MeGUI is one of the newer tools that has been designed with H.264 encoding in mind, while supporting other types of conversion, such as XviD. This guide shows you how to encode a H.264 (MP4) using MeGUI from a DVD as the primary example (instructions for converting other types of video files are also included).
This guide is aimed at intermediate users, basically users that are familiar with DVD conversion/backup and want to experiment with H.264 and MeGUI. As such, basic knowledge of DVD ripping and conversion is required, although brief instructions will be provided in any case.
Software you'll need (all freeware):
Step 1: Installation
The first thing you need to do before you can even install MeGUI is to download and install
Microsoft's .NET Framework version 2.0. It's a fairly large file and installation could take more than half an hour. Once you have it fully installed, you can now go on and download MeGUI.
Download MeGUI and install it. Start it up and most likely, it will prompt you to update the software used by MeGUI - click "Yes" to launch the update Manager.
Press the "Update" button to start the update process - MeGUI will automatically download and launch the install for the required software. You will most likely get a "1 file had problems" error, this is because the "neroaacenc" software cannot be downloaded automatically from MeGUI due to copyright reasons (it is freeware, but you need to go through Nero's software agreement first before you can download it). If you need to update "neroaacenc", go to
this page, select "Agree" to download the ZIP archive and extract the .exe files (in the win32/ folder in the ZIP archive) to your "megui\tools\neroaacenc" folder (eg. "c:\program files\megui\tools\neroaacenc\neroaacenc.exe").
When all the updates are completed, you can now close the MeGUI updater.
If you are converting from a commercial DVD source, you will need to rip the DVD to your hard-drive using RipIt4Me. RipIt4Me (and tools required by it) also needs to be installed - you can either follow the instructions in the
RipIt4Me guide or follow step 1 of our
Quick and Dirty DVD Backup Guide (you can skip installing ImgBurn and DVD Shrink, just install DVD Decrypter, RipIt4Me and FixVTS).
And we're now finished with the installation. If you are converting from a commercial DVD source, please proceed to the next page/step (Step 2: DVD Ripping). If you are converting from MPEG-2 (but not from a commercial DVD), please skip to step 3 (Step 3: D2V Creator). For all other video formats (eg. AVI,
Step 2: DVD Ripping
Step 3: D2V Creator
Step 4: AviSynth Script Creator
Step 5a: Video Encoding Options MP4
We'll now set up the H.264 encoding options in the x264 encoder. This step has the most options to configure, and too many to cover in this guide alone. What I'll recommend is to use one of Sharktooth's profiles, and if you need further explanation of the options, refer to our
x264 Options Explained article.
In the MeGUI "Input" section, select "x264" as the "Codec" and "MP4" as the "Container".
For the "Video Profiles" option, select one of the x264 encoding profiles so we don't have to manually configure all the settings (unless you want to
, then click on the "Config" button to do so). A full explanation of what each profile is used for can be found on the
official forum thread for the profiles. For compatibility, I recommend using the CE profiles, particularly the "CE-QuickTime" profile (this will make the MP4 file playable in Apple QuickTime 7 or newer). The "CE-Baseline" profile is also fully QuickTime compatible, but uses less advanced features (and so will be faster during encoding at the expense of some quality).
Step 5b: Video Encoding Options XVID
Step 6: Audio Encoding Options
Step 7: AutoEncode and starting the encoding
MeGUI Custom x264/AVC video profiles. (Updated: 2006-12-21)
Url to this pages:
http://nade.dk/web/nade/site.nsf/FramesetHP?readform&wmain=files/Megui