Software Update: Dr. DivX 2.0.0 beta 9

The developers at DivX Labs have been busy with Dr. DivX and have released a new version. This program is intended to encode video images with the DivX codec from the same creators. dr. DivX has been available for some time under the LGPL license and can run on various platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP. However, the current beta versions only work on the Windows platform. The developers have released the ninth beta version of Dr. DivX 2.0.0 released with the following patch of changes since the previous entry in our Meuktracker:

Version 2.0.0 beta 9:

what’s new
• Add the possibility to force the output aspect ratio (Auto, 1:1, 4:3, 16:9)
• Add a button in the Batch window to launch an encoded file
• Add an option to encode with a constant quality (target quantizer)
• Add the possibility to reconfigure a job after it was added to the queue
• Add support for default output profile
• Add auto-build version checking
• Add a progress bar to the job status
• Start the jobs in Low priority by default

What’s Fixed

• Fix column widths for job batch and plugin list
• Correctly put cli.exe in Installer for future builds
• Make the sliders usable with the keyboard
• Rework the crop enable/disable so that it can be handled by the keyboard
• Make language selection thru Preferences work
• Alphabetize language drop-down for audio and subs
• Update the batch buttons when the job status changes to avoid doing operations when the job is running
• Keep muxing even if some files are missing
• Ignore 1-pixel crop bars so that we don’t resize needlessly

DrFFMPEG

• Avoid crashing when a DirectShow filter exists in the registry but can’t be used
• Support DV Type 1 files

Version 2.0.0 beta 8:

what’s new
• Add the possibility to enable/disable watch folders (disabled by default)
• Save the watch folder settings in the user directory (~/.drdivx2)
• Add a CLI (Command Line) version of DrDivX to encode a file directly with a profile
• Now built with MSVC 2005 Express (freeware version) and Qt 4.1.1 (open source edition)
• Add a “reset” starting mode to delete all the content of the user directory (~/.drdivx2) and jobs
• Rewriting of the aspect ratio handling to support video upscaling (but not beyond profile limits)
• Allow the use of a /.drdivx2 directory to store the settings instead of ~/.drdivx2 (easy to debug)
• The analysis on loading is done in a low priority thread
• Allow user to request interlaced video output
• Access the full video preview from the small video preview
• Add a general progress bar to monitor the long analysis
• Survey tool invoked at application exit

What’s Fixed

• Fix a crash in the preview when the 2nd (or more) video file loaded is in YUV420P
• Don’t try to reorder columns that don’t exist anymore in job batch
• The audio delay detection was not working correctly in beta 7
• When clicking on basic when nothing is loaded the profile was changing
• Avoid crashing when the saved settings are incorrect
• Rework the JobBatchWidget code to avoid crashes
• Fix over-eager frame droppage caused by SCR reset and subsequent PTS rewind
• Fix crash when custom profiles are used in conjunction with watch folders
• Use toolbar to switch between file, capture and batch views
• Sync the file size displayed in Output Widget and Info Widget
• Fix application hang on certain clips caused by cyclic invocation of Video Preview methods
• Forcing the same audio parameters for all tracks now works (fixes #1445072)
• Trust the subtitle info in the .ifo file

DrFFMPEG

• Fix a possible seeking problem when using multiple vobs input
• Fix a frame decoding in MPEG2 for interlaced content. This will improve border detection.
• Avoid using dubious data in the ASF demuxer (fixes #1447859)

Version 2.0.0 beta 7:

what’s new
• Add a graph of the output frames in the Job status window
• Remove the Metadata saving until DivX Media Format is stable
• Move all the settings from the registry to an XML file
• Add drag and drop file support to Input widget
• Add Watch folders
• Simplify the Job Batch window and move some job information in a tooltip
• Add a preview window of the video to encode in Advanced mode
• Perform quick analysis when file is loaded and start intensive analysis in background
• Allow user to change codec settings without waiting for intensive analysis to finish
• Move OutputFileSize property to profile so that user can specify target file size instead of bitrate
• Add Information Widget so that user gets up-to-date information on encoded output properties

What’s Fixed

• Cleanup the format of the log files for better usability
• Don’t save a job on leaving if we’re in the middle of the Analysis
• Disable tracks for which a (DirectShow) decoder is not available
• Respect aspect ratio settings when cropping is used

DrFFMPEG

• Change scan duration when loading file
• Fix seeking for WMV files
• Disable tracks when decoder is not available

Version 2.0.0 beta 6:

what’s new
• Tool-tip in the job list to know the internal name of the job (to locate the log file)
• Redirect the DrFFMPEG logs to the Job logs (requires DrFFMPEG update) / default level = warning(1)
• Do the various audio and subtitle encodings before the video
• Each encoded audio track can be configured separately
• Italian translation
• Increase the maximum video bitrate to 6 Mbps for High Definition Certification
• Portuguese translation
• Check if the installed DrFFMPEG DLL is compatible with the DrDivX version
• Support for Windows Media Center .dvr-ms files
• More logs from DrFFMPEG to better track bugs
• Reset the log file only when starting a new job (the log is kept when restarting in the middle)
• Audio preview (play, stop, skip forwards and backwards)

What’s Fixed

• Don’t do the full analysis during the encoding if it was done during the Advanced setup
• Keep the output filename when going in the metadata dialog
• Unicode friendly metadata saving
• Make all the internal path Unicode friendly (DrDivx can now be run from any directory name)
• Allow resolutions up to 1280×720 in High Definition mode
• Correctly skip unknown/unsupported tracks in the track mapper
• Don’t propose tracks with an unsupported codec (text subtitles and some audio codec)
• Adjust Fit-To-Filesize when there are subtitles to encode

DrFFMPEG

• Add a whitelist of (allowed) DirectShow filters to avoid using non-compatible filters Now built using MinGW to enable more
• codec and asm code and more compatibility with the original FFMPEG

Version 2.0.0 beta 5:

what’s new
• Internal audio booster (see advanced settings)
• When deleting a job a remaining one is selected (to make it faster to delete a lot of jobs)
• Dialog box on exit to prevent the user from stopping a running job accidentally (Expert & Batch modes)
• Dutch translation
• German translation
• Protect the application to run only one instance of either the Export or Batch mode
• Start the Batch mode after a job has been added in Wizard mode (Proceed to Encode Queue)

What’s Fixed

• Delete temporary files after encode (Close all file handles opened by DivXMux.dll)
• A running job can’t be removed (needs to be stopped first)
• Use the same path format for input and output files (\ vs / on windows)
• Avoid adding extra \ in the output path
• Fix certification reset when switching between Simple/Advanced tabs
• Improve the french installer
• The encoding priority was not handled in Expert mode (oops!)

DrFFMPEG

• Now built using MinGW to enable more codec and asm code and more compatibility with the original FFMPEG
• Fix a subtitle decoding problem when an odd number of line is detected
• Optimize the output size and speed of subtitles (the result is not 100% similar to bmp2xsub)
• WMV decoding is now handled by the Microsoft DMO filter
• RealVideo9 decoder via RealMediaSplitter.ax

Version 2.0.0 beta 4:

what’s new
• Allow users to specify track language and caption code
• Add plugin support (ftp_plugin and notify_plugin included)
• Spanish translation
• Hungarian translation

What’s Fixed

• Fix crash when invalid video track file is created
• Update progress status when Metadata track is encoded (used to wrongly show ChapterTrack encode)
• Fix crash when audio packet is found before video packet in MPEG streams (ffmpeg was not using pts from correct sync stream)
• Fix crash when decode error happens for certain clips during analysis (logger was NULL)
• Continue analysis even when decode error happens (encountered for certain live capture MPEG-2 clips)
• Expose AC-3 passthrough in expert mode

Known Issues

• Hangs at the Divx Media Muxing phase.

Version 2.0.0 beta 3:

what’s new
• New setting to allow removing the job working folder in case of job failure (always done on successful jobs)
• Allow AC-3 audio passthrough (there is a bug found, so its only working in wizard mode right now)
• Display the most DirectShow filters most likely to be used (AC3, DTS, AAC) in the preferences
• Use the Logs dir to store saffron.log and per-job logs
• New option to start jobs on startup (Batch & Expert mode) (off by default)
• Swedish translation by Glenn
• French translation by Oliver

What’s Fixed

• Output files with a Unicode name were truncated
• Job reordering works again
• Set correct track information in strn chunk or divx file
• Fix some DV samples where the crop detection was not working
• Audio delay for AC3 tracks is compensated for correctly for streams that have negative delay.

DrFFMPEG

• Fix ABR for high bitrates

Known Issues

• AC3 passthrough is only working in wizard mode
• Preview window in the Full GUI is disabled
• The fit to file size option may not produce accurate file sizes (maybe slightly improved, but still not fully fixed yet)
• Some WMV files may cause the Dr. to crash
• Some MOV files may cause the Dr. to crash
• The “Add track” options are disabled for the track selection dialogues
• The proceed to encode queue in wizard mode does not work. You will need to manually open the encode queue.
• Input files with multiple video tracks could crash the application
• Meta-data fields: Not all metadata is saved including technical information
• Audio-video sync is sometimes lost for VOB input with audio streams that have a posative offset

Version 2.0.0 beta 2:

what’s new
• Support Unicode filenames and text properties
• Support CBR/ABR selection for custom profiles (default CBR for DivX profiles)
• Add translation files for available languages
• Add “High Performance” mode (DivX He-3 encoder)
• Apply the Advanced settings even if not saved in a profile (as long as the “Untitled profile” is selected)
• Allow stopping the Audio encoder correctly (end up as Waiting/Postponed instead of failed)
• Don’t start the jobs on Expert startup to be able to remove jobs that are crashing
• The “Low” priority of the thread is now equal to IDLE

What’s Fixed

• Delete Expert mode desktop shortcut when uninstalling the application
• Memory leak when the Expert mode was opened during a long time
• The video track was not selected correctly in some cases
• When opening many files before doing the encoding the track mapping was wrong (too many tracks)
• Make analysis faster by analyzing only 11 segments of 150 frames each
• Fix the display of extended float numbers in the FPS
• Allow only up to 8 audio tracks and 8 subtitle tracks to be selected for encode
• Fix DivX encoder failures when encoding with Handheld certification

DrFFMPEG

• Support CBR/ABR selection for custom profiles
• Fix a potential crash while leaving a DirectShow decoder when it’s not initialized

Known Issues

• Preview window in the Full GUI is disabled
• The fit to file size option may not produce accurate file sizes (maybe slightly improved, but still not fully fixed yet)
• Some WMV files may cause the Dr. to crash
• Some MOV files may cause the Dr. to crash
• The “Add track” options are disabled for the track selection dialogues
• The proceed to encode queue in wizard mode does not work. You will need to manually open the encode queue.
• Input files with multiple video tracks could crash the application
• Meta-data fields: Not all metadata is saved including technical information
• Audio-video sync is sometimes lost for VOB input