h.264 oddities

[reggie14]

I have a new update on this issue. Sage had me reinstall a server on a different computer and trying connecting to that. I can play back MKV files from that server. So, we're pretty sure the problem I'm experiencing is caused by some network problem on my Sage server that doesn't get along with the network optimizations used in the newer firmwares.

Just for kicks, I uninstalled and reinstalled Sage, which didn't help. Also, as I said before, I've tried two different network controllers on my server (the one standard on nforce2 motherboards, and a gigabit controller Asus added to their deluxe motherboards), and neither work.

I'm running out of ideas. Maybe there's just a problem with these network controllers that can't be fixed, but that seems weird since I've tried two different controllers. The only other thing I can think of is to reformat and reinstall everything. But, that's a big pain so I want to try everything else first. Does anyone have any other ideas?

[Taddeusz]

What are the configurations of your server and the test machine (hardware and software)? You mention the NF2. No offense but that's a pretty old chipset. This also means you're running an Athon or Athon XP. Have you done any BIOS tweaking on your server? I ask because if you've changed the PCI latency from the default value of 32 that may be causing problems. PCI latency should always be set to 32. That's the industry standard for PCI and should really not be touched.

Off the top of my head PCI latency is the only thing that I can think could be causing issues. You should also check to make sure your hard drives are still running in UDMA mode. If any of them is set to run in UDMA mode but is actually running in PIO mode you'll need to remove that channel from the Device Manager and then reboot to redetect it.

[reggie14]

The server is a Asus A7N8X-E nforce2 motherboard with a 2.0Ghz Athlon XP. There's 512 megs of Kingston RAM that have passed software checks, and a collection of PATA and SATA hard drives. None of them are in PIO mode, at least, based on the BIOS and the fact that I get decent performance out of them without eating CPU cycles.

The server software consists of WinXP SP2, Java 1.6.0_4, Sage 6.3.10, and DirMon2/SA. That's about it. I had AVG on there, but I tried removing it to see if that helped (years ago Norton gave me lots of problems because of its worm protection, so that's why I tried removing AVG).

The test server I setup was an Inspiron 6000 notebook, running WinXP SP2, Java 1.6.0_02 and Sage 6.3.10.

Thanks for the point about PCI latency. I think the processor is overclocked a little. I'll reset the BIOS settings and report back.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by reggie14

The server is a Asus A7N8X-E nforce2 motherboard with a 2.0Ghz Athlon XP. There's 512 megs of Kingston RAM that have passed software checks, and a collection of PATA and SATA hard drives. None of them are in PIO mode, at least, based on the BIOS and the fact that I get decent performance out of them without eating CPU cycles.

Your SATA drives are probably ok. You can't check UDMA mode in the BIOS though. You have to do it in Windows. Go to the Device Manager in Windows. Right click on My Computer and select Manage. Click Device Manager. Click the + next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Double click on either the primary or secondary. I'm using Vista so I can't see it but I think it's under Advanced Settings it will tell you what mode the drive is currently running under.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by reggie14

The server is a Asus A7N8X-E nforce2 motherboard with a 2.0Ghz Athlon XP. There's 512 megs of Kingston RAM that have passed software checks, and a collection of PATA and SATA hard drives. None of them are in PIO mode, at least, based on the BIOS and the fact that I get decent performance out of them without eating CPU cycles.

The server software consists of WinXP SP2, Java 1.6.0_4, Sage 6.3.10, and DirMon2/SA. That's about it. I had AVG on there, but I tried removing it to see if that helped (years ago Norton gave me lots of problems because of its worm protection, so that's why I tried removing AVG).

The test server I setup was an Inspiron 6000 notebook, running WinXP SP2, Java 1.6.0_02 and Sage 6.3.10.

Thanks for the point about PCI latency. I think the processor is overclocked a little. I'll reset the BIOS settings and report back.

Long shot but since you have an nforce2 MB have you tried info from this post with it?

[reggie14]

Taddeusz- My drives are all in UDMA mode.

BobPhoenix- I disabled checksum offloading as discussed in that thread, but it didn't help.

I'm going to try reformatting this weekend and see if that fixes it. I'll post an update in a couple days.

[reggie14]

So, I saw a Q6600 at Micro Center for $200 and decided I should get it, and swap my old AthlonX2/nforce4 MB into my Sage server. I seem to be mostly problem-free now. I'm still having problems with the old files I made in Handbrake, but I'm sure that's a Handbrake problem.

I don't know why the nForce2 MB didn't like me. I never tried reformatting. I'm a little curious if that would have fixed it. But, its nice to have a quad-core in my workstation, and a dual-core on my Sage server.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Taddeusz]

I'm thinking of upgrading my server to a quad core so I can have more ShowAnalyzer tasks running at the same time. Stuff is so cheap right now, particularly RAM, it's kind of ridiculous. The motherboard and RAM I'd get cost only about $160 then whatever for the processor. That's pretty dang good.

Right now though, for some reason, I think my server is seek limited. If it's recording 3 or 4 programs at a time I have a hard time keeping a my client or HD Extender from stuttering. I don't know if it's a weakness in the NF4 SATA controller or system bus or what? But I've had a particularly difficult time on nights when lots of stuff is recording.

[Taddeusz]

Just thought I'd post an update. Lately I've been playing around with the quality settings in AutoMKV. I noticed I hadn't been using the AQ settings and I'm also trying to reduce the bitrate to a more reasonable amount. While 1GB/hr isn't completely horrible I figured I could get much better while maintaining a semblance of quality.

So, I started messing around with the Constant profile. Doing some experiments I figured out that a CRF of 23 gives me movies that are usually around 1GB with the full AC3 audio.

For really dark movies like Sin City or Planet Terror a higher CRF has to be used to keep the size reasonable. At 23 I ended up with a 2.3GB file which was larger than the 2-pass 2000kbps conversion I had already done. Setting the output file size to 1GB gave me a CRF of 29.45 and yielded too much quality loss. I knocked it down to 27.25 which gave me fairly decent quality and came in around 1.5GB.

I'm going to keep testing but it appears I have found a new standard and am probably going to reconvert my movies so I can fit more in the same space. using CRF mode along with reasonable AQ settings yields really nice results with as little macroblocking as possible.

I'm feeling now like I originally went a little overboard on the file size keeping a bitrate of 2000kbps on the video. Watching the statistics in VLC it appears as if it's now around 1000kbps for the entire video (I'm assuming the statistics combine video and audio).

[Taddeusz]

If anyone is interested the latest versions of x264 produce excellent results at lower bitrates! Particularly with the default AQ turned on. The extreme macro blocking of the past has become virtually non-existent. I started messing around with the latest beta of Handbrake which uses a newer x264 and noticed how good it looked in comparison to what I had been getting from AutoMKV.

Then I realized there was a new public beta of AutoMKV going on that is compatible with the new AQ settings. You just have to see for yourself as to how nice the new x264 looks. Dark areas are no longer filled with macro blocking. It was exactly what I was wishing for!

[jasongrimme]

Hey Taddeusz,

I've followed your posts a lot on converting DVDs to h.264 MKV files, but when I look @ switching from Handbrake to autoMKV, I could it a bit overwhelming. Would you happen to have any sort of "AutoMKV for Dummies" guide on how you use it (configuration paramaters, tweaks, etc) for converting DVDs for viewing in Sage?

Thanks, I really appreciate your information!!!

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jasongrimme

Hey Taddeusz,

I've followed your posts a lot on converting DVDs to h.264 MKV files, but when I look @ switching from Handbrake to autoMKV, I could it a bit overwhelming. Would you happen to have any sort of "AutoMKV for Dummies" guide on how you use it (configuration paramaters, tweaks, etc) for converting DVDs for viewing in Sage?

Thanks, I really appreciate your information!!!

Unfortunately I don't. I personally would really love to use Handbrake. I've been working with them to correct a bug with their IVTC system so that it may be more usable to me. The only other discrepancy I've found with Handbrake is that while it will allow you to use the original AC3 soundtrack it will not do the same for DTS. Overall Handbrake is the better program but it's few shortcomings forced me to switch.

Not that AutoMKV doesn't have it's own problems but those I can at least live with for the time being. AutoMKV has made some improvements but there are areas where it definitely still needs work. I won't go into those details here.

How you setup AutoMKV really depends on your goals. Whether you chose anamorphic or not, how much quality you want to keep, etc. I personally have come up with a custom Constant Quality for myself with tweaked settings. I'm not sure if it's any better or worse but I basically matched it with what I was getting from Handbrake.

I've included screenshots from the settings I use.