Conversion 4:3 to 16:9

[cholla]

[QUOTE=DB83;27458231200 pixels wide. That, itself, equates to 1800 pixels i.e. a crop of 60+60 [/QUOTE]

How does 1200+60+60 pixels=1800 pixels ?
Maybe I did not understand what you posted.

Horse(AviD01).mp4
I cropped the 2011 1.66:1 blu ray I bought.
From a full size rip with DVDFab Passkey for blu ray full shareware version.
I made the longer clip from it with ffmpeg but no encoding was done.
That went into avidemux.
I selected MPEG AVC (x264) as the "Video Output".
I had removed the audio(no encoding used) as avidemux has no DTS in the Audio Output. (Not in version 2.7.1)
I have a newer version on another computer but it does not have DTS either.
Output Format MP4 Muxer.
Then Filters/Crop/Auto Crop
I did not use "Use advanced configuration" in Configuration.
I chose:
Preset veryslow
Tune none
Profile High
IDC Level 4.1
Unchecked "Fast First Pass"
Left other boxes unchecked.
Encoding Mode Constant Rate Factor(Single Pass)
Set to 14
The only other Tab that had any settings was Output 1. I left it as it was.
Then I selected Save & let avidemux encode.

I did not post the ffmpeg script because I did not use to encode Horse(AviD01).mp4
If someone wants it I will post it in another post so it does not get confused with Horse(AviD01).mp4.

[DB83]

I guess you did not understand.

The 1200 HQ version was cropped by 40+40 = 1280*720


1800 +60 +60 = 1920


But whatever crop you used it is still useful to know how you arrived at your final 1920 vids without the sidebars


The AviD01 is not relevant since it has a non-standard AR

[Sharc]

All these resizing discussions and explanations are pointless IMO because @cholla is addicted to fill his 16:9 TV screen with non-16:9 sources, no matter at what cost.

[Alwyn]

Then Filters/Crop/Auto Crop

Don't use Autocrop.

On the Crop screen:

Set the "Lock Aspect Ratio" to 16:9 and drag out the crop box with the top-left and bottom-right red corner triangles. It will stay proportioned at 16:9. Drag the whole crop box about eg up/down if you want. Crop as much as you want (rid yourself of those pillars! ). You'll have oddball numbers eg 1808x??? but that doesn't matter; they are proportionally correct.

OK out of that and open the "swsresize" filter.

Set the Resize dimensions to 1920x1080 and hit OK. Done. No fat heads, proportionally-correct, filled 16:9 screen with just a bit taken off the top and bottom of the original video.

Added: and the Wavelet denoiser works well, do go mad with it or you'll soften/fuzzy-ise the video too much.

[Alwyn]

I had removed the audio(no encoding used) as avidemux has no DTS in the Audio Output. (Not in version 2.7.1)
I have a newer version on another computer but it does not have DTS either.

Leave the "Audio Output" on Copy. Then the original DTS audio will be merged/muxed with the new video into the saved MP4 file.

[cholla]

@ Alwyn,
I will give what you suggest a try.
The problem is I got the really bad green artifacts when the avidemux video was played through the USB port on my settop BD player to my TV.
The TV gave the cannot play this file message when I played strait to the TV USB port.

The "fat heads" look OK to me.
Explain how shortening the vertical distance (cropping the top & bottom a little makes the heads get more narrow or keep them less fat.
It seems to me less vertical "stretch" would make the heads even "fatter".

I already removed the audio but it is easy enough to cut a new cut & get it back.

[Alwyn]

Explain how shortening the vertical distance (cropping the top & bottom a little makes the heads get more narrow or keep them less fat.
It seems to me less vertical "stretch" would make the heads even "fatter".

Correct. Which is what you, in effect, are doing, because you are inducing more horizontal stretch by chopping off the pillars and then stretching to the edges of the screen.

cropping the top & bottom a little makes the heads get more narrow or keep them less fat

Only if you then stretch to fill the top and bottom of the screen. But I'm not doing that. I'm only cropping to a 16:9 shape, not restretching.

Set up AVIDemux as I suggested; you will hopefully see what is occurring when you simply crop, as opposed to crop and stretch.

And remember: to make a full-screen 16:9 without stretching the video, you will need to crop off a bit of the top and bottom of the original 1.66:1 picture.

[Sharc]

The problem is I got the really bad green artifacts when the avidemux video was played through the USB port on my settop BD player to my TV.
The TV gave the cannot play this file message when I played strait to the TV USB port.

No wonder. Most HW players will reject (mine as well) to play the Avidemux Horse(AviD01).mp4 horseshit, because it is way off any standard (resolution, aspect ratio, number of ref frames ....). Playing it via SW players on PC/tablets and playing something via HW players are different pairs of shoes. HW players are much more picky as they usually rely on standards rather than accepting any "wild" formats.
Happy tinkering.

[cholla]

Set the "Lock Aspect Ratio" to 16:9

The "swsresize" is the only place I found "Lock Aspect Ratio".
The only 16:9 options there were:
NTSC 720:480 DAR 16:9 PAR 32:27
NTSC 704:480 DAR 16:9 PAR 40:33

Unless this setting is also somewhere else in avidemux.

Thanks for the explanation Sharc for the green artifacts.
SW player vs. HW player.

[Alwyn]

Lock Aspect Ratio on the Crop filter screen:


[Attachment 81286 - Click to enlarge]

Do not use Lock AR on the resize screen; just type in 1920 and 1080.

PS: This is with version 2.8.1.

[cholla]

It's not in version 2.7.4 the last 32-bit version.
My laptop is 64-bit but I do not use it for video conversion.
It gets too hot.

[Sharc]

@cholla: If you don't get along with Avidemux etc. you may want to use this commandline. The file should be compliant with your HW players as well.

ffmpeg -i "horse.m2ts" -c:a ac3 -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -x264opts level=41:keyint=24:bluray-compat:vbv-bufsize=25000:vbv-maxrate=30000 -vf "crop=1800:1080,scale=w=1920:h=1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1920:1080" "horse_full.mp4"

[Alwyn]

It's not in version 2.7.4 the last 32-bit version.

I've just installed it. Things work basically the same for cropping (without the lock aspect ratio) and resizing but the denoising ability is not as user-friendly.

For the cropping, do this:

-Drag each of the top left and bottom right corners inward until the pillars are removed. Should be about 56 pixels in, each.

-At the top, note the lateral size of the cropped area: eg 1808x1080.

What you need to do now is crop the top and the bottom evenly so that you achieve a 16:9/1.777:1 proportion on the new width of 1808. So, 1808/1.777777= 1017~1018. Original height was 1080 so new height is 1018, the difference must be 1080-1018=62. Divide that by 2 and crop the top and bottom by that amount (31).

OK out of that and set up swsResize:
-untick "Lock aspect ratio"
-in the Resize dimensions type 1920 and 1080 and OK

Set up some noise reduction: choose MPlayer Denoise 3D HQ and set it up like this:


[Attachment 81298 - Click to enlarge]

Click Close to get back to the main screen

-you're ready to Save it.

-Under Video Output, choose MPEG 4 AVC (or NVidia if you have a good NVidia graphics card)

Click Video Output Configure and set Constant Quantiser Single Pass 20, OK

Audio: leave on Copy

Output format: MP4 Muxer

Then Save it.

When you next install Windows, I recommend 64bit. You can run 32bit programs on 64bit Windows but not VV. 64bit is more efficient with memory.

[cholla]

@Sharc,
I believe some of the code will make a good addition to the code I have.
Same as a previous code you posted.
On my TV horse_full.mp4 was noisey (much more than the original).

@Alwyn,
First I uninstalled avidemux & then did a fresh install.
Just to make sure it had not been corrupted.
I used your method & stayed close.
Playing with the crop I ended up with 1804x1016 with close to an equal amount off top & bottom 34 top 33 bottom.
Set the swsresizer as you did.
Same for MPlayer Denoise 3D HQ.
Audio on Copy but the MP4 Muxer did not accept the DTS audio.It gave a Failed message with the audio codecs it would accept.
The MKV Muxer wirked.
On my TV the video still has green artifacts.
Even though MediaInfo shows 1920x1080.
So it looks like my BD player & TV have a problem with avidemux encoding.
I hoped it would work but not for me on this video.
I plan to try avidemux with a non blu ray source & see if it has the same problem.

When & if i buy or build another computer I doubt I will have a choice of 32-bit or 64-bit if I use whatever is the newest Windows OS.
I have two computers that are 64-bit one is a laptop & one is a small form I use as a HTPC (It has HDMI output to my Denon receiver/amp) then to my TV.
Same problem with it as the laptop it also gets too hot when encoding.
Both my desktops or towers are 32-bit.

[Sharc]

@Sharc,
I believe some of the code will make a good addition to the code I have.
Same as a previous code you posted.
On my TV horse_full.mp4 was noisey (much more than the original).

Easy to add the same (details killing/plastic skin looking IMHO) denoising filter as Alwyn suggested in post#313 for Avidemux:

ffmpeg -i "horse.m2ts" -c:a ac3 -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -x264opts level=41:keyint=24:bluray-compat:vbv-bufsize=25000:vbv-maxrate=30000:nr=1000 -vf "crop=1800:1080,hqdn3d=15.0:15.0:15.0:15.0,scale=w=1920:h=1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1920:1080" "horse_full_denoised.mp4"

(Note that as has been shown before there are much better denoising/degraining filters available in Avisynth)

[Alwyn]

So it looks like my BD player & TV have a problem with avidemux encoding.
I hoped it would work but not for me on this video.
I plan to try avidemux with a non blu ray source & see if it has the same problem.

Yes, that would be annoying. It'll now be a process of elimination. For the Video Output, try HEVC (x265). Another elimination would be to try a quick re-encode in Handbrake to see if that produced a non-artifacted file.

Re your overheating, an interesting thread came up recently; might be worth checking out:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/414773-How-to-cool-down-CPU-while-encoding-with-GPU#post2737927

[Sharc]

So it looks like my BD player & TV have a problem with avidemux encoding.
I hoped it would work but not for me on this video.
I plan to try avidemux with a non blu ray source & see if it has the same problem.

Yes, that would be annoying. It'll now be a process of elimination. For the Video Output, try HEVC (x265). Another elimination would be to try a quick re-encode in Handbrake to see if that produced a non-artifacted file.

OMG. Now we have arrived in a madhouse it seems. Stumbling from one GUI to the next, in the hope of one fixing the flaws of the former. First elimination would be the elimination of such useless (for that purpose) GUIs. Many of these GUIs simply don't support proper HW (BD) and TV player compliant encoding (BD Rebuilder being an exception - being a tool rather than a GUI) and offer no or limited control over the encoding process. It's certainly not forbidden to tinker ad infinitum and replace horseshit by bullshit, but it would be better IMO to lean back and familiarize with HW constrained encoding basics (and eventually use that in an appropriate commandline). My approach. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh ......
@cholla: If nothing helps, make backup copies of the disc for your family members, (or think about replacing your 32-bit video infrastructure as most advice and help provided here is based on 64 bit architectures these days, I assume).

[DB83]

@cholla

Now I recall you testing atleast one of the 1080p clips I posted in this thread and I am sure you stated that you had no issues in playing it on your system. Now for the 64K question - tell me what GUI/Tool I used for the encoding ? Now my guess is that you 'played' around with the encoding settings without the knowledge to back you up with those choices. Now if those settings have been saved you are screwed but if not then just leave them alone and the only one you need to change is the Constant Rate Factor.

[Alwyn]

Now for the 64K question - tell me what GUI/Tool I used for the encoding

*you?

[cholla]

@ Sharc,
The horse_full_denoised.mp4 was denoised well. The picture was a bit soft.
I plan to lower the settings some & see how that looks.
The part of the code hqdn3d=15.0:15.0:15.0:15.0" has the same settings as Alwyn's MPlayer Denoise 3D HQ settings in post #313.
I believe it does the same thing.
I know the "nr=1000" the nr is noise reduction.
From the ffmpeg commands list:

-nr E..V…. noise reduction (from INT_MIN to INT_MAX) (default 0)

How did you decide on the 1000 setting ?
I'm just now getting to the point where i want to denoise.

I do my encoding with a 32-bit OS & that will likely be what I use for now.
I usually adapt fairly well with 64-bit information but occasionally a program does not work the same.

[cholla]

@ Alwyn,
I will try using the HEVC (x265).in avidemux.
IMO it is a 32-bit avidemux problem no matter what video codec is used.
It doesn't work well with blu ray.m2ts files to HW.
It might even be specific the the model BD settop player I have it is an LG.(I would need to look for the model#).
As I posted no green artifacts with a PC media player.

For the high temperatures when encoding.
Laptops are not meant to be used for encoding.
They just do not have the cooling capability.
I have never tried a laptop cooling pad but they probably help.
To me that kind of defeats the portability of a laptop.
In my normal use my laptop temp is OK.

The HTPC is a small form factor Dell.
Fits well in my TV stand.
There is no room in it for a CPU cooler other than the OEM fan.
It's temps are also good under my normal use.

My main desktop right now just using the browser is 91°F or 33°C.
It has an aftermarket CPU cooler but not a liquid one.

[cholla]

Now I recall you testing at least one of the 1080p clips I posted in this thread and I am sure you stated that you had no issues in playing it on your system.

@ DB83,
I only found one 1080p clip you posted in post #234.
I DLed & watched it again.
I did not post any comments about it previously.
As posts a bit cropped off the top & bottom.
It played full width on my TV.
It has some noise.

@chollaNow for the 64K question - tell me what GUI/Tool I used for the encoding ?

The only tool you posted is avidemux at least for encoding.
As you posted you do not use command line tools.

Now my guess is that you 'played' around with the encoding settings without the knowledge to back you up with those choices.

I adjusted the encoding settings much like I use for ffmpeg.
This is for a higher quality encode.
Video Output: Mpeg4 AVC (x264)
Configure: unchecked Use advanced configuration & Fast First Pass
Preset: veryslow
Tuning: none
Profile: high
IDC Level: 4.1
CRF: 14
Using Alwyn's instructions for the Filter settings.(Except I had to use the MKV Muxer for the Audio:Copy to work)
Fitters:Transform\Crop
swsResize
Mplayer Denoise 3D HQ

Audio Output: Copy
Output Format: Mkv Muxer
Configure: Force Aspect Ratio (DAR) 16/9

Now if those settings have been saved you are screwed but if not then just leave them alone

No if I can't change them back & they are stuck I will uninstall avidemux & install it fresh.

and the only one you need to change is the Constant Rate Factor.

For a test that would have been faster but I doubt the changes caused the green artifacting.

[Sharc]

@ Sharc,
The horse_full_denoised.mp4 was denoised well. The picture was a bit soft.
I plan to lower the settings some & see how that looks.
The part of the code hqdn3d=15.0:15.0:15.0:15.0" has the same settings as Alwyn's MPlayer Denoise 3D HQ settings in post #313.

Glad that it works for you and you can play the file without green Martians.
You can/should reduce the denoising strength to taste of course. I just took the same values as Alwyn for comparison with the Avidemux proposal if someone wants to compare.

I know the "nr=1000" the nr is noise reduction.
How did you decide on the 1000 setting ?

You can experiment with that setting, or skip it if hqdn3D works well. My concern was initially that your outdated 32bit ffmpeg might react somewhat differently, so I left that nr=1000 in.
You can also reduce -crf to taste. The VBV buffer control should ensure BD-player HW compatibility

By the way, does the file play via your USB port?

Sidenote: You can continue with Avidemux (or some other GUIs) and probably just waste your time. AFAIK it has no option to control the encoding for HW-player compatibility (or am I wrong?). Using CRF 14 for example will produce huge bitrate spikes with this noisy source which the HW player may simply not digest (buffer management). Good luck anyway.

Edit:
FWIW here a comparison of the bitrate vs time for the non-denoised (green) and denoised (red) variants, both for the same crf.
You can see how much the strong denoising reduced the required bitrate for the same crf=20.
(Imagine how the bitrate would fly for -crf 14 (!) without VBV management)

[cholla]

My concern was initially that your outdated 32bit ffmpeg might react somewhat differently, so I left that nr=1000 in.

This is the ffmpeg build I use:Build: ffmpeg-N-110341-g453b524974-win32-static Build date: 2023-04-21
Not too old.

By the way, does the file play via your USB port?

The BD USB port is where I played the video.(BD player HDMI to Receiver HDMI to TV HDMI).
I did not try on a PC media player or the TV's USB port.

Sidenote: You can continue with Avidemux (or some other GUIs) and probably just waste your time. AFAIK it has no option to control the encoding for HW-player compatibility (or am I wrong?). Using CRF 14 for example will produce huge bitrate spikes with this noisy source which the HW player may simply not digest (buffer management).

I had not used avidemux for a long time.
Two forum members were suggesting it so I gave it a try.
I will work with it a bit to see if anything it does gets better.

The same for avisynth. I have used it now with VDub2.
Limited success & just practice videos.
So not using it for the Horse video at this time.
I may be able to learn avisynth well enough to use it some.

Edit:
FWIW here a comparison of the bitrate vs time for the non-denoised (green) and denoised (red) variants, both for the same crf.
You can see how much the strong denoising reduced the required bitrate for the same crf=20.
(Imagine how the bitrate would fly for -crf 14 (!) without VBV management)

What software did you use to create the graph ?

[cholla]

@Alwin,
I tried avidemux set to HEVC (x265).
The .mkv file it created would not play on my BD player.
I thought that would be the case as it does not play x265 files.
My TV direct in played the file.
There is a sort of tranlucent blue over the video. Not a strong one but it is there.
I converted the ,mkv to a .mp4 with ffmpeg to x264.
It played from my BD player but had the same problem.
I have decided that avidemux is not going to work for me on this video.

@ Sharc,
I tried going down on the denoise settings.
The hqdn3d=15.0:15.0:15.0:15.0 could be lowered to hqdn3d=14.0:14.0:15.0:15.0 with no noticeable change but any more had noise.
The nr=1000 was also about the lowest setting.

This is another odd problem or odd to me anyway.
The DTS audio.
When the blu ray disc is played on my BD player the DTS sounds correct.
When the full rip from the blu ray my BD player is played the DTS sounds correct.
Even just the cut or clip has bad audio when played on my BD player or strait into my TV when DTS.
All other conversions keeping the DTS audio the audio is bad.
Converting to another audio format corrects the bad audio.
I have only converted to ac3 & eac3 but believe aac-lc would also work.

[DB83]

@cholla

Purely for the matter of clarity, when you say that avidemux does not work for you is that just for the noise reduction or you still have color issues.


For the latter I am prepared to upload a sample from your BD upscaled to 1080p for you to test but if it just the N/R I will pass on that.

[Sharc]

@ Sharc,
I tried going down on the denoise settings.
The hqdn3d=15.0:15.0:15.0:15.0 could be lowered to hqdn3d=14.0:14.0:15.0:15.0 with no noticeable change but any more had noise.
The nr=1000 was also about the lowest setting.

For me that (experimental) denoising is too strong, means killing details. But do as you prefer and what looks good to you. Some users take all efforts to preserve the original film grain rather than to eliminate it. Take note that discussions about personal preference and taste is usually pointless and lead to nowhere.

This is another odd problem or odd to me anyway.
The DTS audio.

If you want to keep the original audio replace the '-c:a ac3' in my commandline by '-c:a copy'. Should be ok for your BD player but may fail on your TV direct.
Alternatively you can improve the default ac3 quality by increasing the bitrate, like '-c:a ac3 -b:a 480k'. Or as you suggest use '-c:a aac'.

[cholla]

@DB83,
I did not try avidemux without the denoise settings suggested by Alwyn.
I will give it a try later without any denoiser & see how the video looks.

@ Sharc,
It is only the DTS audio that has the problem.
What I did not understand is why the blu ray disk & the full rip played the DTS OK from the BD player.
It did not test these strait into the TV.
I can test the rip strait to my TV but obviously I have to use a BD player for the disk.

Even the clip or cut that had no encoding had bad audio .
When the BD & TV played the video that I used -c:a copy to get the DTS audio track.
The DTS is 1411k.
-c:a ac3 -b:a xxxk 0r -c:a eac3 -ab:a xxxk work fine when used for the audio track.
I should be able to use 1411k with eac3 but I have been using smaller for testing.

I haven't decided on how much the grain bothers me.
It started with suggestions the original blu ray had graining.
I thought why not try to remove it & have a look.

[Sharc]

@cholla

Purely for the matter of clarity, when you say that avidemux does not work for you is that just for the noise reduction or you still have color issues.

For the latter I am prepared to upload a sample from your BD upscaled to 1080p for you to test but if it just the N/R I will pass on that.

I didn't try, but it should be possible to create a BD / HW player compatible encode with Avidemux by reviewing & configuring the 11 Tabs of the 'custom/advanced x264 configuration' accordingly

Edit:
So here the essential Avidemux x264 encoder settings which should produce BD/HW player compatible video, means shouldn't produce green ants.....
Avidemux 2.8.1 64bit portable

[Attachment 81401 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 81402 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 81403 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 81404 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 81405 - Click to enlarge]

If ok, save it with Save as...

P.S. Compare how efficient the ffmpeg commandline is, which even includes the resizing and denoising etc. .....

[cholla]

@ Sharc,
The avidemux settings from post# 328 did NOT have the green artifacts.
It did have the pillars so there was no "Crop".
I don't know if that would have made the difference.
I will test this in a bit after another conversion with ffmpeg gets finished.
I could post the video from this but I did not because it looks OK(other than the pillars).

@DB83,
I have 2 videos for you to check that have the green artifacts.
Both were done before I read Sharc's post.
Horseavid(1C).mp4 was created from just a ffmpeg cut named Horse.mts.
Horse.mts has no encoding,cropping, or resizing.
BDavid.mp4 was created from the original full BD rip with Passkey.
Avidemux did not detect the DTS or any other audio tracks.
Just video on BDavid.mp4.

I did both crop & resize these 2 files with avidemux but No denoising.
The settings were the same as in post# 322 except for the denoise filter was not used.
I did cut & append on both files to make them smaller.
My BD player has the green artifacts on both these.
My TV could not play them direct.