Anime4K-Encoder

Wrapper for Anime4K

Makes it easy to encode anime using the MPV shaders with predefined encoding profiles!

Features

• Encode videos with Anime4K shaders easily
• Encode using x264, x265, NVIDIA NVENC or AMD AMF
• Extract audio and subtitles automatically
• Predefined profiles for Anime4K and ffmpeg

Key differences to Anime4K-Encoder-4.0.1-

Anime4K-Encoder-4.0.1- is a repository based on Anime4K-PyWrapper that updates the Anime4K shaders used and other changes. The key differences between Anime4K-Encode-4.0.1 and this repository are:

• Cleaned up code
• Re-added NVENC support and added CPU AV1, AMD GPU and Intel QuickSync support
• Re-added 10-bit toggling support
• Removed official support for videos with a resolution lower than FHD
• Added support for MP4 files
• Ability to choose to manually mux subtitles and audio via --softsubs and --softaudio. You can also use -m multi which will apply mode shaders with --softsubs and --softaudio, audio, subs and mux all at once.
• Ability to skip menus in shader mode via --skip_menus
• Added support for multiple --input arguments
• Use default values for some arguments

Installing / Getting started

What you need:

• Linux
• Python 3.X
• mpv > 0.32
• ffmpeg
• mkvnixtool (e.g mkvtoolnix on Ubuntu)
• A dedicated GPU (no VM) [AMD/NVIDIA/Intel]

You can skip installing the necessary python libs and the initial configuration by running setup.sh.

Installing the necessary python libs

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Initial Configuration

Download the latest shaders from here. Put them all into one folder, for example called shaders

Burning in subs

If there's a default sub track, it will be burned in automatically. If you want to add softsubs, you will have to run the script with --no_subtitles and add them later.

This can also fix some audio problems that you may encounter during encoding, which may or may not slow down your encoding progress.

Upscaling your first Anime!

Assuming your Anime Movie/Episode is called input.mkv and has a resolution of 1920x1080, and you want to upscale it to 4K (3840x2160), here are the commands you would run:

1. Encode the video with the following command

python3 Anime4K.py -m shader --shader_dir "./shaders" --width 3840 --height 2160 -i input.mkv -o video_upscale.mkv

Note: Width and height arguments are optional as they default to 3840x2160. The mode argument is also optional as it defaults to shader.

2. Follow the dialogues - they should be pretty self-explanatory
3. Your file should now be in video_upscale.mkv
4. Done!

Burning softsubs/softaudio

1. Extract the audio and/or subtitles from the original file

python3 Anime4K.py -m audio -i input.mkv
python3 Anime4K.py -m subs -i input.mkv

Now we have the audio files and subtitles in the current folder.

2. Add them into the final output
3. Done!

python3 Anime4K.py -m mux -i video_upscale.mkv -o video_upscaled_with_audio_and_subs.mkv

Feel free to explore the other options of the program (or profiles) by typing:

python3 Anime4K.py --help

GPU Encoding

NVENC

NVENC support has been re-added as Ampere NVENC is pretty good in my experience with an RTX 3090. I would not recommend using this on 10-series cards or older.
Note: Whilst H264 NVENC will use level 5.1, running mpv/ffmpeg using HEVC NVENC throws an error if a level is specified, and therefore the default is used. On my system and I'd assume most systems, this is 6.2.

Requirements:

• Latest NVIDIA driver
• Type ffmpeg and ensure ffmpeg has been built with --enable-nvenc. If not, manually compile ffmpeg with these instructions
• May need cuda installed

AMD GPUs

I've added support for AMD GPUs using VAAPI. This requires AMD drivers. I do not know how this encoder works nor have I tested it, so the code implementation is based on online (lack of) documentation. Feel free to raise an Issue ticket on GitHub if there are errors, however I cannot fix it myself.

Intel QuickSync

Intel QuickSync is supported, but requires the desired FPS to be set. It's also very slow and is best for 1080p or lower.

[Optional] Encoding ffmpeg progressbar

To get an overview of your current encoding of ffmpeg, you may install the ffmpeg-progressbar-cli

npm install --global ffmpeg-progressbar-cli

Don't worry, the script will also work with normal ffmpeg.

Misc

This is a list of things that the creators of the repositories that this repository is a fork of have encountered but it may or may not be true for every user:

• The shader mode affects the encoding speed, from faster to slower C > B > A > C+A > B+B > A+A.
• The encoding preset doesn't noticeably affect the encoding speed (only tested from fastest to medium)

The best way to use the shaders is in real time, its intended purpose. The purpose of this program is for those that can't run the HQ version of the shader (the one this one uses) in real time, or to use them for later ( Phone, streaming server, etc). This encoding process can take hours or even days for episodes and movies.

Examples

Please view the examples in a new tab/in large to compare.

Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel III

Input - 1080p - 45Mbps bitrate:

Output - 4K - 180Mbps bitrate - NVENC H264 Medium - Shaders mode B+B:

Upscaling this movie from 1080p to 4K with a constant bitrate of ~45Mbps using NVENC H264 Fast (Shaders mode B+B) took roughly 2hrs 50 minutes.

TODO

• Adding extra shaders that are not included in the [Modes] by default (Darken, Thin, Etc)

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute, please fork the repository and use a feature branch. Pull requests are warmly welcome.

Links

• Related projects:

  • Anime4K
  • ThoughtfulDev
  • video2x
  • Anime4K-Encoder-4.0.1-

• Thanks to:

  • ffmpeg-progressbar-cli
  • simple-term-menu

Licensing

The code in this project is licensed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.