Beginners Guide to FairUse (encoding)
Hey guys, I know some of you arent exactly thrilled that Im way pro movie on here, but I know some do like my efforts. Anyway I made this guide for another site (movie site of course) and I thought I would share it with you, who knows you might get some use out of it. I hope you like it, it took me a while to put it all together.
This is a simple beginners guide to using FairUse Wizard 2.8
Program download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5VQMT5A3
First thing we do is open up the program which brings us to this screen below
1. If starting from scratch, create a name for you project and a folder for files the application will use for muxing
2. If you are just doing a single movie, then disregard the batch processing section
3. The scroll options below were it says "codec settings" dont touch, just skip over that for now
4. Click Next
1. This screen will come up will ask you to either insert the DVD or load the ISO
2. If loading an ISO, make sure you use the scroll option to look for "All Files" since some might be in IMG or other formats, the program will read all types of disc images
3. Click OK
1. On this next screen we're going to pick the main movie
Assuming that the DVD does not have multiple PGCs on it aka Theatrical/ Special Edition alternatives, it should be the longest and biggest choice you can make
If the DVD does have multiple versions on it, you MAY have to use DVD Decrypter to extract a certain PGC aka movie from the DVD and save it as an ISO first
Fair Use should automatically pick the right selection for you here though
2. Leave the hide chains ticked unless looking to encode special features, and dont change the cache option
3. Click Next
This screen will pop up for a few minutes where it will keep a chain index of your encode
This is because if you decide to quit, it will load up your project faster later on instead of creating a whole new chain
After the index is saved, you will get this screen
There are quite a few options here, and Ill go over the most important ones
1. First is the start/end, it will automatically be the whole movie, so there should be no reason to change this
2. Second and probably most important is the cropping section
I cant stress this enough, DONT USE THE PRESETS
You can use the Auto set and that will give you typically a good crop, but if youre like me you want to do the cropping yourself
Use the Left, Right, Top, Bottom buttons to crop out the black bars
The way I do it is by using the slider to find a white scene and then use the crop buttons until I just barely see a pixels worth on the edges (like in the picture), if you try to do it just where the black bars are, you will end up with a soft looking fuzzy black bar instead of a sharp clean cut black bar
3. Subtitle options here are pretty straight forward
When ticked it will show a safety zone where the subs will appear, this can be increased or decreased
Also make sure to tick extract subs if you are going to included them, im sure im not the only one who loathes hardcoded subs
4. If you like, the Set credits start button is used for lowering the bitrate on credits to raise the bitrate of them movie, just pick where the movies credits start with the slider and click the button (note if you do this, it is frowned upon to do this if there is a gag reel at the end or the movie is still playing)
5. Im not going to go into doing the Logo, cause if you logo encodes, Ill hate you forever
6. Click Next
Example of a encode that will have a fuzzy black bar (on bottom, its small but you will see it will you full screen your encode)
Example of a encode that will have a sharp black bar
1. This next screen will come up, and depending on the source DVD, you will sometimes see different options, typically 3 (option 1, option 2 without a tick, option 2 with a tick)
2. Easiest way is just do the Auto Detect and use the setting it recommends (if you like you can Gspot your VOBs and figure it out that way too, just extra steps)
3. Click Next
This next screen is the meat and potatoes of your encode
First thing you should have in mind is....Is this going to be a 1CD or 2CD rip
1. Choose your codec you want to use, it will be Xvid by default, and always keep 2 pass ticked
2. This is also where you can change the "codec settings" that we skipped on the first page, you probably just want to keep this default and not touch it anyway unless you REALLY know what you are doing, or you can change it from "Codec Settings" to "Encoding Speed" and move the slider all the way to the quality side, this will add more time to the encode but will boost the quality and get alittle more detail
3. Pick the file size you want, start with 700MB, then go to the Audio encodings
4. In Audio encodings, if you are going to do a 1CD rip, use stereo sound not the 5.1, so click the add option and find the 2.0 track and remove the 5.1 track
5. If you only have the 5.1 track then the audio will have to be transcoded down to MP3, if it has a 2.0 track use that and either keep it AC3 or transcode down to MP3, depending on the video bitrate
If you decide that the video is too long/ bitrate is too low then do a 1400MB rip
Here you will want to keep the AC3 5.1 track if possible (note that if you are doing a 2 CD rip of say DaVinci Code and want 5.1, this will most likely have to be a 3CD rip)
(Note) You can use up to two tracks, so if you want to do one track as 5.1 and one as directs comments you can
6. The resolution is the next choice
Dont make this harder than it is, its actually real simple
7. First un-tick Show only preferred resolutions to get more resolutions to show up
Once you have all your resolutions, go to the very top of the selections
Now depending on if you did a 1CD or 2CD rip, Compression ratios will vary
You want to pick a resolution with an AR that is the same or very close to the source, if you dont know the source AR then look it up either on IMDB or Amazon
Say you have a 1.85 AR, my rule of thumb is to be within .03 of that AR, so anywhere from 1.82 to 1.88 is acceptable, just divided the width by the height to get the AR of the resolution that you choose
Leave TV display mode and rotate 90 degrees un-ticked
8. Under the Files options, you can keep it as 1 or change it to 2 for 2CD rips, but I just leave it at 1 for those too, because I can always split it later (Dont tick Split at every chapter)
9. Ignore Defer processing button, this is for saving the processing of the encode to do it later in a batch with others
A good rule of thumb is that you want an encode with a minimum video bitrate of 800 (750 AT BARE MINIMUM) and a minimum audio bitrate of 128 (112 AT BARE MINIMUM), these however are NOT set in stone marks since each encode will be different, just a good rule of thumb
Another good rule of thumb is that you want a resolution that has a compression NO HIGHER THAN 150:1 for Drama/slow paced movies and a compression NO HIGHER THAN 130:1 for Action/fast paced movies, AGAIN these however are NOT set in stone marks since each encode will be different, just a good rule of thumb
Also if you are looking for a resolution that has the SAME AR as the source but dont see one that you can pic, go back to the cropping and start adding/subtracting pixels from the crop, and new resolutions will appear
10. Click Next
This screen will pop up and the encode will begin
1. When the encode is done you will see this screen, and just click finish
You successfully made your rip with Fair Use, now go and enjoy your results and dont forget to share with others
This is a simple beginners guide to using FairUse Wizard 2.8
Program download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5VQMT5A3
First thing we do is open up the program which brings us to this screen below
1. If starting from scratch, create a name for you project and a folder for files the application will use for muxing
2. If you are just doing a single movie, then disregard the batch processing section
3. The scroll options below were it says "codec settings" dont touch, just skip over that for now
4. Click Next
1. This screen will come up will ask you to either insert the DVD or load the ISO
2. If loading an ISO, make sure you use the scroll option to look for "All Files" since some might be in IMG or other formats, the program will read all types of disc images
3. Click OK
1. On this next screen we're going to pick the main movie
Assuming that the DVD does not have multiple PGCs on it aka Theatrical/ Special Edition alternatives, it should be the longest and biggest choice you can make
If the DVD does have multiple versions on it, you MAY have to use DVD Decrypter to extract a certain PGC aka movie from the DVD and save it as an ISO first
Fair Use should automatically pick the right selection for you here though
2. Leave the hide chains ticked unless looking to encode special features, and dont change the cache option
3. Click Next
This screen will pop up for a few minutes where it will keep a chain index of your encode
This is because if you decide to quit, it will load up your project faster later on instead of creating a whole new chain
After the index is saved, you will get this screen
There are quite a few options here, and Ill go over the most important ones
1. First is the start/end, it will automatically be the whole movie, so there should be no reason to change this
2. Second and probably most important is the cropping section
I cant stress this enough, DONT USE THE PRESETS
You can use the Auto set and that will give you typically a good crop, but if youre like me you want to do the cropping yourself
Use the Left, Right, Top, Bottom buttons to crop out the black bars
The way I do it is by using the slider to find a white scene and then use the crop buttons until I just barely see a pixels worth on the edges (like in the picture), if you try to do it just where the black bars are, you will end up with a soft looking fuzzy black bar instead of a sharp clean cut black bar
3. Subtitle options here are pretty straight forward
When ticked it will show a safety zone where the subs will appear, this can be increased or decreased
Also make sure to tick extract subs if you are going to included them, im sure im not the only one who loathes hardcoded subs
4. If you like, the Set credits start button is used for lowering the bitrate on credits to raise the bitrate of them movie, just pick where the movies credits start with the slider and click the button (note if you do this, it is frowned upon to do this if there is a gag reel at the end or the movie is still playing)
5. Im not going to go into doing the Logo, cause if you logo encodes, Ill hate you forever
6. Click Next
Example of a encode that will have a fuzzy black bar (on bottom, its small but you will see it will you full screen your encode)
Example of a encode that will have a sharp black bar
1. This next screen will come up, and depending on the source DVD, you will sometimes see different options, typically 3 (option 1, option 2 without a tick, option 2 with a tick)
2. Easiest way is just do the Auto Detect and use the setting it recommends (if you like you can Gspot your VOBs and figure it out that way too, just extra steps)
3. Click Next
This next screen is the meat and potatoes of your encode
First thing you should have in mind is....Is this going to be a 1CD or 2CD rip
1. Choose your codec you want to use, it will be Xvid by default, and always keep 2 pass ticked
2. This is also where you can change the "codec settings" that we skipped on the first page, you probably just want to keep this default and not touch it anyway unless you REALLY know what you are doing, or you can change it from "Codec Settings" to "Encoding Speed" and move the slider all the way to the quality side, this will add more time to the encode but will boost the quality and get alittle more detail
3. Pick the file size you want, start with 700MB, then go to the Audio encodings
4. In Audio encodings, if you are going to do a 1CD rip, use stereo sound not the 5.1, so click the add option and find the 2.0 track and remove the 5.1 track
5. If you only have the 5.1 track then the audio will have to be transcoded down to MP3, if it has a 2.0 track use that and either keep it AC3 or transcode down to MP3, depending on the video bitrate
If you decide that the video is too long/ bitrate is too low then do a 1400MB rip
Here you will want to keep the AC3 5.1 track if possible (note that if you are doing a 2 CD rip of say DaVinci Code and want 5.1, this will most likely have to be a 3CD rip)
(Note) You can use up to two tracks, so if you want to do one track as 5.1 and one as directs comments you can
6. The resolution is the next choice
Dont make this harder than it is, its actually real simple
7. First un-tick Show only preferred resolutions to get more resolutions to show up
Once you have all your resolutions, go to the very top of the selections
Now depending on if you did a 1CD or 2CD rip, Compression ratios will vary
You want to pick a resolution with an AR that is the same or very close to the source, if you dont know the source AR then look it up either on IMDB or Amazon
Say you have a 1.85 AR, my rule of thumb is to be within .03 of that AR, so anywhere from 1.82 to 1.88 is acceptable, just divided the width by the height to get the AR of the resolution that you choose
Leave TV display mode and rotate 90 degrees un-ticked
8. Under the Files options, you can keep it as 1 or change it to 2 for 2CD rips, but I just leave it at 1 for those too, because I can always split it later (Dont tick Split at every chapter)
9. Ignore Defer processing button, this is for saving the processing of the encode to do it later in a batch with others
A good rule of thumb is that you want an encode with a minimum video bitrate of 800 (750 AT BARE MINIMUM) and a minimum audio bitrate of 128 (112 AT BARE MINIMUM), these however are NOT set in stone marks since each encode will be different, just a good rule of thumb
Another good rule of thumb is that you want a resolution that has a compression NO HIGHER THAN 150:1 for Drama/slow paced movies and a compression NO HIGHER THAN 130:1 for Action/fast paced movies, AGAIN these however are NOT set in stone marks since each encode will be different, just a good rule of thumb
Also if you are looking for a resolution that has the SAME AR as the source but dont see one that you can pic, go back to the cropping and start adding/subtracting pixels from the crop, and new resolutions will appear
10. Click Next
This screen will pop up and the encode will begin
1. When the encode is done you will see this screen, and just click finish
You successfully made your rip with Fair Use, now go and enjoy your results and dont forget to share with others