GORDIAN KNOT ILLUSTRATED GUIDE by dap & JS v.5
MPEG2toAVI
using version 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 DVD to AVI, get it from www.rita.LT

subtitle section written by Grania O'Malley

This guide was originally written for dvd to avi conversions, however Gordian Knot is just as capable of converting mpeg2 to avi, and more and more people have started capturing video to dvd quality mpeg2 files. 

Installation:  800 MHz CPU is recommended for encoding, 500 MHz is a minimum… You should not be running other processes on your computer while encoding unless you have a very fast CPU or hyperthreading.  You will also need 5 -10 Gb free space on your hd (depending on the size of your file).

Important:  1. If you already have a version of Gordian Knot  that is earlier than version 0.29.0 , then you MUST uninstall  this version and delete the registry settings while uninstalling (it will ask you if you want to delete registry settings).  Most later versions of GK will uninstall older versions for you
2. When installing or reinstalling a new version of GKnot, the software will ask you if you want to Delete the default codec settings – you should click “No.” (This way the settings you set as default below will remain even when upgrading to a newer GKnot version.

3.  After installing the latest GKnot RipPack and any updates or patches available (or any similar software or codec packs) it is always a good idea to reinstall your divx and xvid codecs

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 1.0.1 - 1.0.3

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 PREPARING TO ENCODE section 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 1.01, 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 1.0.1.

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.

PREPARING TO ENCODE

(below you see a section on preparing the vobs, don't worry, it's not a mistake and there will

be no vobs, as this guide is for mpeg2, it's simply what the section in Gordian Knot is called)

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 the icon at the left - a DGIndex window will open in DVD2AVI.

Click File

Select Open  (NOT Autoincrement Open)

IMPORTANT:  In the “Open” window, before selecting your file, you will see “Files of type:” at the bottom and the selection will be on “MPEG-2 Stream” – change this to “All Files (*.*)”

Browse to the .mpg that you want to convert, highlight it.

Click Open

You should have a “File List” window open up.
 

Note:  If you wish to encode more than one mpeg as a single avi, click Add, select the second mpeg file (make sure the first mpeg you opened is the beginning of the video and that you select them in viewing order) click Open and you will see both in the window.

Click OK.

Now the DGIndex window should be open.

Press F5, this will bring up an Informaton 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 (they often will not), 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 write down or remember the Aspect Ratio, Video Type and Frame Type.

Next step:
DECIDING WHETHER YOUR VIDEO NEEDS TO BE FORCED OR DEINTERLACED:
(TV or vhs captures will almost always be interlaced)


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 to the right, 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

This is where you will need to experiment a bit to see what audio will be recognized from the mpeg you have.  In the stats window above, see what it says under Audio, next to Format.

It will probably say either MPEG audio or LPCM wave. 

Select Ouput Method

Select  demux all tracks if your audio was MPEG audio

or

Select decode to WAV if your audio was LPCM wav

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

Now have a look in the folder you are saving your project in, and make sure that an audio file has been created, most likely an mpa audio file or a wav file.  If an audio file has not been created, try another output method, i.e. if you used demux all tracks try decode to WAV, or vice versa.

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).

(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)

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, checkmark 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.

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 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).
for the purposes of this guide we are not covering ac3 audio

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

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

Under AudioA (middle left)

 
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.

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).

Cropping and aspect ratio

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 not only undesirable in viewing the movie, but it would be a waste of encoding quality as you would be using pixels to encode black bars instead of using each and every one to go to the quality of the picture.  So this border needs to be cropped.  

Aspect ratios on TV/vhs captures

Cropping video is quite easy if your source is a dvd rip, but the situation is a bit more complicated for TV and/or vhs captures.  When you rip a dvd the dvd will be of a particular aspect ratio or give you a choice, as you know when you buy dvds you can buy them widescreen, fullscreeen, cinemascope, etc.  So usually you can just select one of the two most common aspect ratios according to what your dvd is (16:9 or 4:3) or write in the aspect ratio next to “Other” that you read on your dvd case, and then just and crop off the borders. 

I think it's safe to say that many users do not have widescreen televisions, so no matter what the aspect ratio of the movie portrayed on your tv is, if you have a fullscreen tv (4:3) the aspect ratio of your capture source will be understood by the software to be fullscreen – this is because the black bars you see to the right on this widescreen picture are also included as part of the picture of the source, whereas if it was a dvd the black areas would really be empty space.  So if you selected an aspect ratio of 16:9 for the widescreen capture source at the right (as you would for a dvd) and then cropped it, what would happen is your picture would get squashed.

So instead, what you need to do is select 4:3 under Input Pixel Aspect Ratio for the aspect ratio (even though you know the video is really 16:9), and only then crop the picture.

To make it easier to crop your movie and see if it “looks right,” go to the FrameNo window where your video picture should be showing, click on Video and select “Resized.”  We also prefer to select “Stay On Top” when actually cropping, as it's easier.

(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.)  

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

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 shoud 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.

Note:  After you have set the frame quality (bits/pixel) by setting the resolution of your picture, you will see your final aspect ratio displayed on the bottom right.  As you can see in our illustration, even though we had chosen 4:3 for the input source of our tv capture, after cropping and setting the resolution, the aspect ratio is now almost what it should be (a widescreen picture aka 16:9 aspect ratio is 1.85, fullscreen 4:3 is 1.35) – the aspect error will show you how far off you are, don't worry about being a fraction off either way.

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.

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

** Click on “Select”  and choose your audio file (most likely a wav or mpa) - 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…

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!!

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…

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.

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…

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…