This morning when I tried to bring up TMPGEnc, I got the following error message:

Unable to connect to IPC
Frame server down??

I'm running W2K. Anyone know how to fix this?

I should add that I am using avisynth 1.0 beta and Adobe Premiere 6.01

Have you been using any plugins with TMPG such as AVisynth or Premier or any other 3rd party software with TMPG?

ASHY

>Have you been using any plugins with TMPG such as AVisynth or Premier or any other 3rd party software with TMPG?
>
>ASHY

Yes, to both. Used to work and now it doesn't. Reinstalled TMPGEnc and re-registered AVIsynth and still no go.

Make sure you are using AVIsynth v1.0 beta6. This version has many improvements.
If that doesn't work try disabling the 'directshow multimedia file reader' in the VFAPI plugins.

ASHY

Seem to be chasing my tail. I read some place that Make sure you are AVIsynth v1.0 beta6 wasn't compatible and that you should stick with V0.3. I'll go back and try V10. beta6 again.

>>If that doesn't work try disabling the 'directshow multimedia file reader' in the VFAPI plugins.

How is this done? I can't find any place to do this.

Thanks for your help...

option>enviromental settinf>VFAPI plugins

ASHY

Ashy -

I did as you suggested (disabling the 'directshow multimedia file reader') and it still doesn't work. I went back and tried both the 0.3 and 1.0 versions of AVIsynth, re-installed Premiere, and TMPGEnc, and it doesn't work. I seem to be out of options.

I'm trying to decode and everytime I get this message: Error occurred when ACM was initialized. What is this and how can I fix it?

Is there something wrong with the program? i open it, it opens for a split second and then closes. The program never starts. I have installed it over 20 times and restarted the computer over and over.. what is wrong with thh program?

What processor are you using? How much RAM? What version of Windows?

Have you actually tried downloading the program again?
If that doesn't help then go to the TMPG folder and delete these files: CurrentCfg.tpr and TMPGEnc.ini then try to run TMPG again.

ASHY

I process an AVI file into an MPEG-2 for DVD file and it looks very
good, except that when there is rapid motion the picture seems
to break up into blocks (unable to follow the motion). When the motion
ceases, the picture sharpens right up. I understand that this
probably is a "feature" of MPEG-2, but is there any way I can reduce
this characteristic as it can be quite annoying. The compression
I'm seeing is very good, the order of 40 times smaller than the original
uncompressed avi file, but I'm willing to sacrifice a little compression
if I can remove this "blocking" of the picture.

Thanks,

Are you doing constant quality, constant bitrate or variable bitrate? The way to reduce compression artifacts is to increase bitrate. If you're doing constant bitrate, try encoding at around 7700 kbits/sec.

It is not appreciated by the regular users of this BBS when you keep posting the same question over and over and over again. I'm suprised your posts haven't been deleted as of yet as they should be.

ASHY

I only posted the message once. If it is occurring
in the BBS more than once, it is due to some other cause.

Dave Forslund

Could someone provide a brief explanation of the manner in which TMPGenc handles images when different "video arrange methods" are used (the various FullScreen and Center types, as well as NoMargin)? The help text within the program is not particularly helpful.

Also, has anyone noted a black level shift when material is encoded with TMPGenc?

I'm bringing in material from digital Betacam through an Avid Symphony at 1:1 (no compression), which comes in as a Quicktime file. Once encoded through TMPGenc, it appears that the black level has risen and that the frame size has enlarged and then been cropped at the edges (so, for instance, a lower third is pushed down past the bottom edge of the screen).

Any comments would be welcome.

Pete

I should have clarified: this is MPEG2 for DVD we're talking about. The material is coming in via serial digital video, at US NTSC, 720x486, with black at 7.5IRE. When encoding is done it looks like black ends up at least 4 or 5 IRE higher.

With reference to your black level query, this may seem like a silly question, but are you comparing the black levels between your video and computer monitor, or are you doing like for like comparisons on your computer monitor?

Griff

>With reference to your black level query, this may seem like a silly question, but are you comparing the black levels between your video and computer monitor, or are you doing like for like comparisons on your computer monitor?

There are no silly questions. It's like this: I have a video editing facility based on an Avid Symphony which can output to Ditigal Betacam, the DV formats, Betacam-SP or VHS. Or it can output to Quicktime or AVI. With that in mind, I'm making several comparisons: (1) between the original Avid media as seen on a computer monitor and the encoded MPEG2 as seen on the same monitor; (2) between the file exported from the Avid (which looks just the same as the Avid media) and the MPEG2 on the same monitor; and (3) between a DVD burned from the resulting MPEG2 and a Beta-SP or VHS dub of the same program off the Avid. It seems like the MPEG2 has a consistently high black level, resulting in more evident noise in the blacks and a "greyer" look to them as opposed to a true black. I've seen some systems that try to compensate for RGB levels (where black is R=0,G=0,B=0) going into YUV or video color space where R=16,G=16,B=16. If you feed such a system with a file that already has setup, it will raise it still further and produce something quite like I'm seeing; in those cases there is often a software checkbox somewhere called something like "Vidoe has setup".

Pete

>There are no silly questions.

Thank you, in research we take a similar attitude: no one is wrong, one merely has a different perspective.

Anyway, I'll take your third point:

>3 between a DVD burned from the resulting MPEG2 and a Beta-SP or VHS dub of the same program off the Avid. It seems like the MPEG2 has a consistently high black level, resulting in more evident noise in the blacks and a "greyer" look to them as opposed to a true black.

I've got my suspicions about this problem. I'll get back to you.

Griff

I should have come to this first:

>1. between the original Avid media as seen on a computer monitor and the encoded MPEG2 as seen on the same monitor

And..?

Griff

>I should have come to this first:
>
>>1. between the original Avid media as seen on a computer monitor and the encoded MPEG2 as seen on the same monitor
>
>And..?
>
>Griff

...and the encoded file has a higher black level than the original media. Not TONS higher; just a few IRE. But enough to be noticeable.

Pete

Ok, process of elimination time. By the way, I'm assuming your using a computer monitor capable of producing a correct black level to begin with (most are >=5 IRE).

Check the Quick time file you're using as the feed, if this is OK, then it's definitely the encoder.

If it is the encoder, then why not load in a test screen and go into "settings -> custom color correction -> add..." and then choose a type and mode.

I'm not sure of the quality of the Quick time file you're using, but if I were going to encode broadcast quality video, I'd use uncompressed AVI as the feed; these files are huge ~1GB/min, but if you split up the video into chapters before encoding, and then delete them after, this method should give very satisfactory results.

Griff

>Check the Quick time file you're using as the feed, if this is OK, then it's definitely the encoder.

Done that, and it's definitely the encoder.

>If it is the encoder, then why not load in a test screen and go into "settings -> custom color correction -> add..." and then choose a type and mode.

True; I can certainly do that. I was just wondering if anyone had seen that behavior before and if there was a known workaround.

>I'm not sure of the quality of the Quick time file you're using, but if I were going to encode broadcast quality video, I'd use uncompressed AVI as the feed

The Avid Symphony is a system that is based on code ported to the PC from the Mac, therefore it's Quicktime-native. It uses uncompressed Quicktime as other systems use uncompressed AVI. And while it could output uncompressed AVI if I wanted, it would actually be making a copy of the file at 1GB/min, whereas if I use Quicktime it's really just pointing at the existing file inside the edit system, so it only needs storage space for that, rather than that-plus-a-copy.

Thanks,

Pete

Do the white levels get clipped as well? If so, you may want to experiment with the option "Output YUV data as basic YCbCr, not CCIR601" on the "Quantize Matrix" tab. When it's unchecked, it's equivalent to NTSC safe color processing, and it's unchecked by default.

John

I'm a new user to TMPGEnc so please help. I'm trying to make Mpeg1/2 files from unencrypted vob files. Which I want to transfer to CD and run on my DVD player.

I could do this previously with v2.56. But after reinstalling WinXP Pro yesterday and changing to v2.57 the program goes from 0 to 100% in about half a second and I'm left with a file of just 100Kb.

Im sure it's something completely obvious that I've overlooked!

Are loading the "VOB" files directly into Tmpgenc???This isn"t a very good idea for a few reasons, first Tmpgenc can"t seperate all the differant streams, and for some reason encodeing VOB files takes twice as long as frame serveing them, so I think you shouldn"t have a problem i you used "DVD2AVI" to frame serve the VOB files to Tmpgenc, this is the standard way if backing up dvd"s with Tmpgenc....

Thanks for your reply

Yes I am loading the vob files directly, but they are not very big, no more than 300MB. I'm extracting the music videos, deleted scenes & trailers from the DVD Movies. I am also extracting my favourite music videos from an artists DVD's.

However for storing an entire film I use EasyDivX (v0.82) which generates an .avi/divx file and separate unencrypted vob files. I then take the unencrypted vob file and run it through TMPEnc...........or thats the plan!

As I mentioned, I was able to do this before!

However, now I'm thinking about it, I will check to see if the music vobs Ive changed into Mpeg2's with TMPEnc contained PCM or AC3 audio tracks.

I wonder if its this that made the difference?

Cheers

Why oh why do people keep insisting on converting VOB files directly. This method is not only slower, but is less reliable and as minion says there is no way to extract the different streams.
As for using EasyDivX (v0.82) for converting DVD to AVI then to MPEG using TMPG, this is another long winded way which is bound to reduce the quality.
Have a look at the DVD2AVI>TMPG frameserving method. Once you have used this method you won't want to use any other.

ASHY

Yeah I hear you ASHY people keep trying to convert VOB files I my self was one of those for a while.
But I put this to you If its possible to just load VOB files directly into TMPGenc and it would handle them correctly without any negavites wouldnt it be nice to be able to skip the step of using DVD2AVI.
I wish Hori would build the ability to handle VOB's into TMPGenc. Just combine the code from DVD2AVI into it so it could properly decode and encode them.

Oh Dear Ashy!

I did not say I converted avi's to mpeg. I'm trying to convert vob's to mpeg 1 or 21

I have no problems ripping DVD's to avi's/divx. With my humble 800Mhz P3 it takes just less than twice the DVD's run time to create an avi with EasyDivX

I've currently have around 10 movies on my server for the kids to watch on their own PC's including Titanic (189mins) and Harry Potter (147mins).

Jeeeeeese, I mean who would want these movies clogging up their DVD player for hours on end!!!!!!

But ofcourse I am interested in finding faster ways of ripping DVD's to avi's.

Thanks again

Sorry, it just how your post seems to put it.
Do you want the fastest way bar none of ripping DVD to MPEG.
DVD2AVI>AVIsynth>CCE
3x faster than TMPG and unrivalled picture quality.

ASHY

I process an AVI file into an MPEG-2 for DVD file and it looks very
good, except that when there is rapid motion the picture seems
to break up into blocks (unable to follow the motion). When the motion
ceases, the picture sharpens right up. I understand that this
probably is a "feature" of MPEG-2, but is there any way I can reduce
this characteristic as it can be quite annoying. The compression
I'm seeing is very good, the order of 40 times smaller than the original
uncompressed avi file, but I'm willing to sacrifice a little compression
if I can remove this "blocking" of the picture.

Thanks,

If you just used the Default setting in the "Motion Precition Search" from the DVD Template then you need to adjust it to "Normal" or "High Quality" cuz the Default setting in the DVD Template is set to "Motion Estimate Search" which is the Lowest quality setting......

what can i do to fix or solve a problem with a floating decimal error? It happens on the last part of my avi file (approx. 10-15 min left) and I have tried all I know which is limited at best. Please help.

There is corruption in your file. To get round it just encode the last part without the MMX,MMX2,SSE,SSE2 optimizations in the enviromental settings and encode.

ASHY

Oh and don't forget to turn off 'use floating point DCT' in the quantize matrix settings.
If that doesn't work try an earlier version of TMPG which sometimes works.

ASHY

Hmm, i have the exact same problem apart from i cant encode anything with tmpgenc anymore, no matter what i encode vcd/svcd/dvd sometime during the encode it will come up with the error "illegal floating decimal point calculation order", i dont understand this ive tried new and old versions of tmpgenc and it just dont work anymore :(. Pls help i aint got a clue why the hell its doing this to me.

pc spec

amd athlon 1800xp
256mb ddr ram pc2100
msi kt3 ultra mb
windows xp pro

pls help b4 i go insane

Hmm, i have the exact same problem apart from i cant encode anything with tmpgenc anymore, no matter what i encode vcd/svcd/dvd sometime during the encode it will come up with the error "illegal floating decimal point calculation order", i dont understand this ive tried new and old versions of tmpgenc and it just dont work anymore :(. Pls help i aint got a clue why the hell its doing this to me.

pc spec

amd athlon 1800xp
256mb ddr ram pc2100
msi kt3 ultra mb
windows xp pro

pls help b4 i go insane

Do you run any other programs on the computer when encoding?
I used get this error if I started running Office applications or dailed the internet so these days when it's encoding I simply leave the computer all alone until it finnishes encoding, and make sure no background tasks are running.

ABS

I encode two avi files into two mpg files (in PAL), they are no problem. Then I goto File->MPEG Tools->Merge&Cut, choose "MPEG-1 Video-CD" and import the two mpg files for joining.

After the porcess, I playback the product and find that there is a beep sound at the connect part of the two files. I try serveal times but the result is same.

Do anyone know the reason and the solution? Thank you.

There is a button on the screenw heer you join the mpeg files that is called 'Correct' or somethign like that. Click on it and you will be prompted if you want to correct the audio when joining the files.

Problem solved

This problem seems to happen when you are joining 2 files and that at the joining point of the 2 files they were edited part way through a GOP.Mpeg files are supposed to be edited on an I frame and when you join two files that are part way through a GOP at the joining point you get that "Beep" sound ,so to fix this problem (if the correct button doesn"t work) is to edit a few frames off the end of the first file and edit a few frames off the beginning of the second file then join them, and to be sure you don"t edit in the middle of a GOP when you are trimming a few frames off is not to use the "frame by frame" buttons, the slider naturally stops the movie at the beginning or end of a gop.The correct button is supposed to fix this by finding the closest I frame at the end of the first and the beginning of the second file and it usually works but if it doesn"t you can try this fix........

I process an AVI file into an MPEG-2 for DVD file and it looks very
good, except that when there is rapid motion the picture seems
to break up into blocks (unable to follow the motion). When the motion
ceases, the picture sharpens right up. I understand that this
probably is a "feature" of MPEG-2, but is there any way I can reduce
this characteristic as it can be quite annoying. The compression
I'm seeing is very good, the order of 40 times smaller than the original
uncompressed avi file, but I'm willing to sacrifice a little compression
if I can remove this "blocking" of the picture.

Thanks,

Those artifacts can usually be removed by useing a higher bitrate or uping the quality on the "Motion Precition Search",Useing the High Quality setting should clean up the macro blocks but useing a bitrate that is to low will give you this effect also...

After I encode a avi2mpg, The color is messed up in the process. I have like a purple haze that fades in and out through out playback. Is it something in the color settings before encoding that I can do to prevent this??

This is usually caused by haveing the "Angel Potion Codec" installed on your system.So what you should do is delete the codec and re-encode the file to mpeg then it should work properly,This is a well known"n problem with the Angel Potion Codec....

THanks much, I will try that. The angel potion codec must be a part of the Nimo Codec pack then. THanks again.

HI ; i tried to encode mpeg1 file with lower bit rate to fit two vcd's into one. And I SUCCEEDED IN DOING SO AT THE BIT RATE OF 576 KB/S . BUT WHEN I PLAY IT ON MY VCD PLAYER ( STANDALONE ) IT FLICKERS AND STICKS AFTER AROUND EVERY 30 SEC. WITH AUDIO GETTING SUPPRESSED A LITTLE.

IF ANYBODY KNOWS THE SOLUTION PLS. MAIL ME .. I WOULD BE VERY GREATFUL..

The only solution is to either raise the bitrate or buy a different dvd player but I don"t think there many any that will play vcd"s very well with bitrates that low, .The only other thing that you might try is the KVCD templates at www.kvcd.com they have a template that allows you to get 120 minutes of video on a cd-r, I think the quality isn"t very good with those templates but that doesn"t seem to be a concern with you, at least the quality will be probably be better that the one you have and it might play properly.Most poeple put vcd"s on at least 2 cd-r"s for a full movie, i use higher bitrates so I usually try to squeeze them on 3 cd-r"s.....