Tools for making movies?

[Lund]

Hi

I am about to make a movie from game demos (counter-strike) using the XVID encoder.
Now, I have now tried alot of different settings for encoding and I can't seem to get the decired result of quality. I am getting horisontal stribes and a slightly blurry picture. I know that I should disable interlace for no stribes and increase bitrate for a better picture, but even then I get little stribes by motion and a square like picture (have set it to 4000 in bkps).

Are there any tools I can and should use to improve the encoding quality in XVID?

Any advise on how to get the optimal settings in XVID are highly appreciated as well. Thx.

/Lund

[georgiek50]

Virtualdub is the best freeware encoder out there. You should follow the guides present on this site, as well as divx.com and even everwicked.com...what type is your source video?

[Enchanter]

"even then I get little stribes by motion "

Looks like your source is interlaced. You should use a deinterlacer prior to compressing the video. Here is one example on how you can achieve this:

1. Load the file into Virtualdub(Mod)
2. Set Video tab to Full Processing Mode (and Audio tab, in the Stream List, to Direct Stream Copy)
3. Under Video tab, go to Filters and select the Deinterlacer filter (or a different deinterlacer you might prefer to use). Configure accordingly.
4. Configure the XviD codec, as you have done previously.
5. Go to File -> Save as AVI and give a name to the new file


"a square like picture (have set it to 4000 in bkps). "

This is confusing. Can you be more precise on this?


Regards.

[Lund]

Hi

georgiek50 and Enchanter thx for your replies.

I have installed VirtuelDub.
WOW, that program has many settings.
Enchanter I'll try your tutorial and also look at the guides on the site.
Conc. the square like picture (sorry for the bad discription) I meant that it was very pixilated dispite the high bitrate, but don't think there is much to do about that.
An explanation for my poor result may be affected by the source file also being a xvid-file. I will try with a plain avi-file.
I'll try some different settings with that program and get back if further problems occur.

Thanks again.

/Lund

[Enchanter]

"I meant that it was very pixilated dispite the high bitrate"

I take it you meant "macroblocks". It's baffling to know that it occurs at high bitrates though. If you are trying to encode the video at 4000kbps, you might as well use the "1-pass, quality-based" setting and use 80-100% quality.

Regards.

[georgiek50]

Your source file, this "Xvid" file, how does that look? If it looks bad with macroblocks, or is pixelated, re-encoding WILL NOT make it better under any circumstance. The copy is always a little bit less in quality even under the most optimal of settings.

[Enchanter]

"If it looks bad with macroblocks, or is pixelated, re-encoding WILL NOT make it better under any circumstance."

Seconded.

Macroblocks (especially the seriously large ones) are next to impossible to completely remove. The only thing you can do is re-capture the video (and make sure that the bitrate used is sufficiently high so as to avoid compression artifacts, like macroblocks).

Regards.

[georgiek50]

What's really driving me nuts about this thread is that we still don't know what type of file the source is. Should I assume it's an avi since it's referred to as an 'Xvid' file?

[Lund]

Hi again

Hehe geogiek50 im sorry for driving you nuts, so in case you dont know how these types of movies are made, here is a little explanation:

In-game you make a demo, this can then be converted to bmp's using a special command. Now, you have A LOT of bmp's which have to be assembled into an .avi file using another program. The file that exits that program is then my avi source file. The problem is that we are talking extreme size of these avis, so what I did was to encode it into xvid already at that time.
I order to make a movie I then importet that xvid-file into my rendering program which then rendered using the xvid code again, hence the many macroblocks (thx enchanter) in my final piece.
The solution is of course to maintain the full uncompressed size in the whole process and then encode it in virtueldub at the end - im sure you knew that the whole time . But since I am new to this I had to learn by doing and finally I got a good result out of it.
Thank you for recommening VirtuelDub

I hope you are now less confused

/Lund