How to create quality micro-HD from 1080p and 720p video.

Assuming that you have some idea about micro-HD.This is a different way to encode your 720p and 1080p media into microHD using MeGUI and the x264 codec which gives superior results than just using the Mainconcept encoder.

This is currently the way I encode microHD.

Preparation

You will need

K-lite codec pack installed for the x264 codec http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...codec_pack.htm
1. AviSynth_080912.exe (google for it but if u cant find it pm me as its not allowed to post DDL links)
2. megui-0_3_0_2015.exe(google for it but if u cant find it pm me as its not allowed to post DDL links)
3. NeroDigitalAudio.zip(google for it but if u cant find it pm me as its not allowed to post DDL links)
4. MKV extract from http://www.matroska.org/downloads/windows.html* would be helpful. There are other useful tools on this site as well, so bookmark it for future use. :biggrin:
5. Install MKV Toolnix from http://www.matroska.org/downloads/windows.html

Install Avisynth and MeGUI(Remember where you assigned the program folder on your computer).
Open the Nero Digital folder after download and copy the files from the win32 folder to the MeGUI folder on your computer. This allows the 6 channel AC3 sound to be compressed to ND HE AAC 6 channel sound files.

Running MeGUI the first time
MeGui may take a few seconds to start running as it looks for all the necessary programs on your system for the encoding process. It will also update any of these programs by connecting to the net.
After updating MeGui will ask you to choose via tickbox which 'presets' to import. You should import all of the X264 presets and any others you feel you may use. If anything is missing an error box will appear to let you know what the problem is.

Configuring MeGUI for Encoding

Now that MeGUI is running you should see this
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...per/MeGUI1.jpg

Click on 'Tools' and select Avisynth script creator, this will open
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...per/MeGUI2.jpg

Add your 720/1080 HD file to the Video input by clicking on the http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...dreaper/m4.jpg* button.
After your video loads up you will be given a picture preview, just close this.
Clheck the 'Clever(TM) Anamorphic encoding' box, this helps create a good 16:9 picture.

I reduce the Resolution crop from 1280X720 to 848X480,but this is really down to personal preference, so choose a resolution.

Click on the 'Filter' tab at the top, this will openhttp://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...er/MEeGUI3.jpg

At the 'source type' select Progressive and take a chance its right(which it will be 90 percent of the time) or click 'Analyse' and let the computer do it, this may take a few minutes.
I would leave the frame rate as it is 23.976.
Now click on 'Save' where you will be given another picture preview of your choices, click this off and save the Avisynth script to a folder.
You should now see your video has been loaded into MeGUI like so
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...per/MeGUI5.jpg

At 'Encoder Settings' I use 'x264 Unrestricted 2 pass balanced', this can be configured by pressing the 'Config" button but I recommend that you leave this alone until you are more comfortable with MeGUI and just use the default settings for x264.

Use MKV extract to remove the audio from the 720/1080 file.You do not have to do this with a 2 channel rip though, simply load your video file into the audio input as below.

Add your audio to 'Audio Input' using the* http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...dreaper/m4.jpg button.

Select the audio 'Encoder settings', I use the Nero Digital multichannel 192kbps setting. Again the settings can be changed by pressing the 'Config' button, however I would recommend you become more comfortable with MeGUI before tinkering.

You should now have both Video and Audio loaded, now press 'AutoEncode', this opens this box
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...per/MeGUI6.jpg

Select MKV(not MP4) at the 'container' box
At Size and Bitrate click on the drop down box and select 'select size', I've settled on 500mb for my TV episodes, but then again its down to personal preference. You'll notice that the bitrate is displayed in the 'Average Bitrate' box. You can type in a bit rate yourself instead of file size, its up to you.
Click on 'Queue' which will close the box and return to the main window.

Click on the 'Queue' tab at the top which will show you the jobs list like so
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...per/MeGUI7.jpg

If you are happy click on start and thats it, you now have to wait for the encoding to finish, with 2 passes about 4 hours for a 1.09GB 720.

note:as u have noticed i used AAC audio.Nero has won awards across the boards with this audio codec when its been put up against other formats, AC3 is primarily used for DVD audio and in an ideal world that would be maintained for all encodes since its the original soundtrack. The problem is that the files are much larger with AC3 with sometimes worse quality,hence my preference for AAC due to its much greater efficiency..

I hope you're not starting a audio codec war?

I'll have a look at this guide in more detail tomorrow, looks decent so far :)

i find eac3to works really well for extracting audio in ac3 format. aac over ac3? i think they both have their advantages.

Please re upload the images : (

Nice guide but images removed.

That's why we should use our FST albums or BayImg to upload images.

megui is my pick of encoders great tut

Thank you . Useful

I dont encoding HD film ,but thank you for the tut. it looks complicated in fact for me.

Reupload the images please.

nice, thank you! but I prefer staxrip, its pretty good software.

Wanted to try this but wouldn't work on linux wine