Convert DVD to XviD with meGUI
MeGUI is a front end for encoding MPEG-4 video and audio. Unlike older programs that tend to use VFW (Video For Windows) codecs, MeGUI and other modern programs use command line encoders. MeGUI can encode XviD or x264 video and MP3 or AAC audio. It can give you files in a variety of containers, and with a variety of settings. Once you know what you're doing you can even save your own favorite settings as profiles to be used repeatedly.
Required Software: meGUI,
AviSynth,
.Net Framework 2.0
Optional Software: Nero Digital Audio Encoder
AviSynth Install
 MeGUI installs most of the required tools for you, but you'll want to make sure you have AviSynth installed first. If you want to work with AviSynth outside of MeGUI you should look at the options for the installer. In particular, the Select Association options add items to context (right click) menus within Windows Explorer.
MeGUI Install
 Running MeGUI requires having Microsoft's .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Once that's installed the MeGUI installer is very straight forward. When MeGUI is installed you should run it right away. MeGUI will immediately check for updates to various components. Click the Yes button and the updates will be downloaded. Most files will be put in subfolders of C:\Program Files\megui\tools.
 After the updates are downloaded, the Profile Importer window will appear. Profiles are pre-configured settings for encoding video or audio. Even if you don't want to use these settings you can still create your own profiles based on them. To download all the profiles listed in the window click on the first (top) item in the list to highlight it. Then scroll to the bottom of the list, hold down your Shift key and click the last item. The first window will list x264 profiles. They won't be used in this guide, but it's a good idea to get them anyway. The next 2 lists in the Profile Importer are the ones you'll want for this guide - Audio and XviD. Once you've finished downloading profiles you'll be prompted to restart MeGUI. If you plan to install either ffdshow or the Nero AAC Encoder you shouuld close it again. If you're not installing either one right now you can skip the next two steps.
Nero AAC Encoder
 One option for re-encoding audio in MeGUI is to use the free Nero Digital (AAC) encoder, however it doesn't come with MeGUI and the auto-update feature won't download it. Once you download it you should create a folder called ndaac under C:\Program Files\megui\tools to put it in. The download will be a zip file containing four programs called neroAacDec.exe (AAC decoder), neroAaCEnc.exe (AAC encoder for *non-SSE2 enabled computers), neroAacEnc_SSE2.exe (AAC encoder for *SSE2 enabled computers), and neroAacTag.exe (tagging for AAC files). After you unzip the archive, put either neroAacEnc.exe or neroAacEnc_SSE2.exe in the ndaaC folder you created.
*Intel CPUs from the Pentium4 on have SSE2 support. AMD 64 bit CPUs also support it. The SSE2 version of the Nero AAC encoder will be faster, but won't work with non-SSE2 CPUs.
First Time Configuration
 Once you have everything installed and meGUI has all updates downloaded, you should set some configuration options. Select Settings on the Tools menu. The Settings window has three tabs - Main, Extra config, and Program Paths. At the top of the Main tab you can select a default language for audio tracks. Uncheck the option in the bottom section to Open Preview after AviSynth script selection. If you're not going to use the Nero AAC encoder you can click the Save button here to save your settings and close this window.
Nero AAC
 If you want to be able to encode audio with the Nero AAC encoder you'll have to tell meGUI where it is. Click on the Program Paths tab and look down the list on the left for NeroAacEnc and click the button to the far right. Browse to the folder you put the Nero encoder and select it. Verify that the path listed next to the encoder has changed to the correct one for your computer and click the Save button to save your settings and close the window.
What You Need To Know
Each DVD source is different. The more you know about your video before you re-encode with MeGUI the better off you will be. In most cases MeGUI can make fairly reliable decisions regarding what type of video it's dealing with and how to prepare it for encoding. In some cases MeGUI's decisions aren't as good as your own judgement. Experience and research are the best way to learn the nuances of this. If you don't know what you're doing you're probably better off sticking with MeGUI's standard settings and decisions 99% of the time.
D2V Creator
 The first thing step to encoding DVD files with MeGUI is to create a D2V file. This can be done by many programs, but due to the many different versions of the D2V format it's best to use MeGUI's built in D2V creator to do the job. Select D2V Creator from the Tools menu. Click the button to the far right side of the window at the top. Browse to the folder with your DVD-Video files and select the first VOB for the title you're encoding (VTS_##_1). Click the Open button and the entire set of VOBs with the same number (VTS_##_1 - VTS_##_9).
 You'll probably get a popup window stating that MeGUI couldn't find a DVD Decrypter generated info file. Click OK to dismiss it. If no audio tracks are listed next to Track 1 and Track 2, select the option to Demux all Audio Tracks. Finally, if you don't want the D2V and audio files to be put in the same folder as the DVD files, click the button to the far right of the screen, opposite d2v Project Output, and browse to the folder where you want them. The checkboxes at the bottom of the D2V Creator determine what happens when you click the Queue button. After you're comfortable using MeGUI you may want to create D2V files for several movies at once so you'll probably want to uncheck them. To begin with I recommend leaving them checked and sticking to a single title at a time.
When you click the Queue button the job will be added to the Queue and the window will close. If you've left the default settings in place the job will start as soon as it's queued. Audio tracks will be demuxed into files named for their stream number, number of channels, bitrate, and delay compared to the video. A D2V file will be created that indexes the video and sends detailed information to AviSynth, which will be used to get the video to the encoder. Once both these things are done the AviSynth Script Creator will open, along with a simple video player with your movie in it.
AviSynth Script Creator
At a very basic level, AviSynth sends video, one frame at a time, to the XviD encoder. Besides simply telling the encoder what's in the video file, AviSynth can also be used to re-create original film frames from telecined video, deinterlace, sometimes mask imperfections in the source, transfer, or DVD encode, and occasionally aid compression. If you find yourself setting up very similar scripts you may want to look into creating profiles to save time.
Video
Near the top of the window in the Options tab, under the Video Input field, is a button that can be used to re-open the video preview if you close it before you're done and need it back. Below that is a dropdown list for Input DAR. The Input DAR, or Display Aspect Ratio, for a DVD will be either 4:3 for fullscreen or 16:9 for widescreen. MeGUI should already have populated the correct value here. If the movie is widescreen you can either encode to the correct aspect ratio (AR) for the movie or encode an anamorphic video. Your choice will probably depend on your playback device or software. If you want an anamorphic encode check the box next to Clever (TM) anamorphic encoding.
Resolution Crop
At the bottom of the Options tab you can add lines to your AviSynth script. Check the box next to Crop to remove extra black borders. If you check the AutoCrop box MeGUI will suggest settings that will remove all black borders. The video player window will also be updated to show white where the borders were removed. The Resize checkbox enables lowering the resolution. If you check the Suggest Resolution box MeGUI will suggest a resolution based on a Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) of 1:1. This means a 720x480 fullscreen DVD would be re-encoded to 640x480, and widescreen movies could be any number of different resolutions, depending on the amount of cropping and the original AR. If you're not sure what resolution to use it's a good idea to let MeGUI decide for you.
Filters Tab
 On the Filters tab are options for more advanced video processing. If you don't recognize any of the options (Field Order, Deinterlace, Decimation, Noise) you should either stop and do some research before you change settings here. If you know the values for all these settings for sure you can set them yourself. Otherwise click the Analyse button and wait for MeGUI to figure out what you have. If you're playing back your XviD file on a computer monitor you should make sure that either the source is progressive or it's deinterlaced. If you're deinterlacing you need to make sure that MeGUI has picked the best option available. If the value in Source Type looks right the deinterlacing approach selected will be the best available without manually editing the script.
 If you're resizing you can select the resize filter to be used in the Resize Filter dropdown. Like other options on this tab, if you don't know what the option does leave it alone. If your source is anime make sure to check the appropriate box. Also, check the Colour Correction checkbox. In order to verify that the script is correct, click the Preview AVS Script button at the bottom of the window. The video player will be updated with the script you'll be encoding from. Use the Play button to watch the video in motion or the >, <, >>, and << buttons to move one or more frames forward or backward.
At the bottom of the AviSynth Script Creator window is a checkbox that determines what happens when you save an AviSynth. If the checkbox marked On Save close and load to be encoded is checked, as soon as you save the script it will be loaded for encoding. Leave this checked the first time through. If you want to create more than one script at a time in the future you can change it.
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