DVD Re-encoding Part 7892, or: Why I learned to be cynical about software.

Here I am again. Let's review:

MediaCoder doesn't work. When I add a DVD file that's supposed to combine four parts into one film, MediaCoder instead encodes the first two parts twice, so I have the first half of the movie back to back. Otherwise, when I try to use it for other things, it just plain crashes or fails to encode a film citing various errors. It's also way too complicated.

Handbrake actually works, but it doesn't work well. Even with maximum deblocking on, it still appears impossible to re-encode a movie without some blockiness, unless I want it to take up just as much space as it would in DVD form - which I don't.

AutoGK is an overall shitpile. It quite literally doesn't do what I tell it to. Always puts out a file in 1.4 gigabytes no matter what sizes I select, and always puts out a smaller picture size than 720 even if I tell it 720 and even if I turn the quality up to 100%. It seems to have one set of options it follows and those buttons on the front screen are just there to make you think you have control when you don't. Like that button you can press to supposedly make the light turn red so you can cross the street.

Just a quick note: No, it's not user error. I've been following instructions exactly, testing very very extensively and tweaking with every available option. This software just doesn't fucking work. My computer is also fine. And I've got multiple video running programs like MPC and VLC.

Spoiler for Further elaboration on the suck. (Not a necessary read.):

MediaCoder forums have way too much red tape keeping people from posting. (For example, they need to approve every post you make, including every edit. Like, seriously?) And it's practically against the rules to give them any kind of criticism. Handbrake forums have very low traffic and not a lot of people who know how to help you. And their solutions are too complicated, like "Enter these extremely confusing codes into a code box." And then they can't seem to make up their minds as to whether the codes can override the interface options or the interface options can override the codes.

What's more, those forums act like they're doing you some huge amazing favor. The developers fancy themselves fucking saints for taking some of their oh-so-precious time to explain to us how to use their shitty software. Now I'm not saying they're not generous. It's great that they're giving us free software. But by GOD do they love to rub it in and get all arrogant about it. Like donating $5 to charity and acting like you cured malaria. (And you used that same $5 to wipe your ass previously.)

Seriously, why doesn't anything just work? Why don't we have a decent piece of re-encoding software yet? This is the fucking internet. There's simply no excuse for this big mystery not being solved by now.

So now I'm back to square one. Yes, again. Any suggestions? I'm open to anything at this point.

Let somebody who knows what they're doing rip it. Google a rip or something, you're a technically inept failure a this stuff.

"Somebody who knows what they're doing" is even worse at it. When I go searching for other rips, they're often cut too thin for the aspect ratio so some of the image is lost. They're also often even blockier than what I can put out, even if the source video was a blu-ray. Believe me. If other rips were good enough, I wouldn't be going through all of this. It's my own encoding that I'm trying to do and that's what I'm dead-set on doing. Nothing can change my mind on that.

And no, I'm not a technically inept failure. I've done everything right. The problem really is in the software. Explain to me, how it's my fault that AutoGK doesn't perform the options I tell it to perform? Seriously, why do people always jump on the user and find it so hard to believe that maybe, just maybe, the software might be problematic? I know what I'm fucking doing, I'm just limited by the stone age tools I'm using.

Because DVDs and Bluray video discs are standardized. That's how you know that a DVD released today will play on the DVD player you bought 10 years ago. It must conform to the standard to bear the DVD forum's logo.

Your multiple issue is likely something to do with how the chapters are set up. You aren't understanding how to use the software if you think it's just "disobeying" you for shits and giggles. I still recommend you just give up, or settle for an existing rip.

If you're unhappy with other people's RIPs, but can't make one yourself, how about buying larger storage and just keeping raw DVD images?

If you're unhappy with other people's RIPs, but can't make one yourself, how about buying larger storage and just keeping raw DVD images?

Y'know, I actually considered that.

Because DVDs and Bluray video discs are standardized. That's how you know that a DVD released today will play on the DVD player you bought 10 years ago. It must conform to the standard to bear the DVD forum's logo.

Your multiple issue is likely something to do with how the chapters are set up. You aren't understanding how to use the software if you think it's just "disobeying" you for shits and giggles. I still recommend you just give up, or settle for an existing rip.

No, I don't. And you know that's not what I'm implying. Software doesn't have a sense of humor. Come on, let's be real here. What I'm implying is buggy programming, which software DOES have. Seriously, I'm not having issues getting the right chapters to encode (except in MediaCoder). So I fail to see how the disk configuration could be causing all my problems. Why is it so hard to believe that software isn't perfect? If you were in my shoes, you'd probably try absolutely everything before coming to the conclusion that it must be the software. Well, so did I! I'm not just posting this thread willy-nilly. If I thought there was any possible chance that it could be my fault, believe me, I wouldn't be here. (Except in the case of Handbrake. That one might be my fault because I'm very, very close to success with that one but I just can't get the right concoction of advanced options.)

Man Walking in Minefield Explodes; Blames Faulty Mines

Fine. Jeez. I'll ask around elsewhere. I was basically just looking for more software suggestions, but I know when I'm not wanted.

This must be the first time I've ever seen someone touch on a nerve spot for Roph. o.o

Tip for the future: if Roph says you're wrong, you're wrong.

You didn't ask for software suggestions, though. You instead wrote an essay about your troubles with dvd ripping and transcoding software. On top of that, you barely provide any technical information in your post. You really need to include more than "this software doesn't work despite my best efforts why doesn't it work?"

I've got a lot of time to kill so I'll tinker around with my rips and Handbrake for a bit and get back to you. What are your errors?

You didn't ask for software suggestions, though. You instead wrote an essay about your troubles with dvd ripping and transcoding software. On top of that, you barely provide any technical information in your post. You really need to include more than "this software doesn't work despite my best efforts why doesn't it work?"

I've got a lot of time to kill so I'll tinker around with my rips and Handbrake for a bit and get back to you. What are your errors?

Well, I'm not receiving any errors per say, but basically when I try with Handbrake I use these settings:

Spoiler for:

I'm trying to encode "Equilibrium" at the moment. The problem I have is, even though they're few and far between, I still notice blockiness every now and then. I turned the deblocking functions on the advanced menu to their lowest negative values (which makes them work the most) and keep the Deblock setting on the video filter menu to off because using that one just seems to cause more blocking. I've been messing around with target size, average bitrate, and constant quality, and the last of those three seems to give me the best picture results comparatively, so now I've been tweaking the constant quality up and down. I originally tried 17, then 16, 15, but this most recent attempt was 6. I hardly noticed any blocking this time, but I still noticed some. In the advanced options menu, I also tried setting "Adaptive Direct Mode" to "Automatic", Motion Estimation Method to "Transformed Exhaustive", Subpixel ME & Mode Decision to "9: RD refine in all frames", Pyramidal B-Frames to "Strict", and "Motion Estimation Range" to 32. However, setting those options to higher values doesn't seem to have an impact on the blockiness issue.

And the blockiness is becoming less and less noticable with higher constant quality, but I'm basically trying to eliminate blockiness altogether and still save space like I've seen some do with films and anime before. (I've also tried encoding anime with this program, and had similar issues.) Some people manage to get absolutely perfect anime encodes at less than 300 megabytes an episode, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how.

EDIT: Okay, upon further inspection of my first post, I can concede that I was a bit of a douche. And now I feel bad. There.