i tried to convert chapter 20 of my men in black limited edition dvd (widescreen side, if matters...): ripped it parsing the ifo (i don't have that much space :D ), fired up gknot and started to set everything. it seemed that all was set fine, but when it finished the first pass it gave me an error about a missing log file, but (here it comes the funny thing), when i looked into the folder, the file was exactly there, only named mib_gknot.log instead of mib.log. obviously the file i got was crap, but audio was really good (lame 160 vbr :D ). how could i fix this prob?

The .log file it was looking for was not the Gknot log, but the <name of movie>.log file that should have been created by the first pass of Virtual Dub. None was created. There can be several reasons why. Here are the most common two reasons: 1) The DivX5 codec is not properly installed. Check for a proper installation by starting up Virtual Dub, (Start..Programs..Gordian Knot...Apps..Virtual Dub) then checking for DivX5 (Alt...Video....Compression) in the list of video codecs. If it isn't there, re-install DivX 5. 2) The resolution you chose for your .avi file was not divisible by 4. Look at the resolution you selected. It will be in the Gknot log. The defaults are divisible by 32/16. DivX5 cannot encode content where the resolution is not divisible by 4. That .log file that is missing is a frame-by-frame analysis of the video. It is produced by the first pass, and used by the second pass. Without it, you won't get usable results. Good luck!

wow! thanx!! virtual dub actually does not recognise my divx5 pro codec, which must have been f**ked up by the installation of gknot and all of its codecs, since before it everything was working fine...

Yes. GKnot will, by default, install DivX4. If Divx5 was installed prior to installing Gknot with defaults ... DivX 5 disappears. It's why this particular problem is so common.