Simple x264/x265 Launcher v3.02 (2022-06-16)

[VideoFanatic]

So is it OK to use either method? I want the video to look the same no matter what device it's played on.

[Keiyakusha]

Can someone give me some tips how should I run avs2yuv to encode 10bit YV16 interleaved avisynth_x86 input into 10bit high422 profile? What should I add in commandline with or without Simple x264 Launcher?
For example with avs4x264mod this works for me:
avs4x264mod.exe --x264-binary "x264_10bit_x64.exe" --output-csp i422 --input-depth 10 --output "out.mkv" "xx.avs"
But with avs2yuv I always end up with corrupted video...

[icon]

I have a question about performance. Normally I use an avs script for the input. Simple script with mostly cropping. I seem to be able to utilize my 8 virtual cores, nearly 100% utilization.

Now I am using an avs script to resize using this filter command:

LanczosResize(480,272) # Lanczos (Sharp)

and it seems that my cpu utilization is around 20%. What gives? Is it cause this resize filter is not multithreaded? Any way to fix it? I know when I tried similar settings within Handbrake, it seemed to utilize my cpu 100%. Thanks for any help and great job with this program.

[dado023]

cant you use inbuilt x264 filter to do this?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

AFAIK, there is no multi-threading implemented in the Avisynth built-in resize filters. At least in the "official" (non-MT) version of Avisynth. With Avisynth-MT your may be able to use multi-threading.

Nonetheless I doubt a simple LanczosResize() alone can be the bottleneck. Compared to the CPU time spent in x264 (even with rather "fast" settings), the CPU time spent for the resize filter should be negligible!

So I suspect there is more than this going on in your Avisynth script or the bottleneck is not Avisynth. Anyway, dropping Avisynth and using x264's built-in FFMS2 and built-in filters is definitely worth a try...

[VideoFanatic]

Where do I find the log file for Simple x264 Launcher? There doesn't seem to be an option in the program to display the log.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by holygamer

Where do I find the log file for Simple x264 Launcher? There doesn't seem to be an option in the program to display the log.

The lower pane is showing the log, when you select a job from the upper pane

If you are looking for the location where the log's are achieved, when the "automatically save log" option is enabled, look at:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\LoRd_MuldeR\Simple x264 Launcher\logs

[VideoFanatic]

Originally Posted by LoRd_MuldeR

The lower pane is showing the log, when you select a job from the upper pane

If you are looking for the location where the log's are achieved, when the "automatically save log" option is enabled, look at:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\LoRd_MuldeR\Simple x264 Launcher\logs

Where is the "automatically save log" option as I don't see it. I'm using version 2.04.295 of your program. I also can't see any log files in that location! Is this the correct location?

C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\LoRd_MuldeR\Simple x264 Launcher

My problem is I'm using the MT version of Avisynth and I've replaced the avisynth.dll in the System 32 folder with the file from MT. However when I try to encode the video in Simple x264 Launcher it crashes and I get the following message "avs2yux_x86.exe has stopped working". Yet if I encode with HC Encoder I don't get any problems.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by holygamer

Where is the "automatically save log" option as I don't see it.

Look at preferences dialog

Originally Posted by holygamer

I'm using version 2.04.295 of your program. I also can't see any log files in that location! Is this the correct location?
C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\LoRd_MuldeR\Simple x264 Launcher

Time to update. Also log's won't be saved unless you enable that option.

Originally Posted by holygamer

My problem is I'm using the MT version of Avisynth and I've replaced the avisynth.dll in the System 32 folder with the file from MT. However when I try to encode the video in Simple x264 Launcher it crashes and I get the following message "avs2yux_x86.exe has stopped working". Yet if I encode with HC Encoder I don't get any problems.

I can't tell you why Avisynth MT is crashing with your script. Also I can't tell you why the crash isn't triggered with HC Encoder.

But the "MT" branch of Avisynth is known to be an unstable mess. And there are various Avisynth MT builds of quite varying "quality" floating around.

So I guess you'll have to ask SEt or whoever is currently working on this, if you want that crash fixed...

[VideoFanatic]

I want to install the new version of your program . Should I uninstall the old version first? Also I can't see any option to uninstall it from the start menu. How do I uninstall it?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by holygamer

I want to install the new version of your program . Should I uninstall the old version first? Also I can't see any option to uninstall it from the start menu. How do I uninstall it?

The application does not "install" anything (the setup program simply extracts the required program files to the selected directory), so there is no need to "uinstall" it.

You can simply delete the folder containing the program files, if you don't need it any longer. And of course you can simply "install" a newer version into the same folder, replacing the older version.

[icon]

Originally Posted by dado023

cant you use inbuilt x264 filter to do this?

What would be the extra command to do this in x264?

I want the width to be 480 and the height to be whatever is necessary to keep the same sar as the original source. I can't quite get my arms around the syntax.

Edit - I figured out the syntax. Works pretty well. Actually like it better than using avisynth scripts. It gives me about a 25% boost on encoding performance, but still under utilizing my cpu. It looks like when I resize with avisynth, it uses 4 cores and when I resize with x264 it uses 6 cores. When I don't resize at all it uses 8 cores. - weird.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Given that you haven't screwed up the "--threads" option, if x264 doesn't produce 100% CPU load, this usually has one of the following two reasons: Either you are bottlenecked by slow input (slow decoder, slow pre-processing filters, etc) or you are using very "fast" x264 settings. In the latter case it can happen that the non-parallelizable parts of x264 become more dominant. By using "slower" settings, you may be able to increase the CPU load in that case...

[icon]

Simple tests show it must be something to do with the resize filters. Resizing in Avisynth script or directly through x264 gives a low cpu utilization. No resizing, not changing anything else, gives me 100% cpu utilization. If that's the way it is, then that's the way it is.

On a separate note, could you consider putting the container format as an option that can get saved with the profile? I seem to be making 1/2 encodes in mkv format and 1/2 in mp4 format. Unfortunately, I seem to forget a lot to switch between the 2 formats manually, causing a lot of extra demuxing. Thanks.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I still believe you must be using very "fast" encoder settings, if the resize filter becomes the bottleneck.

Try to use a lower x264 preset. Of course this won't be improve the encoding speed, but you may at least be able to squish out better quality at the same speed - by utilizing the CPU time that your CPU cores are idling at the moment...

[icon]

I always use 'slow'. I have never resized before, so I have no benchmarks really besides my recent observations. But I agree something doesn't make sense.

[VideoFanatic]

If my video is interlaced I was using the following: --tff

If the video is progressive do I simply delete that text?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by holygamer

If my video is interlaced I was using the following: --tff

If you interlaced source is "top-field first" and you want to keep it interlaced, then that is the right option to set.

Originally Posted by holygamer

If the video is progressive do I simply delete that text?

Correct. Progressive video isn't field-based, thus you don't need interlaced encoding mode (and of course setting a field-order makes no sense either).

[mini-moose]

I was just told about this app and trying it now. It's very useful.

A couple things I wanted to ask/suggest

1) --level setting seems to not be added. Sure I can add it to custom parms and save it as a profile but in my opinion it's something important enough to be part of the main settings as it contributes a lot to compatibility.

2) 2-pass option - doesn't offer adding custom parms for each pass. For example I think it's not really necessary to use -o on first pass if you're using 2-pass.

3) the main difference between the builds is the x264 revision I assume? In which case I can just replace the exe when a new one is out. Unless the avs2yuv builds are often updated too?

thanks

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by mini-moose

1) --level setting seems to not be added. Sure I can add it to custom parms and save it as a profile but in my opinion it's something important enough to be part of the main settings as it contributes a lot to compatibility.

There is no need to to use "--level", because x264 will automatically set the proper H.264 Level, based on the properties of your video and based on your encoding settings.

You would only need to set "--level" manually, if you want to enforce a different Level than x264 would set normally. But there is no guarantee that enforcing a lower Level will work!

For example, the minimum required Level depends (not only) on the resolution and frame-rate of the video - there is nothing x264 could do about that...

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

Originally Posted by mini-moose

2) 2-pass option - doesn't offer adding custom parms for each pass. For example I think it's not really necessary to use -o on first pass if you're using 2-pass.

The identical parameters should be used for both passes of a 2-Pass encode!

Note that x264 will automatically "speed up" some of the encoder settings in the first pass of a 2-Pass encode, unless "--slow-firstpass" is added explicitly.

Also you don't need to set "-o" at all. The Simple x264 Launcher will set that option for you and thus it won't allow you to enter it for a second time.

Originally Posted by mini-moose

3) the main difference between the builds is the x264 revision I assume? In which case I can just replace the exe when a new one is out. Unless the avs2yuv builds are often updated too?

The difference, of course, is not only the revision number

The difference is whatever has changed in the x264 code between those revisions - see the x264 changelog for details! The revision numbers are only used to distinguish the different revisions.

Furthermore different x264 builds created by different people may also differ in which "unofficial" patches have been included (if any) or in which compiler has been used to make the build.


Generally you can replace the x264 binary that ships with Simple x264 Launcher with some newer revision. Replacing it with an older revision is not supported.

Nonetheless if the x264 "core" version has changed, the binary may not be compatible anymore. Therefore Simple x264 Launcher will throw a warning, if an unknown "core" version is encountered.

Also there should be no need to replace the avs2yuv binary. Stick with the one that ships with Simple x264 Launcher and that's it!