The color after encoding is not as vivid as the original
mini DV to TV.
I see one of the setting saying that the color reduced by 1/4
that it cannot be changed. How come?

can anyone explain that?

What Setting Are You Talking About????

The setting you are talking about may not be the reason for what you are seeing.

NTSC DV is 4:1:1 color sampling and DVD mpeg is 4:2:0. Conversion between the two will cause the loss of half the color samples and there is no way around it.

In the following patterns, color samples shown with an "x" demonstrate that half the DV samples are lost when converting to DVD Mpeg.

DV:

x o o o x o o o
x o o o x o o o
x o o o x o o o
x o o o x o o o

Mpeg MP@ML (DVD):

x o x o x o x o
o o o o o o o o
x o x o x o x o
o o o o o o o o

Mpeg 422P@ML (the proper archival format for DV source):

x o x o x o x o
x o x o x o x o
x o x o x o x o
x o x o x o x o


People should be up in arms about a grossly inefficient 25Mbs format that ends up with such poor color resolution when put on DVD. I have never bought a DV camcorder for this reason so it's good to see that Mpeg camcorders are starting to come on the market.

Thanks so much wcpaul.

So the best archiving solution for those precious moment
would be storing the original avi files in DVD for
this time being. Do you agree?

How about keeping the tapes until Blu-ray discs (36GB) become reasonable. That will be the ultimate solution!

Files stored on DVD are handier than tape but 4.4GB is pretty small and there are file size limitations. The burning software I use for DVD-R allows only 1GB files. DVD-RAM works with bigger files. Maybe +-RW discs can go to 4.7GB.

Virtually lossless Mpeg can be done at 10-15Mbs using a profile that allows 4:2:2 color sampling (MP@HL, 422P@ML). You need to decide whether the file savings is worth the effort and whether you would risk discarding the original tape.

In either case, highly compressed Divx is good for reference files containing text slates that point to the tapes and DVDs containing the original material.

You are very knowledgeable, wcpaul.

Would you show me hints how to do the
"virtually lossless mpeg at 10-15mbs with profile 4:2:2 color
sample (MP@HL, 422P@ML)"?
I tried unlock profile but what you
said was not available.

I was reading through the forum and a lot of people put "Mr." in the subject line. What is this supposed to mean? I know this is off topic but I just want to know what it is.

Thanks.

I have No Idea what it is For But it is Annoying as hell....

Yeh goddam annoying.
I don't answer these posts and I'm surprised minion does too. If they can't be assed putting a proper subject name then I can't be assed answering it.

Hello,

I encoded NTSC video using TMPGEnc. I burned the resulting MPEG-2 file onto a DVD-RW and viewed the video using a set top player and a production monitor, which I carefully set up using PremiereÃÔ NTSC colour bars; the bars were fed to the monitor directly from the timeline, using an RCA-BNC cable.

The MPEG-2 video, viewed from the DVD-RW/set top player on that same monitor, is much darker than the original AVI video (viewed from the timeline).

I tried disabling the ÅÐutput basic YCbCREoption in TMPGEnc and re-encoding, and while it certainly improves it, it is still darker than the original AVI.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Tom.

@tom101

I had this same problem. I finally solved it by letting AviSynth do the color conversion instead of the avi codec.

TMPGEnc accepts RGB24. If you source is not RGB24, the avi codec does the conversion. Some codecs are not good in the conversion and you end up with washed out or darker looking colors.

Here is a very basic AviSynth script.

AviSource(put file name here)
ConvertToRGB24()

If your AVI file is interlaced use
ConvertToRGB24(interlaced=true)

This worked for me.

VideoGuy

Any experiences?
(I have only dvd-rom in pc...)
As long as you want?
No limits at all in svcd specs?

As long as you like. There is no limitation apart from the quality aspect.

i wanted to know is...is it possible just to put the VOB files...the movie part excluding the rest of IFO and BUP files into Author and make into DVD???will it recognise it properly???????

Yes...

I am evaluating TMPGEnc 2.520.54.163, and trying to split a mpeg file.

I select MPEG2 - SuperVideoCD, that is the option I generated the file, add the file, and, allways, when I push Edit bottom the program abort.

My system is Windows 2K SP4, and the file system NTFS.

Any sugestion?

Try raiseing the Priority of the Mpeg2 Decoder in the Vfapi Plugins, this might help...

Hi, I put it the first one and the problem remains. Thank you.

Hi, I put it the first one and the problem remains. Thank you.

Well Then i would sugest that you Use a Different Mpeg editor...

Hi, I have fix the problem!!!. I do not know why, but I can tell you how. :-)

Following your advice I began to look for another editor. I have tried several, but at the end I have downloaded and installed Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder kit ver 2.0. After that I have tried again to split the mpg file and then, it worked!!!.

Thank you. If you have some explanation of that it will welcome.

Isn't it possible to produce some usable output from the search engine?
I find it very hard to use.

I agree with you.
It use to be a lot better. The old search engine would simply bring up old posts in the same format as the regular posts, but when Pegasys took over distribution of TMPG they went and cocked it up by using this crappy search format.

A few questions for the experts over here:

- Does anyone know where to find software to analyse a VBR mpeg1/2 file?
I wanna know how high a bitrate is produced by TmpgEnc
- what are the min/max bitrates in the (S)VCD books for MPEG1/2 VBR.

Thanks,

Hendrik

I found some answers on this page:

http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/manuals/0.7/vcdimager.html

The movies I make for VCD 2.0 cd's are MPEG1 VBR. I burn them with nero
and the play fine on my standalone DVD. But they are not supported
by the VCD 2.0 standard?

My CD - MPEG1 VBR (2.2 Mbit/sec)
VCD 2.0 - MPEG1 CBR (1.1 Mbit/sec)
SVCD 1.0 - MPEG2 VBR (max 2.6 Mbit/sec)

I am confused. Can someone tell me what is going on?

Cheers.

I found some answers on this page:

http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/manuals/0.7/vcdimager.html

The movies I make for VCD 2.0 cd's are MPEG1 VBR. I burn them with nero
and the play fine on my standalone DVD. But they are not supported
by the VCD 2.0 standard?

My CD - MPEG1 VBR (2.2 Mbit/sec)
VCD 2.0 - MPEG1 CBR (1.1 Mbit/sec)
SVCD 1.0 - MPEG2 VBR (max 2.6 Mbit/sec)

I am confused. Can someone tell me what is going on?

Cheers.

What are you confused about.
Like you say your MPEGs are not VCD 2.0 standard. So what? Your DVD player plays them, so what's the problem. DVD players are not VCD players so why should it be limited to playing the VCD 2.0 standard only. DVD players are VBR machines by design so it only makes sense that they can handle VBR MPEG1 movies.

http://www.tecoltd.com/bitratev.htm

Thanks for BV.EXE. Now I can finaly analyse if TmpgEnc uses the max bitrate I give it for encoding my movies.

I found that a too high VBR bitrate caused choppyness in DVD movie playback, both in sound and picture. Am I pushing my standalone DVD decoder chip to its max? Now I can see what has realy happened during mpeg encoding.
I set my max VBR to 4000 for mpeg1, CQ 75 to 80. I will see.
Thanks again.

It isn"t the really the Decoder chip in the DVD Player that is Limiting the Bitrate in your (S)VCD"s it is the Fact the the DVD Player can"t spin the CD-R fast enough to Read the Data at a High Bitrate so the Choppyness from Bitrate spikes is because the DVD Player is not able to Spin the Disk fast enough, and a Max or 4000kbs for VCD might be to high for a Lot of Players as the VCD standard is only 1150kbs and if your DVD Player can play SVCD then it might have a Faster drive in it so your VCD"s should be able to handle at least 2500kbs But It probably can"t go up to 4000kbs and if you DVD Player doesn"t play SVCD"s then it most definately will not to play VCD at 4000kbs ..If you have Problems playing files on your DVD player at 4000kbs Max then you should lower it to maybe 2500-3000kbs and if you are worried about the Quality then raise the Quality slider up to 75 or 85%..Tmpgenc has pretty Bad Bitrate controll and it spikes up higher than you set it so it is a Good idea to keep the Max down.....Cheers

Can I put "Detect Scene change" option on, if I want to do standard svcd?
Or do svcd need unchanged GOP?
I've understand that DSc adds more i-frames, if needed.
Right?

thanks, toke

Can I put "Detect Scene change" option on, if I want to do standard svcd?
Or do svcd need unchanged GOP?
I've understand that DSc adds more i-frames, if needed.
Right?

thanks, toke

Yes use 'Detect scene change'
Actually you should use this option in most cases, VCD,SVCD,DVD.
It simply places an I-Frame and begins a new GOP where the encoder detects a scene change.

Ok, so with svcd, dvd, vcd, etc. you can cut GOP whenever you want and start a new one with i-frame? GOPs don't have to be complete?

What do you mean complete?
What do you class as a complete GOP? Do you mean the GOP doesn't need to have the maximum amount of frames it is set for.
SVCD and VCD have no limitation in the GOP layer.
DVD is limited up to 15 frames per GOP for PAL and 18 for NTSC. The GOP doesn't need to have this amount of frames, this value is just the maximum that is allowed in the GOP.

Ok,
thanks a lot.
I have somehow been in belief that all these disc formats have fixed length of GOP.
So, it is possible to make eg. i-frame-only dvd video that is totally compatible with all standalone players as long as one keeps datarate in its limitations (9,8Mbps)?

btw, tmpgenc's help says:"NTSC DVD is restricted to a maximum of 36 frames"
So is it 18 or 36 and in PAL 15 or 30? Or are people just mixing fields and frames?

To be honest with you I have no idea why it says this in the TMPG info. I think it's an error and means fields. The limitation for DVD is definitely 15 for PAL and 18 for NTSC.
Here are some specs: http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/DVD/Book_B/Video.html

what does an I-Frame do?

An I-frame is used as the basis for every other frame in a GOP. It contains all the important data that makes up an image. The data in an I-frame is complete whereas the data in subsequent frames only contain data in the image that has changed from the previous or next frame.
This is how MPEG compression works as the frames only store data that has changed rather than the complete image. The decoder does the rest by working out what should have been in the frame by the data the I-frames contain.

An I-frame always begins at the start of a GOP and also an I-frame is usually created at a Scene change because the data in that scene has changed from the one previous so an I-frame is inserted so the the rest of frames can be encoded correctly.
An I-frame is harder to compress than other types of frames because because it contains more data, so it's not advisable to create an I-frame only MPEG unless there is some special reason for doing so.

I've got a movie whose AVI filesize is 699MB. I've exported the audio to a WAV file which is 92MB. I've used TMPGEnc and selected the original AVI as the video and the WAV as the audio (obviously). I'm using the wizard as I'm new to making VCD's and at the end of the process it shows that the output file is going to be approx. 1 GB! I've tried playing with the settings but nothing seems to decrease the file size. I'll take screenshots if anyone needs to se what I'm doing.

Sounds right for MPEG.
You need to split the movie between 2 disks.

>Sounds right for MPEG.
>You need to split the movie between 2 disks.

I was really hoping to get it to fit on one disk. Maybe it's time to step up to DVD authoring. Thanks.

Have you tried opening the file in virtualdub? know it sounds silly but I get this error a lot. Virtualdub will tell you its a problem with the vbr (or something) just save the file as a direct stream copy and load the new file into Tmpg

Richard I think you misunderstand the question. There is no error in the file.
This is just the final size the MPEG will be. The size is dependent on the length of the movie not the size of the original.

I got the impression that Jasmoe4 is trying to make a Xvcd since he mentioned the wizard. I know a vcd uses 1150kbits and therefore you can only get about 80 mins on a 700mb cd. I just thought I'd contrbute with something I'd learnt.

@jasmoe4: you can get up to 2 hours on a CD-R. Try www.molevcd.de
I use it always but don't expect DVD quality. More VHS I would say. But I can live with that ;O)

Cheers.

Hey lennyp75,
I probably have the same Panasonic as you have & I've also been trying to convert an SVCD with header trick, but have not had any success; wasted quite a few cds in the process. Have you had any luck since and if so would you like to share it? I've tried doing what Minion suggested in his reply to you, but still no luck. I guess I could just go out & buy another player that plays SVCDs, but that would be too easy.