom was now "pass 1/2 and then 2/2 for the second round).

Sure I would rather use CCE, but a double pass with this program was a nice find. Was anyone else aware of this or is this in the options somewhere that I might have missed? I will gladly give where/what reg keys you have to go to in order to enable the double pass feature if it is not something that can be changed normally in the program's settings

[Baldrick]

from the changelog

ConvertXtoDVD - 3.5.0.131 - Released 3 Mar 2009
=========================
- Prepare the engine for 2 pass encoding

so they will probably add an option in the program for it later. And visit http://forums.vso-software.fr/

[mazinz]

AHH Good to know. Hopefully down the road a 4 - 5 pass would be added.

usually for such material I would use thefilmmachine or avi2dvd because of the cce offering as the encoder, but as mentioned in this case though I can play the file fine for whatever reason it was crashing the normal apps I prefer to use

the 2 pass with convertX 3, seemed to work well enough

[guns1inger]

Only CCE offers more than two passes, and for most source, more than 3 is a waste of time. Visually there is no distinguishable difference after 3 passes, with the differences only being visible in a bitrate viewer. 4 - 5 passes (or more, in the case of the truely insane) has little more than wank factor going for it.

[ranosb]

from the changelog

ConvertXtoDVD - 3.5.0.131 - Released 3 Mar 2009
=========================
- Prepare the engine for 2 pass encoding

Did you use Convertxtodvd with both 1 & 2 pass settings and see if their was a difference from the same source?
If so, why would the programmer not already have this option implemented, especially if the encoder is CAPABLE of encoding a 2nd pass???

[mazinz]

from the changelog

ConvertXtoDVD - 3.5.0.131 - Released 3 Mar 2009
=========================
- Prepare the engine for 2 pass encoding

Did you use Convertxtodvd with both 1 & 2 pass settings and see if their was a difference from the same source?
If so, why would the programmer not already have this option implemented, especially if the encoder is CAPABLE of encoding a 2nd pass???

I was looking more at lets say a bland background rather than the images moving. In that case you can notice sometimes minor (but barely noticeable) artifacts in that dull background (like a grey sky before it rains type of bland). With what I was doing it did seem like that noise was reduced greatly to completely removed between the regular 1 pass and the additional 2 pass encodes.

Perhaps though they still might have some tweaking and this is why it was not full enabled in this version yet

Gunslinger
had no idea that a 4 pass was overkill

[guns1inger]

Most users of ConvertXtoDVD wont use 2 pass anyway. They will complaint that it takes twice as long. Given most of them use it to convert very mediocre quality downloaded files to DVD, most won't see any great visual benefit either. Anyone who is serious about quality will be using AVS2DVD, FAVC or something similar, that uses a better encoder (HCEnc) and has AVS support.

[Bulldog57]

please show me how to enable 2 pass mode registry thanks

[guns1inger]

I have seen nothing to indicate you can turn on 2-pass mode at all yet. Why do you think there is a registry setting to do this ?

[Bulldog57]

i can not see 2 pass in registry.

i got this vso form

2 pass encoding will be available in version 4.0

VSO is working on it, and will be ready, when they are done.

When will they be done ?

When they are done programming / testing it

[guns1inger]

You have just answered your won question. 2-pass is coming. They have started to prep the current code base to support it, but it doesn't exist yet.

You will just have to be patient, or start using a different encoder that supports 2-pass.

[mazinz]

As I already mentioned two pass is working fine (ver 3.5.3):

here is where the 2 pass setting is on my registry:

Hkey_current_user/software/VSO/convertXtodvd/3.0/settings (one click on settings)

clicking on settings once (and NOT one of the subkeys) brings up a number of options on the right hand side. Towards the middle of this list is this option

enc_twopass (and this is set to false)

Double click it and type in "true" exit out and two pass is now enabled

can provide a picture of the reg if worse comes to worse.
The only reason I even went looking for such an option is because the bottom of the window had a pass 1/1 and this made me think that perhaps it can do more than that

In some cases tweaking the registry keys can change how a program works or what limits it can do. A good example and a VERY RARE one is that sometimes I had a dvd that I would backup and find dvdfabdecrypter (free version) would get a disc that was listed as not being 100% for the rip it was showing 99 or 98% meaning FAB was telling me this disc is too large going by it's specs. Well in the registry I found the size info FAB has for a dvd-9 so I just increased that to a 9 gig setting. Now nothing gives a problem when ripping. It was the little things like that, that led me to see what ConvertX had for a pass mode or even if such a thing existed and I found it

[mazinz]

here is a small section snapshot of the setting in my registry;



remember just because the authors say it is coming in version 4 does not mean that it is not already there. They just do not want you to have any access to it yet.

and lastly a snapshot of the program with the 2 pass working after the registry setting change (note bottom left)

[t0nee1]

I can confirm, changing the registry setting, enc_twopass=>TRUE, it'll now show "pass 1/2 and then 2/2...

[Delta2]

I can confirm, changing the registry setting, enc_twopass=>TRUE, it'll now show "pass 1/2 and then 2/2...

Did you notice any quality improvement ?

[mazinz]

Depending on sources sometimes it is hard to tell. In the case I listed above in the first post for the high end mkv with the vc-1 codec, even with a very high source sometimes I would get very minor to really barely noticeable block type noise in a bland background when using ConvertX (though not full squares, but something close to that, easiest way to desribe it). Most wont notice it at all, but if you really look at the picture it was there after the encode and not there beforehand (I am sure someone would ask about if the noise was in the source material) . This is why I always tried to stick with cce.

However after doing a two pass unless my mind is playing tricks, this noise I was seeing was tremendously reduced to the point of not existing at all

[Seeker47]

In another thread, someone quoted the developers as expressing doubts that a 2-pass feature would make much of a difference in quality of the results. IF this was an accurate quote, that seems rather an odd thing for them to say. In that case, why bother going to the trouble of adapting the program for 2-pass . . . unless just a competitive marketing thing to keep up with the freeware programs that already offer this ?

[CBC]

I think that it's more the VSO forum users whinging & whinging about not having it (2 -pass capability) versus it actually making a big difference in PQ.

[ron spencer]

two pass makes a big difference for DV....but for crappy downloaded stuff, probably not

[t0nee1]

Did you notice any quality improvement ?

Yes, but since I now see pass 2/2 and higher bitrate encodes, it could be the placebo effect..
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder...

[Delta2]

However after doing a two pass unless my mind is playing tricks, this noise I was seeing was tremendously reduced to the point of not existing at all

VSO already is an aio wonder, with two-pass support then that should satisfy 99% of the users worldwide

the remain 1% are those that want full control over encoding, experienced users, nothing more

free-software are just to complicated to use: to many tools to install, codecs dependant, sometimes platform dependant, etc...

[mazinz]

two pass makes a big difference for DV....but for crappy downloaded stuff, probably not

Agreed. The two pass also helps greatly when you are dealing with good sources and transcoding down to a normal dvd5 size and not a dual layer

[Seeker47]

enc_twopass (and this is set to false)

Double click it and type in "true" exit out and two pass is now enabled

When v. 4 comes out, it presumably will have a Settings checkbox to control this.
In enabling this feature that is not officially online yet in the program, won't all
ConvertX jobs then be 2-pass ? That is, if we happen to want to do a 1-pass job again,
we would need to go back into the Registry settings and revert it -- correct ?

[ron spencer]

I do not see this reg key in 3.5.3..where is download you used

[Seeker47]

I do not see this reg key in 3.5.3..where is download you used

I couldn't find any such version either. The latest that seems to be listed anywhere is 3.5.2.___, but I thought I saw a very early beta for v. 4 in the VSO forum. Anyway, I made the change discussed above in my installed 3.5.135 and have just burned my first 2-pass test, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. It took about 45 minutes, which would have been more like 15 - 20 on the 1-pass.

[guns1inger]

2 pass certainly doesn't improve it's ability to use a full disc. It still has a tendency to under cut the requested size, sometimes by 10% or more

[Seeker47]

Have now done two of these 2-pass ConvertX jobs. The first one looked very good indeed, the second one really sucked. Has to be the sources. A very small sample, but I bet this will hold up over time. The good sources probably don't need it or benefit much, the poor sources will not be helped appreciably. But that leaves open the question of just what -- in that wide middle range -- will benefit from the 2-pass approach. I think one would have to do a lot of tests (same material, same settings, first in 1-pass, then in 2-pass) and carefully compare the results, in order to get a better handle on this. And I could easily believe there are better 2-pass solutions out there.
Still, I'd rather have it available as an option, whether I wind up using it or not.

[t0nee1]

I had the same results, some were very good , others sucked..And as guns stated, "2 pass certainly doesn't improve it's ability to use a full disc"...
I prefer HCenc with AVStoDVD or FAVC...

[ranosb]

Just download this and run, will put and enable two pass encoding, which does make a difference on HD sources like MKV...

http://rapidshare.com/files/229995270/ConvertXtoDvd_enc_twopass_enabled.reg

[mazinz]

I had no idea this thread was still going, notifications stopped. At any rate, I too prefer to use other programs, but most of the time if I run into some unforeseen bug for whatever reason, ConvertX comes through, gives me no problems and does it properly. In many cases this encoder really is not that bad, but having a more than 1 pass was needed. Now they just have to work on maximizing or getting it close to your desired output file size (4.20 something or 7. something gigs for DL) and I can see this program jumping further in status