Best audio codec?

[Cauptain]

Forget MEGUI. Its the problem.

Get RIPBOT264, will work.






Claudio

[supercain]

Yes, i ran that before starting the tests. Now i put a path to a real avi file on the avs file and opened wth megui. Now it says it cant open the file. Error code 2. Does that make any sense? maybe i need to run the auxsetup.exe again?

[jagabo]

I don't normally use MeGUI but I have it. I tried opening an AVS script that opened an AVI file. It worked fine for that. But when I tried to open an AVS script that opened from VirtualDub's frameserver it didn't work and gave the error you originally reported:



Other programs had no problems opening that AVS script. VirtualDubMod, x264, etc. So Cauptain is right, MeGUI has problems opening VirtualDub frameserver scripts.

[supercain]

So as Claudio says i should quit megui and try the one he suggests?

[El Heggunte]

So as Claudio says i should quit megui and try the one he suggests?

Surely. Ripbot is alive and well, and the author (Atak Snajpera) is alive and well too.

Sadly we cannot say the same about Megui, Sharktooth and Kurtnoise.

[jagabo]

I don't like ripbot264 because it requires java.

[Cauptain]

I don't like ripbot264 because it requires java.

Interesting. What is the problem of java jagabo?




Claudio

[hech54]

I normally just rename the .VDR file from VirtualDub to .AVS....then open that in MainConcept.

[Cauptain]

Tested on Hybrid. Work very well too.



Claudio

[supercain]

I tried ripbot and it didnt work. Virtualdub stops frame serving at the second frame and it wont go any further than that.

[jagabo]

I was able to frame serve to the x264 CLI encoder via AviSource() in an AVS script. It's weird that all those GUI front ends don't work. If you can't find and encoder what works you may have to give up on frame serving from VirtualDub and save to a lossless intermediate. Or do your encoding in VirtualDub and remux to another container. Or learn how to use VirtualDub's output plugins.

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=18840&

[poisondeathray]

Another convoluted workaround is avfs (avisynth virtual file system). megui or ripbot works if you use vdub frameserver => avfs => final program , but it's a double frame server, seems pointless

But what are you doing that requires vdub ? Since you plan on using those other programs anyways maybe you can elminate a few steps?

[supercain]

I need to add subtitles and logos and virtualdub is the easiest option i know to do that. But why cant i frame serve? its weird.

[jagabo]

For subtitles you can use VSFilter's TextSub("filename.srt"). Logos are a little tougher but can be done with Overlay() or Masktools.

[supercain]

Isnt there really any way around? i still think editing with virtualdub and then frameserving to another program is the best option.

[supercain]

Okay, i tried with hybrid and this time it worked (kinda) uts just that it has way too many things to configure im kinda puzzled. Also, i couldnt get the audio. I guess its bcause of the nero aac codec being missing? i downloaded it but i dont know where to put it for hybrid to be able to use it. Please, give me a hint.

Thank you.

[supercain]

Okay, so seems like the audio is the problem. Virtualdub is frame serving the video but not the audio. Thats why the whole process just remains in waiting. I dont know the reason but in the mean time what im doing is to import the audio from a different source and that works. However, now that i finished converting i see that the file size of the mp4 is as big as the avi file exported by virtualdub. So whats the point of all that??

[jagabo]

file size = bitrate * running time

[supercain]

Yes, i know. I set it at the same bitrate as on virtualdub, at 4000kbps. Running time is 23min. On Virtualdub i get a 695MB avi. Using Hybrid with the same x264 codec and same bitrate i get a 694MB mp4. Not a very big difference.

[poisondeathray]

Yes, i know. I set it at the same bitrate as on virtualdub, at 4000kbps. Running time is 23min. On Virtualdub i get a 695MB avi. Using Hybrid with the same x264 codec and same bitrate i get a 694MB mp4. Not a very big difference.

What did you expect? Filesize=bitrate x running time

You're only changing the audio bitrate ? Audio is only a small fraction of video bitrate in your case (it can be a larger fraction in low video bitrate videos)

e.g. 4000kbps video + 128kbps audio = 4128kbps total

If you used 96kbps aac

4000kbps video + 96kbps audio = 4096kbps total

4096/4128 = 99.22%

Less than 1% difference

[supercain]

Well, somebody here said videos in mp4 would be significantly smaller than in avi. Thats why i wanted to try out mp4. But if there is no signfiicant difference i guess i better stick to avi.

[jagabo]

Well, somebody here said videos in mp4 would be significantly smaller than in avi.

I suppose it depends on what one means by significant. If you consider 0.1 percent significant, then yes MP4 will be significantly smaller than AVI.

The bigger issue is codec compatibility with the containers. May players will not play h.264+aac in AVI, even if they support AVI (which usually means only Xvid/Divx+MP3/AC3 in AVI). On the other hand, most Divx/DVD players will not play MP4 regardless of what's in it.

Personally, I don't like MP4. The only reason to use it is PS3 and XBox 360 compatibility. I've moved on from AVI to MKV.

[supercain]

No, significantly for me means significantly. Like at least 20MB or so. But i will follow your advice. I will quit mp4 and will stick to avi.

[yoda313]

No, significantly for me means significantly. Like at least 20MB or so. But i will follow your advice. I will quit mp4 and will stick to avi.

Actually you need to reread it the suggestion was to move to mkv.

However the game consoles won't read mkv files so if that is your destination you will need to stick to avi or mp4. But if this is computer based or for settop media players mkv is good (and many but not all bluray players are starting to add mkv playback assuming h264 or divx codecs inside them - of course read the manual to be sure).