Hello All,

I'm trying to use TMPGEnc for converting MPEG2 .ts files (transport streams) to MPEG2 program streams.

Here's what I do at the moment:

1. I record Formula 1 digital broadcasts with my satellite receiver.

2. I demux the resulting .ts files using ds.jar (a tool written in Java). I get two audio streams and one video stream as the result. I need both audio streams, since one of these is the track with commentary and the other one contains only ambient and engine sounds.

3. I remux the three streams into an MPEG2 SVCD-type program stream using TMPGEnc.

The resulting MPEG2 file plays correctly in any software DVD player (NVDVD, WinDVD), but they refuse to let me select the audio stream. I tried playing the stream with the otherwise excellent VideoLan client, but it cannot handle the SVCD-type streams and crashes after a few seconds. If, on the other hand, I convert the stuff into a regular MPEG2 program stream (and not an SVCD-type one) the resulting streams play both in software DVD players and in VideoLan. Best of all, VideoLan allows me to select the audio stream as well. The problem is, that if I mux a regular program stream instead of an SVCD one, the audio is out of sync by several seconds.

The problem is in step 3. If I use an SVCD stream, the resulting MPEG2 is in sync. If I use a regular program stream, it's not. Furthermore the fact that I have more than audio stream is irrelevant: If I just take a single audio track to mux with the video track, it's still out of sync.

I would also like to use TMPGEnc's Merge & Cut functionality to chop off the uninteresting parts from the beginning and the end of the stream. However, if I run it on my dual-audio MPEG stream, it throws away one of the audio tracks.

So, are these, in fact, bugs? And will they be fixed? Or does anyone know of software that:

a) allows the muxing of more than one audio stream into a standard MPEG2 program stream with proper sync?

b) has GOP-level MPEG2 cutting (I don't want to re-encode the video just because I want to chop off a minute in the beginning and a minute in the end) that handles more than one audio streams

- or -

a) plays an MPEG2 SVCD stream with multiple audio streams properly and allows selecting the track I want to be played?

Thanks!

No these aren"t Bugs as The Mpeg tools are "Officially" only supposed to be for files that were encoded By Tmpgenc..If you want to be able to edit Bulti stream Mpeg files then Try something like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" as it has a special option Just for De-Muxing TS Streams and it is Made For Frame accurate editing, Plus Tmpgenc"s Mpeg editing Function Does not Support Files that were encoded To VBR, and can cause sync Problems editing Files of this Kind...

I have tried MPEG2VCR, it does not allow more then one audio track per MPEG file so it's not an option. As for the tools in TmpgEnc being only for files created with TmpgEnc itself: MPEG2 is a standard, and if TmpgEnc can't handle them properly then it's broken. As for your remark about VBR: I'm not trying to use VBR files with it: the stuff comes from digital broadcast, hence it's CBR.

Try using BBMPEG. It will allow you to mux 2 audio streams and 1 video stream together.

Not True, Mpeg2Vcr does allow For Multiple Audio tracks While Muxing, You will see when loading audio files into the Muxer that there is a Dropdown Menu for all of the audio streams, You can even adjust The order of the audio tracks...As For Tmpgenc and Files Not encoded By Tmpgenc, if you read I think it is the Faq it clearly states that it doesn"t Officially support Mpeg2 files encoded By other encoders, Tmpgenc Files are a Little Different that other Mpeg files, Like if you Load a Tmpgenc File into VCDEasy it will give you some sort of error then is Says that iT is probably OK as the File was Probably encoded By Tmpgenc(Or something to that effect) as Not all Mpeg files are Created Equal even if there is a "Standard", Like Most Captured Mpeg files have a Different Data Structure than Other Mpeg files and Files encoded With a Hardware encoder Have a slightly Different Data structure, they are all Mpeg files Just created Differently,AS the Mpeg standard Does Have some leway Just because they conform to a standard doesn"t mean that they are all the same...

True MPEG2VCR does allow multiple audio tracks, but not for SVCD only program streams.

As for selecting audio streams in SVCD. You need to create a real SVCD first. I.E. burn it to disk then most MPEG players such as WinDVD will allow you to select the audio track.
You can't just run the MPEG from the hard dive, it needs to be formatted on disk first to be recognized as SVCD or use some sort of image creation program such as NERO and then load the image into Nero Image drive.

There is little program which comes with the MPEG2 VFAPI plugin that can cut frame accurate at the GOP level.
http://www.systranbox.com/systran/box?systran_lp=ja_en&systran_id=SystranSoft-en&systran_url=http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/&systran_f=1058569059

Could you implement a pause and resume button for the mpeg encoder?
Thanks ...

There is...Well Sort of, if you want to pause the encodeing Just Click "Stop" and when you want to resume Just click "No"...

Hi there!

I was just wondering why cutting an mpeg2 program stream takes so long.
Wouldn't it be sufficient to just take the desired part of the file, rewrite the header and safe it?
Instead the whole programm stream is demultiplexed, multiplexed again .... so on
That doesn't seem to make any sense.

I often have to split mpeg2 program streams into two parts ... and TemgEnc gives me a hard time.

Besides ... it's a great encoder!

Cheers!

I think there is timing data all through the file that needs to be updated on any kind of merge/cut operation. This is a side function of TMPG and is probably not fully optimized.

TMPG is also not the greatest at managing disk IO and this is made much worse if you have highly fragmented and/or slow disks.

What is your definition of "so long". With a 4-way RAID, merge/cut/mux on several GB of data does not seem to take long at all (<5min).

Hi ...

It takes about 5 minutes to cut a 1.5GB file in a smaller part (to fit it on a cd)

And I disagree on the topic that you have to adjust much in the cut file.
Demux and Mux is obsolete for just cutting.

You can use a plain split program for binary files and the output is still playable.

Of course that is brute force and destroys some GOPs ... but it proves that the mpeg stream is still intact.
So why demux/mux/rewrting?

Cheers!

With TMPG 2.513.53.162 under the options menu > task priority > (the second option) reads "When Actif - Normal Priority" instead of "When Active"

So what?? Big Deal...This is a "Japanese" Program, so you Might expect a Few Little Things like that..

TMPGenc is truly a superior encoder with absolutely superb video quality. However it can be even better with these features:
1. Make it be better at up/downsampling audio. It's not that great it at, and the audio encoding in general produces some hiss.

2. Make it support edited DV AVI files directly without having to use a frame server.

It Does....For audio Go to "Options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Audio Engine" and set the Same Rate converter to "High Quality"...And I have never had a Problem with opening DV AVI files in Tmpgenc, It accepts Both Type 1 and Type 2 and VFW and Direct show and Open DML and Non OpenDML Formats...If you have a Problem in this area Then Post it and Someone Might help.......

Nope, it won't take in some DV-AVI files. If I capture a DV-AVI from my camcorder via firewire and then input that file into TMPGenc, then it works. HOWEVER, if I first edit the file in Premiere, export it to a new DV-AVI file, then it does not want to let me import it into TMPGenc. By the way, thanks for the audio help!

Well that Is Probably because Premeir is Rendering the File to a Different DV Format(Codec) than you are Captureing to ..Make sure you are Useing the "Microsoft DV Codec" as this is the Most compatible with Tmpgenc, and Make sure you have adjusted the Vfapi Plugin Properties tso that it will More easilly accept DV files, Like Maybe try raiseing the "OpenDML" File reader, and If useing a Direct Show DV Codec then Raise the "Direct Show File Reader" or if it is a VFW DV Codec Raise the "VFW File reader"...

This thema has probably already been discussed a few times. Sorry for wasting your time.
I just happened to test the trial version of cinema craft encoder (I know the price is not comparable). It is an eye opener. AVI files which I was giving up trying to encode to satisfaction with tmpg unless spending 40 hours with highest quality (even then still unsatisfied with the result) come back to life with cce. It is absolutely amazing. Or is it just because of the watermark that make you think the image is better ?
I have read of specialists having cce and tmpg and were still using tmpg. I appreciate the ability of tmpg to squeeze an encoding to fit to the disk size.
Is there another encoder still better than cce on the market ? It's like the search of the Grail.

About Pricing: You can buy Cinemacraft Basic for 58 Dollars.

About Encoder: ProCoder is the best one, especially for interlaced Video.
TMPGEnc and CCE are very similar, if you know how to set up TMPGEnc. If you are only using Basic-Settings, then CCE is better.

I wouldn't agree TMPG and CCE are similar.
For me CCE is the best MPEG2 encoder there is, but isn't too hot at MPEG1 encoding.
TMPG shines with MPEG1 and is better than any other encoder on the market at encoding MPEG1, but it can't match CCE for it's MPEG2 quality no matter what settings you use.

CCE is faster, has better control over bitrate, better quality and produces highly compatible results.
However TMPG still produces pretty good results amd better than most other encoders in a similar or higher price range.

I can Beat CCE with TMPGEnc! But only in CQ-Mode (or MVBR) by using special settings. OK, this is nothing, a Newbie can handle, but, hey, ashy, you are definatly not a Newbie. ;)

The Advantage of TMPGEnc over CCE is the flexibility and the much better control over Bitrate (yes, no Joke) - if you know how to do that. With Standard-Settings in TMPGEnc and CCE, CCE is the better Encoder, that's absolutly right. But ONLY with Standard-Settings.

First, i used always TMPGEnc. After that, i used CCE for a while. Now i'm back to TMPGEnc. ProCoder is too expensive.

Well that may be your opinion and if it works for you fine, but I have tried to match the quality of CCE with TMPG before using identical bitrates and even tweaking TMPG's many settings still found that when comparing frames CCE produced better results.

As for bitrate control Iam refering to how the encoder controls the bitrate without going above or below within the set parameters not the actual setting of the bitrates manually.
I have found TMPG to be somewhat lax in this area whereas CCE has always had very tight control of the parameters set.

I agree I have allways Had Much better results and a Much Lower Bitrate with CCE, But I don"t Just load the File in and Encode it there are a Few things you have to do to get the Best result..As CCE doesn"t have Any Real filters I allways Use AVISynth to Frameserve with Filters, and I Use My own Matrix for encodeing and I Allways Turn off any of the Filters in the "Quality" settings..I have been able to Back up a DVD to DVD-R useing a Bitrate Lower than 3000KBS with Great Quality(One Pass VBR 2000KBS-Min 6000kbs-Max "Q" Level at 30-40), so I can Fit 2 Short(90Min) DVD"s On a single DVD-R with Major Real Quality differance when watching on the TV..But It took Me a Long time to Figure out how to tweak the settings so I can get the Result I do..I also use ProCoder Sometimes But it is Just Too slow For the Little Possible Improvement I might get..But one thing I never do is Load a Very Noisy Source File into CCE as it will not do a very good Job, But with some Major Noise Filtering then it does a Great Job..So Guess it depends on How you use CCE and what types of Source you are encodeing..But Hey to each His Own....Cheers

Many thanks for all this interresting information. Now I can continue to work in peace with TMPGenc and AVIsynth. I am slowly finding my way to what looks for me to be the best quality.

I have Win XP. After encoding an AVI, it sounds like the audio is choppy. Like a fan is in front of the speakers. This happens in different places every time I try a clip. I've tried all I know.

Have you Tried Encodeing the Audio to Mp2 with a Totally Seperate Program???

The download link to 2.520 has not been updated correctly and stil download the version 2.513 (1684 KB).

Try again Tomorow as you Probably just caught them in the Middle of changeing it over, Have a Little Patience...

I've had problems with versions later than 2.510 of the free encoder hanging. There's been posts from others having the same problem. Can a plus version of 2.510 still be purchased?

I don"t think so, But if you look hard enough in the Right places you should be able to Find some of the Older versions...Why won"t you post the Problem you are Haveing and Maybe we can help??? as the New version are Definately better....Cheers

Problem is that the program will hang during an encode of an AVI file, approx 15-20 min source position. I read of others having the same problem on this forum, and that it started happening after ver 2.510. Symptoms are: Program stops counting and becomes not responding, HDD light stays lit, and the task manager shows a change from 2 CPUs at 100% to one CPU at 50% and the other at 0% (HT P4B @3.06Ghz). I received an email from another user having the same symptoms that his HDD partition was trashed after this happened. Turning off some of the SSE and multithread options helped, but still not 100% reliable, and alot slower. 2.510 exhibits none of these problems. As I've said, others have posted similiar problems, but it doesn't seem to be a universal issue. In fact, I know someone who uses 2.512 without problem, but he's using a 1.8Ghz non HT CPU. I would be more than willing to pay for an older version, but not a newer one that appears incompatible with this system. BTW, this is the only software that has this problem, and the system passes stress tests apps just fine. Thanks.

P4B 3.06 HT/ 1G/ 200G HD

Well I would sugest turning off the Hyper Threading..As it Probably isn"t dooing that much of an improvement in encodeing speed especially with the New Type"s of HT CPU"s, The cpu can run simular to a Dual 1.5ghz or as a single 3.0ghz and when just running one Program the Hper threading Probably really isn"t giveing you that Much of a speed improvement especially since Tmpgenc"s hyper Threading Optimizations don"t seem very Efficient..Before Version 2.510 they used an older Hyper Threading Code which worked best for real Dual CPU Systems But after that they implemented a New code that was supposed to support the new HT CPU"s and it seems that they haven"t worked out the Bugs in this Code yet..So that is what I would sugest, Disable HyperThreading and use the CPU as a Single 3ghz CPU ..I think I have an Old version 2.53 Floating around if you want to e-mail me I"ll send it to you...Cheers

Actually having HT enabled speeds up encoding nearly 25%! The task manager shows both (virtual) CPUs running at 100%- so far TMPGenc is the only program that I've seen do that. In the lowest (fastest) motion estimate mode it runs faster than real time, and the next step up runs just around real time. 2.510 made a HT believer out of me. I haven't tried 2.520 yet, so I'll see if that has any better results. BTW, this is all MPEG 2 encoding for DVD @ 8000kb.

Well I can encode to DVD at 85% real time useing the Average Quality with Just a 2.53ghz P-4 and at Twice real time useing CCE encodeing to SVCD and at 1.5 times Real time encodeing to DVD..Right Now it takes Longer to Author and Burn the DVD than it takes to Encodeing it..I"m sure with CCE and a HT CPU you would be able to encode to dvd at 3 times real time(With better Quality in My oppinion)..At work I use a a Dual 3.06 GHZ HT PC(so Like 4 Virtual CPU"s) and a Tyan MoBo, I don"t Do Much encodeing with it But It is a Extremely Fast Video Editor(It is a Turn-key editing System)..And HT seems Really fast But I have nothing to compare it to as The Software I use a Work Is totally different than the Stuff we Folks use at Home, and Most of the encodeing we do is done with a Hardware Rack Mount encoder..But I"ll Eventuall Get a 800mhz FSB HT CPU once they get a Bit Cheaper...Cheers

Just want to say thanks for adding the MPEG2 decoder in the latest verison!

No longer must I reply on DVD2AVI to read in MPEG2 clips!

Joe

Sory But You have gotten it wrong ,Tmpgenc does NOT Come with a Mpeg2 decoder, It never has and Probably never will, You Probably have a Mpeg2 decoder installed on your System that you didn"t know about..Tmpgenc Still only supports Ligo, Sony, Cyberlink and the VFAPI Mpeg2 Plugin and all of these have to be installed seperately from Tmpgenc...DVD2AVI is still the best Way to encode Mpeg2 files ,Tmpgenc will not decode the Audio from DVD"s(AC3 or DTS)and it can"t seperate the seperate Audio Streams, Pluss DVD2AVI Is Faster at decodeing that Any of the other decoders....Cheers

@Minion

The actual version does come with a MPEG-Decoder...

Well it is about time.
But has anybody tested it yet. How's the speed and the quality of the decoding?

It says in the history revison that the new version has minor corrections.
I wouldn't call adding MPEG2 decoding capability a minor correction and wonder why it hasn't been listed as a new feature.

Checking the revisions at www.pegasys-inc.com/e_main.html

Here is the text:

TMPGEnc Plus Version 2.520 (2.520.54.163) July 17 2003:

Includes the MPEG decoder CRI Sofdec. Now, input of MPEG-2 files is a standard feature. Plus, the picture quality (brightness, color) shown on your pc display will be close to the one on your TV. So the editing will be easier.
*when using CRI sofdec:
remove the check on [ Output YUV data as Basic YCbCr not CCIR601 ]
[ Setting ] [ Quantize matrix ] [Output YUV data as...]
*when using CRI sofdec, you can open a maximum of 8 sequence files as a movie.

I thought you were Talking about 2.513 as I didn"t know that 2.520 was released Yet as This site has not posted it yet...Have you Tried it yet?? Is it Faster than DVD2AVI??Or even Better that the VFAPI Plugin??(I"ll Probably still use DVD2AVI as I like to Demux My Audio and add AVISynth Filters to Video)..Do you Know if you can use this Decode to Frame serve from Tmpgenc Through Vfapi??I can"t see there Being that much of an improvement as they still haven"t worked out the YUY2/RGB Thing yet...Cheers

Well as of Now the new version Has not Been released for Download...I guess we will have to Wait fot this Upcomeing Decoder..

TMPGEnc Plus (English), Ver. 2.520 (2.520.54.163) has been available at:
www.pegasys-inc.com/e_main.html for more than 24 hours.

It seems to work well, although I am in the camp that uses DVD2AVI for most of my work. Sometimes, it is nice to be able to load up a MPEG2 file on those machines that TMPGEnc cant read. They finally made good on being able to read thier own files.

I have not done much testing, but it seemed very fast on the one file I did encode.

Joe

@Joe C. Hecht

Sorry I didn't even bother checking the Plus version history revision which is why I didn't see the text you quoted. I simply looked at the free version history which must not include this feature.

>Well as of Now the new version Has not Been released for Download...I guess we will have to Wait fot this Upcomeing Decoder..

Yes it is available and seems to work fine.

The decoder also opens MPEG1 streams, so it sort of makes the 'Microsoft MPEG1 decoder' defunct.
I would therefore advise unchecking it in the VFAPI plugins so as not to cause any conflicts.

Yeah, that's right. OK, i'm using DVD2AVI or AVISynth to decode MPEG2 and i still prefer this way. But the new Decoder is working fine on my machine at home. My other PC in the Office crashes when using it. My suggestion still is to use the mme VFAPI-Plugin (http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/m2v_vfp-0.6.38.lzh), i you want to decode MPEG2 directly with TMPGEnc. This thing is much more flexible.

Well can you Post were you Found it Cuz I can"t Find it were I usually would, I go to the Pegassus Site and Click on "Downloads" and then all the Page has listed there is DVD Author and still the Old version 2.513, No new version 2.520..They have it listed in the Revision History But I do not see it in the Download section...I can get a Japanese Version But that won"t do me any Good...Anyone want to Post a Link for Me??? Cheers

Well I finally found a Link to a Place to download The 2.520-Plus version as I could not find it on the Pegassus Web site, But they did have the 2.513 version Listed Twice..Well I did a Little Test of the Decodeing speed of this new Mpeg2 decoder, I had a 704+480 Mpv Video file(No audio)it is 3240 frames long so I took this File and Made a d2v file out of it then encoded it at the same resolution useing the "High Quality" setting, The D2V file encoded in 3 minutes and 3 seconds, then I took the same File I made the D2V out of and used the same settings and Loaded it into Tmpgenc and encoded it and it took 3 minutes and 18 seconds, So it seems that the Decoder still isn"t as Fast as DVD2AVI but it is still Fairly fast, the Mpv file loaded into tmpgenc very quickly also instead of waiting 5 or 10 seconds for the file to load it loaded allmost instantly..So It seems that the decoder is Pretty Good But I"ll Probably still use DVD2AVI as over a Long file the Speed differance will add up....Cheers

After a few tests using a 2min file at 720x576 fulls screen and encoded to SVCD resolution (video only) here are the conclusions on each decoder.

CRI decoder - 2min 40 sec
Cyber link decoder - 2min 31sec
DVD2AVI - 2min 26sec
VFAPI MPEG2 plugin - 2min 26sec

So it seems that DVD2AVI and the MPEG2 VFAPI plugin are the fastest and identical in decoding speed.

phew got past the p3p prob. encoded a divx avi to mpeg, recorded it, put it on my dvd player. the sound is perfect but the picture shows up in B&W and it scrolls non stop from top to bottom and diag. sorta like a vcr tape when the tracking is way off. how do i go about fixing this? or what do i do a search on?




Dr. Soul4:20

Sounds Like the Problem you get when you Play a Pal Movie in a NTSC Player or Visa versa, Check to see if you encoded the file in the Right format(NTSC-North America/Pal-Europe)...

thanks. worked like a charm, didn't even notice it. What a waste of time.





Dr. Soul 4 to the :20

What software do I need to watch MPEG-2 files?

Well What I use is "Power DVD" or "WinDVD" buth are good Mpeg2 decoders, But Probably PowerDVD would be best as it is also a Decoder that can be used by Tmpgenc...

Personally I much prefer WinDVD because of it's great easy to use interface. Power DVD's interface is far to busy and cluttered. There are also various plugins you can get for free which will add MPEG2 decoding functionality to Media player.