How do I convert .wmv files to dvd?

With TMPG.

Is there a way to pause during the enconding process?

Sort of, You can Pause it Just by Clicking "Stop" while encodeing and when it asks you if you want to abort encodeing you just dont answer and go and do something else, and when you want to resume encodeing just answer "NO" and it will start encodeing again, But you can not shut down Tmpgenc or you Computer and start encodeing were you left Off....

You can pause the encoding process and then hibernate your computer if you wish to shut it down. Then just bring your PC out of hibernation and then cancel the abort.

>Is there a way to pause during the enconding process?

Just abort, then use the source range to start again later

I'm using TMPGEnc Plus 2.511 on Win2k. On some MPEG2 encodes with TMPGEnc I have seen a problem. When playing the .MPG back, both on my PC with WinDVD and after authoring a DVD for a set-top player I see a subtle "pulsing" in the brightness of the background. It seems to shift brightness slightly every 1/2 second (which matches the rate of I-frames in the MPEG2 GOP).

I have not observed this with every encode, just on some of them. I'll need to check but it may happen only when I use TMPGEnc's built-in brightness/contrast adjustments. The problem is definitely not in the original DV .AVI, and it does not show up with Cinemcraft Encoder (CCE Basic) either.

Could this be something like a round-off error within TMPGEnc when encoding P and B frames? Has anyone else observed this problem?

1. Don't use soften block noise.
2. If you are using Constant Quality, set B-Picture Spoilage to -5 - 0, this should help.

When encoding video I have recorded using a Pinnacle PCTV Card the encoding process starts but gets slower and slower with the time remaining increasing instead of decreasing until finally it stops responding and the programme just halts. Happens on every recording on this method at varying methods.

Any suggestions on how to cure?

What Format did you capture to With your PCTV Card???Have you tried Different Codecs/Formats???

I tried in VCD, MPEG 1 (various settings), MPEG AVI. I have downloaded a number of codecs including PIM 1, all the latest Div X but made no difference.

Well None of the Formats you mentioned are Very good Formats to use to capture Video with a Capture card, accept I don"t know what PIM 1 is??? Mpeg1/VCD difinately not a Good Format to capture to, But you are Probably not useing VCD/Mpeg1 to capture to because you would not need Tmpgenc if you captured directly to VCD, you could burn it directly to disk, But it would look Bad..And DivX is not a Good Format to Capture video to Because it is Very Lossy like Mpeg is and you need a Lot of CPU Power to Capture directly to DivX...The Format to capture is Uncompressed AVI or HuffyUV but you need a Lot of disk Space to capture to UncompressedAVI, about 1.2gb per minute at Full resolution, and with HuffyUV about 350mb Per Minute at full resolution, The Next Best Format would be to use something like "PicVideo Mjpeg Codec" it Produces Good Quality and uses very little CPU Power and uses only about 200mb per Minute at Full resolution at 19 Quality...One of these Codecs I just Mentioned, would be best to Capture to(HuffyUV or PicVideo Mjpeg) if you can do Uncompressed AVI, and these Codecs Decode Very Quickly also so they will encode Quicker than other Codecs...And Downloading a Bunch of Codecs when you Have a Problem is not a Good Thing to do as they can cause more harm than Good and are only usefull if the File you are encodeing to mpeg was originally encoded with that Particular Codec...You Might try raiseing the Priority of the "Direct show File Reader" in the "vfapi Plugins" but I do not Know if it will help as I do not Know what Format the File you are Trying to Encode is compressed with....

I tried in VCD, MPEG 1 (various settings), MPEG AVI. I have downloaded a number of codecs including PIM 1, all the latest Div X but made no difference.

The files are straight TV recordings done at either the standard VCD settings on Pinnacle (MPEG 1, 1.15 bitrate) or Custom settings where I use MPEG 1 HQ at 3.00 bitrate. I am not setting any specific codecs myself when ,aking the recordings.

By the way PIM 1 is a codec applicable to Pinnacle recordings, got it from the moviedownload website

Forgot to say - the VCD setting (MPEG 1) produces a 900MB file whilst the custom settings produce a 2½GB file for a 1½hr film. I feed these into TMPGEnc as they are. The only adjustments I make are the video and audio bitrates in the expert section to get the film to fit on a CD. I don't do anything with any codecs.

If you are Captureing to Mpeg1 VCD then why are you encodeing with Tmpgenc??? Re-Encodeing will Just ruin the Quality and if you captured to Mpeg1/VCD then it is allready in the Correct Format for VCD, That is the Whole Idea behind Captureing to Mpeg1 with your Capture Card, so Just forget Tmpgenc and just burn the Mpeg1 files as VCD"s....

Have a film (oper) with 4 acts. Have made four traks. The first menu is ok. But then I did not find out how to eliminate the chapter menues. I clicked out the 'include chapter' but then the chapter menues are empty but stil there. Or am I using the wrong template ?

I have just installed "TMPGEnc Plus" but have run into a problem. It will not load any ".vdr" files when framserving with VirtualDub v1.5.3. It just freezes and I get a "program not responding" message. ALL codecs are loaded and the audio is set for PCM output from VirtualDub. Does anybody have an explanation for why TMPGEnc will not load or accept ".vdr" file?
My VFAPI plugin filters are set to:-
DirectShow Multimedia File Reader.......3
AVI2(OpenDML) File Reader...............1
AVI VFW compatibility Reader............0
CyberLink MPEG-2 Decoder................0
Microsoft MPEG-1 Decoder................0
Wave File Reader........................0
BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG File Reader............-2
DVD2AVI Project File Reader 1.76+......-2
TMPGEnc Project File Reader 2.58.......-2

TIA
Retro

Sometimes you have to Disable the "Direct show file reader" to get VDR Files loaded, And make sure you have the Virtual Dub Handler installed....

Thanks Minion.... that sorted the problem :-) . The only reason I had the DirectShow Multimedia File Reader set to such a high priority was for encoding Xvid films but once it was disabled TMPGEnc frameserved flawlessly with VirtualDub.

Regards
Retro

Is there a way to trim the source in and out points
before encoding so that one does not have to
cut the MPEG afterwards?

yes, you go settings then advance then click on source range

How do you encode a DivX file which includes a subtitle file (extension .srt) so that the output Mpg file will also display the Subtitles?

Tools needet:

srt2sup
VobSub
AVISynth

Or..
srt2sup
VobSub
Virtualdub

alright plain and simple i have a divx encoded avi which i want to convert to mpeg1 for (obviously) my dvd player. Anyways my question is this: The occasional blockiness created by the divx encoder, i have read is possible to eradicate by using the "sharpen edge" feature, is this true? if so how do i go about doing this? i.e. what do i set the vertical and horizonal to? if the sharpen filter does not fix this problem is there anything else that will??

Well if your DivX file is showing Blockyness then your Mpeg1/VCD File will Show a Lot of Blockyness...It seems that the DivX file was encoded with a too low of a Bitrate to remove the Blocks..And VCD will Usually Produce Blocks of it"s Own because VCD is a Pretty Low Quality Crappy Format...If the Blocks are Part of the Source Footage meaning your Divx file then it will be Impossible to get rid of them, You might be able to Disguise them by useing a Few Filters, Like maybe the "Soften Block Noise", and/Or the "Noise Reduction" filter, Sharpen edge will not get rid of Blockyness but Might be able to give a slight improvement in the Over all image Quality...The Way you use these Filters is Totally up to the User and up to the File you are encodeing, Just go to the Filter and Double click it and a Settings dialog will pop up with your File displayed in the screen, Just find a Place were you can see the Blockyness the worst then adjust the setting untill the Image looks better...

There is no way to remove blocks from a source file. You may be able to reduce them slighlty by using the noise reduction filters.
One trick that seems to work is to encode the AVI first in MPEG2 with a high bitrate so as not to introduce any more blocks then encode from the MPEG2 to MPEG1 VCD using the soften block noise option and the noise filter both times.
This will have the effect of softening the picture and thus making the blocks less noticible.
Also whoever or wherever you read that using the sharpness filter will reduce the appearance of blocks did not know what they where talking about. Using a sharpness filter will make it WORSE not better! All you will succeed in doing is sharpening the edges of the blocks making them MORE visible.

every time I try to use this one file as a source I get the error:
Read Error Occurred at Address 77FC9E8A of module 'ntdll.dll' with 9D000095.
and after I exit out of that if I try to select a source again I get:
Write Error Occurred at Address 77FCB5BF of module 'ntdll.dll' with 00000168.
I am very confused as to if this is a bug with tmpg or with my OS, altho I haven't had any problems with it thus far.

RebLaw

Is the File you are trying to encode a "XviD" file??? If so then I believe the error is caused by the XviD codec, You should install the "FFDShow Decoder" instead of the XviD codec to decode any Mpeg-4 formats, this should solve the Problem...

I have noticed a problem tring to get TMPGENC to load over 20 multi-segmented avi files. I have about 30 avi files from a 2 hour movie. When I select the first (00) file it only loads the sequence through file 19 (20 files). If I select any other segment, such as file 5 (segment 04) it will still load 20 files through file 25 (segment 24). Any clues?

Thanks,
Paul

It's not a feature, it's a Bug...
You can't open more than 20 Segments a time.

I recently download v2.512 and when I click on the audio input button to select a wav file, it displays a "cannot read address######## from kernal32.dll" message. Plus, during encoding, after the process is finished,(i.e. frames 41030/41030 and it reads 100%) how should it end? Nothing comes up and nothing can be clicked on. When I press ctrl-alt-del, it displays "TMPGenc(not responding)"
Thanks for any help

The first error seems like you may have a corrupt version of TMPG. Completely delete then download and install TMPG again. If you still have the same problem try raising the priority of 'Wav file reader' in the VFAPI plugins.

You second one sounds like it is just due to your impatience. When encoding reaches 100% TMPG hasn't actually finished. Even after the last frame is encoded TMPG needs to write the headers into the file which which takes a little while, so just wait it shouldn't take long.