DOCUMENTATION

dvd::rip - Copyright © Jörn Reder, All Rights Reserved

2.8. Transcode

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   Click for zoom
    Adjust most transcode
options here
On this page you can adjust any options which affect transcoding the movie in general. It's divided into seven frames: Container options, Video options, Audio options, Video bitrate calculation, Calculated Storage, General options and Operate.


2.8.1 Container options

First you have to decide which target container format you want to have. You have three options here:

  1. AVI
  2. OGG
  3. (S)VCD
Refer to the corresponding concept chapter for details about the different formats. Probably not all items are selectable, if you don't have the correspondent tools installed.


2.8.2 Video options


2.8.2.1 Video Codec / ffmpeg/af6 codec

You can choose any video codec transcode supports. Some convenient codecs for the selected container format are listed in the combo box, but you can enter the name by hand (only SVCD and VCD are handled specially - see note below), in case transcode has a new codec which isn't known by dvd::rip yet.

If you decide to use an avifile codec (setting af6) you can specify the exact codec to use in the ffmpeg/af6 Video Codec field. If you select ffmpeg as a video codec, the field is automatically preset with mpeg4, because that's usually what you want - but can override this setting if you like.

SVCD and VCD "video codecs"

SVCD and VCD are listed as video codecs here, although that's not really correct. Both produce MPEG streams (MPEG1 for VCD, MPEG2 for SVCD), considering accordingly SVCD/VCD restrictions. E.g. you have MP2 as the only audio codec option. Also the bitrate calculation will be restricted or is even not available (in case of VCD - it has fixed bitrates). Also consider setting the correct Clip & Zoom options, resp. select a proper preset. You'll get a warning if you try to encode a MPEG which doesn't respect the (S)VCD restrictions.

Note: you need transcode's mjpeg export filter, which uses mjpeg-tools.


2.8.2.2 Video framerate

The framerate is determined automatically. For some NTSC DVDs you have to override this guess. Please refer to the transcode documentation for details about NTSC processing.


2.8.2.3 2-pass encoding

MPEG4 like codecs (Xvid, Divx4/5) support 2-pass encoding. The first run produces a logfile, which is analyzed by the second run to estimate optimal encoding parameters and to achieve an average encoding bitrate, that is close to the supplied video bitrate value. So this increases encoding quality and target size matching, but needs twice as long as a 1-pass transcoding.


2.8.2.4 Deinterlacing

If your DVD is interlaced you should enable Deinterlacing. transcode supports several deinterlace filters:

Interpolate Scanlines
is very fast, but has poor quality.

Handled by encoder
doesn't actually work with any encoder: transcode will crash (but this may change, so dvd::rip still offers this option ;).

Zoom to full frame
will give good quality, but is slow.

Automatic deinterlacing of single frames
This special filter is useful for NTSC movies, which have only single frames interlaced. These are detected automatically and deinterlaced where necessary. (Torsten Howard posted a detailed description of what happens here).

Smart deinterlacing
is a port from VirtualDub's smartdeinter filter with a convenient default options.

Note:
Another option for deinterlacing is to choose a deinterlacer from the Filter & Preview dialog. All filters mentioned above are also available there, but you can modify all filter specific options and preview their result in realtime.


2.8.2.5 Configure filters & preview

The Configure filters & preview... button opens a new window, which let you configure all transcode filters with all their options and preview the result in realtime. This dialog is described in its own chapter.


2.8.3 Audio options


2.8.3.1 Select DVD audio track

First the Audio options frame is divded into two parts: DVD audio track selection popup and a notebook with the settings for this particular audio track. So you can mave multitple audio tracks in the target file.

All settings will follow your DVD audio track selection.


2.8.3.2 Select correspondent target track

By default dvd::rip activates the audio track you selected for volume scanning on the rip page. But you can change this at any time by using the Target track popup.

It lists all possible target track numbers (up to the maximum of available DVD audio tracks), and the entry Skip / Deactivate this track. Assign the target track number you want, or deactivate the audio track. This way you can add as many audio tracks as you want, with a specific order.

Now you can choose from a number of audio codecs, which depend on the selected container format. E.g. you can't have Vorbis in an AVI or MPEG resp. (S)VCD, so Vorbis is disabled then.


2.8.3.3 MP3

You can select or enter an Audio bitrate (128kbit is Ok for most movies) and an encoding Quality. 0 - best but slower is recommended here. You will loose one or two frames per second transcoding speed, but the quality is significantly better as with 9 - low but slower. It's up to you: you can choose out of 10 quality levels. (This corresponds to the quality settings of lame which is used for MP3 encoding).


2.8.3.4 Vorbis

You must decide between to modes for the Vorbis codec:

  1. Quality based encoding
  2. Bitrate based encoding
Vorbis in general doesn't support fixed bitrates. If you decide to use the bitrate mode, it tries to hit the selected bitrate as close as possible - mostly the real overall bitrate is somewhat lower.

Usually the quality mode brings better results, in particular because dvd::rip applies some special handling for it: first the audio is encoded with the selected quality level. After that, the real audio size is measured and the video bitrate will be adjusted correspondently. This squeezes everthing out of the available space ;)


2.8.3.5 AC3

There are no further settings for the AC3 codec, because the original DVD AC3 audio track will be passed through without modification. This gives best quality and preserving surround encoding.

Note: AC3 passthrough is currently available only for ripped movies. It's disabled for on-the-fly and DVD image projects.


2.8.3.6 MP2

The MP2 codec appears only if you have a video codec VCD or SVCD set. In case of SVCD you can select an Audio bitrate. VCD has a fixed rate of 224 kps.


2.8.3.7 PCM

The PCM option appears only if the correspondent source audio track is PCM encoded. There are no further settings, because the PCM audio data is passed through without changes.


2.8.3.8 Filters

For all audio codecs, but AC3 (which is passed through without modification) you can apply a Filter. There are currently three choices:

  1. None, volume rescale only
  2. Range compression (liba52 filter)
  3. Normalizing (mplayer filter)
It's not recommended to use volume rescaling in conjunction with the normalizing filter, because volume rescaling is done after normalizing, so the result may be distorted. That's why dvd::rip clears the volume rescale entry when normalizing is selected.


2.8.3.9 Sample rate

You can change the sample rate for MP3 and Vorbis codecs. But be careful with odd values here, transcode resp. lame bails out for unusual samplerates - 48000, 44100 and 24000 seem to make no problems.


2.8.3.10 Volume rescale / scanning

The Volume Rescale entry will show a number, e.g. 2.155 or something like that, if you scanned the volume already (this is done automatically for the audio track you selected before ripping). This is the suggested value for maximizing the volume of the audio channel, which is available in non chapter mode only. Clear this field, if you don't want transcode rescaling the volume. If the field is empty you can scan a proper value by pressing the Scan value button besides.


2.8.4 Video bitrate calculation

Video bitrate can be calculated automatically to achieve best fit of your movie on the desired number of discs. So you must specify how big the resulting movie file should be:


2.8.4.1 Target media selection

Because burning the result to one or more CDR is common you can specify the desired target size by a multiple of 703 MB, or whatever you selected or entered into the corresponding combo box. The Target size and Video bitrate entries will be filled automatically.


2.8.4.2 Target size by hand

If the above scheme of multiplying doesn't fit your needs, you can enter an arbitrary target size (in MB) here. The Video bitrate entry will be updated accordingly.


2.8.4.3 Consider frame range

If you want to transcode a specific frame range not only for testing purposes but for the real task, you should enable the Use range checkbox. Then the selected frame range will be used to calculate the video bitrate, not the whole movie.


2.8.4.4 Video bitrate by hand

If you don't like to have the Video bitrate calculated automatically at all, just activate the Manual checkbox and enter the bitrate you like to the Video bitrate entry.


2.8.5 Calculated storage

   Click for zoom
    Bitrate calculation in detail
This frame shows the actual storage calculation. The video size is derived from the video bitrate. The non video-size sums up the needed space for audio, subtitles and other overhead. The total size is just the sum of both and should be nearly the target size you specified (if you didn't not override dvd::rip's video bitrate suggestion).

You can press the Show details... button to open a new window, which shows all steps of the video bitrate calculation, so you can see exactly what happens here. The window can stay open all the time. Its calculation sheet follows your settings immediately.


2.8.6 General options

This frame consists of a few parameters, which affect the transcoding process in general:


2.8.6.1 Frame range / Test transcoding

You can specify a Frame range by entering a starting and/or end frame number. It's a good idea to transcode about 1000 frames in the middle of the movie to check if your settings are Ok. If you're satisfied with the result, clear both entries (which means transcoding the full movie).

Note: frame range transcoding is rather slow for on-the-fly and DVD image projects, because all prior frames must be decoded. Fast movie navigation is available for ripped movies only.


2.8.6.2 transcode options

You can add arbitrary transcode options by entering those to the transcode options field. These options are added to the internal transcode call, resp. they override corresponding options already computed by dvd::rip. This is for experts who want to use special transcode features not currently officially supported by dvd::rip (or to fix dvd::rip bugs which are not fixed yet ;).


2.8.6.3 Process nice level

If you enter a nice level the transcode command will be started using nice -n level, otherwise transcode is started without a special nice level. A value of 19 will run transcode with lowest priority. Providing negative values for increasing the priority is only possible if you start dvd::rip as root, what's not recommended at all.


2.8.6.4 Preview window

If you activate the Preview window, a window showing the actual encoded frame will appear while transcoding.


2.8.6.5 Use PSU core

You should keep the Use PSU core radio button enabled, if you have a NTSC movie. This fixes most of transcode's NTSC A/V sync issues. Refer to this section for some details regarding PSU core.

Note: this function is available only for ripped movies. It's disabled for on-the-fly and DVD image projects.


2.8.6.6 Execute afterwards / exit afterwards

If you want to shut down the computer after transcoding or want to do other things, you can enter a shell command to the Execute afterwards text entry. If you want dvd::rip to exit after transcoding, enable the checkbox and exit.


2.8.7 Operate


2.8.7.1 Transcode + Split

In case of a multi CD rip you press on the Transcode + Split button. The movie will be transcoded, using the options you specified, and split afterwards into pieces of the size you specified in the Target media size combo box.

When you start transcoding a .dvdrip-info file will be generated, which contains all interesting technical information about your rip (e.g. bitrates, audio tracks, codecs etc.). This way you later know which settings applied to this specific rip.


2.8.7.2 Transcode

This starts transcoding without splitting afterwards. You'll get one big movie file.


2.8.7.3 Split AVI/OGG/MPEG

The label of this button depends on the selected container format (Ogg if you have Vorbis audio tracks, AVI for MP3/AC3 and MPEG in case of a (S)VCD rip.

However: when clicking this button the target file will be splitted (makes only sense, if you prior didn't press Transcode + Split.


2.8.7.4 View AVI/OGG/MPEG

The movie player you configured for file playback will be started to play the transcoded movie.


2.8.7.5 Add to cluster

This will add the actual project to a dvd::rip cluster. Refer to the Cluster chapter for details.


2.8.8 Create a WAV file

If you just want to have a WAV file from your music DVD, e.g. to burn it on a traditional audio CD: select the correspondent audio track and select the Create WAV from selected audio track item in the Operate menu. If the audio track is PCM already, it will be passed through, otherwise a correspondent conversion resp. downmix will be applied.

If your project is in chapter mode, you'll get one WAV file per chapter.


DOCUMENTATION

dvd::rip - Copyright © Jörn Reder, All Rights Reserved