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Can anyone tell me the proper framerate to encode for DVD? Is it 29.97 or 30fps...Also when you extract audio in virtual dub will the audio automatically synch when you combine and encode with TMPGEnc
It is 29.97fps in "ntsc" and your audio should be in sync if the avi you used to extract the audio has the same frame rate that you are encodeing to....
Hello all....I have been trying to convert from AVI to Mpeg 2 without losing quality but it has been difficult...I can download a pristine copy of a film and when I go to convert to MPEG 2 so I can burn it to DVD I lose quite a bit of quality...Also after it encodes to DVD and I burn I get the digital blocking effect...Can anyone give me a hint as to what I need to do to retain quality ...
When i load a divx, and go use the source function in the advanced tag, i normally see the format and the fps in the upperleft corner. with some divx's the framerate is displayed wrong (30fps instead of 23.970 or 29.970). Does anybody know why? Is it just displayed wrong or does tmpgenc see the file as a 30fps avi. If so, what can i do about it 'cause it's impossible to get files in sync when tmpgenc sees the framerate wrongly.
All I do is load the file in virtual dub....then go to file...file information....there you will see the original framerate and resolution...if the frame rate is 23.971... then when you know its NTSCFilm... knowing that you load the NTSCFilm template in tmpgenc.... if the framerate is 29.971... then you know it is NTSC...tmpgenc load NTSC template....pay attention to the resolution...if it is 352x240 then choose vcd only...svcd will only waste your time cause the quality will not be there...if the resolution is or close to 480x480 then vcd or svcd will have good quality.... if the resolution is higher than that ...like around 720x480 then you might want to choose xvcd or xsvcd...these last 2 choices are not compatible in all dvd players...so be careful with these last two settings... mine plays them fine and I heard that all apex players do as well... if I were you I would do a test encode with 1-2 min movie clip and burn onto cd-rw and test it in the dvd player....happy encoding
You have to encode a few seconds of your file and listen to the file to see if it is synced, then repeat till you get it right.I know it seems tedious but you should get it right after a few tries..
No matter what i try to get my tmpgenc to work it just wont. a little while ago i encoded some files using DVD2AVI and then went to use TMPGENC and it wouldn't work at all - something to do with either file type unsupported or cannot open. i added and installed the VFAPI - no change. next i put the DVD2AVI API into the same folder and it worked for 1 encoding - after that it came up with all of the same messages. they are all the latest versions that i am using and i just can'y understand what is going wrong.
Also is there anyway to make the SVCD contain Dolby Digital instead of AC3???
I think your problem is that the priority of your "dvd2avi" plugin isn"t high enough..go to you "enviromental settings" then to "vfapi plugins" and raise your "dvd2avi project file reader" to "2" this should get your "d2v files" loaded, and remember not to move or delete any of your "vob" files and "d2v files" till encodeing is complaeted....
When I try to convert a divx .avi to SVCD, the file appears to convert fine,
but after it hits 100% an error message comes up "Illegal MPEG System Stream."
The resulting video has noticable flaws, like jerkiness at seemingly random
times, and random blocks that appear on the screen. This occurs when I try
to convert PAL (25 FPS), NTSC (29.97 FPS), or NTSC Film (23.97 FPS), and I
load the proper profile for each (I've even tried loading a different profile).
I've tried 2 pass VBR (setting the average to 2100), CBR (2100), CQ (90), and I
still get the same problem. I can cut the .avi's, and encode say a 5 or 10
minute portion fine, but when i try to do a 20 minute or more portion I get
the error. I'm using a 1.33ghz Athlon with 256megs of RAM, so I don't think
its a hardware problem. I have several gigs free, and I've tried defragmenting
to see if that helps. I'm currently trying this with TMPG 2.54a plus, though
I've tried several versions in the past with the same problem. I'm running
Win2K, and I've even reinstalled but it did not help. I've separated the audio
out and converted to .wav and tried using that as the audio source, and I've
tried leaving out the audio source. I've tried with just divx3.1 installed, just
4, and just divx5, but it makes no difference. Any help would be appreciated,
thanks.
Has anyone had a problem of artifacts (blockiness) show up in their mpeg2 output? Of about 35,000 frames, a total of about 30 or 40 frames exhibit some sort of brief artifact (mostly blockiness) that is annoying. It never happened when I was on Win98SE, but as soon as I upgraded (clean install) to WinXP Pro, I have noticed the occasional occurrence of these "glitches." Is it a problem with TMPGenc, or is it some difference between WinXP and Win98? I'm using version 2.54a.
I do my svcd"s with average 2750kbs and a max of 6000kbs and don"t get any artifacts at all .I don"t see artifacts till I use the "zoom" on my dvd player at 3 times.,when I look at the frames of a vob file right off a dvd I see more frames with artifacts than 30 or 40 per 20 minutes...
I've seen exactly what you're describing, and I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only person who's had this problem!
This happens to me when creating MPEG1 (VCD) files from AVI files created with Pinnacle Studio 7. The glitches (very short bursts of blocky frames, with an audible noise) only showed up sporadically, every couple of minutes or so (otherwise, the quality is very good). I have exactly the same problem converting the same AVI files on 2 different machines (one on Win2000 and the other on WinXP).
***********The only way I was able to fix this problem was to reduce to audio bit rate down to 128 kb/sec.*****************
I don't understand why TMPGenc messes up in the same spots every time when the Pinnacle MPEG1 encoder works fine (although the quality isn't quite as good as TMPGenc). The Windows and Elecard players (different codecs) both glitch on playback at the same spots. The weird thing is that the "bad" MPEG file plays back fine in the VirtualDub playback window!
Steve, it sounds like you and I have similar problems. I am using the latest version of Pinnacle Studio 7 to capture and edit. I use the Canopus ADVC-100 to get my VHS footage to DV format. Even if I use the raw, DV/AVI file as input to TMPGenc, I still get the artifacts (usually I make my movie and output it to AVI from S7 and use that as input to TMPGenc). And, like you, S7 creates MPEG2 files without the blocky frames--it's just lower quality. One difference though is I don't recall any audio distortion--only video. For my TMPGenc settings I generally use the DVD template as is except I change the bitrate to 6000Mbps at CBR and let it rip. On Win98SE I never had an artifact. WinXP is a different story. I'm wondering if XP has different math libraries, more background processing with more interrupts, or something that causes TMPGenc to hiccup and splatter a blocky frame here and there. It seems like I've been able to reduce the artifacts by killing off as many background processes as possible, but I haven't had the time to really tackle this problem like I need to. At any rate I appreciate all who have commented on this. It's a sticky problem. Oh, and by the way, I can't get VirtualDub to play an MPEG2 file. Will it do that?
No- I don't think VirtualDub opens MPEG2 files. I always get a "pack synchroization error".
You may be right about something deep within XP (but also Win2000) versus Win98 that causes TMPGenc to mess up.
I have used Studio 7's own "DVD Quality" MPEG2 setting, and the results are great- from what I've seen first-hand and what I've read here, TMPGenc is not the greatest for MPEG2 anyway, so I'd try that route for high bitrate MPEG2's instead.
It is a real pain, I know! Did you try lowering the audio bitrate to see if the video glitches disappear? For me, (MPEG1) lowering the audio bitrate to 160 helped, but they didn't disappear completely until I lowered it to 128. There is a slight reduction in sound quality, but decent enough for my VCD's. Good luck!
Studio 7's MPEG2 encoder does okay on quality, but is clearly behind the quality of TMPGenc. I tried for a long time to get the VCD angle to work as I didn't really want to buy a DVD burner. In the end though, the lower quality of VCD bothered me so I bit the bullet and went for MPEG2. I'm a whole lot happier now. I found that you need the higher bitrates to get the quailty. Anyway, I believe for DVD I can only go down to 224Kbps and still meet the standard. I really think there's something going on with XP that creates these "glitches" so I'll keep experimenting until I figure it out and let you know--unless I grow old and die first.
I am using TMPGEnc for MPEG encoding for DVD creation. I use Studio7 to capture DV from my camera (Sony TRV-17)and even if I do no editing and rendering, the video quality after encoding and writing to a DVD (using DVDit PE) is still noticably different (worse - not as sharp, some graininess, some limited gause effect) from the original DV. I have used CQ, CBR, VBR all at high settings and while the output quality is good, I expected better and can only fit slightly more than an hour on a DVD.
Maybe my expectations were too high but I would certainly welcome suggestions. Clearly it can be done because studios can put multi-hour perfect videos onto DVD's. Is it just that they use big $ encoders?
You can"t expect to get the quality of say a store bought dvd with a $50 encoder,I use a $2000 encoder and don"t get the quality of the store bought dvd.And you can"t get that kind of quality from captures and home editing equipment..the dvd rip"s I do look about 90% as good as the original dvd,but there is allways the studio quality look you just can"t get with off the shelf software.The best quality allways comes with time...
Are we truly identifying "$50 software" or "Off the shelf software" as the problem? Until I figure out how to do this flawlessly and (somewhat) painlessly, I'm going to be taking my final Avid output on DigiBeta to a post house in L.A. that professionally encodes MPEG-2 for feature films and other high-end projects. But my clients (largely museums who won't be mass producing the final product) want and need to see rough cuts on DVD. I don't see why a $50 software package (or a $5 software package or a $2000 software package for that matter) can't closely approximate the performance of a $250,000 hardware encoder. The hardware encoder, granted, works in real time but the advantage of the software encoder is that it should be able to take its sweet time and flawlessly convert an uncompressed video file into MPEG-2. Many people are working on it, some of them are doing a better job than others. Some are content to sell an obiously flawed product for far more than its worth and others are kind enough to offer their efforts for little or nothing as they strive for perfection. The cost of the product isn't really, it seems, an indicator of its quality. And, obviously, the skill of the operator is the most important factor after the quality of the software. My professional encoder knows, from lots of experience, how to handle a wide range of source material. Build that into a software program and we'll all be happy as clams.
Of course it can closely aproximate the source material, it just wont look like you went to the video store and rented a dvd ..It can only look as good as what you put in,and no software can make it look better than it is.The problem is not the software but false expectations....
I am using TMPGEnc to encode MPEG2 with 2-pass VBR encoding, 6500 kbps avg. and 8000 kbps max. I use the "noise reduction" option with Still=0, Range=1, Time axis=100. My source material is DV taken with my Sony VX2000 camera which is already very low noise, but the slight noise reduction with that setting definitely improves the encode. Of course I also use custom color correction for proper MPEG2 contrast, due to DV following ITU-R BT.601 encoding of black=16, white=235. Bottom line, I find the playback quality is excellent with very infrequent noticible artifacts. There is a slight loss of high-frequency detail but nothing too bothersome.
I think if I had professionally shot 35mm film at 24 fps, scanned in as starting material, then TMPGEnc output in "3:2 pulldown at playback" mode might indeed approach the quality of a store-bought DVD. TMPGEnc does offer you a lot of control, even down to the manual placement of your I-frames if you want to spend the time doing that (just one of the many hand tweeks done in professional DVD production.)
I've been having trouble re-encoding a series of files. When I start up the process, the time remaining is ~5 hours when it normally takes ~1 for a file of the size. After an hour, the process was done, but it was still going on. I stopped it and the video was properly done. However, there was no sound and the last frame of the original video went on for a couple of minutes until the file ended. Anyone ever had this problem before? I haven't been able to get help in solving this yet...
I hear of this happening from time to time and haven"t heard a solution, but there is a way to fix your mpeg file, first edit out the two minutes of the last frame, and de-multiplex the mpeg file and save the video.Next take your divx file and use "virtua dub" to extract the audio to "wav" format.Now just load your wav file into "tmpgenc" click the "audio only" selection and encode your audio, then take the encoded audio file and multiplex it with your mpeg video file and you should have a working mpeg1 file..
I am trying to burn 60 min on a template given to me by Ashy...and the only way I have found to make this work is by reducing the max bitrate to 2000 and the min to 1400...but it seems thats alot to be lowered for an extra 10 min. Is there something else I should be doing to avoid this, other than using 3 cd's for a 120min movie? My end result is 731,318 and Nero is 749,318.
Another question is I am thinking of upgrading to the newest version of tmpgenc..can I just install it right over 2.53?
P.s. Thanks for answering all my stupid questions.
Jules, I take it we are talking about SVCD here.
You will find it very difficult to fit a 2hr movie on to 2 cd's with any acceptable quality when encoding to SVCD.
It is possible, but you will need to reduce the min bitrate to about 1500 as you have done. It isn't necessary to reduce the max bitrate quite so much.
3000-3500 should do it, but lower the quality slider to 60 and the audio bitrtate to 128.
You would be better advised to encode to MPEG1 VCD and up the bitrate to 1600kb/s or use the vcd template I have sent you and reduce the quality slider slightly to say 80 and the maximum bitrate to 3000.
If you reduce the audio bitrate to 128kb/s you could up the video bitrate another 100kb/s.
i tried to convert an avi file but when i click browse to insert the file in the fields, it says, "can not open, or unsupported". what does this mean, what do i have to do?
I thought xsvcd where supposed to be 704x480 but in the templates you sent me it is 480 x 480...is it better quality to go to 704x480...because I end up having to crop to make it full screen..if that makes any difference?
Because as it is now I am using a template with CQ but it is 480x480..and I do not have any trouble burning it to svcd using nero without having to uncheck compatability...is this the correct way of doing it or is it just bringing it back to svcd and not xsvcd.
Who says it should be 704x480? and if it you did want to make it bigger it would have to be 720x480
XSVCD or XVCD is just the name for a non standard SVCD or VCD and doesn't necessarily have any set specifications.
Standard SVCD requires certain constraints and needs to comply to certain requirements to be called a SVCD. The only thing that the template has in common with the SVCD specs is the resolution.
Also what do you mean you are having to crop to make it full screen?
This you shouldn't do, just encode your movie and it will become full screen in your DVD player or your software DVD player on your PC such as WinDVD.
480x480 is the correct size for SVCD or XSVCD. It is possible to make it larger, but you will hardly notice a difference. The extra bitrate required would make the file size unecessarily larger and it may not play correctly on your player.
After encoding just burn in Nero as a normal SVCD.
Now I understand. You had me thinking you were changing the dimensions of the output not just cropping out the black bars.
Jules that is fine if you want to crop the image, you can even set your frame size to 720x480 so it makes it a little easier to see the result, but just make sure you change it back to 480x480 when you have finished.
By becoming full screen , my meaning was that the 480x480 will be stretched back to normal screen size by your player.
Do not rely on Media player to give correct aspect ratio sizes where SVCD is concerned.
Media player is known for showing incorrect aspect ratio's when viewing SVCD's. To see how it will truly look you need a software DVD player such as WinDVD or one of the free downloadable DVD players.
the resolution can be Pal - Audio 44.1kHz / 224 kbit/sec 720x576 @ 25 fps NTSC - 720x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for XVCD and Audio 44.1 kHz / 32-384 kbit/sec Pal 720x576 @ 25 fps or NTSC 720x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for XSVCD... the real question to ask yourself if you want to use these resolutions or use the standard Pal Resolution 352x288 @ 25 fps NTSC Resolution 352x240 @ 23.976 VCD or 29.97 fps Pal 480x576 @ 25 fps NTSC 480x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for SVCD... the choice should come from the original resolution of the movie... if it is low use vcd resolution... if it is medium use the svcd resolution.... if it is very high use the xvcd or xsvcd resolution size.....x(s)vcd is nothing more that a non-compliant (s)vcd... some players will play them...and some won't...xvcd has the most options available...with many resolutions...the only important factor is to remember that it is necessary to choose a resolution that is supported by your encode method...if you choose pal you cannot use a ntsc resolution...that is the only true rule that must be followed... happy encoding
makeing a svcd or xsvcd with a resolution bigger than 480 by 480 most likely will not play on most dvd players, most xsvcd"s are the same as svcd but just have a higher bitrate.......