black borders after ripping DVD

[DB83]

The only difference I can readilly see from the two logs is that in the first you used 'target size' whereas in the second you used 'target quality'. The second should give the better results.

Your result from handbrake gives less quality since the file size is smaller and was probably only single-pass encoding hence the time involved. But at the end of the days it is horses for courses. If your player can not handle mp4's and most older players can not (AFAIK) then you are restricted to xVID or Divx (many players will not handle that either)

[hello_hello]

According to the log file you used single pass encoding this time. If you picked a file size instead last time, it'd slow things down because Xvid needs to run 2 passes that way. Plus if the file size you selected was too small it'd reduce the quality, although AutoGK still does it's best to keep it as high as possible. Sometimes that'll get AutoGK to change it's mind after it's run the first pass and it knows what the quality will be, so it adjusts settings and runs the first pass again.

You've also selected to keep the original audio (or AutoGK probably chooses that for you when you just run a single pass encode) which will speed things up as AutoGK doesn't need to spend time re-encoding it. AutoGK uses a slower algorithm for MP3 encoding than the default for the LAME encoder (many encoder GUI's do the same). It might take 10 or 15 minutes just for AutoGK to re-encode the audio for a movie, before it starts working on the video.

Depending on the type of video AutoGK might spend extra time analysing it to decide how best to de-interlace it, which adds another step in the process.

So yeah.... there's a few things which can effect the total time AutoGK takes to re-encode a video which don't actually relate to the speed at which the video itself is encoded. That shouldn't change too much.

[6-3-2013 17:38:59] Speed was: 102.13 fps.

That's certainly not slow.

Edit: I forgot you'd posted a previous log file. The first time you did run 2 pass encoding, and as the file size you chose produced greater than 100% quality according to AutoGK, it adjusted Xvid settings and ran the first pass a second time.

[4-3-2013 15:34:07] Speed was: 88.05 fps.

The actual video encoding wasn't all that much slower. I think it'll generally be a little slower than running single pass encoding though. The quality of the first encode should be just as good as the second encode. Theoretically, I think it should be better as AutoGK switched off Bframes and still achieved a slightly higher quality than the second, single pass encode. At least AutoGK thinks it did. If it's lower, then it's probably because you're using the wrong version of Xvid.

[flipjeboot]

Well, I'm pleased to tell you that my player can handle mp4's just fine. I've played Xvid's and Divx's before, so I knew it can handle those.
Anyway, I think we're done then. I'll stick to Handbrake for now. I will keep experimenting with Tmpgenc Xpress though. I paid good money for it, so I'll use it....

@hello_hello: thanks for the explanation. As I said I'm not aware of any changes I made. If the log says the settings were different then apparently I did, somehow. Maybe the bad result the first time was also user-error then? I don't think it was the codec; the second time I got a great result while using the same codec as before.

Thanks to all, I really appreciate it,
flipje

[DB83]

I think most of us can put our hands up and confess to buying software only to find that there existed free stuff that was as good as, if not better, than the commercial variant. So, yes, you owe it too your wallet to experiment with TE just to see if it really can do what is claims to do.

[hello_hello]

Maybe the bad result the first time was also user-error then? I don't think it was the codec; the second time I got a great result while using the same codec as before.

Fair enough. I used AutoGK for years and I have a fair idea how it adjusts Xvid settings. I've been involved in a few threads regarding AutoGK and quality issues, and each time it's been fixed by uninstalling Xvid and letting AutoGK install the version which comes with it.
The first time you ran a 2 pass encode, the second time a single pass encode.... totally different beasts.... and according to the log files (which don't lie because of an imagined user error) the quality should have been the same each time. However if you're happy it's not the codec, I'm happy you're happy.