I use FRAPS to record activity in Microsoft Flight Simulator. FRAPS creates very large .avi files. I wish to shrink these down to an acceptable size, in a format that can be read on any computer.

Is this program all I need?

Ken

Tmpgenc will Compress the avi to mpeg format ,If that is what you want done then it is what you need....

I'm using Roxio Easy CD Creator and when I try to put a mpg file on a VCD, it says it doesn't work and I need to find a program to convert it. I only found an avi to mpg program, does anyone know what I can do with the mpg?

Try using TMPENC to render it, just put the MPG in the video and audio file inputs, load the VCD template and start it... that should rerender the MPG to a VCD compliant format...

If your Mpeg1 file has the Correct VCD Resolution then you Can probably just Put the Mpeg file through Tmpgenc"s "Simple Multiplex" or "Merge & cut" but with the "Video-CD" setting selected from the Dropdown menu, This will add a VCD Header to the File, But this will only work if the Mpeg1 file is otherwize VCD Compliant....

I have a divx file that will play on the divx player but cannot be rendered by any dvd software - has anyone else had this problem? it can also be read by tmpg so i have been trying to convert it but i get some error problems during the converstion process.

any thoughts welcome.

>I have a divx file that will play on the divx player but cannot be rendered by any dvd software - has anyone else had this problem? it can also be read by tmpg so i have been trying to convert it but i get some error problems during the converstion process.

yeah what errors??, getting error problems with tmpgenc means a whole lotta shit all to most ppl here. be more specific (exactly what error is showing up)

and also i doubt that its your vid file that needs fixing if your able to do all that above with no probs

So I am in the process of creating a bunch of DVD's.
And when I author certain DVD's they hang on output at the same spot.
One DVD hangs at 9%.
One DVD hangs at 45%.

Oddly my setup has produced about 10 DVD's using the same set up so I am not sure what is going wrong.

My set up is.
Camcorder to Panasonic DVD-Ram Recorder(SP Setting using AC-3 Audio)
DVD Ram Disc into computer using TMPGEnc Simple Demux on the .VRO file. This splits the file to M2V and AC3.
Author the DVD using DVDAuthor.
Everything works until I hit the Output button.
Then it hangs. Different DVD's hang in different spots. But the DVD's will hang in the same spot over and over. So disc one hangs at 9% everytime and disc two hangs at 45% everytime.
And since it is hanging in the same spot each time it leads me to believe there is a file corruption or file issue of some sort.

Has anyone run into this and if so did you find a solution?
Can I reencode the files that are causing a problem somehow without having to redigitize and retranfer them?(I tried to ReDemux them but it didn't work)
I use the same set up over and over. And it has worked 8 out of 10 times with no problems.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rich Shumaker

I figured a workaround. I am setting the end point earlier than the end. It is the closing of the file that seems to be the issue. I think it is ending on a B frame by accident or a P frame and gets hung because of it. So I trim to the last I frame and it seems to work.

Some of the files do seem to be corrupted because I get the wrong time for the clip. A 50 minute clip is saying it is 18 minutes inside the edit window of DVD Author. It still uses the entire space but it just shows the first 18 minutes of the clip in the edit window. When you get this file to burn to DVD it sucks because the file is on the DVD but you couldn't put any markers on it, so you need to Fast Forward thru stuff. Since the file is corrupted I will need to redigitize the original and see if it happens again. For now I am just setting the end point at 18 minutes. Once you change the end frame the size of the file goes down to the correct size(18 minutes in size and not 50 minutes in size, I am using time as the file size will differ depending on the encoding settings you use) And all of the discs have been burning and working very well once I use the end point work around.

So if your DVD is hanging on the output try to set the end frame a few frames earlier on a definite I frame. Also check the time of the clip to see if it is correct in the edit window. If it is not the file will probably need to be redigitized.

Hope this helps someone besides me.

Rich

So I traced the reason I was getting the error on the files. DVD Author will not read multiple files in one .VRO from the DMR. So if you create a playlist with multiple files from the DMR it only sees the first file. So if you have Ten 5 minute clips and create one 50 minute VRO file DVD Author only sees the first 5 minutes. The rest of the file is there but the software is confused by it. This confusion causes the software to Hang.

Also when you create Marker points in the DMR the software does not recognize them. This would be a very helpful feature but I think recognizing all ten of the files in the single .VRO would be more important.

So when Dubbing from the Hard drive to a DVD Ram disc you must do it one file at a time. Otherwise you risk the VRO file being truncated by DVD Author. Or worse hanging up the computer and not being able to get the DVD to author at all.

Rich

Hello i have an annoying problem where during mpeg encoding (happens with tmpgenc and mainconcept encoders) after a couple of mins my pc will just crash out (restart) no error messages are recieved before the crash or after it starts back up. I think it must be a codec problem but im not sure.
My specs are as follows:
Windows XP MCE
AMD Athlon 2800XP @ 2.28ghz
Gigabyte ga-7va
760mb ddr pc2700 ram
ati radeon 9700pro (gigabyte maya)

If any more specs are needed i can post them up, thx in advance to anyone who can help.

Spacedkadet.

>Hello i have an annoying problem where during mpeg encoding (happens with tmpgenc and mainconcept encoders) after a couple of mins my pc will just crash out (restart) no error messages are recieved before the crash or after it starts back up. I think it must be a codec problem but im not sure.

your pc restarts by itself?? does this only happens when you are trying to encode????

If you right click My Computer and go to Properties, click on the Advanced tab, and go to Startup and Recovery, look under the settings for System Failure. The third checkbox down is Automatically Restart. Uncheck that (if its checked of course). If Windows thinks it got a bad error, it will automatically restart. This is checked on by default. The first thing I do when I install XP on a machine is turn that off. It won't stop you from getting an error, but if that is the problem, it will at least stop rebooting your system on you so the program can give you an error in the first place. Then you can try and track down the real cause of the problem. It's worth giving a try at least! If that option is already unchecked, well, at least I tried! :)

At the weekend i formated my hard drive and reinstalled windows, the only codecs i have put back in are divx5.1 and koepis latest xvid (rc1) also latest nero is installed. I took the tick out of the auto restart box in the system failure section. But i still have this problem, i get about 16 mins of the converted mpeg (i am using dvd pal settings in tmpgenc) then the machine restarts. This is so bizarre and so annoying...

Thx spacedkadet.

> But i still have this problem, i get about 16 mins of the converted mpeg (i am using dvd pal settings in tmpgenc) then the machine restarts. This is so bizarre and so annoying...

have you tried converting any other vid files?? ur source video may be corrupted

Ok here's my problem, I have all the episodes for the show "24" in mpeg fomat (mpeg1 i think) and i burned them (8 episodes to one DVD) and it worked fine. When I tried to do 8 more episodes, it would only encode around 20% of the file. So the VOB should be around 420MB it is only 120MB or so. I don't understand why this is happening. I haven't changed any settings. I know that it does work, but it's not workin anymore for me.

I have plenty of room on my hard drive, so i don't think thats the cause. I have 4 movies i wish to put on one DVD also (all around 800MB-1.2GB) but they are only encoding to 150MB-200MB, the files are in sync, and look great, but they are not finishing.

My hardware is Athlon 1800+, 60GB HD, WinXP pro.

Thanks for any help

you should know what version of MPEG file you have if you capped the files yourself, but thats another issue :)

try remultiplexing the file with tmpgenc mpeg encoder (the free version should do fine if the files are indeed MPEG1).

"FILE"|"MPEG Tools..." -> "Merge & Cut" -> "Add" -> set output path -> "Run".

if the output-file is still complete and in sync you should be fine.
if not, you probably have a corrupted MPEG file.
don't count on MPEG files from some capture-app (or wherever you might get them from) are valid and standard-conform, just because they play nice in media-player.

bye,
--hustbaer

Bear with me:

Some avi files I have could not be converted to mpg with sound... I d/l'ed virtual dub and extracted the wav from these avi. I then inserted the original .avi and the .wav file into the wizard, and then cut the movie to put on two VCD disks.

The problem is that the first movie segment has ace sound and video, but the second one (where I cut and had to start from the middle of the avi) the sound and video are not concurrent.

I've looked around for this problem elsewhere on this board, and could not find it, so if someone could please reply to this and help me out, it would be very much appreciated.

PWM

I had encoded an wmv file into mpeg and everything is ok but problem came up during playing. The file size of the mpeg is about 250MB and will mount up to about 25 mins of video play. But when the mpeg is being played the duration only shows 23mins of video play and when it reached the 23rd min it still can go on playing til 25th min. I was really blaffed by this problem and i wondered if it is my win media player. But i don't think so as i had batch encoded several wmv with the problematic mpeg and all of them turn up fine. Sorry for taking up your time. Really would appreciate your help.
Thanks.

Each DVD I make will not play properly on my home theater dvd player. It seems to play for 15 - 20 seconds, then pause for 5 - 10 seconds. It does this over and over again. I'm wondering if my dvd's are not formated correctly or if my dvd player is really picky.

I have taken a mpg and used Roxio DVD creator to make the dvd.
I have taken a mpg, used TMPGenc to create an m2v, demux'ed it with Vobedit, then burned it with nero.
And I have taken a dvd movie I purchased, riped it with DVD Shrink, then burned with nero. Every time I got the same pausing/hesitating problem. I have used cd+r's and cd+rw's.

Can some one please shed some light on this issue? Thanks

Hi,
Hopefully someone can help me. I'm fairly new to all this....

I have downloaded a DivX movie, which is approx 1hr30m. I wanted to convert it to DVD-R so I followed the tutorial in Afterdawn (http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_avi_to_dvd.cfm). I used all the settings as outlined in this. My problem came when I came to the bitrate part of the wizard. The "movie info" says it is now 287mins. Wow! Even dropping the vid bitrate down to 2000, I still have a massive file. Whatever settings I used the file it wants to produce is HUGE (ie more than two DVD-Rs!) and it is taking an absolute age to create the output file.

What am I doing wrong???

FYI: My PC is rather old AMD Athlon 1.2, 768MbRAM, XP Pro

DivX-Movie, eh? Downloaded, eh? You are using illegal stuff, eh?

That's the very old VBR-Audio-Problem. I'm tired to see it again and again. Search die Board, solutions to solve this problem are already posted here.

>DivX-Movie, eh? Downloaded, eh? You are using illegal stuff, eh?

and you would never do a thing like that would you know????

;p

eh

I had encoded an wmv file into mpeg and everything is ok but problem came up during playing. The file size of the mpeg is about 250MB and will mount up to about 25 mins of video play. But when the mpeg is being played the duration only shows 23mins of video play and when it reached the 23rd min it still can go on playing til 25th min. I was really blaffed by this problem and i wondered if it is my win media player. But i don't think so as i had batch encoded several wmv with the problematic mpeg and all of them turn up fine. Sorry for taking up your time. Really would appreciate your help.
Thanks.

Hi. I downloaded this movie which was divided into 3 separate AVI files. The entire movie is 89 minutes. Since it is separate AVI files, I have to convert them one by one. So after converting, I will have 3 MPEG files. If I merge them together, would the resulted MPEG be flawless? Flawless as in no errors and no added time? Plus, would it fit on a CD-R with overburning? My CD-R is 700MB and 80 minutes though. Would it fit if I converted with 80% quality or should I go lower?

You don't need to encode them seperately. Just label the files in sequence Movie001.AVI, Movie002.AVI, Movie003.AVI....and so on thene enable 'open sequence files as movie' in the 'enviromental settings' under the 'general' tab.

You can fit 82mins at standard VCD bitrate on an 80 min disk with overburning. To fit 89min you will have to lower the bitrate slightly or even better use VBR encoding.

:( Then I guess I will split them onto 2 CD-Rs.

Well to be honest you will only have to lower the bitrate slightly or if you use VBR you will be able to fit the whole thing on 1 disk without loss of quality.
Seems a bit of a waste to put 7 mins on 1 disk.

What is VBR? The source video is really high quality. This is its specs:

Resolution: 712x400
Video: Xvid (~2500kbit/s)
Audio: AC3 (~438kbit/s)

And for lowering the bitrate what should I do? I'm the person that makes XVCDs with the really weird settings that work well. Here is what I use to jog your memory:

Size: 480x480
Stream Type: MPEG-1
Rate Control Mode: Constant Quality (80%)
Maximum Bitrate: 2520 kbits/sec
Motion Search: Normal
Video Arrange Method: Center Custom 420x420

The 80% is set at default. Sometimes, I use 70% just in case. And the center custom size is for the overscan. So what should I change in this case?

Woops, I forgot to add something! I thought the disc capacity was 82 minutes? How can fitting 89 minutes by lowering the bitrate be possible? And I cannot find that option in my Environmental Settings General tab. :( Does VBR take longer?

You are already using VBR if you are encoding using the 'Constant Quality' method.

You can fit 82 mins of standard bitrate MPEG data on one 80min disk if you burn however if you lower it slightly then the data rate per second will not be as high, so you will be able to squeeze more on the disk.
The lower the bitrate the more you can fit on a disk.
Any bitrate calcultor will tell you how much you can fit on a disk for any given bitrate.

If I were you I would just use the settings you already have, but just split between 2 disks and raise the max bitrate to 3500kb/s and the min to 1800kb/s and Q = 65/70

Why raise the bitrate? Since the movie is divided into 3 files, I will have to merge the first and second files, and then if that doesn't fit on one disc, will I have to split in the middle of the second file? Confusing...anyway, thanks! :) I guess it is impossible to fit it on one disc if I want to keep the quality?

I suggested raising the bitrate because if you split an 89 minute movie between 2 disks then you may as well use the full space on the disk. To do this you would raise the bitrate and thus create a higher quality output.

As I said previously you don't need to join any files. Just enable the the sequence files option in TMPG then just split the file right down the middle with the MPEGtools after encoding .
Trust me this is the best way to do it.

I can't find that option anywhere. But it's alright if I just joined it after right? Also, since the source files are so high quality, each of the 3 part AVI are about 600MB each. I know it sounds absurd but it is. What if the MPEG would come out to be even more?! :( Should I really increase the bitrate? :(