Batch Encoding

Introduction

This guide assumes you are familiar with encoding through CLI or you are comfortable with Megui.

Why encode with batch files? This is a good question. When you are encoding many videos, you tend to use the same configuration settings for H.264 and AAC. You may have even created your own profiles already. Once you are comfortable with Megui and realize how easy it is to use, you start getting annoyed of repeatedly clicking the same options. You already know what you want from the start, so why not simplify the process? Actually, one thing that Megui can't do is queue multiplexing jobs before the video and audio files are finished and sitting on your hard drive. So that's a big plus for batch encoding.

Setup

Choose a folder where you will do all your operations and place the following files inside. If you have Megui installed you probably already have the first three files; look in the Megui\Tools directory.

• x264.exe
• neroaacenc.exe
• mp4box.exe
• BePipe.exe
• Batch files
• Your avisynth scripts and source files (if your script uses relative paths)

The batch files

Parameter list - 2pass.bat

•  %1 - avisynth script
•  %2 - output file name without mp4 extension
•  %3 - video bitrate
•  %4 - audio bitrate
•  %5 - minimum quantizer - 17 should be used for 320x240 resolution, 19 for 640x480 or higher.
•  %6 - delete stats file after encoding, 0=off, 1=on
•  %7 - delete elementary streams after muxing, 0/blank=off, 1=on

Parameter list - 1pass.bat

•  %1 - avisynth script
•  %2 - output file name without mp4 extension
•  %3 - audio bitrate
•  %4 - quantizer - 17 should be used for 320x240 resolution, 19 for 640x480 or higher.
•  %5 - delete elementary streams after muxing, 0/blank=off, 1=on

runatlow.bat - This will run encode.bat in low priority mode like Megui does. It will let you run other things while the encoding is taking place without computer lag, though I don't suggest playing cpu intensive games...

start /LOW /B encode.bat

encode.bat - The main batch file where you do most of the editing. Look at the parameter list to see what the values correspond to. As you can see, starting from the left, %1 refers to Seg1_MQ.avs and you keep going to the right, ending with %7 referring to the value 1 which means the elementary streams will be deleted after being multiplexed.

call 2pass.bat Seg1_MQ.avs GodOfWar_god_21623_LQ_part01 128 64000 17 1 1

call 2pass.bat Seg1_MQ.avs GodOfWar_god_21623_part01 512 64000 17 1 1

call 2pass.bat Seg1_HQ.avs GodOfWar_god_21623_HQ_part01 2048 128000 19 1 1

call 2pass.bat Seg1_HQ.avs GodOfWar_god_21623_IQ_part01 5000 320000 19 1 1

call 1pass.bat Seg1_MQ.avs GodOfWar_god_21623_part01_test 64000 17 0

2pass.bat - This gets the parameters from encode.bat and does the actual encoding. You need to configure this to your liking. If you are using Megui and already have your own profiles, you can look at the command line by clicking on config and clicking the "show commandline" checkbox at the bottom left.

Note that line breaks should only occur in the actual batch file where two occur here (e.g. before every occurrence of "X.exe") - additional breaks have been added for formatting purposes here only and will cause the batch file not to work if duplicated.

x264.exe --pass 1 --bitrate %3 --stats "%2.stats" --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 3 
--b-rdo --bime --weightb --subme 7 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --qpmin %5 
--me umh --progress --no-psnr --output NUL "%1"

x264.exe --pass 2 --bitrate %3 --stats "%2.stats" --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 3 
--b-rdo --bime --weightb --subme 7 --trellis 1 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --qpmin %5 
--me umh --progress --no-psnr --output "%2_video.mp4" "%1"

bepipe.exe --script "DirectShowSource(^%1^).Normalize" | "neroAacEnc.exe" -br %4 -lc 
-if - -of "%2_audio.mp4"

MP4Box.exe -new -add "%2_video.mp4" -add "%2_audio.mp4" "%2.mp4"

if "%6" == "1" del %2.stats

if "%7" == "1" del %2_video.mp4 | del %2_audio.mp4

1pass.bat - Same as 2pass except the code has only one line to call x264.exe since it is doing a single-pass constant quantizer encoding.

x264.exe --qp %4 --ref 8 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 3 --b-rdo --bime 
--weightb --nf --subme 7 --analyse p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --me umh --progress 
--no-psnr --output "%2_video.mp4" "%1"

bepipe.exe --script "DirectShowSource(^%1^).Normalize" | "neroAacEnc.exe" -br %3 
-lc -if - -of "%2_audio.mp4"

MP4Box.exe -new -add "%2_video.mp4" -add "%2_audio.mp4" "%2.mp4"

if "%5" == "1" del %2_video.mp4 | del %2_audio.mp4

Encoding / disadvantages

Most of the work is in setting up encode.bat, starting the encoding is as simple as running runatlow.bat.

There are some disadvantages to batch file encoding that you should know. In Megui you are able to postpone/delete jobs without interrupting the current encoding job. You can even stop the current job and the program will continue on with the rest. With batch files you'll have to stop the whole process cold, edit encode.bat and then run it again.

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