If you are looking for our AutoGK guide on MPEG2 to AVI, get it from www.rita.LT
Introduction: This guide is very basic, we wrote it so that beginners could follow the steps easily (even though the program
itself is very easy, we still get questions) - we do not go into any of the advanced or hidden options. If you would like to know
more about how to tweak AutoGK or use advanced options, you should read the information in the Tutorial included with full
versions of AutoGK, or visit the FAQ on Auto GK at the home site: http://autogk.net . If you find AutoGK limiting and would like
a more advanced app, we recommend using Gordian Knot. You can get Gordian Knot and our guide on it at www.rita.LT
We would, however, like to congratulate the developer of Gordian Knot, Lenox, on releasing AutoGK, which still encodes to
great quality and, in the words of Lenox: is designed mainly for people who know very little (or nothing) about video
conversion and want to create videos for their standalones or PC in a few clicks of a mouse.
WARNING: Some versions of AutoGK contain adware/spyware, and below we will show you how to remove it easily.
To remove adware:
INSTALLATION
--- FIRST install the latest full RipPack, leave the installation settings as they are by default.
--- NEXT install the latest update, but you might need to change some installation settings so follow the steps
below. (Since AutoGK updates regularly be sure to look for the latest update version on the sites listed above)
Note that some versions of AutoGK may have slightly different options, but the installation should be clear even if
your options are just a bit different.
--- Continue with the installation, after the AutoGK components are installed you are given the option to install the
XviD codec. It is highly recommended to install the XviD codec that is included with AutoGK. The automated
functions of a particular version of AutoGK are designed to work with specific versions of codecs and apps. (You
should have Divx 5.1.1, DivX 5.2.x or DivX 6 installed already, if you dont, get it from www.divx.com )
--- Install the latest DVD Decrypter if you have not already done so
--- Install DivX if you have not already done so (unless you never plan on encoding with the DivX codec)
3
In order to rip the dvd format files you need from your dvd to your hard drive you will use DVD Decrypter.
(You can get it in the Tools section at www.rita.LT )
If you are using DVD Decrypter for the first time you must set it up, next time it should remember the settings.
--- Click OK
RIPPING
--- If you havent already done so, insert the dvd youre going to rip into your DVDRom, start DVD Decrypter.
--- DVD Decrypter will usually choose the main movie for you
Under Input at the top right DVD Decrypter will have automatically
chosen the longest PGC (Program Chain) for you.
This will take you from 10 minutes to half an hour for a standard-length movie,
depending on the speed of your DVD-ROM and some other factors.
When it is finished, you will get a popup menu informing you that DVD
Decrypter has completed (you might even jump if you have your speaker
volume turned up).
ENCODING
Now that you have the dvd format files on your hard drive, you will need to encode them from dvd format to avi.
This section of AutoGK has changed slightly, if you are using an older version of AutoGK you will still have to
Select DVD input to the left. If you are using a newer version (which does not give you an option to choose DVD
input or File input to the left), skip this green section and continue below.
--- Select the Input Directory (the directory that you ripped the VOB files to with DVD Decrypter)
--- Select the Output Directory (the directory you would like the project files and completed avi to be saved to,
usually the same as the InputDirectory) and write in a filename for your final avi (dont use any non-standard
symbols or foreign letters in the filename, you can always rename it later)
--- Select the Audio track you would like to use from the drop-down
menu.
You will probably have audio tracks in different languages. There may
also be a 6 channel AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1), a 2 channel AC3 (DD
2.0), for older, classic films, a 1 channel AC3 (DD 1.0) and/or a
Directors Commentary track. AutoGK cannot use DTS tracks, so ignore that if there is one. If you plan on using
MP3 audio, it might be better to choose the 2 track DD 2.0 if there is one. If youre going for 2 CDs and want the
best quality audio, then choose the 6 track DD 5.1 if available.
--- If you want subtitles with your .avi, choose one of the
languages. These will be burnt in by default (encoded into
the video), unless you choose external subtitles in the
Advanced Settings. You might also want to only include
forced subtitles, for instance, if your movie is English audio
and it is a WWII film, you may want English subtitles when
German soldiers speak, etc. As we noted in the beginning,
this guide is very basic, for external subtitles and forced
subtitles please see the Tutorial included with AutoGK.
The default is set to make an avi for 2 CDs and AC3 audio (DD
5.1, or 2.0 if no 5.1 is available). If you want to put the movie onto
1 CD (somewhat lower quality, of course), then choose 1 CD, and
AutoGK will make the audio as MP3 instead by default. If you
want to change these audio defaults you will need to do so in the
Advanced Settings tab. You can make a 2 CD encode for better
quality or a 1 CD encode to save space, its your choice.
But this is our recommendation as a guide: any video that is longer than about 1 hour 50 minutes to two hours
should be 2 CD. Never choose AC3 audio in the Advanced settings for a 1 CD standard-length movie, as it simply
takes up too much space and will result in high video quality loss. Some movies are long and/or difficult to
compress, 3 CD encodes are rarely necessary
You can also select Target quality if size is not an issue, we recommend leaving it at the default 75%, however
we prefer to choose by target size and make our files convenient for burning to cd.
NOTE: "Target Quality" mode does 1-pass encoding, "Target Size" does 2-passes.
(We recommend that beginners leave the rest of the settings in the Advanced Options tab alone.)
If you leave the Audio on Auto, the app will choose the bitrate for you (the following is a quote from the developers
tutorial): If you go for more than 1 CD encode it will be included unchanged (not converted to MP3) with the video.
However, if you are doing 1CD or less encode then it will be automatically converted to ABR MP3 (which is a form
of VBR MP3) at 128 kbps.
--- Click OK
(if you want to encode more than one video file without
having to load it again, you can batch encode with AutoGK
make sure you have each set of vobs for each video
ripped to a different folder than the first one, go back to the
file input, select it and continue on and add as many jobs
as you like before clicking Start)
How long are you going to have to wait? Well it depends very much on the speed of your computer processor and
whether you are doing anything else while encoding. We have several computers and the 2.8 GHz cpu usually
does a two-pass encode of a standard-length one-cd movie in 2-3 hours, whereas our 1 Ghz can take 6-8 hours.
We dont recommend doing anything else on your computer while encoding, best is to set it up before going to
sleep and just let it run.
Note: AutoGK also has hidden options which you can get to by using the Ctrl-F9 shortcut on your keyboard, but
this guide was meant for new users so we wont cover them. If you would like to learn more about the hidden
options go to the AutoGK site http://autogk.net/ or to really get involved, take the plunge and use Gordian Knot