Gordian Knot DVDtoAVI

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GORDIAN KNOT ILLUSTRATED GUIDE by dap & JS v.13
DVDtoAVI
using versions 0.32.x - 0.35.x
(some illustrations may be from older GKnot versions, but they suit these just as well)

If you are looking for our GK guide on MPEG2toAVI, get it from www.rita.LT

subtitle section written by Grania O'Malley

Note: This guide was written for use with the DivX 5 series codec, if you plan on using DivX 6 or later you will find that you must enter the bitrate you would like to use manually for each encode, a step this guide doesn’t cover.

INSTALLATION:
800 MHz CPU is recommended, 500 MHz is a minimum… Running other processes wile encoding will slow your encoding down. You will need 5 -10 Gb free space on your hd).

1. Most versions of GKnot will uninstall older ones before installing the new one automatically. During the UNinstall, if you are asked if you want to delete registry settings - click “Yes.” If asked if you want to Delete default codec settings – click “No.” (This way the settings you set as default below will remain even when upgrading to a newer GKnot version.

2. Important: Install ALL components that are checkmarked by default, even if you have some of them already. Just keep clicking Next, Install, Close, etc. until you reach the AVISynth window (see below) and you will be fine. It is very important that the applications included are in the right places and are the right versions.

During installation, when you reach AVISynth, you will be asked select an association, check the box next to “Associate AVS files with Notepad”.

3. After installing the GKnot RipPack and any updates or patches available (or any similar software) it's a good idea to reinstall your divx and xvid codecs. If you do not have them installed at all, do so now. Get XviD 1.0.3 from www.rita.LT and DivX 5.2.x Pro (you can use the standard DivX 5.2.x freeware version available at www.rita.LT but it will not give you all the options in the guide.) If you never had a pro version of divx installed, you can get a 6 month trial of DivX 5.2.1 Pro from www.divx.com

Note: This is a guide written for beginners. Encoding is an art and not mathematics, there is no one way to do it. The instructions below will give you a guideline and we guarantee that the results will be good, but different movies may get better results using different settings, sometimes you can even correct problems that the original dvd has not corrected, especially in audio, shadows, minor imperfections, you can clean the files up, etc. But don't forget, the more “correcting” you do through filters, etc., the longer the encode time. So it's a personal choice. But the only way to figure out which settings are needed for that particular movie to be a GREAT encode is to set aside MANY hours, and experiment, experiment, experiment… You can find more guides for specific processes on the internet, good sites are www.videohelp.com and www.doom9.org.

Start Gordian Knot

Select the Program Paths tab

IMPORTANT: Select the Program Paths tab, make SURE Gordian Knot has located all the programs listed there. If you installed Gordian Knot in the default Program Files directory on your C drive, the paths should be as in the screenshot below. Be SURE to check these. Incorrect paths have led to errors and confusion for many users:

DEFAULT CODEC SETTINGS SET-UP

(preparation before ripping)

To make the process easier so you don't have to set up your codecs each time you encode, you will need to set the default settings for the DivX5 and XVid codecs. The default settings are a different color background for each codec.

DivX 5.2 Pro or 5.2.1 Pro XviD 1.x

CHOICE OF CODECS:

DivX and XviD: This version of our guide is updated for GKnot versions 0.3.2 or later and covers encoding with only newer versions of the DivX Pro and XviD codecs. The choice of whether to use DivX or XviD is yours and yours alone, AutoGK will do great with both. We use both sometimes but tend to lean toward DivX, as we backup many old movies where the source is noisy, as well and black and whites, and DivX seems to do better on those kinds of sources, XviD can be a bit strong for them and look grainy. On the other hand XviD is known for its crisp clear images, so if the source is very good, a new release, then XviD can give a sharper picture than DivX, which has a softening tendency. Another reason that we prefer DivX is because it has less compatibility issues with standalone MPEG4 dvd players. But again, it's a matter of personal preference.

x264: Since version 0.34 beta, Gordian Knot now supports use of the new x264 codec as an alternative to DivX or XviD, however, we are not covering this codec within this guide. One reason is that we have not experimented enough with it ourselves, another is that so few stand-alone mpeg4 players support it as of yet.

After you set the defaults once, you don't need to come back to this section (unless you want to change your default settings). You will have the option to change codec settings during the encoding process, but once you close GKnot, when you restart it it will always come back to the settings you set here.

The next time you use GKnot you can skip this section and go straight to THE RIPPING PROCESS below.

Select the Options tab

In the panel shown below you will set up default settings for DivX5 and XViD codecs). Make sure “Use Different Last Pass” is checked at this point. (This option and “Last pass” were not available in versions earlier than GKnot 0.28.6)

DivX 5.2.x Pro default settings

(if you do not use the Pro version of divx, not all options will be available)

1. FIRST PASS

Under DivX5 default codec settings
(in Options panel of Gordian Knot)
click First Pass

Click Select DivX Certified Profile

Click Home Theater

Click Next

(Note to Advanced Users: If you intend to use Quarterpel and/or GMC you should be aware that most AVI compatible standalone DVD Players will NOT play this type of file!)

Under Bidirectional encoding

On the drop down menu Adaptive Single Consecutive

(If this is not available to you just skip it).

Click Finish

Set the Encode Performance to “Standard”

Under Encode mode:

make sure Multipass, 1^st pass is selected

(don't worry about the Encoding bitrate slider,
this will be set automatically in Gordian Knot)

also the new bitrate calculator is not needed in Gordian knot but instruction can be found on the official divX 5.2 guide available at www.RITA.LT

Click the Video tab

Make sure Psychovisual Enhancements is checked

On the drop down menu choose “Fast”

Under Advanced

Move the Source Pre-Processing slider to the left or right until says Light

(if you have a perfectly clear non-scratchy
source with no picture noise, you can leave
Pre Processing Source all the way to the left, i.e. Off, but we usually use it anyway)

Under Interlacing

On the drop down menu choose Progressive source

The rest of the settings should be the
same as illustrated in the picture to the right

Click OK

2. Nth PASS

Under DivX5 default codec settings
(in Options panel of Gordian Knot)

click Nth Pass

Click Select DivX Certified Profile

Click Home Theater

Click Next

Under Bidirectional encoding

On the drop down menu you should have
Adaptive Single Consecutive

this option will probably be greyed out and not allow you to select anything, which is as it should be – divx is just making sure that your nth and last pass settings are the same as the first pass

Click Finish

Set the Encode Performance to “Standard”

Under Encode mode:

make sure Multipass, nth pass is selected

(don't worry about the Encoding bitrate slider, as this will be set automatically in Gordian Knot)

Under Bitrate modulation move the motion slider towards
high-motion until the setting reads approx. -0.2

Check update log file:

Click the Video tab

Make sure Psychovisual Enhancements is checked

On the drop down menu choose “Fast”

Checkmark Pre Processing Source

Move the Source Pre-Processing slider until says Light

(if you have a clear non-scratchy source with no picture noise, you can leave Pre Processing Source all the way to the left, but we usually use it)

Under Interlacing

On the drop down menu choose Progressive source

The rest of the settings should be the
same as illustrated in the picture to the right

Click OK

3. Last PASS

Under DivX5 default codec

settings (in Options Panel)

(make sure “Use Different Last Pass” is checked)

click Last Pass

Click Select DivX Certified Profile

Click Home Theater

Click Next

Under Bidirectional encoding

You should see Adaptive Single Consecutive

(even if it is greyed out)

Click Finish

Under Encode Performance

Choose “Slow”

Under Encode mode:

make sure Multipass, nth pass is selected

(don't worry about the Encoding bitrate slider, as this will be set automatically in Gordian Knot)

Under Bitrate modulation move the motion slider towards high-motion until the setting reads approx. -0.2

Check Update log file

Click the Video tab

Make sure Psychovisual Enhancements is checked

On the drop down menu choose “Fast”

Under Advanced

Move the Source Pre-Processing slider until says Light

(if you have a perfectly clear non-scratchy source with no picture noise, you can leave Pre Processing Source all the way to the left, i.e. Off, but we usually use it anyway)

Under Interlacing

On the drop down menu choose Progressive source

The rest of the settings should be the
same as illustrated in the picture to the right

Click OK

Now in the Gordian Knot Options panel UNcheck “Use Different Last Pass” – you will be able to utilize a different last pass as an option if you wish later, but leave it this way in your default settings

3. Credits (optional)

For users who will want to use the option for the credits on a video to be of lower quality, so that a bit more quality could go toward the main video

Under DivX5 default codec settings (in Options Panel)

click Credits

Click Select DivX Certified Profile

Checkmark DivX Certified

Select Portable

Click Next

Click Finish

Click OK on the main divx screen

XViD default settings

Important: Sometimes XviD, after installation, does not use the newest XviD configuration panel, as something left over from an old XviD is messing it up. The way to tell is this – in the picture directly below you see that to the right there are two buttons which say “more…” – if your xvid shows these buttons having “…” instead of the word “more…”, then you have an old config panel. If you see the “more” buttons you're ok. In the case of those with an old config, try this (it worked for us on one of the computers which refused to take on the new config): Uninstall XviD from Add-Remove Programs in your Control Panel. Then in your Start menu (NOT in My Computer or Windows Explorer, as you will not find it) find XviD in Programs, right click on it and select Delete – even though you uninstalled XviD there will still be stuff left over which uninstall did not get rid of. Then reinstall Xvid.

1. FIRST PASS
Under XViD default codec settings in the Options panel of Gordian Knot
click First Pass

You should now be in the XviD Configuration Panel

On the drop down menu next to Profile @ Level
Choose Simple @ LO

(Note: You can choose other options like Advanced Simple, but know that many stand-alone avi compatible players not support this format).

Advanced Users: If you intend to use Quarterpel and/or GMC you should be aware that most AVI compatible standalone DVD Players will NOT play this type of file!

Set Encoding type: to Twopass – 1^st pass

Click Advanced options

Motion search precision: 6 – Ultra High

VHQ mode: 1 – Mode Decision

(Here there is some difference in opinion, so it will be up to you to decide. Setting to 1 is the standard mode. Many say if you have a faster CPU, 4 – Wide Search will give a nicer result, but adds quite a bit of encoding time.

Make sure Use chroma motion is checked
IMPORTANT NOTE: For black and white movies chroma motion should not be checked – instead, go to “Zone Options” on the first panel of xvid and tick “Greyscale” – if you encode mostly black and white movies then you should untick chroma motion and leave greyscale as your default, if you encode mostly color movies then tick chroma motion here… you can change this setting later in the encoding process for a particular video

Frame drop ratio: 0

Maximum I-frame interval:
If you're not sure of the source: 300
If you know what your source is:

For NTSC FILM (23.976 fps) use: 240

For PAL (25 fps) use: 250

For NTSC (29.970 fps) use: 300

(if you are encoding cartoons, you can check the cartoon mode)

In the XViD Configuration panel click the Quantization tab

Set values as shown

Check Trellis Quantization

(older xvid versions had problems with Trellis,
but now it is recommended to use it)

Click OK

You should be back at the XviD Configuration Panel

Click “more…” to the right of Encoding type:

Make sure Discard first pass is checked

Click OK

Click OK again to return to the Options Panel in Gordian Knot

1. SECOND PASS

Under XViD default codec settings (in GKnot Options panel)

click Second Pass

In the Xvid Configuration (shown here)

Set Encoding type: Twopass – 2^nd pass

Disregard Target size, as this will be set during the encoding process in Gordian Knot.

Click on “more…” to the right of Encoding type:

In earlier versions of XviD we used to recommend changing these settings, but with XviD 1.0.1 and above we recommend leaving the XviD default settings for this window as is… Unless, of course, you love to experiment

So make sure that your settings are as in the picture

Click OK

Click Advanced options

Motion search precision: 6 – Ultra High

VHQ mode: 1 – Mode Decision

(Here there is some difference in opinion, so it will be up to you to decide. Setting to 1 is the standard mode. Many say if you have a faster CPU, 4 – Wide Search will give a nicer result.

Make sure Use chroma motion is checked
IMPORTANT NOTE: For black and white movies chroma motion should not be checked – instead, go to “Zone Options” on the first panel of xvid and tick “Greyscale” – if you encode mostly black and white movies then you should untick chroma motion so as not to waste pixels for quality and leave greyscale as your default, if you encode mostly color movies then tick chroma motion here… you can change this setting later in the encoding process for a particular film before completing the encode

Frame drop ratio: 0

Maximum I-frame interval:
If you're not sure of the source: 300
If you know what your source is:

For NTSC FILM (23.976 fps) use: 240

For PAL (25 fps) use: 250

For NTSC (29.970 fps) use: 300

(and if you are encoding cartoons,
you can check the cartoon mode)

In the XViD Configuration panel click the Quantization tab

Make sure settings are as shown

(should already be default)

Check Trellis Quantization

(older xvid versions had problems with Trellis,
but now it is recommended to use it)

Click OK and then click OK again you will now be back to Gordian Knot.

THE RIPPING PROCESS:

Important: Before you begin you should create a folder just for your encoding. Gordian Knot may not work if the files you create for a particular job and its logs are saved to different folders, so make sure you save them to the same folder. You can name this folder anything you choose.

Many DVD disks are encrypted with CSS, which must be removed for the movie files to be transferred to your hard drive; to achieve that, we will use DVDecrypter. Note that all-in-one solutions that claim to not use any disk space may damage your DVD drive, since they are continuously reading from it for many hours and therefore are not recommended.

Go to the “Ripping” tab in Gordian Knot

Click on the DVD icon under “Rip the VOBs”

(two windows should open:
DVD Decrypter and a log window)

In DVDecrypter:

IMPORTANT:

Go to Mode and make sure IFO I is selected.

--- Go to Tools and select Settings

--- In the Settings window click on the IFO Mode tab

--- Make sure Stream information is checked
(should be checked by default)

--- Check “Include PGC Number”

--- Check “Include Angle Number

--- Click OK
(to get back to the main Decrypter window)

The “Source” should show your dvd drive. In the Input window on the right, you should have a list of VTS files and PGC (program chains).

DVD Decrypter will have automatically chosen the longest PGC (Program Chain) for you.

option a) If you are ripping a movie
Except for very rare occurrences, the longest chain will be the main movie (what you will usually want). The other PGC chains will be trailers, extra features, interviews, etc. If you are interested in ripping any of these you will either have to view the dvd and take note of the length of the segment you want to rip, then find the PGC that matches the length of that segment among the other PGC chains and select it manually, or use a program like IFOEdit (free) to find the right one. But usually it is quite clear if the dvd is standard, the main movie will be much longer than any of the other segments.

A good way to learn and experiment with ripping and encoding for the first time is to select one of the short extra features to practice.

option b) If you are ripping a dvd with several episodes on it, i.e. a TV series
Again, DVD Decrypter will choose the longest one. Usually the actual episodes will be around the same length, so you can pick them out among any trailers or other miscellaneous files. You can choose the episodes one by one, and save each PGC chain in separate destination folders (below). If you need to find a particular episode, the best bet is to use IFOEdit.

Click on the folder next to Destination (center) and select a destination folder where you want the file(s) to be ripped to.

Make sure the drive that the destination folder is on has enough space (usually about 5 GB for a standard-length movie).

***** Go to Stream Processing at the right

Check “Enable stream processing”

Uncheck any miscellaneous audio or subtitle tracks, leaving only the audio track with the language you want, the video, and subtitles (if needed).

Make sure “Direct Stream Copy” is selected

(Note: There might be more than one audio track in the language of your choice. There may also be a 6 channel AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1), a 2 channel AC3 (DD 2.0), or maybe a 1 channel AC3 (DD 1.0) for older, classic films, and/or a Director's Commentary track. If you plan on using MP3 audio, it might be better to choose the 2 track DD 2.0 if there is one. If you're going for 2 CDs and want the best quality audio, i.e. ac3, then choose the 6 track DD 5.1 if available. If one is with the director's commentary, you will have to simply listen to the tracks to determine which one is the one you want).

Click on the green arrow to begin decrypting.

(The ripping process can take anywhere from 10 minutes up to 40 minutes, depending on your dvdrom read speed and hd).

When the Decrypter is finished ripping, click OK and close DVDecrypter.

PREPARING THE VOBS
(separating the video and audio files in preparation for encoding)

In Gordian Knot in the “Ripping” window under 2-Prepare the VOBs, click on the the icon

a DGIndex window should open in DVD2AVI.

Ok, this is the part where we need to give you two different options because there is a slight difference between different versions of the application.

Click on File

** If you see Autoincrement Open among the choices in the dropdown menu, follow Option A in the light blue section and skip the pink Option B section below it.

** If you only see Open but no Autoincrement Open, follow skip the Option A section in light blue and go to the Option B in pink.

OPTION A

Click File

Select Autoincrement Open

(or press F3)

Find the movie you ripped, select the first VOB and the rest of the VOBS will be automatically selected (make sure they are all there).

Click Open

You should have a File List window open up.
Click OK.

(If this is a tv series, for instance, and you wish to encode only certain episodes the list, click “del” on the program chains you don't want – the files will NOT be deleted from the HD, only from your present encode).

OPTION B

Click File

Select Open

(or press F2)

You should see a list of VTS program chains in the new window. These should all be part of the main video file, so you need to select them all. Highlight the first program chain, and while holding the Shift key down on your keyboard, highlight the last. You should now have all the program chains highlighted. You can also select each one separately while holding down the Shift key.

Click Open

You should have a File List window open up.

Click OK.

(If this is a tv series and not a movie and you wish to encode only certain episodes the list, click “del” on the program chains you don't want – the files will NOT be deleted from the HD, only from your present encode).

Now the DGIndex window should be open.

Press F5, this will bring up an Information Window which checks the movie.

Let it run for a few minutes.

In Video Type, you will see the word FILM or NTSC or PAL. If these words have a percentage after it, let it run for a bit more if the percentage is anywhere near 90%, you need to see if the percentage climbs to 95 % or greater.

Important: You will need some of this information later, so jot down the Aspect Ratio, Video Type and Frame Type.

Next step:
DECIDING WHETHER YOUR VIDEO NEEDS TO BE FORCED OR DEINTERLACED:

Before continuing we‘d like to pause for a bit to answer a question we often get. Below you will be asked to look at your video file and see if you can find any artifacts due to interlacing, and the question of course is: “what do you mean by artifacts?“ Take a look at the screenshot below, if you look around the horses‘ heads you can see horizontal lines around them, these are artifacts, telling you that the video is interlaced.

To determine whether your video file really is interlaced or not you shouldn't depend on what the Statistics window tells you (read below), the application only reads the information from the file's tags and does not detect the frame type itself.

Video Type: PAL

If your “Video Type” is “PAL” and your “Frame Type” is “Progressive” then it is the ideal case and you do not need to take any extra steps here.

If the statistics said that your video was an “Interlaced” frame type, let the movie play for a while, or else hit Esc on your keyboard to pause the movie and use the slider manually to move forward and backward in the movie. If you notice any interlacing artifacts in the picture, then the movie is really interlaced and you will need to perform deinterlacing later on this guide, so make a note.

If the frame type said “Interlaced” but you cannot see any artifacts while scrolling through the movie, then ignore it and do not deinterlace.

Video type: NTSC/FILM

If DVD2AVI displays FILM 95% or more (plain FILM is FILM 100%) as video type and the frame type is Progressive then check “Force FILM” from the “Field Operation” Video menu.
If DVD2AVI told you that you have a FILM Interlaced source, scroll the bar to see if there are interlacing artifacts. If there are not any, then Force FILM. You shouldn't depend on what the Statistics window tells you, DVD2AVI only reads the information from the file's tags and does not detect the frame type itself. If you can see the nasty interlacing effects, then note that you will need to deinterlace or perform IVTC later on.

If DVD2AVI told you that your movie is “NTSC” and “Progressive”, check “Force FILM”.

If DVD2AVI told you that your movie is “Interlaced”, scroll through the movie to see if interlacing artifacts appear and act same as above. (Again, you shouldn't depend on what the Statistics window tells you, DVD2AVI only reads the information from the file's tags and does not detect the frame type itself.)

Many users have had problems understanding the above steps. To deal with this issue and to make these instructions clearer, use this diagram to ascertain whether you will need to “force” your film (explained below) or deinterlace it later. This should help you understand what steps to follow in each different case.

Chart by JohnnyB and everwicked

After following the steps above you should know if you need to “force your film” or not (PAL video never needs to be forced)

If you have not already done so, hit Esc on your keyboard to pause your movie.

If you do not need to force,

Click “Video,” Field Operation,” “None”

If you need to force,

Click “Video,” Field Operation,” “Forced FILM”

Before you go on, make sure you have jotted down the Aspect Ratio, Video Type and whether you will need to deinterlace, as this will be needed later.

Go to Audio

Select Ouput Method, then demux all tracks

Press F4 to Save your .d2v project file (select directory and filename). This will take a few minutes.

NOTE: Unusual characters in the project filenames will not be recognized, so if you like to use Þ, ®, © or similar symbols in your movie filenames, you will have to rename them after the .avi is complete, at this stage you need to name your files in standard recognizable characters.

You have now created your project file (with a .d2v extention). Close all DGIndex windows, leave only Gordian Knot open (or open it if you have closed it). You will be opening it again in the next step.

(Note for non-beginners: a better result is often obtained by encoding first the audio, then start over with the MP3 already encoded. So there is no recalc and you have a precise idea of what the audi/video ratio will be - you know your exact bitrate and bits/pixel. For the purposes of this guide, however, we won‘t go into this process so as not to confuse beginners)

**** Subtitle Section

If you will not be ripping subtitles, skip this yellow section and contine with the guide

Even if you do not need any foreign language subtitles for yourself, it is a nice idea to share the subtitles for a movie as separate files to download, so that other language speakers can download them from you and encode or watch the movie with subtitles of their choice. Ripping the subtitles is a separate process and you MUST rip them BEFORE the save and encode process outlined below when setting Resolution and filters in Gordian Knot, in order to calculate space needed for the subtitles and shorten the movie length to allow subtitles + movie to fit on one CD.

STEP 1: RIPPING THE SUBTITLES.

Go to the subtitles/chapter tab in GK

Click on configure

Click on open

-Select ifo+vob form the dropdown menu

-Select the ifo file, click open

-Choose the folder where you want the subtitles ripped to.

You will get to this window. All languages in the top right window will be extracted.Use the left and right arrows to select which languages you want.

By default, vobsub shows all the available streams, so you would only need to remove some languages as the case may be.(i.e. move them back to the left)

Leave all the rest default.

Click OK

Let the indexing finish (it can take a while with slower computers).

Click OK

(if you want, you can set custom colors and position here, though it is best not to meddle with defaults)

Forced subtitles:

Forced subtitles are for example the chinese in Kill Bill, or the Elvish in Lord of the Rings.They are subtitles that are needed by everyone, but are different from a full subtitle job.

To find forced subs: Go to the subtitles/chapter tab in Gknot. Click on resync. This will open subresync. Load the .idx file you created earlier

a) Some forced subtitles have a separate stream.Typically when you have two streams with the same language, and one stream has very few lines, that one is the forced subtitles stream (you can check the number of lines and the words in subresync, by highlighting each line)

Scroll down the various streams until you find the one you need (for burning in directly, i'd recommend loading the idx in configure after you figured out which you want to keep, and then getting rid of all the other streams, to make sure the correct one is left and burnt)

b) forced flags: some forced subtitles are in the same stream as the normal subtitles, they just have a special flag attached to them so the player recognizes them.

If you open the subtitles in subresync and see some lines that say "yes" under " forced" then you have typical forced subtitles.

Those are the subtitles you want to keep.

NOTE: Some movies (like Kill Bill) have the forced lines in italic, and can't be detected automatically, they have to be done manually. But it isn't long nor hard.

How to select those subtitles:

Right-click on each line that says forced, or is in italic font, so that a green dot appears for each of them. Then highlight them all by pressing Ctrl+leftclick for each of them in turn. When they're all highlighted, click save as.... give it a new name, like movieforced.idx . That is the file you will use to encode with. (Remember it has to be done for every language in turn if you want to keep all the languages)

DON'T FORGET TO PREVIEW IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT SUBTITLES!

Advanced users: there is more subtitle information on burning in srt files, cutting idx and muxing to ogm/mkv at the bottom of this guide in the yellow section...

ENCODING TO .AVI

Click Open on bottom left corner of Gordian Knot.

Find the project file (.d2v),
select it, click Open

Leave this window open in background.

(Note: You can change the view setting to Resized and/or ½ Size if it makes it easier to view, as well as check Stay on Top which makes it easier to adjust)

Credits (Optional)

If you have credits in your video, you can tell GKnot to encode them at a lesser quality, leaving a bit more to work with for the main video.

To do this, move the slider to the start of the credits and click “Set Credits Start”

In Gordian Knot:

Go to Bitrate tab

At the top left check AVI

Note: There is a choice of containers (AVI, OGM, MKV), but as this is a beginner's guide we will not confuse the issue by going into them here.

Make sure “Calculate Average Bitrate” is selected at the top left.

Pick one of three options for your Codec at the top right: Divx 3.11, Divx 5 or XviD

(Note: which codec is used is personal choice, however we recommend using DivX5 series on sources which are older, i.e. black and white video, video with a lot of noise, etc.)

Total Size: As a general rule, a good quality encode fitting on one 700 MB CD can only be obtained if the movie is two hours long or less, we usually don't go over 1 hour 50 minutes on 1 CD.

Note: If you are planning on using AC3 audio instead of mp3 you MUST make at least a two-cd file size avi for a standard-length movie, as AC3 audio requires a lot of space, often as much as the video.

Select size of CD and whether it will be 1 CD, 2CDs, etc. (Selecting 2 or 3 CDs will not split the film, it will just create a file twice or three times the size of 1 CD, BUT if you would like the film to be split, you need to check Split final file into CDs.)

NOTE: If you are encoding a shorter video, i.e. an episode of a series, etc., from the drop down menu you can select a fraction of a 1 CD size or you can go to the right where is says Total File Size – you will have to decrease the size in MB, as this is the size that your file will ultimately be. You can use an average of 120-150 MB for a 20-minute video as a guide for your calculations. So if the video was 45 minutes you can use the minimum of let's say 240 mb, but if you are going to burn to a cd you may as well use the space to increase the quality, so you can make them 345-350 mb.

**** Subtitle Section

If you are not using subtitles, skip this yellow section and contine with the guide

STEP 2: ENCODING THE SUBTITLES: (follow a OR b)

a) burnt-in subtitles

Burnt-in subtitles are part of the image and cannot be removed. Be aware not everybody is English, and if you're going to share the movie, it isn't recommended to do this. Be also aware that it confuses the codec and the filters, so the resulting encode won't be as good. Nonetheless, if you still want to do it (your personal standalone, say), here goes:

1-In GK, go to the bitrate tab:

2-To the right of audio A and B you can see " files"

3-Click add

4-Select the idx AND the sub you created, by holding ctrl while clicking.

5-Click open.

The total size of those 2 files will be taken into account by GK for bitrate calculation

Now continue with the guide in the grey section below

b) separate subtitles(Vobsub):

You need to deduct the size of the idx+sub off the final size of the movie to make sure there is room to burn everything on a cd. Use the down arrow in “total file size” to make the output movie a little bit smaller.

Zip the idx and sub together and share alongside the movie as separate subtitles. That's it, you're done

Now continue with the steps below

This window tells you what bitrate your video file will encode at. Once you have loaded your movie and set up your audio, bitrate will be calculated automatically according to the target file size of your movie. The higher the file size, the higher bitrate you can achieve, leading to higher visual quality. If your bitrate is low (under 800 kbit/s), we recommend increasing target size to 1400 and two cds.

Under Interleaving & AVI-Overhead (in the middle to the right)

Select vbr mp3 or ac3 under Audio 1.

(cbr mp3 is a new feature, older versions of GKnot only allowed variable bitrate, but we would not recommend it for dynamic video).

Note: Remember that if you choose ac3 the audio file will be much larger, and if you did not increase the target size of your file to allow for it, the audio will make room for itself, resulting in a low video bitrate and poor video quality.

Important

a) for DivX - mark “Calculate Frame-Overhead”

b) for XViD - do not mark “Calculate Frame-Overhead

Under AudioA (middle left)

If you have chosen mp3 for your audio:
Click Bitrate and select the audio bitrate you‘d like to use from the drop-down menu. We recommend using 128 or 96 - a lower bitrate than this may produce out of sync audio, anything higher than 192 is not worth the size it takes up for most movies – the higher the bitrate, the larger the audio file size, which will take away from video quality if you don‘t increase the total file size. This window calculates how much space of the total size will be taken up by the audio.

If you have chosen ac3 for your audio:
Click Size and then click the Select button and browse to your AC3 audio file, highlight it and click Open

Go to the Resolution tab in Gordian Knot

Under Input Resolution (top left), choose whether it is PAL or NTSC (this was determined during preparation of VOBs, if your frame rate was approx. 29,9 it is NTSC, if it was approx. 25 it is PAL).

Under Input Pixel Aspect Ratio at the middle top, select the correct Aspect Ratio (which you should remember from VOB preparation).

Go to Crop (before resize!) at the top right.

You will notice in the Frame of the other window which should have your movie open, the picture most likely has a black border around it. This is undesirable in viewing the movie, so this border needs to be cropped. (Note: Sometimes GKnot will open to a frame which is very dark and it will be difficult to view the undesirable border. In this case, move the slider in the movie box to a brighter frame of the movie for easier cropping.)

First, select “Pixel” -

Adjust the 4 values to the right of Pixel (you simply have to play with these numbers, watching the movie frame change.)

After you have adjusted the values so that you have no border remaining

Then select “Smart Crop All”

Under Output Resolution

16 should be selected as the W and H Modul. (or any multiple of 16)

The next is the part is where most people who get less than optimal results go wrong, and this is because they pay attention to bitrate only or else set the resolution to high for the target size chosen.

Go to Width x Height. Begin adjusting the Width x Height values in the center with the up/down arrows (or use the slider), while watching the Bits/(Pixel*Frame) value (underneath and slightly to the left of it).

IMPORTANT:
What you are generally looking for is to adjust the Width x Height to values which will make the Bits/(Pixel*Frame) value approx. 0.2 for 1CD and 0.27 for 2CDs.

High resolution does NOT equal good quality it could mean just the opposite if the resolution is too high and your target size too small. It is more important that you have good frame quality (bits/pixel). You are looking for an ideal resolution for that particular file. The best would be to encode a bit of the film, take a look at it, change the values slightly, encode a bit again and compare, every film is different. But if you stick to the bits/pixel above, you should get a reasonable result.

Note: Our guidelines on what makes a good quality encode using the target size, length of video file, and bits/pixel along with resolution are by no means exact, they are just that, blind guidelines. Some video files compress much better or much worse than others, and to be more exact on what your setting should be to ensure you get a good encode you should do a compressibility test before starting the actual encode, then you can adjust the values. How to do this will be further on.

Now go to the movie window that you have open (with the Frame No. at the top)

Click Save & Encode, which opens up a Save .avs window.

Resizing should be: Selected Output Resolution

Resize Filter: we usually use Neutral Bicubic or Lanczos, but again, use what works for you through experimentation or research.

Field Operations IMPORTANT: You should have determined whether your video needs to be deinterlaced or not at an earlier stage. If the video needs deinterlacing, this is very important to do. We recommend Kernel Deinterlace or Field Deinterlace (TomsMoComp can work well with XviD). Many do not deinterlace when they should, and this causes problems in the quality of the encode - most digital encodes, i.e. dvds, etc., are interlaced for television, in effect that consists of two sets of frames which run parallel, giving a sharper picture. On a computer monitor, both sets of frames, if left, can overlap, giving a ghosting effect. By deinterlacing the film, you remove the extra frames, leaving just the 23, 25 or 29 frames per second, optimal for computer viewing.)

Noise Filter: Again, this is a matter of taste. If it is an old movie and has interference on the screen you can choose some filters, we usually do Little Noise, but if it's a new movie you can even go with None. (Note: remember, filters add to encoding time…). Once you become more advanced with GKnot you can download play with all kinds of filters and script them yourself by clicking on the Edit tab, but we will not cover this, as this is a very basic user guide.

Extras: we don't select any

(Note for advanced users: You can click on Edit and use various filters, however you must find and download the filters you want to use and add them to the AviSynth plugin folder. You can also use an Advanced Save AVS window by going to the Options tab in Gordian Knot and clicking Use Advanced AVS window)

CREDITS:
If you chose to set a start point for credits so that they could be encoded at a lower quality earlier, under “Trim” at the bottom left:

If you are using DivX:
Choose Both (enc. Credits separately)
GKnot will do the credits separately and join them at the end.

If you are using XviD:
Choose Movie only

If you did not select a Credits start point earlier, this option will be greyed out.

**** Subtitle Section

If you are not using subtitles, skip this yellow section and contine with the guide.

6-Tick "select vobsub files"

7-You will be prompted to browse to the file...Browse and select the idx (it shouldn't make a difference which to pick, but always remember idx and sub work together, like cue and bin files, and should never be separated. In some cases you have to pick the idx, so pick it by default)

normal avs window:

advanced avs window :

8-Click on "preview" and check that your subtitles appear.

NOTE: If there are several language streams in a vobsub file, GK will burn in the first stream only!

9-The position should be correct, but if you're really unhappy, go back to vobsub configure in the subtitles window in GK, and open the idx from there and play with the position (big red box), as well as with colours and stuff. As said earlier, at your own risk.

If all is fine, close the preview and continue with encoding below

Compressibility Check: You can run a compressibility check to determine more accurately what your resolution should be set at to make the bits/pixel more accurate, although this adds time. Results of 60-80% are most desirable, but good quality can also be attained as low as 40%. Anything over 80% is just a waste of pixels. If after running a compressibility check you find your results are lower than what you would like, you can go back and adjust your values to increase the quality of your encode by either increasing target size or lowering resolution (decreasing the width and height of the screen size to increase frame quality).

To begin the compressibility check click on Use, then the Now button. You can increase the percentage from the default of 5%, which means that more of your file will be checked, but this will also increase the time it takes to complete. We have found that the default value of 5% is quite sufficient.

If you are satisfied with the results of your check, continue below. If not, go back and adjust your settings first

Click Save & Encode
at the bottom left of the Save .avs window.

Choose directory in the browse menu which pops up and click “Save.” (If you have chosen to encode credits separately then you will need to do this twice)

You should now be in the Divx or XviD Encoding Panel (Our picture shows divx, but it is the same for all 3 codecs)

Make sure “Multi Passes” is selected at the top left

Go to the Audio1 tab in the middle and follow Option A or Option B below

Option A) If you are using MP3 AUDIO:
** Click on “Select” and choose your audio file (there will probably be only one, unless you didn't remove “others” in the stream processing” stage of ripping. Click Open

** Make sure “Finally Mux” is selected at the left (sometimes negative will be checked sometimes not, do not worry about this GKnot will do it for you automatically)

** Click on MP3, custom Parameters (Experts)

(Re-Calculate Video Bitrate and Delete Wav should be automatically selected)

At the left click on the drop-down menu next to Lame and select the bitrate of the audio you wish to encode (--alt preset standard, as far as we have been able to determine, is an average of approx 192 vbr. We usually use 96 for older sources and 128 for newer).

IMPORTANT!!!!!: DO NOT click “Add to encoding que” here in the audio tab unless you would like to transcode the audio only. INSTEAD…

Option B) If you are using AC3 AUDIO:
** The AC3 audio file should already be selected next to Audio Source File

** Click on Just Mux

Click on the Divx5, XviD or DivX3 tab, whichever you are using and continue below

Now follow ONE of the next steps: 1a), 1b), 2) OR 3)

1) If you are using DivX 5.2.x,

choose your settings from 1a) or 1b) according to your personal preference

1a) Two-pass DivX 5.2.x settings for a relatively quick and high quality encode

(performance quality: standard first pass, standard second pass)

On the Gordian Knot DivX Encoding Control Panel

Checkmark “Re-Calculate Bitrate if needed “

On the center right of the screen,

select Number of passes: 2

At bottom right, click “Add Job to Encoding Queue”

Click Yes.

STATS WINDOW: In earlier versions of Gknot, a statistics window would open up in Virtual Dub, allowing you to view the progress of the encode. Now this stats window does not automatically open, the authors of GKnot reason that too many people have accidentally closed the stats window, subsequently cutting off their encoding process. If you do wish to open it, you can do so manually. Once you have Added Job to Encoding Queue, BeSweet will start and transcode the audio. Then Virtual Dub will start up. Click on the VirtualDub icon in your task bar, click on Options at the top left, check “show status window.” You can then MINIMIZE the main Vdub window and leave the stats window running, but remember to MINIMIZE it only, DO NOT CLOSE IT!!

That's IT, you're ENCODING! After the process is finished, if you're satisfied with your avi, don't forget to delete all the other things from your hd, vobs, project file, audio files, etc. They take up a LOT of space. GOOD LUCK…

1b) Two-pass DivX 5.2.x settings for a theoretically higher quality but slower encode
(performance quality: standard first pass, slow second pass)
The reason we say “theoretically higher quality” is that while the use of the slow setting can fix some problems better than the standard, we have found the often it “washes” out the picture more as well.

** For the reasons stated above, we usually use the performance quality outlined in 1a), but if you want to use a different second (last) pass setting, slow, you can do so. The procedure is outlined below. You can also use three-pass settings in a similar way, but there is hardly ever a need to use three passes, so we are not going into the setup for the purposes of this guide.

On the Gordian Knot DivX Encoding Control Panel

Click Nth Pass

This will bring up your DivX codec setup…

Under “Encoder Preferences”

Select Slow

Click OK

You should now be back on the Gordian Knot DivX Encoding Control Panel

tick “Re-Calculate Bitrate if needed “

On the center right of the screen,

select Number of passes: 2

At bottom right, click “Add Job to Encoding Queue”

Click Yes.

STATS WINDOW: In earlier versions of Gknot, a statistics window would open up in Virtual Dub, allowing you to view the progress of the encode. Now this stats window does not automatically open, the authors of GKnot reason that too many people have accidentally closed the stats window, subsequently cutting off their encoding process. If you do wish to open it, you can do so manually. Once you have Added Job to Encoding Queue, BeSweet will start and transcode the audio. Then Virtual Dub will start up. Click on the VirtualDub icon in your task bar, click on Options at the top left, check “show status window.” You can then MINIMIZE the main Vdub window and leave the stats window running, but remember to MINIMIZE it only, DO NOT CLOSE IT!!

2) If you are using XviD, click on the XviD tab

Checkmark “Re-Calculate Bitrate if needed “

Note: If you decide for a particular encode that you wish to change one or another setting for your codec that is different from the default settings you have saved, you can change them now by clicking the “First Pass” and “Second Pass” buttons at the left.

At the bottom right, click “Add Job to Encoding Queue”
Click Yes.

3) If you are using DivX 3.11, click on the DivX3 tab

Check “Re-Calculate Bitrate if needed “

Note: If you have a bad original dvd, one that is not remastered, has a lot of noise, etc., you can tick the Anti-Shit box, however this will make your encoding time EXTREMELY long.

At the bottom right, click “Add Job to Encoding Queue”

Click Yes.

Stats window: In earlier versions of Gknot, a statistics window would open up in Virtual Dub, allowing you to view the progress of the encode. Now this stats window does not automatically open, the authors of GKnot reason that too many people have accidentally closed the stats window, subsequently cutting off their encoding process. If you do wish to open it, you can do so manually. Once you have Added Job to Encoding Queue, BeSweet will start and transcode the audio. Then Virtual Dub will start up. Click on the VirtualDub icon in your task bar, click on Options at the top left, check “show status window.” You can then MINIMIZE the main Vdub window and leave the stats window running, but remember to MINIMIZE it only, DO NOT CLOSE IT!!

And that's IT, you're ENCODING! After the process is finished, if you're satisfied with your avi, don't forget to delete all the other things from your hd, vobs, project file, audio files, etc. They take up a LOT of space. GOOD LUCK…

SUBTITLE SECTION for

SPECIAL REQUESTS and ADVANCED USERS

I: TextSub

You can burn in text based subtitles with GK too, or make some separate ones, it only takes a little more edition.

Those type of files are much smaller and easier to handle, but they can only contain one languagee per file.

Follow the ripping steps.

Open subresync, in the GK subtitles/chapters tab.

Click open and browse to the idx(or ifo) file you created.

Click open again

Click save as..., choose "subripper(srt)" for example from the dropdown type menu

Give a name to the output file.

Select unicode if you have a unicode language.

You will now be asked to identify some letters. Just type them in the big box as they come, and hit enter between everyone of them

When all is over you will have a srt (text) subtitle file. (Vobsub is bitmap image based).

NOTE: I highly recommend subrip to do this job, it's more advanced and looks better. But it's not compulsory, just easier :)

a) Burn in using the normal avs save&encode window:

Untick "select vobsub files"

Press "edit"

You will see this script appear

(make sure "no comments" is unticked)

Remove the # in front of this line, so that the resulting line is:

LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\AviSynthPlugins\VSfilter.dll")

Scroll down to where it says:

Replace this by:

(If your srt is for example in D:\movies and is called movie.srt, then write this line: TextSub("D:\movies\movie.srt") )

Click preview.

If all is OK, close the preview, and continue in the guide from where you left off, i.e. save & encode (only click save & encode here).

b) burn in using the advanced avs save&encode window

(To be able to use this window you need to have clicked “Use Advanced SaveAVS window,“ in the Options tab in Gordian Knot, if you have not done this then use Option a) or else go do this now, but you will need to reload your .d2v file and save and encode again )

In the save&encode window, go to filters:

Click the + on the right

Scroll down the filters list to VSfilter, expand it, click once on textsub.

In the yellow box, enter the path to your srt

( TextSub("D:\movies\movie.srt") ) for example.

Click OK

Use the up arrow on the right to bring textsub just on top of resize

You can preview your output here, by clicking preview.

If all is OK, close the preview, and continue in the guide from where you left off, i.e. save & encode (only click save & encode here).

II:OGM and MKV:

With GK you HAVE to use srt format to mux to ogm and matroska. On top of this you're limited to one.

Go to the subtitles/chapters tab again and select a srt file

You can also select chapter information in that tab.

That's it!

If you're really interested in matroska, use MKVtoolnix by moritz bunkus (Mosu).

If you want to mux srt in an avi container, use avimuxGUI by alexnoe.

In both cases, vobsub is required for playback.

IIIA:SPLIT SUBTITLES:

- burnt-in: not a problem, they're an integral part of the movie.

- Separate idx/sub : In the subtitles/chapters tab, click on autosplit. You will be required to browse to the idx you created.Click open.you will then be asked to browse to CD1 of your movie. Click open. that's it :)

- Text subtitles: this involves subrip or subtitle workshop and while not hard to do, i soutside the scope of this guide.

IIIB:JOIN SUBTITLES:

Use vobsubjoiner in the vobsub program folder. It's self explanatory

IIIC: EDIT:

This is outside the scope of this guide. Get familiar with subtitle workshop, possibilities are endless :)