ADL_242
Jul 17 2006, 03:21 AM
Guide to GordianKnot:(0)-- Tools you will or may need:It would actually be best to also install AutoGK because that one is basically a fully automated version of GordianKnot (this guide is for GordianKnot which offers a bit more control over the encoding, but does exactly the same thing). AutoGK will install a bunch of other apps that you will need, like AviSynth for frameserving, VobSub for ripping subtitles, and VirtualDubMod for organising the encoding process.
-- Gordian Knot: GK Rippack 0.35.0 - pack2 (or newer version).
-- LAME: the Lame mp3 codec is probably already on your system, but if it isn't, get it here: LAME version: 3.97 (Win32 compile including lame_enc.dll and lameACM). Needed for the audio of your movie.
-- AC3 Filter: the AC3 Filter is needed to hear the audio if you're putting the AC3 audio from the DVD into your movie.
-- AviSynth Plugins: GordianKnot comes with any AviSynth filter you may need (depending on the options you set), but note that you need to point GK to the right folder when you first start GK: on the "ProgramPaths" tabpage in GK, for AviSynth plugins, point it to this folder: "\Program Files\GordianKnot\AviSynthPlugins" (or wherever you installed GK to) and not to AviSynth's own plugins folder (unless the needed .dll plugin-files are also in there).
(1)-- Building a .d2v file- on the Ripping tabpage:
"2 - Prepare the VOBs" > Press the button -- this will open the DGIndex panel (which creates a .d2v file when project is saved):
(DGIndex)File>'Open' to browse to the Video_TS folder of your DVD on your harddisk and select all the .vob files except for the video_ts.vob file. Make sure they're in the right order in the selectionbox.
- Press F6 to play them in preview (no audio during this). Go forward to the section that actually shows the main movie and then check the information panel next to it, and use the choice-guide in the picture below to set (DGIndex)Video>Field Operation>'Forced Film' according to the result (this is also mentioned in the "Prepare the VOBs" box but use the guide in this picture instead):
The blue text at the top is what you need match against the result in the information panel. By "artifacts" they mean whether you see 'combed' edges (=thin horizontal lines) around fast-moving objects in the movie (a check through the movie should confirm this quickly). Note that you will also have to use this choice-chart again to determine whether you need to set a deinterlace option when creating the .avs file (later in the guide). Maybe it's best to check and write down now whether you will need to enable deinterlace or not.
- Specify the start & end of the movie, using the [<>] buttons on the lower-right of the DGIndex panel. You can use the information in the titlebar to look for clues about the exact frame on which it starts/ends (the movie will usually start/end at the exact start/end of a vob file). The < > buttons are for going 1 frame forward/backward and the [ ] buttons set the start/end frame -- you'll see that the progressbar on the bottom shows this range as selected.
- For audiosettings, you'd better first check with your DVD-player application, which track(s) actually contain the right audio that you want to use for the movie -- Some tracks may have the director's commentary or a different language or be empty, so check carefully -- enable the right track(s) in the (DGIndex)Audio>'Track Number' section.
For the actual quality of the sound, it would be better to create the .mp3 manually (you can do audio-encoding via GK itself, but it's a bit of a hassle) and just stick to compressionlevels that you've tested to be good. If the movie is longer than around 1hr45mins, then there's a big chance that you'll have to do a 2CD encode anyway (unless you've built up enough experience) which would leave you enough room to use AC3 (although you could still opt for highquality MP3 audio, of course). If you're trying to make a 1CD, then use the "WAV for later MP3" method here (making the MP3 is discussed below in this guide):
-- AC3 :
(DGIndex)Audio>Output Method>'Demux Tracks' << Enable
If the movie has 5.1 Surround sound, and you want to use simple 2Channel Stereo, then do this:
(DGIndex)Audio>Dolby Digital Decode>'Dolby Surround Downmix' << Enable
-- WAV for later MP3 :
(DGIndex)Audio>Output Method>'Decode AC3 Track to WAV' << Enable
(DGIndex)Audio>Dolby Digital Decode>'Dolby Surround Downmix' << Disable
And optionally, you can also enable (DGIndex)Audio>'Normalization' and set it to 98% to make the mp3 a little louder.
- Now you're ready to save the .d2v file via (DGIndex)File>'Save Project'. It will take a couple of minutes to create the .d2v, and this process will also create the audiofiles from the audiotracks you selected -- they will be stored in the same folder as the .d2v and the AC3. Close the DGIndex panel when done.
(2)-- Opening the .d2v file and preparing the actual encode:- On the bottom-Left of GK, press the 'Open' button and select your newly created .d2v file. It will show another preview (plays faster). You can optionally set a "Credits Start" position with that panel, to make sure that the credits are encoded in a lesser quality so that a higher quality can be used on the movie itself (if you're trying to make it fit a certain size).
- On the Bitrate tabpage:
-- Container: avi
-- Codec: Xvid
-- Mode: use 'Calculate Average Bitrate' if you're trying to fit the movie into a specified size.
-- Total Size: is where you will see the average bitrate update whenever you change a setting. As CrashUK says: always keep this above 600kbps. You can do that by changing the format of the audio used (ac3 uses more space than mp3.cbr which uses more than mp3.abr or mp3.vbr) or if the movie is longer than approximately 1hr45mins, then a 2CD rip is recommended. When you're working with the limited size of 1CD, then the smaller the size of the audio is, the more space can be used for the movie.
Keep an eye on the 'bits/(Pixel*Frame)' box on the bottom of GK: try and keep it between 0.23 and 0.25 for 1CD (2CD can be a bit higher) but it's not a strict number (more is better but then you might use better quality sound instead) -- besides, GK uses an orange or red color if a value is deemed to be not good.
-- Interleaving & AVI-Overhead:
>Audio 1: select the format of your main audiostream
>Audio 2: if needed, you can specify a second stream (like director's comments or different language) but generally that's not needed (leave as 'no audio') -- and won't fit on 1CD unless set to crappy quality perhaps.
>enable the 'Calculate Frame Overhead' to see a corrected average bitrate.
-- Audio A: This should be the main audiotrack of the movie. If you set it to 'bitrate', you can use this and the "Audio 1" setting to play around with the different audioformats to check which would give the best result (regarding "Average Bitrate" and "bits/(Pixel*Frame)" ). If you already made the mp3, or if you're going to use the .ac3 created by DGIndex, then press the 'select' button and point it to your .mp3 or .ac3.
-- Audio B: This can be used to add an additional audiotrack to the movie (commentary/different language), but as explained before: extra audiotracks mean less space to use for videoquality, so best is to leave it out and set it to BitRate 0kBit/s for no extra audiotrack.
-- Files: this allows you to specify a subtitle file if you want the subtitles to be burnt into the final .avi. Usually, it's better to keep the subtitles as a seperate file so that people can choose to enable/disable subtitles. If you need to adjust the subtitles, then the SubtTitles/Chapters tabpage has some tools for that. (Chapters aren't supported in Xvid format, so that is irrelevant).
- On the Resolution page:
-- Input Resolution: the DGIndex panel will have shown you this in its information panel (the one that pops up when you play the preview). You can always go back to the DGIndex panel and use File>'Load Project' to recheck the .d2v file. Same goes for:
-- Input Pixel Aspect Ratio: shown as "Aspect Ratio" in the DGIndex information panel.
-- Crop (before resize!): Press the AutoCrop button to get rid of the top/bottom black bars on some movies, but I would use the up/down scrollers (for top/bottom and left/right) to slightly change and verify that the cropping is done properly because GK will eat some of the edges to minimize the 'aspect error' (shown in the 'Output Resolution' on the right). You can play around with the final output resolution width to manually minimize the aspect error (try to make the aspect error as close to 0% as what the auto-crop got). See CrashUK's recommendations for output resolution, but play around a bit to minimize the aspect error.
-- Output Resolution: use the scroller in the middle to set the final size of the .avi video. Note that the preview will update to the selected size, but keep in mind that the preview shows the inputvideo and that the final outputvideo will be the Xvid encoded version so it won't be of the same quality as the preview. You can change the W-modul and H-modul to make the steps smaller, but don't set it to lower than 2 because codecs don't support that (so always make sure that final width and height are even numbers).
(3)-- Creating the .avs file (for frameserving by AviSynth):(4)-- Encoding the Movie:- It's time to move on to the actual encoding of the movie. On GK's main panel, go to the Encoder tabpage, and press the 'Add' button on the left -- it will pop up the Encoding Control Panel: on the top of it, enable "multi-passes" and then look at the second box from the top, it should list the following:
Frame Server: the movie's .avs file that you created. If it's not listed yet, use the Select button to point to it.
Frame Server Credits: the .avs file that you created for encoding the movie's ending credits in a lesser quality. Will list "not available" if you're not using a seperate .avs for the credits.
AVI Output File: the final name for the .avi moviefile that you are about to create. You can change it if you want, by pressing the Select button next to it.
- On the Xvid tabpage (middle of the panel):
Xvid Codec Settings: The first pass button will let you set the Xvid encoder configuration (second pass will be configured automatically, except for the zone options) -- follow CrashUK's guide on How To Make K-xvid Movies to set it up exactly as he shows in the screenshots (note though, that on the first screenshot where you add zones, you have to fill in the number of frames of your movie, not the number 137772 as shown), and load the Xvid matrix that is attached to the guide, into the encoder. If you want to permanently set this K-Xvid configuration, then use the "Xvid default codec settings: first pass" button on the Options tabpage (of the main GK panel).
When the first pass has been configured, press the second button. The options should all be the same, except for the fact that "encoding type" will show "Two pass - second pass" and the textbox just below that will show the targetsize -- leave both those as they are, but you'll have to add the endframe to the Zones box, and set that to the same as in the first pass.
- On the Audio 1 tabpage:
This is where you point to the .ac3 or .mp3 file that you want to use for the movie's main audio. If you followed the guide, then at this point you will either have an .ac3 or a .wav file in the folder where you saved the .d2v project. You can always go back to the DGIndex panel, load the current .d2v file, set the proper options for audiosettings and then save the project to create a new .d2v and audiofile in the format that you want (AC3 or WAV).
-- AC3
I haven't found a decent AC3 converter yet (the BeSweet one seems to suck), so for now, if you choose to have AC3 audio, then you're stuck with the one that DGIndex creates which should be excellent quality (depending on what the DVD uses) but the file could be smaller if you had a decent converter. Press the Select button and point it to your .ac3 file (the filename will have information about the tracknumber -- choose the right track that has the main audio for the movie).
-- MP3 from WAV
If you chose to use mp3 audio, then now's the time to manually create that .mp3 from the .wav file that you created with DGIndex. I've made a batchfile to easily convert that .wav file to high quality .mp3 -- see the instructions below on how to make and use that batchfile.
MP3 AudioQuality:
cbr >> high quality down to 96kbps, with 80kbps for medium quality (if lots of sound-fx in the movie)
abr >> high quality down to 64kbps, with 56kbps for medium/low quality
vbr >> not recommended (but V 1 2 3 4 max).
abr & vbr both use variable bitrates, which can cause sync problems in some players or when converting the .avi later on, so it's recommended to stick to cbr. Standard quality is 128kbps (but 96kbps is also still very good -- I tested on the THX1138 movie which has lots of sound effects), and if you're doing a 2CD then 192kbps should be best (unless it's a very long movie). See the special box below to make a batch file for easy conversion to mp3.
- Now that you have the audiofile that you're gonna use (.ac3 or .mp3), press the 'Select' button (on the Audio 1 tabpage) and point it to the audiofile. You'll notice that addictional parameters appear where you can set the delay if needed (the settings should be fine as they appear). On the right side, select the 'Just Mux' setting to enable the audiofile. The same process can be repeated on the Audio 2 tabpage if you want to add an additional audiotrack with director's comments or another language (usually not done so leave that Audio2 on "no audio processing" to disable it). Always do a quick check of whether 'Just Mux' is actually selected if you happen to close Gordian Knot inbetween steps -- it seems to reset the setting to 'no audio' occasionally.
- Once the audio is set up, go back to the Xvid tabpage, enable the "Re-Calculate BitRate if needed" option, and press the "Add job to encoding queue" button (bottom-right). This will start the encoding process -- hopefully you'll end up with a quality movie to enjoy (and to upload)!!
ADL_242
Batch file for easily converting .wav to .mp3:QUOTE
rem .....
rem ..... This is a BatchFile for converting .wav files to .mp3 files meant as audiofiles in movies
rem ..... do not use these settings for creating .mp3 files from audio-albums -- only for movies
rem .....
rem ..... - point the lamefolder to the actual Lame-folder on your computer
rem ..... - remove the "rem " part before each line that you want to use for mp3 conversion
rem ..... - as you can see, the cbr128 line is enabled (no "rem " in front of the 3rd line in CBR section)
rem ..... - in the "FOR %%F IN (*.wav) DO (" line, change the (*.wav) part to something like
rem ..... (*T01*.wav) if you only want to convert a .wav with "T01" in its name
rem .....
rem ..... - copy this text to Notepad and save the file as filename.bat in the folder where the
rem ..... .wav file is, and then doubleclick on this .bat file in Explorer to start the conversion(s)
rem .....
SET lamefolder=C:\XP_XP\lame3.97b2
FOR %%F IN (*.wav) DO (
rem ..... Section for MP3.CBR audio (Constant BitRate) *Recommended*
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 192 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr192.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 160 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr160.mp3"
"%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 128 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr128.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 112 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr112.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 96 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr96.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 80 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr80.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" -b 64 --cbr --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -cbr64.mp3"
rem ..... Section for MP3.ABR audio (Variable BitRate) *Can cause sync problems with some players*
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 192 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr192.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 160 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr160.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 128 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr128.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 112 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr112.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 96 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr96.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 80 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr80.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 64 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr64.mp3"
rem "%lamefolder%\lame.exe" --abr 56 --resample 48 -h -m j --replaygain-accurate "%%F" "%%F -abr56.mp3"
)
ECHO Finished!
PAUSE
LoneCrusader
Jul 17 2006, 04:42 AM
O_O...I think i returned to school. The home work is HUGE!!!!!
. Thank YOu !!! :a013:
faerie
Jul 17 2006, 10:38 PM
excellent tutorial ADL :a013:
EVILBRENDA
Jul 18 2006, 12:50 AM
Awesome! I get so frustrated with that program because it's such a long way to do something really easy but you got it down bro. Good job! :a013:
ADL_242
Jul 18 2006, 01:10 AM
Thanx, EVILBRENDA
And thanx to fae and LoneCrusader too
If anyone has some encoding tips for movies, or certain formats (like TV shows and such), you're more than welcome to add them here -- I've only just started experimenting with it -- I'm still looking for a decent AC3 transcoder tool.
EVILBRENDA
Jul 18 2006, 11:08 PM
I'll stand fast with
Source Forge for those hard to find freeware/opensource programs. I've been toying with some freeware burning programs, not much luck mind you. Try there if you are having problems with apps.
ARABIAN
Aug 18 2006, 06:52 PM
hi
i couldnt find this ( switch to preview panel ) what to press and where is it?
thanks alot
ADL_242
Aug 18 2006, 10:27 PM
There's 2 previews:
(1) the DGIndex preview window which is basically the DGIndex panel so it pops up when you press the "prepare the vobs" button on the Ripping tabpage
(2) the GordianKnot preview which will pop up as soon as you press the "Open" button on the bottom-left of the main Gordian Knot panel. If you select a file, it should popup with a preview of the file.
PsychOPsych
Jun 14 2007, 02:51 PM
thank you
BlueLady
Jun 23 2007, 12:10 PM
OMG !!...it would take me years to learn all that....out of interest, how long, on average, does it take to 'process' a movie and put it on a site ?...
BL xx
Legion
Jun 23 2007, 12:30 PM
Depends on the program and pc used say an average of 3 hours to rip a DVD convert to say XVID then post and seeding can be days because people having quite understood the word share! A bad day could be longer especially if say your AV sets off scanning then you may have to bin it and begin again.
Hope that helps Bluelady
halod
Jun 25 2007, 09:27 AM
Thanks for the guide. But i aXXo's DivX are of excellent quality. how he does that ?
ADL_242
Jun 25 2007, 10:43 AM
QUOTE (halod @ Jun 25 2007, 10:27 AM)
Thanks for the guide. But i aXXo's DivX are of excellent quality. how he does that ?
Hi halod, welcome to the DarksideRG
The short answer is: we don't know
I made this guide for those who want to experiment a little for themselves -- I was able to get some decent quality on my first try but didn't really follow up with multiple attempts to compare.
Once you know how the tools work (this is just one of them), it's still a matter of building up lots of experience to know which tweaks will work best for a certain type of movie, or even using different settings for a certain scene. On top of that, testing the compatibility of your settings with standalone dvd-players is also needed.
You can try on small samples of certain types of scenes (fast camera shots / night scenes / ... ) and see what type of settings gets the best quality with the smallest filesize. I think the
http://www.doom9.org/ forum probably has the best info on which matrix to use and such.
mad4ever
Jul 30 2007, 04:25 PM
Thanx very much for the info.....
latexink
Sep 28 2007, 09:45 AM
If anyone is still reading this post, would upping the thread count (I know i saw it somewhere) help speed up encoding with multi-core CPUs? Also, I couldn't get the alternate bitrate for the end credits to work right for some reason.... Does this
require a different .AVS (frameserver?) file? I'm assuming it ccould embed this in the first one... I haven't looked inside one of these files, so i don't know how these files are structured.....
I'm taking my first crack at ripping an xvid for my first release.... In retrospect, I should have done the widescreen that i forgot was also on the disk (boy did that make me feel like an idiot) ... It's one of those dual-aspect dvds... Oh well.. I learn by challenging myself the first time anyways..... I had to mess with the resolution to get the 'bits/(Pixel*Frame)' number high enough... I'm guessing this is one of the biggest influences in quality?
Thanks for your help in advance if anyone is replying to this!
edit: P.S.- My first rip looked like crap.... pixelated crap.... I think it's because it's a weird colored movie (Snatch) .... Any pointers for "Takin' a rip" part deux?
ADL_242
Sep 28 2007, 10:02 PM
Hi latexink
tbh, I don't remember much about GK
It's been more than a year since I made the guide, and I haven't used GK since that time. I also don't have any DVD images anymore, to test it again
More threads = quicker encoding, so if it has an option to do that, then yes, it's best to enable it
Overall, I think the encoding-matrix is the biggest influence on quality, though I couldn't tell you what effect some individual setting will have -- this was meant as an introductory guide so the experimenting is kinda up to you
Maybe someone else will jump in and provide you with a little more guidance, though
latexink
Sep 29 2007, 02:48 AM
Yeah.... its alot of settings to tweek.... is there something easier (besides gk and autogk) to get me started?
I'm looking forward to sharing, because i got a big 'ol rack-o-dvds just begging to be ripped.....
To be honest, I haven't even set the default region of my dvd drive since i got my new laptop a few months ago.... and i don't plan on it..... lol
I was just wondering, because then i can get an idea of how something rips right, then tweak from there to get bettter quality.........
ADL_242
Sep 29 2007, 03:05 PM
AutoGK is probably the easiest way to get a decent quality movie from your DVD. It also has a 'hidden' section for advanced options (if you press CTRL+F9) if you want to have a little more control --
EVILBRENDA's guide is probably the best to start off with
latexink
Sep 29 2007, 10:05 PM
Sweet... Thanks
frenchdude
Oct 19 2007, 11:41 AM
Thanks a lot ADL, much appreciated for getting going!
billywilliam111
Jan 14 2008, 08:42 PM
good guide! i find not enough quality control with autogk.
gimmeshelter
May 2 2008, 03:43 PM
I ran into a problem. It seems to have ripped the 2.0 AC3 instead of the 5.1. Did I miss something?
pluToed
May 2 2008, 07:26 PM
I think so. Dvd2avi rips all the embedded audio files from the .Vob files when it creates the .d2v file. So you would have got a .ac3 file and a .dts file ( and maybe one more). So you should carefully select your input audio (The file name will show you whether it is a 2.1 audio or 5.1 audio)when you are about to configure the passes. You can select the option just mux in the audio tab.
Hope this helps...
samnjugu
Jul 24 2008, 09:09 PM
thanks 4 this trying out gk
vgerat
Mar 7 2009, 03:14 AM
This is an excellent guide.!
I compared it with AutoGK and various other guides for the same software from different sites which pretty much give the same indication. This one I think is the most comprehensive while keeping it simple though.
Well done..!!
For anyone else who is trying to go through this learning period the only thing I can add is try, try and try again. You can never learn enough through reading or practice. I'm still learning but getting better at it each day. Trial and error is a wonderful thing although I think I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
Cheers,
Vgerat.
gamajeal
Mar 10 2009, 05:41 PM
Thank you for this great tut
sethcramer
Mar 30 2009, 07:14 PM
Hey axxo any input from your end, so that we may become as great as you?
empeguser
May 6 2009, 04:24 PM
QUOTE (sethcramer @ Mar 30 2009, 02:14 PM)
Hey axxo any input from your end, so that we may become as great as you?
Please don't take this the wrong way, but why is it that when someone posts a comment like the one above it never gets answered? I think its great that certain people can make great looking video files, but why not share the info as to what settings/programs are used? I have a server just for videos to watch on my tv but I would love to be able to make or convert all of my dvds to smaller file sizes that look good. Thanks for the tutorial it is a big help but the outcome is very close but not as good as some of the movies from the net. Well having said all that, I do have a question, what is the best way to get 5.1 surround using gordian knot?
roycck
May 6 2009, 05:48 PM
nice thanks for the guide
hotdogsrgross
May 31 2009, 08:33 PM
Awesome ADL!
ADL_242
May 31 2009, 08:50 PM
QUOTE (hotdogsrgross @ May 31 2009, 09:33 PM)
Awesome ADL!
Thanks, hotdogsrgross!
@ empeguser: the point is to find your own settings and try to become better than aXXo
Hey, nobody said this would be easy
LeStat2061
Oct 22 2009, 08:25 PM
QUOTE (sethcramer @ Mar 30 2009, 12:14 PM)
Hey axxo any input from your end, so that we may become as great as you?
QUOTE (empeguser @ May 6 2009, 09:24 AM)
Please don't take this the wrong way, but why is it that when someone posts a comment like the one above it never gets answered? I think its great that certain people can make great looking video files, but why not share the info as to what settings/programs are used?
I too would love to Here from aXXo as to how he makes such wonderful videos ?
I have over 300 DVDs i wanna get started ripping and every thing i try the audio is outta synch or the quality is crappy Need some help to make them as beautiful as his.
Black_Bilbo
Oct 22 2009, 08:46 PM
Hi LeStat2061
aXXo's ripping techniques is like a perfume essence it can never be revealed
You may find this
topic interesting
I don't rip nor encode but you could ask for advice in
Tech Help explaining your situation and hopefully help will be provided
blackknight
Oct 22 2009, 10:24 PM
Brilliant guide ADL
spook
Oct 23 2009, 11:51 AM
Great guide thanx a lot
jackovitch
Feb 11 2010, 08:40 PM
QUOTE (ADL_242 @ Jul 17 2006, 02:21 AM)
Guide to GordianKnot:(0)-- Tools you will or may need:It would actually be best to also install AutoGK because that one is basically a fully automated version of GordianKnot (this guide is for GordianKnot which offers a bit more control over the encoding, but does exactly the same thing). AutoGK will install a bunch of other apps that you will need, like AviSynth for frameserving, VobSub for ripping subtitles, and VirtualDubMod for organising the encoding process.
-- Gordian Knot: GK Rippack 0.35.0 - pack2 (or newer version).
-- LAME: the Lame mp3 codec is probably already on your system, but if it isn't, get it here: LAME version: 3.97 (Win32 compile including lame_enc.dll and lameACM). Needed for the audio of your movie.
-- AC3 Filter: the AC3 Filter is needed to hear the audio if you're putting the AC3 audio from the DVD into your movie.
-- AviSynth Plugins: GordianKnot comes with any AviSynth filter you may need (depending on the options you set), but note that you need to point GK to the right folder when you first start GK: on the "ProgramPaths" tabpage in GK, for AviSynth plugins, point it to this folder: "\Program Files\GordianKnot\AviSynthPlugins" (or wherever you installed GK to) and not to AviSynth's own plugins folder (unless the needed .dll plugin-files are also in there).
(1)-- Building a .d2v file- on the Ripping tabpage:
"2 - Prepare the VOBs" > Press the button -- this will open the DGIndex panel (which creates a .d2v file when project is saved):
(DGIndex)File>'Open' to browse to the Video_TS folder of your DVD on your harddisk and select all the .vob files except for the video_ts.vob file. Make sure they're in the right order in the selectionbox.
- Press F6 to play them in preview (no audio during this). Go forward to the section that actually shows the main movie and then check the information panel next to it, and use the choice-guide in the picture below to set (DGIndex)Video>Field Operation>'Forced Film' according to the result (this is also mentioned in the "Prepare the VOBs" box but use the guide in this picture instead):
The blue text at the top is what you need match against the result in the information panel. By "artifacts" they mean whether you see 'combed' edges (=thin horizontal lines) around fast-moving objects in the movie (a check through the movie should confirm this quickly). Note that you will also have to use this choice-chart again to determine whether you need to set a deinterlace option when creating the .avs file (later in the guide). Maybe it's best to check and write down now whether you will need to enable deinterlace or not.
- Specify the start & end of the movie, using the [<>] buttons on the lower-right of the DGIndex panel. You can use the information in the titlebar to look for clues about the exact frame on which it starts/ends (the movie will usually start/end at the exact start/end of a vob file). The < > buttons are for going 1 frame forward/backward and the [ ] buttons set the start/end frame -- you'll see that the progressbar on the bottom shows this range as selected.
- For audiosettings, you'd better first check with your DVD-player application, which track(s) actually contain the right audio that you want to use for the movie -- Some tracks may have the director's commentary or a different language or be empty, so check carefully -- enable the right track(s) in the (DGIndex)Audio>'Track Number' section.
For the actual quality of the sound, it would be better to create the .mp3 manually (you can do audio-encoding via GK itself, but it's a bit of a hassle) and just stick to compressionlevels that you've tested to be good. If the movie is longer than around 1hr45mins, then there's a big chance that you'll have to do a 2CD encode anyway (unless you've built up enough experience) which would leave you enough room to use AC3 (although you could still opt for highquality MP3 audio, of course). If you're trying to make a 1CD, then use the "WAV for later MP3" method here (making the MP3 is discussed below in this guide):
-- AC3 :
(DGIndex)Audio>Output Method>'Demux Tracks' << Enable
If the movie has 5.1 Surround sound, and you want to use simple 2Channel Stereo, then do this:
(DGIndex)Audio>Dolby Digital Decode>'Dolby Surround Downmix' << Enable
-- WAV for later MP3 :
(DGIndex)Audio>Output Method>'Decode AC3 Track to WAV' << Enable
(DGIndex)Audio>Dolby Digital Decode>'Dolby Surround Downmix' << Disable
And optionally, you can also enable (DGIndex)Audio>'Normalization' and set it to 98% to make the mp3 a little louder.
- Now you're ready to save the .d2v file via (DGIndex)File>'Save Project'. It will take a couple of minutes to create the .d2v, and this process will also create the audiofiles from the audiotracks you selected -- they will be stored in the same folder as the .d2v and the AC3. Close the DGIndex panel when done.
(2)-- Opening the .d2v file and preparing the actual encode:- On the bottom-Left of GK, press the 'Open' button and select your newly created .d2v file. It will show another preview (plays faster). You can optionally set a "Credits Start" position with that panel, to make sure that the credits are encoded in a lesser quality so that a higher quality can be used on the movie itself (if you're trying to make it fit a certain size).
- On the Bitrate tabpage:
-- Container: avi
-- Codec: Xvid
-- Mode: use 'Calculate Average Bitrate' if you're trying to fit the movie into a specified size.
-- Total Size: is where you will see the average bitrate update whenever you change a setting. As CrashUK says: always keep this above 600kbps. You can do that by changing the format of the audio used (ac3 uses more space than mp3.cbr which uses more than mp3.abr or mp3.vbr) or if the movie is longer than approximately 1hr45mins, then a 2CD rip is recommended. When you're working with the limited size of 1CD, then the smaller the size of the audio is, the more space can be used for the movie.
Keep an eye on the 'bits/(Pixel*Frame)' box on the bottom of GK: try and keep it between 0.23 and 0.25 for 1CD (2CD can be a bit higher) but it's not a strict number (more is better but then you might use better quality sound instead) -- besides, GK uses an orange or red color if a value is deemed to be not good.
-- Interleaving & AVI-Overhead:
>Audio 1: select the format of your main audiostream
>Audio 2: if needed, you can specify a second stream (like director's comments or different language) but generally that's not needed (leave as 'no audio') -- and won't fit on 1CD unless set to crappy quality perhaps.
>enable the 'Calculate Frame Overhead' to see a corrected average bitrate.
-- Audio A: This should be the main audiotrack of the movie. If you set it to 'bitrate', you can use this and the "Audio 1" setting to play around with the different audioformats to check which would give the best result (regarding "Average Bitrate" and "bits/(Pixel*Frame)" ). If you already made the mp3, or if you're going to use the .ac3 created by DGIndex, then press the 'select' button and point it to your .mp3 or .ac3.
-- Audio B: This can be used to add an additional audiotrack to the movie (commentary/different language), but as explained before: extra audiotracks mean less space to use for videoquality, so best is to leave it out and set it to BitRate 0kBit/s for no extra audiotrack.
-- Files: this allows you to specify a subtitle file if you want the subtitles to be burnt into the final .avi. Usually, it's better to keep the subtitles as a seperate file so that people can choose to enable/disable subtitles. If you need to adjust the subtitles, then the SubtTitles/Chapters tabpage has some tools for that. (Chapters aren't supported in Xvid format, so that is irrelevant).
- On the Resolution page:
-- Input Resolution: the DGIndex panel will have shown you this in its information panel (the one that pops up when you play the preview). You can always go back to the DGIndex panel and use File>'Load Project' to recheck the .d2v file. Same goes for:
-- Input Pixel Aspect Ratio: shown as "Aspect Ratio" in the DGIndex information panel.
-- Crop (before resize!): Press the AutoCrop button to get rid of the top/bottom black bars on some movies, but I would use the up/down scrollers (for top/bottom and left/right) to slightly change and verify that the cropping is done properly because GK will eat some of the edges to minimize the 'aspect error' (shown in the 'Output Resolution' on the right). You can play around with the final output resolution width to manually minimize the aspect error (try to make the aspect error as close to 0% as what the auto-crop got). See CrashUK's recommendations for output resolution, but play around a bit to minimize the aspect error.
-- Output Resolution: use the scroller in the middle to set the final size of the .avi video. Note that the preview will update to the selected size, but keep in mind that the preview shows the inputvideo and that the final outputvideo will be the Xvid encoded version so it won't be of the same quality as the preview. You can change the W-modul and H-modul to make the steps smaller, but don't set it to lower than 2 because codecs don't support that (so always make sure that final width and height are even numbers).
(3)-- Creating the .avs file (for frameserving by AviSynth):- Once you're happy with the settings, switch to preview panel and press the "Save & Encode" button so the "Save .avs" panel pops up:
-- Resizing: Selected Output Resolution
-- Resize Filter: Lanczos is the best
-- Noise Filter: CrashUK's advice:
-- Field Operations: this is where you set a deinterlace option if it's needed or not -- you probably wrote that down when you checked the choice-guide picture early in part (1) of this guide. There are several different ways to deinterlace -- TomsMoComp should work well with Xvid, but maybe try for yourself on a small part of the movie to see which method would be best.
-- Subtitles: if you want subtitles to be encoded into the movie, then enable and select the subtitle file here. Leave the default "before resizing".
-- Extras: if the DVD's image is noisy, then you may want to enable the first option ("noise filter before resizing"), but leave both options disabled otherwise.
Trim and compressibility check can be left off. Press the Save & Encode button to save the movie's .avs file. The .avs file is used by AviSynth which is the program that is going to serve the frames one by one from the .vob file to the Xvid codec so that they can be encoded.
(4)-- Encoding the Movie:- It's time to move on to the actual encoding of the movie. On GK's main panel, go to the Encoder tabpage, and press the 'Add' button on the left -- it will pop up the Encoding Control Panel: on the top of it, enable "multi-passes" and then look at the second box from the top, it should list the following:
Frame Server: the movie's .avs file that you created. If it's not listed yet, use the Select button to point to it.
Frame Server Credits: the .avs file that you created for encoding the movie's ending credits in a lesser quality. Will list "not available" if you're not using a seperate .avs for the credits.
AVI Output File: the final name for the .avi moviefile that you are about to create. You can change it if you want, by pressing the Select button next to it.
- On the Xvid tabpage (middle of the panel):
Xvid Codec Settings: The first pass button will let you set the Xvid encoder configuration (second pass will be configured automatically, except for the zone options) -- follow CrashUK's guide on How To Make K-xvid Movies to set it up exactly as he shows in the screenshots (note though, that on the first screenshot where you add zones, you have to fill in the number of frames of your movie, not the number 137772 as shown), and load the Xvid matrix that is attached to the guide, into the encoder. If you want to permanently set this K-Xvid configuration, then use the "Xvid default codec settings: first pass" button on the Options tabpage (of the main GK panel).
When the first pass has been configured, press the second button. The options should all be the same, except for the fact that "encoding type" will show "Two pass - second pass" and the textbox just below that will show the targetsize -- leave both those as they are, but you'll have to add the endframe to the Zones box, and set that to the same as in the first pass.
- On the Audio 1 tabpage:
This is where you point to the .ac3 or .mp3 file that you want to use for the movie's main audio. If you followed the guide, then at this point you will either have an .ac3 or a .wav file in the folder where you saved the .d2v project. You can always go back to the DGIndex panel, load the current .d2v file, set the proper options for audiosettings and then save the project to create a new .d2v and audiofile in the format that you want (AC3 or WAV).
-- AC3
I haven't found a decent AC3 converter yet (the BeSweet one seems to suck), so for now, if you choose to have AC3 audio, then you're stuck with the one that DGIndex creates which should be excellent quality (depending on what the DVD uses) but the file could be smaller if you had a decent converter. Press the Select button and point it to your .ac3 file (the filename will have information about the tracknumber -- choose the right track that has the main audio for the movie).
-- MP3 from WAV
If you chose to use mp3 audio, then now's the time to manually create that .mp3 from the .wav file that you created with DGIndex. I've made a batchfile to easily convert that .wav file to high quality .mp3 -- see the instructions below on how to make and use that batchfile.
MP3 AudioQuality:
cbr >> high quality down to 96kbps, with 80kbps for medium quality (if lots of sound-fx in the movie)
abr >> high quality down to 64kbps, with 56kbps for medium/low quality
vbr >> not recommended (but V 1 2 3 4 max).
abr & vbr both use variable bitrates, which can cause sync problems in some players or when converting the .avi later on, so it's recommended to stick to cbr. Standard quality is 128kbps (but 96kbps is also still very good -- I tested on the THX1138 movie which has lots of sound effects), and if you're doing a 2CD then 192kbps should be best (unless it's a very long movie). See the special box below to make a batch file for easy conversion to mp3.
- Now that you have the audiofile that you're gonna use (.ac3 or .mp3), press the 'Select' button (on the Audio 1 tabpage) and point it to the audiofile. You'll notice that addictional parameters appear where you can set the delay if needed (the settings should be fine as they appear). On the right side, select the 'Just Mux' setting to enable the audiofile. The same process can be repeated on the Audio 2 tabpage if you want to add an additional audiotrack with director's comments or another language (usually not done so leave that Audio2 on "no audio processing" to disable it). Always do a quick check of whether 'Just Mux' is actually selected if you happen to close Gordian Knot inbetween steps -- it seems to reset the setting to 'no audio' occasionally.
- Once the audio is set up, go back to the Xvid tabpage, enable the "Re-Calculate BitRate if needed" option, and press the "Add job to encoding queue" button (bottom-right). This will start the encoding process -- hopefully you'll end up with a quality movie to enjoy (and to upload)!!
ADL_242
Batch file for easily converting .wav to .mp3: i was gonna do the same thing, but i dont think i will ever be able to remember all that. is there not an easier way to share my stuff without using so much space. every dvd i copy to my comp seems to be about 4 gb, i have the space but some poor downloader might not have. suggestions please, or shall i just leave it as there problem.
ADL_242
Feb 14 2010, 10:39 PM
Hi jackovitch
This guide is for turning DVDs into smaller Xvid encoded movies (700MB, for example, though you can choose the size freely). Gordian Knot has an automated twin,
AutoGK, that might interest you more as it will reduce that process to just a few mouseclicks, without compromising on quality too much. This guide is intended for those who want a more hands-on approach
wolf_40
Apr 21 2010, 05:32 AM
thanks a lot
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