Is it possible to output VOB files to 1280x720 or any other high def? Thanks!

This is not possible.
DVD Author 3 only outputs DVD compliant video, so the max is 720x480.

You can output HD DivX in 1280x720 though.

Can someone please explain the difference between these two programs?

Does TMPGE 4.0 XPress do everything that MPEG Editor 3 does, plus more additonal features?

thank you

While there are some overlapping features, they are actually two different beasts.
They each have their own unique video processing engine.
4.0 XPress' is for converting many different types of files to other formats.
MPEG Editor 3 is strictly for MPEG video formats and is much better at handling MPEG video than 4.0 XPress.

One of the biggest differences is what they call Smart Rendering.
MPEG Editor 3 has it, and what it does is it allows you to make changes and edits to your video without having to re-encode the whole video.
4.0 XPress does not have Smart Rendering, and the whole video will be re-encoded no matter what.

4.0 XPRess is overall the more flexible program in terms of the types of input and output formats, plus it allows you to add filters, and set your own output settings.

MPEG Editor 3 is great if you work strictly with MPEG video formats (DVD, Blu-ray, HDV, etc.) and plus you can input video directly from your HDV camcorder and burn your outputted video to Blu-ray (BDAV format) or DVD with it which you can't do with 4.0 XPress.

Hi folks, I just purchased TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and I was very happy with it. I only tested it out with one clip at the time. The clips are MTS files that come directly from my Sony SR11 video camera. I bought TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress to convert the MTS clips to M2T clips which make them easier to edit on my dual core system.

Today I try to convert 10 clips with TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and as I load the clips into TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, I get this error message that says "Could not open the video part of the file XXXXXXXXXXXX, only the audio part can be opened. You can see the actual screen cap at:
http://testshots.com/images/tmpgenc_issue.gif

I've done some research but have not found a workaround for this issue and I need to get it fixed as quickly as possible.

I look forward to your help!

-Dean

I just submitted a support email to TMPGenc but I understand it may take up to a week to get a response. I can't sit here for a week waiting to hear from them. If they can't get this issue resolved immediately, I'll call Visa and get my money back and purchase another product that will actually work for my needs. If anyone from TMPGenc is reading this board, please help me fix this issue immediately or refund my money and I'll move on.

Thanks!

-Dean

So this only happens when you load multiple clips, or does that one video file give you the error no matter what?

What are the attributes of these clips? Are they different than the clip you first tested it with?

The more information you can provide about the clips, the better.

>Hi folks, I just purchased TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and I was very happy with it. I only tested it out with one clip at the time. The clips are MTS files that come directly from my Sony SR11 video camera. I bought TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress to convert the MTS clips to M2T clips which make them easier to edit on my dual core system.
>
>Today I try to convert 10 clips with TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and as I load the clips into TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, I get this error message that says "Could not open the video part of the file XXXXXXXXXXXX, only the audio part can be opened. You can see the actual screen cap at:
>http://testshots.com/images/tmpgenc_issue.gif
>
>I've done some research but have not found a workaround for this issue and I need to get it fixed as quickly as possible.
>
>I look forward to your help!
>
>-Dean

I seem to be getting the same problem with every file that i have tried too.Did you find any fix,Or what the problem is?

Can I change the audio track on video that was imported from a DV camera into TMPGEnc DVD Author 3? I have a separate audio recording that is better quality and I would like to swap it with what the camera recorded inthe audio track. If so, how would I sync the audio and video?

thanks

Yes, you can use a different audio track than the one with the video.

In the Source Stage, click on the "Edit" button for the clip you'd like to change. The clip editing window should appear.
Click on the "Clip Properties" tab at the top.
In the Audio section, you can select an audio file under "Audio Input 1."
The audio for the video will now be this audio track.

To sync it, go to the Cut-edit tab (still in the Clip Editing window) and click on the Audio Filters button (the button with the musical note).
A new window should pop up and the first tab, "Audio gap", is what you can use to properly sync the audio.
You can "move" the audio track forward or backward up to a minute ahead or behind the video track.
So if your audio is behind the video by 10 seconds, you'd put in 10000 (ms) in the box.
If your audio is ahead of the video by 10 seconds, you'd put in -10000.

If your audio is ahead or behind the video by more than a minute, then you'll need to edit the audio file before you input it into DVD Author 3.
A free program I mentioned in another post called Audacity can do this (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).

Thank you.

Now, how do I work with the clips created off my DV recording? Is there a way to combine the clips so I can edit as a whole and add the audio track as a whole too?

I have and work with audacity (great program). Do I have to split my audio file to match the created clips, or can it be combined and avoid this extra step?

You can't actually combine the clips, but when you put multiple clips in a single track, they will act like one long clip when you play it back on your DVD player.

If you have TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, that will allow you to turn multiple clips into one single video clip upon output.

If you don't have 4.0 XPress, then yes, you will have to split up your audio so each video clip can have it's own audio clip.

When I follow instructions provided here I lose the whole beginning of my audio for some reason. I'm only in edit mode at this point but audio doesn't come in at the beginning, then starts anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds later in the middle. The beginning is not playing along with the video and I didn't cut any audio out, just adjusted for sync.

I haven't tried to output so far but maybe this is automatically fixed upon output?

Okay, I took it through the output and discovered that it does get the audio fromthe beginning. However, even though I was able to sync the audio and video perfectly at the beginning, it soon gets out of sync and gets way off. It gets worse the further through the video I watch.

Anyone know why this is happening and what I can do about it?

Did a quick search for audio sync problems at videohelp and this thread looks like it could help you.

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic262015.html?&sid=328c841246689210ad6d72fbbbba71e0

It's a bit old and they're using an older version of DVD Author, but I think the methods used could still be applied to your situation. Hope this helps!

I installed the latest upgrade of Express 4 onto my Vista system, and when I go to run it I get an error stating that necessary files could not be
found or properly readed. Then it says to uninstall and reinstall. Oddly enough, this error only occurs under my account. Other accounts on my PC can run the app without problems. Also if I install the prior version it works fine. Support gave me a few hings to try, but none worked. Any ideas?

I'm trying to add audio/music to a slideshow. How do I add more than one song and have them play one after another... Also is it possible to add more than two songs if it's a big slideshow?

I think you can only add one audio file to the slideshow (unless you're doing a bilingual or multi-audio stream, but they won't function in a way that you're describing).

If you have multiple songs, you'd have to create a single audio file from all of them.
I actually just started using this free audio editing software called Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). You should be able to copy and paste multiple audio files to create one long audio file using this program.

one question about dvd author 3 and can you place an introduction video before the menu

Yes, you can.

In the Source Stage, click on the right side of the "Add a track" button, the part with a downward arrow. In the dropdown menu, select "Add a firstplay track".
This adds a firstplay track which will play before your main menu when you first load the DVD.

I am recording from a satellite and only want to watch the programs on computer. I need to put in chapters, though. What's the easiest, fastest way to do that without creating a dvd?

Thanks

You have a couple of options.

If you have PowerDVD, you can output your programs as the dvd files, but just don't burn them to disc.
In PowerDVD, click on the Select Source button, and select "Open DVD file on hard disk drive." Then simply select your VIDEO_TS folder. Power DVD should load the contents of the folder and will play it like a normal DVD with menus and all.
This is probably the fastest method I can think of.

Or you can create a disc image using the Disc Writing Tool in the Start stage of DVD Author 3 and then you can mount the image with a program like DAEMON Tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/).
Of course, you'd still need PowerDVD or other DVD playing software to actually play the emulated DVD, but it's an option if you'd rather have an iso file.

Another option is to create a DivX Ultra DVD and then play the output file with DivX Player. The problem with this option is that if you ever decide to burn the project, you'll need a DivX Ultra certified DVD player to see the menus.

One last option is to use TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress instead of DVD Author 3. Of course, with 4.0 XPress, you won't be able to output a DVD or even an .iso file, but you can add keyframes to your programs which can later be imported as chapters in DVD Author 3. You can then output them in DVD-compliant MPEG and simply watch the outputted MPEG files in Windows Media Player or something. I don't think players with recognize the keyframes though, so if you wanted to utilize the chapter marks during playback on your computer, then this is not a good option.

This is my problem:

When I make a MPEG-1 from a QuickTime Movie the result is a freezes and jerking
/ bucking .mpg File. Especially at the beginning and End of the movie the picture seems to hang behind the sound and then jumps forward to the correct position. I tried everyting to get rid of the Problem, disabled MultiThreading, tried different resolutions, changed the VBV-Buffer Settings (0/48/64...), tried constant and variable Bitrate, tried every possible Options at GOP Settings, I tried almost everything. But the movie is always stuttering at some positions.
If I use for example WindowsMediaPlayer or QuickTime Player and jump forward in time (push the slider to the right) the player needs 2-3 sec. to continue playing without stuttering.
I use TMPG for a long time now and always had this problem making MPEG-1.
By the way a college of mine had the same problem. And we have nearly the same system, a dual-Xeon HT System with 7525 Chipset/ Serverboard.

So please is anybody out there who has any Idea how to fix my problem???

Sorry, haven't had this problem with any of the QuickTime movies I have.
I have a completely different problem on one of my .mov files where the image is misaligned so you can only see 1/4 of the video. Plays at normal speed though with no jerkiness.

Do you have the latest version of TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress?

Hello,

I make some tests to see if tmpenc xpress 4.5 can make stream for blu-ray. I use scenarist for authoring.

Mpeg2 preset seem to work.

But i want to finc AVC preset, is somebody working on it?

Thx for the help

Philippe PERQUIN

Not sure if they're working on it, but you can always make your own AVC preset if you know the specifications required. Just select MPEG-4 file output, alter your output settings, and save the preset so you can use it again later.

hello,

It seem to be a little bit complicated.

I make a lot of test but each were impossible to import in scenarist HDMV.

Philippe

I was looking at the specs for Blu-ray today and it seems that AAC audio is not in the official specs. 4.0 xpress only allows AAC audio with the MPEG-4 AVC format, so that may be why it isn't importing into scenarist.

Acceptable Audio streams:
Linear PCM audio stream
Dolby Digital audio stream
Dolby Digital Plus audio stream
Dolby Lossless audio stream
DTS digital surround audio stream
DTS-HD audio stream

Video-wise, Blu-ray specs for MPEG-4 AVC are:
High profile at level 4.1/4.0
or Main profile at level 4.1/4.0/3.2/3.1/3.0

Max. bitrate: 40Mbps

HD resolutions:
1920x1080x59.94-i, 50-i (16:9)
1920x1080x24-p, 23.976-p (16:9)
1440x1080x59.94-i, 50-i (16:9) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only
1440x1080x24-p, 23.976-p (16:9) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only
1280x720x59.94-p, 50-p (16:9)
1280x720x24-p, 23.976-p (16:9)

SD resolutions:
720x480x59.94-i (4:3/16:9)
720x576x50-i (4:3/16:9)

Hello i'm ok with the blu-ray encoding, i have a sonic cinevision.

I only encode elementary video but when i try to import the file i have this error message:

Error : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

And scenarist not take the file.

Philippe

Sorry, not familiar with scenarist errors. You might want to try Doom9 forum or a scenarist forum.

Here's a post about a similar error:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=128631

Hello,

It's seem like a problem with the file header when you encode it in normal, video only.

A stream analyer like elecard streamAnalyzer can't open it also.

Maybe header are not well written?

philippe

I'm looking for a DVD video editing progam that will let me create a DVD that will loop back on itself, so it can play continuously at trade shows. Does anyone know if DVD Author 3 has this ability.

Thanks in advance

Yes, this is possible as long as you don't need to see the menus between tracks.

You can set it so that when one track finishes playing, it will automatically start playing the next track. You can also set it to loop so that when the last track finishes playing, it will loop back to the first track and continuously play.

You can try downloading the trial to test it out yourself. These settings can be set when you set up the menu through the Menu Wizard, or via the Global DVD Menu Settings. Just look for the "Track playback end action setting".

Thanks for your help. It's been surprising that this isn't a standard feature on many video editing software packages. I'll give it a try.

Hello,

I just downloaded TMPGE-XP4 and imported my first video file (a .TS file captured from DVB-C). The import is quite long (11 minutes for a 2h30' movie) but this is not the problem. The problem is that the display does not give the right video frames. It displays a queer abstract colored picture. If I call for the cut editor, it is the same.
I searched in the help manual for an action to be taken, but I did not find any. Is the preview and cutting not possible for all formats ?

:) Gabier

Can you play it in Windows Media Player?
Maybe it's a codec problem.

I can play it with VLC.
I made another test with a short clip. In fact I suspect TMPG4XP does not import TS files from DVB-T/C/S source. If the input is the raw TS file, I have the problem described above. If I convert this TS file to m2p file with ProjectX, then I can input this file in TM4XP and the frame previews is correct.
The content is not quite the same because when converting from TS to m2p, ProjectX strips off all stuff but video and audio (for instance subtitles). But I suspect that this is not the problem. Rather, TM4XP does not understand the TS structure (188 bytes packets, etc...). It is advertised that TS files inputs are OK, but in the help the TS files are not in the list of input files. It is said that only TS files from HDTV camcorders are possible.

If this is confirmed, I have wasted my money because I bought TM4XP in order to convert TS files from DVB-C to compliant MPEG2.

Gabier

Hm looks like you're right. 4.0 Xpress can only import the MPEG-2 transport streams .mpg, .m2t, m2ts, and .mts.
Sorry, I haven't worked with .ts files but I thought it was possible too.