242 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
242 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Simple x264 Launcher - use 64-Bit x264 with 32-Bit Avisynth
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Copyright (C) 2004-2012 LoRd_MuldeR <MuldeR2@GMX.de>
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1. Introduction
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---------------
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This program is a simple GUI front-end for the x264 H.264/AVC encoder.
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Thanks to Avs2YUV, this program can use the 64-Bit version of x264 with
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the 32-Bit version of Avisynth. This way you can keep on using your
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favorite 32-Bit Avisynth plug-ins (e.g. DGDecodeNV) and still benefit
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from the speed improvements of 64-Bit x264. Of course you can also use
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64-Bit Avisynth, which is still considered experimental, if desired.
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And of course you can use x264's built-in LAVF/FFMS input instead of
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Avisynth just as well. Moreover this program provides full batch
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encoding support. This means that you can run several encoding jobs in
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parallel. Or you can let them run in sequence - one by one.
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2. System Requirements
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----------------------
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This program runs on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and later.
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64-Bit Windows is highly recommended, but 32-Bit Windows works as well.
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The CPU should support at least the MMX and SSE1 instruction sets.
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Avisynth 2.5.x must be installed in order to use Avisynth (.avs) input.
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YV16/YV24 color spaces only supported by Avisynth 2.6 [see section 9].
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Audio encoding NOT officially supported by x264 yet [see section 10].
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3. Anti-Virus Warning
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---------------------
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Occasionally your Antivirus program may mistakenly detect "malware"
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(virus, trojan, worm, etc.) in some of the files here. This is called a
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"False Positive" and the files are actually innocent/clean. It´s an
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error in your specific Antivirus software.
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In case you encounter such problems, go to http://www.virustotal.com/
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and check the file again with multiple Antivirus engines! And take care
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with results like "suspicious" , "generic" or "packed". Those are *not*
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real hits, they are just wild speculation.
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Apparently Antivirus programs tend to suspect installers/uninstaller
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created with NSIS. Furthermore some Antivirus programs blindly suspect
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all UPX´d (packed) executables of being malware. Obviously this is a
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stupid generalization, so you can safely ignore those warnings!
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Last but not least: Always keep in mind that this is OpenSource
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software! If you don´t trust the people providing the pre-compiled
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binaries, download the source codes and compile them yourself.
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DON´T SUBMIT ANY VIRUS/TROJAN REPORTS, UNLESS YOU HAVE VERIFIED THE
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INFECTION WITH MULTIPLE ANTIVIRUS ENGNINES. THANKS!
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4. License
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----------
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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
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with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
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51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
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5. Portable Mode
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----------------
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This application can be run in "portable" mode. Just rename the EXE
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file to 'x264_launcher_portable.exe' in order to trigger portable mode.
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In that mode all configuration files will be saved in the same folder
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where the EXE file resides. This may be helpful, if you want to run the
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application directly from your USB stick on different computers. Note,
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however, that in portable mode the install folder must be writable!
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6. Updating Your x264 Binaries
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------------------------------
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This application works best with the x264 binaries that are included in
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the distribution package. That's because these binaries have been
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tested to work properly with the GUI. Nonetheless in some cases you may
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want to replace the included binaries with a newer version of x264 or
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with an alternative build of the same version. Generally newer versions
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of x264 should work with the GUI too, though there is NO guarantee. In
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rare cases the CLI syntax (or console output) of x264 may change in a
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way that breaks the compatibility and therefore will require an update
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of the GUI itself. Furthermore this application does NOT provide any
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support for unofficial x264 patches. Usually x264 builds that contain
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unofficial patches will work anyway, but again there is NO guarantee.
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Using old/outdated x264 binaries with this application is NOT supported
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or intended. Report bugs rather than reverting to an old version!
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7. Timeout Warning
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------------------
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This application provides "deadlock" prevention. This means that if an
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encoder process (x264 or Avisynth) stops responding, it will be
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terminated. This is done in order to ensure that the main program as
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well as the other encoder processes can continue properly. More
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specifically, a warning will be raised if the process does not respond
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for one minute. If the process still didn't respond after five minutes,
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it will be terminated and consequently the encoding job is aborted. In
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some rare cases, your Avisynth script may take a very long time to
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initialize and thus the process will be aborted before the encoding can
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start. For example, this can happen if FFMS2/FFVideoSource takes a very
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long time to index the source file. In that case, we recommend to index
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the source file beforehand, e.g. by using the 'ffmsindex' tool.
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8. Custom Parameters
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--------------------
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This application provides a "Custom Parameters" edit box. All command-
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line parameters you enter there will be passed to x264 unmodified. This
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way you can send arbitrary parameters to x264 - even such ones that are
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only available in patched builds of x264. See the x264 Wiki or the Help
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Screen for a list of available parameters. However be aware that the
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GUI will not check your parameters at all! Thus using an unknown or
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unsupported parameter will cause your encode to fail. Using an existing
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parameter in the wrong way will cause your encode to fail too. Last but
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not least, some parameters are forbidden by the GUI. If some parameter
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is forbidden, that's because the GUI will set that parameter for you
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(if required) or because that parameter is NOT compatible with the GUI.
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Hint: Occasionally your custom parameters string may become very long,
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especially when working with zones. In that case you can right-click on
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the "Custom Parameters" edit box and choose "Open the Text-Editor".
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This will open a multi-line text editor for easier parameter handling.
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9. Color Spaces / Chroma Subsampling
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------------------------------------
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Avs2YUV converts the output of your Avisynth script to the YV12 format,
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i.e. YUV data with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and 8-Bit precision.
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Usually this is exactly what you want/need. If, however, your Avisynth
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script outputs image data with a higher chroma resolution, e.g. YUY2
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(4:2:2), then the conversion to YV12 (4:2:0) will discard some of the
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information. In that case, and if you want/need to keep the full chroma
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resolution of your Avisynth script's output, you will have to pass the
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"-csp" switch to Avs2YUV as a custom parameter! Use "-csp I422" for
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YUV 4:2:2 (YV16) and use "-csp I444" for YUV 4:4:4 (YV24). Please note
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that Avs2YUV can NOT pass through the "packed" YUY2 format. Thus it has
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to be converted to the "planar" YV16 format. As both, YUY2 and YV16,
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are YUV 4:2:2 formats, converting from YUY2 to YV16 is a lossless
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operation. Note, however, that Avisynth 2.5 did NOT support YV16/YV24,
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so you need to use Avisynth 2.6; otherwise Avs2YUV will fail to do the
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conversion! Also be aware that the x264 encoder itself will convert any
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YV16 or YV24 input back to the YV12 format, if you don't pass the
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suitable "--output-csp i422/i444" switch to x264 as a custom parameter!
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In short, to encode YUY2 from Avisynth, you have to pass "-csp I422" to
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Avs2YUV and "--output-csp i422" to x264 to avoid 4:2:0 downsampling.
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10. Audio Processing/Encoding
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-----------------------------
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This application is a front-end to the x264 encoder. And, as x264 does
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NOT support audio processing/encoding yet, there is NO explicit support
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for audio encoding in this application. Thus, if you want to create a
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video file *with* audio, you will have to add the audio stream to the
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encoded video file afterwards. This process is called 'multiplexing' or
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just 'muxing'. In case you are dealing with Matroska (MKV) files, then
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"MKVMerge GUI" from the "MKVToolNix" package is the right tool for this
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task. If, instead, you are dealing with MP4 files, then you may use
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"MP4Box" or the "YAMB" front-end for muxing the audio stream.
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Having said all that, there now is an unofficial "Audio" branch of x264
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available. If you are using one of the modified x264 builds with "audio
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support" patch (e.g. those provided by JEEB), then you can process the
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audio with x264 and skip the additional muxing step. Basically the
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audio patch adds a new "--acodec" switch, which you can pass to x264 as
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a custom parameter. For example, you can pass "--acodec aac" for
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encoding the audio to the AAC format (recommended for MP4 files). Or
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you can pass "--acodec vorbis" for encoding the audio to the Ogg/Vorbis
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format (recommended for MKV files). Please be aware that audio encoding
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will work only, if your input file contains an audio stream! When using
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the built-in LAVF/FFMS input of x264, the audio can be encoded straight
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from the input file. This does NOT work with Avisynth input! Instead,
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if you want to encode audio from an Avisynth script, you must pass the
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"--audiofile <path_to_avs_file>" switch to x264 as a custom parameter.
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For convenience, the string "--audiofile $(INPUT)" may be used.
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11. OpenCL Support
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-----------------------
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Newer builds of x264 now support OpenCL Lookahead, which can be enabled
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with the "--opencl" parameter. However, even if you do NOT want to use
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this feature, x264 will still depend on the OpenCL library (OpenCL.DLL)
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and it will NOT even start, if the OpenCL DLL is missing! For this
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reason, the Simple x264 Launcher ships with a "dummy" OpenCL library to
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make x264 start on systems that do NOT support OpenCL. As a side effect
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of this workaround, any OpenCL functions in x264 will not work at all!
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If your video hardware supports OpenCL *and* if you have an up-to-date
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video driver with OpenCL support installed *and* if you which to use
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the OpenCL Lookahead function, then please remove the dummy OpenCL.DLL
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from the Simple x264 Launcher directory, so x264 can load the system's
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OpenCL.DLL (from system directory), provided by the video driver.
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12. Command-line Syntax
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-----------------------
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The following command-line switches are available:
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--add <file> [<file>] ... Create new job(s) from files(s)
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--console ............... Show the "debug" console
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--no-console ............ Don't show the "debug" console
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--no-style .............. Don't use the Qt "Plastique" style
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--skip-avisynth-check ... Skip Avisynth check (not recommended!)
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--force-cpu-no-64bit .... Forcefully disable 64-Bit support
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These are parameters you can pass to Simple x264 Launcher, they can NOT
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be passed to x264 itself as "custom" parameters!
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13. Help & Support
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------------------
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For help and support, please join the discussion at:
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http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=144140
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Please do NOT send me e-mail with support requests. Thanks!
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e.o.f.
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