Ocarina of Time Speedrun Quality Test

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-08 10:53:39 pm

2010-04-08 12:05:09 pm

I am planning on starting an Ocarina of Time segmeted speedrun that I want to submit to SDA. The file is MPEG-2 (I know you guys say to upload a SDA mp4 but I had trouble making one). The quality test file is only 48.6mb so I hope it's not a problem.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jkziym3dz5e

* Operating System - Windows XP Pro
* Method used to capture my run - EasyCap DC60 Capture Device
* Resolution - 640x480
* How I produced the video - Used S-Video output. I took the raw mpeg-2 file and cut it in Sony Vegas, then re-rendered it as mpeg-2 at highest video quality, Progressive Scan, at 8,000,000bps Variable Bit Rate.
* Name of the game, which console - Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64
* NTSC or PAL - NTSC

Any suggestions before I begin the speedrun? I want to make sure I am recording the correct way before I start and that my run will be published if it's submitted. I think it looks great at these settings. I have made an MP4 with Megui and the SDA presets before but it's a bit complicated and I have since forgotten how. But it says you guys encode yourselves so I suppose all I have to do is send you the proper-cut mpeg files when I am done with the run?

Thread title:

I am planning on starting an Ocarina of Time segmeted speedrun that I want to submit to SDA. The file is MPEG-2 (I know you guys say to upload a SDA mp4 but I had trouble making one). The quality test file is only 48.6mb so I hope it's not a problem.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jkziym3dz5e

* Operating System - Windows XP Pro
* Method used to capture my run - EasyCap DC60 Capture Device
* Resolution - 640x480
* How I produced the video - Used S-Video output. I took the raw mpeg-2 file and cut it in Sony Vegas, then re-rendered it as mpeg-2 at highest video quality, Progressive Scan, at 8,000,000bps Variable Bit Rate.
* Name of the game, which console - Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64
* NTSC or PAL - NTSC

Any suggestions before I begin the speedrun? I want to make sure I am recording the correct way before I start and that my run will be published if it's submitted. I think it looks great at these settings. I have made an MP4 with Megui and the SDA presets before but it's a bit complicated and I have since forgotten how. But it says you guys encode yourselves so I suppose all I have to do is send you the proper-cut mpeg files when I am done with the run?

aleckermit

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-09 01:00:45 am

2010-04-09 12:54:36 am

I got some help from MrSparkle and some others and I have now done things right. I used the raw video file this time (no re-rendering) and used Anri-Chan to make the mp4's.

Included are the LQ, MQ, and HQ SDA MP4 files as well as the Anri-Chan log file as requested:

http://www.mediafire.com/?djm3m3znfnn

PS: I left the video at 720x480 which is why there are black bars on the side of the video. If I change the video to 640x480 they go away. Thought I'd stick to the native resolution for the quality test through ;).

nate

2010-04-09 02:03:16 am

can you upload the raw file you put in?

aleckermit

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-09 01:12:12 pm

2010-04-09 11:04:23 am

Quote from nate:

can you upload the raw file you put in?

It's 3.5GB... Don't know if you want that.

Basically since Anri-Chan only accepts AVI I changed my MPEG-2 file to uncompressed AVI so that it would accept the file. Not sure if there is a better (smaller file size) codec to use when changing it to AVI?

I could upload a raw MPEG-2 file to you... that's what my capture device outputs. The problem is that I have to make it into an AVI in order for anri-chan to work with it...

EDIT: OK apparently my capture device can output in pretty much any format (including AVI). What kind of AVI codec should I output with (Uncompressed, ffdshow, Intel Indeo 4.5, microsoft video 1, etc)? Or should I use non-software compression (YUY2, I420, UYVY)?

EDIT2: I've been outputting a lot of different AVI files using different codecs and the only .avi files I can get Anri-Chan to encode is uncompressed. Using Uncompressed output is way too large and the game seems to skip occasionally while capturing (which for speedrunning is unacceptable of course). All the others .avi codecs I've tried to have encoded with anri-chan so far give this error during encoding: "ERROR: could not open WAV file".

[quote="nate"]
can you upload the raw file you put in?
[/quote]

It's 3.5GB... Don't know if you want that.

Basically since Anri-Chan only accepts AVI I changed my MPEG-2 file to uncompressed AVI so that it would accept the file. Not sure if there is a better (smaller file size) codec to use when changing it to AVI?

I could upload a raw MPEG-2 file to you... that's what my capture device outputs. The problem is that I have to make it into an AVI in order for anri-chan to work with it...
[b]
EDIT: OK apparently my capture device can output in pretty much any format (including AVI). What kind of AVI codec should I output with (Uncompressed, ffdshow, Intel Indeo 4.5, microsoft video 1, etc)? Or should I use non-software compression (YUY2, I420, UYVY)? [/b]

[b]EDIT2: I've been outputting a lot of different AVI files using different codecs and the only .avi files I can get Anri-Chan to encode is uncompressed. Using Uncompressed output is way too large and the game seems to skip occasionally while capturing (which for speedrunning is unacceptable of course).  All the others .avi codecs I've tried to have encoded with anri-chan so far give this error during encoding: "ERROR: could not open WAV file". [/b]

Mystery

2010-04-09 02:25:12 pm

If your capture program allows you to select any VFW filter, then try Huffyuv. It's lossless, so your files won't lose quality, but it will be much smaller than uncompressed.
Other than that, for a quality test, you could use another program, like MeGUI. Basically, choose any Quality-factor profile, goto settings and select Q=20 or so, change the speed slider to something like Fast and encode away. Then use the MeGUI muxer to mux your new video with the old audio (or you encode that separately if you want). This may sound a little difficult, so you don't have to do it Tongue

Regardless, it's good to have experience and it isn't so hard.

RaijinXBlade

2010-04-09 02:45:10 pm

Devastation

When I capture from a console, I use DScaler as the capture software (I have a Dazzle DVC 100 capture card though) and use the Lagarith lossless codec at 640x480 resolution. Huffyuv is a good codec too, but Lagarith seems to work just as good. As for encoding, I use Virtual Dub and Avisynth to fix up and crop out black boarders and whatever else I need to fix, then encode the Audio with a Lame MP3 codec and 2-pass encode the video stream with x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec. My videos always look and sound great, but this is my personal settings. You may need to change some things if need be.

Also, it's nice to see ya here Aleckermit Wink

Mystery

2010-04-09 02:56:48 pm

Not that I am expert on Lagarith, but what changes these codecs apart is usually the size/speed ratio, so either is fine.

Quote:

...then encode the Audio with a Lame MP3 codec...

*chokes and spits out tea*
Of all codecs, you would use MP3... bad, bad, bad!
MP3 is ancient technology by now. Avoid it by all means!
I prefer to use AAC. I tend to use Nero for this purpose, setting quality to 0.2 or 0.3. You can raise it as desired. It produces excellent quality at excellent sizes.
Or if you want an open alternative, you can always use Vorbis. Anything is better than MP3.

Quote:

...2-pass encode the video stream with x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec...

*chokes on food*
Never ever use VFW with H264. Never!
VFW is an ancient technology that wasn't built to work for H264. Don't use it!
Instead, use MeGUI or your favorite compression program (Avidemux works fine, too). MeGUI can do cropping for you, too.
Also, it's better to encode using a Quality factor unless you need a specific filesize. Set Q=25 or lower and you'll get excellent quality without having to worry about choosing the correct bitrate to compensate for resolution, FPS and high- and low motion scenes.
Plus it's 1 pass. Saves a lot of time.

Not that I am expert on Lagarith, but what changes these codecs apart is usually the size/speed ratio, so either is fine.

[quote]...then encode the Audio with a Lame MP3 codec...[/quote]
*chokes and spits out tea*
Of all codecs, you would use MP3... bad, bad, bad!
MP3 is ancient technology by now. Avoid it by all means!
I prefer to use AAC. I tend to use Nero for this purpose, setting quality to 0.2 or 0.3. You can raise it as desired. It produces excellent quality at excellent sizes.
Or if you want an open alternative, you can always use Vorbis. Anything is better than MP3.

[quote]...2-pass encode the video stream with x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec...[/quote]
*chokes on food*
Never ever use VFW with H264. Never!
VFW is an ancient technology that wasn't built to work for H264. Don't use it!
Instead, use MeGUI or your favorite compression program (Avidemux works fine, too). MeGUI can do cropping for you, too.
Also, it's better to encode using a Quality factor unless you need a specific filesize. Set Q=25 or lower and you'll get excellent quality without having to worry about choosing the correct bitrate to compensate for resolution, FPS and high- and low motion scenes.
Plus it's 1 pass. Saves a lot of time.

RaijinXBlade

2010-04-09 03:10:42 pm

Devastation

Are you kidding me? My videos all go to Youtube anyway, they don't look nor sound bad. And what's the deal with no VFW with H.264? I've never even heard of something like that. Plus, double pass encodes are better in quality. Single passes are ugly and usually the bitrate needs to be higher making the filesizes huge. As for MP3 codecs, I use AC3 sometimes too. MP3 sounds just fine to me and the filesize it produces is good. Virtual Dub and AVIsynth work just fine for me. Why should I switch to some unknown software I never used to more than likely end up with the same types of renders I was already making?

Mystery

Edit history:

Mystery: 2010-04-09 03:36:22 pm

2010-04-09 03:30:58 pm

Quote from RaijinXBlade:

Are you kidding me? My videos all go to Youtube anyway, they don't look nor sound bad.

No, of course not. It's about size. AAC can achieve compression with the same quality at a fraction of that of MP3.
Plus YouTube re-encodes them anyway to be smaller with the same quality.

Quote:

And what's the deal with no VFW with H.264? I've never even heard of something like that.

VFW is an old technology that was not created with H264 in mind. Even achieving B-frames in an AVI container is a mega hack.
Sure you can save in other containers, but in the end, it's still a VFW format, and not a native container format. VFW is native to AVI.
We should be glad AVI w/ H264 even works, because it really shouldn't.
Please do everyone a favor. Don't use VFW with H264. MeGUI and Avidemux are excellent programs. Even though Avidemux isn't nearly as sophisticated as VirtualDub.

Quote:

Plus, double pass encodes are better in quality. Single passes are ugly and usually the bitrate needs to be higher making the filesizes huge.

That is because you're using bitrate mode. Switch to quality mode and you need only a single pass. Trust me.
Since the encoder doesn't have a fixed amount of bitrate, it doesn't need to figure out where best to fit it. It chooses bitrate depending on the source.
This one is a tip. Saves you time, energy and money Wink

Quote:

As for MP3 codecs, I use AC3 sometimes too. MP3 sounds just fine to me and the filesize it produces is good.

Try AAC and you can cut the size by 3/4 at least, I think.
Shrank my own music collection from 5+ GB to around 1 GB with AAC with no audible loss of quality! Now, THAT is power Wink

Quote:

Virtual Dub and AVIsynth work just fine for me.

VirtualDub only works with VFW, and VFW is old, and that is reason enough to avoid it for serious editing.
That said, it does support Avisynth, and you can still use to produce lossless videos, so it isn't entirely useless, but please avoid it for anything H264 (heck, you should even avoid it for DivX/Xvid; even those are hacks in AVI files).

Quote:

Why should I switch to some unknown software I never used to more than likely end up with the same types of renders I was already making?

Because you're doing it wrong!
Essentially, what you are doing is like taking a NES game and putting it inside a SNES cart. Obviously it will work, but we cannot guarantee that SNES will play it back without some sort of special SNES!
H264 does not work with VFW. Hacks enables it to work, but it's not standard! It doesn't follow the specs!
You hurt people all around you because they must support your "hackish" encodes. There is far too much non-standard stuff in the computer realm already. Don't make it worse. Please.

I would also recommend that you try to embrace new technology instead of relying on old. Experiment a bit. New technology can give much better quality at the same sizes, or the same quality at lower sizes.

[quote="RaijinXBlade"]Are you kidding me? My videos all go to Youtube anyway, they don't look nor sound bad.[/quote]
No, of course not. It's about size. AAC can achieve compression with the same quality at a fraction of that of MP3.
Plus YouTube re-encodes them anyway to be smaller with the same quality.

[quote]And what's the deal with no VFW with H.264? I've never even heard of something like that.[/quote]
VFW is an old technology that was not created with H264 in mind. Even achieving B-frames in an AVI container is a mega hack.
Sure you can save in other containers, but in the end, it's still a VFW format, and not a native container format. VFW is native to AVI.
We should be glad AVI w/ H264 even works, because it really shouldn't.
Please do everyone a favor. Don't use VFW with H264. MeGUI and Avidemux are excellent programs. Even though Avidemux isn't nearly as sophisticated as VirtualDub.

[quote]Plus, double pass encodes are better in quality. Single passes are ugly and usually the bitrate needs to be higher making the filesizes huge.[/quote]
That is because you're using bitrate mode. Switch to quality mode and you need only a single pass. Trust me.
Since the encoder doesn't have a fixed amount of bitrate, it doesn't need to figure out where best to fit it. It chooses bitrate depending on the source.
This one is a tip. Saves you time, energy and money ;)

[quote]As for MP3 codecs, I use AC3 sometimes too. MP3 sounds just fine to me and the filesize it produces is good.[/quote]
Try AAC and you can cut the size by 3/4 at least, I think.
Shrank my own music collection from 5+ GB to around 1 GB with AAC [i]with no audible loss of quality![/i] Now, THAT is power ;)

[quote]Virtual Dub and AVIsynth work just fine for me.[/quote]
VirtualDub only works with VFW, and VFW is old, and that is reason enough to avoid it for serious editing.
That said, it does support Avisynth, and you can still use to produce lossless videos, so it isn't entirely useless, but please avoid it for anything H264 (heck, you should even avoid it for DivX/Xvid; even those are hacks in AVI files).

[quote]Why should I switch to some unknown software I never used to more than likely end up with the same types of renders I was already making?[/quote]
Because you're doing it wrong!
Essentially, what you are doing is like taking a NES game and putting it inside a SNES cart. Obviously it will work, but we cannot guarantee that SNES will play it back without some sort of special SNES!
H264 [i]does not work[/i] with VFW. Hacks enables it to work, but it's not standard! It doesn't follow the specs!
You hurt people all around you because they must support your "hackish" encodes. There is far too much non-standard stuff in the computer realm already. Don't make it worse. Please.

I would also recommend that you try to embrace new technology instead of relying on old. Experiment a bit. New technology can give much better quality at the same sizes, or the same quality at lower sizes.

RaijinXBlade

2010-04-09 03:39:18 pm

Devastation

If you say so. You really seem to be making a big deal about it, and I never said I was against new technology. I will try out MeGUI and Avidemux like you suggest. I suppose this was a bad place for that sort of discussion, but I guess I brought it on myself in a way. Either way, thanks for your suggestion.

Mystery

2010-04-09 03:40:39 pm

I wish you luck and hope that this knowledge written herein will help you out in some ways.

aleckermit

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-09 04:31:07 pm

2010-04-09 04:19:04 pm

Like I said my main problem is that I can't get any non-uncompressed avi files to encode in Anri-Chan. I've tried using Lagarith Lossless and many other software compressions but Anri-Chan says it can't find the wav file while encoding. Same happens when I feed it a YUY2, I420, or UYVY compressed avi. I have tried nearly every possible avi codec, only uncompressed seems to encode.

Since people are obviously using Anri-Chan to make SDA MP4's there must be a type of .avi besides uncompressed that it accepts right? Or maybe my audio output is the problem (needs to be a higher hz or something?). The point of this whole thing is for me to be able to make my own SDA MP4's with the intro thing and have them completely ready for submission. Otherwise if Nate or an SDA member can encode my run instead of me I would rather just submit my avi files to the site for them to do it. I'm concerned that they will not be able to work with my .avi files either though since they obviously do not play nice with anri-chan for some reason. Surely there is a fix to make anri-chan not give the WAV error with my compressed avi's? Bottom line is I don't know what I'm doing wrong that is making anri-chan not encode my avi's.

Maybe I can send you an avi Nate and you can figure out why it won't encode in anri-chan?

Like I said my main problem is that I can't get any non-uncompressed avi files to encode in Anri-Chan. I've tried using Lagarith Lossless and many other software compressions but Anri-Chan says it can't find the wav file while encoding. Same happens when I feed it a YUY2, I420, or UYVY compressed avi. I have tried nearly every possible avi codec, only uncompressed seems to encode.

Since people are obviously using Anri-Chan to make SDA MP4's there must be a type of .avi besides uncompressed that it accepts right? Or maybe my audio output is the problem (needs to be a higher hz or something?). The point of this whole thing is for me to be able to make my own SDA MP4's with the intro thing and have them completely ready for submission. Otherwise if Nate or an SDA member can encode my run instead of me I would rather just submit my avi files to the site for them to do it. I'm concerned that they will not be able to work with my .avi files either though since they obviously do not play nice with anri-chan for some reason. Surely there is a fix to make anri-chan not give the WAV error with my compressed avi's? Bottom line is I don't know what I'm doing wrong that is making anri-chan not encode my avi's.

Maybe I can send you an avi Nate and you can figure out why it won't encode in anri-chan?

ballofsnow

Edit history:

ballofsnow: 2010-04-09 10:51:35 pm

2010-04-09 10:02:16 pm

Quote from aleckermit:

* How I produced the video - Used S-Video output. I took the raw mpeg-2 file and cut it in Sony Vegas, then re-rendered it as mpeg-2 at highest video quality, Progressive Scan, at 8,000,000bps Variable Bit Rate.

Beware of certain software that produces a "progressive" version of your interlaced footage. Most of the time it does a bad job. In your case it produced field blending / ghosting. See double wall on left and double Navi.

It's possible that the source mpeg2 was captured with ghosting, with no fault to Sony Vegas...

More info in KB: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/Field_Blending

Quote from aleckermit:

Basically since Anri-Chan only accepts AVI I changed my MPEG-2 file to uncompressed AVI so that it would accept the file. Not sure if there is a better (smaller file size) codec to use when changing it to AVI?

Eh?

Quote from Mystery:

If your capture program allows you to select any VFW filter, then try Huffyuv. It's lossless, so your files won't lose quality, but it will be much smaller than uncompressed.

Just make sure the colorspace is not YV12. YUY2 and RGB are fine.

Quote from Mystery:

Other than that, for a quality test, you could use another program, like MeGUI. Basically, choose any Quality-factor profile

SDA's H.264 profiles take into account compatibility with hardware devices such as iPod, X360, PS3. Don't use any profile. Also, the version of x264.exe stays the same until (usually) the next release of Anri, so if you're using a newer x264.exe that you downloaded yourself and it has new features... it may break compatibility.

Quote from RaijinXBlade:

When I capture from a console, I use DScaler as the capture software (I have a Dazzle DVC 100 capture card though) and use the Lagarith lossless codec at 640x480 resolution. Huffyuv is a good codec too, but Lagarith seems to work just as good. As for encoding, I use Virtual Dub and Avisynth to fix up and crop out black boarders and whatever else I need to fix,

- Again, make sure Lagarith is set to capture not in YV12, but YUY2 or RGB.
- If you're able to crop the black borders and still keep a correct aspect ratio while keeping the width a multiple of 4 and height a multiple of 2, and not run into problems with the encoder, then fine. It's not really worth the effort unless black borders bother you. The borders cost pretty much no bitrate.

Quote from Mystery:

Or if you want an open alternative, you can always use Vorbis.

Again, keep in mind SDA's profiles / hardware compatibility.

Quote from aleckermit:

Like I said my main problem is that I can't get any non-uncompressed avi files to encode in Anri-Chan.

Have you tried a lossless codec for video, and uncompressed PCM audio? Hz value is usually 44100 or 48000. I've seen people run into problems when the Hz was way too high, like 192000 Hz. Bitrate of PCM at those Hz values is about 1411 kbps and 1536 kbps, so even at uncompressed it doesn't compare to the video bitrate.

[quote="aleckermit"]
* How I produced the video - Used S-Video output. I took the raw mpeg-2 file and cut it in Sony Vegas, then [size=12pt]re-rendered it as mpeg-2 at highest video quality, [b]Progressive Scan[/b][/size], at 8,000,000bps Variable Bit Rate.
[/quote]
Beware of certain software that produces a "progressive" version of your interlaced footage. Most of the time it does a bad job. In your case it produced field blending / ghosting. See double wall on left and double Navi.

[img]http://imgur.com/9gPHF.png[/img]

It's possible that the source mpeg2 was captured with ghosting, with no fault to Sony Vegas...

More info in KB: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/Field_Blending

[quote="aleckermit"]
[b]Basically since Anri-Chan only accepts AVI[/b] I changed my MPEG-2 file to uncompressed AVI so that it would accept the file. Not sure if there is a better (smaller file size) codec to use when changing it to AVI?[/quote]
Eh?

[img]http://imgur.com/QDQqg.png[/img]

[quote="Mystery"]
If your capture program allows you to select any VFW filter, then try Huffyuv. It's [i]lossless[/i], so your files won't lose quality, but it will be much smaller than uncompressed.[/quote]
Just make sure the colorspace is not YV12. YUY2 and RGB are fine.

[quote="Mystery"]
Other than that, for a quality test, you could use another program, like MeGUI. Basically, choose any Quality-factor profile[/quote]
SDA's H.264 profiles take into account compatibility with hardware devices such as iPod, X360, PS3. Don't use [i]any[/i] profile. Also, the version of x264.exe stays the same until (usually) the next release of Anri, so if you're using a newer x264.exe that you downloaded yourself and it has new features... it may break compatibility.

[quote="RaijinXBlade"]
When I capture from a console, I use DScaler as the capture software (I have a Dazzle DVC 100 capture card though) and use the Lagarith lossless codec at 640x480 resolution. Huffyuv is a good codec too, but Lagarith seems to work just as good. As for encoding, I use Virtual Dub and Avisynth to fix up and crop out black boarders and whatever else I need to fix,[/quote]
- Again, make sure Lagarith is set to capture not in YV12, but YUY2 or RGB.
- If you're able to crop the black borders and still keep a correct aspect ratio while keeping the width a multiple of 4 and height a multiple of 2, and not run into problems with the encoder, then fine. It's not really worth the effort unless black borders bother you. The borders cost pretty much no bitrate.

[quote="Mystery"]
Or if you want an open alternative, [b]you can always use Vorbis.[/b]
[/quote]
Again, keep in mind SDA's profiles / hardware compatibility.

[quote="aleckermit"]
Like I said my main problem is that I can't get any non-uncompressed avi files to encode in Anri-Chan.[/quote]
Have you tried a lossless codec for video, and uncompressed PCM audio? Hz value is usually 44100 or 48000. I've seen people run into problems when the Hz was way too high, like 192000 Hz. Bitrate of PCM at those Hz values is about 1411 kbps and 1536 kbps, so even at uncompressed it doesn't compare to the video bitrate.

aleckermit

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-10 12:55:51 am

2010-04-09 11:40:40 pm

Well I tried a raw MPEG-2 file with Anri-Chan and I got the same WAV error I've been getting with everything else. I tried both compressed (tried 2 different kbps and sample rates) and LPCM audio but got this error during encoding:

I am really confused why Anri-Chan will only encode completely uncompressed AVI with me and nothing else. Audio seems to be the problem but I don't understand what it wants.

Mystery

2010-04-10 02:08:16 am

Quote from ballofsnow:

SDA's H.264 profiles take into account compatibility with hardware devices such as iPod, X360, PS3. Don't use any profile. Also, the version of x264.exe stays the same until (usually) the next release of Anri, so if you're using a newer x264.exe that you downloaded yourself and it has new features... it may break compatibility.

Again, keep in mind SDA's profiles / hardware compatibility.

Yeah, I was thinking quality tests and preliminary compression. If compressed enough, it shouldn't be a problem to upload it somewhere, hopefully, and have the pros do the real encoding.
And, of course, I was also thinking of more "general" encoding, too, things not for SDA.

AniMeowzerz

Edit history:

AniMeowzerz: 2010-04-10 02:45:29 am

2010-04-10 02:38:23 am

Quote from aleckermit:

Well I tried a raw MPEG-2 file with Anri-Chan and I got the same WAV error I've been getting with everything else. I tried both compressed (tried 2 different kbps and sample rates) and LPCM audio but got this error during encoding[...]

er, Alec..

Quote from ballofsnow:

Have you tried a lossless codec for video, and uncompressed PCM audio? Hz value is usually 44100 or 48000. I've seen people run into problems when the Hz was way too high, like 192000 Hz. Bitrate of PCM at those Hz values is about 1411 kbps and 1536 kbps, so even at uncompressed it doesn't compare to the video bitrate.

Try leaving your audio uncompressed, don't use a codec for it. Though it's probably none of my business giving advice on a subject I know little about, but yeah.
Have you also considered using a different program to record such as DScaler, VirtualDub, or the likes rather than using Sony Vegas? It could be a problem with the way the program's capturing your video/audio...

[quote="aleckermit"]
Well I tried a raw MPEG-2 file with Anri-Chan and I got the same WAV error I've been getting with everything else. I tried both compressed (tried 2 different kbps and sample rates) and LPCM audio but got this error during encoding[...]
[/quote]

er, Alec..
[quote="ballofsnow"]
Have you tried a lossless codec for video, and uncompressed PCM audio? Hz value is usually 44100 or 48000. I've seen people run into problems when the Hz was way too high, like 192000 Hz. Bitrate of PCM at those Hz values is about 1411 kbps and 1536 kbps, so even at uncompressed it doesn't compare to the video bitrate. [/quote]

Try leaving your audio uncompressed, don't use a codec for it. Though it's probably none of my business giving advice on a subject I know little about, but yeah.
Have you also considered using a different program to record such as DScaler, VirtualDub, or the likes rather than using Sony Vegas? It could be a problem with the way the program's capturing your video/audio...

Tigger77

2010-04-10 07:55:26 am

I survived MIKE-Fest 1

I don't know if I just talking bullshit but my Captercard also records in MPEG2 and I can encode those files with anri.
when Anri asked you : DVD/MPEG select yes then the files shows up (it have to be in C:/Anri/MPEG or something like that)

aleckermit

Edit history:

aleckermit: 2010-04-10 11:34:39 am

2010-04-10 10:53:32 am

I now get the WAV error with everything I try, even uncompressed avi. Guess I'll try re-installing anrichan.

EDIT: Tried Re-installing, still getting WAV errors with everything I try to encode. I think I will just have to submit raw files to SDA (which I'd prefer to do anyway).

Here is a sample of a raw MPEG-2 file I would be submitting (keep in mind it's interlaced of course):

http://www.mediafire.com/?1tnmm2gkiyg

Nate if you could try to encode this file just like you would for SDA and then see if the quality is up-to-par or whatnot that would be great. Anri-Chan will not encode anything I feed it anymore.

ballofsnow

Edit history:

ballofsnow: 2010-04-10 02:16:59 pm

2010-04-10 02:09:39 pm

I tracked it down to a missing avisynth dll in the anri installer which handles decimation. You can blame me for that!

1. Download the attachment
2. Unzip to "C:\Program Files\anrichan3.0\plugins\"
3. Start new project in anri.

Attachment:

Decomb.zip

aleckermit

2010-04-10 03:08:54 pm

Quote from ballofsnow:

I tracked it down to a missing avisynth dll in the anri installer which handles decimation. You can blame me for that!

1. Download the attachment
2. Unzip to "C:\Program Files\anrichan3.0\plugins\"
3. Start new project in anri.

Oh thank goodness! I'll whip out a new set of MP4's for you guys tonight after work. I think you will be pleased with the quality, and that ghosting problem someone pointed out earlier should be completely fixed in the new MP4's.

ballofsnow

2010-04-10 03:19:11 pm

Yeah I noticed there was no ghosting / blending in your source mpeg.

aleckermit

2010-04-11 12:08:30 am

OK here are my new Anri-Chan MP4's. They look and sound perfect IMO. Used the source MPEG-2. Thanks BallofSnow for DLL.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mjgd3k3mt23

With SDA's permission I'll start on my run right away. I am doing Segmented Any% (~1 hour final time). I'll be posting the segments on my Youtube account: youtube.com/aleckermit. I hope to have the whole run finished within 3-4 months or less.

Thanks for all the help with using anri-chan and sorting the encoding problem.

ballofsnow

2010-04-11 09:41:12 am

Looks good.