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

shank

Member
May 27, 2007
59
8
isityours is correct, I don't use One-Click settings because I am always testing something new...

However, my favorite settings are:
DVD
"Custom Processing" tab:
- Preset = Slower
- Source Match = 2
- Boost = Checked
- Sharpness = 0.2 or 0.3
- Noise Processing: Retain = +0.0 to +0.6 (higher for cleaner vids)
- Smoothing = 1 for clean vids, 2 for noisy or badly compressed vids
Plus I always tweak the levels, but in a way that isn't available in MeguIVit

I was testing your preferred settings for 480p to see if I can tell a difference in quality from the defaults and what the file size difference would be, but the video encoding couldn't start because of an error involving ftww3.dll. I've narrowed it down to changing just the Noise Processing setting (I was setting it to +0.6) will trigger the error. Attached is a screenshot of the error.
 

Vitreous

°
Former Staff
Sep 13, 2009
2,033
591
Get the required files from the attached zip file, which also contains instructions on where to put them.

I'm abusing the Xenocode packaging system from the original MeguIV by just overwriting things in the Sandbox. The dll files required for the noise processing are in there, but they are being ignored. I must work around the many Xenocode issues that have gradually built up since I started doing this...

Those settings are measurably more accurate to the source. However, accurate to the source may not be what you consider quality. The default MeguIVit settings slightly denoise and sharpen. Those settings retain noise and do not oversharpen. Which you prefer is personal preference and also probably depends on your source quality. Overall, I find the defaults have a slightly artificial look, a little too smooth and oversharpened. A close inspection of rips with those settings shows that you gain more vertical detail, default settings blur the vertical somewhat. However, that does rely on a good detailed source to notice. Older vids particularly may not have the implicit detail. Whatever, don't expect that you will suddenly get a HD increase in quality, default settings are already very good.
 
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Rollyco

Team Tomoe
Oct 4, 2007
3,562
34
I have a copy of Spoon Studio (and Spoon Server) if you want to try repackaging the whole thing. I can't do it for you, but I can certainly give you some tips. It's a pretty easy process, to be honest.
 
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shank

Member
May 27, 2007
59
8
Probably due to music/mp3 encoding, I've assumed "depends on the source" in video encoding terms to be referring to simply if the source is DVD or a random already compressed video file. (i.e. relative to the lossless or lossy source phrasing more commonly used in the audio world, since lossless video is not really an option) But I'm starting to realize that's not the case and want to verify. So when you say "depends on the (quality) of the source, you are referring to if the original video footage is actually detailed / high quality? Now that I am slightly confused on this, this would make sense of those few dvds that I have seen with video that looks like it was compressed too much or taken with a lower quality camera.

This talk sparked my interest, because I strongly dislike how a lot of images or photos are posted that have seen heavy use of softening, smoothing, blurring, which gets rid of most of the detail and makes the photo look like a photoshop accident. I don't ever want that happening in my encodes. So the settings you speak about will make the encode look closer to the source, not necessarily better quality?
 

Vitreous

°
Former Staff
Sep 13, 2009
2,033
591
Ideally a deinterlacer shouldn't change the source, it should just add the extra lines needed to fill in each frame. So from a technical point of view those settings are pretty much the best deinterlacing you can possibly do because you get a shimmer-free result that is extremely close to the source.

However, the source itself may not be perfect. The default settings bring some sharpening/denoising effect, which may be appropriate to improve your source. But only you can decide, quality is subjective. The defaults also lose a little vertical detail, but only you can decide if you care about/notice that or not.

You might consider my settings this way:
- Ideal if the source was filmed with detail and clarity, and compressed without artefacts
- Less great if the source contains blocking or noise. You may not want to see that and the defaults will get rid of it to some degree.
- Also less useful if the source lacks detail perhaps due to a sub-standard camera.

Personally, I look at it differently though. I start with a source-accurate deinterlace (including any source problems), then decide what other processing is needed improve the final quality. However, that can't be done in automatic MeguIVit, so the list above may be more relevant.
 
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shank

Member
May 27, 2007
59
8
Thanks for the extra dlls. The encode now starts. On my machine a pre-render usually takes about 90-120, minutes with default settings. With your settings you mentioned, it estimates a 8-10 hour run. These settings must add some serious processing! Unfortunately I haven't been able to see results, because I'm getting mencoder.exe crashes like I originally described several months ago. Although this time they are about 6 hours into the encode. I even reduced the thread counts as far as 2/1. This MeguIVit setup is very nice, I just wish some of the individual pieces to the software conglomeration were more stable.

I'm gonna try this on a small vob. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Vit. I pick up something new all the time.
 

Vitreous

°
Former Staff
Sep 13, 2009
2,033
591
lovejav87: Handbrake is a ripping tool. Use it if you prefer encoding speed over quality. Find it here

shank: Your crashes are mostly likely due to a single file (MVTools2) that I have not been able to update for a while due to the problems I've been having packaging. I have a new packaging program now (thanks Rollyco), so I will hopefully be able to post a fully packaged version soon.
 

no__One

Active Member
May 27, 2007
947
175
Hello Mr.Vitreous,

I have a question about the new QuickTGMC 3.33.
You had advised me.

- If you use "Placebo" setting, then I suggest you set TR2=1 or 2. The default TR2=3 for placebo smooths too much in my opinion.


Does meguIVit 1.0.0 beta-4 takes account of this council, or should I myself switched from automatic to manual and select the right value?
Thanks a lot for your help.
Regards.
 

Vitreous

°
Former Staff
Sep 13, 2009
2,033
591
I reupped it in my MeguIVit post, although Mediafire is becoming a problem recently so I may need to put it somewhere else again. It's a good idea to try my MeguIVit add-on.
 

BudEWiser

Active Member
Dec 24, 2008
224
112
I reupped it in my MeguIVit post, although Mediafire is becoming a problem recently so I may need to put it somewhere else again. It's a good idea to try my MeguIVit add-on.

Mediafire worked okay, but I do agree that files hosted there have become more short lived than in the past.
My revived interest in this came about while sorting my IV videos and realizing that I have a bunch of IV-ISOs that I rarely watch and would like to get some space back with out losing much quality.
Thanks very much to you and Rollyco (and all of your testers) for all the work that went into this. It has produced a whole lot of awesome content! I am looking forward to giving it a go.
 

youmeus

Active Member
May 5, 2009
348
89
Hi Vit. I just tried running an uncompressed RGB AVI through the One-Click encoder in MeguiVit beta4 and I get an inner exception: null error. I used standard settings from your Sandbox. It's a Fraps AVI that I am having some colorspace issues with so I ran it through VirtualDub by compressing it to uncompressed RGB.

I've attached the log from Megui here:
Code:
[Error] Log
-[Information] Versions
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:55:59] MeGUI Version : 0 (svn)
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:55:59] OS : Windows Seven Premium Edition x64 SP1 (6.1.65536.7601)
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:55:59] Latest .Net Framework installed : 4.0 (4.0.30319)
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:55:59] Avisynth Version : 2.6.0.2 (19-07-2011 14:54:46)
-[Information] OneClick
-[Information] Log for job11 (idx, test_RGB.avi -> test_RGB.avi.ffindex)
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Started handling job
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Preprocessing
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Job commandline: "C:\meguIV\MeGUI\tools\ffms\ffmsindex.exe" -t -1 -s 3-f "C:\Users\Brian\Desktop\test_RGB.avi"
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Indexing started
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Standard output stream
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:41] Standard error stream
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Postprocessing
---[Information] Deleting intermediate files
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Job completed
-[Error] Log for job12 (oneclick, test_RGB.avi -> )
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Started handling job
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Preprocessing
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] OneClick processing started
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Processing thread started
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Desired size: 
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:42] Split size: 
--[Error] [23-04-2012 23:56:43] An error occurred
---[Error] [23-04-2012 23:56:43] Exception message: Det blev forsøgt at læse eller skrive i en beskyttet hukommelse. Dette kan ofte være et tegn på, at en anden hukommelse er beskadiget.
---[Error] [23-04-2012 23:56:43] Stacktrace
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.AviSynthClip.dimzon_avs_getvframe(IntPtr avs, IntPtr buf, Int32 stride, Int32 frm)
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.AviSynthClip.ReadFrame(IntPtr addr, Int32 stride, Int32 frame)
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.AvsFile.AvsVideoReader.ReadFrameBitmap(Int32 position)
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.core.util.Autocrop.autocrop(IVideoReader reader)
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.OneClickPostProcessing.openVideo(String path, Nullable`1 AR, Int32 horizontalResolution, Int32 verticalResolution, Boolean signalAR, LogItem _log, AviSynthSettings avsSettings, Boolean autoDeint, VideoCodecSettings settings, Nullable`1& dar, Boolean autoCrop, Boolean useChaptersMarks)
----[NoImage]    ved MeGUI.OneClickPostProcessing.StartPostProcessing()
---[Error] [23-04-2012 23:56:43] Inner exception: null
--[Information] [23-04-2012 23:56:43] Job completed

So I am wondering now if the One-Click encoder doesn't take uncompressed RGB AVI?
 

Vitreous

°
Former Staff
Sep 13, 2009
2,033
591
So I am wondering now if the One-Click encoder doesn't take uncompressed RGB AVI?
Yes, just checked - it doesn't. But you should never need uncompressed video - use a lossless compression codec in VirtualDub. I use Huffyuv all the time - it's fine in MeguIVit.