meguIV: The Official Akiba-Online DVD Encoder (v1.0.1.1)

Thanks a bunch that solved my problem but now I have another question. It seems that when the rips are made using Rollyco's original instructions, to start with VTS_01_1, what seems to be an intro part of the dvd is placed at the end of the video. My question is has anyone else noticed this and is there a fix? (like renaming VOB files)

I noticed this issue when the final encode of a dvd was a little over a minute longer than the ISO run-time on VLC, and that extra minute looked as close to an intro as it can get (i.e. visual summary, titles, etc.)

The two other encodes I made have something similar but in their case it's only a few seconds long, which I can live with, but I'd really like the videos to be in the right order, intro-->video-->extras.

Hello anyone willing to help me out.

So to start off, I have no background or knowledge on encodings, containers, etc, etc. Just looking to rip my idol DVD (region 2) to a mp4 format. (By which I mean, I'd like something I can play on my laptop that's not as big as an ISO file and doesn't require me using the physical disc.)

So I have my DVD inserted into my drive. I'm using a Sony VAIO with Win 7 and the i5 processor. 146GB free on my hard drive at the moment.

I've followed this post. Downloaded meguIV, got rid of the sandbox, replaced the sandbox with meguIVit's sandbox and ran meguIV(it). I don't know what the ExtraDlls attachment referred to, but I assume it was lost when all the other attachments were lost. Same goes for the pics in the quick pictorial guide linked to in the same post.

So I'm basically following the instructions in the first post. I clicked the one-click button and went though most of the process the same way. Created a project title, chose a working directory on my local hard drive (C:\meguivit-sandbox), left the audio at the default ACC setting, changed the video output to mp4 for standard devices.

My list of VOB files are:

• VIDEO_TS.VOB
• VTS_01_0.VOB
• VTS_01_1.VOB
• VTS_01_2.VOB
• VTS_01_3.VOB
• VTS_01_4.VOB
• VTS_01_5.VOB

When I first tried selecting VTS_01_0.VOB, it gave me this error immediately after selecting the file:


So naturally I try to switch to VTS_01_1.VOB. Ran through all the steps I mentioned above from the working directory to the mp4 thing. Clicked "Go!" Right after that, I got this message:

I left "Chapter File" as "<internal VOB chapters>". Is that the issue there? My DVD drive is F: and my workspace should be in C:.

Anyway, I click Ok and let it run for a while. Eventually, I got this message:


And it errors out... So that's where I'm stuck.

Also, I tried VIDEO_TS.VOB just for kicks, but it would give me the chapters file error and only give me a 6 second video of the studio intro.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

I don't know how my eyes glazed over that part in step 2 with the chapter file. It was even highlighted...

Thanks for sending me on the right path, SamKook!

Edit: Yup, definitely working now. Thanks again!

Edit 2: I probably skipped over that helpful, highlighted hint since it was referring to ISOs, and I thought it meant ISO files specifically.

Vitreous said:

meguIVit 1.0.0 beta-4

* * * * .
Usage
See this quick pictorial guide for the first beta. The interface has changed in places, but it's still mostly the same.

* * * *.
Experiment or ask...

Click to expand...

vitreoous,

i'm trying my hand at using MeguIVit but as i need as much help as i can having the "quick pictorial guide" would be very helpful. is there some where this has been reposted as the link above is dead?

i finally downloaded the torrent that contained the original MeguIVit files that includes an .rtf file i think has the original pics. as .rtf is not a recognized file type for posting on aol i have made thumbnails of the .rtf file. here are the thumbnails:





the torrent file and other files contained in the torrent, as well as my thumbnails, are enclosed in a .rar file called the MeguIVit 1.0.0.0 Beta-4.rar and there is no pw. the files i obtained from the torrent are:

meguIV.zip
meguIVit_1.0.0_beta4.zip
ExtraDlls.zip
INSTALL.txt
TUTORIAL.rtf

here's a subyshare link to the above:
http://subyshare.com/ocf2exjdb2qy/MeguIVit_1.0.0.0_Beta-4.rar.html

i added to the original torrent contents, my thumbnails and the torrent file. the magnet link from uTorrent is:

This tool has served me well over the years. I understand Vit has had to move on from this tool (thank you sir and everyone else involved for simplifying a complex process for the masses), but I'm looking to piece together a setup which does the same job, but with updated individual tools. After about 5 years, I imagine all the software and encoders built into MeguIVit must have had substantial updates and improvements to quality and speed over the years.

I am looking towards either piecing together my own custom MeguIVit with updated components (latest versions of MeGUI, TempGaussMC (or QTGMC now?), x264, better AAC encoder) or recreating a similar setup. I dabbled with Xvid encoding ~10 years ago, so my knowledge is limited, faded, and dated. Though I recall big breakthroughs in encoding seemed to come at a slow pace, so maybe there really isn't any reason to update.

Is there an up-to-date tool already out there that does what MeguIVit does or can anyone provide any insight on my endeavor? Or has anyone else already tried to update the individual components within MeguIVit and had success?

This mainly came to mind, because I'm noticing encodes of gravure dvds are usually 1.5-2GBs or larger nowadays, and that is just too large for a 90 minute, 480p, 60fps encode and I want to optimize my setup.

I want high quality and use Vit's Quality+1 video encoding preset, since he mentioned in this thread long ago that due to some x264 changes, it is a closer match to what is considered HQ. I also found the beta4 release post from Jan 2012, so guess it's only about 3 yrs.

I follow audio encoding a bit at HydrogenAudio and I moved on from that Nero setup (It was great at the time. Good quality and free). I want to use my optimized AAC (Fraunhofer) encoding setup which I have ABX'ed to do the audio. Then I figured x264 must have had decent upgrades and given the video is the majority of the content, wanted to update that. Figured I'd try a complete overhaul here.

I found the x264 exe in the path you mentioned and another "\meguIV\1.0.1.1\Virtual\STUBEXE\8.0.1135\@SYSDRIVE@\meguIV\MeGUI\tools\x264". I replaced the first one you mentioned, but the encoded result was only 2KB different, so I had a feeling it didn't really use the one I replaced. So as another test, I removed all x264.exe from both locations, tested another encode (it should have failed without an x264.exe), but it finished the encode (much larger filesize too), so I'm not really sure where it's pulling x264 from.

I was afraid if I wanted to optimize things, I'd need to start from scratch, and all the custom settings that are built into MeguIVit and its internals are numerous and daunting. I'll just have to dedicate some major time into this and figure it all out, lol.

The second method gave me errors saying the path or filename was invalid when trying to drag&drop or copy/paste into the Open dialogue, then eventually caused the program to crash whenever clicking any "..." button, so I created a fresh MeguIVit setup and was able to update x264 the original way (updating the file through the Sandbox folder before running the program) and verified the version used on the encode with MediaInfo.

I used a short "extras" video from a gravure dvd to test encodes. It is a 3 minute gravure video with indoor and outdoor scenes. I made encodes using the original x264 and the latest x264 at each of Vit's quality presets to compare. That simple update decreased filesize for every encode by 15%-20%.
With the new x264 in place, I additionally changed the preset speed from slow to veryslow (in the Default and Quality+1 presets. Q3 is already veryslow), and the resulting encodes were a total of 20%-30% smaller than encodes with the original x264 and original speed preset setting. I believe these changes cause no quality loss, and yet decrease filesize a considerable amount. If that is true, this is great!

Yeah, Fraunhofer AAC is in a tricky situation. As you mentioned, the simplest solution would be ffmpeg compiled with the proper library, but a patent issue prevents that from being readily available. I wasn't able to find a good source for it when I set it up. I instead have a manual setup using fhgaacenc and Winamp dll's. It does not accept ac3 as input, though, so I cannot compare it to the Nero implementation in MeguIVit at the moment. I'm looking for a way around that. I expect the filesize/quality to be better, but not by much, which will have a small effect on the movie file as a whole, so I haven't gotten to it yet.

It doesn't sound like there are any other components to update, so that leaves me with figuring out my audio situation.

Oh, I want to find a good way to compare video quality. For audio, we have ABX testing, but I don't think there is an equivalent for video. The best I can come up with is playing back the source and the encode simultaneously, side by side, in two instances of my media player, at similar time stamps, looking back and forth trying to find differences. How do you or Vit (or any other video experts/developers) compare quality? Or is there an official method?

I have a separate pc that I use as an htpc and an encoding box. It runs Win7 SP1 (64bit). I assume since the clean setup worked, there may have been other changes I made within MeguIVit in the past that created a conflict.

Yeah, that VideoCheck tool would be helpful. Or it would be nice to be a feature built into a good existing player like MPC-HD. I ended up coming to the same conclusion that manually comparing is currently the best way.

I've done a bit more research on the state of audio codecs and understand the current situation and why there's confusion when asking which is better. When people ask "what's the better codec?" and you commonly hear the response "Apple or Fraunhofer", that is based on the ongoing development with low bitrates, such as 96 kb/s or lower. At those low bitrates, no codec can reach transparency or lack artifacts, so in that realm there are substantial differences between codecs. However, we don't want or use that low quality/bitrate in our movie encodes here.

Here we are using no less than 128 kb/s, because when using 128 kb/s and a good encoder, several decent codecs have reached transparency with lack of perceivable artifacts. On a HydrogenAudio wiki, I found soundexpert.org referenced, and it looks to be a great resource. On this page, they show results of testing with the exact codec version and settings used. To simplify what that page is showing, anything with a bold 5 or above on the left of the graph lacks perceivable artifacts. And you can see Nero VBR at 128 kb/s hits 5.91, which is what MeguIVit is already using. You can click through each bitrate on the left of the page and see what I described above. At 128 and above, there are several codecs that hit 5+, but lower than 128 and there really aren't any.

To compare filesizes, I converted that ac3 to wav, so I could run it through the current Fraunhofer (VBR, q4, ~128 kb/s) and compare it to MeguIVit's default Nero setup (VBR, q 4.2, ~130 kb/s). Both mashed the 37mb wav into a 3.3 mb m4a, with the Fraunhofer one being about 40 kb smaller, which I don't consider a difference worth anything substantial, especially since this is VBR and the Nero setting isn't an exact 128. And remember this is comparing the Nero codec from over 4 years ago to the current Fraunhofer. The improvements in codecs over recent years have been coming in at bitrates less than 128.

So in conclusion, Vit knew what was up when he made the default audio Nero VBR ~128kb/s. The Nero encoder is easy to implement and creates the smallest possible filesize while maintaining a quality with no perceivable artifacts with its VBR 128 kb/s setting. For MeguIVit's audio, I will continue using the default Nero setup.

I think my optimizations are pretty much done. All that's left to do is see if I can tell quality differences between the video presets themselves, because so far I'm having a hard time seeing a difference in my test encode between default and Q +3 with the new x264 and veryslow, which is making me want to just go back to default quality and have the smaller filesize (I don't think a 90 minute, 480p, 60fps encode should be around 1.5-3GB with current tech. I think they should be around 1GB give or take .2). Maybe I don't know what visual artifacts to look for yet when comparing. Thank you for all your assistance with this, SamKook.

I tried that VideoCheck program. I can't believe it can't play vob files. That is the most important comparison to make; Your encode against the source material. That is far more important then comparing two encodes. It's also frustrating that you can't choose a section of video to evaluate (no seekbar). When comparing, you want to compare specific scenes that cause artifacts, but the only thing you can do with that utility is right click and it seems to go to some random part of the movie. Sometimes it even goes back to some key frame instead and doesn't advance at all. Sometimes I couldn't even get it to go back to a section it played before, even after reopening the files. Great start to this utility, but can't believe the author didn't realize these things, hasn't been realized after all these years, and that there still isn't anything out there that does. This is one of those situations that is so frustrating that almost makes me want to get deeper than my basic programming knowledge. This utility must be simple to create if you already know how to program, would be incredibly useful, and fill a gap that no other utility does (no competition. Instant fame). Or better yet, a player like MPC-HC has the foundation to play nearly any file well and would simply need to add a feature to play two files at once, but display only one, with a hotkey or button to switch between the two. But enough ranting.

For anyone following along our back and forth on my simple optimizations to MeguIVit, the summary is:
1. Update x264:
Download the latest binary here: http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/x264/binaries/win32/ , rename it "x264.exe", and replace the one in MeguIVit in "\Sandbox\meguIV\1.0.1.1\Virtual\MODIFIED\@SYSDRIVE@\meguIV\MeGUI\tools\x264".

2. Change video preset to Very Slow.
Under Encoder Config tab, Video Settings, click the Config button next to the preset and slide the Preset to Very Slow.
The only drawback to this is the encode takes more time. However, this makes no difference to me, because you encode once and the result is watch many times after, (even moreso if the file is shared). Also, this encodes in the background at low priority and doesn't affect the system much, and if you do this on another pc, well there's obviously no affect at all. Just expect to let it do its thing for several hours.

There is no reason to change the audio setup. The default setup "Nero AAC: [Vit] LC VBR Q0.42 (~130kbps)" is perfect and the codec is already the latest version. These two little changes resulted in (at least) the same quality with ~30% smaller filesize.

I'm noticing the chapter file information is not properly imported sometimes.

The issue doesn't happen all the time (rough estimate, it seems to work properly 75% of my rips) and I have not noticed what triggers it yet. It has just gotten to a point where it's starting to annoy me when it happens.
In this case, the "VTS_01 - Chapter Information - OGG.txt" file exists, opens properly in Notepad, and is readable:
However, this is the chapter data in the mp4 output by MeguIV when it was done:
If I download mp4box from their website, then use it manually to add the same chapter file to the same mp4 MeguIV created, the chapter information is added properly.
If I manually use the mp4box version that comes with MeguIV to add the same chapter file to the same mp4 MeguIV created, the chapter information is also added properly.
Not sure what's going on here. It doesn't seem to be the version of mp4box. Must be some way MeguIV is using mp4box.

Has anyone noticed the chapter file info isn't added correctly for some rips?

a bit of a late reply but i had the same problem when ripping to mp4 (not mkv) but i think that was only with MeguIV. it was resolved (for me anyway) in MeguIVit.

If you are referring to the chapter information issue, I also rip to mp4, since I don't do any advanced subtitle stuff.

But I have more accurate info now that I have been paying attention to it. I've done a few encodes sessions recently where I've encoded two movies and MeguIVit imported the chapter information of the first encode job into the second one also, instead of using the second encode job's own chapter file info. I think what is happening is that when you queue up several encodes, MeguIVit is using the first chapter information file from the first encode for all encodes queued up after it. I'll have to test queuing up several small jobs (at least more than two) to see how accurate that assessment is.

And about that VideoCheck program I vented about in Nov: I discovered that you can go to specific parts of the movie. When you right click, it behaves as if there is an invisible horizontal seek bar across the whole video display and goes to that point. You can't see a time stamp to know exactly where you are beginning playback, but at least you can look for a certain trouble scene to compare artifacts.

Hey guys. On a few clips I am seeing these odd artifacts. I didn't encode the videos myself, they're in Truemotion VP6. The first image is clean and the second is full of artifacts. This seems to be spread out randomly throughout the clip. Any idea on what this is and if Avisynth can do anything about it?
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