H.264 issue...

[The.King]

I am using StaxRip and I have decided to forget about the apparently 'better supported' XviD and instead I am trying my hand at H.264 instead. I gave up on XviD as the final product had too much blur no matter what I did.

By using H.264 and an MP4 container (which I read was more native to H.264 than MKV?) the resulting quality is a lot better than with XviD however, there is a really bad sync issue with sound - AND the picture is much much more grainy? I have tried to adjust the 'audio delay' from what StaxRip recommends after checking the source (-128) to something like -400 and it has narrowed the gap - but it's taking a very long time to get this process right (i.e. having to encode the file again everytime I make an adjustment.) I have read about 50 different manuals/guides/forums about StaxRip, but there is nothing conclusive out there, meaning a lot of it is trial and error.

So to the questions then...

(1) Is it possible to get a tiny preview of what the finished article will look and sound like in StaxRip before it is encoded? This would obviously save about 50 minutes each time I make an adjustment. I'm afriad to just rip a shorter example and encode that in case the sync is fine on the shorter file, but then goes out of sync when I use the full file. (Hope that makes sense)

(2) Having Googled Staxrip guides and manuals to death (including the ones on this site and the German conversion), can anyone advise if there is a decent guide to achieving a good quality encode (Vob to H.264 [mp4 or mkv])?

(3) Can anyone tell me how to reduce the grain in the encoded file? Is it the 'noise' function or is there a simply way of making the picture slightly softer? (i.e. XviD is very sofy, not sharp or grainy at all, H.264 is very sharp & grainy. Looking for something in between.)

(4) Any other tips on what is your favourite program to encode to H.264 mp4/mkv (from DVD source) where you got really good results (better than other programs) and without needing a BSc or Masters in technology to achieve it?

BTW, it might be worth mentioning that I did try avi.Net & HDConvertToX, but I (personally) thought that the former did not have a patch on StaxRip and the latter - well I just turned it off after it was 72% done after 2hrs. StaxRip only takes about 25-30 minutes for the same thing.

Would really some input. Thanks in advance.

[The.King]

Anyone got any ideas on this? Sorry for the long post initially - I just wanted to give some background and info first, without just blindly asking for help and not explaining myself.

[poisondeathray]

You're going to hate me, because the answer to the 1st 3 questions is avisynth

(1) Is it possible to get a tiny preview of what the finished article will look and sound like in StaxRip before it is encoded? This would obviously save about 50 minutes each time I make an adjustment. I'm afriad to just rip a shorter example and encode that in case the sync is fine on the shorter file, but then goes out of sync when I use the full file. (Hope that makes sense)

You can create an avs script that specifies both audio & video . By previewing the script in a media player, you can determine sync (most will have +/- keys to add/subtract ms delay, and that is the value you enter in the script to keep it in sync) . This takes a few seconds to do, maybe a minute

By creating your own scripts, you eliminate the wait time as the auto analyzing programs use to examine the file (some take 5-10 minutes, some take even longer depending on the length of your source) = faster

(2) Having Googled Staxrip guides and manuals to death (including the ones on this site and the German conversion), can anyone advise if there is a decent guide to achieving a good quality encode (Vob to H.264 [mp4 or mkv])?

Encoding is about both (1) preparing the encode = avisynth filters (2) encoding settings. By focusing on only (2) , you're in trouble. You need to learn both for a decent encode

(3) Can anyone tell me how to reduce the grain in the encoded file? Is it the 'noise' function or is there a simply way of making the picture slightly softer? (i.e. XviD is very sofy, not sharp or grainy at all, H.264 is very sharp & grainy. Looking for something in between.)

Big role is avisynth filtering. The job of the encoder is mostly to reproduce the image given to it. If you denoise, you will reduce your bitrate requirements and increase compressibility. If you denoise too much you lose too many details. You want to target specifically the type of noise. You can't just throw some generic filter at it (well you can, but your results won't be optimal)

Every source is different. If you want a mediocre encode, then just keep on using generic programs that do everything for you. If you want to learn how to do a good encode, start learning about pre-processing and encoding settings

(4) Any other tips on what is your favourite program to encode to H.264 mp4/mkv (from DVD source) where you got really good results (better than other programs) and without needing a BSc or Masters in technology to achieve it?

x264 , every program (GUI) uses it . If you use the same filtering, same settings with the x264 version, you get exactly the same results. The new system is very easy to use, they have presets like --slow , or --very fast etc....

If you are into tweaking more, you can learn about the settings , if that's too much for you, stick to the basic presets and tunings
http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings