Forum Archive Home -> Video Conversion -> AVANTI - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (support thread).
AVANTI - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (support thread). | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2007 Dec 31 15:24 | ||||||||||
| EDIT: 12-09-2008
AVANTI - Windows FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI Avanti GUI is a free front-end for FFmpeg with the option to insert Avisynth as pre-processor. It can be used with almost all Windows OS builds of FFmpeg (with Avisynth support). It offers user friendly control over all basic and advanced FFmpeg options. A number of template examples are included. There's no need to be familiar with Avisynth to use the predefined Avanti/Avisynth pre-processor options. Features: + Easy access to all FFmpeg codecs and basic encode settings. + All advanced FFmpeg options are available through user command addition. + All settings are saved and restored at the next session. + All encoder settings, user additions and scripts can be saved in template files. + Display of estimated encode time, remaining time and encode speed. + Option to set encode time limit (in minutes) to encode test clips. + Option to auto-shutdown your system after encoding and job processing. + Re-direction of FFmpeg screen output to Avanti GUI (hides FFmpeg). + Option to process system controlled 2-pass encoding. + Advanced batch job processing (with dynamic template support). + ES option to encode to mpeg2 elementary audio/video streams for DVD authoring. + Option to modify mpeg2 header flags (incl. 2:3 pulldown on 23.976 p). + Option to modify AVI header fields (FourCC and frame rate). + Selectable Avisynth AUTO and USER modes with build-in Avisynth Editor. ... (supports relative source paths that allow scripts to run from templates). + Internal Video Preview with Avisynth script preview (debug) option. + Option to use advanced Avisynth color correction (with preview). + Selectable FFmpeg/Avisynth crop/scale/pad option (with preview and calculator). + Support for the VirtualDub (*.vdr) frameserver format. + Option to convert PAL video source to NTSC destination and vice-versa. + Option to convert audio from PAL to NTSC and vice-versa (with pitch correction). + Option to expand luminance level from 16-235 to 0-255. + Avisynth SuperEQ (18 bands) preset editor with preview option. You can download the latest Avanti release and find all other Avanti related links at http://avanti.arrozcru.com or at http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Avanti Chris K. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2007 Dec 31 15:58 | ||||||||||
| Great work!
job control is a particularly nice feature. thanks for the time and effort tripp | ||||||||||
| autodidact posted 2007 Dec 31 16:04 | ||||||||||
| I love this tool! Thank you for sharing your work. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2007 Dec 31 18:34 | ||||||||||
| thanks
happy new year | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2007 Dec 31 19:20 | ||||||||||
Yeah... we've passed twelve here :-) Happy New Year to you too and to all other members and visitors here at VideoHelp.com. Chris. | ||||||||||
| wiseant posted 2007 Dec 31 20:21 | ||||||||||
| Thanks again Chris K - nice to you see back at videohelp.com | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jan 06 12:58 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
Uploaded AVANTI 0.2.2 revision 1 to MediaFire.com This revision has the following changes: 1. Changed FFmpeg/Avisynth combo checking at startup to add compatibility ... with some new FFmpeg builds, other then from Celtic-druids. 2. Added "Skip FFmpeg/Avisynth combo check" to the "preferences" ... to be able to try very non-standard FFmpeg builds. 3. Improved the "Job Control Manager" with the following changes: a. Changed the way message boxes appear to a more logical order. ... Dialogs are opened automatically when appropriate. b. Changed the text of the "Warning" message box because it was rather ... cryptic and added a "Don't show this message again." option. c. Source and destination dialogs now are set to main gui paths when you ... open the window. d. The window can now be resized in both directions. e. Changed the font used for the list entries. Download Avanti 0.2.2 revision 1 at http://www.mediafire.com/?dcj5l9ixtio Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Feb 23 21:52 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
Uploaded AVANTI 0.2.3 - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (new version) to MediaFire.com This version has the following changes: 1. Added Crop/Scale/Pad page with preview (FFmpeg/Avisynth modes) 2. Added MPEG/AVI tools option (2:3 pulldown and more). 3. Added Video TS offset (to correct async audio) 4. Added AVI and ES muxing (avi can also use TS offset). 5. Added FFmpeg threads to the "Preferences" 6. Improved startup check for FFmpeg version options. 7. Improved reporting on gui of FFmpeg encode errors. 8. Fixed bugs in "Demux video" (kept audio and unused commands). 9. Fixed (frame size) bugs in some example templates. 10. Fixed several minor bugs. 11. Updated chm Help for new options. Download Avanti 0.2.3 at http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287.html Thanks again to 45tripp for his advice on Avanti and his successful efforts to get a number of major FFmpeg bugs fixed. (Dowwnload the latest FFmpeg version to take advantage of these fixes.) Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Feb 25 16:17 | ||||||||||
| again,
thanks for the time and effort on this nice tool. tripp | ||||||||||
| GMaq posted 2008 Feb 25 17:13 | ||||||||||
| Hello,
I thought this project had left the building, I'm glad to see it's back, too much promise to be left unrealized. Thanks for your hard work and continuing this project! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Mar 27 18:02 | ||||||||||
| -
New FFmpeg Windows OS build SVN-r12572 at Celtic-druids (and mirrors). This is the first version that appears with the "libavfilter" enabled. This should allow to freely interchange crop, pad and scale commands. Unfortunately the libavfilter in this version shows unpredictable behaviour on these commands, even when used in the regular crop, scale, pad order that works well in previous versions. We also found that "muxing" and even "demuxing" is broken again in this version. Actually the use of the -vcodec copy command already causes FFmpeg to crash. This version is unusable where it concerns the Avanti "Demux/Mux" options and the Avanti FFmpeg "Crop/Scale/Pad" mode (use the Avisynth mode instead). Chris | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Apr 06 14:57 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
AVANTI 0.2.4 - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (April 2008 release) available. This version has the following changes: ..1.. Added text window expansion (Avisynth editor, report/log etc.) ..2.. Added framecount to avs scripts to fix m2v source duration problem. ..3.. Added process order option to "Crop/scale/pad" (Avisynth mode) ..4.. Added load/convert option of cqm and xcm matrix files. ..5.. Added FFmpeg warnings log for job processing. ..6.. Improved single process logging (now shows FFmpeg warnings list). ..7.. Improved reporting of invalid process settings. ..8.. Improved mpeg/avi tools on file and process reporting. ..9.. Fixed bug in mpeg/avi tools (broken sequence end code). 10.. Fixed bug in "Crop/scale/pad" which changed source frame size. 11.. Made a number of "cosmetic" gui changes. 12.. Updated chm help for new features and added more context links. You can read more and download Avanti 0.2.4 here at http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287.html 45tripp again kept a critical eye on the additions and changes during development. Proven being always to the benefit of the final Avanti release and much appreciated. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Apr 06 15:08 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the new version
Keep up the good work Will try the new version tomorrow | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Apr 06 15:41 | ||||||||||
| Chris K, what ffmpeg version should i use with Avanti? the latest one? a specific one?
Thanks | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Apr 06 16:04 | ||||||||||
Hi Ricardo, In the appendix of the help you can call up the FFmpeg version report. This is updated up to the latest "Celtic-druids" version SVN-r12665. With this version I had problems with x264 encoding (the quality) and it seems to crash with the libx264 on Pentium sse2/3 machines. I run on a old Athlon XP 2000+ which has only sse and this don't crash on libx264. I often use SVN-r10464 as a reference when I test other versions. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Apr 06 17:02 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris i was using version 9133 from here with avanti 0.23:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/ are these versions different from Celtic Druid ones? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Apr 06 17:27 | ||||||||||
No... It is one of the mirrors of "Celtic-druid" builds and all versions are the same. This is the official "Celtic-druid" link: http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/xvid Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Apr 06 17:49 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris. | ||||||||||
| SWBisbee posted 2008 Apr 06 19:16 | ||||||||||
| I have a vob file, I'm converting to a mp4 with version 0.2.2 rev.1, it seems to convert it right, however when using version 0.2.3 it gives me an error: Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 29.97 (30000/1001) -> 59.94 (60000/1001). This is the same vob file using the same settings as in 0.2.2 rev.1. Now I'm using version 0.2.4 which gives me even another error: Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 29.97 (30000/1001) -> 59.94 (60000/1001), And No accelerated IMDCT transform found. I'm using ffmpeg version 9767. can you help? As I said version 0.2.2 rev.1 works fine no errors.
Thanks, Regards, | ||||||||||
| SWBisbee posted 2008 Apr 06 19:27 | ||||||||||
| I found the errors in version 0.2.2.rev.1 also just had to scrool up to see them, can you please explain these errors, so I can understand whats going on?
Thanks, | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Apr 06 23:58 | ||||||||||
These messages are not errors but warnings or even simply notes given by FFmpeg. Often you can ignore them. Because version 0.2.4 catches (and shows) more of the FFmpeg warnings, you didn't get them with 0.2.2 rev1 and you got less with 0.2.3. I've got the frame rate differ warning (25.00 -> 50.00 in my case) also on mpg sources. FFmpeg sometimes sees things that aren't there or at least are not interpreted that way by other software. The "No accelerated IMDCT transform found" warning is given on the audio stream. If you disable audio temporarily it should be gone. E.g. one I get on audio is "Invalid new backstep" on a divx (xvid) which is encoded with FFmpeg itself. EDIT: http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-118303.html There's a option (press <Ctrl><S>) to process in FFmpeg console mode. You then get the full view on warnings FFmpeg eventually generates. AFAIK there's no list of what all FFmpeg warnings mean but as I said, a lot of them can be ignored. In cases they are of importance (e.g. buffer underflow), you have to take some action. If your conversion goes fine and shows no irregularity when you play it back it's ok. Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Apr 26 14:20 | ||||||||||
| .
FFmpeg/Avanti newsletter (26-04-2008). New recommended FFmpeg Windows OS build. We've gone through a turbulent period the last few month's where it concerns FFmpeg. A lot of experiments at the developers front and compiling problems at the side of the (ever praised) Windows OS builds providers. I recall mp3, xvid and x264 crashes and problems for users of older Athlon CPU's. Thanks to the concern and efforts of Tripp (45tripp) who keeps up good contacts with both developers and Windows OS builds providers, there now are stable versions available. Tripp decided to compose his own builds out of the most recent stable codec libraries and to leave off FFmpeg bells and whistles that are still at a (too) experimental stage. Ramiro Polla, one of the major providers of Windows FFmpeg builds kindly offered Tripp to host his builds and I (Chris K) highly recommend them as the most recent and reliable to use with Avanti. EDIT: Tripp's FFmpeg builds are available at: arrozcru.no-ip.org/tripp Some encouraging Avanti statistics (for a developer). :) 1. This quiet thread had over 13000 views since it started at 31-12-2007. 2. This led to over 6000 downloads of the Avanti package so far. Avanti is powered by Gui4Cli (gui4cli.com) and by its own additional dll's which are all written in C and C++. Therefore Avanti is small and relies only on the basic Windows OS resources. It should run without problems on W2K, WXP (tested) and Vista (reported). Avanti can be copied to and run from any location on your system, doesn't write anything Avanti related to locations other then your install directory and can be easily removed if desired. It makes minimal use of the system registry. If you want to read some user comments on Avanti, Google for: "avanti ffmpeg gui" Avanti 0.2.5 will be available within a few weeks. Thanks to all who showed their interest. Chris. . | ||||||||||
| turnkit posted 2008 May 05 10:32 | ||||||||||
| Is there a Bug Forum for Avani - ?
I am loading a quicktime .mov file and it is coming in as 720x496 instead of 720x486. Would like to give a sample file to someone who can look at this and see what's wrong. Can anyone point me to the right place or person? p.s. I was able to attach a 3 frame video file that shows the problem. 3f%20720x486nonsquare%20sample.mov | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 May 05 12:49 | ||||||||||
here'a a good place. it's not an Avanti bug though. it's a bug with the gui's engine: ffmpeg. a bug already reported. something about codec settings for width/height within mov. anyway... feel free to report again, unlikely to be fixed soon... so, to fix this now, either remux to a more reasonable format, or use Avisynth Force mode in Avanti to overcome this, or do some cropping in Avanti to remove the borders, or just leave as is, it's only 10 pixels. tripp | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 May 17 14:43 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
AVANTI 0.2.5 - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (May 2008 release) available. This version has the following changes: ..1.. Added tools menu with option to add user tools. ..2.. Added advanced frame size calculator (crop/scale/pad page). ..3.. Added conversion of VirtualDub trim/cut data to avs script. ..4.. Added support for segmented sources (Avisynth user mode). ..5.. Added line numbers to easier trace script errors (avs preview). ..6.. Improved insertion of Avisynth AUTO scripts (avs editor). ..7.. Improved process logging (now shows warnings immediately). ..8.. Improved file path storage (separate save for all options). ..9.. Changed template save/load protocol (please re-read help). 10.. Fixed bug in Avisynth editor (handling files with tabs). 11.. Fixed Avisynth normalize warning (broken after big changes). 12.. Fixed bug in MPEG/AVI tools that could cause a Avanti crash. 13.. Several minor bug fixes and changes. 14.. Updated chm help for new features and changes. You can read more and download Avanti 0.2.5 here at http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287.html Users that upgrade from a previous version and saved Avisynth user scripts in templates, please re-read the help on templates. There's a change in loading Avisynth user scripts within templates to prevent overwriting the current script at the editor with undesirable "garbage". Want to thank Tripp again for all his advice and comments, especially on the frame size (calculator) and aspect ratio subject. Comments, suggestions and bug reports are always welcome. Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 May 19 14:11 | ||||||||||
| thanks for the release | ||||||||||
| wiseant posted 2008 May 19 16:15 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris K - I'll have to check out this new version . . . | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 May 19 17:30 | ||||||||||
| Hi Tripp and Wiseant,
Both thanks for your continuing interest in Avanti. I hope some of the new features will come in handy. Anyway bug fixes and improvements make it always worth while to upgrade. Chris. | ||||||||||
| coolguy1000 posted 2008 Jun 01 05:35 | ||||||||||
| Hello I am new here and I want to report a problem when using the Avanti/Avisynth/VirtualDub/ffmpeg combination to transcode a *.vdr file to e.g. *.avi. I tested with the newest prgram versions.
The file format *.VDR I am talking about is not the VirtualDub frameserver format but the MPEG2-TS format recorded by the Linux VDR Recorder, a system to record DVB-Sat programs. Unfortunately the file ending *.VDR is the same like the VirtualDub frameserver is using and when trying to transcode a Linux VDR file to whatever target format using Avanti I will get the message: Avisynth reports a VirtualDub[Mod] frame server error This message also appears when clicking on "show source properties" in Avanti When renaming the Linux VDR files from *.vdr to *.MPG e.g. then the transcoding starts. Any idea that could solve the problem (renaming the file is surely one option). I will report if I find out by myself. thx a lot kai | ||||||||||
| guns1inger posted 2008 Jun 01 05:50 | ||||||||||
| Renaming it or demuxing the VDR file is the only solution | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jun 03 16:22 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
AVANTI 0.2.6 - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (June 2008 release) available. This version has the following changes: ..1.. Improved user tools for complex command line arguments. ..2.. Improved and enhanced the "advanced database manager". ..3.. Updated codecs/formats database for latest FFmpeg versions. ..4.. Adapted database to decode ogg theora (ogg, ogm extensions). ..5.. Added ogg theora templates for encoding. ..6.. Fixed bug in version overwrite option (database not preserved). ..7.. Fixed bug in "Preferences" (some were not updated immediately). ..8.. Updated chm help for renewed database manager. You can read more and download Avanti 0.2.6 here at http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287.html Mainly a version of bug fixes and maintenance to be up-to-date before the summer break. The codecs/formats database wasn't updated for a long time but now contains additions from the latest FFmpeg versions. If you use the "overwrite" option to upgrade a older version, also read the help chapter of the "Advanced database manager". In case of questions or major bug reports (or bad wheather), I'll be around for support and/or a revision. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Jun 03 16:53 | ||||||||||
| thanks for the new version | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jun 03 17:42 | ||||||||||
You're welcome! Nice to know you still appreciate the tool :). Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jun 04 18:43 | ||||||||||
| thanks,
have a nice summer break tripp | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jun 08 14:29 | ||||||||||
| .
Avanti 0.2.6 revision 1 available. http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287.html Occasionally new FFmpeg versions have changes that are not foreseen and this requires the release of a revision to keep Avanti compatible. The latest known Windows builds by Ramiro Polla (SVN-r13242) and Sherpya (Sherpya-r13537) appear to have revised documentation embedded. The codecs list in this versions now includes comments (like the formats list already did) and the current Avanti version isn't prepared for that. Reading the list into the "Advanced database manager" fails and needs some adapting. I also found that muxing with FFmpeg is still tricky and have my doubts about m2v/ac3 and m2v/mp2 (AVI muxing does fine for me). The automatic insertion of the "-genpts 1" command for m2v is removed to allow some source dependent experiments on the command line with the -genpts and -copyts commands. Because these builds perform very well and seems to have (almost) all former codec problems fixed (Sherpya build still has a broken x264), I decided to release Avanti 0.2.6 revision 1 which is adapted for using these versions. If you already installed version 0.2.6, you only need to replace the "Avanti-GUI.exe" executable. This will preserve your current settings. Note: I use revisions when changes only concern bug fixes and/or adaptions. The documentation in Avanti packages is highly related to the specific version and since there are no new features added, it would give me a lot of extra (needless) work to change it all. Chris. | ||||||||||
| sword_9mm posted 2008 Jun 28 01:53 | ||||||||||
| just registered and thanks for the help so far. i'm using this to get xvids on my ps3. works great till i need to "force avisynth". dunno how to do that and can't find it in avanti.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. i've got ffmpeg/avisynth/avanti installed and it works great till i hit a few xvids that are i guess encoded or something wrong. thanks.. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jun 28 02:08 | ||||||||||
If you right-click on the "Start process" button you'll get a popup menu with three Avisynth modes. There select "Enable Avisynth FORCE mode". It will only work if you have DirectShow codecs on your system that can play the broken (?) or uncommon xvids. Chris. | ||||||||||
| sword_9mm posted 2008 Jun 28 11:01 | ||||||||||
| thanks a bunch Chris K.
it still dies on me, guess the xvid is encoded weird. funny though that it's in a series and the few before it work fine. you guys have any tips if an xvid won't encode right? these are all dbz episodes. i assume they're all the same but i guess not. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jun 28 11:25 | ||||||||||
You can try DIVFIX on it that possibly is able to repair the avi's. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Jul 01 02:47 | ||||||||||
| Hi Chris!
I've been trying to mux an mp3+png into a flv file and Avanti so far has worked but it reconverts the mp3 files, is there any way to bypass the mp3 conversion, just mux mp3+png. I tried using ffmpeg and mencoder but the final flv is twice as big, with fmpeg and mencoder (160k mp3 +png) results in a 14mg file, the original sources are less than 7mg With Avanti the final size is 7mg but mp3 gets reconverted, can you help? Im using some scripts 45Tripp posted on another thread ffmpeg:
Mencoder:
Avanti: 
If i choose "mux audio" it tells me to "Please load UNI_MUX_SETUP template to set MUX environment.", i load that template, choose settings but aerror message appears: 
Thanks | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 01 04:07 | ||||||||||
| well frifox wanted the best quality.
if you want you can set them so as not to use cq encoding, also the ffmpeg command can be done in one now:
for avanti, i think i once made a 'copy' codec in the database. i think i keep forgetting to ask Chris for a 'stream copy' option as i'm still waiting on ffmpeg ogm remux to be fixed. one way of doing it is to use the -new function, in the video options at the beginning add this:
and at the end this:
tripp | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 01 06:09 | ||||||||||
| Hi Ricardo,
I've tried this variant on the -new suggestion by Tripp and it worked (with some restrictions):
Take the settings as on your screenshots but don't set audio to mux. Just leave it as in the first picture. All audio settings are ingnored anyway with -acodec copy on the command line. You won't get progression display. Just wait patiently for the "Process successfully finished after ..... hms" message. I tried with a mp3 of 938.7 kb and the final flv became 1,4 mb. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Jul 01 07:22 | ||||||||||
| Hi 45tripp
Thanks for the scripts, it works. Chris and Tripp adding that bit at the beggining/ end, without or without quotes doesnt work, this is the code that appears, can you show me where to add it?
Altough a bit off topic(sorry), i use this method to upload music to youtube, but Avanti files are smaller, apart from the size and bitrate they have the same characteristics , the ffmpeg and mencoder videos get reencoded by youtube loosing a lot of quality, the video produced by avanti that uses ffmpeg doesnt get reencoded. All 3 methods use same settings, same sources, what can be affecting the encode by Avanti that doesnt let youtube reencode the video? One thing i did notice is that in the first 2 videos i can skip the video forward, if i try to do that on the 3dr video(avanti) i get redirected to the beggining of the video.
| ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 01 07:56 | ||||||||||
This is the complete command line with the hq tweaking included:
Also attached a modified flv template. As I said... don't mind the audio settings, they are ignored. uni_flash_hq_mod.7z | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 01 09:23 | ||||||||||
the diff is what Chris added to the commandline:
with it you get a sekable stream, without you sorta a get a bastard single frame matched to the audio, can;t seek the single frame. take it as a reserved bonus, no re-encode but with no seeking. tripp | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Jul 01 09:56 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris and 45Tripp for the explanations and "fix". | ||||||||||
| adamlui posted 2008 Jul 04 01:00 | ||||||||||
| I just downloaded this and I'm just trying to merely create FLV files, but I don't even have Flash listed as a codec. Why is that? I've downloaded ffmpeg.rev12665.7z and moved the ffmpeg files into Avanti's directory. Any clue? | ||||||||||
| adamlui posted 2008 Jul 04 01:14 | ||||||||||
| Never mind, I just loaded the template and registered the codec, and created my first FLV. Pardon my ignorance | ||||||||||
| adamlui posted 2008 Jul 04 02:27 | ||||||||||
| Well I've been messing with the modded template and if I set it to 20fps, the picture becomes blurry after ten seconds and progressively so until the end of the song. But when set to 10fps it appears to retain the original picture quality to the end, although it does become slightly muddy. Any idea why this is? The source picture is JPEG btw. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 04 03:43 | ||||||||||
| well it's a moot point, because 1fps is more than enough for a single frame.
but if you insist... left bitrate at 50k? you'll have to increase it substantially. or use qscale encoding. tripp | ||||||||||
| adamlui posted 2008 Jul 04 09:18 | ||||||||||
| Well the reason I don't use 1fps is because the resulting videos don't seek.. is there a way around this at 1fps?
Yeah I left it at 50K so I will up it, thanks | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 04 21:49 | ||||||||||
| ok, i'd not spotted it in the commandline,
replace
with
and resave the template tripp | ||||||||||
| adamlui posted 2008 Jul 09 13:37 | ||||||||||
| Hey I just tried this but the overall bitrate won't get past 400K no matter how high i set the video bitrate. I'm using flash_hq_mod. I've added -g 1. How can I increase the video bitrate substantially? | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 09 14:25 | ||||||||||
| what ever for?
you don't. -qscale 1 is as far as you can go with flash insisting, you can increase framerate, resolution that'll increase where you can fgo to. tripp | ||||||||||
| dark_guard posted 2008 Jul 13 17:55 | ||||||||||
| Hi everyone. I apologize if this is in the wrong place, but I have some questions.
First, what is the best video scale algorithm for downsizing videos? Second, is there a tutorial for using the VBR feature? What are the best values to enter there in order to optimize the file size, say for a 5 minute video at 750 kb/s? Also, is Avanti still being developed? | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 13 18:15 | ||||||||||
debatable. i use lanczos for up and down. others use spline for up and down. some say one better for up and another for down, and the inverse, some like a simple bicubic for down, i don't like the softness. try them out. pick one
what are you referring to exactly? what's your source what's the goal?
does that mean you have a request, a suggestion, a bug to report? Chris K still maintains it. tripp | ||||||||||
| dark_guard posted 2008 Jul 15 13:59 | ||||||||||
I did, but I can't tell the difference. :D I was wondering if there was some subtle difference between them all that I didn't notice.
My source is a .vob file from a dvd. My goal is a .flv video that I will upload to youtube.
Nope. Just wondering. :) | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 15 14:49 | ||||||||||
the difference is in sharpness, and possible artifacts.
vob, ntsc. most probably progressive. the best way to handle is to get dgindex import the vob. press F5, check "video type" anything with film over 95% means you can 'force film'. 'video'->'field operatin'->'forced film' press F4 to save project. you'll get a .d2v file. install avisynth if you havent already. open a txt editor (notepad) dgindex came with DGDecode.dll, place it somewhere convenient, or note it's path. in the text write:
save as 'movie.avs' in the folder containing the .vob and .d2v. now treat 'movie.avs' as your movie. i'e drag it into Avanti's input. for flv, the hq flash template in Avanti is as good as it gets. just change bitrate and resolution that's sorenson spark, i've not really been following the later testing on youtube, http://forum.videohelp.com/topic336882.html but i see success in putting h264 up. There aren't ready good templates for that in Avanti. but you can make one.
if you come up with a comment, post it. gl tripp | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 17 06:17 | ||||||||||
| I've got a question conerning interlaced mpeg4(XViD)-material:
I've got some files which are interlaced (AviSynth-Test shows "TFF"), but reported progressive in apps like MPEG4Modifier and which don't play well on my standalone. Seems the device reads the flag and presumes progressive content; esp. annoying when I want to jump back/forth or ffwd, etc. So on doom9's forum I already learned that I would have to re-encode the files. I tried AVANTI for that job, and the outcome is really fine - so first I want to say: Thank you, Chris K!! :D But the files again are interlaced (I'd like to keep them that way - I de-activated "Deinterlace" in AVANTI), and again are reported as being "progressive". Is this an option I would have to add in the commandline for ffmpeg? And if so, how would I do it? Thanks for any help! | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 17 07:19 | ||||||||||
indeed nice to hear you like Avanti
note: for lavc that is, you can't do it with xvid within ffmpeg gl tripp | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 17 14:41 | ||||||||||
I've tried some with a interlaced capture and the xvid codec. MediaInfo always says it's progressive. As Tripp mentioned, the -ildct and ilme flags doesn't work on xvid. You could try to encode with mpeg4, where they work and the result is reported as interlaced. Also just today found another (de)interlace problem with FFmpeg. Found that the -deinterlace command didn't work. Googled a bit and found a lot info about a broken -deinterlace option? Also found that the option always should be placed at the start of the command line (which isn't the case in Avanti and must be fixed). Perhaps Tripp who follows FFmpeg development closely can tell more about it? Anyway, that's not your problem for now cause you want to keep your target interlaced (I would too). Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 18 00:41 | ||||||||||
Tripp reported that FFmpeg -deinterlace works fine so I did some new research and found it doesn't work on a particular source format. To be specific; the source I used is captured MJPEG with the Canopus picVideo codec:
I've re-encoded a piece with the FFmpeg DV codec to use it as source and it's deinterlaced fine even with the current (wrong?) command line position in Avanti? I've converted both (interlaced) sources to xvid with the same command line settings.
For both, MediaInfo doesn't report it's interlaced. Still FFmpeg seems to interpret them different? Chris. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 18 11:46 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the answer.
Well, I tried those files with codec set to "mpeg4", using the additional parameters 45tripp mentioned. The files get encoded just fine, but still the problem remains: Reported "progressive" although being interlaced. My experience in determining the nature of a file: Neither GSpot nor MediaInfo give the true information about it, if the file is mpeg4 (any, be it DiVX, XViD, or anything else...). In GSpot's case there is no information on progressive/interlaced content at all, if mpeg4-files are concerned. For getting information on the flag I use either MPEG4Modifier (in the right hand lower corner there is a part stating "Interlaced: No [Yes]" and in case it's interlaced you can change the field order) OR KMPlayer, which has a Media-Info submenu and also tells you about the flag of a file. (As does MediaInfo, of course.) For determining the true nature of the file apart from the flag (which, as we know, may be set incorrectly during encoding) so far the only surefire method I have found is the test with AViSynth (AssumeTFF/BFF, SeparateFields...), stepping through the file frame by frame in both modes and see if motion is smooth or jerky, etc. (Should someone need it, look on the forum for guides.) :? | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Jul 18 14:18 | ||||||||||
http://arrozcru.no-ip.org/tripp/ try again tripp | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 18 15:17 | ||||||||||
Did a quick test again with mpeg4 (mediaInfo output):
I used the latest FFmpeg build of Tripp. Your source seems to be properly decoded by FFmpeg so whatever it is, it shouldn't have any influence on encoding. Chris. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 19 04:32 | ||||||||||
| Thanks to all of you!!!
It worked! I got 45tripp's ffmpeg-version from the link above, entered the parameters for flag - and now there they are, fine quality and reported interlaced! And fast...!
Great, keep up the good work! :D | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 19 04:52 | ||||||||||
With this ffmpeg-version I get the following error-messages, which obvously slow the process down considerably...?
Anything I can do to the originals...? Or something... Sorry to bother so soon :oops: | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 19 06:08 | ||||||||||
It will not slowdown the process more then the FFmpeg console on its own. You can check this by looking at fps value at the Avanti status line below. Then press <Ctrl><S> for console mode and compare the fps value on the FFmpeg console. During processing, Avanti uses less then 1% of the available CPU power. I don't know of a way to suppress FFmpeg warnings. Avanti will truncate warnings after 25 lines. The messages itself probably can be ignored if you don't notice any irregularity in the resulting clip. EDIT: I see in the MediaInfo; scan order "Bottom field first". If you need to change this add -top 1 to the command line. You may get problems with playback on TV if the field order doesn't match. You can also set the fourcc to DIVX which is in general more compatible with stand-alone divx players. Chris. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 20 04:49 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for answering so fast!
Well, I looked at the bottom line of Avanti during processing with both ffmpeg-versions, and the same file caused these errors in the 45tripp-ffmepg and the fps showed about half the speed I had before... Perhabs I put my question a bit awkwardly... I did not mean that the error-messages slowed down the process, but rather that the file itself presents problems...that could perhabs be remedied by remuxing or something...? :wink: EDIT: Thanks for referring me to the field-order parameter...! Appreciate it. EDIT | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 20 05:42 | ||||||||||
I have a test file myself which generates these errors. I think it's a indication for a "packed bitstream" which seems to cause a lot of problems. You can search the forum on "packed bitstream" to get more info. The codec settings in the mediaInfo output then show "Codec settings/Packed : Yes". If you have a decoder that can play the file properly, you can also try the Avisynth FORCE mode in Avanti (right-click on the "Start process" button"). | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Jul 20 05:57 | ||||||||||
| Well, I checked with MediaInfo and it IS packet bitstream. I know enough about it to know that it very often causes problems.
And one can very easily have MPEG4Modifier unpack it, takes a couple of minutes - load the file, check "unpack" beneath "Packed Bitstream", click the 'save'-button, choose location - and wait for about 2-3 minutes... ;) Voilà! By the way: in Mpeg4Modifier it says "packed bitstream" in MediaInfo it's called "packet bitstream". So which one's correct? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Jul 20 06:04 | ||||||||||
That's a good one :) I think both are right in some way but I'm not sure. Things are packed and the stream contains packets? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 12 16:47 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
AVANTI 0.2.7 - FFmpeg/Avisynth GUI (August 2008 release) available. This version has the following changes: ..1.. Added copy audio/video (flexible alternative for mux/demux). ..2.. Added options manager (to re-organize user additions). ..3.. Added dedicated template load/save dialogs. ..4.. Added TAGS to template files (long names/sorting/comment). ..5.. Added/improved template examples (ipod, psp, etc.). ..6.. Improved template comment management (dedicated editor). ..7.. Added check to prevent accidental exit during process. ..8.. Made FFmpeg crop/scale/pad available in Avisynth user mode. ..9.. Improved accuracy of frame size calculator. .10.. Fixed path bug with startup from desktop shortcut (WXP). .11.. Fixed bug in user mapping when using 2-pass encoding. .12.. Fixed bug in ".user" extension (still had restrictions). .13.. Fixed bug in Avisynth segmented source support. .14.. Fixed bug in Avisynth path labels (@plugins/@superEQ). .15.. Fixed bug in "Advanced database manager". .16.. Updated codecs/formats database (new codecs/descriptions). .17.. Updated chm help for additions and changes. I'm very happy to announce that Avanti has found its home at: http://avanti.arrozcru.com You can download Avanti 0.2.7 and some previous releases from there and find all other FFmpeg/Avanti related links you may need. Many thanks go out to Ramiro Polla for hosting Avanti and for keeping up the most versatile and informative site on building your own FFmpeg for the Windows OS or downloading ready to use Win32 builds. http://arrozcru.no-ip.org/ffmpeg Also to 45tripp for continuing his advice and suggestions for Avanti and for keeping the FFmpeg Win32 builds up-to-date. http://tripp.arrozcru.com Chris. | ||||||||||
| freebird73717 posted 2008 Aug 13 08:25 | ||||||||||
| Crongratulations on getting a hosting site for avanti Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 13 10:50 | ||||||||||
Thanks, Freebird! Like to join with your slogan so... "We love freeware!" :D Also keep up your good work. Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Aug 14 02:15 | ||||||||||
| ty for the new release | ||||||||||
| AlanHK posted 2008 Aug 14 03:04 | ||||||||||
| Thanks, looks interesting.
One request: make the location of ffmpeg.exe an option. I've already got it installed at least once, to use it with Avanti I have to copy it again to its subdirectory. Aside from wasting 6-8 MB, (10 times bigger than Avanti itself), it makes it tedious to update. Also, when using the preview function on an AVS file, it quickly goes out of sync, even though my AVS has "EnsureVBRMP3sync()" which keeps other players correctly synced (at the cost of waiting while seeking sometimes). | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Aug 14 03:20 | ||||||||||
fair enough request. and i've asked it of other software, i guess i never asked it of Avanti, as my hd already has so many ffmpeg versions littered about.
hardly, and i've updated dozens of times.
you can change your preview player in the preferences. Avanti uses mci by default. tripp | ||||||||||
| AlanHK posted 2008 Aug 14 03:30 | ||||||||||
Not a great burden; still I have to remember all the various programs that insist on having their private copy. Or more likely, just let them stick with whatever version they originally had. And a possible bug, or weird side effect: when I have Avanti open, the ESCAPE key does not work in any other program. I restarted Windows and was suspecting a broken keyboard before I worked out the cause. Anyone else have this problem? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 14 05:12 | ||||||||||
I will store the last opened FFmpeg directory in the ini file with the next version. Most other paths are already stored that way. About the escape key. For technical reasons I had to make it a so called "hotkey". This means it works for Avanti from wherever you press it and disables it for all other applications as long as Avanti is open. If this is a problem, I'll have to find another solution. Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Aug 14 05:40 | ||||||||||
not an entirely bad idea with ffmpeg, as a newer version might introduce a regression relative to what used to work for you.
yeah esc is binded as a hotkey, esc will return to the main page of avanti from a sub window. whether avanti is the active window or not. i spent 10 minutes looking for an app with a use for esc btw... | ||||||||||
| AlanHK posted 2008 Aug 14 07:16 | ||||||||||
Thanks. Seeing the other settings I thought it was weird ffmpeg's location was not configurable.
I'm afraid I think this is a bad idea: just on general principle a program should not interfere with global settings. I use ESC to back out/abort of a lot of dialogs, (notably Far file manager, if you know that) and I was very worried for a while when the key went dead. There are alternative keys, but I stopped and restarted it several times before I realised why it wasn't working normally. Can't you make it so it's hot only when Avanti is in the foreground? Otherwise ... I'd rather do without, I think. (I didn't realise Avanti was the cause for a while because though it was capturing the Esc, it stayed in the background.) I see in your help: "8th button; (or <Esc> key) brings you back tot the main page" 1) "tot" should be "to" 2) If that's all it does, isn't it the same as clicking on your button #1, which is always visible? | ||||||||||
| AlanHK posted 2008 Aug 14 07:23 | ||||||||||
In any app; open a menu. Click "Esc" to close the menu. Or press "Alt" to highlight the menu options (to navigate via keyboard), Esc to quit. Yes, there are other ways, I'm used to "Esc" though. In general, works to stop running processes, as when you make a mistake and want to abort. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 14 08:07 | ||||||||||
Not #1 (is main menu) but #8 (blue circle with arrow) and yes escape is only a alternative for this button. The reason to make it a hotkey is because of a (hard to trace) bug in the Gui4Cli interpreter that could occasionally cause Avanti to crash if I make the escape key local. I'll try to find a solution. | ||||||||||
| extrapixel posted 2008 Aug 20 10:22 | ||||||||||
| hi there,
first of all, thanks for the great tool! my question: is there a way to get all the parameters that avanti starts ffmpeg with? i like the ease of use of the gui, but in production i need to start ffmpeg from the command line (from a python script for example). So, is there a way to find out _all_ the parameters (or the actual command) that Avanti sends to ffmpeg for a certain template? thank you for some hints :) extra | ||||||||||
| extrapixel posted 2008 Aug 20 10:50 | ||||||||||
| ahh... never mind,
after I rtfm it was clear to me. sorry! (in case someone else needs this: right-click in the status-window and select "save FFMpeg Command line") | ||||||||||
| TheGoldStar posted 2008 Aug 20 21:10 | ||||||||||
| never mind, | ||||||||||
| laserbeak posted 2008 Aug 26 09:47 | ||||||||||
i put ffmpeg in the directory and have downloaded and installed avisynth, but i still get this message
the help file isnt much help either :/ -edit- musta been reading a quickstart helpfile. the one i see now has a lot more detail, but i still cant find something to help me. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Aug 26 10:44 | ||||||||||
hmmm i'm pretty sure Chris doesn't bite... :)
there's not much to it. an ffmpeg has to be under the /avanti/ffmpeg folder, and it has to be named so that it's ffmpeg??????.exe if that's not working, and i can;t see why, perhaps you can provide as much detail as possible. tripp | ||||||||||
| sklar posted 2008 Aug 31 05:48 | ||||||||||
Hi, I am sub-newbie so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. On starting up Avanti I keep on getting message "ffmpeg.exe not found". I have put ffmeg.exe version 14623 in the folder as you can see from the images. I don't understand what is going wrong. Thanks.
 | ||||||||||
| sklar posted 2008 Aug 31 05:54 | ||||||||||
Me again. Here is the second screen capture.
 | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 31 06:12 | ||||||||||
| Hi.
As far as I can see you have FFmpeg at the right place. I've installed at "G:\program files\avanti\ffmpeg" to see if there's a path problem but it works fine. But that is running under Windows 2000. I assume you're running Vista but it seems to work fine with it. Only thing I can imagine by now, is the version you use. Try the latest from here http://tripp.arrozcru.com If that doesn't help, perhaps another Vista user can give a hint? EDIT: Sorry! Just read in your first post you use that already. Chris. | ||||||||||
| sklar posted 2008 Aug 31 06:46 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris K. I have just moved the entire Avanti folder to c:\ Program Files and it is now working. Don't know why, but at least I can now move on to puzzling out how Avanti works. Regards. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Aug 31 07:36 | ||||||||||
Ah...! Still a path problem but only for Vista it seems. To be sure. I've also installed in XP at the same path but this also works running Avanti-GUI.exe both directly from the install directory and from a desktop shortcut (which gave problems in the past). If you have other questions or comments, feel free to post them. Chris. | ||||||||||
| sklar posted 2008 Aug 31 07:45 | ||||||||||
| Have now successfully converted dvr-m$ format to mpeg4 and mpeg2. Brilliant!!!! Thanks. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Sep 01 01:37 | ||||||||||
| EDIT: Very SORRY, my answer was faaar too late, my e-Mail fooled me... :oops: And I realized too late, that I was looking at the last post of the 3rd page....Cannot delete this...
(The image shows ....) | ||||||||||
| padeen posted 2008 Sep 12 19:49 | ||||||||||
| This is a great tool. I"m using it for mkv -> xvid conversion to play on the xbox 360.
One small bug is that the ffmpeg/user PAR input box in the CSP Remote Calculator won't accept a decimal point, so I can't enter non-standard settings like 2.402, or standard ones like 1.33. The popup error is "Unacceptable character: you can only type a number here." The OS is Vista Home Basic. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 12 20:53 | ||||||||||
Hi, Good catch... thanks! Will be fixed in the next version (coming soon). About the pop-up error. I assume this is a Vista specific feature ? Avanti itself has no error reporting for it. Chris. | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 15 15:14 | ||||||||||
| This is really a little gem
but I do have a problem , I just cant seem to get a preview working | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 15 15:31 | ||||||||||
Can you give some more details. The internal preview is a MCI player which acts almost the same as WMP (using installed DirectShow codecs). Doesn't it show up when you press one of the preview buttons? Chris. | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 16 10:02 | ||||||||||
| It initially didnt show up (respond) so I specified another player (currently GOM) and its now working but I dont know how to put it back on MCI to check the problems I had ( if I still would have them as in the mean time more items have been installed and setup on my pc) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 16 10:28 | ||||||||||
| Go to the "Preferences" where you changed the path to the GOM player and type "Internal" in the "Video Player" field.
That's all... :) Chris. | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 16 13:01 | ||||||||||
| :shock: couldnt have been simpler :D
thanks | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 18 11:07 | ||||||||||
| can one explain
DV(29.9fps)-MP4 limit encode duration to 30 secs but result is 18 seconds (regardless of framerate specified ) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 18 13:38 | ||||||||||
I suppose you mean DV(29.97) source to mpeg4 or perhaps h264 in mp4 container destination. Problem for me (PAL) is that I have to force it by creating a DV 29.97 source myself and then convert. Note that for FFmpeg you set the -t parameter in seconds but for Avanti in minutes. So 30 secs will be 0.5 in the "limit encode duration" field. Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 18 14:25 | ||||||||||
| Hi to all,
For those who didn't noticed yet. There's a new version of Avanti available (0.2.8). Besides bug fixes, there's a lot of attention this time for the Avisynth USER mode with additions to be of help with e.g. framecount (m2v sources) and for preview of scripts. I also added a new dedicated chapter for the Avisynth editor to the context help (press <F1> when you're at the editor). Cheers, Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Sep 18 15:33 | ||||||||||
| i don;t have a lengthy ntsc dv sample either
but i concatenated a 10 sec clip a few times and then took it into avanti -> x264 in avi, limit to 30 sec. worked fine | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 19 13:15 | ||||||||||
can always provide you some NTSC footage :-)
oh! is your calculation based on framerates ? ( inside the gui) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 19 14:14 | ||||||||||
No! It's actually only the insertion of the FFmpeg -t command which expects seconds. The calculation by Avanti is simply "Limit encode duration" value * 60, so 0.5*60 = 30 secs. It is done to make it easier for the user. e.g. if you want to encode ten minutes you now enter 10 else you would have to enter 600. The duration FFmpeg encodes with the -t command is independent of the framerate you set. | ||||||||||
| doggyjumper posted 2008 Sep 19 15:22 | ||||||||||
| Makes sence
be it my clips rarely have to go much past 1 minute ;-) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 19 15:47 | ||||||||||
| Yeah! the option was actually added to encode short test clips at the time FFmpeg versions
didn't had the "Press [q] to stop encoding" option. At that time, if you canceled a process, the resulting clip was invalid (couldn't be played). For that purpose whole minutes were adequate. I understand the confusion and would have been it probably better explaned by saying: "Limit encode duration" is given in minutes and decimal fractions of minutes. Not in minutes and seconds. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Sep 25 19:53 | ||||||||||
| .
New FFmpeg Win32 build SVN-r15394 available. http://tripp.arrozcru.com This is (probably) the first Win32 build that appears with a few permanent command syntax changes in the FFmpeg source code. Using this (and future) FFmpeg versions has some consequences for the use with Avanti and requires a template update. You can read more about it and download a template update zip at: http://avanti.arrozcru.com/tpl_upd.htm Thanks 45tripp for all the work and time you've put in it, Chris. | ||||||||||
| 45tripp posted 2008 Sep 27 21:10 | ||||||||||
| likewise,
ty for the update | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Oct 03 17:59 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris and 45tripp for the new Avanti/ffmpeg versions.
Usually i added subs via vsfilter+avisynth now its easier. Im out of words on how to thank you for providing Avanti for free, as soon as i can i will be donating, never done it before but you guys deserve it. Thank you and keep up the good work! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Oct 04 02:18 | ||||||||||
Hi Ricardo, In general I don't need subtitles but I had a lot of fun playing around with the option. By setting alignment to center/mid and choosing a larger fancy font and text and shadow colors, I could create nice looking credits to add at the end of a personal DV movie. Also testing language support was fun. Downloaded some subs in foreign languages and used the standard Arial font which supports a lot of them already. Nice to know you can make it useful. Cheers, Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Nov 18 18:38 | ||||||||||
| Hi Chris
Thanks for the new version. Using the new version and the latest ffmpeg from Tripp caused Avanti to crash when openinga video, also after i close it the process "avanti" is still running in the background. this is what happened: http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2060/avanti030xu6.jpg | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Nov 18 18:57 | ||||||||||
Hi Ricardo, What happens when you use Tripp's version SVN-r15625. I had some crash problems with 15815 but only when loading raw h264. I assumed it was the AMD Athlon problem again on which x264 suffered a while ago. I use 15815 since it's released under W2K and XP and didn't found other problems. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Nov 18 19:38 | ||||||||||
| I was opening a mp4 file(h264+aac). Do i replace the folder "ffpresets" by the one that is supplied with the latest ffmpeg(i did that)? Will try another versiom in the morning. Im using xp and a pentium 4. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Nov 18 19:57 | ||||||||||
I did some new tests with SVN-r15815 and found that also h264 in mp4 crashes on my system (Athlon). I think it's a 15815 decode problem cause the mp4 which I encoded with 15815 opens without any problems in 15625 and shows the right properties. I think reverting to 15625 will also for you solve the problem.
The "libx264-fastfirstpass.ffpreset" preset that is in the 0.3.0 package has a small modification. It is used in a example template. You can keep the extra FFmpeg presets there but I advice to copy "libx264-fastfirstpass.ffpreset" which is in the Avanti zip package back to the "ffpresets" folder. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Nov 19 03:57 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the tips Chris it works, i thought about using an older ffmpeg version but since its very rare for Avanti to give me an error i thought it could be my system but since yours shows the error aswell....
Just one more small question, since version 0.2.9 Avanti has problems previewing clips with its internal player, i can only see something if i right click on the window and selet maximize, 
i went to the program settings and switched the player to media player classic, any advice on how to reactivate the internal player? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Nov 19 05:06 | ||||||||||
At the "Preferences" at "Video player", remove the current path and type "Internal" (without double quotes). This will set it back to the Avanti player. Since you use XP, it's weird that you can't get normal display with the internal player. The window should open at small size and you can drag to resize it or double click for fullscreen. Can you give some more details. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Nov 19 10:27 | ||||||||||
| The messed up preview happened when i was previewing some subs, the internal player works but only by selecting "maximize" on the task bar, i cant resize it. works fine with MPC | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Nov 19 16:13 | ||||||||||
Think I found what happens and something to fix it for now. It's caused when you minimize the preview window and then close it. Solution for now is... 1. Play a movie 2. Maximize the window from the taskbar. 3. Then "double click" once or twice on it untill a border appears around the window. 4. Drag the bottom border line up to resize the window to a smaller size. 5. Close the window the normal way (not minimized or maximized). EDIT: If you can't access the bottom border line because it's off screen, you can also drag down the top border line or try to move the window a bit up or down first. I'll try to make a few changes in the next version to prevent it. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2008 Nov 19 16:28 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris, it worked. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Dec 29 04:15 | ||||||||||
| Hi Chris,
this time I have a cropping/scale problem and am unable to solve it: I use an AvisynthScript
nothing stylish ;) and working fine, but when I enter the crop and scale values, I get the following error:
The Crop/Scale page looks like this: 
and I also entered these USER Video options:
Can you possibly tell me, what's wrong? I wondered a bit that 'dest' and 'Picture area' remain the same, my mistake probably... Just can't figure it out.. After cropping the size is indeed supposed to be 640x344. Thanks! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2008 Dec 29 10:01 | ||||||||||
Hi nbarzgar,
It's a FFmpeg issue with crop. It expects YV12 exclusively when cropping. If you use ConvertToYV12() at the end of your script it should be solved.
Picture area changes when you pad. It shows the resulting picture size excluding the padding bars. Chris. | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2008 Dec 30 03:14 | ||||||||||
| Great!
Thank you for replying so fast, that did it! :D | ||||||||||
| Massa posted 2009 Jan 04 17:28 | ||||||||||
| On the AVANTI main page, what should I plance at the VBR when converting MPeg into MPEg (re-encoding).
Should I set values for both bit rate and VBR or is one or the other? I want to get a VBR file, similar to what I get when I use Quenc. thanks | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jan 04 22:19 | ||||||||||
In the chm help at "basic overview" are three pictures that show the basic settings for "1-pass constant bitrate", "1-pass fixed quantizer scale (vbr)" and "1/2-pass vbr". Take a look at these and also at the mpeg2 template examples with these settings that you can tweak a bit to fit your needs. If they are meant for ES you can simply set them to PS. I don't think you can copy the exact settings of Quenc cause it's not based on FFmpeg. Perhaps it uses libavcodec in some way but I can't get details on it, only download links. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Feb 04 16:53 | ||||||||||
| Hi Chris!
Im having a small problem with the latest version, worked fine for a few days but now when i open it it the GUI doesnt show up but the process is running in teh background, i deleted the ini and started it again but same thing happens again. I havent got that problem with version 0.31. Any advice? Thanks | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 04 19:59 | ||||||||||
| Hi Ricardo,
I wouldn't call it a "small" problem. :wink: I have the same problem when running Avanti from a third party shell (Total Commander) and at the same time have certain other programs open like e.g. Outlook Express. I can't find what it is yet but it never happens when I run Avanti from a desktop shortcut or from the the standard Windows shell (Explorer). Can you try this and report if it helps. Perhaps this can lead to a solution. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Feb 15 17:25 | ||||||||||
| Sorry Chris ive only had the time to test it fully today, i've put the shortcut in several locations and it worked fine this time.
Thanks for the new version | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 15 18:48 | ||||||||||
Hi Ricardo,
It happened only under certain conditions which are hard to trace but I have made some changes in the new version. I'm now back running it from "Total Commander" and it didn't show up so far. Thanks for checking and reporting, Chris. | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 17 11:39 | ||||||||||
| One important feature I haven't been able to find in a good FFmpeg GUI, that might be a great addition to Avanti, is the ability to set the process priority of FFmpeg so it can be controlled to not interfere so much with multitasking of other applications. One way to do this is to initiate FFmpeg with the "start" command, which has options to set the spawned process priority (/belownormal or /low). | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 17 13:04 | ||||||||||
I run FFmpeg with the WinAPI call "CreateProcess()". This has priority options but only these; HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS, IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS so only "normal" and "idle" would be applicable. If this would help, I can add it to the user preferences. | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 17 13:17 | ||||||||||
Thanks! IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS would be fine for me, but you should also be able to set BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS -- see GetPriorityClass constants. However, I've heard that call might not work properly for a console application like FFmpeg, so I suggest you first hack a quick test to see what happens. (Sysinternals Process Explorer can be used to inspect process priorities.) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 17 13:38 | ||||||||||
I found "BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS" in the header files. My WinAPI docs are a bit out dated. I've compiled a new dll with it and checked it in the task manager when FFmpeg runs called by Avanti. This shows "below normal" so it look like it works :) I can add "normal", "below normal" and "idle" to the user preferences. | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 17 13:45 | ||||||||||
EXCELLENT -- thanks! :) You might want to also add "above normal" -- I've seen requests for that in other applications (from those looking for maximum app performance). | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 17 14:08 | ||||||||||
I'll do that! Note that I can see the changed priority but if it really has effect is up to the Windows OS. I have a question about threads that you perhaps can answer. Avanti can insert the "-threads x" command automatically if you set it higher than 1 at the preferences. I later found that "-threads 0" (or auto?) is a valid setting which seems to mean "use as many as you can get". Currently zero is not a option at the preferences. Do you think it would be useful to add this? | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 17 14:14 | ||||||||||
Yes! "threads 0" means use the optimal number of threads automatically. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Feb 19 12:25 | ||||||||||
| I was hoping someone here could help. I normally use pyTivo to send video files over to my TiVo HD. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with subtitles. Since pyTivo uses FFmpeg to recode to mpeg2 (the only video format TiVo HD supports), I looked for a frontend for it that might let me recode these files with the subtitles burned into the video image before moving it over to the TiVo HD.
I've installed Avanti 0.3.3. I've installed Avisynth 2.5.8. I'm using a special build of FFmpeg that comes with pyTivo, but I've also tried using the suggested FFmpeg build over at http://tripp.arrozcru.org/ with the same results. I installed VSFilter.dll into Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins from VSFilter_20081129.zip. Also, I use Vista Codec Pack. I am using the following settings in Avanti: Audio: Codec: Copy Audio Video: Codec: mpeg2 / default Frame Size, Frame Rate, Aspect Ratio: Source Bitrate: 16384 Max rate: 30000 VBV buffer size: 4096 User VIDEO options: -threads 2 Avanti actually works great without subtitles! No problems during video conversion. Unfortunately, when I try to enable subtitles, it just kind of hangs there. Then it tells me "Process is still in progress. Please wait!" Then it show "WARNING - FFmpeg shows no encode progression (Cancel process or terminate with chosen "hotkey")." If I try to cancel, I have to open Task Manager and manually stop ffmp_avanti.exe. The subtitles are a simple SRT file, so nothing fancy there. I've tried removing -threads 2, but it does the same thing. I've also tried: User VIDEO options: -threads 2 -copyts Now I don't get the warning messages, but the bitrate dips to nearly zero during encode and the output file isn't playable, it just shows a black screen with no progress. I can't figure out why it's doing this. I assume I'm doing something wrong. Can anyone help? | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 19 12:38 | ||||||||||
Create and test an AviSynth script that adds your subtitles. Then use that script as a video source. Verify by playing it before converting it. The command in the AviSynth script will be something like:
Hope that helps, John | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Feb 19 13:24 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the help, John!
The movie plays with subtitles almost centered on the screen if I open the .avs file in Media Player Classic or TheKMPlayer. I loaded the same .avs file as the source in Avanti and then disable subtitles, but it hangs the same way it did before. I didn't know you could play .avs files. If I go to Video Decoder Configuration shortcut in Vista Codec Pack, it opens the "ffdshow video decoder configuration" settings screen. I can turn subtitles on there. I tried this before in Avanti and I didn't get subtitles. If I edit my .avs files so that it reads only: DirectShowSource ("D:\TiVo\movie.mkv") and then play the .avs file in Media Player Classic, I get subtitles! Previous to owning my new TiVo HD, I would convert MKV files to WMV to watch on my Xbox 360. If I want to convert a movie with subtitles, I would enable subtitles in "ffdshow video decoder configuration" and load the above .avs file into Nic's WMEnc and the resulting WMV would have subtitles burned onto the image. I don't think the quality of WMV is as good, though, even at the 10mbps max bitrate that the Xbox 360 supports. I see background blurriness and banding artifacts even at that high bitrate that I don't see with videos converted to mpeg2 with FFmpeg. I would love to be able to get subtitles to work, though, and Avanti seems like the tool to do it, but I'm just not having any luck... So you have any other ideas, John? Thanks again for the help! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 19 17:31 | ||||||||||
| Hi Kevin,
You cannot use copy for the audio. The subtitle option uses a Avisynth script that delivers raw video and audio. You can use copy on "audio only" and encode the video to a elementary stream (ES). But then you have to remux it afterwards. Did you try the subtitle "preview" (which plays the script) and did that work as to be expected? For me it did. I've tried a comparable setup with a 1440x1080 m2ts source and had the same problem. I also had to set the frame rate instead of using "Source" cause the source frame rate was mis-interpreted by FFmpeg. Finally when I tried the Avanti console mode <Ctrl><S>, I could see it took about 3 seconds for one single frame to process and FFmpeg reported fps=0. Bitrate also started at 0 but after a while it reached the actual bit rate setting. When I use a 720x576 source and let FFmpeg upscale it to 1440x1080 with the subtitle option enabled, it does fine with a speed of 17 fps. EDIT: If you set a hotkey at the "preferences", you don't have to go to the task manager when FFmpeg hangs or is extremely slow. The chosen key is only "hot" when Avanti runs and is disabled when you exit. Chris. | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 19 21:59 | ||||||||||
Subtitles should be near the bottom of the frame. Do any frame manipulation before adding subtitles. John | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Feb 19 22:22 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the help, Chris! The audio was definitely the problem! I just tried again with the Audio Enabled box unchecked. The subtitles are now burned onto the video!
Most of the MKV files I'd want to convert have 5.1 AC3 sound. Unfortunately, the TiVo HD won't play back audio with a bitrate higher than 448kbps. Avanti's drop-down audio boxes don't appear to support 5.1 channels or 448 as a bitrate. So I tried just typing those numbers in and everything seemed to work. Well, 5.1 didn't work, but 6 did. But when I play the converted video, the center channel and the right channel are swapped! At one point, this was a problem with pyTivo, as well, but the channel swapping was fixed with a special build of FFmpeg.exe. I tried using this special build, as well as the build over at http://tripp.arrozcru.org/ but they both swapped those two channels. I'm so close! Does anyone have an idea how to get the audio to pass through to the correct channels? I'm thinking that maybe the best idea is to transcode the video with Avanti with no audio. Then I could extract the AC3 from the MKV, recode it to 448kbps and then mux it into the video-only MPG. I hate the extra steps, though. I could use BeSweet to recode the AC3 audio, but how would I mux it back into the MPG file? There must be a freeware program to do this... I really appreciate the help so far and I hope someone has an idea how to fix this! | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 19 22:25 | ||||||||||
Suggest you manipulate the audio in the AviSynth script. That's what I do to convert various crazy multichannel formats into simple stereo. John | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Feb 19 22:29 | ||||||||||
| That's a good idea, John! Could you point me to a page that would explain how to do this? | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 19 22:35 | ||||||||||
Start here: http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page Specifically for audio: http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Internal_filters#Audio_processing_filters And especially: http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/GetChannel ~John | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 20 06:09 | ||||||||||
You can type 448 (or whatever) into the audio bitrate field and then press "Enter". It then will be added at the end of the list. You can also do that with most other settings. The additions you do yourself this way are saved. FFmpeg isn't able to handle multi-channel sources. You can disable "video" and copy (demux) the audio to a separate stream. Then FFmpeg leaves the channels untouched. You then can load the "mux" template and remux the demuxed audio and re-encoded video back into a mpg container. The "mux video" setting in Avanti adds a -fflags genpts and -f vob command to the command line which is required for mpeg2 muxing. The "copy video" setting doesn't do this automatically. EDIT: To do proper muxing, you must re-encode your video to a elementary stream (m2v) not mpg. | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 20 09:09 | ||||||||||
That's a lot of work and hassle. :( What's your objection to simply selecting the desired channels in AviSynth (as I've suggested)? :?: ~John | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 20 10:39 | ||||||||||
Yes you're right! I was working on a better solution with Avanti according to your suggestions. Here it is... 1. Make your video settings including the subtitle option. 2. make your audio settings (probably ac3, bitrate 448, 2 channels for Kevin). 3. Set the Avisynth mode to USER and go to the editor. 4. Copy the Avanti AUTO script to the editor (choose with variables). 5. Add the Avisynth audio mapping to the script (test it with preview). 6. Disable the subtitle option at the subtitle page. 7. Go to the main page and start process. 8. (optional) save the setup in a template for later reference. The script including additions would look like: V=DirectShowSource("@source1_path") A=V V=TextSub(V, "path to your subtitle", 0 ) A=GetChannel(A, 1, 3) # gets front left and right ac3 channels. V=AudioDub(V,A) @preview V=ConvertToRGB(V) V # output Note that Avanti uses the A and V variables where the Avisynth examples use Audio and Video. Also note that... V=TextSub(V, "path to your subtitle", 0 ) in the next Avanti version can be given as... V=TextSub(V, "@subtitle_path", 0 ) which will refer to the path at the subtitle page. This will make the script "template proof". | ||||||||||
| JNavas posted 2009 Feb 20 10:47 | ||||||||||
Good. :) FYI, Avanti requirements aside, AudioDub is not necessary (likewise variables) -- just GetChannel; i.e.,
John | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 20 11:40 | ||||||||||
Yes, there still can be a lot of typing saved :) My example then would become... 4. Copy the Avanti AUTO script to the editor (choose without variables).
Thanks, Chris. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Feb 21 08:30 | ||||||||||
| Hey, Chris and John.
I was finally able to get my video converted with burned in subs, maintaining the proper 5.1 sound. In case you're curious how I did it, here's the method I used: 1. Used MKVExtractGUI to extract the AC3 sound and SRT subtitles. [7m] 2. Used Avanti to convert the video to mpeg2 M2V with burned in subtitles. [62m] 3. Because the TiVo HD can only handle AC3 sound up to 448kbps, I used BeSweet to transcode the 640kbps 5.1 AC3 sound to 448kbps 5.1 AC3 sound. [15m] 4. Finally, I used Avanti's mux template to join the M2V and AC3 files into an MPG container. [6m] I ran steps two and three at the same time, so it took about an hour and fifteen minutes to convert a two-hour MKV with soft subs to an MPG with hard subs for playback on my TiVo HD. Not bad! Thanks again for the help guys, I never would have figured out the more subtle features of Avati without it! It really is a useful bit of programming! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Feb 21 09:27 | ||||||||||
Nice workflow to retain all 5.1 channels and fast indeed. Would take me at least 4-5 hours on my old single core Athlon. :( Cheers, Chris. | ||||||||||
| ohboy888 posted 2009 Mar 03 02:32 | ||||||||||
| Suggestions:
* If user clear the checkbox "Enable" in audio & video settings group, the fields inside group should be disabled(grayed) and vice versa. * Almost same as above, If user choose choose "Copy Audio/Video" from combobox "Codec", the some fields should be disabled. If you don't understand what I mean, you can look at SUPER by checking "Stream Copy" and "Disable Audio/Video". * Add hint tooltips. * Add support for MEncoder. In "Audio Settings" group, why there is no value "Source" in the combobox "Bitrate", "Sample Frequency", and "Channels"? KUTGW (Keep up the good work). | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 03 08:12 | ||||||||||
| Hi ohboy888,
Thanks for your suggestions.
I would do that if there wasn't a restriction in the language interpreter Avanti runs on. Gray-out works for textin fields but not for combo boxes. They only lock when disabled. Perhaps I'll find another way to indicate the whole section is disabled. I'll think about it.
I have chosen for context sensitive help which allows me to give much more info on the subject. Put the cursor at the field you want details on and press <F1>. The sub-pages and all other windows that are open like preferences, framesize calculator, mpeg/avi tools, audio/video preview etc. also have context links to the chm help under <F1>.
Perhaps a separate MEncoder Avanti in the (far) future. Avanti controls FFmpeg more then most other guis and the difference in command line syntax and console feedback between FFmpeg and MEncoder makes it hard to combine this in one gui.
Setting "Soure" at the video settings actually omits the related commands so FFmpeg decides. For audio bitrate, FFmpeg always uses a default of 64 kbit/sec which is not what you expect when you set it to "Source" (tried it on mp3, ac3 and aac). Audio sample frequency and channels would work but it would give a FFmpeg error when your source is ac3/aac 5.1 and you set the audio codec e.g. to mp2/mp3 which only support two channels. I can add it but it would have limited use. Chris. | ||||||||||
| ohboy888 posted 2009 Mar 03 13:04 | ||||||||||
Hmm, I never heard about Gui4Cli before, I thought you made avanti in C/C++. KUTGW. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 03 13:58 | ||||||||||
The two included dll's which do the background stuff are wriiten (by me) in C and C++. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 13 09:22 | ||||||||||
| Hey, I just wanted to mention that the method I posted above to convert MKV to MPG with burned-in subs does have one small annoying problem. And it's a deal breaker. By the end of the encode, the audio goes out of sync by about a second. I have no idea why this is. I understand that with modern encoders, the framerate is actually slightly variable. I believe that FFMPEG is the culprit here and not BeSweet, but I can't be sure. Although the quality is a bit lower, I've gone back to using Nic's WMEnc w/Avisynth to convert movies with subs to WMV. I'll just have to go back to watching subtitled movies on my Xbox 360, instead of my TiVo HD. I've spent a lot of time on this and I just can't get it to work. No matter what I do, I either end up with audio that runs out of sync or has its channels swapped.
Thanks again for the help, guys! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 13 11:38 | ||||||||||
About step 4 of your workflow (muxing). Did you load the mux template for it? There is a difference in setting "Copy Video" and "Mux Video" in that Avanti will add a -fflags genpts command at the start of the command line. This is essential for keeping audio in sync. About the swapping of ac3 channnels. I tested this after you mentioned it in your earlier post. I took a clip with ac3 5.1 and converted to ac3 (6 channels) with a lower bitrate. Then I extracted both original and converted streams to 6 separate wave files. Then I loaded the source and converted wave files "channel by channel" in Audacity to compare them both audibly and visibly, and I saw no difference. I have no surround system to check it out so perhaps I overlook something. EDIT: After "extensive research" :lol:, I found that it's not the FFmpeg ac3 codec that swaps the center and right channel but the FFmpeg/Avisynth interface. IMO you don't need Avisynth to do your conversions. Set codec to ac3 and bitrate to 448 and let FFmpeg do the bitrate conversion. I used this script in the Avanti/Avisynth user mode to check things out;
It also appears that the FFmpeg/Avisynth interface lowers the volume. For that reason I used -vol 512 on the audio command line of which I assume it increases volume with about +6dB (256 = 0dB). | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 16 10:14 | ||||||||||
| That makes sense, Chris K. What I've discovered is that the audio channels stay mapped correctly if you do the audio separately. As soon as you try to convert audio and video together, the channels go screwy. It's weird that Avisynth causes problems with FFmpeg because the channels are fine if I use Avisynth to convert the same files to WMV with Nic's WMEnc...
Good news, though. I've solved the problem with the audio slowly going slightly out of sync. Believe it or not, the problem was converting the video to M2V format instead of direct to MPG! I can't tell you how much time I've spent trying to solve this problem, so I just kept trying different things. I understand that the "correct" way to mux video and audio into an MPG container is to start with M2V video and AC3 audio, but this was causing the audio drift problem. So I tried converting the video direct to MPG without audio and then using the MUX template (which I was using before) to put the transcoded AC3 and MPG together. I'm still using BeSweet to convert the 5.1 AC3 audio from 640kbps to 448kbps because it uses AZID to normalize the audio level first before it transcodes it. I tried using Avanti to convert just the AC3 audio and it seems to work fine. So here's the slightly revised workflow: 1. Used MKVExtractGUI to extract the AC3 sound and SRT subtitles. 2. Used Avanti to convert the video to mpeg2 MPG with burned in subtitles. 3. Because the TiVo HD can only handle AC3 sound up to 448kbps, I used BeSweet to transcode the 640kbps 5.1 AC3 sound to 448kbps 5.1 AC3 sound. 4. Finally, I used Avanti's MUX template to join the MPG and AC3 files into an MPG container. The audio stays perfectly synced this way and plays just fine on the TiVo HD! If you're curious to check out BeSweet, it's pretty simple to use. Here's a sample command line that I use to convert an AC3 file to 448kbps and normalize it so that it peaks at 0db, this way you're not taking any chances with possibly creating a clipped audio file:
Thanks again for all the help! | ||||||||||
| themaster1 posted 2009 Mar 16 13:17 | ||||||||||
video enhancer The best to me no doubt but the downside is it give to me a non standard frame rate for a given vid. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 16 13:47 | ||||||||||
It's not Avisynth but the build-in FFmpeg interface for Avisynth. I suppose WMEnc has its own interface.
Yeah! FFmpeg is known for problematic muxing. I should have mentioned that some versions fail "without" the -fflags genpts command while others fail "with" it.
I know BeSweet. It's just fine for this kind of conversions. I only prefer Avisynth when it comes to framerate conversions because it can do pitch correction. Musicians hate the pitch change of speed up/down audio tracks. Aside from the normalize BeSweet does, it still would be nice to do it all in one go with Avanti and I tested the following setup with success. 1. Select the Avisynth AUTO mode. 2. Do the video and subtitle setup (same like you already do to mpg). 3. Set audio to ac3, 448 kbps, 6 channels. 4. Load the source clip on both "Source 1" and "Source 2". 5. Set the "TS offset" field to 0.0001 (a trick to fool Avanti a bit). 6. Press the "Start Process" button. Now when you look at the graph on the log window you'll see that Avanti inserted Avisynth between "Source 1" and FFmpeg to do the subtitling but sends the audio taken from "Source 2" directly to FFmpeg (so no channel swapping). If the audio needs some amplification, click on the [ User VIDEO option > ] button to call up the "Audio" command line. You there can add the "-vol xxx" command (values somewhere between 500-1500). This is not the same as normalize so you have to take care not to clip the audio with too high values. Avisynth can also normalize audio but then we're back at the same swapping problem. Currently Avanti only allows to load the same file on "Source 1" and "Source 2" when the "TS offset" option is activated and the 0.0001 setting suggests it is, while the value practically has no effect. Note that with this setup, Avanti expects the video in your source file at stream 0 and the audio at stream 1. If your source file contains more streams, you may need to add some user mapping to the command line. You can check this by calling up the "Source properties" on the main menu. If the BeSweet normalize isn't a big deal, you could give this setup a try. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 16 19:31 | ||||||||||
| Chris K, you're the man.
Your "TS offset" trick to get Avanti to feed the audio directly to FFmpeg while the video is routed through Avisynth first is genius. Plus, it even works! What's nice about this method versus mine, aside from less steps and being much easier, is that this also works with MKV files that have DTS instead of AC3 audio. Totally excellent! Honestly, the benefits of normalizing the audio are so slight that they're not even worth the extra steps/effort. I mean, heck, I can just turn my receiver up... That's a good tip about stream 0 and stream 1. I have seen an MKV file before where the audio was the first stream, so it can happen. MKVMerge GUI is a good tool to rearrange and/or remove streams in an MKV container. I really appreciate the time you've put into helping me out here and I plan to use this information to post a tutorial over at the pyTivo forums! Thanks again! | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 16 20:10 | ||||||||||
| I meant to mention in my last post that I got thirteen of the following error messages using your new method during the encode. The new file seems to play back fine.
[vob @ 06FB2010]buffer underflow i=1 bufi=1639 size=1792 Is this important? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 16 21:20 | ||||||||||
Yes, it is important. It could cause some chopping when played on the Tivo. I think you need to increase the VBV buffer size somewhat untill these messages don't show up anymore. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 17 07:54 | ||||||||||
| Currently, I keep the VBV buffer size at 4096. Is there any disadvantage to going overboard here, like, say, 16384? Are there negative side effects to having the VBV buffer size too high? Is there such a thing as too high with VBV buffer? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 17 08:39 | ||||||||||
Yes, you can set it too high. I see in your first post these settings; Bitrate: 16384 Max rate: 30000 VBV buffer size: 4096 Did you get these settings from somewhere (Tivo perhaps)?. I have no experience with HD but for DVD players there are specs that say how much the firmware has to reserve for the VBV buffer (1835 kbit, I believe). If the given buffer size exceeds this, you'll get playback problems or the player will give an error. I think it's better to keep the buffer size "as is" and to lower the "Max rate" a bit. It should also work and it's probably more safe where it concerns the Tivo VBV buffer size requirements. EDIT: I found this at a doom9 forum thread... "HDTV in the US is limited to an overall bitrate (audio and video) to 20000 kbps, so I would suggest a maximum video bitrate of 20000 - (audio bitrate)." http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-121998.html http://forum.videohelp.com/topic356432.html I don't think you need to lower "Max rate" that much because the Tivo seems to be quite tolerant. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Mar 17 22:39 | ||||||||||
| 30000kbps is the max bitrate that the TiVo HD can handle. I went with 16384 as a bitrate only because that's the default setting with pyTivo. Although, as I'm sure you know, bitrate with FFmpeg is more of a suggestion than anything else. Most movies I convert seem to end up anywhere from 5000-12000kbps. FFmpeg seems to do a pretty good job on its own deciding how much data it should devote. One time, as a test, I had a movie that encoded with an average of 5500kbps. That was with the bitrate set to 8500. I tried two more encodes, one at 16384 and one at 30000. As I suspected, the resulting average bitrate/file size was nearly identical on all three encodes. That's when I realized that FFmpeg is gonna do what's it's gonna do, just as long as you don't limit it with too low a bitrate setting. That's why I'm not so sure that the new bitrate calculator in Avanti is terribly useful, unless FFmpeg's bitrate control acts differently with MPEG4 or the other formats it can encode with.
This is what the pyTivo guys have to say about -bufsize (default is 4096k):
I've just tested some encodes with the buffer at 2048, but I end up with weird jerky artifacts. Not jerky in the motion, but kind of a jerky compression grain in the background images. But at 2048, I don't get any buffer underflow errors. If I go back to 4096, the annoying jerkiness goes away, but it can throw a few buffer underflow errors. I tried 8192 and I got lots of buffer underflow errors. What I've done is noted at what point these errors occur and then checked these spots after the encode is complete, but there don't seem to be any actual problems with playback on my PC or the TiVo HD. In the end, I don't like seeing these errors and I don't doubt that there are errors, but fortunately these errors don't seem to translate to actual playback problems.. I can't come up with a VBV buffer adjustment that doesn't either lower the quality of the image (2048) or cause a lot more buffer underflow errors (8192), so I guess I'll follow your advice and leave it where it is (4096) and call it a day. Again, I appreciate your assistance and certainly enjoy the ongoing dialogue! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Mar 18 01:49 | ||||||||||
If the thirteen underflows were over a full length movie you can call it marginal. What happens when one occurs is that FFmpeg shortly needs to use a very high bitrate to keep up the desired quality. This then seems to be in conflict with the combination of the "VBV buffersize" and "maxrate" setting. Also note that it is source dependent. Some sources (e.g. with grain) need more bitrate then others.
There's already a message on it that says results are only reliable with CBR encoding. For a xvid with the standard settings it's quite accurate. You can not calculate VBR with the standard formulas because bitrate entirely depends on the source contents.
Since the underflows are partly also source dependent, playing around a bit with the "maxrate" should allow you to avoid them without introducing other playback problems.
Normally Avanti support must be limited to the usage of the program. Actually tweaking encoder settings of all the by FFmpeg supported codecs is not my speciality (there are just to many of them). The channel swapping was interesting to figure out and mpeg2 enconding is my main use of FFmpeg. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 19 03:48 | ||||||||||
| Latest FFmpeg builds seems to revert the syntax change -b to -vb for video bitrate.
Because it's still in the docs and Avanti can only check it there, it now assumes the version supports -vb which it doesn't. Result; when using the latest FFmpeg builds with Avanti, FFmpeg will throw an error but continues.
I'm trying to keep Avanti compatible with FFmpeg syntax changes but didn't foresee that the change -b to -vb which seems quite logical to me considering that audio bitrate for a long time already is expressed by the -ab command, would be reverted. For now you can still use new builds if you change a stored setting in the "AVANTI.ini" file. You can edit the file in e.g. notepad or wordpad. At the group [SYSTEM] settings, change ffmp_b=-vb back to ffmp_b=-b EDIT:
Just as happened with AMR audio a while ago, libfaac is no longer included in the latest FFmpeg builds because of a license issue. Chris K | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 May 25 09:19 | ||||||||||
| Hello,
How can I change/configure properties for "XviD (Lib)" codec in AVANTI :?: The entry in the "Bitrate" boxes seem to have no effect while encoding using "XviD (Lib)" codec. The video is always encoded at 800-850 kbps bitrate, no matter what is entered in the bitrate boxes, regardless of the type of video being encoded :? The bitrate boxes only matter during MPEG1/MPEG2 conversions, as observed. Is it possible to link the actual "Xvid" encoder properties dialog (with Profile Level, Encoding Type etc.) with AVANTI :idea: BTW, while using the "XviD" (NOT "XviD (Lib)") encoder, AVANTI always says "Unknown encoder 'xvid'" as error message and encoding does not occur. Latest Xvid is installed and is otherwise working fine. Please help as soon as possible ... ... many thanks :| | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 25 13:26 | ||||||||||
What FFmpeg version do you use? I tested with today's autobuild SVN-r18938 and that works fine. http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.com/autobuilds (download the static build). Read my previous post about the "Unknown option 'vb'" error message. It's a temporary bug in the current FFmpeg builds which is already reported and can be ignored. It has no effect on the encode results.
FFmpeg uses its own build-in XviD encoder. There is no dedicated xvid dialog, it all must (and can) be done with the bitrate settings on the right of the GUI. You don't need to have a separate XviD encoder installed.
XviD without lib is only on the list to be compatible with (very) old FFmpeg versions. For any recent version, you need to use Xvid (Lib).
As said, FFmpeg uses it's own encoder but it will do no harm if you keep it installed. | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 May 26 07:15 | ||||||||||
| Hello Chris K,
Thank you for your prompt and helpful response. To further clarify my situation, please take a look at some screenshots. To answer your query regarding the FFmpeg build I use, here is a screenshot-1 : http://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38296_Screenshot_1_122_82lo.jpg of the FFmpeg version as detected by AVANTI during startup Does the loaded template, "PAL_DIVX_2_PASS_HQ" have anything to do with the problem ? What exactly does the template do ? Other relevant details during file encoding (like bitrate, actual encoding bitrate etc.) are indicated in this screenshot-2 : http://img7.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38510_Screenshot_2_122_827lo.jpg One simple question: To encode at constant bitrate using AVANTI, one has to enter the same bitrate in all the fields - Bitrate (kbit/s), Min rate & Max rate. Is it correct ? If so, then the encoding bitrate should be 1200 kbit/s as seen from the screenshot-2, but it clearly isn't (see actual encoding status bar in screenshot-2). For AVANTI status report after encoding, click below : http://img264.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38607_Screenshot_3_122_105lo.jpg [screenshot-3]. For bitrate and other properties of the encoded file click below : http://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38642_Screenshot_4_122_556lo.jpg [screenshot-4]. According to your suggestion : ------------------------------------------ I downloaded and used the FFmpeg static build from the link: http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.com/autobuilds/ FFmpeg version detected at startup http://img180.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38696_Screenshot_5_122_1192lo.jpg [screenshot-5]. But the same problem persists when encoding with the above version of FFmpeg. Find the relevant screenshot here : http://img167.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38739_Screenshot_6_122_955lo.jpg [screenshot-6]. For AVANTI status report after encoding, click below : http://img165.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38790_Screenshot_7_122_806lo.jpg [[screenshot-7] For bitrate and other properties of the encoded file click below : http://img165.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=38790_Screenshot_7_122_806lo.jpg [screenshot-8]. Notice that the file has exact bitrate properties as the file encoded with the original version of FFmpeg [compare screenshots 4 & 8]. Is it then an FFmpeg issue ? Is there any way to solve it ? Any thoughts guys ?? ... ... thanks in advance. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 26 12:01 | ||||||||||
| I'm afraid you (and me) are dealing with the FFmpeg limitations where it concerns the XviD encoder.
Although it uses the same source code of the separate XviD, it's a much stripped down version. I copied the exact settings from your screenshots and did a number of tests. Even when I set bitrate to 1700 kbps, i'll get this result;
This means that with the XviD encoder FFmpeg simply goes its own way, actually saying "I don't need more bitrate for the given source". You will get closer to the requested bitrate if you e.g. encode to a larger frame size or with a grainy source. You can see this FFmpeg behaviour more clearly when you do 2-pass mpeg2 encoding with a high bitrate. Then at the start of the second pass FFmpeg may display;
It is, but mainly for the codecs included in libavcodec, i.e. mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4. XviD is a additional FFmpeg library like e.g. also x264 and these have often their own additional or alternative commands. For x264 there are a lot but for XviD hardly any. Bitrate will always be applicable but "min rate" and "max rate" may or may not depending on the chosen codec.
Basically A template loads predefined settings at the "Destination Audio/Video settings" and command line additions. It doesn't do anything invisible in the background. As at your screenshots, you did your own settings which are used regardless of the last template you loaded. If you right-click on the [User VIDEO options >] button you can call up the command line to check. I'm afraid, simply setting a high enough bitrate and let FFmpeg decide is the only way you can use the XviD encoder. 2-pass can give improvement but with a constant q of 2.0, this will hardly have any effect. | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 May 26 17:16 | ||||||||||
| Hi, Chris K,
Thanks a lot for shining some much needed light on my queries. :) Your comments were very helpful and are much appreciated. Since it is an FFmpeg limitation, nothing can be done about it, I guess. :( Pity, since AVANTI is an otherwise excellent and easy-to-use FREE A/V converter, muxer, demuxer and so much more, especially with the well laid-out GUI. (happened to notice that you yourself are a GUI developer. Kudos on a great job if you had anything (or everything) to do with the AVANTI GUI). A simple tool that actually works very well (most of the time), much better than other similar utilities that claim a bunch but deliver little. :-x Perhaps in future releases, shortcomings and limitations such as the one realized here can be ironed out (although it is an FFmpeg issue). It would have been perfect to be able to link the actual "Xvid" encoder properties to AVANTI, since the codec is very popular and is available for free. :idea: :idea: | ||||||||||
| freebird73717 posted 2009 May 26 18:06 | ||||||||||
Yep Chris is the sole developer of Avanti and has done a bangup job working on it and offering support. | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 May 27 06:54 | ||||||||||
| Just as I thought ... ... :!:
Excellent job Chris K and many thanks for all your topic support. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 27 15:37 | ||||||||||
Don't forget to mention the guy that does a excellent job on the HCbatchGUI (and supporting tools) :wink: Boy, what a impressive list of additions and improvements with the latest release.
You're welcome :!: I may not have the answer to all questions but always feel free to give it a try :) | ||||||||||
| ben123 posted 2009 May 27 17:58 | ||||||||||
| Thank you very much for such a fantastic program. I have used some other ones in the past and I often got crashs and got fed up with it until I started looking for a new one and I found this.
I just had a small suggestion for enhancement. Once thing I would like to have is that if there was a way that I could minimise the application to system tray. If both the main window and the job manager could minimise to a single icon in system tray, and if I need to get info, I could hover my mouse over the icon to tell me how many jobs have been completed or basically the status report it would be great. Or evern if the job manager could be incorporated into the main window, but that would be too much change. Once again thank you for this brilliant program. Cheers, Ben. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 28 02:43 | ||||||||||
Seems a good suggestion to me. I have to take a look at what the used script language offers to realize this. Some sub windows are already child window of the main gui and thereby automatically minimize to a single icon. The job manager currently isn't. Problem is that this single icon is the main gui and if you click on it, both windows will show up again. Currently (with separate icons) you can select them to show up individually. Perhaps other users prefer this, but I could try to make it optional. When I hover over my LAN icon it shows some brief statistics like speed, send/received bytes. I'll see if I can do this to display some of the job statistics.
Indeed would be a too big change, at least to realize it on short term. I'll let you know as soon as I have some more insight at the possibilities. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 29 10:40 | ||||||||||
| @ben123
I can't use a single icon at the system tray because this only allows to display fixed text but I think I found something that comes close to your suggestion. You can minimize the open main and job manager windows to a single taskbar button that permanently shows the current job in progress and error/finish messages. The icon on that button will change according to the displayed messages (same icons as on the job list). 
I will add it to the next version (0.3.7) which will also contain a earlier request to make the path to the FFmpeg executable user selectable. | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 May 31 11:34 | ||||||||||
| Hi,
I have a quick question. Please take a look at the following screenshot : http://img15.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=87802_1_122_912lo.jpg Can anyone please tell me what the icons marked in the screenshot do :?: Thank you ... | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 May 31 13:54 | ||||||||||
They are all three related to the usage of Avisynth. The one left of the [User VIDEO options >] button lights up (yellow) when Avisynth is use for pre-processing or when you run a Avisynth script from the build in editor. The two on the right of the source paths are switches that are used to set the Avisynth routing. Most of the time they are set automatically but when you use separate audio/video sources, you have to set them manually. It's all in the manual (Avanti-help.chm). Read the sections about Avisynth. | ||||||||||
| The Black posted 2009 Jun 01 00:38 | ||||||||||
| Thank you again, Chris K.
I read the "AviSynth" section in "AVANTI" help manual. It answered the query. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Jun 06 19:52 | ||||||||||
| Hey, Chris. Quick question. There's a weekly show that I like (ESPN's MMA Live) that gets released in HD on YouTube every week. Because of length, they release it in four parts. Is there any way to have Avanti join those four FLV files before conversion or convert the four FLV files one after the other into one MPG file?
Thanks! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 07 01:57 | ||||||||||
| Hi Kevin,
If there is a DirectShow decoder available that plays the flv's in WMP, you could use the Avisynth USER mode with a small script. 1. Enable the Avisynth USER mode. 2. Enter this at the Avisynth editor; SegmentedDirectShowSource("@source1_path") @preview ConvertToRGB() else ConvertToYV12() 3. rename the segments to something like; part.01.flv part.02.flv part.03.flv part.04.flv 4. load the first part at "Source1" 5. use your usual mpeg settings and process. As soon as FFmpeg runs, the "Input #0" data at the log window will show the total duration of the four segments. For renaming you can use any name but the dot/two digit number/dot syntax is essential for Avisynth to work. And all segments must be at the same directory. I use this regularly for segmented AVI's captured with vdub (these are already named properly by vdub) and to join a number of vob's on the fly (then need to rename them like above). Chris. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Jun 07 13:01 | ||||||||||
Thanks for the reply, Chris. Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck. When I try the FLV files, the process fails:
I noticed using MediaInfo that the video stream was AVC and the audio stream is AAC. As these are 1280x720 files that I grabbed from YouTube with OrbitDownloader, I thought it possible that the container is actually something different than FLV. Dropping them into MKVMerge, I noticed that the first stream is audio and the second video, so I resaved all four segments with the video stream first in an MKV container. Avanti will now convert the first part, but it ignores the rest. I have the files named mma.01.mkv, mma.02.mkv, mma.03.mkv and mma.04.mkv and they are by themselves in a folder. Even if I drop a different part into Source 1, it still encodes only the first part. Here's the log from after I dropped in the third part (9m25s). The length of Input #0 matches the first part and the output file is just the first part.
Thanks again for the time! Any ideas? | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Jun 07 13:27 | ||||||||||
| Quick update, here. I just noticed that MKVMerge has an append feature. I was able to join the four MKV segments into one large MKV file this way. Avanti was able to convert this new MKV file fine.
Thanks again for a great piece of software! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 07 14:39 | ||||||||||
The problem isn't FFmpeg but Avisynth.
You can see that FFmpeg is fed with the Avisynth script but it show the duration of only one segment while it should report the full duration of all four segments. This means that Avisynth fails. It is normal Avisynth behaviour to always start off with the lowest found number even if the chosen soure number is higher. I remember that Avisynth fails on SegmentedDirectShowSource() when the segments are different encoded. At least are in a different format.
When you used the original flv's, what was the error message given by Avisynth? EDIT: You can use "Preview script" at the editor to check the script before encoding. It should play all segments. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Jun 07 14:55 | ||||||||||
| Whoops, I edited my post above while your reply was coming through! I ended up joining the four MKV segments with MKVMerge's append feature.
But to troubleshoot, when I load the FLV file and then hit the Preview Script button, I get the following error:
Video and audio both return "Couldn't open file: Unspecified Error." This could be a problem with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. I know you told me to just use ffdshow and HaaliSplitter, but this combo caused AVI2ISO to stop working and it was easier to just go back to the Mega Pack. :( Although it joins the segments fine, MKVMerge does throw the following Warning:
So although the files were all pulled from YouTube and are segments of the same episode, the "private data does not match." The details that MediaInfo displays shows the video and audio encoding information is the same... | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 07 15:24 | ||||||||||
| Removed.
Wow! A lot of cross- posting :lol: Is the final conversion still useabe (in sync etc.) :?: | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Jun 07 15:45 | ||||||||||
| Yeah, it plays fine and stays in sync! | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2009 Jun 20 01:09 | ||||||||||
| Hello Chris,
I'd like to re-encode the audio-part of an mkv-file (it's .ogg), 6 channels, into .ac3. The encoding works fine, but the message in the log says something like: "...no channel layout specified...." "...guessing..." So how (if possible) could I do that? Specifying channel layout? The channels end up incorrect.. :( By the way: Avanti is my encoder/converter of choice - great app, I have recommended it several times already. Thank you, again! :D | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 20 06:16 | ||||||||||
This message appeared recently in FFmpeg builds but I think what it tells (the guessing) has always been the case. There's a long thread from August 2008 at the "FFmpeg-devel" forum about the channel layout subject; https://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2008-August/052382.html I think there is a attempt to let encoders store "channel layout" data in the file header which up to now seems to be rarely done :?: Recent FFmpeg versions seems to look for that data :?: Yes, all with question marks cause I might be totally wrong. :? The problem comes more likely from the fact that the channel order differs for OGG and AC3. L + C + R + BL + BR + LFE = AC3 L + C + R + LFE + BL + BR = OGG EDIT: after a Google, nobody seems to be sure about the OGG order (also found this; L + R + C + BL + BR + LFE).
There was already a discussion on swapping channels with a Avisynth user script; http://forum.videohelp.com/topic343287-150.html#1947814 also see this; http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/GetChannel EDIT 2: There are two relatively new FFmpeg commands that give the impression a "channel layout" can be forced. -channel_layout <int64> ED.A. -request_channel_layout <int64> .D.A. http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-user/2009-May/020806.html This would make the need to use Avisynth redundant but it's hard to find out if and how it works. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 23 17:49 | ||||||||||
| @nbarzgar
When I use this ogg 6 channel test file and convert it to ac3 with the Avisynth FORCE mode, I get a ac3 with the proper channel order. test6.ogg I have FFdshow and Haali Media splitter installed which are used by Avisynth to decode the ogg file. I've tried the FFmpeg -channel_layout command without succes and FFmpeg on its own isn't able to convert ogg to ac3 in the right order (as you already found out). Chris. | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jun 29 14:48 | ||||||||||
| Forgive my newbie ignorance, but I have a couple of very basic questions that I can't find the answer to here or elsewhere.
How do I "install" or register the avisynth program so that avanti finds and recognizes it? I downloaded the avisynth zip, unpacked it, and transferred the entire unpacked avisynth folder to C:\Program Files\. There was no installer, as such. When I start avanti, I get a message in the log section saying "14:21:37 - No installation of Avisynth found (AVS options disabled)." I clicked on the "AviSynth_Template.reg" file in the avisynth\distrib directory, but that did no good. Neither did going into Avanti preferences and manually selecting "Avisynth Plugins" and "Avisynth SuperEQ" directories. Besides, those selections seem to be lost every time the program is closed and reopened. Also, when I select an flv file in the "source 1" box and attempt to preview it, no player is launched and I get the following message in the log box: 14:39:04 - Error #01 - Could not open file for preview. I have no problem playing the same flash files on my system using either VLC or the free Applian FLV player, so the system obviously has all it needs to play these files outside of Avanti. I love the interface of Avanti and all that it seems able to do. I just haven't been able to do any of it yet. Any help is much appreciated. | ||||||||||
| freebird73717 posted 2009 Jun 29 15:26 | ||||||||||
| download avisynth installer below
http://www.videohelp.com/download/Avisynth_258.exe | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jun 29 16:15 | ||||||||||
| Thanks so much for that help, freebird. That did the trick for establishing a link between avanti and avisynth.
Still can't get a preview of a flash file, though. Tried locally registering one of the flv codecs in the codecs database, but that didn't help. No player even opens. I just get a message that the file can't be opened. Any ideas what's wrong here? | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jun 29 16:31 | ||||||||||
| Well, I just discovered that some flvs will preview and some won't. The ones that do preview will play fine so long as I have chosen VLC for preview. If I use "internal" in preferences for preview player, I only get audio on those clips. The ones that don't work won't preview in either internal or VLC players. But ALL these clips play fine if I simply double click them from their directory for direct play in VLC or the Appian FLV player. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jun 29 18:46 | ||||||||||
| @freebird73717
Thanks for the help with Avisynth! Very much appreciated :) @Elizabeth Lowrey
You probably need to install a DirectShow decoder for the flv clips. Perhaps Adobe Flash Player? In general; if WMP (Windows Media Player) isn't able to play the clips, you are missing the decoder. The "Internal" video preview follows WMP closely. EDIT: The VLC and Applian players include their own flv decoders. These can't be used by other applications while DirectShow codecs can.
This is from the FLV Splitter download here at VideoHelp. I use the described setup for decoding flv (FFdshow and the flv splitter from the download link). If you install FFdshow it's also recommended to install the Haali Media Splitter. | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jul 01 12:52 | ||||||||||
| Chris, thanks so much for the help.
After many headaches installing/registering/unregistering various codecs and components, I did get avanti to preview the flash files. I wound up installing the CCCP codec pack, which I like very much as a tool for organizing and controlling codec matters. When I graph the filters being used for the flv files in graph edit, I now show: source>MPC-FLV Splitter(Gabest) split out to the respective audio and video ffdshow filters. Thanks so much for the help, everyone. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jul 01 15:33 | ||||||||||
Nice to hear you managed it successfully ! Well, most people here do not recommend codec packs but it looks like you know what you're doing. :wink: Cheers, Chris | ||||||||||
| freebird73717 posted 2009 Jul 01 15:44 | ||||||||||
| cccp codec pack is really just a variation of ffdshow. While personally I just use ffdshow, I don't think he/she will have any problems. | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jul 02 15:58 | ||||||||||
| I have a new issue with one clip that I haven't been able to resolve.
The clip is listed on the Charlie Rose website as an interview with Gabriel Byrne, which originally comprised only a portion of the 1-hour broadcast. I downloaded it with Replay Media Catcher in its original flv format. When I play the clip in Zoom, the player indicates the length of the clip is 55:58 (almost 56 minutes). However the player is static -- displaying the first frame and silence -- until @ 42:17 elapsed time, at which time the interview begins at its beginning and proceeds to conclusion at 55:58. This is undoubtedly reflective of the fact that the original show was 55:58 seconds and that the Byrne interview portion of the show didn't start until 42:17 and lasted 13:41. The identical result happens when I play the clip in Media Player Classic and, presumably, when I hit "preview" in Avanti (the preview is static on the first frame, although I have never waited the 42:17 to see if the interview actually begins at that time, and the preview window offers no transport bar to forward ahead). In contrast, the XUL player, which comes with MediaCoder, starts playing the clip at the appropriate point in the file, its transport bar automatically starting at the 42:17 mark. The data from the media properties window in XLU looks, in part, like this: General Complete name : D:\Streaming Captures\AA965C5F_Charlie Rose - An interview with Gabriel Byrne.flv Format : Flash Video File size : 31.4 MiB Duration : 55mn 58s Overall bit rate : 78.5 Kbps starttime : 2537.509 totalduration : 3472.169 totaldatarate : 324.965 bytelength : 32964062.000 canseekontime : Yes sourcedata : B4A7D0C88 Video Format : H.263 Duration : 55mn 58s Bit rate : 252 Kbps Width : 320 pixels Height : 214 pixels Display aspect ratio : 1.495 Frame rate : 29.970 fps Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.123 Stream size : 101 MiB The "start time" of 2537.509 clearly indicates that there's a flag or other metadata in the file which is supposed to instruct the player or software handling the file to begin playback/data retrieval at an elapsed time of 42:17. I have no idea why XLU is obeying that flag and the other two players tried (and Avanti preview) are not. More importantly, when I use Avanti to transcode the file to an m2v elementary mpeg2 stream for use in my DVD authoring program (DVD Architect), making sure that the 29.97 frame rate is maintained for the output, the file comes out to a playing duration in that program of 55:54:29 (minutes/seconds/frames). The 3 second discrepancy versus 55:58 presumably represents a drop frame/non drop frame time code discrepancy. The transcoded file does not begin with 42:17 of static video, however. It starts from the beginning of the interview, albeit evidencing some degree of slow motion in the transcode, and the interview concludes for the first time at an elapsed time of 16:24:04. It then LOOPS back to the beginning of the interview at @ 32:48:14 and again at around 49:12:18 to round out the rest of the time in the file. Obviously what's happening is that Avanti is taking 13 minutes and 41 seconds of 29.97 frame rate content and time stretching it such that, at a playback rate of 29.97, it lasts 16 minutes and 24 seconds. It is then looping it twice more fully and part of a third time to finish with a transcoded file that lasts just under 56 minutes. I have no idea how to fix this. I've tried transcoding in MediaCoder, since it at least appears to be reading the file from the appropriate start point, but I have NEVER been able to actually get that program to render a file. It constantly stops transcoding and gives me an error message about video encoders and the like. I'd really like to be able to transcode this file in Avanti, and I've done 2 other Charlie Rose interview flv files in successfully in similar circumstances, i.e., where the main content didn't start until some point into the file. So I don't know why this one is problematic. Very grateful for any help. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jul 02 22:50 | ||||||||||
There's has been a lot of messing around going on with the old flv format (h263 content) where people used hex editors to modify headers. Freezing the first 42:17 min. is weird. The file size and low bitrate probably indicates that the whole show is in it (although there are two rather different bitrates reported).
Avanti preview has full navigation options. Select the open preview window and press <F1> for a direct link to the player documentation.
Keep in mind that Avanti is just a GUI and runs FFmpeg with a command line (which seems to work fine for a few other clips you did). All behaviour you describe above is simply what FFmpeg sees in and does with the clip. Taking into account that you deal with a very uncommon (probably broken) clip, makes it hard to find a solution with FFmpeg itself. I first would look out for a app that is able to repair the clip so it does play the full 55.58 min. Probably something that is able to remux the file. I hope some other VideoHelp members can jump in and give some advice on that. EDIT: One thing you could try in Avanti while encoding to mpeg2, is to add -fflags genpts to the command line. Secondly, you could try to remux (using copy audio/video) with FFmpeg, also adding above command to the command line. But possibly you'll get a non-consecutive timestamp error on which FFmpeg cancels encoding. Chris | ||||||||||
| Maks posted 2009 Jul 06 15:45 | ||||||||||
| Hello folks,
I am using Avanti 0.3.7 for the first time and was thrilled to see that I could now easily create a 23.976 Quicktime .mov export directly from my 29.97 source m2t file. This is a great thing. I am able now to take hdv camera footage that was shot with the Canon HV30's psuedo 24 frame mode (aka PF24 mode) and accomplish a proper reverse pulldown straight into a QT file prepared with the Avid-ready DNxHD115 codec. This saves me from having to first make a very large sized uncompressed AVI file, which I used to convert to that DNxHD115. I checked my results frame by frame after importing the Avanti output file into Avid and saw that it worked great. However: when I enabled the Avanti Color Correction tab and made some contrast adjustments, the resulting import into my avid no longer worked to drop the added frames and accomplish the reverse pulldown. Nuts. I need to get this function working. Could it be that I need to add a particular text string into the "User Video Option" inside Avanti? I am basically clueless and all I can tell you is any ideas will be a great help and I thank you for them. Maks[/img]  | ||||||||||
| Elizabeth Lowrey posted 2009 Jul 06 17:21 | ||||||||||
| Maks,
Unfortunately I cant' help with your specific problem. I can report that, at least in the context of my attempts to convert a lot of flash (flv) files to DVD compliant elementary streams, weird things would often happen to the video if Avanti engaged the Avisynth engine, which it does whenever you use the color correction tools on the associated tab. The most common issue when Avisynth was involved was a rendering of the video in effective slow motion, that is rendering each frame multiple times so that the length of the finished conversion was 2 or 3 times the length of the original. (My first thought was an incorrect handling of interlacing, but that wasn't the case.) Part of the issue in my particular case was likely due to an incorrect read in some part of the pipeline of the flv header info, which limited the length of the clip to a subset of the actual length of the file (a single interview segment of around 20 minutes of an hour long show where, presumably, the whole show was actually part of the flv file but inaccessible in playback). The point I'm making is that things rendered correctly when I took Avisynth out of the equation -- as observed in the flow chart that graphs at the start of every render in the log window -- and rendered incorrectly when Avisynth was engaged in some way, either at the script window or via the auto scripts generated from the color correction tools. Maybe Chris can comment on why this should be so, whether it's a bug in Avanti or some incompatibility not fully documented. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jul 06 18:15 | ||||||||||
| Hi,
I know FFmpeg is successfully used for conversion to DNxHD from the Avid forum but personally I have no experience with HDV footage. Also as living in a PAL country, I have little practical experience with NTSC. http://community.avid.com/forums/p/60895/341626.aspx
It seems that FFmpeg itself removes the pulldown when it decodes the m2t file (or more likely simply ignores the flags) ? Problem is that the color correction is done by Avisynth that uses whatever DirectShow decoder is on you system, capable of decoding the m2t file. But Avisynth delivers uncompressed video as input for FFmpeg. So at that stage FFmpeg probably gets the stream delivered as if hardcoded 29.97 fps. I would try the Avid forum and ask "Malefunction" if he has any Avanti/Avisynth experience. Chris | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jul 06 18:51 | ||||||||||
When Avisynth is active in Avanti (both in AUTO or USER mode) the chain is; Source --> DirectShow decoder --> Avisynth --> FFmpeg --> destination. In your particular case of slow-motion and repeating sections; If this really only happens when Avisynth is active, you should already be able to see it happen when you do a script preview. If so, the problem must be found in the DirectShow decoder. Avanti (i.e. Avisynth/FFmpeg) just processes what it gets delivered. A simple check. Play the clip in WMP (DirectShow player) and if it already fails, it will also fail with Avisynth. I think you're over-rating GUI's. They simply connect things the proper way (hopefully), to make life easier. They don't rebuild the applications they connect with clever tricks or something. Chris | ||||||||||
| Maks posted 2009 Jul 06 22:09 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Elizabeth and Chris, for your input. I will follow up if I learn more. I sometimes need to shoot the Canon in very low light and in that case, there's a way to trick this little consumer camera into NOT adding gain/noise, so that it can be done selectively with software later in post-production. That's why I feel I need to add back brightness & contrast. We'll get there! Best wishes,
Maks | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Jul 07 12:34 | ||||||||||
| @Maks
Although I cannot give a ready to use solution, I still like to point out a workflow for your case that shows how Avanti can be setup with small Avisynth USER scripts. The scripts that Avanti creates in Avisynth AUTO mode (e.g. color correction) can be copied to a USER script, including their actual settings. The procedure to use in your case then would be; 1. Use the settings for DNxHD like you already do without using Avisynth. 2. Set Avisynth AUTO mode and adjust the color correction. 3. Change Avisynth mode to USER and open the Avisynth editor. 4. Use the "Insert AUTO script" option to copy the script. 5. Add the required commands to perform inverse telecine. 6. Go to the main page and process. At the Avisynth editor the script finally could look like;
The Telecide() and Decimate() commands, require the "Decomb.dll" in your Avisynth plugins folder. You may need to set AssumeTFF() to AssumeBFF() depending on the field order of your m2t footage. The inverse telecine commands are taken from a example. Not sure if it is properly configured. Note that it's just to give a impression on how things can be done. Chris | ||||||||||
| Maks posted 2009 Jul 09 22:36 | ||||||||||
| Thanks, Chris. I've been off the grid for a few days- I'll try to digest your suggestion in time. Seems like you are pointing me to a solution, and I need to concentrate to grasp. Be well,
maks | ||||||||||
| wiltonp posted 2009 Aug 04 07:45 | ||||||||||
I just installed Avanti v 0.3.8 a few hours ago on a computer that's running Windows 2000 Pro SP4. I've tried several ffmpeg builds and every time I start Avanti, I receive a ffmp_avanti.exe application error. The Avanti program message screen states that the ffmpeg engine is initializing, and ffmpeg commands are being extracted. Then the application erro message appears (see image below) and the program crashes. Could it be possible I need an older ffmpeg build? I've been copying the corresponding ffmpeg presets with the latest build into the correct folders of the Avanti ffmpeg directory. When I used an older build, I deleted those presets and copied those with the older build. Any suggestions?
Update: I just copied an older version of ffmpeg (dated May, 2007) that was included with Winff 0.4 and Avanti didn't crash! Does anyone know if the later builds of ffmpeg are problematic when run with a Windows 2000 OS? Will this older version of ffmpeg cause problems for Avanti v 0.3.8 and is the ffplay.exe file needed? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 04 11:25 | ||||||||||
Basically, I develop Avanti in Windows 2000 with SP4. Then when it's ready I step over to XP for additional testing. "ffmp_avanti.exe" is indeed a copy of the FFmpeg version you use. I never had issues with FFmpeg versions up to now. Also never seen the "Illegal instruction" error message. There are some builds that crash on my machine but that has to do with the CPU (old Athlon in my case). Some FFmpeg Win32 build providers compile different versions for Intel and AMD.
I regularly check Avanti with the latest autobuilds and they all do fine. http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds Did you try the official FFmpeg 0.5 release? http://videohelp.com/tools/ffmpeg (the direct link).
No, it should not cause problems. WinFF uses a generic build. Some other GUI's use special builds. You don't need to install ffplay.exe in the avanti/ffmpeg folder. | ||||||||||
| Information posted 2009 Aug 09 19:56 | ||||||||||
| heres what you would think is a very simple question but apparently not so simple or even easy to find the files for windows use ....in a single simple download.
the question: id like to have an upto date fully working FFmpeg install that will work with this command line. "ffmpeg -i INFILE -acodec libfaac -ab 192k -vcodec libx264 -vpre hq -crf 22 -threads 0 OUTPUT.mp4" easy you might think and say, just go to somewere like http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ download the latest file and uncompress it to a dir, open a cli and type the above line.....replacing the INFILE and OUTPUT with whatever names you want. NOT SO...., why , because NO ONE iv found (after lots of looking) are making current windows FFmpeg compiles, seems to actually think about the whole package and actually include the generic "preset" files that are required for the line to actually work , not even AVANTI seems willing to include and install these basic files in windows,supplying ONLY two basic files i assume are not from the genric linux code, WHY is that ? tryig to run the above line in FFmpeg will stop and complain about that -vpre hq i assume because it cant find the generic "hq" preset text file its been told to use, as it doesnt actually exist never mind get installed in any binary windows files iv tryed to get it from so far.... can someone PLEASE make a full current windows FFmpeg binary and all related files including these preset files , make sure it runs the above command line and put it somewere obvious for people to get and use as their basic install, then we can presumably use the above auto compiled single FFmpeg any time by overwriting the base file but keeping the presets intact.... i also assume then that AVANTI will be perfectly usable if you choose to use -vpre hq -crf 22 refs 3 in your GUI... | ||||||||||
| Information posted 2009 Aug 09 20:37 | ||||||||||
| ok , so now i have finally found these "preset" text files in the http://www.videohelp.com/download/ffmpeg-0.5.7z download so thanks to videohelp once again ;)
however it seems im doing something wrong here? inside that 7z is the 0.5 binary, inside that same dir there is the ffpresets dir, and inside that dir there is i assume the required libx264-hq.ffpreset text file... running the stated "ffmpeg -i 'c:/bigbuckbunny.mkv' -acodec libfaac -ab 192k -vcodec libx264 -vpre hq -crf 22 -threads 0 OUTPUT.mp4" from the FFmpeg dir its still coming back "Input #0, matroska, from 'c:/bigbuckbunny.mkv' : Duration: 00:23:23.72, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 516x570 [PAR 190:129 DAR 4:3], 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 25 tbc Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: vorbis, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16 File for preset 'hq' not found" iv tryed replacing -vpre hq with -vpre libx264-hq.ffpreset, iv also tryed copying that hq file to the same dir as the FFmpeg binary and using both -vpre hq and -vpre libx264-hq.ffpreset there too, always the same error as above..... what is this simple thing im overlooking, and doing wrong! any idea's for a full cli command line, and were i should be placing these preset files to make it Just work! or is it not me, and infact these "preset" files need to be compiled in to another form to make them actually useable on the windows compiles ? and the FFmpeg to parse the line and find them by their short name? i find this mad, FFmpeg wont use seperate external codecs and insists they get compiled in, and thats a good thing in some ways, as you always know everythings in there, BUT now you need external text preset files that noone seems to include by default (excluding the ONE exception above) and FFmpeg doesnt seem to be able to find in relative to the dir FFmpeg's in, it should never be this hard just to run a cli command and make it just work inside windows :cry: all i want is a short version cli command that works almost the same as current x264 but capable of parsing and auto importing many more input types, processing these, then muxing to the given output file type container producing nothing less than a High quality H@L3.0 through H@L4.1 refs3 mpeg4 for batch processing a lot of files in a set dir... if i remove the offending -vpre hq entry it will work but not output the required H@L4.0, so -vpre hq is required and should be working anyway i assume. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 09 21:27 | ||||||||||
-vpre hq doesn't work. FFmpeg presets are text files named e.g. "libx264-hq-pass2.ffpreset". If you use FFmpeg from the command line you have to give the full path to the preset file. If you use Avanti and copy the presets to the right place, you need to only give the preset name. FFmpeg presets are included in the official 0.5 release (folder named "ffpresets") and in the autobuilds (folder "share/ffmpeg"). The way to use them in Avanti can be found in the "avanti-help.chm" manual at "Command lines (FFmpeg)/FFmpeg presets". Also read the Avanti help at the how to "How to set up" section about threads and the "Preferences" (you don't need to add threads to the command line yourself). The reason why there currently is no fully working FFmpeg version is because of several license issues. libaac and libamr are taken off because of that. About libx264 ... http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/blog/2009/07/17/x264-update ... ith-patch/ This is how FFmpeg development works. You have to simply stick to the latest older FFmpeg revision that appears to be useful to you. You could try SVN-r18709 from here http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ffmpeg/mingw32/static/ This is the last (more or less) complete revision and has also readable versions of the official FFmpeg docs included where you can find out more about the FFmpeg presets. EDIT: Note that the path syntax examples given in the docs like putting them in the folder where you have FFmpeg, doesn't work in Windows. FFmpeg is a Linux project and everything about paths in the docs concerns Linux. Chris. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 10 00:21 | ||||||||||
| A general note to those who download and comment FFmpeg Win32 builds.
As said, FFmpeg is a Linux project and it's thanks to people like; Ramiro Polla, 45tripp, celtic_druid, Dirk Paehl, Gianluigi Tiesi and others who are spending a lot of time on porting it to the Windows OS and make it available FOR FREE, that we can use it in Windows. These builds are "snapshots" of the actual FFmpeg development stage and not intend to be approved final releases. Also note that I am not involved in FFmpeg development and can only give as much information as available to me. Simply said... I'm the GUI not FFmpeg! Chris | ||||||||||
| jloucky posted 2009 Aug 23 07:01 | ||||||||||
| Hi,
I've got problem encoding to Flash. I use Avanti right-from-the-box for encoding to mpeg4 without problems, but encoding to Flash always fails with message:
All the settings on the main screen were "default"/"source", changing those didn't help. I've attached snapshots of Codec Wizard and FFDShow settings. Note that I can play FLV files in WMP and any other player as well. Am I missing something? Do I need to register something more than I already have? shots.png | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 23 10:41 | ||||||||||
Hi,
I don't know of any restrictions with flash for frame size and bitrate. What audio codec do you use? You can use mp3 and aac but not ac3.
Did you try the FLASH template from the UNI tab at the template load dialog? Please post some details of the source and the FFmpeg Input #0 ect. info from the log window. Chris | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Aug 23 16:44 | ||||||||||
| Hey, Chris.
I noticed a funny bug today that caused Avanti to crash. While Avanti was running and converting a file, I popped in my USB drive to copy some files over. There was no problem with this, but when I disconnected the drive with XP's Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray, Avanti crashed with a "Avanti-GUI.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close" dialogue. Weird. This was repeatable with both 0.3.8 and 0.3.9. Not really a big deal, as I can remember to not do that again, but I figured you'd want to know about it. Thanks again for an awesome GUI! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 23 18:14 | ||||||||||
| Hi Kevin,
It's a known bug in the Gui4Cli interpreter on which Avanti runs. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gui4cli/message/5161 It only seems hard to trace as you can read. Fortunately it does no harm to the USB but when you're in the middle of a encoding process, you have to start all over again. So here's a official warning to all users... Don't pull out a usb stick or anything else from a usb port while Avanti is running. Thanks for and please keep on reporting bugs or suggestions for changes. Chris | ||||||||||
| jloucky posted 2009 Aug 24 04:24 | ||||||||||
I always use "mp3 (Lib)", because some other common choices (mp3, aac, aac (Lib)) cause error f.e. "Unknown encoder 'mp3'"
Yes, here is the log report after loading Flash template and starting the job.
I believe that it's not dependent on input file, right now I have tried several input files (mpeg4/mp3; h264/dca; h264/aac) adn the result is the same. You can also notice Unknown option 'sws_flags' (loaded by the template), is it because of old FFmpeg or old template? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 24 06:53 | ||||||||||
Yeah! The FFmpeg build you use is not the latest but it isn't old. It probably has all the known FFmpeg bugs and issues of the latest builds in it. Libfaac is taken off because of a license issue and replaced by a experimental aac encoder. With Avanti you need to use "aac" instead of "aac (Lib)" from the audio codecs list.
You're probably right. I don't see anything in the log that could cause the error message. I'm beginning to suspect the FFmpeg version you use.
It's a bug in the latest FFmpeg builds but not fatal. It actually only displays messages on errors that are not there. There could show up a few others too. Real errors are reported as "Unrecognized option" and FFmpeg will cancel on them, but on this ones it happily continues. It is reported at the FFmpeg devel list but it may take a while before it is removed. You could try the official FFmpeg 0.5 version which has libfaac still in it and doesn't show these annoying messages. http://videohelp.com/tools/ffmpeg (at the direct link). About the threads. You probably have set it at the preferences? If so, set it to zero which means "auto" for FFmpeg. It will probably suppress the flv threads message. Also useful to find out if the "incorrect parameters" error has something to do with it. Keep me informed, Chris | ||||||||||
| jloucky posted 2009 Aug 24 07:47 | ||||||||||
| 2 Chris K:
Finally we're getting somewhere... I've downloaded todays version "ffmpeg-r19689-swscale-r29548-mingw32-static" as well as official 0.5. Both gave me same results as my previous one. About the threads: warnings don't bother me much as far as encoding continues. And yes, I have set number of threads to 2 because I have dual-core, some combinations of decoders and coders work in more threads, so it's worth those innocent warnings in other cases threading doesn't work. I guess it's this case:
As you wrote, I tried to set # of threads to 0, but suddenly EVERY encoding (not only to FLV) fails with Windows message "ffmp_avanti.exe stopped working, blah blah". This happens with all my current versions of FFmpeg. And now we're getting to the happy-end... So I tried to set # of threads to 1; and here we go - encoding to FLV works like a mirracle. But why does 2-threads-setting cancel the process while encoding to FLV and why does it only throw warning while encoding to mpeg4 - god knows. Or maybe it's like this: when decoding can't be parallelized, warning is reported, but when encoding can't be parallelized, process is canceled. Am I right? This would explain why all worked for me so far; I decode nearly everything, but encode it to only one format - mpeg4. Just recently I have started experimenting with FLV again... And here is one last question: Is this crash-causing 0-threads-setting a FFmpeg-only bug or could this be fixed in Avanti? Or does it do this only to me with my combination of HW, SW, birthsign and other constellation? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 24 10:16 | ||||||||||
"ffmp_avanti.exe" is a copy of the FFmpeg version you use, not the Avanti program. You could try the following to check. Set threads to 1 at the preferences. This means that Avanti doesn't add any threads command to the command line. You then probably have no problems. Now add "-threads 0" to the user command line and see what happens. When I do this, FFmpeg crashes which probably means that "-threads 0" = "auto" simply doesn't work or is broken. When you set it to 2 with a codec that supports it (I believe xvid does), you could check if FFmpeg really use them.
LOL! Not that I know as you can read above, unless I've also been born under a bad sign. :wink: Chris | ||||||||||
| jloucky posted 2009 Aug 24 12:09 | ||||||||||
You bet I knew that, I just didn't want to write it, the sencences could get too hard to understand. :) If it would be Avanti application file, Avanti would most likely die and wouldn't report "Process canceled...". My idea of fixing that was not fixing bug in ffmp_avanti.exe (which has nothing to do with you obviously), but some kind of conditional passing of parameters to FFmpeg.
Well, it's exactly as you say. Setting number of threads in preferences to 2 and adding "-threads 1" to FLASH template seems to fix the problem. Too bad that error report in Avanti log (probably fed by FFmpeg error report) says the problem is in width/height or rate. Thanks for advice. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 24 12:55 | ||||||||||
Everything in red after "FFmpeg messages/warnings:" is original output from FFmpeg. Avanti only formats it to make it more readable. The message says "maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height". Maybe... but it's kind of a "one to catch them all" message. Chris | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Aug 25 08:01 | ||||||||||
| Recent FFmpeg builds display metadata.
Since about a week or two, FFmpeg builds show metadata from the source file at the console. I'm not sure if we ought to be happy with this. I tried it with some of my test files where FFmpeg throwed up to 70+ metadata lines between the more useful info stuff. Some files pack a whole novel in the metadata area. Current Avanti versions are not metadata "aware" although they separate it from the main data. It's just displayed unformatted and spaced with blank lines at the log window. I'm working on metadata formatting but it will take a while because I also want to make the display of what I call "non-error" messages optional. This means that you can choose at the preferences to whether or not display the general x264 and/or metadata info. If disabled, the log window will only show "real" error messages and warnings. If you use Avanti with recent FFmpeg builds, please try to live with the inconvenience for a week or two untill version 0.4.0 is ready. Cheers, Chris | ||||||||||
| pgriffet posted 2009 Sep 17 03:43 | ||||||||||
| Hi all, this is Pierre from Belgium.
I'm using Avanti 0.40 since a few days, it works fine for some encoding but if try "xivd (lib)" for an .avi, I get an error message, here is the appcompat.txt file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?> <DATABASE> <EXE NAME="ffmp_avanti.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY"> <MATCHING_FILE NAME="ffmp_avanti.exe" SIZE="8799232" CHECKSUM="0x637DD74" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x86DA66" LINKER_VERSION="0x10000" LINK_DATE="03/16/2009 15:09:25" UPTO_LINK_DATE="03/16/2009 15:09:25" /> </EXE> <EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY"> <MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="995328" CHECKSUM="0x2F94FA32" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106" FILE_DESCRIPTION="DLL du client API BASE Windows NT" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Système d'exploitation Microsoft® Windows®" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. Tous droits réservés." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF9EA2" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.1106" LINK_DATE="08/29/2002 18:44:41" UPTO_LINK_DATE="08/29/2002 18:44:41" VER_LANGUAGE="Français (France) [0x40c]" /> </EXE> </DATABASE> Am I missing something ? | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 17 07:34 | ||||||||||
| Hi,
"ffmp_avanti.exe" in the windows error log is a copy of the FFmpeg version you use. Do you use the official FFmpeg 0.5 release? It doesn't crash for me but I can't encode to xvid/mp3 with that version. Probably caused by a muxing bug of mp3 in avi. When I disable audio everything goes fine. If so, try another version, e.g. the latest autobuild from here http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds Chris | ||||||||||
| pgriffet posted 2009 Sep 17 07:41 | ||||||||||
| Yes I use the 0.5 release. I get an error message but I don't have the right one and I'm note on the PC where the problem occurs.
If I choose mpg4 instead of xvid (lib), it works ! So I dont' think it's a problem with the input file (I've tested input files as flv, avi and mpg) | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 17 08:24 | ||||||||||
| Weird!
The FFmpeg 0.5 version also fails for me with mpeg4/mp3 in avi. It just won't play and MediaInfo sees only the container without any contents. When I change the container to mkv, both xvid/mp3 and mpeg4/mp3 works fine. But nothing crashes in my case so it looks like there is another problem. | ||||||||||
| pgriffet posted 2009 Sep 18 01:30 | ||||||||||
| Hi Chris, this is the message I got from the status window
"FFmpeg canceled or finished process unexpectedly" But Avanti is not responsible as when I try with the command line ffmpeg, I get the same error On the print screen here, you can see what happens : 
Where can I post my problem ? Elsewhere on this forum ? On another forum ? Some questions now. - I would like to encode a flv file. But flv does not appear in the drop-down list of the codec. What do I need to encode ? A special codec ? - Xvid appears in this drop-down list but when I select it, I get "no xvid codec found". I use also Vdub and I can encode Xvid with it. What's the point ? - Why can't I copy the text from the status window ? I can select it with the mouse but CTRL+C does not work.  | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 18 03:28 | ||||||||||
| If you stiil use the FFmpeg 0.5 version, I would try the latest autobuild as mentioned in my earlier reply.
The offical FFmpeg 0.5 release is nothing more then a development snapshot at the time it was released but there are bugs in it that are fixed in later "unoffical" builds. FFmpeg development goes on and on so 0.5 is already quite outdated.
At the top left button is a menu where you can load templates for xvid (PAL tab) and FLV (UNI tab). These do the setup and the FLV template "registers" the codec (adds it to the list). You must always re-load a template if you want to encode to a particular format. Selecting a codec at the dropdown list isn't enough because templates also do the command line tweaking. EDIT: Codecs and all other options at the dropdown lists are only basic settings. A template can be compared with a "profile" in other applications. But it can contain more then a profile only, like e.g. dedicated Avisynth scripts etc. On the dropdown lists are entries for old and new FFmpeg versions. E.g. "xvid (Lib)" is for new versions, "xvid" for old ones. This is also applicable on e.g. "mp3 (Lib)" vs. "mp3". There's a editor available (<Ctrl><D>) to modify the drowdown lists with the option to remove items if you don't expect to use very old FFmpeg versions.
For me it does! I can paste it in Notepad or even directly in the reply window here at the forum. | ||||||||||
| pgriffet posted 2009 Sep 18 03:39 | ||||||||||
| Thanks Chris, I've downloaded the latest build and I will try at home.
BTW, my hardware config is old (AMD 400 with 192 MB RAM) but your program works fine. I mention it because there is a minimum hardware requirement in your help file which is much higher than my PC. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 18 04:12 | ||||||||||
| Just a note to those who use the "Avisynth USER mode" to insert their own scripts.
I found that after version 0.3.8 the support for "SegmentedAVISource()" and "SegmentedDirectShowSource()" is broken. This option should modify the filename of the first segment given at "Source 1" but after a change in the source code, I overlooked it. It will be fixed in the next version. Chris | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 18 12:08 | ||||||||||
It's not unlikely this could also be part of the FFmpeg crash problem. Assumed your CPU is close to this one... http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K6-2/AMD-K6-2%20400%20-%20AMD-K6-2-400AFR.html It supports MMX and 3DNow but not SSE while some libraries of newer FFmpeg builds seems to rely on this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_SIMD_Extensions I use a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ which only supports SSE (not SSE2 or higher) and had crash problems with some builds that were probably compiled with a fixed SSE2 configuration. In general SSE only seems enough because I have no crash problems with 0.5 and the latest builds from the main FFmpeg providers. If you still have the same problem with autobuilds, try SVN-r10464 which is one of my favorite oldies. http://tirnanog.fate.jp/mirror/ffmpeg/ You can rename FFmpeg versions like e.g. "ffmpeg_10464.exe" and keep a few available. Then use a new build for everything that appears to work without crashing and a older one for e.g. xvid encoding. ... or consider to upgrade to a bit newer CPU. Doesn't have to be the latest technology as you can see with my XP 2000+. | ||||||||||
| pgriffet posted 2009 Sep 22 02:45 | ||||||||||
| Yes, I have the CPU mentionned in your link and I have already had some problems with the CPU which couldn't handle SSE instructions.
I've tried the latest build from ffmpeg but it doesn't work. I will try with SVN auotbuilds and let you know. | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Sep 25 18:26 | ||||||||||
| Ran into something odd/excellent today. There's a video file I wanted to watch on my TiVo HD that is only available in WMV format. Normally I use pyTivo (which uses FFMPEG) to convert and move over MKV or AVI files. I was pretty sure that FFMPEG couldn't convert WMV, but I haven't used that format since I stopped using my Xbox 360 to watch videos, so I couldn't remember. Nope, pyTivo couldn't convert it. As a last ditch effort, I thought I might try Avanti, which I normally use to convert soft-subtitled MKV or AVI to hard-subtitled MPG to watch on my TiVo HD.
Well, it was a little slower than usual, but it worked just fine! While I was checking the converted MPG file, I noticed that I had accidentally left the ASS subtitles from my last job enabled. So I grabbed the full WMV file I wanted to convert, disabled subtitles and let 'er rip. Whoops, error:
Now I was confused. I checked the codec properties of the sample and the full file and they were the same:
So I loaded the sample back in and tried to convert it again. Nope. Same error. So I thought, "Hmm, what changed?" The subtitles! So I edited the ASS subtitle file, leaving the various script setting, but removing the actual dialogue. I loaded the edited ASS file in and then the full WMV file and tried again. Presto! Converts fine! I suspect that this has something to do with Avisynth and how it handles subtitles. Something must be different in the process when subtitles are enabled or disabled. Aw, heck, I don't really know why it works, but it does! FWIW, I tried loading a empty TXT file named with both SRT and ASS extensions, but that caused a different error and didn't work. I had to use an ASS file that had the script stuff, but no actual dialogue, like this:
Isn't it nice when a mistake (accidentally leaving subtitles enabled) produces something positive (I can use Avanti to convert WMV to MPG)! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 25 23:09 | ||||||||||
Hi Kevin, It looks like FFmpeg still can't but you probably have the proper WMV DirectShow decoding available on your system. Then leaving on the subtitle option forces to use Avisynth which makes use of that decoder. I expect if you disable the subtitle option but enable the Avisynth FORCE mode, which creates kind of a dummy script, this will also has the effect that FFmpeg accepts it. Can you try this and let me know ?!. I must admit I don't follow your workflow exactly but if it's more complicated than I mentioned above, it could indeed have something to do with the VSFilter.dll. When you use it for srt files it optionally expects a SSA header to set a global style.
This is one of them created by Avanti for srt subtitles (the [Avanti Info] section is a addition, skipped by the filter). They are written to the same folder where the subtitle resides like; c:\subtitle_name.srt c:\subtitle_name.srt.style What you describe is for the VSFilter.dll kind of a situation as when it uses that style file for srt. Chris | ||||||||||
| KevinSartori posted 2009 Sep 26 16:29 | ||||||||||
| Chris, you're right! WMV files convert fine in FORCE mode! Subtitles don't need to be enabled. So the key in getting FFMPEG to convert WMV to MPG is using Avisynth. I knew you would be able to figure out why my clunky method worked, as well as find a simpler way to do it!
Thanks again for your excellent GUI! | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Sep 26 21:10 | ||||||||||
I depends on the WMV audio/video versions. The clip you were dealing with uses about the latest...
You can always first give it a try without Avisynth. This is what FFmpeg currently supports...
It supports Video 9 but I suppose not "Advanced Profile" and FFmpeg would fail anyway on the audio. In general; if FFmpeg doesn't support a format but you can play it in WMP, then Avisynth should be able to decode it. | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Oct 05 12:58 | ||||||||||
| Thanks for the new version Chris...and now we can create ready to stream mp4(h264) videos, you found the logical way of adding tools like mp4box....at the end of the destination tab with a P ( post processing) and then the user selects what he wants the program to do after the conversion is done....5 stars
This is a hell of a program..keep up the good work you have been doing with Avanti...no install/portable....easy to understand profiles....audio and video video settings can be tweaked....avisynth support....subtitles....videos ready ready to stream... etc etc etc...fantastic Thanks. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Oct 05 13:17 | ||||||||||
Hi Ricardo, I knew you would like this option :) If you find issues with it, please let me know. It's new and might still need some polishing. Cheers, Chris | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Oct 05 13:22 | ||||||||||
| im testing it...will convert and test it online...the first time i got an error with mp4box because there was a file missing "js32.dll" and i only copied mp4box to that folder.
will report later on | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Oct 05 16:05 | ||||||||||
| only thing i dont understand is that when i select mp4box i get 2 files at the end...before and after the mp4box muxing.... we only need the last one...
Good work | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Oct 05 16:39 | ||||||||||
Yes, it creates a copy of the file you encoded. This is done for security reasons. If you make a mistake and let MP4Box process e.g. an mpg or divx avi, it leaves you a file of 116 bytes and you can start encoding all over again. I wrote this in the Avanti help at the user tools section...
But if you don't expect to make mistakes, you can change the command line at the "User tools menu manager". It now reads; -inter 500 "@destination" -out "@destination.web.mp4" then leave off the last part like this; -inter 500 "@destination" It's all in the chm help at index "User tools (how to add). | ||||||||||
| Koppel posted 2009 Oct 08 01:54 | ||||||||||
| Avanti can convert many formats into something else but can I get an uncompressed AVI file out of it? How?
I want to use a *.flv file in Premiere/After Effects and these don't support *.flv video. Converting a highly compressed *.flv to a compressed format that Premiere and After Effects can read degrades the quality even more. | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Oct 08 04:39 | ||||||||||
| Hi,
I could do it with a flv but I don't know if After Effects will import it. There are "DV standard definition" templates available for both PAL and NTSC (top left button menu). Actually I think you could use these already without any noticeable degradation but after loading it, you can try to put this on the command line... -vcodec rawvideo It worked for me on a decent flv but another one gave me out of sync audio. Strangely enough MediaInfo sees it as h263 but FFdshow which is able to decode it says "Decoder: Uncompressed". Gspot says "RAW I420" | ||||||||||
| ricardouk posted 2009 Oct 08 10:20 | ||||||||||
| Have a look at this method through avisynth
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=760251& ... 2c#p760251 | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Oct 20 04:35 | ||||||||||
| Because x264/aac encoding is a hot item, I like to post some notes about the latest FFmpeg builds in conjunction with these codecs.
After SVN-r18709 "libfaac" was removed (license issue) and later on replaced by a experimental AAC encoder. -acodec libfaac now must be entered simply as -acodec aac. This encoder seems to have problems with multi channel encoding, especially the LFE channel. After SVN-r19439 the FFmpeg default settings for "libx264" are broken which means you have to enter a full set of x264 commands on the command line. Simply tweaking with a few commands isn't possible anymore. It's not likely this will change in the near future. Overall this means that builds after SVN-r18709 aren't very useful for x264/aac encoding. I assume that users who need decent x264/aac encoding will stick to an older FFmpeg build. Therefore I decided not to adapt the Avanti x264/aac templates to the latest FFmpeg builds but to let them still refer to the "libfaac" codec. Some will be adapted to recent x264 changes to ensure they work with all builds. Avanti can run renamed FFmpeg executables as long as their name starts with FFmpeg (e.g. ffmpeg18709.exe). You can easily switch between different renamed versions. Until there is more positive news to report, I suggest to keep a copy of SVN-r18709 for x264/aac and use one of the latest builds for everything else. Recent builds may still have improvements on other codecs. http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ffmpeg/mingw32/static/ Chris | ||||||||||
| nbarzgar posted 2009 Oct 30 01:58 | ||||||||||
| Hey Chris K,
just back to say thank you, again! This programme rocks! Careful set-up GUI, great possibilities and very reliable/stable function. It's my 'encoder of choice' in 99,9% of any video conversion I have to do! Keep up the good work! :D :jump: | ||||||||||
| Chris K posted 2009 Oct 30 04:22 | ||||||||||
I will try, as long as possible. At least keep up maintenance i.e. bug fixes and adaptions for FFmpeg changes if required. Nice to hear you still find it a useful tool. Feel free to post suggestions for improvements. Cheers, Chris |
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