Which is The Best Quality - Best or DVD Standard

[mike1961]

I can't remember when reinstalling StaxRip how to specify the template and what that means (ie: dvd, dvb, etc).

Thanks,
Mike

[dvd_maniac]

You are right. Staxrip is free. I meant since I own Nero 7 and the upgrade to Reloaded will be free that Staxrip will be obsolete to "ME". I thought you had it too so I just assumed

Just open your fresh copy of Stax, pick an X264 profile for the Video encoder. Pick an AAC profile for your Audio codec, Pick MP4 for your container. Make adjustments to bitrate or filesize or make your CQ adjustments and do not open a video. Then click File -> Save Project as Template and give name like X264 CQ...
Then goto Tools -> Settings -> Startup Template and pick the template you just saved. Then everytime you startup Stax it will default to your default settings.

[mike1961]

Yes - I too own Nero 7. It's just that when someone says that something is "obsolete" I usually think it means that the new product is better or does more regardless of cost. So, if the new version does not do more then I could still see a lot of people using StaxRip. But, on the other hand, if Nero winds up being faster and more efficient then I could possibly see many making the purchase.

I still have not figured out why StaxRip is chopping off so much of the mpg file. I'll post over at doom 9.

Thanks again,
Mike

[mike1961]

Hello - I just signed up for my ID on Doom9 but I can't post for 5 days. I noticed at the bottom of the log file it says:

=> 624,007,228 bytes written...
-> we have 8439 warnings/errors.

I've attached the log file below which is loaded with dropped b frames and I have no idea why.

Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.

Mike

[dvd_maniac]

Hi Mike,

The dropping useless B-Frames error messages you are getting are basic transmission errors reported by ProjectX and are usually OK. But you seem to be getting alot of them.
Do the videos in question play out of sync with WMP? Maybe your dropping frames in your recordings. What is the video source? What channel/Cable provider? Do you own VideoReDo? If so try a quick stream fix first.

Most of the time a simple Demux/Remux with TMPGenc would fix this too but your file did have a LOT of these errors.

I will look in the projectX forum a little bit tommorow and see if I can find anything more.

[mike1961]

Yes I have VideoRedo. How do I do a quick stream fix? As far as I can tell, there are no problems playing the mpeg 2 file (which was recorded with Sage). Basically, if I use StaxRip to create the mp4 file a 2 hour video winds up skipping stuff all over the place and is only around 20 minutes. But again, I'm not sure if it is doing with with all videos. I saw this problem once before and I don't recall if it was the video or what I did to fix it. But, I've already tried reinstalling StaxRip and also I've tried this on two separate computers. The moment I open the file with StaxRip as you know it can take around 5 minutes just to open a 5 gig file because it's creating files and a temp folder. Once it's open it has already truncated the length.

Thanks for any info,
Mike

[dvd_maniac]

open video in VideoReDo and under tools is the Quick stream fix.
Open the file in VideoReDo and move around in the time bar. If it has alot of errors in the stream then it will say something like can't seek to specified time and to try the Quick stream fix.

[mike1961]

I tried the Quick Stream fix. The movie is about 90 minutes and when StaxRip opened it, it truncated it to 6 minutes.

I'm totally at a loss as to why. I'd like to use the high profile over Nero but I also know that Nero will conver the file without a problem.

Mike

[ChePazzo]

I went through the properties file and realized that the python2 lines for the included recording qualities are no longer in there - just the ones that I added. Is there any way to view the properties line for the included ones?

[dvd_maniac]

Originally Posted by mike1961

I tried the Quick Stream fix. The movie is about 90 minutes and when StaxRip opened it, it truncated it to 6 minutes.

I'm totally at a loss as to why. I'd like to use the high profile over Nero but I also know that Nero will conver the file without a problem.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Did VRD display any error message when seeking through the file?
Have you tried to use Nero to encode it? If yes, does it encode the whole file properly without sync issues?

I went through the properties file and realized that the python2 lines for the included recording qualities are no longer in there - just the ones that I added. Is there any way to view the properties line for the included ones?

I believe they were taken out for simplicity so no one could screw them up. I do not think the seeker line is needed but I think they are still the same as the following:

mmc/python2_encoding/Best\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=5000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=7500000
mmc/python2_encoding/Fair\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=2000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=3000000
mmc/python2_encoding/Good\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=3000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=4500000
mmc/python2_encoding/Great\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=4000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=6000000
mmc/python2_encoding/Highest\ Quality=videobitrate\=9500000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384

mmc/python2_encoding/Highest\ Quality\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=6000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=9000000
mmc/python2_encoding/MPEG2\ Max\ Quality\ -\ Variable\ Rate=videobitrate\=9000000|width\=720|height\=480| audiobitrate\=384|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=12575000

seeker/recording_qualities/Best\ -\ Variable\ Rate=Best - Variable Rate,384,48000,7500000

seeker/recording_qualities/Fair\ -\ Variable\ Rate=Fair - Variable Rate,384,48000,3000000

seeker/recording_qualities/Good\ -\ Variable\ Rate=Good - Variable Rate,384,48000,4500000

seeker/recording_qualities/Great\ -\ Variable\ Rate=Great - Variable Rate,384,48000,6000000

seeker/recording_qualities/Highest\ Quality\ -\ 4.25GB\ per\ hr=Highest Quality,384,48000,9500000

seeker/recording_qualities/Highest\ Quality\ -\ Variable\ Rate=Highest Quality - Variable Rate,384,48000,9000000

seeker/recording_qualities/MPEG2\ Max\ Quality\ -\ Variable\ Rate=MPEG2 Max Quality - Variable Rate,384,48000,12575000

[mike1961]

As far as I can tell, VRD did not display any error messages when seeking through the file? I even tried removing the beginning and ending (about a minute since I often record 1 min before and after the movie ends as a buffer). Also, I could easily and quickly scroll through the entire 90 min movie which winds up being only about 6 min once opened with StaxRip.

I'm going to use Nero to encode to test but I'm quite certain that it will encode the entire file without any problems (as I had this problem with one movie a while back). I'm totally perplexed as to what is causing this problem.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

I think I may have found the problem. Recording in Best seems to have problems with StaxRip. But, if I record in DVD Standard it seems to not drop useless B-Frames.

Mike

[dvd_maniac]

does anybody else here have a NVidia dual tuner card that encodes using Staxeip? I would be interested in knowing if Best quality and this card is the problem since I am thinking of purchasing it.

[mike1961]

I can't recall if I had this problem before with my old card that I did an RMA on (but I don't think I did). But, it seems to work fine in DVD Standard which is 3.2 gb/hour. The difference of course being that DVD Standard is variable and not constant. But, the problem does not exist in either mode when I use Nero encoding. However, the problem also did not start until after I installed and uninstalled the IPod software so I don't know if that was the culprit.

Mike