EncodeHD 1.1.103.0 Released
Sorry it’s taken so long to get a new release together, but I’ve been really busy as of late. I’ve gotten some major bugs fixes though, and one or two nice feature requests 
Here’s the changelog since 1.0.94.0:
- NEW: Soft-Subtitles can now be merged into the output file for Apple devices. Just place an SRT or SUB file with the same name in the same folder as your source video
- NEW: Settings are now stored with the application (EncodeHD.Settings) for full app portability
- NEW: Check For Updates on Startup option in Advanced Settings
- CHANGE: Apple Device files are now always created with the M4V extension
- CHANGE: Failed encoding now cancels the entire queue
- CHANGE: Advanced Settings UI updated
- CHANGE: Renamed a few Settings
- CHANGE: Updated FFmpeg to r19393
- CHANGE: Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.18+ 07-07-2009
- FIX: Resolution scaling was sometimes calculated incorrectly, leading to unsupported video files on certain devices
- FIX: Checking for updates on startup could hang for a few seconds during DNS resolution
- FIX: “Value not multiple of 2″ error could occur when encoding
- FIX: Auto-splitting would sometimes be skipped
Download in the EncodeHD section. Enjoy!
awesome; thank you!
Btw, how does it handle converting something widescreen (16:9) to square-ish (4:3)?
It’ll rescale the video to fit the screen, but it won’t adjust 16:9 content to 4:3 by cropping. So for example, 16:9 content will display with black bars on an iPhone, but will resize to 16:9 when the iPhone is turned on it side.
Cheers, Dan
Looks great but my HDV HD content looses its 16:9 ratio and being displayed in a 4:3 format and a circle will look like an head look elliptical. it does not preserve the original aspect ratio.
regards
Izzy
Hey Izzy,
Can you send me on the log of one of the conversions with exhibiting this problem?
Thanks, Dan
Dan,
I’ve been using your Encode360 for quite some time. I’m finally taking the plunge with EncodeHD ever since I fell in love with 264 codecs. Thanks for all your hard work.
Hi Albert,
Thanks for the kind words. Glad it’s of use!
Dan
Hey, Dan.
Is there a way to convert videos to Zune format using EncodeHD in such a way that the Zune software itself doesn’t have to convert it again when syncing to my Zune?
For example, when I encode an .mkv file to Zune format (with H.264 encoding), the .mp4 file is added to my video collection in the Zune software. Then, when I sync the file to my Zune, it has to convert it again. Is there a way to use EncodeHD to convert those files to the format the Zune software is converting it to?
I’ve been able to do this with Windows Media Encoder, and I could give you the settings I’ve used for that to work, if you need them. I think this would be a great improvement for EncodeHD.
If there’s any help you can offer me, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for your great work.
Nathan
Hey Nathan,
Hmmm, that’s definitely a bug and shouldn’t be happening. It sounds like the file generated by EncodeHD is exceeding the Zune spec, which will cause a re-encode by the Zune software. Can you send me a logfile from an encode where this problem occurs?
Thanks, Dan
Thanks for the timely reply.
I failed to mention in my first post that I am syncing to a Zune 30GB (1st generation). To my understanding, the Zune 30 doesn’t directly support anything other than WMV files. This may be the reason for this re-encoding when I try to sync the file. What are your thoughts on this?
Anyway, about the log. I’m not finding one in the EncodeHD Log Files folder. I do see some log files that were made when I made some Ipod5G conversions, but nothing is showing up when I encode Zune format. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Nathan.
Hey Nathan,
As per my email, the 1st gen Zune doesn’t support MPEG4 or H.264 unfortunately
Dan
;( Alright, thanks Dan.
Hey Dan, keep up the good work. I’ve been converting video for my Xbox360 for a month now, and it’s worry free thanks to EncodeHD. All other tools I’ve tried balk and crash frequently.
Two feature requests:
1. Add an option to tail the log file within the EncodeHD window. I like to see what’s happening under the covers, although that sort of contradicts EncodeHD’s mantra, so very low priority.
2. Add a pause button. I frequently queue up large encodes, and then end up needing to do something strenuous with my PC. Stopping the encode loses any progress on the current file. A pause button would be sweet, but I’m not sure if it would be possible depending on how you’re running the underlying tools.
And I guess I didn’t check for any better place to post feature requests, so rap my knuclkes accordingly if necessary.
Thanks,
-Paul
Hey Paul,
I’ll look into a log file window – shouldn’t be too difficult to add (I think!). The pause button isn’t possible at the moment because of the way I interact with the underlying tools. I’ve tried tricks like bringing the process priority down to idle but it just doesn’t work I’m afraid.
Dan
Dan,
Ive been loving this program (and Encode 360 before it) for some time now and it has long since made it onto my essential programs list.
But… There has been a lovely error popping up as the application is quitting, after a file has finished encoding. http://pastebin.com/m4f1828e8
Perhaps a bit of a problem with the portable settings? Im using Windows 7 64bit, and this happens regardless of the file being used. This isnt really a big deal, since it only crashes when Im trying to close it, but I thought you would want to know anyway.
Oh, and as a side note Pauls suggestions sound pretty good.
Thanks for the great program,
Patrick.
Hey Patrick,
You’re right in saying it’s the portable settings. I’ve run into some other problems since implementing this so I think I’m just going to remove it. Bottom line, settings won’t be portable between machines – I’ll try to keep it so that for the most part, the settings are kept between versions.
Thanks for letting me know, will have this sorted in the next release. Actually, if you wouldn’t mind dropping me an email through the contact form, I’d like to send you a prerelease just to verify the problem is gone.
Thanks, Dan
Mr Cunningham i applaud you for your work, Encode360 was ace but my step up to EncodeHd is proving somwhat hit and miss to be honest. I have converted a 1080p mkv to mp4 using your program which seems to playback without a hitch, My 360 still can’t play it however, just an error message about the incorrect codec (the usual). Is this a problem with the original mkv files audio codec? Is this common dan> I really want your product to work because it is beatifully simple! Thanks (please do not take my words as slur on your achievements)
Hey Austin,
Can you try to rename the file to .AVI and see if that works? There’s some known issues with the X360 not always recognising .MP4 file extensions. Does it only happen with this particular file or is it happening with all?
Thanks, Dan
Hey Dan,
Im afraid the file extension change doesn’t make a difference. Some files will playback fine through the 360 but others won’t, it’s 50 50 at the min to be honest Dan. My limited knowledge (In the words of Martin Lawrence – Bad Boys “damn right it’s limited”) somethings telling me its to do with the presence of AAC audio, prticularly in an avi container – the 360 seems to hate this, Does that sound plausable??
Thanks for getting back so quick mate.
Hi Austin,
The 360 shouldn’t have any problem with AAC audio. It’s AC3 (generally 5.1) audio that it has issues with and won’t play. EncodeHD will always convert AC3 audio to 2-channel AAC in order for the file to be playable on the 360. Can you maybe send me the logfile from a conversion where the file isn’t playable? I’ll take a look and see if it’s something obvious.
Be warned, I’m off on holidays in a few days and have a lot to wrap up before then so it might be a week or two before I get back to you.
Cheers, Dan
Hey,
Cheers, (i did mean AC3 when i said AAC by the way) I assumed that is what your application would do but not completely understanding the proccess involved i wasn’t sure, her is an abrieviated version of the log, anything obvioulsy wrong?:
* Form Startup Events *
* Form Shown Events *
* Validate Components *
Checking for component: ffmpeg.exe
Checking for component: mediainfo.dll
Checking for component: AtomicParsley.Exe
Checking for component: MP4Box.Exe
Checking for component: JS32.DLL
Checking for component: ZLib1.DLL
All components found and valid
* Check for First Run *
* Parse Command Line *
No command-line parameters specified
* Conversion Type ComboBox Index Changed *
Output Device: XBOX360
H.264 Encoding is supported on this device type
Formatting for TV is not supported on this device type
AC3 Passthrough is not supported on this device type
* Specific Output Folder Check Changed *
* AutoSplit Check Changed *
AutoSplit Enabled
* Update Form Controls *
Resetting form to default values…
* Check For Updates *
Checking for network connection…
Downloading version file from http://67.222.16.11/~dcunning/wp-content/downloads/enchd/upd_stable.txt...
* Download Completion Handler *
Current version is up to date
* Add Files *
Adding File: D:\Video\My Video [1080p].mkv
* AutoSplit Check Changed *
AutoSplit Disabled
* Start / Stop Encoding *
* Start Encoding *
* Determine File Properties *
Initiating MediaInfo…
Opening file to determine properties…
Video Streams: 1
Audio Streams: 1
Text Streams: 1
Container Format: Matroska
Video Duration: 7385
Video Codec: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Video BitRate: 8219
Video Height: 800
Video Width: 1920
Video FPS: 23.976
Video Aspect Ratio: 2.4
Match for Preferred Audio Language (English) at #0: en
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio BitRate: 625
Audio Channels: 6
Audio Sample Rate: 48000
Passing input file information through filtering framework…
Passing UI selections through filtering framework…
Generating validated output parameters…
Configuring specifications for device: XBOX360…
Output File Format Extension: MP4
H.264 has been enabled
Adjusting Audio BitRate to: 160
* Update Form Controls *
Setting up form for Encoding…
Initialising Encoder class…
Setting Input File…
Setting Output Folder…
Setting Encoder Priority: Default
Spinning up Encoder…
Starting Thread…
Determining output filename…
Checking for existing of file: C:\Users\hartleya\Desktop\My Video [1080p].MP4
File not found. Using this as our output filename
Setting up ffmpeg.exe parameters…
Setting up Audio parameters…
Starting encoding process…
C:\Program Files\EncodeHD\ffmpeg.exe -y -i “D:\Video\My Video [1080p].mkv” -vcodec libx264 -coder 1 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -rc_eq ‘blurCplx^(1-qComp)’ -me_method hex -subq 6 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b_strategy 1 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -directpred 1 -flags2 +fastpskip -threads 0 -level 41 -b 8219k -minrate 8219k -maxrate 8219k -bufsize 8219k -s 1920×800 -aspect 1920:800 -r 23.976 -acodec aac -ac 2 -ab 160k “C:\Users\hartleya\Desktop\My Video [1080p].MP4″
FFmpeg version SVN-r19393, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: –enable-memalign-hack –prefix=/mingw –cross-prefix=i686-mingw32- –cc=ccache-i686-mingw32-gcc –target-os=mingw32 –arch=i686 –cpu=i686 –enable-avisynth –enable-gpl –enable-zlib –enable-bzlib –enable-libgsm –enable-libfaad –enable-pthreads –enable-libvorbis –enable-libtheora –enable-libspeex –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-libxvid –enable-libschroedinger –enable-libx264
libavutil 50. 3. 0 / 50. 3. 0
libavcodec 52.32. 0 / 52.32. 0
libavformat 52.36. 0 / 52.36. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
built on Jul 10 2009 04:01:40, gcc: 4.2.4
Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (27956/583) -> 23.98 (24000/1001)
Input #0, matroska, from ‘D:\Video\My Video [1080p].mkv’:
Duration: 02:03:05.44, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1920×800, PAR 1:1 DAR 12:5, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 6 channels, s16
Stream #0.2(eng): Subtitle: 0×0000
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 Cache64
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]profile Main, level 4.1
Output #0, mp4, to ‘C:\Users\hartleya\Desktop\My Video [1080p].MP4′:
Stream #0.0(eng): Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1920×800 [PAR 1:1 DAR 12:5], q=10-51, 8219 kb/s, 2997 tbn, 23.98 tbc
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 160 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 8 fps= 0 q=11.0 size= 3kB time=0.88 bitrate= 25.9kbits/s
frame= 16 fps= 16 q=10.0 size= 6kB time=2.21 bitrate= 22.2kbits/s
…………………………………………………and so on (skip to the end)
frame=177013 fps= 5 q=10.0 size= 7271302kB time=7384.55 bitrate=8066.4kbits/s
frame=177020 fps= 5 q=-1.0 Lsize= 7277449kB time=7384.93 bitrate=8072.8kbits/s
video:7124794kB audio:146517kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.084421%
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]slice I:1772 Avg QP:18.71 size: 94700
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]slice P:175248 Avg QP:17.73 size: 40673
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]mb I I16..4: 38.3% 0.0% 61.7%
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]mb P I16..4: 3.0% 0.0% 3.2% P16..4: 54.9% 17.7% 9.2% 0.0% 0.0% skip:12.0%
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra:63.1% 80.3% 46.4% inter:32.6% 56.4% 8.0%
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]SSIM Mean Y:0.9812386
[libx264 @ 0x358f910]kb/s:7905.2
* Finish Encoding *
Spinning down Encoder Class…
Ending Thread…
* Start Subtitling *
Initialising Subtitling class…
Spinning up Subtitler…
Starting Thread…
Checking for Softsubs…
No Softsubs found for merging
* Finish Merging Softsubs *
Spinning down Subtitling Class…
Ending Thread…
* Start Tagging *
Initialising Tagging class…
Spinning up Tagger…
Starting Thread…
No tagging operations to perform. Skipping…
* Finish Tagging *
Spinning down Tagging Class…
Ending Thread…
* Start Splitting *
Initialising Splitter class…
Spinning up Splitter…
Starting Thread…
Splitting has been disabled
* Finish Splitting *
Spinning down Splitter Class…
Ending Thread…
* Update Form Controls *
Resetting form to default values…
* Form Closing Events *
* Application Shutdown *
Saving Settings…
Closing Logfile…
Firstly, I’ve renamed the above filename(s) – you should be careful not to give out too much info onto the internet, you don’t want people knowing your business
So, Okay, there’s nothing in the settings I could spot that would be causing a problem. However, I vaguely recall that the X360 doesn’t cope well with certain characters in the filename. Can you try renaming the file to not include square braces?
If this doesn’t work I’m at a bit of a loss :\
Thanks Dan, i’m an idiot!:)
I already renamed the file, that doesn’t work either. Really strange, i almost never have a problem playing back mp4 files on my 360, do you think it is something to do with this particular file? Maybe i’ll find an alternative source file. Thanks for all your help mate!!
Hello again. I’m having another problem, and it might not be the fault of EncodeHD, but I figured it might be good to see what you think.
I’m trying to encode video to an iPod 5G, and every time I try to start the encoding, it gives me this error message:
“Unable to determine the video duration. It’s possible that the file you are attempting to read is corrupt.”
The file is a DVD rip from a DVD I own. I used DVD Decrypter to 3.5.4.0 to rip the DVD.
Here’s a log entry showing this happening:
[url]http://pastebin.com/m4199186a[/url]
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Nathan.
I have a slight problem. When I encode with the xbox 360 option, it shows up in the Video Library on the xbox, but it says I can’t play it. Converting from a .mkv of a blu ray if that helps.
Hey Mike!
Ru converting 1080p mkv files by any chance and are they perfectly playable on your PC??
Cheers, Austin
Hi, EncodeHD works quickly and the quality is great, but all mkv’s for the XBOX360 with AC3 or DTS Sound were saved as mp4 with Stereo Sound
I hope that you can fix this.
THX
Mike / Austin, It sounds like the files exceed 4GB in size. You need to use the AutoSplit option within EncodeHD which will split the output video to below 4GB.
Cartsen, this is because the X360 doesn’t support AC3 or DTS audio in the MP4/M4V containers. Hopefully something Microsoft will support at some point.
Dan
thanks a million for your software. i allways use it to convert videos to my iphone.
thank for your hard work ^_^
Hi Dan-
program looks great, I am just starting out using it as I have been forced to find a good encoder for the Nexus One and I have found with the poor selection of codecs and players available so far it is VERY particular about formatting.
But I do have some questions regarding ‘soft-subs’ in the terrible Matroska format:
Are these required to be a separate subtitle file, or will EHD flatten the MKV container properly by hardcoding any embedded subtitles? Basically, is it necessary to demux the embedded files first before processing?
Hey Nathan,
Twofold problem here. Firstly, it won’t extract them automatically (something that *was* done by Encode360), and secondly, it won’t hardcode subs. FFmpeg doesn’t support doing that yet. The best I could do (without making the app incredibly complicated, something I wanted to avoid) was embed softsubs in the container format. However this requires a device that supports it, such as Apple devices. I’m not sure if the Nexus One supports this though – you’d have to check the specs.
Cheers, Dan
From what I read the last few months, Android applications from Google seem to be very primitive by design, so far the answer is NO, they do not. Although the hardware specifications should easily be capable, Google seems to be deliberately trying to stir up developer support for ‘non-core functionality’. I’m hoping someonr will soon write up an Xvid-capable player too.