I have an AMD athlon(tm)XP 2500 processor, two HDDs (120 gig & 200 gig), 512mbs of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (128mbs). I have TMPGEnc set at default settings, trying to encode from AVI to DVD format and I noticed some excessive blurring when I encode my movies....in some areas worse than others. I also had to change my XVID codec from nic's codec to a codec for AMD processors and I'm wondering if this would have anything to do with my AMD processor for the blurriness? Can somebody tell me how to get rid of this problem? I never had problems this bad like this and the movies I'm encoding are top quality AVIs (perfect picture & sound!)...and they're mostly DVDrips! Is there any adjustments or suggestions I can get from anybody about this problem so I can get better quality of videos?? I'd appreciate it very much!!

You need to explain what you mean by blurry in more detail. It could be you are talking about interlacing artifacts.
Where is this blurring most noticible?

Hi ashy.....I mean blurry as in...the background is blurry like you don't have your glasses on-type blurry. Sometimes you can't make out what is in the background (i.e.grass,dirt,mountains,etc.)....you can't tell whether or not it's grass or a blob of light green of something!...I tend to get a bit of distortion also as in the picture....Looks like it's getting ready to fall apart at times! It's mainly in the background of some scenes and sometimes it's the WHOLE PICTURE SCENE. You just can't make out what's what at times in some scenes. Like I said Ashy, before I encode these AVI movies into DVD format they're SUPERB(meaning....NO DISTORTION OR BLURRINESS!) Please help me out Ashy or somebody out there. I'd greatly appreciate it!!

My first advice is to remove you e current XVID codec and install the latest FFDSHOW which can be obtained here: http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/ffdshow-20040325.exe

Next go into the VFAPI plugins and raise the priority of the 'Directshow file reader' to 2 or 3.

You say you are using TMPG's default settings. Do you mean you are using the wizard and the DVD template?

What are the properties of your AVI? Is it interlaced and what's it's resolution.

Do you have any filters checked in the advanced settings?

Hi, I have an AVI with a size of 640x360. In Gspot, it says: (1.78:1)[=16:9]
What does that mean? Is it letterbox or anamorphic? I want to convert it to DVD and to preserve the widescreen. I am using a 4:3 TV though so I would want the black bars on the top and bottom. In the source video, the black bars are not present. So how would I go about converting it into MPEG-2?

It's anamorphic. You don't need to worry about the black bars. Just set your source as 16:9 and the output to 16:9. The DVD player will add the black bars.

Ok. But what about video arrange method? I'm worried about overscans on my 4:3 TV. It won't be too much overscan right?

To be honest Sakuya I think it's time you saved yourself some messing about and got that TV sorted if it's that bad. If you know anybody with a bit of technical knowledge you can ask it's just a matter of adjusting a simple preset in the back of the TV.

However if you don't want to go down that route then the procedure is the same as before.
The thing you should understand though is that most TV's have a certain amount of overscan so some of the movie will be clipped compared to what you see on your monitor.
You shouldn't really worry about this because it is unlikely you will miss anything that is at all important to the movie.
Every program you will see on TV will have some part missing from the edges and this will be accounted for by the program makers.
Even at the cinema there will be a small part obscured in the black area around the screen to help account for distortion in the edges of picture.

What I am saying is that there is a small percentage at the edges of any movie which is expected to be lost anyway that you are not really meant to see even though you are able to view it on your monitor.

Hey,

I'm currently converting a few DivX files to MPEG using TMPGEnc. However, a lot of the source material contains color bleed where bright colors clash. Is there any filter or special setting I can apply in TMPGEnc to *attempt* to reduce the problem?

Thanks in advance :)

No, but you will find filters in Virtualdub that can help with this.

I created a DVD using TMPGenc, but found that my field order was reversed so i extracted the mpeg file from the Video TS back to Mpeg and tried to open it with TMPGenc. Now the file would not open (error message, unable to open file).

I was able to demux the file using Tools, but not open the file for encoding. I changed the priority of the Directshow to 2 as previous mail suggested, but no luck. Why is the programme not recognising a file which it created in the first place?

(btw I extracted the mpeg from the VOB using Ulead's import function, it's the only way I know how)

Rgs
Al

Like Media Player or other Tools, TMPGEnc needs an MPEG2-DirectShow-Filter to open MPEG2-Files. Windows does not include such a filter. You have to install a Software-DVD-Player or a Tool like ffdshow.

There's no need to re-encode your Video just for the reason of Field-Order-Changing. There are several Tools like ReStream or Project X, which are able to patch the File within seconds.

PULLDOWN.EXE and it's GUI will also reverse the field order.
As for extracting MPEGs from VOBS, you can use TMPG to do this with individual VOBS or to do it with a complete set you can use VOBEDIT.

An MPEG2 codec for TMPG can be obtained at the link below:
http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/

Thks v much for tips, Ashy and folks. I have downloaded Pulldown and hope it works. Meanwhile, how do u extract the MPEG from VOB using TMPGENc? I tried looking once but couldnt figure it out.

Thks again!

>An MPEG2 codec for TMPG can be obtained at the link below:
>http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/

To demux a VOB with TMPG you need to use the de-multiplexer in the MPEGtools.
However this only works for individual VOBS. To demux a set to a complete movie file you will need to use VOBEDIT.

I have converted avi to mpeg. But the audio didn't come out.
I've got information from Gspot
video codec: XviD
audio codec: ac3 (0x2000) Dolby Laboratories, Inc

I've installed ac3filter but it still doesn,t work.
Anyone know what the problem is?

Wrong filter, you need 'AC3 ACM decompressor'.

I've installed AC3 ACM decompressor but still doesn't work. Anymore suggestion?
TQ

If you have installed it correctly it should work.
Try raising the priority of the 'Directshow file reader' in the VFAPI plugins to 2 or 3.

To check for audio click the 'Setting' button under the 'Audio' tab and click 'Play'
If you don't hear audio here you won't have audio in the output MPEG.

If you still have problems then extract the AC3 to a wav with Virtualdub_ac3 and use that as the audio source for TMPG.

Okai, well I want to convert an .AVI file into a VCD-MPEG one, but I keep getting problems. First, I got the "WARNING : BFRAME LAG" error, but fixed it by reading a topic on the BBS. But now, after I finish encoding, I tried watching it, but the Video is very slow, while the Sound's normal. They don't synch with each others...

I don't understand, since it worked fine until yesterday. Anyone kows how to fix it ? I tried lots of things, but nothing seems to works...

When I run TMGEnc my computer SHUTS DOWN completely. No warning sign no crash it just turns off. This seems to happen when it encodes to about 10% and I cant figure it out what is going on and if you dont know pleas just tell me what you might think it is becuase I have no idea what to do. Thanks!

I was having similar problems today after changing my motherboard and CPU. I have temporarily solved it by changing the CPU settings in Option/Environment and unchecking everything.

I got a random selection of reboots, blue screen crashes and total lock ups so it seems that there is a problem with the way TMPGenc talks directly to the CPU.

Tomorrow I'll find out exactly what the problem was.

Bob.

I just encoded 30 mins of avi to vcd without a problem after unchecking 3DNow!

If you have an Athlon XP processor, that's your answer.

Bob.

Ok thanks I'll try doing what you said but I have an Intel processor but I'll see if it works regardless. Thanks.

Where is this 3DNow option?

Nevermind I found them.

Ok I tried what you said and no luck. It still shuts down. I'm completely stumped.

We have had stablity problems with an Athlon processor. Where is 3DNow and how do I uncheck it? Words of one syllable please!

3DNOW! is in the option menu under Environmental Setting.

My solution unchecking 3DNOW! was a temporary one and the PC still locks up occasionally in tmpgenc and anything else it feels like. I've just discovered that both my memory modules are corrupt and that I only get about 200MB out of 512. As soon as something hits the first corrupt bit the system does something peculiar. AMDs seem to be prone to problems and there are various solutions posted around the web. The most common problem, apparently, is overheating and I notice that the CPU temperature tends to rocket when doing a long encode at high priority on tmpgenc presumably because of the large amount of work it has to do (and it uses quite a bit of memory which is where my problem is). Make sure the CPU is a cool as possible. If it rises much above 60*c you are likely to suffer a crash.

Cheers,

Bob.

Thanks but I have an Intel. My computer must overheat fast cuz when i start it up cold in the morning it still crashes pretty quick.

I have solved all my crashing problems and to prove it have just encoded 2GBs worth of MPEG-2 in TMPGenc pretty fast without a hiccup.

I don't know exactly what the problem was. Either the memory was faulty or the wrong type of memory. My local guru reckons it was the wrong tye of memory which worked fine doing stuff like internet access, writing documents and so forth but couldn't deliver the goods when asked to do something more cpu and memory intensive like TMPGenc.

There is a free download available all over the web by the name of memtest-86. This requires you to create a bootable floppy which does nothing more than test the memory (and it's ability to function properly). This pointed me in the right direction and I have changed the old stuff for a different (slower, actually) type which now works perfectly.

Incidentally, to be on the safe side I have also installed a fairly powerful fan in the back of the box to keep the temperature down

Cheers,

Bob.

Thanks a lot. That all sounds pretty good but darn it, im not in the best spot money wise now to be buying new memory and such but we'll see. Thanks a ton for your help!

At least if you tested your memory with memtest-86 you'd know whether this was the problem and whether it was worth looking further into the problem.

Bob.

Hi, I am new to converting files to VCD but enjoying myself. I have several music videos that are very snowy when converted but perfect on the computer.
The files are all about 30mb each. I did some that were even smaller files and they came out perfectly. Not sure what settings to use on advanced.
I want to play them on a PAL TV . The source files are generally ripped from widescreen DVD. Sorry but instructions need to be for a total beginner. ]
Thanks carole

for some reason i keep losing my codecs
its kinda hard to explain,....but if i try and encode certain movie files
tmpg doesnt recognise them...were as before it did rcognise them.
as an example...if i open virtual dub...and choose video compression....most of my codecs are missing and now i only have 9 codecs to choose from were as before i had loads like.. divx codecs an such...which makes me think tmpg is looking for the ones that are now missing.
Also now if i try an encode with main concept ...it encodes half way then freezes

i had this problem before and i had to do a repair of windows to retreive the codecs which appeared back in virtual dub library.

is there something disabled thats not allowing me to use the codecs or has some software altered them

i have klite codec pack installed ...have tried reinstalling them but no joy.

any ideas appreciated.

Problem: klite codec pack

Solution: get rid of these ridiculous codec packs, which only cause nothing but problems, and only download and install each codec you need.

Since I'm thinking of converting an AVI movie to MPEG-2 for DVD, I was wondering what settings to use so that it can fit on a normal DVD-R (4.7GB; 120 minutes)? I am also thinking of including a still menu that I create in Photoshop, 4 small trailers in MPEG-1 format, 1 set of English subtitles, and chapter selections.

So what size should I set it to convert to so that it can fit on that DVD-R along with all of those other small things? By the way, I'm converting it to m2v because the audio is AC3.

And I forgot to add that the AVI file is in Xvid and the bitrate is 1468 kb/s. The movie is around 101 minutes long.

And why don't I ask this here too. For the subtitles, how do I make it so that they don't run off the screen (overscan)? They're currently in SSA format. When I made SVCDs with hard subs, I had to minus a 30 pixel border. So the SVCD size is 480x480 but I used a custom center size of 420x420. Now, what number should I position the removable subtitles for DVD so that they don't run off the screen? Thanks for any help!

To be on the safe side, use an Overscan-Area of 40 Pixels for the Subs.

For your Bitrate-Problem, don't use the Wizard, give Fit2Disc a try, the best Bitrate calculator for DVD and SVCD.

I have two MPEG-2 files created by TMPGenc at the same time and have identical size, aspect, bitrate and fps. The audio is identical. However merge/cut claims the videos are incompatible. Clearly something is wrong, any explanation?

Sorry, I should have added that I can't see a way to find out exactly what it thinks is different about the two files. Is there a way of logging what the problem is?

Maybe one is interlaced and one is progressive.

You can find out what the properties of each one is and therefore find what the difference is with 'Bitrate viewer'
http://www.tecoltd.com/bitratev.htm

Ashy, thanks.

That was exactly the difference. Now all I have to do is understand what that means and to find out how to ensure that TMPGenc is consistent.

Cheers,

Bob.

I see that different AVI codecs produce a different default MPEG encoding which is where my problem came from.

This begs two questions:

Question 1 is: How will it affect video quality if I choose a different encode mode and,
Question 2 is what is the best way of encoding, Interlace or Progressive?

Many Thanks,

Bob.

hi.
it is my first time, i want to create a vcd movie with tmpgenc, but I cant,when I open the program this ask me that i chose the option , I chose video movie then it ask me the file that i want to convert a mpeg file, I select the original movie (dvd drive d.) and in the screen appears many files video ts, audio ts and others, I dont know what I must to do.
could you somebody explain me, how this programm works
and if is possible to copy dvd and convert them a vcd with tmepg and vcdeasy

what i must do first

thanks.

TMPG is NOT an all in one DVD to VCD solution. It is simply an encoder. You will need some other programs to do this.

You can find guides how to do this with TMPG at DVDrhelp.com