Assistance with StaxRip

[branbran726]

mpeg2 without reencoding

Oh. Well, I didn't say I was posting the original. I posted a test encode that I thought would demonstrate the visual effect I was talking about.
If you would rather do the encode for FTBD-036 to your specifications, I can send it to you shortly.

 

[SamKook]

I was in a bit of a hurry so forgot to mention that my answer was only for the first sample, thanks porni for handling the second one.

Yeah, TFF and BFF mean Top/Bottom Field First and that is indeed kinda why the correct one is smaller, compresses better with more linear motion.
There's no perfect detection for which field comes first, but dgindex(MPEG2Source for the filter in staxrip) will extract that data from the DVD, but as we all know, that's not reliable either because far from everyone know what they're doing when making DVDs.
Staxrip will auto-detect which source filter to use depending on what format you feed to it. I'm assuming you use makemkv to remove the protection from the DVD since that would explain it using ffmpeg since mpeg2source won't work on an mkv file. You'd have to use something like DVDdecrypter and open the vob files in staxrip using merge files and selecting them all but the one that ends with 0 since that's usually the menu.
And for the AssumeTFF/BFF function in staxrip, no clue how that one works, I didn't even find where it is in the UI with REAL-001 loaded and it seems to think that one is progressive for some reason. Just easier to do it manually for me, lol.

That second one doesn't have the full movement resolution, like porni said. If you go through it frame by frame, you'll see that there's always 2 almost identical frames instead of always being different for all 60. It's the same issue as the first section of the second disk for REAL-001, but since I assume it's the whole disk that is that way, you should encode this one at 30 fps instead.
If it's an official DVD you have, then the editor messed up and it's likely interlaced but only 30i instead of 60i but if you downloaded the ISO from somewhere or it's a bootleg DVD, it was likely tampered with in some way, possibly with something like dvdshrink to make it smaller but keep the dvd format or they used a web download to make an iso, something stupid like that and that could be 30i or progressive, hard to tell.
I can't download the samples to check your 2 tests on that one for a couple of hours atm.

 

[Porni]

Oh. Well, I didn't say I was posting the original. I posted a test encode that I thought would demonstrate the visual effect I was talking about.
If you would rather do the encode for FTBD-036 to your specifications, I can send it to you shortly.

To understand what the video is and what to do with it, need the original, It's harder to understand something from the description and the result

 

[SamKook]

You can use something like Mpg2Cut2 to cut a piece of the original vob file and share that as a sample instead of uploading the whole thing. But that's assuming you rip it to vob files and not something else.
Don't think that's the one I usually use but I forgot what it's called since it's been so long since I've had to use it.

 

[Porni]

Can be use http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
or ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i VTS_01_1.VOB -c copy -ss 1:00 -t 2:00 index.m2v

"-ss" is the starting point
"-t" is duration

 

[branbran726]

Open spoiler for a rant:

Spoiler

[rant]Having to go through multiple programs to do all this is a huge pain in the tail. I'll say this for Handbrake: you can click/drag the DVD from File Explorer right into the Handbrake window and churn out a video directly. Maybe the file isn't as pretty, but it's a free all-in-one program that's easy to use and doesn't leave huge temporary files behind.

I think perhaps the expert encoders out there underestimate how incredibly draining it is for some of us to be told, "Oh, to solve that problem, here's yet another piece of software you'll have to download." It makes me wonder how many membership cards are in their wallets, how many restaurant or retail shop apps are on their phones.

It reminds me of living in a certain big city. You could find somewhere to eat that ① was clean with good service, ② had good food, or ③ was inexpensive. If you knew where to look you could get two out of three. But never all three.

I can make videos with ① free software, ② easy-to-learn software, or ③ software that makes a good product. Handbrake is ① & ②, StaxRip is ① & ③... but I doubt there is anything out there that is all three.[/rant]

To understand what the video is and what to do with it, need the original, It's harder to understand something from the description and the result

I admit I didn't have much hope there, but I thought I'd start with a sample.

Thanks for the recommendations, but since my goal includes sharing ISOs where practical, I'll just do that where I can rather than downloading yet another random program.

I was in a bit of a hurry so forgot to mention that my answer was only for the first sample, thanks porni for handling the second one.

Yeah, TFF and BFF mean Top/Bottom Field First and that is indeed kinda why the correct one is smaller, compresses better with more linear motion.
There's no perfect detection for which field comes first, but dgindex(MPEG2Source for the filter in staxrip) will extract that data from the DVD, but as we all know, that's not reliable either because far from everyone know what they're doing when making DVDs.
Staxrip will auto-detect which source filter to use depending on what format you feed to it. I'm assuming you use makemkv to remove the protection from the DVD since that would explain it using ffmpeg since mpeg2source won't work on an mkv file. You'd have to use something like DVDdecrypter and open the vob files in staxrip using merge files and selecting them all but the one that ends with 0 since that's usually the menu.
And for the AssumeTFF/BFF function in staxrip, no clue how that one works, I didn't even find where it is in the UI with REAL-001 loaded and it seems to think that one is progressive for some reason. Just easier to do it manually for me, lol.

That second one doesn't have the full movement resolution, like porni said. If you go through it frame by frame, you'll see that there's always 2 almost identical frames instead of always being different for all 60. It's the same issue as the first section of the second disk for REAL-001, but since I assume it's the whole disk that is that way, you should encode this one at 30 fps instead.
If it's an official DVD you have, then the editor messed up and it's likely interlaced but only 30i instead of 60i but if you downloaded the ISO from somewhere or it's a bootleg DVD, it was likely tampered with in some way, possibly with something like dvdshrink to make it smaller but keep the dvd format or they used a web download to make an iso, something stupid like that and that could be 30i or progressive, hard to tell.
I can't download the samples to check your 2 tests on that one for a couple of hours atm.

Anyway, yes, I'm using MakeMKV; firstly because StaxRip tells you to, and secondly because it feels easier to use when dealing with multiple angles. You don't have to hunt those down in the VOBs as the MakeMKV interface tells you where they are. However, it seems Glay'z made a number of DVDs which don't contain a "play all" track, only separate chapters, and MakeMKV+StaxRip sucks at combining them, so I might try DVD Decrypter.

If you right-click Field (QTGMC) on the left side of the StaxRip window, there's an "Assume" option there which lets you select TFF/BFF. Unfortunately, by selecting something there it replaces anything else in the Field command stack, which in an of itself is a pretty useless way of doing things.

REAL-001, FTBD-036, SBOG-004 are all original discs, and the ISOs are ones I ripped myself.

Here are ISOs if they'll help.
Single Files:

FTBD-036.zip

3.73 GB

https://1fichier.com/?x86jnxvhdwdbn276hl2l

SBOG-004.zip

7.13 GB

https://1fichier.com/?s9dp19eczvkn04dc2kay

Mirrored & Split Archive
FTBD-036.zip.001 (950.0 Mb)
FTBD-036.zip.002 (950.0 Mb)
FTBD-036.zip.003 (950.0 Mb)
FTBD-036.zip.004 (950.0 Mb)
FTBD-036.zip.005 (23.0 Mb)
FTBD-036.zip.001
FTBD-036.zip.002
FTBD-036.zip.003
FTBD-036.zip.004
FTBD-036.zip.005

SBOG-004.zip.001 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.002 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.003 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.004 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.005 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.006 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.007 (950.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.008 (649.0 Mb)
SBOG-004.zip.001
SBOG-004.zip.002
SBOG-004.zip.003
SBOG-004.zip.004
SBOG-004.zip.005
SBOG-004.zip.006
SBOG-004.zip.007
SBOG-004.zip.008

 

[Porni]

Yes, at first fuss with videos is tiring and annoying, but over time it becomes faster, easier and more mundane.

 

[SamKook]

There's so many varied formats with video encoding that it's basically impossible to have 1 software do everything.
You might think staxrip is 1 software but it's one interface that uses many different software under the hood so the more encompassing a software is, the more likely that's the case. That's why if you try to encode the audio to aac, it tells you you need to go download something else and link you to a website page that explains how to do it easily since the license for that software prohibits redistributing it bundled in another software.

Handbrake is basically just an easy to use interface for ffmpeg which can handle a lot of things, but not everything.

I've got over 20 different softwares related to video installed right now and there's some I've used in the past that I haven't installed yet on this newer computer. The deeper you delve into video encoding to try and fix other peoples mistakes, the more complicated it gets and the more software you'll need.
The less you have, the more limited your options, even if it's a pain to have to manage all that.
At least staxrip does a lot of the complicated stuff for you like dealing with avisynth and the dozens of plugins it uses, especially for QTGMC.
There's a reason even professionals mess things up, it's not easy learning how to deal with all the different possibilities, but as you learn things, you need less different software to diagnose problems since you already know the solution and can see the issue more easily.

If you're asking for help on an actual encoding forum, them asking you to cut a part of a vob(if the source is a DVD) is the first thing they'll ask since they can take a quick look at the original file(and they don't have to deal with the copyright issue of you sharing the whole thing which those forums won't allow) and see if the issue is in there or in your encoding setup.



With that said, since it's an official DVD, you can assume FTBD-036 is interlaced and just use QTGMC to deinterlace at 30 fps like porni had you try. It would be unlikely for a studio to make a progressive one, but you never know so as long as it looks fine, either should be ok.

Most interlaced DVD will use the default TFF so it's usually not a problem to load an mkv instead of the vob files, unless you run into an exception like SBOG-004, but it's noticeable that there's an issue and if you play the video frame by frame(Just to suggest yet another software I use mpchc and do ctrl + left or right arrow to do that, in case your player don't have that feature).
You can use insert or add after right-clicking to add the Assume filter and drag and drop it in the right place instead of having it overwrite the deinterlacer. Good to know since that means you don't have to hijack one of the existing one to add custom avisynth stuff like I told you for REAL-001.

 

[branbran726]

There's so many varied formats with video encoding that it's basically impossible to have 1 software do everything.
You might think staxrip is 1 software but it's one interface that uses many different software under the hood so the more encompassing a software is, the more likely that's the case. That's why if you try to encode the audio to aac, it tells you you need to go download something else and link you to a website page that explains how to do it easily since the license for that software prohibits redistributing it bundled in another software.

Handbrake is basically just an easy to use interface for ffmpeg which can handle a lot of things, but not everything.

I've got over 20 different softwares related to video installed right now and there's some I've used in the past that I haven't installed yet on this newer computer. The deeper you delve into video encoding to try and fix other peoples mistakes, the more complicated it gets and the more software you'll need.
The less you have, the more limited your options, even if it's a pain to have to manage all that.
At least staxrip does a lot of the complicated stuff for you like dealing with avisynth and the dozens of plugins it uses, especially for QTGMC.
There's a reason even professionals mess things up, it's not easy learning how to deal with all the different possibilities, but as you learn things, you need less different software to diagnose problems since you already know the solution and can see the issue more easily.

If you're asking for help on an actual encoding forum, them asking you to cut a part of a vob(if the source is a DVD) is the first thing they'll ask since they can take a quick look at the original file(and they don't have to deal with the copyright issue of you sharing the whole thing which those forums won't allow) and see if the issue is in there or in your encoding setup.



With that said, since it's an official DVD, you can assume FTBD-036 is interlaced and just use QTGMC to deinterlace at 30 fps like porni had you try. It would be unlikely for a studio to make a progressive one, but you never know so as long as it looks fine, either should be ok.

Most interlaced DVD will use the default TFF so it's usually not a problem to load an mkv instead of the vob files, unless you run into an exception like SBOG-004, but it's noticeable that there's an issue and if you play the video frame by frame(Just to suggest yet another software I use mpchc and do ctrl + left or right arrow to do that, in case your player don't have that feature).
You can use insert or add after right-clicking to add the Assume filter and drag and drop it in the right place instead of having it overwrite the deinterlacer. Good to know since that means you don't have to hijack one of the existing one to add custom avisynth stuff like I told you for REAL-001.

I would rebut that, since DVD as a format is losing out to both Blu-ray and streaming, it's not unreasonable to think that there will not be any new issues with DVDs: that is, anything you want to do with DVD as a format can be accomplished with current software, since any innovations will happen in the newer formats (with the possible exception of mathematical innovations leading to better codecs, but even those are going to lean toward handling higher resolutions). If the universe of DVD is therefore a finite one, a consolidation or streamlining of software to handle DVDs is within the realm of possibility.

The fact is, though, that I am a spoiled brat. I ought to be thankful for the simple availability of free software to do what I want. Each individual tool is the result of someone's hard and diligent work. To expect or demand for that work to be hijacked into an überProgram, or to then expect said überProgram to be itself free, is just the kind of spoiled behavior that Oompa Loompas sing about.

That's a solid point about copyright and cutting VOBs, but if I ever get to the point where I would really need to make a doom9 account, I might just give up instead.

With SBOG and FTBD figured out, and a plan to work on the GON-XXX titles I haven't shared, that's all the intractable encoding problems I have for today.
I've still got an issue with absurdly strong DRM on another Kumada Yoko gravure DVD, but that's not what this thread is about.

 

[SamKook]

There's not that many software to handle DVD stuff, just 3 main categories to decrypt, load and modify(cut/join/etc. if needed), but handling that is just the loading the source part of the encoding process, everything you do after applies to anything and it gets increasingly more complex from there unless you're just doing something basic on a properly made video. The assume and deinterlacing thing doesn't apply just to DVDs, it's for any interlaced content.
Software like staxrip and megui are pretty much as close as it gets to an all-in-one free solution but they also have to follow licenses of what they include if they don't want legal problems so they can't include decryption and other proprietary stuff(which are often preferred because many are higher quality than the free stuff).

For decrypting of a DVD that makemkv can't handle, the solution is likely to have a specific dvd/bluray drive and flash a special firmware to it so it can skip some DRM stuff when ripping it. The makemkv forum has a lot of info on this: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18856&sid=e6a3318e41f18c503cd398ff526c7675

 

[Porni]

That's why if you try to encode the audio to aac, it tells you you need to go download something else and link you to a website page that explains how to do it easily since the license for that software prohibits redistributing it bundled in another software

But it is better to use open and free opus

Handbrake is basically just an easy to use interface for ffmpeg which can handle a lot of things, but not everything.

HB is strange: strange encoding presets, instead of nnedi offers to use very slow eedi and so on.
Although x264 presets are also strange and need to be edited
For x265 have to set all the parameters manually
I don't understand why can't make good presets

 

[Porni]

video is progressive, but censored is interlaced

 

[SamKook]

FTBD-036 actually seems to be progressive and not a mistake, I'm surprised. Haven't seen that before.

So no deinterlacing required.

 

[Porni]

FTBD-036

No, no, that's a different video, just sharing an obvious kind of "good" DVD mastering

 

[SamKook]

No, no, that's a different video, just sharing an obvious kind of "good" DVD mastering

Yeah, I know it's a different one, wasn't commenting on your post.

Just saying I had a look at the FTBD-036 ISO and it's flagged as progressive and I can't find any sign that it should be interlaced.

 

[Kevin_san]

Thank you all for a beautiful thread that I enjoy to read, as a avisynth hobbyist.
I apologize for jumping in.
Did over a 100 idol DVDs, the newer ones are mostly progressive. Mastering/postproduction is very different from porn for esthetical reasons with different goals.

Do you think this is a good result? Avisynth + AviDemux. No QTGMC so far, should run very fast on modern computers. I fine-tuned all of them with different "impulses" and color settings. Those with halo and ringing on poor originals, need different treatment, to make it look softer and smoother, else the massive grain often cheats and also pretends that the skin of the idol looks older. I would be very glad if my scripts are useful to someone else too. Last example is LCDV-40492, ends up at 2GB with 1280x720, 60fps.
Looks brilliant and crispy on tablets. If you let the video play, instead of these snapshots, any artifact almost disappears with evening out along frame sequence, and it looks even sharper.

 

[Porni]

Do you think this is a good result?

Almost nothing is clear, but the small images look noticeably better than the larger ones

 

[Porni]

1280x720

If you're making upscale, you have to do something like this:

Color - Matrix Rec.601 to Rec.709
DeBlock - QED 34 36
DeGrain - SMDegrain TR2 (this temporal denoise filter hides a lot of artifacts and makes things look better)
DeRing - HQDering (optional. in most cases for cartoons only)
DeHalo - EdgeCleaner (optional. in most cases for movies only)
Resizer - NNEDI3 8x4 N128 N2
Sharpen - CAS 0.8 (fine tune depending of output resolution)
AddGrain - GrainFactory3 (optional. this will bring back some fine texture and hide possible banding if use 8-bit codec. But same time grain will make codec compression less effective and increase final file size)

 

[Kevin_san]

Thank you Porni, yes the regular trade-off with artifacts vs blur. Taste and eyes are different, so I prefer the softening to grain and halo. It would of course be possible to reverse that, and also cancel the denoiser in the x264.

 

[Porni]

Thank you Porni, yes the regular trade-off with artifacts vs blur. Taste and eyes are different, so I prefer the softening to grain and halo. It would of course be possible to reverse that, and also cancel the denoiser in the x264.

But you don't even change matrix, right?