Resolution Settings

Let AutoGK decide the optimal size for your video. If you fix the width manually, you could be cheating yourself of a larger image. Secondly, you can actually make the smaller image look worse than the bigger frame that auto will probably produce.

Codec

XViD.

Audio

Since you've already selected AC3 6CH, here's the point where you decide what to do with it. If it's a 2 or 3 CD rip and you want 2 channels, go with 256kbps VBR MP3. If it's a 2 or 3 CD rip and you want the full 5.1 experience, check AC3. If it's a 1CD rip, definitely go with 128-192 CBR MP3. Generally it is advisable to use 2 channels for everything unless you really like 5.1 audio.

Subtitle Options

There are two sorts of subtitles. One is "Forced subtitling" and this is where the DVD only displays subs for portions of the film that are outside of the native language of the viewer. For example, at the end of Return of the King where Galadriel, Celeborn and Elrond are speaking to the Hobbits in the Grey Havens, Elvish is spoken. It makes sense to subtitle that, but not the rest of the film. If you're going for subtitling where it makes sence, check forced subs. The second kind subtitles the entire movie. Generally forced subs are a good idea, unless you need full subtitling.

Step 4 - Starting the Encode

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Once you're back to the main screen, you need only "Add Job" and "Start!"

If you feel so inclined, you can get a very rough idea of how your video will look by hitting the preview button. But it doesn't take bitrates, or your XViD codec configuration into account. The preview option is more to check the auto-resize and subtitling options, to see if they worked appropriately. Furthermore, if you've ripped multiple DVDs, you can use different settings for different files and add them to the batch encode list. AutoGK will automatically process the files with the settings you've selected. And when you're done, you'll get something like the following! Each shot required a significantly varying bitrate and attention to detail, and I think it came out very sharply. This encode used all the XViD codec settings in this guide, and was a 3 CD rip using Didee's SixofNine quantization matrix. The resulting bitrate was approximated to 843kbps, this is approximately SEVEN TIMES less than an average DVD. The images here are in PNG format so as not to lose any detail via compression:

Sm�agol Ponders the Meaning of Life in a Fishing Grub:

Notice the sharp detail across Andy Serkis's eyes and in the creases of his forehead. Didee's quantization matrix has done an excellent job of isolating and maintaining detail in the encode. Furthermore, even the grain of the skin is preserved to an admirable extent and nothing looks washed out or pixelated. XViD and Didee's matrix managed to preserve subtle variations in both the chroma and luma channels providing a very clean picture.

Faramir and the Soldiers of Gondor Ride to Meet the Orcs in Osgiliath:

Again notice the general sharpness of the picture, including the full detail of the etchings on Faramir's armor as well as the visibility of each individual chain link on his mail. Didee's matrix as well as the XViD codec is handling the high motion in this scene very well, preserving the detail of the other riders and their steeds expertly. The sharp contrast between the foreground and the foggy background is also handled very well, and it seems QPel also took a liking to this film, as none of the artifacts indicating its failure are present.

Aragorn Receives Anduril and Ponders Destiny in its Sheen:

Still maintaining the detail that is typical of XViD and Didee's SixofNine quantization Matrix, this scene could present something of a challenge to many encoders. It's a difficult combination of bright and dark, except the contrast isn't stark. The luminosity of the image varies sharply between regions, however the luminosity changes are achieved via gradients of colours and brightness. The codec and matrix must accurately calculate this difficult scene or else the result is of objectively poor quality.

As a fair warning, if your playback seems visibly sluggish, merely pause the video once and resume it. I ran into this peculiar effect amidst playback, and all was corrected upon doing so. This odd occurrence may or may not manifest on your own system.

Intermediate Encoding - Gordian Knot:

Gordian Knot is a relatively seasoned program in the wide world of XViD. Developed by an amalgamation of people in the XViD community and packaged primarily for Doom9.org, Gordian Knot has been something of a down-hill locomotive lately. It keeps picking up speed and plows through everything in its path on its way to stardom. Suffice it to say, its stardom is also well deserved. It's simply an interface for the composition of the industry's best freeware programs, however Gordian Knot does it very well. With a robust set of options that are accessible to the new comer with some studious self-learning, and refreshingly detailed to the veteran, Gordian Knot is a program worth having on your hard drive.

Gordian Knot uses a relatively simple tab-based interface jam packed with options on each tab. At the heart of Gordian Knot, like AutoGK, is a copy of VirtualDubMod and AVISynth. AVISynth handles all the advanced filtering like cropping, resizing, and detail enhancement, and then VirtualDubMod uses the AVISynth script's frameserving language to encode your video.

Step 1 - Ripping the DVD

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Unlike last time, Gordian Knot generally likes having the full DVD at its disposal to process. In order to do so, you set DVD Decrypter's mode on IFO.

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And then leave it on the "Input" tab.

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Before you proceed with ripping, there's one more step you must take to ensure you have the proper chapter information available to Gordian Knot when the time comes. Click tools, then settings, and then the IFO Mode tab. Make sure that "Chapter Information - OGG" has been selected. This will export a listing of chapter names and timecodes that GK will be able to import for both the Matroska and OGM containers.

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And then dump it to disk via the DVD -> HDD button. As a fair reminder (Or first notice if you skipped to the intermediate section), the ripping time on a DVD averages approximately 30 minutes:

Step 2 - Preparing the VOBs for Gordian Knot

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Open Gordian Knot now and skip to the program section entitled "2 - Prepare the VOBs:"

Step 2A - Working with DGIndex

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Click the RGB film reel button, and you'll be presented with the main screen of DGIndex. DGIndex is a frameserving application in and of itself. It's capable of detecting interlaced, film, and telecined streams as well as processing VOB files via a miniscule interface file that other programs can understand. This is the basic element to frameserving; one program decodes the information in a certain set of files and presents it to another program in an understandable format, whilst processing the files in ways that the program it's frameserving to can't understand. In this case, Gordian Knot can't understand VOB files nor can it demux audio streams or any of the other things we're going to tell DGIndex to do. Tell DGIndex to open your VOB files.

And get this screen.

Once you've auto added your VOB files to the listing, that window will close and the main DGIndex window will expand and now it's time to set the program to demux all the audio streams. This step is necessary, as the resulting independent audio stream will be used later in encoding/remuxing.

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Once that's done, go to file and hit preview. The goal here is to find out whether or not you have a proper non-interlaced stream or not, so the next step is to preview the stream and check for noninterlace assurity.

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Which will produce the stream preview screen. The goal here is to check if the stream is 'FILM' with an assurity rating of 95% or higher. If you're in a PAL area, it'll report with 95% assurity that your source is PAL.

And here we see that it is in fact a progressive image that's 99% FILM. Since this is well above the 95% mark, I can go ahead and check the following option which forces DGIndex to report a 23.976 IVTC (Inverse Telecine) process in the frameserving file. If, however, the file is not 95%+ FILM, set it to none and proceed as planned. If your source is PAL, do not check force film, leave it at none

And once that is checked, you merely have to hit F4 and select your destination for your project and wait a minute or two for your VOBs to process. Once they've been processed, you'll be loading the newly-made .d2v project that DGIndex has produced with Gordian Knot. As a note, if you wish to encode a small portion of the video, you need to use the slider at the bottom of DGIndex to locate your starting position and then hit the [ button. This marks the intro. With the same slider, locate the end of the portion you want to encode and then hit the ] button. This marks the conclusion of what's called source range encoding. It is best to source range encode to test options before you encode the entire project, only to discover that your settings are incorrect. To reset the source range for FULL vob processing, merely move the slider to the beginning of the film and mark the intro, and then move the slider to the end of the video and mark the conclusion.

Step 3 - Opening the Prepared VOBs in Gordian Knot

Now it's time to open your processed VOB files, and to do so you need to focus your attention on the bottom of the main Gordian Knot window

Step 3a - Saving the Project

Before you open your VOB files, select a save slot in the "Save" portion of the window and rename it. Type whatever you want, as the name is not of particular importance but is nonetheless a required step.

Step 3b - Open the Processed VOBs

Once your project is named, open your .D2V file via the open button at the lower left of Gordian Knot. Do not close the window that opens.

Step 4 - The Bitrate Tab

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Once you've selected your project slot and opened the D2V project, it's time to calculate the bitrate of your A/V stream. To do so, proceed to the "Bitrate" tab in Gordian Knot.

Step 4B - The Bitrate Tab Explained

Everything on this page is of decent importance as it all influences the final quality of your encode. This page is to calculate bitrate, to state the obvious, and it does so by mathematically computing several values. Everything from the length of your source, the codec for encoding, to the container format you use will impact this final bitrate.

Container

As we discussed, here is where you will select your container format based on the options you desire. Using the same Return of the King DVD sample as is consistent, you can see that it's offering 1438 kBit/s to a 00:01:55 segment of video with the AVI container. All settings consistent, OGM only offers 1431 kBit/s and MKV offers the highest at 1442 kBit/s. You can pick XViD for a very safe and highly compatible format, however if you desire chapters and the bitrate increase (Which can add up over time), pick MKV. I'm going to pick MKV to demo chapters later.

Mode

As you want to be able to select the number of CDs, and the size that those CDs represent, it's advisable to set the mode to "Calculate Average Bitrate." The other option is suitable for DiVX 5/DiVX 3.11 where a calculator will determine what bitrate to use to properly calculate the number of CDs.

Duration

These details are automatically concluded when you load your DGIndex frameserving project, but nevertheless the title of this section is self-explanatory.

Audio A

Because of the way DGIndex unloads the audio from your DVD files into an independent audio stream and dumps it to disk, you'll have to load it here by hitting select and picking the "448kbps" audio stream for 5.1 audio, or the 224kbps audio stream for 2.1 audio. 2.1 audio is advisable for high video quality, 5.1 for better audio but diminished video quality. The quality of the audio will not be any lower with the 2.1 stream, your speaker system (If 4.1/5.1) will merely clone the stereo channels to the rear speakers and send the front left/right to the center channels.

Audio B

If you want to include an alternate audio stream (Such as a director's commentary from the extra features disc), here's where you would load it. Using the very same method to rip the DVD in the introduction of this section, you would load the unmuxed .AC3 file for the commentary in Audio B's section. It is generally advisable to reencode Audio B to MP3 so as to give as much bitrate as possible to your video stream.

Files

Here's the section where you load the subtitles for your video that you'll process in the subtitles/chapters tab. We'll address that later, but be reminded you have to come back to this section.

Codec

Obviously XViD.

Total Size

Merely select the number of CDs you desire (Remember the explanation of suggested file sizes in Step 8, Familiarizing Yourself with XViD. Also be sure to set the CD size to 700mb, as 650MB CD-Rs are very rare.

Video and Interleaving

Check "Calculate frame overhead" and set the dropdown for Audio 1 for the type of audio you'll be using in your final video. If you've included a second audio stream in the Audio B section, you'll want to change the "No Audio" to the type of stream you desire.

Step 5 - The Resolution Tab

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This tab concerns everything regarding your resolution. This includes cropping, aspect ratio, destination dimensions and conformance to NTSC/PAL resolutions. This tab also has a considerable influence on the final product of your video, as a value called "Bits per pixel" calculates the amount of detail per frame of video via the dimensions of your destination frame size. A larger image can reduce the amount of encoded detail, though an explanation of how to achieve the optimal setting for this value is in this section.

Step 5A - Resolution Settings Explained

Input Resolution

This value is automatically calculated as a result of the DGIndex frameserving file.

Input Pixel Aspect Ratio

This value is automatically calculated as a result of the DGIndex frameserving file.

Crop (Before Resize)

Just set the model to smart crop all and hit "Auto crop." All the black bars will be removed as desired, as well as (Sadly) a few pixels around the rim of the actual video.

Output Resolution

Here's a setting that must be configured with a compressibility test.

Step 5B - Compressibility Tests

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A compressibility test is a quick pass of your source files with the XViD codec. It uses all the settings you've defined and attempts to ascertain a good bits/pixel ratio. In other words, it roughly determines the amount of compression you can give it before objective quality will dip below an acceptable level. If you remember that window I told you not to close when you opened the D2V project, now is the time to reference it. Do so by shifting view to it, and then hitting "Save and Encode."

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Which brings this screen

Set the mode to 5% and tell it to run. My 2.3GHz Athlon XP processed 5% of an 03:47:40 movie in approximately 33 minutes with all the settings from this guide. I assure you that the settings here are of high quality, but not very fast. As with the DVD ripping, now would be an excellent time to have a cup of tea. Once it is done, you can go back to the resolution screen and continue step 5A. Compressibility tests don't work well with small sections of video - And again, don't close the video window!

Output Resolution

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Once you have completed your compressibility test, it's now time to select your resolution. To do so refer back to the resolution tab.

And focus on the bottom section of the window.

When adjusting the slider, make sure the section squared in red does not dip below .2. Any lower and quality will suffer. For this particular video (Return of the King), a resolution of 640x256, with 5.1 audio works well and gives a final bitrate of 1047kbps. For an even sharper picture, I would pick the 224kbps 2ch audio stream that DVD Decrypter dumped and my bitrate would be circa 1200 kbps. Whatever floats your boat, audio or video, though at this point I choose 6 channel audio since 200kbps in the video department won't make much of a difference.

Step 6 - Subtitles/Chapters Tab

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This screen provides a very convenient interface for the use of VobSub. It allows you to index subtitles for use in your video, as well as resynchronize them if they happen to be off. Not only that, this is also the section where you can add chapters to matroska files. We'll be doing that.

Step 6A - Creating Subtitles

To create subtitles, your first step is to click the configure button, which will open the VobSub menu.

Click the open button, and switch the "File of type" mode to "IFO and VOB, for creating idx/sub (*.ifo)." Open VTS_01_0.IFO and select the destination for the subtitle files. This directory should be the same directory in which your final AVI/MKV/OGM files will go. You'll be presented with an additional screen that lists much information about cells, PGCs, chapters and whatnot. Simply select "00 English" (Or whatever your native language happens to be), and then hit ok. VobSub will index the subtitles and save them to the location you specified.

Step 6B - Creating Chapters

This step is rather simple. Make sure you have the Matroska or OGM container selected on the bitrate tab, then check the box that says "Add chapter info to video" on the Subs/Chapters tab. Then click load, and navigate to the location you ripped the DVD to. Load "VTS_01 - Chapter information - OGG.txt" and it will automatically fill the time codes and the chapter names as provided by the DVD. If you'd like to change the names or the times of the chapter, and have a comprehensive knowledge of the DVD, edit the entries in the table.

Step 7 - Preparing to Encode

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Returning back to this screen, press Save & Encode to once again brings this window.

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Make sure all the options are set as you see them. Make absolutely sure that you don't select the subtitles in this window, as you want them to be independent text files which can be loaded and unloaded for subtitles. If you select it here, the underlying encoding program will integrate them into the movie itself and you can't turn them on and off at will. Making sure everything is all right, hit "Save & Encode." Save the .AVS file in any directory you choose. That will be the script which powers the encoding process. AVS, or AVISynth Script File, will make an appearance in the advanced section of this article.

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Hit save and encode, to be presented with this window. Check the box that says "Just mux" if you're using AC3 audio, or select one of the MP3 radio boxes and input your desired bitrate. Switch to the XViD tab, and hit "Add Job to Encoding Queue." It will ask you if you want to proceed with encoding: If you do, proceed. Otherwise the job will sit in queue until you give the command to encode. Once you give the command, Gordian Knot will automate its processes and produce a final video. Come back in about 4-12 hours, depending on the movie, on a 2GHz Athlon XP. As a fair warning, Gordian Knot 0.32.0 is a beta version; and it is very buggy particularly around adding the job to the queue and beginning the encode. If the program crashes, merely restart it, reload the D2V project, and attempt to Save & Encode again.

The results of the Gordian Knot encoding process will be quite similar to the results achieved with AutoGK, as they use the same encoding engine, so I have not included pictures of the results. Suffice it to say, the encoding with Gordian Knot produced slightly softer images all around. I could correct this by using a stronger and sharper quantization matrix, and zone encoding to redistribute bits from the credits to the main part of the film, but it's not really necessary. The main power of the Gordian Knot encoding pack is in the volume of peripheral features it supports: Chapters, precise compression values, compression tests, precise resolution control, multiple audio tracks and a persistent encoding queue.

Advanced Encoding - AVI Synth Scripting Language and Gordian Knot

AVISynth.org says it best: "AviSynth is a very, very powerful tool for video post-production. It provides almost unlimited ways of editing and processing videos. AviSynth works as a frameserver, providing instant and very fast editing without the need for temporary files. AviSynth itself does not provide a graphical user interface (GUI) but instead relies on a script system that allows advanced non-linear editing. While this may at first seem tedious and unintuitive, it is remarkably powerful and is a very good way to manage projects in a precise, consistent, and reproducible manner. Because text-based scripts are human readable, projects are inherently self-documenting. The scripting language is simple yet powerful, and complex filters can be created from basic operations to develop a sophisticated palette of useful and unique effects."

The basic function of a frameserver is to act as a mediator; it provides an interchange language that imports the source and then provides additional features (like effects, compositing, resizing, cropping, etc.) that the encoder/codec itself doesn't have, then passes it on to the encoder for final rendering. As an example, AVISynth can be used to inflate the size of a DVD from 720p (Analogue TV) to 1080p (HDTV) with no loss in quality, and perhaps even a subjective increase in quality: It does this by inspecting the source, applying the desired mechanics to each frame, then passing each frame to the encoder which renders it via the codec. AVISynth's function is to powerfully augment the functionality of codecs and encoders, and it does so by giving the user complete control of brand new, and unique scripting language.

AVISynth is also tremendously versatile, allowing any program that supports .AVS scripts to import a variety of source formats, including: VOB, DiVX, XViD, MPEG1, MPEG2, ASF, Quicktime, and more. Formats that aren't directly supported via AVISynth's default programming can be added via a robust plugin system. AVISynth has the unique ability to have its feature set broadly expanded with plugins that are declared at the opening of an AVISynth script. In addition to format importing, the plugin system can add features to deinterlace, clean edge noise, sharpen pictures, remove broadcast logos, remove video artifacts, and more. The last element of its versatility is in the fact that it works with some of the most power MPEG4 and MPEG encoders on the market: CinemaCraftEncoder for MPEG and VirtualDubMod for MPEG4. The power of AVISynth is tremendous, and it represents the height of custom encoding and video processing.

VirtualDubMod, as mentioned, is a powerful MPEG4 encoding engine. It has gained popularity over the years because it directly supports a variety of audio and container formats, as well as AVISynth scripts. Furthermore, it's just fast. Its speed and versatility, like AVISynth, has garnered considerable fame and community accolade. VDM serves as the true backend to Gordian Knot and AutoGK.

Step 1 - Learning the Basics of AVI Synth

As a language-based frameserver, rather than a program, all the things you will learn to do in AVI Synth will go into a text document that has the .AVS file suffix. To begin an AVI Synth script, create a .TXT file with a name you find logical. Rename the file to .avs and then open it with notepad. The first step is to learn the syntax of AVI Synth. The basic syntax calls the function, then supplies the switches within parentheses.

As an example: LoadPlugin("DGDECODE.DLL")

That line firstly declares the function, that is the loading of a plugin, then the parenthetical element declares exactly what I want to load or do with function. Don't worry too extensively about the syntax, as all the commands native to AVISynth are documented at AVISynth, and all the plugins provide extensive syntactical documentation.

If you should wish to block a command out, precede the command with the pound (#) symbol. For example, by placing the pound symbol prior to the plugin loading, that specific command would be ignored:

#LoadPlugin("DGDECODE.dll")
mpeg2source("hp-cd1.d2v")
Lanczos4Resize(720,480)
AssumeFPS(23.976)

Additionally, should you wish to comment your script for clarity and/or distribution, you can place the pound symbol after a command and write anything you want:

LoadPlugin("DGDECODE.dll") #Load DVD2AVI project importing
mpeg2source("hp-cd1.d2v") #Import my DVD2AVI project, declaring that it's an MPEG2 stream
Lanczos4Resize(720,480) #Use a sharp resize algorithm to bring the frame size to 720 x 480
AssumeFPS(23.976) #Like Force FILM in DVD2AVI, this forces 23.976 FPS on the source stream

Step 1a - Command Order

Any time you write an AVISynth script, you must be conscious of the order you place your commands in. It's typically best to load all your plugins at the beginning of your script, and make sure you're loading the right plugins! Some specific file import types (DVD2AVI, for example) require plugins. Think of what you want to do, then investigate the steps required to do it, then declare the plugins at the beginning of the file. The plugins must either be in the same directory as the script, or you must use the full path (C:AVISynthpluginsetc...) between the quotes to call the plugins:

LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
...
LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")

Then you have to import your source material:

LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
mpeg2source("source file")

Note that I have specified that the source is an mpeg2 stream, and this instance, I'm importing a DVD2AVI project that has VOB files as its source. Because I have a DVD2AVI project as a source, I realize I would need to declare DGDECODE.DLL to import it, and were I writing the script for real, I would include that plugin. If you want to trim segments of the file, this should come after the source call:

LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
mpeg2source("source file")
trim(startframe,endframe)

After you've declared the plugins, source and trim, you must now declare inverse telecine (Reverting a real 29.97 FPS stream to 23.976: Most DVDs are not really telecined, but 23.976 streams reporting as 29.97 FPS to devices, which is why assumefps(23.976) works well), deinterlace (720i streams; common with digital camcorders), or cropping (Ditching black borders on DVDs). There are NUMEROUS plugins available to deinterlace material, such as KernelDeInt or FieldDeinterlacer. It's best to simply experiment with those plugins and see which one works best for you. As with Gordian Knot, you can determine interlaced or FILM by previewing your ripped VOB streams in DVD2AVI and checking for FILM or interlace assurity. Lastly, the syntax for cropping can be found on the AVISynth FAQ. As usual, your source material will determine what you require. Typically, any DVD content you use will not need deinterlacing, or IVTC. You can traditionally use assumeFPS(23.976) for NTSC DVDs or AssumeFPS(25.000) for PAL DVDs and continue as planned. So as not to complicate the script-building process, I haven't included the commands for that.

If you have to resize a source file, that should be the first thing you declare after the plugins and importing. Effects require the final size of the project to work.If you run a filter, then resize the video, your results will be dramatically poor. Be aware that there are a multitude of resize types. Lanczos is the sharpest resize method, and since everything I encode is higher to high bitrate, I use it universally. See AVISynth's documentation for an explanation of resizing methods:

LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
LoadPlugin("DLL HERE")
mpeg2source("source file")
Lanczos4Resize(width,height)

Once you've established your plugins, your source, and any resizing, you can proceed to more advanced steps:

Step 1B - Calling Other Scripts

AVISynth adds another level of versatility to its functionality by permitting the calling of other people's scripts into your own. To do this, you merely have to supply the import command:

Import("Location to the other script")

Once you've imported the script (Be sure to do this BEFORE you run the features of the script), you simply use the creator-defined call to summon the script's features (More on this in a moment). As an example, I am using Didee's IIP (Integrated Image Processor) which is an advanced script that allows you to take progressive sources and inflate them to 1080i/p with considerable quality. At the same time it runs image denoising, sharpening, and a plethora of other image-enhancing features. Its primary purpose is to take DVB streams and clean them up for HDTV displays. It has a required number of plugins also. I have commented the script so as to more appropriately explain its functions.

Import("x:directorydirectoryIIP.avs") #This calls the IIP script into the script I wrote here

LoadPlugin("undot.dll") #This summons a denoising filter that removes grain, required by IIP.
LoadPlugin("MaskTools.dll") #This calls a plugin that allows IIP to mask off certain portions of the picture.
LoadPlugin("WarpSharp.dll") #This is a sharpening plugin, required by IIP.
LoadPlugin("DGDecode.dll") #This allows me to import MPEG2 DVD2AVI projects.
LoadPlugin("LoadPluginEx.dll") #This allows the importing of plugins designed for AVISynth versions earlier than 2.5
LoadPlugin("dustv5.dll") #Another denoising filter required for IIP's usage.

mpeg2source("test4.d2v") #Imports a test DVD2AVI project.
## Import the IIP script. The author has defined "IIP" as the specific command call. Notice it operates just like any other command function("switches")/function(switches) => iip(switches). Additionally, all the stuff in IIP( ) was defined by the author. ##

iip( dest_x= 1024, dest_y= 576,
ss1_x = 1.414, ss1_y = 1.414,
duststr = 2, dustweight = 1.0, antiflicker1= true, antiflicker2= true,
detailcontr1=127, detailcontr2 = 255, contr_radius = 3, PixSharp=0.4,
ss2_x = 3.5, ss2_y = 3.5,
Xstren = 255, Xlimit = 255,
subpelstren= 1.0, flatweight = 64,
protect_floor= 4, protect_bias = 16,
dering = -60, dering_weight= 1.0, dering_floor = 16, dering_bias=8,
detail_floor= 1, EQ = 2,
warp_Y = true, warp_UV = false,
debug= "showall | compareH/V | protect | dering",
cropx=32, cropy=16
)
# SCRIPT END

People have authored a great many scripts based on a significantly more advanced knowledge of AVI Synth than most people have mustered, and they're all free for download. Including a powerful script inside your own can help you achieve results you couldn't otherwise program by yourself. I encourage you to search around on Google and doom9.org to find scripts that may help you in completing your projects.

Step 2 - Finalizing and Using Your Script

Create a new DVD2AVI project from your ripped VOBs just like I showed you how to in the intermediary encoding section. You'll need one to process your DVD into XViD. To show the power of AVI Synth, I have gone ahead and used the script above as my sample for the remainder of the advanced encoding section. Be aware that I have saved the IIP script and saved it as an independent script. The commands I included in my script are only a small portion of the total IIP process. It looks like this when completed:

Import("x:directorydirectoryIIP.avs") #This calls the IIP script into the script I wrote here

LoadPlugin("undot.dll") #This summons a denoising filter that removes grain, required by IIP.
LoadPlugin("MaskTools.dll") #This calls a plugin that allows IIP to mask off certain portions of the picture.
LoadPlugin("WarpSharp.dll") #This is a sharpening plugin, required by IIP.
LoadPlugin("DGDecode.dll") #This allows me to import MPEG2 DVD2AVI projects.
LoadPlugin("LoadPluginEx.dll") #This allows the importing of plugins designed for AVISynth versions earlier than 2.5
LoadPlugin("dustv5.dll") #Another denoising filter required for IIP's usage.

mpeg2source("RoTK_Sample.d2v") #Imports a test DVD2AVI project.
#Call IIP

iip( dest_x= 1024, dest_y= 576,
ss1_x = 1.414, ss1_y = 1.414,
duststr = 2, dustweight = 1.0, antiflicker1= true, antiflicker2= true,
detailcontr1=127, detailcontr2 = 255, contr_radius = 3, PixSharp=0.4,
ss2_x = 3.5, ss2_y = 3.5,
Xstren = 255, Xlimit = 255,
subpelstren= 1.0, flatweight = 64,
protect_floor= 4, protect_bias = 16,
dering = -60, dering_weight= 1.0, dering_floor = 16, dering_bias=8,
detail_floor= 1, EQ = 2,
warp_Y = true, warp_UV = false,
debug= "showall | compareH/V | protect | dering",
cropx=32, cropy=16
)

click to enlarge

Once you've got the script saved, and all the files in the right location, it's time to start Gordian Knot again, and return to this screen.

click to enlarge

Hit the edit button to show the AVISynth script editor.

What you must do is copy and paste the parts of your script that aren't present in the Gordian Knot script. For example, I would move all my plugin entries, the script import call, and the IIP commands. I did so, after I took the screenshot, so the changes aren't reflected. IIP is so slow that it encodes at .5-1 FPS, so obviously I didn't even bother to finish a sample. The real power of AVISynth isn't necessarily in the fact that it can upsize video (Via IIP, SharpResize, or something else), but in what it can do to enhance the general quality of the film. Denoising, film editing, fixing colours, correcting edge bleed, removing VHS noise, removing manifest line noise, removing logos, sharpening the picture, a powerful resizing engine, powerful deinterlacing, robust IVTC engine, and the list goes on. The power of AVISynth is virtually limitless in regards to video restoration/cleaning. For MPEG4, its main purpose is to provide instruction to the encoder: To import the film, clean it up a bit, resize it, and send it on its way. If you need deinterlacing, noise reduction and those sorts of things, simply edit the AVISynth script within Gordian Knot to load your plugin, then provide the syntax for your desired plugin. Generally you won't need to call complex scripts into your own, nor will you really need to write one yourself (An .AVS file). Gordian Knot provides a good default script that you can add to, that will also automatically save before you begin the process of encoding. The basic goal of the script I had you write was to show you just how robust and power AVISynth can get; if you take a look at the full IIP script, it can begin to boggle your mind.

The advanced encoding section is rather vague because the sheer enormity of this program makes it nearly impossible to educate beyond the syntax, some basic features, and how to implement it in your process. AVISynth, however, becomes a virtual must-have for proper MPEG2 encoding which is the next guide I'll be writing. It is the only way to control noise, resolution and sharpness with the most powerful MPEG2 Encoder: CinemaCraft.

Conclusion - DVD2XViD v2.0 in Review

Within the guide I have outlined three ways to encode in the XViD format. From quick, easy, and limited, to complicated, quick, and amazingly powerful . The choice is yours to make based on the feature sets you require and the time you have available to you to experiment. Over the course of the last three years, a lot has happened and I've also learned a great deal. The drive to learn the bigger and better programs is directly proportional to the user's dissatisfaction. There came a time when DVDx's encoding just wasn't as sharp, quick, or robust as I would've liked. It didn't properly handle AC3 streams. So I switched to learning DVD2AVI + AVIMUX encoding which had a better lanczos resizer, and support for AC3 mixing. Eventually that too didn't support all the features I wanted to incorporate, so I set out to learn the next step up which was Gordian Knot. So on and so forth. Never remain satisfied with your tools, always find a way to make them work better for you, or find a tool that is superior to what you're currently using. This method is advantageous in two regards: The first is that you're always on the edge of learning; that is you're never really behind when new advancements hit the community, you've learned the old material and you're ready for the new methods. The second advantage is that the quality of what you encode will be better, and that's the basic goal of anyone who's currently encoding to MPEG4 and specifically XViD with version 1.1 looming in the distance.

XViD itself, as you have seen, is a very versatile codec. Interfacing with a variety of programs, and arriving with an excellent compliment of features, XViD stands as a nimble and powerful codec constantly in a state of programming evolution. Approximately every three months, the codec has a major revision which brings new features to the table in terms of speed, quality, and compression. It's well ahead of DiVX in the size/quality ratio, and even farther ahead when you begin to see how many features XViD has that DiVX just doesn't. It's not that DiVX is poor, and I want to reinforce that. It's just that DiVX is not as good as XViD.

My many hearty thanks go out to the crew at Doom9.org and their forums for being on the bleeding edge of encoding, and for providing stable links to must-have programs. My thanks also to dvdrhelp.com which was instrumental in helping me find the spark to encode back in 2001; the reliable links for tools and helpful forums have helped me conquer a great many problems in my early days of encoding. Thank you to the readers of this article who should provide me with feedback in the Icrontic Forums, so I can make this as user-friendly as possible. Constructive and informative feedback will help me tune the guide over the course of the next few months to bridge any ambiguities and inaccuracies that may exist. While I have tried to approach this from a standpoint that will guide people through it for the first time, and teach them how to do it every time thereafter, there are probably some gaps that need to be filled. Consider this a living document, open for revision. And my largest thank you goes to Icrontic and the entire community that supports it. We've a hardy crew, and a great crew, and I'd want to be no place else on the internet. It is with great pride that the world sees this for the first time under Icrontic's banner.

Stay tuned for version 2.0 of the XViD/DiVX to DVD tutorial.