meguIV: The Official Akiba-Online DVD Encoder (v1.0.1.1)

[SamKook]

I don't think I've ever seen artifacts like those. My best guess would be that the encoder didn't have enough bitrate left to properly encode the picture and it produced weird artifacts as a result.

The artifacts are really soft, like the picture, so I don't think a noise remover would work well for this, but you could always try a few and see what it does.

 

[dwnldingDaikaiju]

If anyone's been pulling out his hair like I have for the past few hours due to MeguiVit refusing to run on Win 7 and spewing the Xenocode error that says "The application was unable to load a required virtual machine component", uninstalling KB3045999 will fix the issue.

Go through Control Panel - Programs and Features - View installed updates, and zap the little bugger.

I guess that worked back then, but Windows keeps doing it. I found this youtube video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjaov_pai7Y
which lists three updates KB3022345, KB3045999, and KB3068708, I uninstalled the one I had, restarted, and I still get "The application was unable to load a required virtual machine component. Please contact the publisher of this application".

If anyone figures out what the new update is that's causing this (windows 7 for me) I'd love to know.

ps: Microsoft really annoys the hell out me from time to time.

 

[Menauer]

List of Windows 7 updates that break MeguIVit:
Security Updarte for Windows 7 (KB3045999) "elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to the system and runs a specially crafted application"
Security Updarte for Windows 7 (KB3071756) "elevation of privilege if an attacker inserts a malicious USB device"
Security Updarte for Windows 7 (KB3060716) "elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application or convinces..."
Security Updarte for Windows 7 (KB3088195) "elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application."
Security Updarte for Windows 7 (KB3101746) "remote code execution if an attacker convinces a user to open a specially crafted document or to go to an untrusted webpage that contains embedded fonts."

 

[SamKook]

Neither Rollyco nor Vitreous have been around for the past 2 years so I'd say it's unlikely. Vitreous also hasn't updated QTGMC(the core of his mod) in years in other places.

If I can get my hands on a copy of Turbo Studio(formerly known as Spoon Studio) which shouldn't be hard, I'll try to check if it can be fairly easily ported from the current version or not when I have some time to do so.

Edit:
I did a quick try and it doesn't seem that it would be too problematic.

Extracting and re-packaging the files went fine and it starts up so that's a very good sign.
The only problem is that I can't extract the registry part of it so I'll have to try and capture it from the installations that require them, but there's a good chance that's only required for avisynth(fingers crossed) so it should be fairly simple.

 

[SamKook]

It was easier than expected so here's the repack of MeguIVit beta4 with a recent version of the virtualization software: http://www.mediafire.com/download/57irzr1pr72n1bx/MeguIVit_beta4_Repacked_2015-12-02.rar
The only difference with MeguIVit beta 4 is that I updated x264 to version 2638 from last mid-October, everything else should be the same.

All you need is the exe to use Vitreous version beta4. It will create a new sandbox folder using his stuff so it doesn't need to be replaced anymore.

I only tested it on a minimal Win7 x64 installation so if you're using something else, please let me know if it works with it or not, it would be much appreciated.
The only test I ran was a 10 sec encode with the default settings so it's possible I forgot to add a system file that will break other settings. If it doesn't work for you, please let me know which settings you used and what the error message is saying.

If this is actually working properly with the updates mentioned above and with win8.1 and above, I'll try updating a few more things(avisynth and a few filters could use an update) and release a newer version, but that will only happen if I have feedback for the current version(I don't use it anymore so I can't do a lot of testing).

Edit: Forgot to mention this should also fix the missing system dlls. I think it was an x86 vs x64 problem so it may be fixed for x64(which most people have nowadays), but not for x86(or it may also work, depends on how smart the new version is).

 

[eshwaa]

Thanks for working on this SamKook, it's finally working for me. I guess I still didn't have things in the right places the last time you were helping me with this.

It's working on win8.1. The only problem is on my end with antivirus blocking some items, but everything worked after disabling the AV and unzipping the program again.

 

[shank]

I was recently attempting to recreate this setup manually using latest of everything and figure out what Vit was using and how to use it, because I am getting rips with strange aspect ratios (I'm not sure if that had to do with me updating individual components like x264), and it is looking like AviSynth project is becoming active again. It looks to be a massive undertaking (for me), because I am not familiar with using all these individual tools and scripts. I had a very basic setup that worked, but didn't have everything setup right and rips didn't look as good. I got stuck trying to figure out how Vit was resize/cropping and with what. There was a lot of script to go through. I'm so glad you are taking the time to get this working. MeguIVit is years old now and doesn't work on a current win7, 8, or 10 setup, so it really doesn't run at all without someone doing quite a bit of research and extra setup.

I will be testing this. Thank you.

 

[SamKook]

It's working on win8.1. The only problem is on my end with antivirus blocking some items, but everything worked after disabling the AV and unzipping the program again.

Good to know it's working on win 8.1, thanks.
Can you get a list of the blocked items from your antivirus? I could check if I can do something about it since there are unnecessary stuff bundled with it.

I was recently attempting to recreate this setup manually using latest of everything and figure out what Vit was using and how to use it, because I am getting rips with strange aspect ratios (I'm not sure if that had to do with me updating individual components like x264), and it is looking like AviSynth project is becoming active again. It looks to be a massive undertaking (for me), because I am not familiar with using all these individual tools and scripts. I had a very basic setup that worked, but didn't have everything setup right and rips didn't look as good. I got stuck trying to figure out how Vit was resize/cropping and with what. There was a lot of script to go through. I'm so glad you are taking the time to get this working. MeguIVit is years old now and doesn't work on a current win7, 8, or 10 setup, so it really doesn't run at all without someone doing quite a bit of research and extra setup.

I will be testing this. Thank you.

Looking forward to your feedback.

As general information about the individual components and the process:
Avisynth, ffdshow(used only as a codec for the pre-rendering job), MeGUI and Nero AAC encoder are the main 4 software used. I think MeGUI actually has all of them already included, but I haven't used it in a while. I list those because they are the 4 in the main MeguIVit folder.

Avisynth needs the source plugin to load the DVD files(DGmpgDec1.58), a source plugin for the audio(not sure what MeguIVit use, I use NicAudio) and a deinterlacer which is the most important part to get great quality(QTGMC, made by Vitreous himself). You probably also want to change the dll from the install to the MT(multithreaded) version which is what MeguIVit has.
You also need libfftw3f-3.dll, fftw3.dll and msvcr71.dll in your syswow64 folder.

QTGMC requires a bunch of extra plugins to work properly, but there's a bundle for them if you get it from a proper source. The only issue is that if you're using avisynth 2.6, you need to update at least one of those required plugins(mvtools2). I can't remember if there are more that absolutely need an update since I did a lot of test trying to use more recent version of as many as possible.

As for the script itself, it's not very complicated. The one inside MeguIVit is very complicated only because it needs to make choices automatically.
Here's one of mine for a JAV DVD(I wouldn't use those QTGMC settings for IV), anything starting at the arrow isn't part of it, it's just to explain what it does:

SetMTMode(5, 4) <-- Used to set the number of thread for the multithreaded version, in this case 4
Vid = DGDecode_mpeg2source("D:\_1enc_\_ISO\RBD-711\RBD-711.d2v") <-- loads the video processed by DGmpgDec
Aud = NicAC3Source("D:\_1enc_\_ISO\RBD-711\RBD-711 T80 2_0ch 192Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3") <-- loads the audio
AudioDub(Vid, Aud) <-- merges the video and audio together
SetMTMode(2) <-- Changes the MT states from 5 to 2 for the processing part since it's faster. It's not recommended to load the source files using a state below 3.

QTGMC(Preset="Placebo", TR2=2, EZKeepGrain=0.4, Sharpness=0.3) <-- The deinterlacer and main part of MeguIVit, the tricky part is to find the right settings for it.

Crop(6, 0, -6, -0, true) <-- Crops the border of the video, in this case 6 pixels from the left and right.

Trim(4478,515962) <-- Trims part of the video to remove unwanted stuff at the beginning and end of the video

If I wanted to resize after cropping(I personally prefer to keep the original aspect ratio intact), I would have added the following line after the Crop one:
BlackmanResize(854,480) <-- A very good resizer that works well in most situation.

What I skipped is that you need to process the dvd files with DGmpgdec, then you encode the script using x264 either directly or with any software that supports avisynth and x264, encode the audio using nero aac either directly or... and then merge the two together in your favorite container(mkvtoolnix for mkv or mp4box, likely using one of his many GUI options, for mp4).

Note: DGmpgDec is only for DVD, you'd use something else for BluRay.

 

[eshwaa]

Good to know it's working on win 8.1, thanks.
Can you get a list of the blocked items from your antivirus? I could check if I can do something about it since there are unnecessary stuff bundled with it.

Here's a list from Avast, it looks like it's blocking most components. I'm not sure what's causing the problem, since I also have some of these (mkvmerge, x264, neroaacenc) already installed on this computer.

Everything on the list can be restored and white-listed, so it ends up working.

 

[SamKook]

Thanks, according to the description of the virus, it's just a generic detection of a software that has the potential of installing other potentially unwanted software.

Since that's the whole point of this(an exe file that "installs" other exe file when creating the sandbox folder), it's perfectly normal as well as safe and there's sadly nothing I can do to prevent this.

 

[shank]

Thanks for explaining all those components. In my free time I will keep trying to figure out the individuals.

I'm running Win8.1 (64bit). This version runs properly without errors. I changed the x264 settings to my usual Very Slow and CRF 18, and it encoded properly without errors. Looks good so far.

My AV is Eset NOD32 and it did not complain.

 

[Menauer]

It was easier than expected so here's the repack of MeguIVit beta4 with a recent version of the virtualization software: http://www.mediafire.com/download/57irzr1pr72n1bx/MeguIVit_beta4_Repacked_2015-12-02.rar

Thank you so much SamKook. Also have an idea why it tries to use the internet? The old one never did.

 

[SamKook]

The new version of the sandbox has the possibility of doing stuff from a server like being hosted there and people not even having to download the software so it could be related to that.

I'll check if there's an option I forgot to uncheck(I didn't look too much, most things were left to the defaults) to prevent this from happening.

 

[SamKook]

I wasn't suggesting the server hosting stuff option was enabled since it's not something that can be done without me knowing and it would have cost a lot of money to even set up, but I thought it might always check if the possibility exist of having stuff there.

I checked the options and there's nothing I can do to prevent this since I can't see any options I can change that would imply the need to access something remote.

After a bit of wiresharking, it seems to be validating an encryption certificate with spoon.net and it downloads something from comodoca(a certificate authority website) which we can safely assume is certificate related.

My guess is that the software always check if the company ssl certificate is valid in case it needs to eventually talk to the server and it downloads it locally if it's not there or up-to-date.
This shouldn't be something to be too much worried about, but it could be a good idea to block the application from accessing the web in windows firewall since it may be checking that certificate because it does need to call back home, possibly to gather data of some kind.
There's nothing I can do about it and I'm not expert enough to know exactly what it's doing, but blocking it in the firewall will ensure it doesn't do anything bad and it shouldn't block it from working properly.

As for the release version, I gave that one the name beta4_Repacked_2015-12-02 since it's pretty much identical to vitreous beta 4 release(except x264), but I was planning on giving it a different nomenclature If I actually start changing some stuff.

 

[Menauer]

Thanks for clarifying SamKook. If you update it, please change the title bar to beta 4 instead of 3, if it's not too much hassle.

 

[SamKook]

I wish I could, but I'm pretty sure Vitreous had to modify the source code of MeGUI to make his version and I don't have access to that so unless I redo all of his changes using a more recent vanilla MeGUI(that would be a lot of work for pretty much zero gain so I won't do that), I won't be able to change it unless I disassemble the exe, find the right assembly code to modify and reassemble it which would also be quite a bit of work since assembly isn't exactly easy to understand and I haven't touched it in years.

I was hoping it would be stored as a resource in the exe which I could have easily modified with resource hacker or that it would be in plain text somewhere in the exe once open with an hex editor, ready to be modified, but no such luck.

 

[Menauer]

Allright, so I just tried to use this new version for the first time but unfortunately it doesn't work. It creates the audio files and other stuff, but when it is supposed to start encoding the h264 file it simply doesn't do anything, and if I check the log there is an error that says the mencoder.exe file is missing.

 

[SamKook]

Hmm, that's odd. If it says mencoder is missing, it's not the step where it starts encoding the h264 file, it's the step where it does the lossless file before encoding it to h264. If you uncheck "Add pre-rendering job" in the encoder config tab, it will skip that step and encode it directly using h264 without needing to use mencoder so that can be a temporary fix.

Can you tell what OS you're using, if it's a 32 or 64 bit one, what video profile you used and confirm that you have a C: drive(just in case but I doubt that would cause problems either way)?
Also, try to delete the sandbox folder and start the exe again just to make sure it's not trying to use an old sandbox folder. It doesn't need a sandbox folder, it will create it's own unlike the previous version of MeguIVit which had to replace the one from MeguIV.

 

[Menauer]

I'm using Windows 7 64 bit, and the 480p 60fps Quality+3 slightly modified. I disabled pre-rendering and got "x264.exe' is missing", so with the same sort of thing happening twice, I figured that "shame on me", there has to be something wrong at my end. I deleted the sandbox folder as you said and got a different error at another point, deleted it again and got an error at startup... Long story short, Panda Free Antivirus silently screws it an all sorts of ways even with all notification settings enabled, and behavioural options disabled.
Funny thing is that I usually have my antivirus disabled, especially when encoding, so maybe the same thing would actually happen here with the old MeguIVit.

 

[SamKook]

The antivirus is a likely candidate for blocking those that I didn't think about, they don't like "invisible" exe being executed without the user really knowing about it.