Do i have to convert with a different method now?

[goodsharer2012]

I used to rip movies all the time a couple or so years ago with a method that i wish to use again but it seems that VFAPI is not installing the drivers correctly. The method i used gave me supreme control over almost every aspect of my rips, which i'd like back lol.

Here are the list of progs i've used to rip some great quality rips.

1: DVD Decrypter (used to get my Vob files) *
2: DGindex (used to output my AC3 audio & create a D2V project) *
3: Delaycut (used to fix any out of sync audio files) *
4: VFAPI Reader & Codec (Used to create a dummy avi container)
4.1: VOBSUB (used to extract the subtitles)
5: VDub(Mod) (used to put everything together again)
(*= Works Perfectly)
(Codec: Xvid) (Audio: AC3)
Following these steps by number is the method i've used for some time (during the "axxo" era) to create some good rips. The problem with this method though is, once i get to step 4 everything fails. Matter of fact, i cannot even get beyond step 4 because the driver (VFAPI) is not being registered correctly in the registry. The files are being put into the appropriate folders but it seems to me the registry is seeing them wrong. or something. I understand that my system isn't like my older system that i used to rip on. That system used to be Windows XP Pro. My more modern system is Windows XP Pro 64Bit. I have Win7 Ultimate 64Bit also, but it's not installed (to the same effect). I've read and read and read again so many issues similar to mine but have not found a clear solution on this subject. This leads to the topic, "Do i have to convert with a different method?" or is it possible that someone has created a program similar to VFAPI or has a fix to address the registry issue? I don't know that it is the registry for sure, but i only assume this because when i look at the setup file (vifp.inf) and see this,

[RegCodecNT]
HKLM, "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32","VIDC.VIFP", ,"VFCodec.dll"
HKLM, "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers.desc", "VFCodec.dll",, "VFAPI Reader Codec v1.05"

it seems that it's pointing to an OLD location that would have easily been read by WinXP 32bit. I also assume that locations of files have changed with XP 64bit and later versions of Windows in general (hence /Program Files (x86)/ [64Bit] over /Program Files/) [32bit]. I'm thinking that due to this newer update in the system the files that the .bat file installs are either in the wrong folder(s) or the registry is reading the wrong folder(s) or both. This isn't the first time i've had issues with older programs that have not been worked on since Win98. "Compatibility mode" does nothing to help either.
Anyways, I've looked into AVFS but it's waaay above my paygrade and goes right over my head. Avisynth simply does not work for me and i know absolutely nothing about scripts and how to create them (also doesn't work with any preinstalled scripts i try to use, always get an error about not being a recognized format, even with the package reader installed). So basically i need help. If anyone has any kind of input on this and/or a fix to change the registry, please share. I'm sooo trying to avoid the 1-click convertors that have linear quality controls. I stopped using them at AutoGK.
Thanks!

[hello_hello]

What do you mean by converters with "linear quality controls"?

I'm not sure I understand your workflow, but until someone clever comes along.......
If I understand this post correctly the installer isn't adding the entry to the registry it's supposed to. The poster here seems to have got it working by adding the registry entry manually:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1454837&postcount=10

[goodsharer2012]

What do you mean by converters with "linear quality controls"?

I'm not sure I understand your workflow, but until someone clever comes along.......
If I understand this post correctly the installer isn't adding the entry to the registry it's supposed to. The poster here seems to have got it working by adding the registry entry manually:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1454837&postcount=10

Lol, when i said that i only meant that the 1-click encoders have less manual quality control than i like to play with. The post you shared is something to try. Thank you. I will post back with an update in a bit.

[goodsharer2012]

Check this out.









_____________________

Dude, you sent a crummy link man. i should've known better though judging by the link itself.

[goodsharer2012]

What do you mean by converters with "linear quality controls"?

I'm not sure I understand your workflow, but until someone clever comes along.......
If I understand this post correctly the installer isn't adding the entry to the registry it's supposed to. The poster here seems to have got it working by adding the registry entry manually:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1454837&postcount=10

Lol, when i said that i only meant that the 1-click encoders have less manual quality control than i like to play with. The post you shared is something to try. Thank you. I will post back with an update in a bit.

Dude, Thank you so much!! Initially the the steps didn't work but with a little tweaking i finally got my container to open in VDubmod. I went about and dicked around in the registry, pointing the reg in the right direction of the actual file locations (within the system folders), then installed the "AuxSetup Handlers" option and it came right up. I was discouraged that his might not work since the structure of the posts inf file was so much more different than the original, but after using a little common sense and taking a registry error risk everything worked out. Hopefully the next step comes about with no issues.
I'm not going to classify this yet as Resolved, but i will report back again when the encoding is done (if it gets that far).
Again, Thanks.

[hello_hello]

Glad I helped, even if not by much.....

I mainly asked about the "linear quality" thing because you mentioned AutoGK and I'm still partial to using it if I'm encoding to AVI. I don't tweak Xvid though, I just use the default matrix and encode everything to the same quality.

If you happen to be in the market for a new encoding method could I suggest looking at MeGUI? It encodes using x264 (or Xvid) which most people use these day, given x264 is the better encoder. MeGUI will also let you tweak encoder settings etc to your heart's content. The only thing you need to install separately is AVIsynth. MeGUI will do all the indexing etc for you but you can use a d2v file as the input for it's Script Creator. Once you've opened a d2v file, MeGUI will open a preview window so you can set up cropping, resizing etc and MeGUI then creates the AVIsynth script for you which it uses for encoding.
There's a guide for encoding DVDs with MeGUI here if you're interested. Unlike most guides it doesn't seem to be too outdated to be useful. http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

[goodsharer2012]

Glad I helped, even if not by much.....

I mainly asked about the "linear quality" thing because you mentioned AutoGK and I'm still partial to using it if I'm encoding to AVI. I don't tweak Xvid though, I just use the default matrix and encode everything to the same quality.

If you happen to be in the market for a new encoding method could I suggest looking at MeGUI? It encodes using x264 (or Xvid) which most people use these day, given x264 is the better encoder. MeGUI will also let you tweak encoder settings etc to your heart's content. The only thing you need to install separately is AVIsynth. MeGUI will do all the indexing etc for you but you can use a d2v file as the input for it's Script Creator. Once you've opened a d2v file, MeGUI will open a preview window so you can set up cropping, resizing etc and MeGUI then creates the AVIsynth script for you which it uses for encoding.
There's a guide for encoding DVDs with MeGUI here if you're interested. Unlike most guides it doesn't seem to be too outdated to be useful. http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

Don't get me wrong, AutoGK is a great program and gets the job done and fast but to me it's TOO straight forward. The presets work wonders but by being me, i'm always pushing for total control. If i could learn coding and scripting overnight i'd probably make 1:1 DVDrips with no loss of quality at all, but thats just a fantasy in my head. I've been meaning to check out MeGUI and play with it a while, but i've been so dedicated to finding a solution for the VFAPI and Win 64Bit issue that i put everything else on hold. Now that i'm sort of relieved that i can play with buttons and change settings to my liking with my rips i'm down to try other things similar. I've read may posts and seen many things that involve scripts and such. To me it's all jargon, but learnable. Avisynth has been on my hard drive for some time now. I've installed it but assumed it was like VDub but couldn't find an app to start it up (again assuming it had(s) a GUI). Now that i found what i need with this issue, i'll look into more updated methods but keep my fallback method. I'm half way through the 2nd pass of the encode (which is taking forever) and i'm dying to see if i still have that ripper swag lol.

[dj4monie]

Loss of quality? Handbrake 2 Pass, done and done, looks great, 1080p looks perfect on 1080p screen. Perfection is just that, won't be found, humans are doing the work, not perfect. All I worry about is if the bit-rate is too generous (file too big) or too small (makes PQ suffer). The rest of it is just BS. I don't like menus, I don't wanna see extra features and I only speak English, so screw sub-titles.

Simple and sweet. Seems you enjoy the process more than watching the movie/tv show....

[hello_hello]

I only understand the basics of what AVIsynth can do and also just the basics when it comes to creating scripts. Fortunately that's all I pretty much need... thanks to MeGUI creating them for me I don't need to manually create scripts too often.
MeGUI is probably a good program to use for introducing yourself to AVIsynth because it lets you edit scripts manually if you want to, so it's kind of the best of both worlds. I suspect you'll find Handbrake too close to being the "one-click" flavor of GUI which you don't like.

Loss of quality? Handbrake 2 Pass, done and done, looks great, 1080p looks perfect on 1080p screen.

2 pass encoding? Really? Why?
Given you seem happy to adjust the bitrate if need be I assume a target file size isn't of the utmost importance, so why don't you use single pass CRF encoding like.... well...... most of us?

[dj4monie]

I only understand the basics of what AVIsynth can do and also just the basics when it comes to creating scripts. Fortunately that's all I pretty much need... thanks to MeGUI creating them for me I don't need to manually create scripts too often.
MeGUI is probably a good program to use for introducing yourself to AVIsynth because it lets you edit scripts manually if you want to, so it's kind of the best of both worlds. I suspect you'll find Handbrake too close to being the "one-click" flavor of GUI which you don't like.

Loss of quality? Handbrake 2 Pass, done and done, looks great, 1080p looks perfect on 1080p screen.

2 pass encoding? Really? Why?
Given you seem happy to adjust the bitrate if need be I assume a target file size isn't of the utmost importance, so why don't you use single pass CRF encoding like.... well...... most of us?

I do single pass and two pass, it depends. If its SD content which the majority of my stuff is, one pass is enough. HD content sometimes get one pass, other times two, depends.

[hello_hello]

On what does it depend..... I'm just curious why one pass mightn't be "enough" at times, unless you particularly need an exact file size.

According to the x264 developer who posts in the Doom9 forum, at the same bitrate there's virtually no difference between 2 pass and CRF encoding. Well I think at the time (it was a couple of years ago) he said CRF encoding actually had a marginal edge in quality but the difference is so minor you'd have to have OCD to care.

[jagabo]

Opening a DgIndex file in AviSynth is trivial. The script can be as simple as:

 Mpeg2Source("filename.d2v")

You just open that AVS script in VirtualDub (or whatever editor or encoder you're using that supports AVS scripts) as if it was a video file. In VirtualDub select File -> Open Video File -> the script.

You can create the script with Notepad or any other plain text editor -- just name it with .AVS as the extension rather than .TXT. I have a batch file in my SendTo folder so I can right click on the d2v file and select Send To -> AVS-Mpeg2Source to create the AVS script:

echo Mpeg2Source("%~d1%~p1%~n1%~x1") > "%~d1%~p1%~n1.avs"

A copy of the batch file is attached if you want to use it.

You must put a copy of DGDecode.dll in AviSynth's plugins folder for Mpeg2Source() to work.

[dj4monie]

On what does it depend..... I'm just curious why one pass mightn't be "enough" at times, unless you particularly need an exact file size.

According to the x264 developer who posts in the Doom9 forum, at the same bitrate there's virtually no difference between 2 pass and CRF encoding. Well I think at the time (it was a couple of years ago) he said CRF encoding actually had a marginal edge in quality but the difference is so minor you'd have to have OCD to care.

I often use recommended settings. Much of the time its on single pass, I experiment with double pass, takes longer, makes no different largely. Some people recommend double pass and that's usually is based on data that is not easily proven.

[duhmez]

I also use a small batch to send to>avs scrips. But I NEED to know and hope someone reads this, what does

~d1%~p1%~n1%~x1 mean? When I make a script I just use %1 as the variable and it gives the same output as this.

[jagabo]

%~d1 = drive letter, argument 1
%~p1 = path, argument 1
%~n1 = name (without extension), argument 1
%~n1 = extension, argument 1

http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/11/20/top-10-dos-batch-tips-yes-dos-batch.aspx