hello,

i have a question. under the motion search percision in the mpeg settings window, they have number options. such as high quality and low quality. my question is what is motion estimate search? the wizard automaticaly used that when i was testing it out but i've done high quality usually. which would be better for movies?

The higher the quality setting the further ahead in the file the encoder will search before allocating the bitrate. This lets the encoder decide better where to use the bitrate in the next frame.

If you choose Motion estimate search the encoder will predict what the next scene will be like in the next frame by using the information from previous frames and will allocate the bitate accordingly.
This is used to speed things up, but depending on the type of movie could either give you a worse or better result regarding the speed.
It all depends on how the scenes change from one frame to the next.

In my experience Normal has always been better than Motion estimate.
Higher is slightly better than Normal, but hardly worth it considering the extra time involved.
Highest doesn't give any marked increase ,if any, in quality and regarding the time it would take to encode a movie there really isn't any point.

ASHY

I have an SVCD that I am trying to convert to VCD. I have read about changing the headers to trick my dvd player into thinking it's a vcd on this forum and at http://www.geocities.com/newestmoviesencode/dvdvcd However, when I multiplex at the standard MPEG-1 video cd setting, I get an error at 100% that ~300000 s packets cause a buffer underflow. I burn the cd anyways with nero as a video cd and the movie comes out, but with green blocks at the top and bottom corners of my screen. The link above explains that the gren blocks should only occur on the pc. I beg to differ. Is this a dvd player issue? Also, please note that I also tried multiplexing with the non-standard video cd setting, and I did NOT get the buffer underflow error, and tmpgenc also rewrote the headers (which it did not do under the standard MPEG video cd setting because of the buffer underflow error), but the movie now plays extremely slow and the green blocks are still at the top and bottom of the screen. Is anyone else having this problem with the 3 svcd release that I am sure most of you know what I am talking about. Please note this is the first disc. Other have complained about disc 2 and 3 on this forum, but that is a separate issue. When I multiplex, it goes to 100%

See this.
Question - SVCD to VCD No.20970

ASHY

The method you are to trick your DVD is fine. The reason why your having problems this time is the fact the 3 SVCD title your are referring to is in PAL. You need to Pal to NTSC before multiplexing to a VCD header. The only problem is getting TMPGEnc to be able to load up the SVCD Mpeg without giving me "unsupported file" Any help would be great.

So are we saying here that these disks are encoded in SVCD PAL format and some people are trying to burn this to disk as NTSC.

Some NTSC players may handle this, but I guess some can't.The only solution is to convert the file to NTSC format with TMPG.

Two ways are possible.
The easiest is to demultiplex the audio from the file and use DVD2AVI to create a project file and load that into TMPG and encode and then multiplex the result with the audio.

OR install an MPEG2 codec such as Stinky's codec which will allow you to open the file directly with TMPG.

Be aware though that changing the framerate may cause jerky playback in your player.
There is a way to correct this though.

ASHY

One more question...

Is there any disadvantage to encoding a whole VCD/SVCD movie into one file first and then using the MPEG Tools>Cut option to break it into CD-sized files as opposed to encoding appropriately-sized files to begin with. For me, it's easier to just do the whole movie and then break it up. Any drawbacks?

Well the obvious answer is you can never be sure of the exact size of the two parts when using the source range filter to split the movie.

I don't create standard VCDs or SVCds and use VBR in all my encodes, so I can never be sure what the length of the movie will be.
Also I always encode Video and Audio separately this also speeds up my encodes.
The software I use to encode my audio usually takes around 3 or 4 mins whereas TMPG will take 20-25 mins.

The reason being is that if my resulting movie is larger than expected then I can always reduce the bitrate of the audio to accomadate for this and then multiplex.

Also if your resulting movie is not in sync. It is easier to correct the whole thing rather than 2 parts.

ASHY

Hi

I am trying to make a VCD using Pinnacle Impression SE, I create an mpeg 1 file using Tmpg but when I output the VCD from Pinnacle the sound is very high pitched and scratchy. It doesnt' give me the option to keep the audio file at 48khz when I export from tmpenc as and mpeg 1

PLease help

you should be able to output the audio from "tmpgenc" at 48000hz,after you load in your template, load in the "unlock.mfc" template and you should be able to change the audio frequency........

Ashy you da man but I have lost count of the times I have tried to do it that way and have never managed to get it to work. the way I explained works 9 times out of 10 but that one time when they decide to Ps about with the audio gap I fall down. I have read though your very detailed instructions time and time again but never got it to work.

I am quite happy with the way I do it and get good results, going to try to chop the front off the audio of my next project to try to get it to align. Wish me luck

Steve

Hello, I would like to obtain best quality from DV to SVCD.

Can you tell me what would be the best set-up. I do not care if file is bigger or process time. It is for family movies that are most of the time 10-20 min long.

I just want the best quality.

There is no "best" setting for all different kinds of Movies...

You need to test to learn what would be best for your eyes...

The only general rule that aply"s to all movies is that higher bitrate usualy means better quality......

I have downloaded a film and it is in SVCD format but I need it in VCD format to play it on my DVD player. I have tried the normal trick with multiplexing but i get an error saying "Warning ..246845s packets cause buffer underflow. The Mpeg file might cause an error when it played . When i check the size of the file it is only about 1/2 the original size. It seems to chop the file. I have also tried to use the cut and merge to change the header but that did not work either. I also tried to burn it in Nero as a VCD without reencoding it but that did'nt work either, I also tried to burn it after Nero had reecoded it and that did'nt work either.....
Can anyone help ?????
The movie is a new one (spid....) and is 3 cds long. The first CD works, but CD2 and CD3 dont .....
Please Help !!!!

How do you mean the first one works? Do you mean as it is or after doing the trick and burning?
The reason you are getting the buffer underflow warning is because you are mutiplexing as a 'MPEG1 video vcd' and not 'MPEG1 video cd(non standard)'

Rather than try this supposedly VCD trick, try this which is probably the reason why the vcd trick works on some players in the first place.

For some reason some incompatible players assume the MPEG movie is stored in the MPEGAV folder on a burned disk rather than the MPEG2 folder which is standard SVCD and won't be able to find the movie giving a warning such as 'Check disk'.

The MPEGAV folder is used for VCD not SVCD.
When you multiplex an MPEG2 file as an MPEG1 VCD and burn it as a VCD, the file will be put in the MPEGAV folder instead of the standard MPEG2 folder, this allows players which automatically look in the MPEGAV folder to find and play the file which is probably why the trick works in the first place.

Most SVCD burning programs allow the folder name to be changed to make it compatible with your player and is the proper way to do it as doing it the VCD trick way will make the movie incompatible with normal players and wont play, but this way should make it compatible with both types of players.

You will find this option under the 'Video cd' tab in nero in the 'New compilation window'. Just click the button called 'Compatibility' and change the folder name from 'MPEG2' to 'MPEGAV'.
Same goes for VCDeasy. You'll find it under Settings>S(VCD) player where it says SVCD you will see a tick box.

ASHY

Search for the word spider on this forum. There's a person who goes by the name Shovelhed that posted about the same problem with discs 2 and 3. He said he used dvd2avi and then reencoded the avi video and mpeg into svcd. Then he changed the headers to vcd and he said it worked. Haven' tried it yet. Though I actually found that when I multiplex the first disc, I get the buffer error at 100%, tmpgenc does not rewrite the headers, and I get static and green blocks at the top and bottom of the screen. Do you have the same problem? If I use the non-standard video cd format to multiplex, I do not get the buffer error, tmpgenc reqrites the header, but the movie plays really slow and the green blocks are still there. Do you think that simply changing the folder rather than multiplexing will fix this green block problem? The folloing page says that green blocks will appear on the pc but not on the dvd player.

http://www.geocities.com/newestmoviesencode/dvdvcd

One other thing...I meant use dvd2avi to convert the svcd to avi, and then use the video and audio to make an svcd, not video and mpeg.

Read again what the post says.
I was trying to give reason as to why this trick may work.

When you burn a SVCD with your burning program you end up with a set of folders on your disk.
One of these folders is called 'MPEG2'.
This folder contains the movie.

If your player doesn't natively play SVCD then it will automatically look for your movie in a folder called 'MPEGAV'.
This is the folder which contains the movie on a VCD not a SVCD.

Therefore if you burn an SVCD your player cannot locate the file in the folder MPEGAV because it it in the MPEG2 folder and simply won't play.

This so called trick simply puts the movie in the 'MPEGAV' folder rather than the normal 'MPEG2' folder on the disk thus allowing your player to locate the disk.

The only problem is when you use the SVCD to VCD trick, you will confuse your player.

There are certain fundamental differences between MPEG2 and MPEG1.
Your player is reading the header of the file and is attempting to set it self to decode an MPEG1 file, but the file is MPEG2.

This leads to display problems because the decoding parameters aren't correctly set by the player to read the file.

The trick may work on some players, but I would guess that these players would also simply work by changing the folder name to MPEGAV instead of MPEG2.

Try it. See what happens.

My only advice is to run those 3 files you have downloaded through TMPG's simple multiplexer as an 'MPEG-2 SVCD' to make sure the headers are correctly re-written so your burning software doesn't reject them.


ASHY

If what "ashy" said doesn"t work try makeing a project file out of the mpeg2 with dvd2avi and then encode to vcd......or you can (i haven"t tried this) load your mpeg2 into the "vfapi converter" and make a psudo avi and encode that to vcd.........

The VFAPI converter only works with project files. If you have too Minions way will work using DVD2AVI.

ASHY

Hi i have mead and mpeg-2 (supervcd) file whit TMPeng this file works fine, but it¡Çs to large to have on one cd so I just TMPeng to cut it whit that¡Çs work fine to plays ok but when I come to the end of part one theirs missing ca 1 minute of audio, it seams to be a bug in the program, because I have trait whit others mpeg-2 file It¡Çs just the same¡Ä.

Help!
ok, ive extracted m audio, ive opened the avi, ive got the source start/end, but every time i hit "Start" to encode into mpg, it always says "File.mpg can not be created". Please help me. i followed the steps on this web page "http://www.vcdhelp.com/convert.htm". Tell me if they are wrong, or i just cant follow directions and please help me out.

Thanks
Skinneddogg

I have never gotten that error before,I think we have to figure out if it your avi file or some conflict with your system, try loading a different avi file in and see if that one works.another thing you can try is to open your avi file in "virtua dub" and "scan frames for errors" to see if your file isn"t corrupted.if you do have a corrupted file you can try to make a copy of it with "virtua dub" but use the "mask bad frames "option, then use that file in "tmpgenc".But first I would see if you can encode a different file.......

This usually only applies to MPEGS, but check anyway.
Make sure the output name of your file is not the same as the input name of your file if your are encodeing it to the same folder as this usually gives this error.

ASHY

i'm trying to simply convert an avi file to vcd mpeg format.Every time i try the audio dosent play.What am i doing wrong?

Do you mean that the audio doesn"t play on your computer or after you burn it the audio doesn"t play?there are a few reasons why your audio would be missing,the most common one is encodeing the audio at 48000hz ,it should be encoded at 41000hz,if you did it this way the audio would play when playing the file on your computer but not after you burned it,but if you use "nero" to burn it should tell you if there is something wrong with your audio frequency...another reason your audio would might not play is if the audio format in the avi file is not supported by "tmpgenc",you can usualy fix this buy extracting the audio to "wav" with "virtua dub" and useing this as your audio track,but this wont work if your audio is "ac3" for this you need a "ac3 decoder" to extract the audio and convert it to wav.Y ou can find a freeware "ac3 decoder" on any search engine.....I hope this helps?...good luck

Some AVIs have VBR audio. TMPGenc does not handle this. In fact, it will not give you any warning, take 3 times longer (or more) to encode, and you won't have any audio. A simple test for this, is to load the avi into virtual dub. If it has VBR audio, it will pop a message box up letting you know. To fix it, Use virtual dub to save out your audio in RAW format. Then in TMPGenc, load the avi as normal, then change the audio source from the avi to the raw file you saved from virtual dub.

Hope this helps.

Thanks For the help!

Using Virtual Dub (shareware) I extracted the audio from the avi file to a wav file. and used the wav file as the audio source. Minion was dead on with his diagnosis.

Thanks guys.

Falcon E

Hi, I was having the same problem and found this post which helped me out using vdub to get the audio. I'm having a problem though. After encoding the audio starts to get out of sync and after only a couple minutes it doesn't match the video at all. How can I go about keeping the video and audio in sync the whole way through?

When I try to select the source video file, it tells me that the AVI. file is not supported, What do I need to do in order to get it supported?? Can you please let me know.

Thanks

go to "options" then to "enviromental settings" then to "vfapi plugins" and lower every thing to "0" accept raise the "direct show" to "2" this thould get your avi file loaded.....

u cannot change the priority.

What do you mean you cannot change the priority. Ofcourse you can.

If that doesn't work make sure you have the required codecs installed on your system to decode the file.
Download DiVx 4.12.

ASHY

>go to "options" then to "enviromental settings" then to "vfapi plugins" and lower every thing to "0" accept raise the "direct show" to "2" this thould get your avi file loaded.....

Thank you Minion By chaning the option I was able to get it working. Thanks again

V_316

I have a problem when I try to open any VCD mpeg... error ..."illegal floating decimal point calculation order".

This even happens with VCD mpegs that TEMPgen just created. How i do to resolve this problem ?

I don't know how to increase my directshow filter to a higher priority as suggested for other occurances of this error msg.

Thanks

This does not have to do with the "direcy show filter" it means there are certain errors in your file,to get around it go to your "cpu" tab in the "enviromental settings" under "options" now un-check all the boxes there. now go to your "quantize matrix" tab and un-check the "use floating point" box..now you should be able to get your file in "tmpgenc"...but in the "enviromental settings" that is where you adjust your filters, in the "vfapi plugins" these should be set before you encode.....

Am I missing something, or is there an auto shutdown feature in NON-batch mode?

No there isn"t.......

Yes there is.
Rather than click the start button when you wish to encode, instead click File>output to file and choose 'MPEG'.
The Autoshutdown feature will then appear.

ASHY

Thanks Ashy. You're a good man. I'll check it out.

thanx Ashy I never noticed it before.....