I have made VCD's of both a DVD movie that I own and some home movies that I made with my Sony digital camera. They both came out great.

So I decided to try doing the same in SVCD format. They all came out with a lot of pixalation (please forgive my spelling), and not just on the fast-action scenes. The overall quality is just not nearly as good as the VCD's that I made of the same subjects.

I am a real "newbie" at this, and figure that I'm just not setting up the TMPGEnc settings correctly for SVCD. Is there a primer out there somewhere that might help me get this down better, or can someone give me some pointers on what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

The only thing I can think of that would give you those results is if you are useing the same bitrate with svcd as you were useing with vcd. because of the higher resolution of svcd you have to increase the bitrate ,actually you need to pretty well double the bitrate in svcd mode.There are a lot of help manuals at "www.vcdhelp.com"....

I want to control the batch encoding by another program.
Is it possible to create a batch file by my own and to
start tmpg in a way that the batch encoding is started
automatically.

So you want another program to start the encodeing procsess in batch mode.Why? if you are some sort computer programer then go ahead and write the program to controll tmpgenc in batch mode,

Thats what I want, control tmpgenv in batch mode.
But where can I find information how to control tmpgenv
(COM-Interface, command line parameters etc.) ?

Yes, this sounds really strange, but let me explain. I did the first DVD burn of the live concert video transfered from Hi8. I clipped the
720x480 video in Premier with 10 pixels covered on the sides and top and 18
pixels covered on the botton (with black). I put my overlay of my record label
in the lower right corner (20 pixels above the bottom of the frame, 15 pixels from the right side of the frame). I encoded everything with TMPGEnc with 4:3 aspect ratio. TMPGEnc recognized the avi as 720x480 and encoded.

When view it on the computer in DVD or VCD format, it looks great. But when I view it on the tv from the dvd-r, the black bars from the Premier clipping are not even visible at the bottom (remember I clipped 18 pixels) and the right side of the picture overscans so much, my overlay logo doesn't even appear. All my title screens which I output as avi's came through just fine. Arrgggghhhh!!!! The first projects are always the hardest.

I guess I underestimated the overscan effect, I thought I had it right. Is there is a way to make TMPGEnc "zoom out" when encoding to get more of my frame image to display on TV? Maybe use the Video Arrangement Method setting of "custom size" in the advanced options menu?

You will have to experiment with the "video arrange method" and the "clip frame option" .Trail and error.....

How do I computer valid NTSC resolutions? I've read somewhere but can no longer find the article where it says exactly what the ratio multiple is. I know it isn't as simple as 4:3 ratio.

I don"t really know what you mean by valid ntsc resolutions, but I do know that there are valid mpeg resolutions,mpeg files have to be in resolutions with a multiple of 8 and I think that dvd players can only play resolutions with multiples of 16 .....

Being that I'm relatively new to the video editing scene, is there a recommended place for me to get a primer on resolutions and aspect ratio's. I've searched the net for a while now, but haven't really found any specific detailed information. For example:

I went to Circuit City last evening and played the disc I had made. The other tv's (tube and projection) displayed more of the image than my 19" monitor in my apartment. It gave me a better idea of what was happening. Since my video has a lot of "wide angle" views, I didn't like how the tv's were lopping off as much of the picture as it did.

Ok, now for my question. 720x480 is a standard avi res. But it isn't 4:3 either. 640x480 is 4:3 but isn't a standard avi res. 720x540 is 4:3 and considered a standard dvd resolution. So why is it that all the video editors and compression codecs refer to the avi as 720x480? So the next time I capture video from my digital8 or miniDV, should I be capturing at 720x540? Arrggghhh!!!! I knew I should have just stuck with audio work, at least there I have a firm grip on everything. :-?

I"m pretty sure the standard 525 line 4:3 tv resolution is 704 by 480 ntsc, your dvd player makes the res from 720 to 704 .I do mt svcd"s with a resolution of 704 by 480 and the picture looks exactly the same as the original dvd, so maybe captureing to 704 by 480 will look beter, but I think if you capture at a resolution higher than 720 by 480 when you encode to dvd the picture will be squished from the top to bottom or cut off at the sides, just a thought...

You might also play back your amterial on several TVs to see if this is a consistent problem in the video or just the TV. Different TVs react slightly differently to the video output size (some are "zoomed" slightly to make sure the picture fills the tube). I usually check my overlay graphics on a couple of TVs (one philips which has a very high zoom, especially). Your footage may be better than you think and the TV is the problem (and if it's ok on the PC, this might easily be the case).

Is it possible to encode an Mpeg2 movie at the res. 800x300 or as a multiple of 8,6,32???? i.e. 800 x 288 ?

I have tried both but I just keep getting an error This window size is accepted by selected MPEG-2 level

???

This res does work with bbmpeg?? Please help?

The mpeg standard dictates that all mpeg files have to have a resolution divisible by 8 and I don"t think a dvd player will play it unless it is divisable by 16.You should be able to do 800 by 304 or 296, What error are you getting? is it the error saying that you have to have the resolution divisible by 8?

I've been using DVD2SVCD to burn SVCDs of DVDs. The encoding process is by far the longest. I've been using VBR, thinking that the quality is much higher. I did a test converting a DivX AVI to SVCD in CQ mode, which took much less than 1/2 the time it takes to do VBR. The CQ SVCD looks blocky, but I don't know if that's because of DivX or CQ encoding.

My question is basically which is better, VBR or CQ? I use it to make 2 SVCDs with bitrates between 1600 and 2500 (depending on movie length). VBR also tends to crash a lot (nearly every time) on my system.

Thanks

"CQ" is a VBR encodeing method,you must mean 2-pass vbr?For the amount of time it takes to encode in 2pass you will get close to the same quality in CQ, but if your movie has a lot of action scenes 2-pass will give you better results..

I've tried everything: reinstalling tmpgenc, using CBR rather than 2 pass VBR, using different source materials, lowering cpu speed in BIOS, giving higher priorities to VFAPI settings in Environmental Settings, even formatting my c drive and reinstalling Windows. I always used Tmpgenc without any problems but suddenly a few days ago, EVERY time I try to encode, my system freezes midway at various positions. When I say freezes, I mean seriously freezes: not even CTRL ALT DEL unfreezes it, only resetting does the trick. My setup is XP1800+, WinME, 256 DDRAM, KG7 mobo with all latest drivers. This is very frustrating! I tried using an older version (2.53 instead of 2.55 or 2.54a) and this does work! This must be a bug, no? I really can't figure what else it could be! Why would v 2.53 work and 2.54a and 2.55 not? Since I now have to use 2.53, is there any difference in picture quality when decoding in 2 pass VBR between the two? Please anyone if you have an answer, please share it with me. Thanks!

I don't have a solution, but I too was about to report the same problem, only on my system, I haven't found a single version of TMPGEnc that hasn't crashed. I use a laptop with SiS board, P3 1000Mhz, 256 MB RAM. TMPGEnc crashes nearly everytime when I use VBR. If I use CQ it works fine, but I don't like the quality as much as with VBR. Should I just try other encoding programs to see if they do the same?

same problem here, system crush/freeze up every single time at various point when converting files

Just installed ver 2.55 on my notebook and it seems to be running fine.
can not get it to encode on my desktop though as stated earlier it will constantly freeze up completly, i'm running xp professional on desktop and xp home on notebook desktop is a 1.33 AMD Athalon Notebook 1.2 gig Pentium 3, both with 512 meg ram.

I am trying to use TMPEng to resize an existing MPG movie file to make it suitable for the VCD spacification size. It converts the size OK except the output has no sound.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

The sound is gone cuz the audio format wasn"t supported for encodeing,but you don"t need to encode the audio from the mpeg file just de-multiplex the original mpeg then multiplex the audio from it to the vcd mpeg...but if the audio from the original mpeg isnt mp2 say it is mp3 then you have to encode it to mp2 with a audio encoder like "db power amp" then you can multiplex it with the vcd/mpeg......

I cant cut files so they fit on one cd. when I grab the bar to move it to the center of the movie it opens up a new window that says mpeg settings and then the programm stops responding. and if I enter the frame cut manually and hit the set end frame button it just zeroes out my setting. please help

I don"t know how many times i have said this lately, but the mpeg tools have problems like this all the time and there is no fix ,no secret settings nothing you can do in tmpgenc to make it work you just have to use a different program to cut your file,a free one that works good is "bbmpeg" it has a multiplexor that will cut your file into what ever size you want in mega bytes, but will have to de-multiplex your file first but it is better than nothing, or you can go on kaaza and download any one of a number of different ones like "power vcr" it has a good mpeg editor and it is on kaaza....

m2-edit pro is the best for large mpeg 2 files
it wont freeze and lets you cut them with no wait
just move the cursor to where you want to cut and you can find your cut points easily and in real time
you can find the demo here
http://www.mediaware.com.au/downloads.html
it is amazing

i am a registered user. paid my money! where can I download the
registered version of 2.55?
-Don

> i am a registered user. paid my money! where can I download the
> registered version of 2.55?

I have visited :
http://www.pegasys-inc.com/e_download.html
and it says :
"Those who have purchased previous version of TMPGEnc Plus are free to upgrade to this version, 2.55! Just download this version and run the program please."

You need to read, search info before you post!

There is no version "2.55" the newest version that there is is the "2.54a" but if you are a registered user then you will get an upgrade when there is a version 2.55.........

As far as I know, version 2.55 is available on June 11th.

"I need to read search info?"..what is that?
where is that so that I can read it?
-don

> "I need to read search info?"..what is that?
> where is that so that I can read it?
> -don

If you are registerd user, you have received or seen such
information that ffast pointed out.

In my case, after I purchaed, I have received E-mail which
contains some information how to download, register etc.

yes, I am a registered user and a programmer...that's why I send money
to individual/small team efforts like TmpgEnc.
They deserver our money.
All I wanted was the pegasys download address because I don't keep paperwork
very well. Thank you for your kind assistance.
-Don

It would be nice if I could delay or advance the start of the audio to fix any synchronization errors.

There is ,in the source range window you can set the audio to start before or after the video by what ever time you set....

I would like a way to pause the encoding or the ability to continue the encoding process at another time.

You can pause the encodeing but you can not shut down the program .To pause it just click "stop" while encodeing then the program will ask you if you want to quit encodeing, you just dont answer and go do what ever you have to do then when you want to resume you click "no" in the "do you want to quit encodeing "box and then you will resume encodeing...

I get good SVCD mpeg2 from tmpgenc when the source video is non-interlaced and inverse telecined.

However, when the input is interlaced video and contains fast motions, the resulting SVCD mpeg2 has alot of visible block noise.

Is there any trick to making this work? I've tried different motion detection methods, reversing field order, ... to no avail.

try using the de-interlace filter. might take longer but it gets rid of the interlace lines and hopefully block noise as well.