Gordian Knot: Encoding

Use MeGUI. You can make MKV, AVI or MP4 (mp4 is my preference). It is easy to use, free, and just plain kicks ass. It has a deinterlace analyzer that will figure out whether to deint or not. I use MeGUI to encode my mp4 files, not Apple's Compressor on my MacBook Pro, cause it does the job faster, better, and with more options and control.

BTW, the reason that other files are smaller and higher quality is because they are using newer codecs and compressions. Most MKVer's use the AC3 file with x264 to get great quality with small size. Give x264 and MeGUI a try. You won't be displeased.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

x264 does have many different builds, since MeGUI updates automatically, it will get you the best, latest, and most stable build available. I noticed increase in quality when I upgraded to the newest builds.

Also, Gordian Knot uses VFW (Video for windows) rendering which is inferior and not as high quality as CLI rendering which MeGUI uses. This alone will give you better encodes, especially when you are compressing to the sizes you are shooting for.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by LiquidAcid

That's just plain wrong. There are different interfaces for video encoding and decoding. These are VfW, DirectShow and 'direct' (VideoLAN or mplayer, which have all the codecs integrated). And every interface does interface with the same code, if the x264 version if the same.
The only thing you get is a boost of performance when using MeGUI because you don't have th VfW/DirectShow overhead when compressing. Also MeGUI does better container handling.

VfW IS inferior though, especially in how it handles b-frames. I haven't read up on it for a while, so I cant explain more.

@ Lukage

If your using MP4 container, there is no "way" right now to insert subs except through a brand new VobSub MP4 hack, or using something that Nero 7 has. Search for VobSubs and mp4box at Doom9 forum, and it will give you the thread about it.

Also, what x264 settings have you been using to encode with? I'd love to try and help get you a bit more quality out of your files. Lemme know.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

If the source is "film" you might try to force film mode in DGIndex, and see if that helps with the DeInterlacing. Also, if you have to deinterlace, you will get poorer quality and slower encode times.

You are selecting vobsub file to import into the MKV via MeGUI?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Take care of "forcing film" in Gknot?

I don't really understand, so if you re-ask this with more info that would be great. But my advice (if you aren't doing this already) is to use DGIndex seperately from GKnot or MeGUI. If you are going for the best quality, making sure your d2v is perfect is worth the time to open up a different program. In DGIndex, you can preview in a very raw way, and see what sections are interlaced (if at all) and see if it is film. You also set whether DGIndex forces film. Make your d2v in DGIndex, and then read the d2v file with MeGUI's AVS script creator. Set the crop/resize/anamorphic settings and add any other scripts you want and save the AVS file.Then choose a video encoding preset for the quality you want, get your audiio side ready, click autoencode, choose your file size, select your vobsubs, and que it up.

I was speaking idiomatically.

thanks for the explaination Liquid... Trying to get VFW info is hard. I always have been aware of AVIs issues, I thought that VFW and AVI were locked together. Cheers for assuming .

I myself use MP4 hoping for MP4 AVC High Profile to become popular in hardware and have all my files work. Generally I dont do downloading, but DVD backup & extended rentals .

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Sorry... Wish I could have been more help, but I've only worked with Film DVD's, TV series, and MiniDV video stuff. Never tried to do an anime encode. When I ran encoding of Smallville from DVD, I had issues as well with interlaced/progressive sections. I found by forcing film, it solved more problems than by using "honor pull down" and having MeGUI deinterlace. But every source DVD is different.

I have heard that Real Anime is "the shit" for anime encoders. I hope it works well for ya! Good luck!

How ya doing, buddy?