I've been trying to convert an MPEG2 file into a Video CD non standard. The output works all the time but theres a small important flaw, It completes the process only 50% of the mpeg2. In other words the output is 18:11 secs when it
should be 36:22.

What am I doing wrong !!!!

Good news:With the existing output I am able to see it on my APEX but I really would like to have the other half.

When I create a VCD mpeg, it plays fine once it is written to CD and played back on my DVD player, but when I play the file, (not the CD) on my PC, it jerks. Is there a reason for it.

Thanks

Ken

What is the story of SpicyComet? Does it do what it says it will?

No it's a con. It creates VCD's using free tools. One of them is TMPG.

ASHY

Alright... I have a few questions and some problems, maybee someone here can help.

1. I have (in the past) used clad dvd to rip the 2 files (audio + video) needed to create video cds. The dvds that get ripped are NTSC and have interlacing. When I use TMPG I use an even interlace filter and it plays back a little better in the preview window. I don't bother to crop accept for the widescreen films (but forget about that)... Anyway my final results look "pixelated" it seems as though the even filter is not working properly... and I emphasise "seems".

2. I was searching extensivley on the subject, and was wondering if anyone here knows the best way to go from dvd to 2 vcds? I noticed in an earlier post by Ashy that a program called Smart Ripper is the best for actually ripping the dvd.

3. When you rip with Smart Ripper you are left with 6 or 7 .vob files. How can you use these?

4 What ever I am doing now is obviously not the right thing... Please help me. I am sure this post will be beneficial to more people than just myself.

Most of these programs have no manual or little faqs that don't cover the real issues. Please Help.:)

Many thanks in advance for any information or insight!!!!!

http://www.vcdhelp.com/sefy/?id=ClassicalGuide.html

See this guide, just skip the bit on chapters it's not necessary.

ASHY

baby bug

TMPGEnc Plus-2.54.37.135

wizard mode click on svcd-film in the info its 29. fps should say 23.fps
like it used to be.

I downloaded the TMPGEnc Version 2.54a(1011KB)
file but it only contains 242K and cannot open also.

Download it again,and turn off any download managers.....

Id like to remove all the commercials without having to output 1 chunk at a time, like I can in virtualdub

I don"t know what you are talking about the "new" cut feature,the cut feature is the same as in the last version and there is nothing new about it,the only way to edit out comercials is to do it in pieces,or do it before hand with virtua dub and then encode.....

The 'New' cut feature is new to 2.54 and wasn't in any of the other versions.
To use the feature as you say go to Setting>Advanced and double click the 'source range' filter.
Using the slider and the the 'start' and 'end' controls select the part of the movie you wish to cut and then click the 'Cut editing' button and choose 'Cut currently selected area'.
Repeat the above steps for each part you wish to cut out then click 'OK' and your movie will have the selected cuts removed from the movie.
You can check the result before you encode by using the 'Preview' feature, go to File>Preview.

ASHY

Yeah that New cut edit feature rocks!! I can cut scenes from DVD in d2v files before I encode that way I can reduce the file size by just killing credits or blank spots in the movie. TMPGenc just keeps getting better good job Hori. ~NewtronX

That is a new "source range "feature, there is nothing new with the "merge & cut"..........

Who mentioned Merge&cut?
The question was the New cut edit feature which is a new feature located with the source range filter and is indeed used for cutting and editing.

It even even states it as a new cut and edit feature in the version history on the download page.

ASHY

I thinking cut as in merge and cut when i was answering the Q,just an oversight....

I have a mpg file from the ReplayTV I want to burn to SVCD.

I use DVI2AVI to create a compatible audio and video file.
I select the bitrate that will fit on a 80min CD 1.5xxxMbps.

Everytime I click start I get a generic windows error.

tmpg has created problems and the application will close.

Dont know why any help.

I don"t know what it is but it sounds serious,does it work with other files? or have you used the program before and didn"t have problems?if it just started happening and it used to work try useing a different file or why don"t you just load the mpeg file in "tmpgenc"? if it is a mpeg2 file and you can"t load it in you have to then de-multiplex it and then load the files in...but if you geep getting this error try un-installing all the programs you installed since the program worked last,of un-installing "tmpgenc" and reinstalling.....I don"t know what to say .....good luck

...seems they may play in WinMed6 but 6 won't run on 2000....what to do, what to do.

er...that sould be "SMR formated avi files not 'playing' in winMedia player 7 or 8...." sorry, flopy fingers

Use another player. WinDVD works. Maybe even a DIVX player may work. BS player does.

ASHY

Bythe way Media player 6.4 used to run fine on my Win 2000 system.

ASHY

I have a divx film that has a framerate of 23.976 fps. I want to encode it using tmpegenc to a standard SVCD... but I do not want to do a framerate conversion... How would I encode it with the svcd ntscfim template? do I use the 3:2 pull down method? or do I have to convert the movie framerate? I am getting alot of mixed answers regarding this issue.. any insight would be appreciated

I"m pretty sure that you just load in your file and load the ntsc film template and encode,I think you use the 3:2 pulldown if you want to encode a 29.97fps to a 23.97fps,But don"t quote me on this.........

I read in a reply by ASHY that SVCD is not compatible with ntscfilm framerate...but vcd is...but I don't want to lose the quality on it.... but that 3:2 or inverse telecine will tell the dvdplaer to play it with an internal telecine o the fly to 29.97 ... wondering how I accomplish this...or will burning it with ntscfim template just be fine? This is a strange issue.. almost ready to just use vcd...but don't want to lose quality

Well if you think that doing vcd will solve your problems then do vcd,but I have encoded to 23.97 without problems,but if you want to do vcd with out looseing quality then make a xvcd,do a vcd with the bitrate up really high,I do these quite often and my dvd player playe them perfectly and "nero" won"t give you any errors,at 1650kbs you can get 60min on a cd,and about 40 min at 2500kbs..

You seem to have got the wrong end of the stick.
I'll just clarify what I meant.

SVCD needs to be at a frame rate of 29.97 not 23.976 to be compatible with your player therefore you will need to add a 3:2 pulldown to your DiVX file, which is 23.976, when you encode.

To put it simply 3:2 Pulldown tells the player to add an extra 6 frames per second to the 23.976 to make the movie 29.97 fps.
This is all you have to do to make the movie run at the correct framerate.

To do this just load the SVCD(NTSC Film) template and the movie will have the 3:2 pulldown added.
Pulldown only works for MPEG2 and only on sources which are originally 23.976 fps and won't work for MPEG1 or VCD.

Seeing as you mentioned it,Inverse telecine does the opposite. It removes the 3:2 Pulldown to return the movie back to it's original 23.976 frame rate.

Hope this makes it clearer.

ASHY

Ok sounds good...the only question now is do I have to manually check 3:2 pull down? or will it just do this automatically...my original framerate is 23.976... Thank you so much for your help on this issue.

one more thing...when I look at the video tab under settings... it says the encode mode is 3:2 pulldown and at the top it says the framerate is 23.976 (29.97 internally)...does this mean it will automatically encode into this? or does this mean I don't have to check 3:2 pulldown? or do I just do it no matter what if it 23,976 and I want to encode to svcd? I am confused...but that is apparent... lol...thanx again

If your source is 23.976 and you want to encode to SVCD then simply choose the SVCD(NTSC FILM) template and the 3:2 pulldown will be automatically added and the frame rate will be changed to 23.976 (29.97 internally) which means you will end up with a movie which play in your DVD player at 29.97 fps.

All you need to worry about is setting the correct source aspect ratio for your movie.

ASHY

ok that is all I needed to know...on a side note ...when would I manually check the 3:2 pulldown in the advanced options?

To be honest I'm not quite sure what the functionality of this setting is.
It doesn't produce a true 3:2 pulldown it simply converts a 23.976 fps or 24 fps movie to a 29.97 fps or 30 fps de-interlaced movie which doesn't look very nice.

You would never really need to use this and can't think of a situation when you would.

ASHY

Correction, I should have said a non-interlaced movie.
De-interlacing and non-interlace are 2 different things.

ASHY

I am exporting a .avi from Premier using "Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame V2" compressor. When I convet using TMPGEnc v2.54 it runs along but the video is black and no audio. And sure enough,upon playback the video and sound is both missing. I want to create NTSC Video CD's. What am I doing wrong? What settings can I change to test?
Thanks

It will work well of you export you files in uncompressed avi format,I don"t know anything about the matrox mpeg compressor but i know that uncompressed avi"s exported from Premier work well.......

I am trying to encode a avi to svcd. The source is bright and I would like to sharpen or deepen the color as well. I tried playing with both color corrections in tmpgenc, it seemed to look fine on the preview but after encoding a bit I checked and there was too much purple. Should i be using tmpgenc to do this or maybe virtual dub...but I am new to the virtual dub program.

Another question..I encoded a movie that was 56 min and was able to use CQ max 3100 and min 1800, when I encoded the other half which was 60 min I had to use max 2000 and min 1400 to make it fit...I am wondering why I had to go down so much for the extra 4 min. I would like to know what a good bitrate program to use is ...I have downloaded some but I find they are not accurate at all...any suggestions?
I am using 80 min 700 mb CD-R.

thanks
Jules

"tmpgenc" isn"t the program to use to enhance your images,once you get a good source file then "tmpgenc" will do a good job encodeing it to look like the avi you put in but it isn"t for makeing them look better than the source..useing "cq" and "vbr" It is mostly the minimum bitrate that needs to be adjusted most of the movie will be encoded at a bitrate closer to the minimum bitrate, the max bitrate is saved for the complex scenes and ones with high motion,I usualy put the minimum bitrate a couple hundred kbs lower than the average i want, and put the max bitrate really high, so for the complex scenes there is enough bitrate there to do make the movement look smooth.....

You seem to have a lot of problems with this purple buisness Jules.
What are these movies? Angelpotion?

Anyway I don't see what's wrong in using TMPG's filters as most of them are pretty good.
What you need to do Jules is enable the 'Overlay' in TMPG as most players use your graphics card overlay to render the image.

To do this double click the 'custom colour correction' under the advanced tab and then tick the box which says 'overlay'
This will show you the image as it would appear when played in your player.
Now click the 'Add' button and this will add the 'RGB Brightness' control. We don't want this so click the box labeled 'Type' and choose 'Basic setting' from the drop down menu.

Now use these controls to change your movie (ensure the overlay remains checked while doing this).

To correct the purple problem use the RED and BLUE controls to return the picture to a normal colour.
When you encode the result should be the same on your player as you set it in TMPG.

ASHY

Regarding your question about bitrate calculators.
I have used many bitrate calculators and some of them are either clunky and cumbersome to use or are downright inaccurate.

I have however found one which is easy to use and is absolutely spot on with it's calculations.
I have done quite a few tests with this software and it has always correctly calculated the final size of the movie and is the most accurate one I have found.

Download here: http://www.tomzavodny.cz/program/bitcalc/VideoCalc.zip

ASHY