encoding helpwith ffmbc, please

[BabaG]

i should state upfront that i'm running ffmbc on a mac pro using osx v10.6.8 (snow leopard). i have a file i want to use ffmbc to encode to x264 for blue ray authoring. having a problem with syntax. there is a preset here:

http://www.stuudio.ee/anotherGUI/Presets.html

for 15megabit encoding to x264 using a gui interface called "anotherGUI" but i'm on a mac and it's windows only. i figured that the commands would be common, though, across platforms. it has been with the other things i've done. the preset it is for two pass encoding and i'm not sure of a few things.

i tried simply copying these commands and adding "ffmbc" to the front but i got an error:

ffmbc: failed to set value '15000' for option '-bitrate'

i found somewhere a suggestion that "&&" was how to tie the two passes together on the command line. this is what i tried:

ffmbc --bitrate 15000 --preset veryslow --tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 \
--vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 25 --open-gop --slices 4 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "bt709" \
--transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 --pass 1 --stats "<OutputPath><OutputFileName>.log" \
-o "<OutputPath><OutputFileName>.264" "<FullSourceFileName>" && --bitrate 15000 --preset veryslow \
--tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 25 --open-gop \
--slices 4 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 --pass 2 \
--stats "<OutputPath><OutputFileName>.log" -o "<OutputPath><OutputFileName>.264" "<FullSourceFileName>"

this second example is what produced the bitrate error.

i use the command line infrequently enough that i'm going to need help fixing these commands to get them to work. any help is much appreciated.

thanks in advance,
BabaG

[HWK]

Ok, I just visited at http://www.stuudio.ee/anotherGUI/Presets.html and examine preset for blu-ray and to start off they have it wrong. In other words it is sure shot way to make stream is not compatible.

Correct example are given on page https://sites.google.com/site/x264bluray/ once you open the webpage on left choose what kind of video you want to create for example 1080P, 720P or 1080i
if not sure ask.

Also in you example you can not run second example unless you run first one. They are two different commands but before you run anyone of them you need to make sure ffmbc run properly.
Reason for this because in 2nd pass encoder except stats file which is created in first pass.

Replace x264 in beginning with ffmbc.

1080p23.976 / 1080p24

x264 (ffmbc) --bitrate XXXXX --preset veryslow --tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --open-gop --slices 4 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 --pass 1 -o out.264 input.file

x264 (ffmbc) --bitrate XXXXX --preset veryslow --tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --open-gop --slices 4 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 --pass 2 -o out.264 input.file

[BabaG]

thanks for the help, HWK.

one thing that i'm confused by is that the commands seem to be in two parts, one for each pass. how do i handle that? should i run one, wait for it to finish, then run the second? or can i run them together somehow? i tried the latter by using " && " to tie them together but that's when i got the bitrate error.

thanks again,
BabaG

[HWK]

Originally Posted by BabaG

thanks for the help, HWK.

one thing that i'm confused by is that the commands seem to be in two parts, one for each pass. how do i handle that? should i run one, wait for it to finish, then run the second? or can i run them together somehow? i tried the latter by using " && " to tie them together but that's when i got the bitrate error.

thanks again,
BabaG

Yes, you need to run one at a time and yes order is important for example you first execute top line command and wait for it to finish, then command on second one. Do not do both or try to execute second line first. In case if you are curious or interested why this is the case the simple answer is in first pass or first time it collects information about video which it uses to build video in second pass or when you run second command.

Also you can use alternate method to build which can accomplish in first pass, However it is gone be at expense of quality by using command shown

x264 (ffmbc) --bitrate XXXXX --preset veryslow --tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --open-gop --slices 4 --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 -o out.264 input.file

[BabaG]

thanks for the tips and clarifications, HWK. much appreciated. i'll try to test this all as soon as i can. may be tied up tomorrow but will try soon. i may try the single pass example first as, i'm guessing, it may execute faster. that would allow me to debug my process more quickly. if i get that working, i'll move on the the two pass solution.

i am a little concerned that i may be seeing some kind of syntax conflict, though, between ffmbc and x264 encoders, at least on my osx system. in some of the tests i tried on my own i was able to get past the bitrate error but ran into more errors at the "--bluray-compat" option. i've tried removing a lot of arguments and gradually adding them back into see where things were hanging up and that was one place they did.

thanks again,
BabaG

[HWK]

Originally Posted by BabaG

thanks for the tips and clarifications, HWK. much appreciated. i'll try to test this all as soon as i can. may be tied up tomorrow but will try soon. i may try the single pass example first as, i'm guessing, it may execute faster. that would allow me to debug my process more quickly. if i get that working, i'll move on the the two pass solution.

i am a little concerned that i may be seeing some kind of syntax conflict, though, between ffmbc and x264 encoders, at least on my osx system. in some of the tests i tried on my own i was able to get past the bitrate error but ran into more errors at the "--bluray-compat" option. i've tried removing a lot of arguments and gradually adding them back into see where things were hanging up and that was one place they did.

thanks again,
BabaG

You do realize if you have or if you remove --bluray-compat it will not be compilable with blu-ray standard and player most likely will refuse to play.

[BabaG]

i assumed it would be hit or miss if that option was removed. i just wanted to try to figure out where the hangup was. and, as long as i'm here, i notice that this option:

-o out.264 input.file

is the same in both passes of the commands you posted. that's part of what confused me. is ffmbc caching the pass 1 info someplace so it knows to use it when it sees the same file called again, only distinguished by the "--pass 2" flag?

thanks,
BabaG

[BabaG]

nope.same error:

FFmbc version 0.7-rc8
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 Baptiste Coudurier and the FFmpeg developers
Unrecognized option '-bitrate'
ffmbc: failed to set value '15000' for option '-bitrate'
logout

[Process completed]

this is an actual paste of the command i used in my script:

ffmbc --bitrate 15000 --preset veryslow --tune film --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 \
--vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --open-gop --slices 4 --colorprim "bt709" \
--transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --sar 1:1 --pass 1 \
-o /Volumes/OSX/Users/your_name_here/Desktop/h264testHB.264 \
/Volumes/LMS_MASTERS-02/name_of_input_file_here.mov

the following produced a pretty nice, though likely bluray incompatible, file:

ffmbc -i /Volumes/LMS_MASTERS-02/name_of_input_file_here.mov -pass 1 \
-vcodec libx264 -preset veryslow -b 15M -threads 0 -f mp4 -y /dev/null \
&& ffmbc -i /Volumes/LMS_MASTERS-02/name_of_input_file_here.mov \
-pass 2 -vcodec libx264 -preset veryslow -b 15M -threads 0 \
/Volumes/OSX/Users/your_name_here/Desktop/h264testHB.mp4

what have i got wrong here? getting very frustrated.

thanks for your help,
BabaG

[HWK]

Sorry to say to you, but problem appears to be with ffmbc program. Command line syntax I gave you designed to produce 100 % compatible stream for blu-ray standard. There is one more minor suggestion you can try, but I don't think it will make a difference make sure ffmbc can decode mov file.

[raffriff42]

ffmbc -help|find "bitrate"
FFmbc version 0.7-rc7
Copyright (c) 2008-2012 Baptiste Coudurier and the FFmpeg developers
-b                 <int>   E.V.. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-vb                <int>   E.V.. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-ab                <int>   E..A. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-bt                <int>   E.V.. set video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-maxrate           <int>   E.V.. set max video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-minrate           <int>   E.V.. set min video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-mepc              <int>   E.V.. motion estimation bitrate penalty compensation (1.0 = 256)
-b                 <int>   E.V.. Set bitrate (in bits/s)
-vbv_maxrate       <int>   E.V.. Max local bitrate (bit/s)

[HWK]

Originally Posted by raffriff42

ffmbc -help|find "bitrate"
FFmbc version 0.7-rc7
Copyright (c) 2008-2012 Baptiste Coudurier and the FFmpeg developers
-b                 <int>   E.V.. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-vb                <int>   E.V.. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-ab                <int>   E..A. set bitrate (in bits/s)
-bt                <int>   E.V.. set video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-maxrate           <int>   E.V.. set max video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-minrate           <int>   E.V.. set min video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s)
-mepc              <int>   E.V.. motion estimation bitrate penalty compensation (1.0 = 256)
-b                 <int>   E.V.. Set bitrate (in bits/s)
-vbv_maxrate       <int>   E.V.. Max local bitrate (bit/s)

Thanks for posting this information this should hopefully prove helpful to OP.

[BabaG]

thanks for all the input, folks.

in another place i got a response that explained that the commands i was using were x264 specific and not for ffmbc. i already have x264 installed and was able to replace ffmbc with x264 in the script and it ran.

more troubleshooting, though. i imported the resultant file into adobe encore and, while it did import, the file displayed as pure green frazz. i could discern movement within the green, probably correlating to movement in the original image, but it was, basically, just green frazz.

any thoughts on that? do i need to do something else to the file before bringing it into encore?

thanks again. much appreciated,
BabaG

[HWK]

Adobe Encore has poor performance with open-gop, you need to do without open-gop.

[BabaG]

thanks! i'll try that.