I am new to this conversion stuff and im a little confused. I recently downloaded an avi movie trailer from Kazaa. I tried to play it in Windows Midea Player and I had sound but no video. How do I see and hear the file. Is thier something wrong with it or what. Please help!!!

Well if you have the correct codecs installed on your system then you should be able to play it but if you have all the relevant codecs then the file just could be screwed up,A lot of Movie files on the net are screwed up in one way or another....

I have just downloaded TMPG for the purpose of merging 3 svcd overlapping files into 1.

The problem is that when I use the Merge & Cut option to merge two of the clips I end up with the video clip being okay but the audio becomes out of sync.

What appears to happen is that the audio from the end of the overlapping clip starts at the beginning of the overlapping clip and pushes the audio out of sync by about 30 seconds (the time that the two clips overlap.)

This happens both with using the 'Correct' function and also with manually setting my start and end points for the two clips.

If this is an error on my part I appologise for submitting it as a bug report and welcome any advise on how to correctly join two overlapping clips. Even if I try to crop the clips individually so that I can join them later I end up loosing the last 30 seconds or so of audio.
ie With a cropped clip there is no audio for the last 30 seconds or so of the clip.

Tmpgenc does not Officialy Support the Joining or editing of files that are not made with Tmpgenc, and tmpgenc does not Join files that are VBR properly, your best bet is to use a Better mpeg editor...

I have been unable to get TMPGEnc to recognize a large Quicktime .MOV. I'm not sure exactly what the size limit is (it will recognize larger than 2GB) but there is one. These are .MOV files that play fine in Quicktime Player for Windows. DV-NTSC format, created in Final Cut Pro.

I have gotten TMPGEnc to recognize and successfully encode smaller DV-NTSC .MOV files (less than 5 min. or so). Larger files (15 minutes or so) are recognized, but the encoded output hangs occasionally on certain frames after a while. I'm guessing that .MOV support in TMPGEnc isn't solid. This is probably why .MOV is not in the recognized formats under Video source in TMPGEnc.

The only workaround I've found is to break the large .MOV files into small .AVI files (less than 2GB each). I understand there is a way to create larger than 2GB .AVI files directly in Windows, but I have not found a way to convert a .MOV file to a larger-than-2GB .AVI file. Anyone know of a way?

I've tried outputting the Quicktime movie as an image sequence in TIFF, BMP or TGA formats, but the result is unrecognized by TMPGEnc. That would be an okay workaround if it worked.

Any advice?

why wont 2gb or higher work ???
windows fat32 = 4gb max files size
windows ntfs (nt4,2000,xp)= over 4gb files
so format drive to ntfs standard to encode large files

yes, MOV support is really hosed on windoze and tmpgenc.

I see fwd/rev frame jitter every 10..15 frames when using the QT plugin,
looking almost like a frame-rate conversion, but both input/output settings
are 29.97 fps.

the only reliable solution i have found is to use windows qt player to
'export' my mov as a sequence of BMP files (best quality, 29.97 fps).

This is very awkward, somewhat slow, eats lots of disk space- BUT IT WORKS
100% of the time. Save the audio track as a seperate .wav file.

ron

Hi,

Version 2.58 was mentioned on vcdhelp.com as "Free and Limited".
What does this mean?

Sonny

Mpeg1 is Free and Mpeg2 runs out in 30 days.......

I capture video with a Pinnacle DC30 Plus board. I get avi-files with the DC30 plus MPJPEG codec.

But after choosing one of those files in Tmpegenc. the main window remains black, instead of showing the avi file. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you,
Danny Geysen

You Probably need to raise the priority of one of the "Vfapi Plugins", go to "Options" to "enviromental settings" to "vfapi plugins" and try raiseing the "Direct Show file Reader" to "2"....

>You Probably need to raise the priority of one of the "Vfapi Plugins", go to "Options" to "enviromental settings" to "vfapi plugins" and try raiseing the "Direct Show file Reader" to "2"....

This was the right solution for me. Thank you very much.

Hi,

Can anybody help me please, I have version 2.58.44.152 of TMPG and when I start to encode an avi file get Error -537403781 180576 on starting encoding ???

The program has worked fine in the past, but it now produces this error on all files that I try to encode.

I am using the same operating system and settings from when it originally worked, I dont understand why its stopped working now.

Help Please

Shawn Williams
email shawnwilliams@cellular10.freeserve.co.uk

I Guess you can delete it and use the version you were useing before, or try downloading it again...

I have tryed deleting the original verison of TMPG and re installing
the problem still remains and I cannot encode any AVI's now??

I meant Use the old version and don"t use the new version...I have seen this error quite a bit with files that were downloaded off the net on Places like Kazaa...Downloaded movies seem to be full of errors and a lot of them are just un-encodeable.....

Sorry I dont understand, use the old version of what TMPG do you mean ??

The weird thing is that I cannot encode any of the avi's that I have downloaded now. it's not just this one particular file, its all of downloaded avi's which I had previously encoded without any problems.

I have deleted TMPG files from my PC and re downloaded and installed it again, still the same problem. i wonder if there is something wrong with the registry now,What a hassle

Do you have a System Restore function on your opperateing system???Cuz you might be able to use that to restore the settings you were useing before the problems started....

Minion I dont see how that will really help as when I originally installed TMPG I took all the default options, and did the same for the latest verison 7.58.44.152. Even when I delete all the TMPG files of my system and go back to the original verison of TMPG that I downloaded the problem still remains.

I dont understand why I am having this problem, I was intending to buy the software but it seams to have loads of bugs/problems with it

P.S. thanks for your help

First - THANKYOU to minion for his support here - he provides alot of answers, as well as others more expert in this than us novices who provide guidance.

I took minion's advice a dumped Nero doing any encoding (others concur that Nero is inferior to TMPGEnc). Thanks. I decided to try my hand at an XVCD, and followed a guide published on vcdhelp.com's site. I captured a 1 hour DV tape with Ulead VideoStudio using their template = DV 720x480 NTSC 30fps AVI. This left a 13G .avi file on my PC. I then opened TMPGEnc, selected the VCD template, un-checked the use standard VCD encoding (?) option, under settings first loaded the 352x240 format, then loaded the unlock format. This allowed me to go to some advanced settings where I set the bitrate to 1450 kbps (rather than VCD's standard of 1150). I then Started the encoding. I also repeated the above, but tried the 2-pass VBR setting with average set to 1450 and max set to 2000 kbps (took twice as long to encode!). I then used Nero to burn the XVCD (one with un-checking of standard VCD, and the other left the check in standard VCD selection).

Resutls - both worked and the Panasonic RP82 played both!!! However, I have some observations with questions remaining:

1- Both XVCD's started playing when I hit the close DVD drawer button. My standard VCD's always start with a track menu, and I select (1) to start the movie. Is this because it sees a non-standard bit rate???

2- It appeared to me that the CBR looked slightly better than the 2-pass VBR. Theoretically the 2-pass VBR should be better. What happened??

3- Related to 2 above, should I have used different settings? Different frame rates better than different bit rate? Etc. (Note - my goal is to put a 1 hour DV onto a single 80 minute CDR).

4- Should I do anything different at the capturing step?


Many thanks again in advance,
dagger

I forgot one other question for those who have MPEG2 capabilities - would upgrading to PLUS so that I can burn SVCD's provide any noticeable improvements within my objectives: store a 1 hour DV tape on a single 80min CDR with the best quality possible.

Yes I know - 6 to 12 months from now I'll probably be able to justify a DVD burner, and that solves my quality issue. :)

Cheers,
dagger

You are never going to fit an hour on a CD-R with the Highest Quality possible, maybe an hour on a CD-R with Medeocre quality...and useing mpeg2 is not going to help you achieve that goal cuz mpeg2 usually uses a higher resolution than VCD therefore you need to use more bitrate to achieve optimal quality...

minion - I think I understand what you are implying. For fun, I burned an SVCD (thankyou TE for giving a 30 day trial period for MPEG2!) and set it to maximum bitrate that would fit on an 80min CDR at 480x480 NTSC 30fps. Even though my DVD player doesn't say it supports SVCD, it played (again with no menu selection - as soon as the DVD drawer closes and it finishes "Reading" it starts to play. Is this because it is not an officially supported format??). However, there was alot of pixelizations and artifacting especially as the movement scenes increased. So far XVCD looks the best.

So minion/others - assuming the use of TMPGEnc's encoding for making XVCD's, what bit rate settings do you suggest for maximizing quality? CBR? VBR/Auto??

Cheers,
dagger

First - THANKYOU to minion for his support here - he provides alot of answers, as well as others more expert in this than us novices who provide guidance.

I took minion's advice a dumped Nero doing any encoding (others concur that Nero is inferior to TMPGEnc). Thanks. I decided to try my hand at an XVCD, and followed a guide published on vcdhelp.com's site. I captured a 1 hour DV tape with Ulead VideoStudio using their template = DV 720x480 NTSC 30fps AVI. This left a 13G .avi file on my PC. I then opened TMPGEnc, selected the VCD template, un-checked the use standard VCD encoding (?) option, under settings first loaded the 352x240 format, then loaded the unlock format. This allowed me to go to some advanced settings where I set the bitrate to 1450 kbps (rather than VCD's standard of 1150). I then Started the encoding. I also repeated the above, but tried the 2-pass VBR setting with average set to 1450 and max set to 2000 kbps (took twice as long to encode!). I then used Nero to burn the XVCD (one with un-checking of standard VCD, and the other left the check in standard VCD selection).

Resutls - both worked and the Panasonic RP82 played both!!! However, I have some observations with questions remaining:

1- Both XVCD's started playing when I hit the close DVD drawer button. My standard VCD's always start with a track menu, and I select (1) to start the movie. Is this because it sees a non-standard bit rate???

2- It appeared to me that the CBR looked slightly better than the 2-pass VBR. Theoretically the 2-pass VBR should be better. What happened??

3- Related to 2 above, should I have used different settings? Different frame rates better than different bit rate? Etc. (Note - my goal is to put a 1 hour DV onto a single 80 minute CDR).

4- Should I do anything different at the capturing step?


Many thanks again in advance,
dagger

Hi. I'm encoding what looks like a hand painted anime that runs for about 2 hours. I set the bit rate at 3000 and the quality level "high", Then I went to the gym for 2 hours. When I first set things up and pressed start the expected work time was 9 hours... (that was when TMPG was just reading the title pages I guess). Once it got a couple of minutes into the film it went up to 31 hours. Now as I sit here in dismay it claims it will need 37 hours before it is complete.
What I don't understand is this... the complexity of the picture has not increased as the anime has progressed, so why has the time need to process the thing increased?

Ufff... what Kind of PC do you use? And what are your settings? 31 Hours is terrible slow. Even my old PIII 500 was a lot faster.
Animes haven't complex Pictures, but they often have complex Movement (from the point of view of TMPGEnc)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player/relnotes.asp#knownissue

there are Known and Unknown problems with this BETA release. Read the microsoft" known issues" board at above URL for SOME of the details.( As always for them, I believe that they are holding some hidden cards that benefit only themselves. Personally, I would NOT upgrade.

Hey all. I'm tired of floating point calculation errors with TMPGEnc. I paid for it, and was wondering if anyone knows of a place to download 2.56 Plus version? I never had those issues with that version. NOTE that I am NOT asking for the free version. Thanks.

Ed

"Floating Point errors" are caused By BAD AVI files..Usually some sort of Corrupted sectors in the file and a different version probably won"t help,These errors pop up all the time with Files downloaded off the net...

Nope... it ain't a bad AVI... Virtualdub detected no errors in the AVI. Anyways, does anyone know where I can get an older version?

My camera is not progressive scan. I am capturing from a DV cam to an interlaced DV avi file. I am then encoding for burning to DVD-R.

Firstly should I be bothering to worry about de-interlacing the AVI file when creating the Mpeg2 DVD file.

If so what is the difference between the Video tab "Encode Mode" drop down (Interlace/Non-Interlace etc) and the deinterlace filter. Currently I am using the Encode mode drop down set to non-interlace and the de-interlace filter setting it to "Double".


If you are feeling generous, a real newbie question. What rate control mode should I be using for good quality DVD output of DV cam home movie material.
ie 2 pass VBR, CQ or CQ_VBR.

I would use 2-pass I like CCE better then TMPG but I still use TMPG to set the setting with the wizard

If you will watch the DVD on a TV, leave the material interlaced. I believe DV is "bottom field" dominant. It is absolutely critical that the setting in the source page match the input material.

Since computer viewing is also common, home video type material with high motion content could be put on the DVD in two versions. Interlaced, for TV viewing, and de-interlaced, for computer viewing. This is especially true if you need to step frame by frame on the computer.

IMHO, Virtualdub has much better deinterlace options than TMPGEnc. The Smart Deinterlace plugin with a very low motion threshold is great at interpolating a single frame from two fields. No double images.

If you author deinterlaced only, set the output format to "non-interlace". Otherwise some standalone DVD players will not properly step frame by frame.

Thanks guys.
So the bottom line is. Create two DVD's one for TV the other for computer.

I guess that only leaves the question, is there any downside in de-interlacing for TV and only creating the one DVD for both display types.

Well, creating two DVDs really would be for the exceptional case of extreme motion and the desire for optimum frame by frame viewing of interpolated deinterlaced frames. Interpolated frames on a TV in full motion would look strobey (no motion blur).

Blended deinterlacing would retain the motion blur effect and looks good on both TV and computer in full motion. Try this first since it is MUCH less work. The tradeoff is poor frame by frame appearance.

Interlaced looks great on a TV in full motion and frame by frame but most computer DVD software show interlace artifacts in full motion and frame by frame.

Is "Blended" what I am doing when I choose "Both" in the Tmpg de-interlace filter. I had a good look at my output today. On high motion I can see two images of a fast moving object. I guess that is to be expected by puting two fields together.

To be honest having gone from VCD to DVD this week (New A04) I am so pleased with the quality. The only real bug bear I have is that blacks are not resolved very well with tmpg. But lets face it this is all great stuff.

I had a look at the smart de-int filter from donald graft and it blew my mind. You know I thought my jobs of bio-chem and programming was techie! Any chance of some hints.

Need any SQL-Server or RDBMS help. I'm your man. Thanks so much.