VidCoder: Alternative HandBrake GUI for Windows

[mike20021969]

VidCoder 1.2.6 update:
http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/releases/view/80284

[RandomEngy]

Originally Posted by mike20021969

Thanks for the update

I was just wondering why the Handbrake svn for 1.2.5 is still 4368?
(The nightly build is up to svn 4405).

I keep tabs on the HandBrake checkin history to see if there's any new features worth picking up. I didn't see anything that jumped out at me and the current version has been relatively stable so I just decided to keep it for a bit longer.

Originally Posted by cryphog

Is there a way to pick a different angle on multi-angle disc? I know you can in handbrake but i dont see the option in vidcoder!

It's something I tried to add! The code is there but I never found a multi-angle disc to test it on. What disc (title/locale) are you testing? I could buy it and get the feature working.

[CommonMortal]

Originally Posted by RandomEngy

I keep tabs on the HandBrake checkin history to see if there's any new features worth picking up. I didn't see anything that jumped out at me and the current version has been relatively stable so I just decided to keep it for a bit longer.

Good! Stability is more important than being cutting edge for me. I haven't had a single crash with VidCoder to this day. Although i think that when the svn is updated to the equivalent of x264 rev2120, it should be stable too. This revision hasn't been changed for a long time now, so it must be good.

Is there a way where one can check which handbrake svn corresponds to what x264 revision? I found a "trac" webpage, but they have no changelog.

[cryphog]

The only disc that I have seen multi-angles on so far are Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and the Dragon Ball Z Series!

[The Scientist]

I haven't had a look at DVDs for a while, but from the top of my head, isn't the original "Matrix" multi-angle? Also, I think a lot of Disney DVDs may be multi-angle, especially when it comes to the end "credits", different angles = different language end credits, can't remember, would have to look, just thoughts off the top of my head.

[RandomEngy]

Here's the HandBrake checkin history:

https://trac.handbrake.fr/timeline

As for multi-angle, is that the USA DVD release of Phantom Menace?

[cryphog]

Yes! In DVDFab it shows 3 angles.

[CommonMortal]

Originally Posted by RandomEngy

Here's the HandBrake checkin history:

https://trac.handbrake.fr/timeline

Thanks, although i don't understand much of it.

Anyway, 2 things.

1) When you queue more encoding jobs, the progression bar and percentage show the percentage of all the jobs combined. Is there a way to show only the progression of the current job? For example, you put 3 jobs. The 2 are completed and the 3rd has started and the progression bar is at 66%, because it counts the previous jobs too. I think it would be more natural to have the progression bar showing only the current job.

2) Is there are way to eliminate from the log the entries about audio? I mean, often i get "audio moved 1 sec, drop 4 frames", which is annoying, because i only care about the stats of the 1st pass and SSIM and when these entries appear, it autoscrolls down and i have to scroll up again to read the stats and then a new entry comes and autoscrolls down and i have to find again the stats and so on.

[RandomEngy]

1) The progression bar is for the entire queue. The progression bar for the current job should be visible by the job itself in the queue (when there are more than one jobs in the queue). You can hover over that small bar and get the job ETA.

2) Those messages are created by HandBrake and I just pass them all through and print them in the log. In Tools -> Options -> Advanced you can change the logging verbosity. It defaults to 1 but can go to 0 (less messages) or 2 (more messages). I don't know if that will help you but that's all the control I have over it. In order to filter out the messages you're talking about I would have to parse and recognize the message types and suppress them. That kind of categorization should be done at the source if it's done at all.

[CommonMortal]

Originally Posted by RandomEngy

1) The progression bar is for the entire queue. The progression bar for the current job should be visible by the job itself in the queue (when there are more than one jobs in the queue). You can hover over that small bar and get the job ETA.

Thanks, i know that. But i just think that it would be better if only the current job is shown in the main progress bar. Anyway...

2) Those messages are created by HandBrake and I just pass them all through and print them in the log. In Tools -> Options -> Advanced you can change the logging verbosity. It defaults to 1 but can go to 0 (less messages) or 2 (more messages). I don't know if that will help you but that's all the control I have over it. In order to filter out the messages you're talking about I would have to parse and recognize the message types and suppress them. That kind of categorization should be done at the source if it's done at all.

Ok, thanks. I will try to set the verbosity to 0 next time it happens and see what i get.

Anyway, Vidcoder works really good. I 've done over 20 encodes and no problem so far, knock on wood.

[mcr]

Would it be possible to retain the original file time and either set it on the encoded file?
Embed it within the video as Tagged date/Encoded date or have a date file naming option. For my videos recorded all date references would be lost otherwise.
To manually edit the file names before encoding so the date and time are part of the file name is not feasible for more than a handful of videos.

Thank you for an easy to use yet powerful GUI.

[RandomEngy]

The original file time? You can put the encode date in the file with {date} and {time} in the custom name format.

http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/wikipag...0File%20Naming

[RandomEngy]

Phantom Menace arrived today and sure enough it had multiple angles which were not showing up in VidCoder. Tracked the problem down and it turns out I wasn't calling a handbrake function that tells it to use libdvdnav, which is apparently needed for multi-angle.

The good news is that other than that oversight, my blind authoring of the feature seems to have been on the mark and the feature is working now. It will be in the next version.

[CommonMortal]

I am having some weird audio problem. When downmixing 24bit DTS-MA 5.1 audio to AC3 Dolbyprologic II (but i think any downmix does the same, tried AAC too and simple stereo also), i have some crackling sound sometimes. Like a half second audio interruption, always at the same place no matter how many times i encode the file. I have the same issue with Handbrake 0.9.5 and the latest nightly build. I tried AsxGUI and it encodes fine. Same for StaxRip... I am at loss. I recently upgraded to an ASUS Xonar DG, but i also tried to fall back to my onboard Realtek HD audio , while disabling the Xonar card and i get the same issue. I am baffled. I tried to install newer FFDshow, change the decoder from liba52 to libavcodec, but nothing works...

The problem goes away if i first re-encode the audio to multichannel ac3, using ClownBD (which uses EAC3to). Then it encodes fine with Vidcoder.

[cryphog]

Good Deal then! Can't wait for the new version! Thanks RandomEngy!

[mcr]

Originally Posted by RandomEngy

The original file time?

Yes, the original date and time. Like most picture editors keep EXIF tags and original data intact after modification.

If the original file is tagged with "Encoded date : UTC 2012-01-01 10:04:12" and file data "Sunday, 01. January 2012, 11:05:02" retain this for the new file.

[RandomEngy]

Dealing with this metadata would be the responsibility of the HandBrake core. It does not expose any features that would allow me to preserve that information.

[mike20021969]

With ordinary video (e.g. camcorder footage), I have no problems encoding with VidCoder.

I have got a 3D program for making video titles. But no matter what setting I choose - normal, high profile, CQ25, CQ20, 16x9, 4x3 - I keep getting (unacceptable) artifacts in the video. (This happens in HandBrake svn4436 too).

I've tried with both H.264 (x264) and MPEG-4 (FFmpeg) and still get artifacts. Altering the quality setting doesn't help much.
Using average bitrate doesn't help either.

Here's a sample video (MPEG2) I'm trying to encode (I've changed the title wording for this sample):
http://www.mediafire.com/?x9ja8ilq69nlw8o

This is what I'm ending up with:
http://www.mediafire.com/?as6nfmncrsaqisj

However, using DivX Plus, the encode is flawless:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dnlzz5ripb0dbz4


Any ideas how to get around this in VidCoder? Thanks.

(Edit: I also rendered the sample video to HD format:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jl2z5lufg29nq51
VidCoder/HandBrake make a mess of encoding it.
AVS Video Converter rendered a perfect MP4/H264 at a CQ of 20:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jv1b2tbc5sbqmqn)

[RandomEngy]

Released VidCoder 1.3.0:

* Enhancements to Queue Multiple Titles dialog:
** Instant static previews
** Ability to play individual DVD source titles with VLC or MPC-HC
** Ability to override the naming format for the batch
* Gave each audio encoding a background gradient to make different encodings stand apart.
* Updated to HandBrake svn 4445.

* Fixed multi-angle support not working (was missing a call to enable libdvdnav).
* Fixed reported crash for sources that scan and find no titles.
* Fixed issue with audio previews not updating when opening a window with a passthrough audio encoding.
* Fixed a problem where the auto-updater would prompt you to apply an update you already had if you had installed it manually.

[Wizecat]

I encoded a few small files today at 700 to 900 kbps with 640 resolution and found that the result was too sharp with ringing artifacts. This makes me suspect that VidCoder is using Lanczos or sharp Spline resizers. This isn't good for downsizing like it is for upsizing or encoding to the same resolution using higher bitrates. I tried the same files at 1400 kbps with 720 and 1280 and the results were good. There should be a few other resizer options like Bilinear or BicubicResize for encoding to lower resolutions and bitrates.