FAO - Ashy.

Hi, Ihave read quite a few posts on converting pal-ntsc, and as you say a standalone player can play both formats, but thats providing there're region free. So If I wanted to play a pal DVD in Canada, the player could play it but the TV would need to be multi-region or not? As i have multi region tv, so i can set it NTSC, then play region free NTSC DVD's ! is this right or do they need to be re-encoded?. My reason is my uncle in canada had dvd's given as gifts whilst visitin here(UK) but never thought about them being PAL region2. And had asked if I could re-encode the films.
Thanks for any help. Will keep checking my post.
MickC.

If your player is not multiregion then it won't play Region 2 PAL disks.
However if it is mutiregion then as long as your TV can accept a PAL signal then there should be np problem.
Many DVD players can be made mutiregion if they are not already by just using the remote control and keying in a code.

However if the is not and cannot be made multiregion then the only option is to rip the DVD to your HDD and strip the region coding from the DVD and then burn the movie on to a DVDR.

This can be done quickly and simply with a program called Smartripper.
The only problem is that in most cases you won't be able fit the whole of the DVD's contents on the DVDR.
Usually you can fit the movie only on the DVDR without re-encoding.

If losing the Menu's and extra features doesn't bother you then use Smartripper to rip the movie only to your HDD and then burn it to DVDR and it should then play fine on your DVD player.

As an alternative there is an excellant program called 'DVD shrink' which will very quickly compress the whole of the DVD to fit a regular DVDR. It will rip the DVD, strip the region coding and encode it and then, if required burn it too and best of all is free.

Thanx for quick reply,
I do have the films myself (region free PAL) copied with DVD Decrypter, as they were already ripped by others. So if My uncle's TV will except the PAL signal, I could just send him a copy of them I guess! If not I would need to do the encode thing with pulldown2/3 etc. to change to NTSC?
I will find out.
Thanx again Ashy.

MickC

Hi,
I was wondering if it's possible to use TMPGEnc to create an MPEG file simillar to the MPEGs that digital cameras produce.

With some digital cameras (like sony cybershot series), you can also capture a short clip and store it on the camera's memory card. later you can connect the camera to a TV and watch the clip. or watch the clip on the lcd display of the camera. Now if it was possible to encode movies and put them on the camera, the camera would work like a tiny video player.

just to clearify, my question is about "Picture digital camera" (NOT camcorders)

in case anybody is interested, you can download a sample clip from the actual camera here: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_p50-review/

It depends on whether you are able to download data from your PC to the memory card.

Copying the movie back to the camera is easy. When you connect the camera to the pc, it will be seen as a new drive on the pc and you can move the files to/from it.
I tried to encode a few clips with same resolution as the mpegs from the camera. and copy them back to the camera. but the camera says they are not compatible and won't play them.

You need to find out the specs of the MPEG's your camera creates.
I think they will likely be MPEG4 not MPEG1 or 2.
Most cameras I have seen create Quicktime files in .mov format which is a form of MPEG4.

Something like GSPOT will tell you info about the file or one I prefer is http://www.freecodecs.net/files/Media_Info_0.4.0.1.zip
The things you need to consider for the camera to accept the file is the format, I.E. MPEG4/Quicktime, the resolution and the frame rate, also the audio format will likely play a part in it too.

You need to find out the exact specs of the files your camera creates and match the above parameters with your own files.

Thank you Ashy for the suggestion.
This is what I got when I checked an mpeg file created by the camera, with MediaInfo:

General
Complete name : D:DigitalCameraMOV00139.MPG
File size : 287 KB
Format : MPEG 1 multiplexer
Overal bitrate : 183 KBps
PlayTime : 12s 840ms
Video #0
Codec : MPEG Video 1
Bit rate mode : VBR
Width : 160
Height : 112
Aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 25
Audio #0
Codec : MPEG Audio 1 layer 2
Bit rate : 32 KBps
Channels : 1
Sampling rate : 32 KHz

I set everything in TMPGEnc according to it and encode a short clip. but the resulting mpeg file didn't play on the camera.

Next, I opened the original mpeg with Virtualdub and this is what it reports in "File Information"

-- Video track ---------------------
# of frames (time) : 324(0:12)
Number of I,P,and B frames : 108/216/0
I-frame min/avg/max/total frame size : 951/1885/2304/(199K)
P-frame min/avg/max/total frame size : 19/19/19 (5K)
B-frame min/avg/max/total frame size : (no B-frame)
Average bitrate : 129 Kbps (16B/s)
-- Audio track ---------------------
Format : 32KHz mono, 32Kbps layer II
# of frames : 360
Total size : 51K

As you can see, the mpeg has no B-frame.
Also the value for "P-frame min/avg.." is 19/19/19. I checked a few other clips from the camera and in all of them the value for "P-frame .." is the always the same (i.e 19)

I played arround with settings in TMPGEnc (specialy in "GOP structure" tab) but couldn't find the right settings to create such an mpeg file. So I guess my question is how do I set it up? or if it's even possible to create an mpeg like this with TMPGEnc?

I use these settings to get the picture right on my TV (Samsung 28"):
Center(custom size): 640x520

What is the absolute best, slowest settings for encoding AVI for eventual mastering to DV? Disc space and waiting time is not an issue.

I can't seem to set the bitrate over 8000 in CBR. Is there a way to bypass that?

wonder girl

Use CQ-Mode (Constant Quality VBR).

Max = 9600 - Audio-Bitrate
Min = around 4000-6000
Q=74-85

I'm not sure I understand what you are doing or why you are encoding AVI to MPEG and then to DV, but you're obviously using one of the DVD templates to create your output which is limiting the max bitrate.

Just unlock the settings after loading the template. Click the 'Load' button the navigate to the 'Extra' folder in the 'Template' folder.
In the 'Extra' folder double click the 'Unlock.mcf'

After using TMPGEnc to encode an .avi so I can burn a DVD I have two files, one for the video and a .wav file for the audio. When I try to load these into Nero to burn a video DVD it recognizes the video file but not the audio file. How can I author a DVD in Nero from a TMPGEnc encoded file?

Author with 'TMPGenc DVD author' first.

How do I transcode a VCD or SVCD movie to DVD?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

No point in transcoding a VCD as it's already DVD compatible. Just needs authoring with TMPGENC DVD author.

does anyone know if tmpgenc will run on a mac?
thanks

NO.

Hallo

I want to know if is possible to change the Iframe GOP (every 15frames default)
The reason is because I cannot make frame accurate chapter in authoring DVD.
I work in PAL (25fr/sec) and it should be better (and logical) if the Iframe would be every 5 frames.

Thank for your answer.

Giò

Sure you can change this. No problem so far. But on shorter GOPs, you need more Bitrate to get high quality.

You can also force TMPGEnc to set frames you want as I-Frames. That's done by using force picture type setting.
And on some Authoring tools like DVDLab, you are able to use Frame-indexed Chappter settings.

What you intend to do will seriously increase the size of the output if you use a VBR method and will also need a higher bitrate if you use a CBR method. Surely a chapter every 15 frames is enough, that's almost one every half a second.
If you need the odd specific chapter then use the 'force picture type setting' as suggested.

Hello, Ashy, how are you?

I hope fine.

Thank for your answer.
15frsec is a 30frsec (NTSC) splitting second.
PAL is 25frsec. GOP every 10fr or 5fr will be better for PAL videos.
What, exactly, is affected from this change? Quality? Jittering? Blocking?
Pixelation?

Thanks

Giò

>GOP every 10fr or 5fr will be better for PAL videos.
No not really. I don't know why you think this.
In fact it can have a detrimental effect on the quality.

Also the frame rate doesn't really matter to the GOP length. A GOP is created per the set GOP length or at a scene change.

DVD's are limited by the bitrate they can handle.
Use too many I-frames in a GOP and the bitrate runs short causing blocks and pixelation effects.

Most commercial DVD's use a length of 12-15 frames in a GOP.
I would prefer 15 myself because of the better compression and higher bitrates that can be used when using 4.7GB disks.

>Use too many I-frames in a GOP and the bitrate runs short causing blocks and pixelation effects.

Sorry that may not make sense to you. I know what I was driving at in my head, but explained it wrong.

What I mean is that each GOP has an 'I' frame, the shorter the GOP the more 'I' frames are created. The more 'I' frames the higher the bitrate needs to be and thus larger file size and/or pixelation.

Thank you, Ashy.

The reason of my question is to have more chances to choose the right I-frame (for chapter) without take the beginning or the final of a cross dissolve or a video effect.

Probably, at every 12fr/sec, could be the right way for PAL_video. What is your opinion?

Giò

Well I suppose you could get away with it as long as the movie isn't too long. However as has already been mentioned you can force an 'I' frame wherever you want, so if you where to say add 20 chapters to the movie, you could decide where those chapters would be without sacrificing compression efficiency.

The only way would be to just try it and see how things turns out.

OK!

I'll make a try and then I'll notice to you the results.
However the movie is 32min long and, for the "Murphy's Law", some chapters go in the middle of 10fr cross dissolve....

Thank you and Ciao.

Giò

TMPGEnc Plus Ver. 2.521.58.169
Encoding a .mov to MPG2 at highest quality settings.
The program will start to encode and anywhere from and hour to three hours into the video, I get an error message simply stating that the program has encountered an error and must shut down. After a minute or so, TMPGEnc closes. This has been very frustrating because it did work for a awhile. Has anyone else had this problem?
I wish we were able use older versions with our Plus license. They worked great.
Specs:
Pentium 4 on Windows 2000
Use Avid DVXpress to edit video and output to quicktime file.
Final length of program is anywhere from a half hour to forty five minutes. My temporary drive has at least thirty gigs. That should be enough.
Thanks.

I created an avi file with slide show movie maker, 320x240 23.976 f/s 24bit divx. when I try to create an mpg the pictures do not show up on the preview or the disk only the music. I have tried the vcd ntsc and ntsc film neither will work.

everytime I want tot start tmpgenc I get the message runtime error etc. What can I do??

I am trying to convert an avi movie to vcd. The problem I encounter is that there are two audio tracks, and the default one is not english. Tmpgenc chooses the default audio stream from the avi file when I really want the english stream. Is there any way to work around this?

Am joining mpeg2 quality (DVD) files together and after merge join finishes the new file has no audio .. I've pressed the correst button (version 2.51 free)
anyone have any solution . it dosnt always do this .. but when it does it will always do it to the group of files I'm trying to merge

thanks

oh .. and the files contain pcm stereo and all files I create are the same quality and from the same source .. so why do i sometimes get no audio ??

TMPG will not merge MPEGs with PCM or AC3 only MPEG audio.

thanks ..

I'll have to find somehing that will

Try ProjectX or MPEG2Schnitt (<-- German Program). Both are able to do that.