I'm a beginner when it comes to encoding, but tmpg was working fine earlier. Now I'm getting format unsupported errors even trying the same files I had encoded earlier today.

Go to "options" to "enviromental settings" to "vfapi plugins" raise the "Direct Show File Reader" to "2" by right clicking on it and selecting, and lower everything else to "0"...

My first attempts at encoding went perfectly, but since then I've had nothing but problems. All encoding has been done using the Video-CD NTSC (MPEG-1 352x240 29.97fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 224kbps) setting.

I encoded two movies on two machines overnight, and ended up with one that had no sound, and one that was horribly out of sync. I think I've managed to find reasonable solutions to these problems.

But my two latest problems are as follows:

1) I tried to encode a 2 1/2 hour movie last night, and when it started encoding the estimated remaining time was 6 hours. But when I got up this morning, the program had stopped with an "Out Of Memory" error, and the Remaining time was just over 88 hours. So I rebooted the machine (700 MHz Pentium/128 MB RAM/Win 98), and started over. It started off roughly the same, but two hours later, TMPGEnc's only managed to encode around 8 1/2 minutes of the movie, and the estimated time is up to just under 36 hours. The small (35MB) file that had been generated seemed fine, and played correctly. Of course, it was only a few minutes long.

2) I've tried encoding another movie (around 95 minutes long) and it resulted in a file 2GB in size. I tried playing the file, and it was around 4 hours long, with no sound. The first 95 minutes of the file were the (soundless) movie, and everything after that was a still shot of the last frame. I think I can fix the sound part, but I haven't been able to figure out why the file goes on forever. I'd rather not encode another 2GB file, if I can help it. :) Also, this isn't the first time this has happened; on a different computer (1 GHz Pentium/128 MB RAM/Win 98) another movie gave me the same problem earlier, and I just stopped it and didn't bother to continue.

Over the last week I've gone through the first 45 pages of the BBS, and I haven't been able to find answers to either one of these questions. I'm hoping it's something easy to solve, and I just missed it.

Usually if the problem is only with certain files then the problem is usually with the file itself,as for the audio not showing up after encodeing ,that is a very common problem and it usually has to do with an incompatible audio format, extracting the audio from your avi to wav usually solves that problem,and encodeing the last frame forever ,there is probably a corrupted frame at the end of the avi from an editing error or something, but you can easily cut off the repeating frame at the end of the mpeg file...

My biggest concern is the memory issue. I've tried two other files, and they've had the exact same problem. They start off fine, but while it takes a half-hour to encode the first 5 minutes of the file, the next 3 minutes take several hours. And by the time it gets to around 8 1/2 minutes in (after, say 4 hours or so), the program grinds to a halt.

Have you tried un-installing Tmpgenc and then re-downloading it and installing it again ?sometimes that can fix mysterious problems...I am surprised that your computer takes so long to encode, a half an hour to encode 5 minutes is a long time,I get about 20 minutes of mpeg1 per hour on a 800mhz system and about 13 minutes of mpeg2..

How do i do if i want to "program" tmpgenc so it converts movie after movie,
So i can leave it running over night for example?

Create project files from each movie then click File>Batch encode and add all projects and run.

ASHY

Thanks

After I encode from avi to mpeg1 or mpeg2 using TMPGEnc it plays on Windows Media Player but when I try to play it on WinDVD I get the sound but the screen is completely pink. I have heard about the angel codec but how do I find out if it is on my system.

Thanks

You mean you don't know yourself whether you installed it or not?
What operating system are you using I will tell you where to look or if want you could just have a look using TMPG.
Just click File>Output to file>AVI file then click the 'setting' button on the right near the video field. A video compression box will pop up. You should be able to see a list of the codecs on your system in the drop down menu.

ASHY

I checked as Ashy suggested and I don't have the angel codec installed. What else could cause this? I am using Windows 98SE with Premiere, exporting as AVI and as I said after encoding the MPEG File plays in Windows Media Player. I can play AVI files on Win DVD but the MPEG files are completely pink with normal sound.

Thanks Simon

Go to Control Panel.
DblClick add/remove programs.
Here you might find the Angel sh...
remove it if it's there

I made 2 SVCD images to burn using VCDxBuild. The first BIN burned just fine but the second one was just a touch too long to burn on an 80-min CDR. I wanted to cut the file down by 30 seconds, but I had already deleted the original MPG file. I downloaded WinISO to extract the MPG from the BIN file but TMPGEnc (which I used to make the original MPG) says the extracted MPG is not a valid MPEG file. Is this a problem with WinISO? What can I do to extract a valid MPEG from that BIN file and use TMPGEnc to cut off the end?

Don't bother extracting at all, just overburn the CD. You should be able to burn about 820mb on most CDR's using overburn.

Both NERO and VCDeasy have this option.

ASHY

I found that VCDEasy will burn only at 1x speed on my burner without causing errors. I use CDRWin 4.0 which works wonderfully, but my burner reports "Won't accept CUE sheet." I'll try VCDEasy, thanks.

I use VcdGear to extract SVCD from BIN files, I have tried CDmage, but it always errors out. You are correct about WINISO, it doesn't produce a valid mpeg layer for some reason. Typically after getting a mpeg out of VCDGear I will use a custom template in TMPGenc to make a XSVCD, that way I can make it fit either way, more or less onto a 80min CDR. You have to create and save your unlocked template so that you can make changes to those settings that are normally ghosted out. I am not sure if I am getting reduced bitrates from VCDGear from what it should be, but by the time I get done using TMPGenc I get goods video.

Try useing "nero" to burn,it is a lot more user friendly than vcdeasy and vcdgear and it wont cause errors while burning, well not for me anyway.....

I downloaded NERO and ran an OVERBURN test. It said I could only overburn 1:05 with that disc (but it only worked in RAW mode). The BIN file is 80:33, but when I ran the overburn it couldn't write the lead out track. I tried this twice. I use an HP CD-Writer 9100. Is this a problem with my writer or is there another brand of media that overburn better? I use Verbatim 80min. Thanks

It seems like you've got a dodgy writer. I've heard many a story about problems with HP writers. I don't think it's the Verbatim disks as they usually overburn quite well. I have had 830mb from Verbatim.
You could use ISO buster to extract the MPEG and then try overburning with NERO.
Nero will allow you to set the amount of overburn you wish in the preferences.

Next time I would do a simulation first rather than waste a disk.

ASHY

I am having audio sync problems after joining mpeg files encoded using TMPGEnc.

Problems.

at each join-point; video pauses for fraction of second; audio continues
my software-DVD player on computer crashes at end of video;
I see that in some scenes, audio follows/behind video by fraction of second.

below steps I followed.

1. Added text to DV-AVI(NTSC?) files and encoded in
DV -AVI-(NTST?) format using VideoWave
-- each piece is about 6-10 minutes; I have limited disk space
2. Encoded each piece to PAL-VCD using TMPGEnc; highest quality;
de-interlace-odd-adaptation; crop-left2-bottom-8;
fullscreen-arrange-keep-aspect ratio2
3. So I get about 10-11 separate mpg files.
4. I combine all mpeg files using TMPGEnc cut/merge tool
unger File->MPEG tools
5. Then I burn my VCD using VCDEasy1.1.1
-- i see some warning saying its okey TMPGEnc signature n times
if i combined n files! and couple of APS warnings
6. I see that when I play the mpeg, after each piece (where it was joined)
video pauses for some time; audio still continues;
and (my software DVD player crashes at the end of the video)
stand alone dvd player-samsung is okey.

Anybody knows how to fix these.. please reply.

This is just a thought but your sync problems could be related to the fact that you are encodeing a "ntsc" file to "pal", the frame rate change between "ntsc" and "pal" would make your audio and video go out of sync..The easy way to fix this is to encode your ntsc avi to ntsc mpeg...but Ashy is the pro when it comes to "ntsc to pal" conversions....

my mpegs look like crap! can i get the flow of the movie as a whole to look better with this program? the movement looks as if the the movie is still being watched on the computor when i burn it onto a vcd. the detail is only good on a scene if nothing is moving. i tried the motion setting and even if i followed through i can justify 33hours for half a movie. is there another way? please help!

Tell us what you are doing so we can tell you what to do differently..The best way to increase quality is to raise the bitrate, the standard vcd template has a bitrate that isn"t going to give you the best quality but it is the standard bitrate for vcd, load the "unlock.mfc" template, then you can change the settings....You said it takes 33 hours to encode half a movie?What are you running a 133mhz?You odviously need a faster cpu,you can get a p4 2.0ghz for $750 in the states and that is the cheapest I have ever seem a cpu that fast..

"..The best way to increase quality is to raise the bitrate,"
Is it really that simple? I am not a programmer nor an video professional. I know that with digital cameras, the greater the number of pixels, the better the picture. Are you saying that the same thing applies with "bitrate"? Does the higher bitrate advice apply to the original filming "capturing"?? of the image or movie, or does it apply to the encoding part, or to both? Can you take a standard avi file of a tv show and improve the quality of the picture by encoding it at a higher bitrate?
I went to the MPEG setting screen of the TMPG encoder and tried to raise the bitrates... seems impossible to change the default. How do I unlock this? Finally... is there any 1 or 2 hard copy books or online tutorial sites that you can reccommend so that I can teach myself some of the basics and not drive you guys nuts?

You really can"t make the quality of your mpeg better than the avi that was the source,mpeg is for video compression not a video enhancement,yes it would be better to use a higher bitrate while captureing that will give you a better result..The higher the bitrate the more the encoded or captured file will look like the original,but you cant really make it look better than the original, you can apply filters and such to clean up the file but to make it actually better is a long shot.Go to "www.vcdhelp.com" they have lots of info on mpeg and captureing and vcd"s and stuff like that,it is a veritable fountain of information.....To change the "bitrate " you have to load the "unlock.mfc" template in the "extra" folder, this will unlock "ALL" the settings in "tmpgenc.

I have a mpeg2 720x480, 29.97 fs file produced by VideoWave 4.0 encoded it with TMPGENC, video worked but no sound coming out. Please help.

There a few reasons that your audio would not work ,the most common is that your audio track is of a format that is not supported by "tmpgenc",try extracting the audio to a "wav" file with "virtual dub" and use that as you audio source......

I cant get Tmpgenc to Frameserv with VirtualDUB. Ive gone up and down www.vcdhelp.com and still no results. Tmpgenc freezes everytime I try to frameserv to it, then I have to "ctrl+alt+del" to get out.

I've done everything installed the VFAPI pluggin so tmpgenc can accept *.vdr files, Set the enviromental settings, even tired differnt version of Tmpgenc v2.51- 2.54a and VirtualDub 1.4.7 -1.4.10 (installed frameserv handlers) all with no success. I believe Tmpgenc doesnt frameserv.

Correct me if Im wrong.

TMPG frameserves fine here, looks like you've tried everything it seems, so don't really know what the problem is.

Give this a go. Go to Options>enviromental setting>VFAPI plugin and uncheck everything except the 'AVI VFW compatibility reader' and raise it's priority to 2.

If that doesn't work maybe it's the movie itself that you are framserving. Have you tried to frameseve a different movie, maybe try just a small sample and see what happens, because I remember having a similar problem with a movie a long time ago and it was the movie not TMPG.

If not, what is it you are using Virtualdub to frameserve for? As I may have an alternative for you.

ASHY

Another good way of testing whether the frameserver is working or not, is to start the frameserver and instead of trying to open the framserver file with TMPG, start up another instance of Virtualdub and try and open the framesever file with that.
If it works ok you know it's TMPG related. If it doesn't it means the frameserver isn't set up correctly.

ASHY

Hi,

I have a question about getting subtitles into my vcd movie.
I us virtual dub and tmpgenc tot add the subs. I use frameserver in v.dub and than create the movie with tmpgenc. Only if i do that i get some strange pink blur in the movie, and when i dont put subtitles in the movie the movie is normal. I know about the enviromental settings in Tmpgenc and how tot get the blur out of a movie, but i dont know how to get it out with subtitles.

Sorry fot the bad englisch.

greetings JW

This has been happening quite a bit lately. We use VirtualDub to separate the .wav file from the .avi. We then use TMPGENC and use the .avi as the video source, and the .wav as the audio source. We first see "creating temporal wave file" and it works through to 100%. TooLame then begins in a DOS window and we see the following: "Parsing wave file header, 44.1Hz sampling frequency selected, input file D:/...mpa_38.wav, ouptput file d:/...mpa_39.mpa. After a bit of processing we get "TooLame has generated errors; File d/...mpa_30.mpa can not be opened" and tmpgenc closes. Are we doing something wrong or is there just a problem with the film so we cannot convert it. We are trying to convert .avi to .mpg so we can create VCD's. Any ideas or suggestions?? Thanks in advance.....

It seems that there is either an error in your "wav" file or there is something wrong with "toolame", try useing a different audio encoder like "scmpx" ,or the default encoder that is built in "tmpgenc", When i have problems like this I sometimes use "db power amp" to encode the wav to "mp2" then multiplex the audio with the video..This is a long shot but try raising the priority of the "wav file reader" in the "vfapi plugins"

>This has been happening quite a bit lately. We use VirtualDub to separate the .wav file from the .avi. We then use TMPGENC and use the .avi as the video source, and the .wav as the audio source. We first see "creating temporal wave file" and it works through to 100%. TooLame then begins in a DOS window and we see the following: "Parsing wave file header, 44.1Hz sampling frequency selected, input file D:/...mpa_38.wav, ouptput file d:/...mpa_39.mpa. After a bit of processing we get "TooLame has generated errors; File d/...mpa_30.mpa can not be opened" and tmpgenc closes. Are we doing something wrong or is there just a problem with the film so we cannot convert it. We are trying to convert .avi to .mpg so we can create VCD's. Any ideas or suggestions?? Thanks in advance.....

Try another toolame compile:
http://www.macdvd.org/trnsz/Compiles/TooLAME-0.2i-Win32.zip - this should be a most stable.

Thought everybody may like to take a look at these very interesting templates which claim to able to fit 120 mins of high quality video on to an 80min cd.

I must say I have done a small test with these templates and the rsults are suprisingly good.

Check 'em out here: http://www.kvcd.net

ASHY

Hmmm,

at the first impression the quality seems not that appealing. I tried around with the first minute of Starship Troopers which is rather bitrate intensive.
The best I can get with the templates is 11 MB/min for kvcd and 13MB/min for the kvcdx2 template. Since CQ is used in the Templates I also tried the kvcd template on an calm 1 minute scene which came out 9 MB/min. So even on an 90 Min CD-R this is 'only' 100 Minutes at max
Quality was subjectively worse than my encoding of the movie with 2Pass VBR 800/1350/1750 VCD and a test with CQ 800/1750 Quality 85 VCD

Btw.: I didnt change the templates to 2 Pass VBR since this only makes sense on long scenes or better full movies cause 2Pass will check the whole movie and then allocates the bitrate on that result. 2Pass VBR WILL force the average bitrate so if you use the source range to encode an short scene with lots of action the quality of that scene can be worse than encoding the whole movie.
Well, I have to do more tests when I get time but I recon the VBV buffer size needs a change with the new GOP structure, definitely for the kvcdx2 templates.

Update:

I forgot something to say. Since the movie was squashed I did my tests with Full Screen. While reading the Forum at kvcd.net I realized why I got so high MB/mins
Quote from kwag:
----
Full screen videos have more visible pixels than a wide screen 16:9 ( with black bars ).
That's why the file size is larger.
The templates work best with 16:9 videos.
With full screen, you might get 90 minutes or so in a 80 minute CD-R.
----

Silly me.

The test I did came out fine. Got around 6.5mb/min and the quality was fine. Not much evidence of blockiness. I preferred the kvcdx2 templates these seem to have the best quality regarding file size.

I think these templates are pretty good. I mean 2 hrs on one CD, thats quite an achievment and the quality is better than you would expect.
I gonna do some further tests with these templates and raise the bitrate to see what would happen with a shorter movie of say 90mins.

ASHY

Sorry,

seems I got fooled by my Mpeg Player(xine) which maybe didnt like the GOP Structure.
I played it with another player on my Windows Box and burned it on CD-RW. The picture quality is very good. Unfortunately my Yamakawa 715 wont play mpeg1 streams with to high bitrates. The kvcdx2 sample was a mess on my player :(
With the kvcd I get some audio and video glitches here and there too *sigh*

>Thought everybody may like to take a look at these very interesting templates which claim to able to fit 120 mins of high quality video on to an 80min cd.
>
>I must say I have done a small test with these templates and the rsults are suprisingly good.
>
>Check 'em out here: http://www.kvcd.net
>
>ASHY

Thanks for trying it out Ashy.
I'm Glad you liked them! :)

kwag
http://www.kvcd.net