I've noticed that if I just start with my Track Menu page, there is a link for "Chapters" on the first page. I've never been totally sure what chapters are. Do you even need them? I've noticed that I can get rid of the reference if I want to.

very simply put, instead of going to the start each time and fast forwarding to the part you missed etc, you can go to the selected chapter of the where abouts it is.

if you go to the start where you added the file theres the edit tab, go in and on the edit tab within it look down right theres a menu button and i think its the top option, i would noral select the 2 option within that ie the mins selection. i go for 5 mins. it will then scan for every selected chapter section.

you thenpress ok and go on with your editing.

Actually, right after I posted this I discovered some revelations about chapters in my AVI's. Basically the ones I have don't have any more than one chapter. I found that out by opening up the "Chapter Editor" That makes sense too because someone else had told me that things like special features, cannot be retained in an AVI, so that would explain about chapters too.

I want to burn several different 50 minute videos to one disc, however I've noticed that, in the main menu, when I click "Start New Project" and add multiple "clips" or "files" that they all just get listed as chapters under "Track 1". Is there any way to make each "clip" an individual "track" instead of "chapter" or how's that all work?

The column on the left side of the Source stage shows your tracks. Click on the "Add a track" button to add another track. Click on a track to select it and add your clip(s). Or you can drag a clip from on track to another.

Got it! That worked out great! So it's kind of designed to where tracks are, or can be the same thing as files or clips, correct? Also... how would I set it up where, say I have 5 tracks...I want my top page to show the track button, then when I click on the track button and go to the main track page, it shows all of the tracks? I don't want separate pages for each track.

Also, I recently had to reinstall TMPGEnc but I never noticed something that may have been happening before. When I loaded up an avi file that was only 808 MB's in size, it showed on the bottom display that it took up 6163 MB's but when I finally advanced to output and set it on single disc, it went back down some. That's normal right?

Also I had a friend that was able to get an hour and a half show and quite a few few 44 min shows on each disc, but I don't know how he did it. In all, he was able to spread out 22 episodes onto 4 discs. One disc had up to seven episodes and the others had less.

I messed around with trying that in TMPGEnc but I was only able to get to two episodes, the one big long one and the smaller one, but they both almost maxed out the capacity. But here again, I know that some of that readout will go down when I set the output...So how do you know how many files you can load up in the Source page and how do you think this guy was able to get all those files squeezed on a disc?

with the files size, can you do us a screen shot as thats around 6gb of file.

Hope I did this right. Here's a screenshot:

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4251/tmpgencmainwindow.jpg

ah right, thats normal due to the time legnth of the footage and also depends on what settings you have it on .

with me ill make it encode to the best it can so in the settings on the left i drop the bar down to custom, and push the average and max bitrate to max and also to 2 pass vbr.

you can then at the end change it to the dvd5 size

So at what point can I customize all that you are talking about? I did find where, in the "Output" menu I can select "Custom" and reduce things there. Is that what you were talking about? Is there some other place you can tweak too? You mentioned something about 2 pass vbr...where is that at?

Also...So in regards to putting multiple tracks and files of this show I was mentioning, do I just take a guess and try loading say, 4, 5 or more episodes, then when I get to the end, once again, select custom and drop down the bitrate?

the shot you showed.

look at the elft for track 1 settings, go into there and experiment for the bitrate.

now the output stuff all you need to do is select 4.7 size so that the target is to fit onto a normal dvd5 dvd

So I can do the same thing with multiple tracks or files. Just go in there and crank each individual one down some. How do you know if you go to to low a bitrate?

you wont, becuase you can not change the minimum bitrate.

but its also to do with taste of the users .

I have prepared a tutorial for editing and converting .MTS files with TMPGenc2.5

http://sites.google.com/site/electricfarm/mtsvideo/mtsvideo-edit

Has any1 had any success with making a AVCHD or bluray disk using tmpgenc4 with spurs engine using H.264/AVC ??? i have had no luck. I tried making AVCHD disks many times but had no luck.. however using premier pro & using the main concept H.264/AVC output it made AVCHD disks fine. And i'm using the same settings for both. I'm getting a bluray burner soon so hopefully i will find a way to use the spurs h.264/avc output to create a compatible bluray H.264/AVC file/disk.

if any1 has successfully created a bluray or AVCHD compatable file/disk using the spurs engine output. please tell me how you did it and what your settings were.


regards Marty.

Can anyone help ? The resulting mpegs from TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 3 play fine in powerpoint visually - but theres no sound. Its driving me nuts ! Any suggestions ? Thanks !

I'm using Sony handycam, in AVCHD 50i mode. I'm getting a bit desperate with setting the correct input/output settings.

Curently the best combination is:

INPUT:
Clip properties:
Display Mode: Interlace,
Field Order: Bottom field firts,
Aspect Ratio: Pixel 1:1 (square)
Framerate: 50 fps

Filter properties:
Deinterlace always (double framerate)
Deinterlace method: Inverse pulldown

OUTPUT:

MPEG-4 AVC (1280 x 720) 25 fps
Level: 3.1
1 Pass Constant Bitrate 17500kb/s
Motion Search Range: 256
Detect Scene Change: On
GOP Length: 33 frames
Entropy Coding Mode: CABAC
Motion Estimation: Quarter

PROBLEM:

Motion looks "ghosty", ie. subjects moving in front of re-coded video are not as clear as on Sony AVCHD player (or Splash Player) playing .MTS files directly. Instead they leave appear with trails.

I've noticed that changing the level makes some difference (slightly better with level 3.1 than 4.1).

What other settings have you tried?

My guess is that the ghosting has to do with your framerate or deinterlace settings.

Currently, you're doubling the framerate to 100fps and then outputting as 25fps. I think you should only double framerate if you're actually going to output at the higher framerate (i.e. doubling 30fps to 60fps and outputting in 60fps).

Have you tried "Deinterlace always" (without double framerate) with an interpolation method?

You might also try changing the field order.

Thanks for that.

I've tried changing the field order as my first guess. I have tried the default deinterlace always with one method of interpolation. That didn't seem to work either. Slightly concerned about the fact that interpolation will degrade the quality of picture.

I think that it seems like I was getting the framerate wrong. Indeed, I'm doubling the framerate. What the recommended clip input settings would be for 50i mode (I assume that means my videos are 50 frames/second interlaced)?

Try these:

INPUT:
Clip properties:
Display Mode: Interlace.
Field Order: "upper" field first ( HD is upper fields 'NOT' lower )
Aspect Ratio: Pixel 1:1 (square)
Framerate: 25 fps ( it is 50 fields per second - but the frame rate is 25 )

Filter properties:
Deinterlace when neccessary

OUTPUT:

MPEG-4 AVC (1280 x 720) 25 fps
Level: 4.1 ( 3.1 is for SD resolutions )
1 Pass Constant Bitrate 17500kb/s
Motion Search Range: 256
Detect Scene Change: On
GOP Length: 33 frames
Entropy Coding Mode: CABAC
Motion Estimation: Quarter

I am using TMPEG DVD Authoring 3 and is there a way to delay the activate button for a few seconds after the title page has loaded??

What I have done is:
created a dvd title page that fades in and then the play movie and scene selection fonts fade in..I want to, AFTER the play movie and scene secletion, font has faded in to have the active frame around either of them to then press the play button

This is not possible and I don't believe it ever will be. So why do some commercial DVDs appear to be able to do this? Simple. Their transitions into and out of menus are video files. Usually, you can see when the video ends and the actual menu begins by a slight pause or the text will become sharper, but some DVDs hide it rather well such as the Lord of the Rings menus.

Unfortunately, DVD Author 3 (and Authoring Works 4) doesn't let you use video files to transition between menus. However, it is possible to use the first-play track as a way to transition into your menu when you first insert the DVD.

Why TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 didn't work on my xp windows computer? Other computer which is vista version works well. Program don't start all in xp windows computer.

Mine stopped work as well..Been using this for a year and now it stopped working on my XP..Went back to Version 3.

very simple, do a reinstall of your os its seems to eb the main reason this happens.

i bet you when you do a fresh install of your os the software will work again.

I doubt that because same problem performer three different xp computer. Let me know if os reinstall however aid.

well ive had the issue when software starts to mess up or not work, so after doing a chkdsk function and unistall and reinstall of the said software if it still doesn't work right, i normally format and do a fresh os install

works a treat and also allows you to sort your system out to how you wish it to be.

You are probably right. Os reinstall lead to large number software install. Therefore i evade thus alternative. I wonder...how is possibly that three different computer was similar out of order?! Thank you good advice!

Markku

i bet you that the other system havent had a fresh install in quite a while.

and how many progs on your system do you actually use?

When some of my clips are too loud, how do I adjust the volume of them? I found the audio filter and lowered the percentage but there is no different in volume when I play it back. If the difference will only be there after I burn the disk, then I can't really check to see if the volume is acceptable. Same with Normalization. How can I make and hear a difference before I output the project?
Thanks in advance,

Reduce the % a LOT...I never used it to lower the sound, only to increase, and I have to put 250% or 300% UP to have a good normal sound level (using 5.1 to render of course) for a normal downloaded AVI movie...so I think you must try to reduce 50% or even less to get to the point you want.By the way...you will be abble to ear the sound level change on the preview window...go back and change the % if it´s not good enough for you.

when you adjust the audio look for the tab "preview" because if you go back to the normal window it wont show you the changes, but the preview will.

I can't import my FLV clips. What do I need to do?

Use firefox browser and install supplement Youtube Video Downloader from that link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/fi/firefox/addon/10137

Through that supplement you can save Yotube flv files with mp4 format.

If flv videos are ready on your computer you can use replay converter program. Replay converter can convert video form one to other.

http://www.applian.com/replay-converter/index.php

What type of FLV file is it? 4.0 XPress can only import FLV1 and FLV4.

If ever you are stuck for a program to view things on on your computer, then VLC Media Player plays every type of file you can every imagine, as for a converter I use AppGeeker, can't go wrong there.
http://www.ilikemall.com/how-to/convert-flv-to-mov-mac.html

I have a Canon DV camcoder which records in a 720X480 widescreen format. The native ratio after capture is (1.5). When I Add the clips to the express 4, it automatically sets the aspect ratio of each clip to 4:3, and to get the correct aspect I have to manually set it to pixel 40:33. Everything from there encodes great, but since I like to capture with scene detect and have a tape split into multiple clips, when I convert for projects, I may have to manually adjust the aspect ratio for a hundred clips as each one to the project. Is there a way to automate setting the aspect ratio for all the clips at once?

I think you're gonna have to change the aspect ratio one by one.

I was thinking you might be able to do it through your output format settings, but that will only add black bars to the sides if the clip properties are still set to 4:3.

I'm in the creating menu's and I want the screen to loop the video and audio. (Motion Menu). So far the video loops with no problems but when I select the video + audio, there is no audio. It defaults to 15 secs look in the menu setting (which is set to use local settings instead of global settings) and i set the Motion Menu with video + audio to 45 secs.

Am I missing something here, since the beginning of the movie has audio? (there is audio since you can play the movie and then audio is present.)

Maybe someone can help me here.... I maybe overlooking something....

Thanks for whatever help you can give me...

You have to set your BGM to play the audio from the video you are using for the motion menu. By default, it expects you to use some other audio file.

To do this, go the Menu Item Editor for your background and select the "BGM audio selection" tab.
Then just check the box for "Use audio from the background source".

Screenshot:
http://i31.tinypic.com/5jxm6u.png

Ok, I've tried using that but comes back with an error. Something about not finding a source or something..

Quote: 'Cannot use the same Source for the Audio and the Video Background because there is no audio data in the source'.

Not sure what to do here...?.?.?

what do you do for this error???

What kind of source file is it? If it's an MPEG, you can demux the audio and then just load the audio as a separate file by using the Demultiplexer in the Start Stage-->Advanced Tools-->MPEG Tools.

I haven't run into that error so I'm not sure what the cause could be.

It is actually a dvd recording off of Directv. I record them onto DVD-RW's and then put it on my computer to strip out the commercials. (I like SCY-FY, so I record a lot of the movies.) I also have other uses (like from my Movie Camera)and make DVD's out of pictures "slideshow", but this is the main use. I would think if you can loop the video, the audio should be no different. The files on the DVD-RW are standard VOB files and TAW4 works great for it.

Does this make sense?

Now are you saying that I would have to strip out the audio out of the first 45 seconds of the movie and incorporate it into a file for use???

Thanks for responding....

Yes, basically you separate the audio from the video, creating an audio file. You should then be able to load the audio file as your background music in your motion menu.

Usually you don't have to do this if you using the audio from your background video, but since you're getting that error, this method might work.