I keep getting an "Invalid Pointer Operation" error message before it begins to encode this particular file I have. Any ideas? Thank you!

As per subject... I have an old PC and it takes 30 hours to convert a 1-hour video, and I'd prefer to save, shutdown, reboot and continue the conversion. Can TMPGEnc do this yet? It's been a common request but never fulfilled, for some strange reason... as a coder I can't understand any technical reasons why this hasn't been done...

There is no encoder out which is able to what you want.

A coder with a very slow PC...unlikely.
Use the hibernate function of your operating system if it has it.

> A coder with a very slow PC...unlikely.

It's not my only PC, buddy. I do my coding on my pro box, which
I do not install any third-party apps (such as TMPGEnc) on. Tsk!

> Use the hibernate function of your operating system if it has it.

Interesting idea... it won't corrupt the encoding process?

>Interesting idea... it won't corrupt the encoding process?

Start the process as normal then when you decide you wish to pause the encoding process click the 'Stop' button, this will effectively pause the process. Ignore the pop up box then put your computer into hibernation. Upon restarting the PC just cancel the 'Stop' command and the encoding should continue.

Thanks Ashy, good thinking! ;)

I have been trying to use TMPGenc free edition and have installed the KLite mega codec pack to use it with.
What I find is that often the program will say cannot open or file unsupported when all the other programs I use can open it.
The second thing is that when it does open a file, there's a 'snag' every few seconds when something is panning across the screen. EG a flyby from left to right.
Does anyone know what this is and what I can do about it?

>KLite mega codec
Very bad idea.

>there's a 'snag' every few seconds
Maybe not using original frame rate or as above.

I have instructions on how to create a DVD from an AVI file but what i can't seem to do is lower the Average Video Bitrate any lower than 2000, lower the estimated file size to less than 5.6GB and can't lower the "Makes file size ?% of disk capacity any lower than 134.80%

Can anyone tell me how i can fit my movie to a 4.7GB DVD?

Thanks in advance.

I would not recommend lowering thw average bit rate that low anyway.
How long is this movie? It is either very long or you have a problem.

there seems to be a lot of idiots talking like they know all the answers on here... simply go into your advanced settings (there's a button to the right on the screen that shows those things you 'cant' change) and lower your bitrate 50 kb/sec at a time until you are just below 4.5 Gb... dont go too clode to 4.7 or you eill not have sufficient space left over for the authoring program.

>there seems to be a lot of idiots talking like they know all the answers on here

Yes and from what I can gather you seem to be one of them with little idea of what you are talking about.
Are you here to pretend you know all the answers or just to annoy people.

Again you seem to have little understanding of what the problem is. The problem he has is not solved as simply as changing the bitrate to as low as it can go by altering the settings.

As he has already stated TMPG will not allow him to go below 2000 Kb/s which means he is using the project wizard to create a DVD
2000Kb/s is the lower limit for DVD compatiblity. It can be set lower, but is not advisable as the quality will be awful.

However his solution to the problem is not to lower the bitrate. There are several reasons that could contribute as to why he the file size is so large and over the capacity of 1 DVD even with the average bitrate set so low.

Usually the the most common one is a decoding problem. TMPG has a bug whereby it sometimes incorretly reads the header data in the source file and wrongly calculates the timecode and thus sometimes extends the actual time length of the source by 2 or 3 times.
This leads to TMPG wrongly calculating the bitrate and encoding a couple of hours of blank movie at the end of the real movie.

Unless the source file is something like 4 hours long then there is no reason for the average bitrate to be set any lower then 2000Kb/s and should even then certainly fit 1 DVD.

The usual solution to the problem is to increase the priority of the 'Direct show file reader' to top of the list and/or install FFDSHOW.
This should then allow TMPG to correctly read the header data and calculate the proper bitrate.

The other solution is to simple set the 'start' and 'end' points of the movie in the 'source range' function.

If you had actually any real knowledge of the way TMPG works then you wouldn't have posted such novice comments like the above.

I had the same problem and "increasing the priority of the 'Direct show file reader' to top of the list" worked. Everything seems ok now. Thanks Ashy.

Is it possible to have batch processing in TDA 1.6? i.e., i want to author a dvd, then once the first dvd is done it continues to author the second and so on. Right now, if i want to author two dvd's i have to open two instances of TDA and let them run at the same time. thanks

Batch processing would be nice.

I suggested it to the "support" along with

1)adding a CPU priorty setting.

2) Drag And Drop multiple files onto track menu would cause multiple tracks to be automatically created.

3) A setting that would use the filename (minus extension) to name the tracks.

4) A setting that would use the track name as the output folder name if there was no menu created.

Of course "Support" seemed to think that batch processing and CPU priorty "would slow things down so it would be unsafe"... They seem to
believe that everyone uses thier DVD writing module, even when you explain
that you use Nero.

"Support" is run by a bunch of know nothings...

Joe

ok, this is driving me nuts, having bought tmpgenc express it does everything i want .....except frameserve properly from either Virtualdub or Virtualdubmod.

I've asked in a few forums and so far nobody has been able to help me.
Here's whats happening.

I can load a file in Virtualdub/mod and start the frame server (yes the frameserver is installed), I can save the frame serve file as either .VDR or .AVI (dont really matter).

In Tmpgenc it will load just fine, i can edit it, cut it, play it with sound, add or remove filters..whatever..it behaves exactly as you expect it to.

However as soon as i click on that "Start output button" i get this error "File is not supported. (error code 0x80048003)"

Now obviously the frame server is working fine since tmpgenc express accepts it just fine. Funny thing is, the only plugin i need active to make tmpgenc accept this file is the AVI File Reader..i reallt thought it would involve one of the VFAPI plugins

Hopefully somebody here has solved this riddle..i'm still scratching my head

Many Thanks
Batfink

I have the same problem but I found that using Verison 2.5 resolves it.

THIS WORKS!!! I finally got it!!!

open tmpgenc 2.5 Plus, and load the "DVD (NTSC) or DVD (PAL)" settings, then save the click file, save project. Open the project you just saved in 2.5 as the source in 3.0 XPress, change the settings to your liking, then encode as you would, and it works!!!

>THIS WORKS!!! I finally got it!!!
>open tmpgenc 2.5 Plus, and load the "DVD (NTSC) or DVD (PAL)" settings, then save the click file, save project. Open the project you just saved in 2.5 as the source in 3.0 XPress, change the settings to your liking, then encode as you would, and it works!!!

I'd say "WORKS" is a pretty big stretch -- here's my experience with your work-around:

* I could only get this to "work" with TMPGEnc Plus 2.524, which has a different Project File format from earlier versions.

* It was necessary to Enable the TMPGEnc Project File Reader 2.524 in TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress (Preferences -> Input plug-in settings)

* The TMPGEnc Plus 2.524 Project File had to be Added in TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress as a source file, not opened as a Project File

This did indeed enable TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to get the correct source frame rate, but other weirdness (e.g., incorrect pixel format) led to unusable video (e.g., wrong frame size) with no audio.

This may not be exactly what you want, but ... Use AVI Synth as a front end fro VirtualDub (don't know about VDubMod), all you need to do is to generate an AVS file that opens the target source file within VirtualDub (eg "return MPEG2SOURCE("video_file_spec")" ). As long as VirtualDub can openit successfully, then jump into TMPGExpress, select all files and load the AVS file. Works like a charm, saves a lot of disc space not having to create all the intermediary files.

>This may not be exactly what you want, but ... Use AVI Synth as a front end fro VirtualDub (don't know about VDubMod), all you need to do is to generate an AVS file that opens the target source file within VirtualDub (eg "return MPEG2SOURCE("video_file_spec")" ). As long as VirtualDub can openit successfully, then jump into TMPGExpress, select all files and load the AVS file. Works like a charm, saves a lot of disc space not having to create all the intermediary files.
>

AviSynth works! In other words, instead of using VirtualDub to frameserve into TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress, use AviSynth instead -- TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress won't encode from VirtualDub, but WILL encode properly when frameserved from AviSynth!

>>This may not be exactly what you want, but ... Use AVI Synth as a front end fro VirtualDub (don't know about VDubMod), all you need to do is to generate an AVS file that opens the target source file within VirtualDub (eg "return MPEG2SOURCE("video_file_spec")" ). As long as VirtualDub can openit successfully, then jump into TMPGExpress, select all files and load the AVS file. Works like a charm, saves a lot of disc space not having to create all the intermediary files.
>>
>
>AviSynth works! In other words, instead of using VirtualDub to frameserve into TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress, use AviSynth instead -- TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress won't encode from VirtualDub, but WILL encode properly when frameserved from AviSynth!

Hi
I have am using tmpgenc author v 5.15. I have converted an avi file to dvd using VSO divx2dvd.When the resulting Video_Ts folder is opened( or tried to open) in Tmpgenc Authot is shows which only can be described as a small box with a cross in it and some gobbledygook (n a square with a small s and some unknown characters). Has anyone experienced this and know what the problem might be. NOTE I have also tried to run the same program through Tmpgenc video author v6 with the same results.

I am trying to export video (tried many formats) and I let the video compile for a little bit and then stop it and watch to make sure it is the quality I want before dedicating the comp to it for a long time. When I watch these files however, I get no audio. Is the audio rendered seperately at the end and added back in or is this a problem? I would let it run, but I don't wanna take the chance that my computer will be tied up for hours and hours and then get something I can't use.

Also, I have a file that is around 2.8GB it is a very high-quality 720x480 recording (about 45 minutes long) that I want to shink to a few hundred MB to be more portable. What codec and quality settings would you recommend? I am already planning on making the dimensions smaller and slightly reducing the framerate. I have always just burned to DVD format previously so I am not very experienced in compression. Thanks!

You need to find out what the audio fomat is in the source. If it's AVI then load it into Virtualdub and check it's properties.
The audio is encoded into the output in sync with the video, so you have a decoding problem if you don't have audio.

My advice to shrink the size is to lower the bitrate and the resolution and encode to MPEG1. You can also modify the GOP structure. You can find KVCD templates at http://www.kvcd.net which allow high compression while mainting as much quality as possible.
I wouldn't touch the frame rate unless you enjoy watching jerky movies.

I have licensed video (which I legally possess) that I am attempting to convert to another format.

Is this possible? Whenever I attempt to convert it in TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress, I get an error stating that I need a license for the file (which I obviously have, since the file plays in Windows Media Player).

DRM ONLY works on Microsoft Media Player. No other Software is able to read a DRM protected file. Therefor, there's no way to convert it.

Whenever I attempt to convert a video, I get an error, "Floating point number divided by 0."

This has happened the last five times I've tried to convert video.

Anyone got an explanation for this?

After decoding to m2v vide file play is slowed down...why??
Every thing was set as it should be...

Dunno, need more info on what your problem is first.

Hi there,

IÃÎ trying to use TMPGenc to create MPG files that are VCD ready so I can burn them and watch them on the big TV. The source files are also MPGs but don't have the right formatting (whether its screen size, bitrate, etc.).

Most of the time these MPGs are transcoded without incident but there are some that end up being transcoded with an error. In the final product of these erroneous files the video freezes but the sound keeps going, often for several minutes, and then the image will change to another still frame while the sound continues. This will go on until about the last few of minutes and then return to normal.

Today I looked more closely at a recently transcoded file and noticed that the intervals are suspiciously uniform. In a 31-minute clip the image first froze at 1 second before the 8 minute mark. The still image was then updated at 1 second before 16 minutes and again at 1 second before 20 minutes. At 1 second before 28 minutes the playback unfreezes and the last 3 minutes run out normally.

I have downloaded VirtualDub and the associated FreezeCheck program and have tested the source and end products and Vdub seems to think both are OK and found no freezes.

Any ideas on what IÃÎ doing wrong? The eerily uniform pattern (8-8-4-8) seems to indicate something but what? I have installed the latest version of TMPGenc on a different computer with the same result (testing the same files).

I used Vdub to convert one such original file to an AVI format and the end result is fine but I canÃÕ burn AVI direct to VCD.

UGH!
Any ideas what I should check next?

Thanks,
blurp

I take it the source files are MPEG-1?
You could try increasing the priority of the 'MPEG-1 Decoder' in the VFAPI plugins to top of the list or try de-multiplexing the MPEG first.

If that doesn't work then I'm guessing your MPEGs are not fully compatible with TMPG. TMPG can be funny sometimes with files made with other software. Either that or they do contain errors. Virtualdub isn't too good at detecting errors in MPEGs.

If the above doesn't work then you could try frame serving the MPEG from Virtualdub to TMPG.

Wow! That's quite a mouthful! I will try all of these things and see what happens. I'm a bit of a newb at the AV stuff but not on computers so I should be able to figure it out. Thefrustrating part is that you don't get to see if it worked for a couple of hours.

Do you think there's any relevance to the uniform distribution of freezes (on near-perfect 8 minute increments)?

Thanks,
Boris

One other thing... if not TMPGenc then what do you recommend I try if this doesn't work?

In the interest of testing I took one of those un-transcode-able files and coverted to AVI with VDub and got a fully working file. Now I'm using TMPG to transcode from AVI to MPG to see if the problems were washed out in the process. I'll let you know.

Thanks,
Boris

Ok I tried elevating the priority of MPEG-1 in the Environmental Settings and it made no difference. I had the same problem with another file but it also had the same telltale interval in the advancing of the frozen frame: intervals of 8 and 4 minutes EXACTLY.

What the heck? I've now had this happen on several machines with several different files with multiple versions of TMPGenc. For some reason I think the solution is related to the interval of freezing but I can't figure out what it is. Could it be some form of copy protection? Is there some kind of disruptive system call that happens on these regular intervals?

I managed to change one file to AVI and then recode and THAT worked but I tried it with another file and it ballooned in size from 200Mb to over 2Gb before it ran out of HD space.

Now I've used VDub to save the WAV portion of one of these trouble source files and have told TMPG to use the original MPG file and the new WAV to construct a new MPG file. We'll see if that works, I hope it is what was meant by "demultiplexing".

Any further advice or suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Boris

The demultiplexer is in the MPEGtools section of TMPG. It will seperate the audio from the video and rewrite the headers in the MPEG.

If TMPG worked fine when you encoded the MPEG from the AVI that Virtualdub created then you may have a decoding problem.
You could try using the MPEG2 VFAPI plugin. Yes I know it says MPEG2, but it will decode MPEG1 also just fine.
This codec is highly compatible with TMPG and gives excellent results.
http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/m2v_vfp-0.6.51.lzh

Failing all the above then your only other alternative is to use Virtualdub as a frame server to TMPG. Seeing as the AVI you encoded to MPEG turned out fine then the frame server should also work.
First of all play the MPEG in Virtualdub. If it plays OK then that is exactly how TMPG should encode it.

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

ashy, I know that this is likely a stupid question but how does one go about installing the above mentioned MPEG2 VFAPI plugin as a plugin in TMPGenc?

Just put the plugin in the TMPG folder. When TMPG runs it is automatically loaded.
You can verify it is there by looking in the VFAPI plugins list.

Well I've tried several of these things and now I want to try the earlier advice to use VDub as a frameserver to TMPGEnc. Trouble is I can't get TMPGEnc to pick up the stream. Any suggestions on how to do this? It's probably a syntax issue but I just don't know how to get it to pick up the start of the thread.

I'm using TMPGEnc v.2.524.63.181 and Virtual Dub v.1.5.10.

Thanks,
Boris

What do you mean you can't get it to pick up the thread.
What problem are you having? What errors are you getting?

It's ok Ashy, thanks for all your help. I've finally had success with the "de-multiplex then re encode" method and all is solved.

Thanks again for all your help in this matter, I really appreciate it.

Boris

ps. Just to resolve my previous post, I was able to start the frame server in VDub but I didn't know how to tell TMPGEnc where to find the file it needed to work on. The interface seemed to require me to specify a file location but there was no file yet. I tried specifying the network address and name of frame-served file but that didn't work. In other words I had the server but didn't know how to point the client at it. Again, I've got it working the other way so I don't need to use this method. I am, however, still somewhat curious as to the answer... how do you tell TMPGenc where the file being served by VDub is?

You don't need to specify anything.
Virtual dub starts the frameserver for you. All you need to do is simply give the frame server signpost file a location.
After starting the frame server just click through everything until the final stage where it asks you for a name and location to put the frame server file.

Give it a name and an .AVI extension. Then simply load that file into TMPG as you would any normal AVI.