Want to do Full Moon Wo Sagashite in Softsubs... Need Advice

[apgfriend]

I'm getting some DVD ISO images of full moon wo sagashite... I don't know if there are many who liked this, but I enjoyed it.... Anyway, click the following if you know, or can direct me too, any place about encoding from DVDs

(click to show/hide)

Example of original Hardsubbed a.f.k. video:


I want to encode with h264, and I'm using Xvid4PSP(I don't know if this is best tool to encode with), but this is what I got with my first encode:


DVDrip x264 with Xvid4PSP settings shown below:



These are the Xvid4PSP settings I used:

Video MP4 h264:
  Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  Resolution: 720x536 (suggested by Xvid4PSP to get a 4:3 aspect ratio)
  Encoding Mode: 2 Pass Quality
  Quantizer: 16
  AVC: High profile
  AVC Level: Unrestricted
  Bitrate I got with these settings: 1740

Audio:
  AAC-LC 256k

___________________ ___
Original Video



Original Video Stats MPEG2:
  Aspect 4:3
  Input Resolution: 720x480 (I guess it gives me this resolution because of the kind of pixels a DVD video uses)
  Bitrate: 7800

As you can see the video looks a lot better in the original (the black outline of the characters looks better, while the encoded one brakes down)... and the resolution is 720x480 with some dark areas on the sides (8px on right and left) cropping that would give a video of 720x464... But now instead of an Aspect Ratio of 4:3 I get one of 1.5517...

I mention the aspect ratio, because I'm guessing the video would look better if I don't do any changes to the Resolution... Even though Xvid4PSP is suggesting me to do a 720x536.

by the way I already have the Original MPEG2 video and Audio in an MKV file... Should I consider releasing with this 1.5 to 1.8GB files... I don't think so uh?

[Zalis116]

I'll let others handle the encoding issues. But as per this thread, at least two other encoders have expressed interest in the series, and one has released an episode so far. EDIT: And apparently some unknown no-contact group called Anime-Stars has released the first 3 eps as well. Although their near-dead torrents and non-working DDLs aren't doing anyone any favors  

The real challenge with re-releasing Full Moon is the subtitles, as they cannot be OCRed. So the real labor demand is for transcribing and making minor extensive, major fixes to the a.f.k. subs.   But I can understand that you don't want to let 85 GB of .iso downloading to go to waste, so I won't say "don't encode it."

I've been trying to organize a collaborative effort to create the subtitle files for whoever wants to encode DVD-rips, without much success so far. Currently I have .ass files for eps 1, 15, 16, 27, 43, and (almost) 17.

[Desbreko]

Don't resize the video; just crop it to 704x480 to get rid of the black borders and then set the aspect ratio to 4:3 when you mux the encoded video into an MKV.

The broken line art in the encode looks like the result of unnecessary deinterlacing. If you really want a high quality encode, I'd suggest learning the basics of AviSynth and using that for filtering. You probably won't need more than DGIndex, tritical's TIVTC filters, and maybe smartfade() if fades are interlaced.

1740 kbps is probably very unnecessarily high. I'd recommend getting a GUI for x264 that supports its presets and using somewhere between CRF (aka constant quality) 16 and 18 with preset veryslow (or a faster preset if that's too slow for you) and just leaving the rest of the settings on the defaults. 2 pass is unnecessary unless you're trying to hit a target file size.

[apgfriend]

Don't resize the video; just crop it to 704x480 to get rid of the black borders and then set the aspect ratio to 4:3 when you mux the encoded video into an MKV.

The broken line art in the encode looks like the result of unnecessary deinterlacing. If you really want a high quality encode, I'd suggest learning the basics of AviSynth and using that for filtering. You probably won't need more than DGIndex, tritical's TIVTC filters, and maybe smartfade() if fades are interlaced.

1740 kbps is probably very unnecessarily high. I'd recommend getting a GUI for x264 that supports its presets and using somewhere between CRF (aka constant quality) 16 and 18 with preset veryslow (or a faster preset if that's too slow for you) and just leaving the rest of the settings on the defaults. 2 pass is unnecessary unless you're trying to hit a target file size.

Xvid4PSP allows me to modify the AvySynth Filtering Script... So just learning more about AvySynth sould be enough right?

Also, you said 704x480... The original video gives me 740x480, after cropping the black sides I get 740x464.... So, are you telling me that this 740x464 I should do into a 704x480? Then when Muxing in the MKV file I set the video resolution there to 4:3... Am I getting it right?

[apgfriend]

I'll let others handle the encoding issues. But as per this thread, at least two other encoders have expressed interest in the series, and one has released an episode so far. EDIT: And apparently some unknown no-contact group called Anime-Stars has released the first 3 eps as well. Although their near-dead torrents and non-working DDLs aren't doing anyone any favors 

The real challenge with re-releasing Full Moon is the subtitles, as they cannot be OCRed. So the real labor demand is for transcribing and making minor fixes to the a.f.k. subs.   But I can understand that you don't want to let 85 GB of .iso downloading to go to waste, so I won't say "don't encode it."

I've been trying to organize a collaborative effort to create the subtitle files for whoever wants to encode DVD-rips, without much success so far. Currently I have .ass files for eps 1, 15, 16, 27, 43, and (almost) 17.

Getting the subs will be indeed a challenge, but little by little I'll get there... someday lol. Anyway, right know I want to know how to get the best  encoding out of the DVDs, But getting started with transcribing the subs, is something I might actually start doing, even if I can't learn to properly encode right away.

If you could provide me with those that would be awesome. As for the minor fixing... I would need help with that, Since I'm just starting to learn Japanese, lol.

Since I'm doing some other projects right now... I'm thinking I should get a name for a group (by my self or if any decides to help me... lol). I Was thinking Zetsubou... Since I'm in Despair for no one gives proper attention to these deserving Titles! lol

[newy]

Could you stop doubleposting? Please use the "Modify" button, apgfriend.

[apgfriend]

Could you stop doubleposting? Please use the "Modify" button, apgfriend.

Sorry... I didn't know it was consider double-posting answering to each individual with individual postings...

Next time I know i have to answer all postings in one posting...

[daveLovesIt]

2 pass is unnecessary unless you're trying to hit a target file size.

That is not the only point of 2-pass encoding. You should always encode in two passes, especially if you plan on releasing your stuff. Yeah, it'll be slower. But transcribing subs is also slow, you can do transcribes while your PC is encoding video.

You can of course (probably best to) use a single pass for tests while you get all the filtering stuff etc right, but your final run should be two passes. If you do all your attempts as "first pass" then once its good, you can use the same settings and first-pass file to do the second pass. Think of it like polishing up the finished product.

[Plorkyeran]

With x264 there is zero benefit to 2pass over CRF other than being able to exactly control the file size.

[DmonHiro]

2-pass and CRF in x264 uses the same algorithm. The only difference is that 2-pass gives you an exact file size. If you don't care to have all your episodes the same size, you should use CRF.

[Desbreko]

Xvid4PSP allows me to modify the AvySynth Filtering Script... So just learning more about AvySynth sould be enough right?

Also, you said 704x480... The original video gives me 740x480, after cropping the black sides I get 740x464.... So, are you telling me that this 740x464 I should do into a 704x480? Then when Muxing in the MKV file I set the video resolution there to 4:3... Am I getting it right?

If it lets you use your own AviSynth script as input, I guess that could work. I just use AviSynth with AvsP for previewing my scripts and then feed that straight to x264 via command line, so I don't know much about how the various GUIs out there work.

The video on the disc should be 720x480, which is the size of your "Original Video" screen shot in the first post. When it's displayed, however, it gets compressed to a 4:3 aspect ratio. (See anamorphic widescreen for more details about this.) So when you crop 8px off each side to get rid of the black borders, you're left with 704x480. This is the resolution you should encode it at, and then when you set the 4:3 aspect ratio in the MKV, it will display as 640x480 (or 720x540 depending on how the player does the resizing).

[interfax]

I'm gonna OCR subs for special.

[apgfriend]

I got DGIndex... But I either didn't really understand how to use it... or my version of handling VOB videos by muxing them into an MKV file with MKVMerge so that the MKV file takes care of the Video interlace works better lol.

Also, Xvid4PSP actually has a filter! I used a filter called Anime Deblock, and gave the video a 704x480 resolution and the following is what I get:

(click to show/hide)

New Encoding: It looks Awesome doesn't it?!!


___________________ ___
Original Video DVD video (without Encoding)



___________________ _____
Previous DVDrip Encode:



___________________ ___
Example of original Hardsubbed a.f.k. video:

   The video on the disc should be 720x480...  So when you crop 8px off each side to get rid of the black borders, you're left with 704x480....

Somehow it got fixated in my head that by removing pixels from the sides the the number affected was 480... That's the height not the width!....

Please Let me know what you guys think of the new encoding!!!

[Desbreko]

The new encoded screen still has broken line art. Whatever Xvid4PSP is doing, it seems to be needlessly screwing with the video. I would drop it and just use AviSynth by itself.

Muxing the MPEG2 stream in the VOB into an MKV doesn't do anything to the telecine, by the way. (Note that telecine is not the same as true interlacing. Look up these terms for more details.) You need to use inverse telecine (IVTC) filters to restore the original progressive frames.

To use DGIndex, open the VOB file with it, make sure Honor Pulldown Flags is checked in the Video > Field Operation menu, and then do Save Project. This will save a .d2v index of the VOB, which you can then load into AviSynth with the included Mpeg2Source() filter. (Copy the DGDecode.dll file from DGIndex's folder into AviSynth's plugins folder to use it.) You'll then need to use the TFM() and TDecimate() filters in the TIVTC package to perform IVTC. So, your script would look like this:

Mpeg2Source("indexfilefromDGInde x.d2v")
TFM()
TDecimate(mode=1)
Crop(8,0,-8,0)

You can preview the results of the script by opening the .avs file in AvsP or VirtualDub. If you see faint horizontal lines during fades, I'd recommend getting smartfade() and using it between the TFM() and TDecimate() filters. Copy the code for it into a new text file and save it in your AviSynth plugins directory as smartfade.avsi to use it.

[apgfriend]

The new encoded screen still has broken line art. Whatever Xvid4PSP is doing, it seems to be needlessly screwing with the video. I would drop it and just use AviSynth by itself.

Muxing the MPEG2 stream in the VOB into an MKV doesn't do anything to the telecine, by the way. (Note that telecine is not the same as true interlacing. Look up these terms for more details.) You need to use inverse telecine (IVTC) filters to restore the original progressive frames.

To use DGIndex, open the VOB file with it, make sure Honor Pulldown Flags is checked in the Video > Field Operation menu, and then do Save Project. This will save a .d2v index of the VOB, which you can then load into AviSynth with the included Mpeg2Source() filter. (Copy the DGDecode.dll file from DGIndex's folder into AviSynth's plugins folder to use it.) You'll then need to use the TFM() and TDecimate() filters in the TIVTC package to perform IVTC. So, your script would look like this:

Mpeg2Source("indexfilefromDGInde x.d2v")
TFM()
TDecimate(mode=1)
Crop(8,0,-8,0)

You can preview the results of the script by opening the .avs file in AvsP or VirtualDub. If you see faint horizontal lines during fades, I'd recommend getting smartfade() and using it between the TFM() and TDecimate() filters. Copy the code for it into a new text file and save it in your AviSynth plugins directory as smartfade.avsi to use it.

Thanks!!! I downloaded those filters.... saved everything in AvySynth's folder and included the script in a .avs file... and I get the following:

(click to show/hide)

New Encoding: It looks even greater doesn't it?!! lol


___________________ ___
My Second Encoding:


___________________ ___
Original Video DVD video (without Encoding)

[Desbreko]

Looks pretty good now, but there's some halos (white outlines around the black line art) in the encode that I don't see in the original screen. Did you take the original screen in MPC? If so, I believe it defaults to applying blend deinterlacing to MPEG2 video, which is going to blur it. To get a shot of what the original video really looks like, open up your script in AvsP with all but the mpeg2source() line commented out (put a # in front of the other lines to do this), right click the video preview, and save a screen shot that way.

If the halos are there in the original and not the result of something else, I'd suggest getting DeHalo_alpha and using it after the crop() line to remove them. Judging from the encoded screen, these values should work nicely:
DeHalo_alpha(darkstr=0, brightstr=1.3, rx=1.1, ry=1.1)

What settings are you using with x264 to encode now, btw?

[apgfriend]

Looks pretty good now, but there's some halos (white outlines around the black line art) in the encode that I don't see in the original screen. Did you take the original screen in MPC? If so, I believe it defaults to applying blend deinterlacing to MPEG2 video, which is going to blur it. To get a shot of what the original video really looks like, open up your script in AvsP with all but the mpeg2source() line commented out (put a # in front of the other lines to do this), right click the video preview, and save a screen shot that way.

If the halos are there in the original and not the result of something else, I'd suggest getting DeHalo_alpha and using it after the crop() line to remove them. Judging from the encoded screen, these values should work nicely:
DeHalo_alpha(darkstr=0, brightstr=1.3, rx=1.1, ry=1.1)

What settings are you using with x264 to encode now, btw?

I'm working right now, so I don't a have the files at hand...  I do remember the settings though...

Is Constant Quality (CRF?) 18 (Xvid4psp says Q18 - Q = Quantizer),

I'll update you with the other information later.

*update*

I forgot to mention that I'm doing a 1 pass... Should I go for the 2 Pass?

Also, the video you are looking in the example is the encoded one. I didn't do a screenshot of the video with filters before encoding... So I'll update you on that later.

Thank you so much for the help by the way!!!

[Takeshi]

You should do CRF encoding with one pass. CRF16 for super duper quality although you'd probably be best of using 18 or higher.

[Desbreko]

Constant quantizer is different from constant quality. If you're still getting really high bitrates like the first one, it's probably using constant quantizer. Can you get MediaInfo, open up the latest encoded file with it, and copy/paste the "Encoding settings" it lists for the video?

1 pass CRF is fine. We just want to make sure it's actually using CRF.

Encoding with x264 via command line is pretty simple if you're interested in trying that, btw. Just grab the latest version from x264.nl, open up a new text file, save it with a .bat extension with the below command line, replacing the program path and files names as applicable, and run it:

Code: [Select]

"C:\path\to\x264.exe" --crf 16 --preset veryslow --output "outputvideo.mkv" "inputscript.avs"
@pause

@pause on the end there will prompt you to push a key after the encoding is done, so you'll know it completed okay. You can also run x264 with the --help switch to get details on its various options. You may want to use a faster preset if veryslow is too agonizingly slow on your PC (dunno what kind of CPU you've got).

And you're welcome. I've been interested in watching this show for a while, so I'm glad to help with producing a higher quality version of it.

[apgfriend]

The Video Size was actually Small compared to my previous Encode (the one I first showed in the post) The first one was 350MB with Audio... This one is 130MB without the audio. I encoded the audio with AAC 256kbps and got a ~40MB so That's like 170MB... By the way, in the first encode I didn't include the ending and opening... In this one I included the ending (the opening I'll include with advanced chapters) because its different in all of them (meaning that the ending song starts before the actual episode ends)

Constant quantizer is different from constant quality. If you're still getting really high bitrates like the first one, it's probably using constant quantizer...

Xvid4psp gives allows me to change the following settins:

Encoding Mode: Here I picked Constant Quality. There is also Constant Bitrate and something o specify the size you want for your video... Depending on each of these the other settings change... so the ones that I speak of next are because I picked Constant Quality.

Q (Quantizer): It allows me to type a number, or pick a default 18, 21... etc. I picked 18 here. When I pick the other choices this is not available, so I don't know if this actually means I'm using constant quantizer...

I'm going to give the other choice you mention a try, But I guess it will have to be tomorrow for right now I'm at College (almost ready for my Japanese class lol).