XviD guide

The latest version of GordianKnot finally supports XviD encoding and offers the same features GordianKnot has offered for DivX3/5 (and during a certain phase for DivX4) for such a long time, including features like BeSweet support for superb audio encoding, Decomb for IVTC, but also regular GKnot features like multiple audio tracks, batch encoding, etc.

You will need the following software for this guide:

GordianKnot Rippack
GordianKnot Codec pack

Step 0: First time setup

You will only have to perform this step once.

Install the GordianKnot Rippack, then install the GordianKnot system pack. When installing the codec pack, only select the codec you really want to include.

After installation start Nandub and VirtualDubMod manually one time and click OK to every warning that might appear after startup. You can find the link to both applications in your start menu under Programs - Gordian Knot - Apps.

Then start up Gordian Knot and click on the options tab. Then configure the XviD codec by clicking on the buttons for First Pass and Second pass.

Let's do the first pass first.

In the first screen there's nothing you have to change. Obviously, setting a bitrate doesn't make any sense since the bitrate will be different for each movie (don't worry, GKnot will fill this in automatically for each movie). Press advanced options to get into the codec configuration.

Setting up XivD is relatively involved and since the codec tends to change often I'll keep this section brief. For more information about what each options does please refer to the old manual XviD encoding guide.

Motion search precision should be set to 6, or at the limit to 5 for movies spanning 2 and more CDs. The same applies for the quantization type, use H.263 unless you have high bitrates in which case you can use MPEG quantization.

VHQ mode can be used to increase compressibility while not having an impact on quality (but it will decrease speed). The higher the number, the slower it gets and don't go higher than 3.

Also check lumi-masking for effective masking of content the human eye can't see (saving bits that will be used in places where you can notice) and you can use chroma motion for more effective motion detection (also slowing things down).

And the 2nd part of the screen is dealing with B frames. By default there are two consecutive B frames, using a 50% higher compression than P frames.

As previously mentioned, don't touch those settings unless you know exactly what they're doing (and having checked the XviD forum if what you're trying to do isn't a nono (due to the development status of XviD you can currently not use all options together).

You shouldn't touch the rest, unless maybe hinted ME in the Two pass tab. But be careful, that feature is incompatible with certain features in the first tab, so if you want to be on the safe side, don't activate it. hinted ME would speed up the 2nd pass considerably but if you enable it, make sure you visit the XviD forum first to check if your other settings don't conflict with it or you won't be very pleased with the result of your encoding session.

Once you're done, press OK twice to save those settings as default. Then press the Second pass button and make sure the settings correspond to what you set for the first pass.

Now as previously mentioned, you'll make those settings once and they are then used for each encoding session. But of course you can always change the defaults, or use special parameters just for a specific movie. In that case you can manipulate the codec settings just before you start encoding (and they will only be applied to the movie you're about to encode).

Step 1: Basic GKnot Setup

This step will teach you how to set up GKnot for a perfectly good looking rip.

Step 2: Encoding video

Only a few more steps and GKnot will automatically encode video and multiplex audio for you without any further manual interaction.

Step 3: Splitting (if required)

If you created a movie for more than 1 CD you have to split it up now.

This document was last updated on April 24, 2003