Phil,

Drop AviSynth
Encode directly from the VOB, using mencoder internal filters.
You'll see a hell of a difference in speed too.

-kwag

Come on Phil, don't tease with us
Just make a sample of the involved scenes.
Hope that can come up in 30 minutes cause I'd like to know the results
Cheers m8

__________________
Rui

I'm doing kvcdx3 for the moment. SO I need :
1/ correct A/R taht only movie stacker can insure to me
2/ 544*576 res that is not implemented yet in pack-shot
3/ filters that are not currently into mencoder and/or can't be replaced easily with what are implemented.

But I will do my next KDVD with mencoder and no avisynth.

@Dialhot
Please try MencodeMe with the DVD filtering combo. It's aimed to reproduce optimal script effect without M.A. MencodeMe can also do resizing calculation taking A.R. in consideration for 544x480.

Methode a)
Try MencodeME like VM told

or ... do all the settings in Packshot, choose just a "fake" resizing like 352x576, ... start encoding and "break" the console process by quitting the console.
Enter the bat file and change the resolution vaules to the ones outputted from moviestacker (explained in the suggestions thread!). resafe ... and run the bat file again ... while encoding you can check in zoomplayer/vdub if scale is correct

So I did this test tonight and somethign weird happens :

1/ the quality of the previous problematic scenes is better, REALLY better. Better than the 2pass test I did yesterday (I also used 2pass for the present attemps) and better also than the output from tmpgenc (CQ=77).

BUT

2/ the file size is 90 MB UNDER the target !

Remember taht with 0.3 the file was 744 MB, exactly what I wanted to. Today it is 656 MB !

better quality, file 10% smaller

Now I didn't compared the overall quality to see if this small size affects the video; I only focused on the action scene where mencoder failed yesterday.

Hi Phil
Good news huh?
Buddy, just raise the vbitrate option until you find your target size
Cheers

__________________
Rui

Thats what I assumed

lmin finally "acts like" a quantisation barrier, means the quantisation wont go under the value which is set by lmin (the official explanation is another but we do see things how they do affect finally ). So do set it to 100kbit higher and you wont reach it
Thats why I did tell VM to lower lmin in case of HQ dvd encodings when high avg's are used.

And as we know .. the less quantisation, the bigger the size ... well you see the result.

BUT!: It seems that this lmin factor also affects the qunatizer curve, ... so you should maybe go up to 0.5 and maybe the result will be perfect?!

Thats why I dont just implementate OneCD encoding options like just adding target sizes. There are many things which are different than doing DVD encodings using mencoder.

Maybe we can get more testing results the following days... as I do have to keep a bit the focus on my internal resolution calculation engine.
So I would apreciate your future testing/comparing results.

Greets Inc.

@Inc. and Phil,
Since I am very much interested in getting the best options package for both MencodeMe and Packshot, what kind of tests would you suggest?
Be as much specific as you can, please.
Maybe we could split tasks between us.
Just like when Digi.doc and bilu were very active on mencoder settings .
Cheers

PS-BTW where did that guy (bilu) go, anyway. I just can't seem to find him anywhere
He sure was a very valuable member to help us with the settings

__________________
Rui

Yes and not. That means that this is the return of the size prediction from which 2pass was supposed to save us all

The problem is that I do KVCD where you are focused mainly on KDVD. Tests can't be the same.

If you put lmin bigger than just run the 2pass (if I understood you right that in your case the lmin caused to low final size at 1pass encoding,right?)

@Dialhot
This undersize problem tends to happen when mencoder simply can't quantisize lower the movie, except for the areas where bitrate is clipped by "Max". This can be fixed by tweaking scplx_mask and other variables.

All that does not explain why the result is BETTER !

As I told at lower avg bitrates the behaviour of the Q curve by this is better allocated! Thats why lmin affects the q curve diff. according to avg bitrates.

Hi all,
Dialhot, it's good you are testing this tools. Your comments are always helpful, are your critic attitude makes us improve a lot. All your opinions are based on tests and experience. That's why many of us admire you and take you in good consideration (... do you want to be my friend )
And what I'm going to tell also won't. But sometimes I have noticed that, if lmin set too low, quantizer curve behaves in an strange way: "tries" to keep very low, and suddenly raises a lot (when needed according to the film), even higher than when lower lmin value is used. And that can make appear the image worst. Usually this behaviour is smoothed in second pass, but when I see this effect, I usually raise lmin value.

Don't erase anything from your HD by now, if you don't want to,... but, come on, stay with us playing with mencoder, MencodeMe, and PackShot. I think we're in the right way (at least for some weeks )

I even print the man page today at work and I'm dying waiting for my laptop PC with a 2.4GHZ CPU (normally) that I should have soon; I will be abble to encode during my working time

ok guys ! if u're interested, here's a piece of my continuous mencoder testing (now i'm above 200 test run but i'm more confused than before) see what lmin can do :

short comment : its a part of a very long test sequence so there's much more involved than needed here (say, the column q2 means the average bitrate i got with cons.quant2) ... so ...
lmin : going downward with lmin makes the bitrate curve variation more narrow (in paralel, the variance of the q curve increases) on the contrary, raising it increases the bitrate variation, max_rate pushes away, so the visible effect is an increase in quality (see psnr) while keeping the target bitrate constatnt(!)

why i'm a bit confused is that this relationship is neither linear nor monotonous (so the changes does not go this way forever. see lmin=0.01!)
the other problem is that the numbers are quite relative. i've tested lmin with 5 different clips and the values and the curves were (more or less) different.
further, with some clips i found some kinda 'disturbances ' (short reversals) in the curve so take the aboves as a 'rough guide'

some possible answers to hotdial (lower filesize/higher quality)
- if u go with lmin above qmin (not forbidden but not recommended!) maxrate increases further but the average starts to decrease. so mencoder gets unable to keep the target anymore. this way u got sg u mentioned.
- if u increase lmin (& so the maxrate) u got lower quantizers (so higher quality) for the high bitrate scenes. that's an other possibilitie.
- in general, any change increasing the local bitrate (decresing the local quantizers) gives higher quality. of course, just locally.

any comments ?

the bests
y