Being new to this stuff I tried to look in the FAQ's first. I'm sure this has been asked countless times before (it probably should be in the FAQ's).
How do I get rid of those square blocks of motion edges. I have a high quality avi and have moved the bit rate around but they still appear.

The higher the bitrate the less blocks you will see. I you want no blocks, and providing they are not there in the original movie, you will have to raise the bitrate high enough until they disappear.

ASHY

When converting theres sound but no Picture HELP

Try raiseing the priority of the direct show filter, you do this by going to "options" to "enviromental settings" to "vfapi plugins" and raise the direct show file reader" to "2", and make sure you have the proper codecs to decode the avi file........

i want build new system,

please anyone inform me,
which fastest system? Intel P4 or AMD XP?

Thanks anyway

I don't think there is really much in it, but I have always believed in the reliabilty of Intel. I have never had any issues, software or hardware wise with any Intel processor, but I have quite a few friends who experience non stop problems with AMD processors.

One thing about AMD processors is that they run quite hot when compared to a similar speed Intel processor and bearing in mind that encoding is processor intensive, it is going to push the processor to it's limits, further increasing the heat and heat means less performance.

I have a P4 1.7 which runs at a temperature of around 40-45 degrees when encoding, a friend has an AMD 1.4 which has a temperature of the same when its idle.
So make your own mind up, I suppose it all depends on your budget.

ASHY

It all down to your budget.

The AMD processors can run hot, but it's usually because they're being overclocked. I run an AMD 1.4 Athlon at work, it's on 24/7 and flat out for very long periods - no reliability problems.

You get more bang for your bucks from AMD, but if price is not important..

Griff

There is a real improvement in performance $ for $ by using the AMD chip. I bought a XP system at the start of 2002 with the Xp2000 chip - works great and no problems. Faster than what I could have bought with a P4.

My son uses a slightly earlier Xp1900 chip - also very stable XP system.

Only problem now is that I want the XP2200 !!!...2300....2400...

/simon

Hi TMPGEnc Lovers,

I am trying to convert DV footage from Sony TRV30E into VCD.

TRV30E->Dazzle->DV format->Adobe Premiere -> Frame Server -> TMPGEnc

I was able to get quite good quality DVD by VCD is very ugly.(Not Visible)

After making many trials (Settings) little bit improved. Again I
changed the Canapus DV Codec parameters 4:1:1 - > 4:4:4 and color
space to YUV and I notied that movie got little more smoother.

But Still It is not even 10% of the other VCDs which I watched.
Hope that VCD should be at least VHS quality.

Can You Please guide me Where I am wrong. Already I have played all the
parameters in the encoding process.

With Regards

Shaju

As long as your source avi files are as good quality as you want the vcd to be, The best thing and easiest thing to do to increase the quality is to raise the bitrate cuz the standard vcd bitrate isn"t set high enough to get the best quality ,Try raiseing it to between 1500-2000kbs and see if that looks better and since you are encodeing captured avi/dv files use the Noise Filter..

Hi Minion,

Thanks for your quick response.

Just now I started to create VCD by changing the bitrate limits.
If I am doing so, Will it be compatiable to Normal VCD standards ?
Basicall I want to create VCDs which is compatiable to stand alone
DVD / VCD players.

Needs you help ?

With thanks and regards

Shaju

Strictly speaking it will not be a fully compliant vcd but i don"t know of a player that won"t play vcd"s with higher bitrates ,most dvd/vcd players can handle bitrates up to at least 2000kbs on mine I can put the bitrate up to 5000kbs with out a problem........

Hi Minion,

I think you are correct. After the VCD creation I was trying to
create the VCD with ULead's Movie Factory. This software say's
it is not a VCD format. Let me try with some other writing software
like VCDEasy.

Waiting for for suggestions...

With regards

Shaju

Nero or vcdeasy doesn"t have problems with them but if you want to do menu"s and chapters you can use the "ulead dvd pluging" cuz it lets you do XVCD"s and does chapters and menu"s.......

Hi Minion,

I do agree with you 100%. I created a VCD with VBR Min 1150 and Max 5000
and created vcd with VCDEasy. It played well in my office DVD Player. I have
to try at my home. The only draw back is the menus and chapters cration.

Meanwhile you told me "ulead dvd pluging cuz it lets you do XVCDs and does chapters and menu"s.......

Can you please tell me how to create XVCD and "ULead DVD Pluging"

Thanks for your support

With regards

Shaju

Hi Minion,

I was going through VCDHELP.COM. I understood how to make XVCD.
Also I was trying with ULead to create XVCD , but I couldn't.
Just on a trial basis I tried to make VCD and Immediately system
asked me whether I want XVCD ? I sais Yes. On top I was able to
see XVCD. Then I continued next steps.

I didn't write CD/ (No CD Stock) . I will try later and Inform
you the results. I hope I can get quality pictures than VCDs.


With regards

Shaju

Hi Minion,

I created XVCD successfully. But when I am playing the DVD player
showing the play time twice and picture and audio is jerky and slow.
How can I reduce the time to the actual time ?

Always your support is highly appreciated.

With regards

Shaju

I think your problem is that you are not creating an XVCD at all. It seems as though you are simply creating a normal MPEG with a modified bitrate.

You must make sure that once you create an MPEG that you attach VCD headers to the file or you will have the playback problems you describe.

To correct this MPEG run it through the simple multiplex option in TMPG and choose 'MPEG1 VCD(non standard)' as the stream type.

If that doesn't work it is likely your DVD player doesn't support the maximum bitrate you have chosen.
Reduce the bitrate, some players will have problems with anything above 2600 kb/s.
You can check out VCDhelp.com and have a look at the DVD player list. Look for your player it should give you info as to what bitrates it can handle.

ASHY

Hi Ashy,

You are 100% correct. I simply created MPEG file and created XVCD
by using Ulead without changing the header information as you
explained.

I will try as follows in TMPGEnc:

- MPEGTool -> Simple Multiplex
- Open the generated MPEG file.
. Automatically the Type apperaed as MPEG1 System (Automatic)
. Found the audio/video stream (input files)
- I changed the Type to MPEG1 VideoCD (Non Standard)
- New output file name is given.
- Pressed Run

I got the new file with slightly lower than the original file size.
I played in the WinDVD and found that running without any problem.

Since I don't have the media later I will create the XVCD, Try in the
stand alone DVD player and Let you know the status.

If any of the steps I am wrong please guide me before burning the CD

Thanks for your support

With regards

Shaju

It seems as though you have done things correctly, so hopefully it will work in your player. If not then as I say it could be the bitrates you are using and in particular the maximum bitrate.

ASHY

Hi ASHY/Minion

I got fed up with VCD and MPEG1. Since I don't have the DVD writer,
I was trying for XVCD. Finally I purchased DVD writer and created
my first DVD and the result is excellent. I really love it.

Still I don't want to leave XVCD creation. I followed all the
directions from you, www.kvcd.net and others. But I failed. Could you
please advise me the steps How Can I create XVCD for PAL. like
1. MPEG type.
2. Data Tranfer Type
3. Bytes/Sec.
I am sure that somewhere commiting some mistakes.

With regards

Shaju

Hi ASHY/Minion,

Finally I realized that I am doing 100% correct in creating the XVCD.
The only problem is my DVD player is not compatiable for different
bitrate. if it is VCD it just take 1150 Kbps that is why the movie
plays slowly and the playing time shows double in the DVD front panel
(since I was using a bit rate of 2300).

I worked with KVCD templates and almost all problems are solved for the
time being. Thank you all who supported me during this lengthy job.

With regards

Shaju

Hi .

I have 3 questions which need your help :

1) Current "TMPGEnc" software can't directly read from " DV500 pro" created AVI files produced by "PINNACLE" company. I'd like to know, is there any alternative which could be used to enable "TEPGEnc" read directly from DV500 files.

2) I'd like to know what's the differece between the shared software "TEMPGEnc" vs the purchased one , in terms of speed, and functionalities ?

3) If I'd like to purchase the "TEPGEnc" software, would you please advise the way of purchasing it.


Thanks a lot for your help.
Jackson
ekl@2911.net

If you can"t get Tmpgenc to read the files useing the DV500 try captureing to a codec that Tmpgenc does support, you can read sequential files in Tmpgenc with the Canopus DV codec,But I don"t know if you get a choice of codecs to capture to with DV500 but you do with studio 7DV,As for the differance between the demo and the registered version The registered version has fewer bugs and it is a bit faster and has a better 2 pass mode but over all it isn"t that much different than the demo but you do get a help manual, you can download it for a 14 day test run at the site you link to when you click the banner below and that is where you purchase the registration code when you decide to buy it, you need a credit card..

Help. keep getting error "cannot read P3package.dll"

Search and ye will find enlightenment.

VirtualDub 1.4.9 (build 137) is the last
working version of itself. The 1.4.10
does not work properly. Someone here
suggested a good test: Frameserve a
VDR/AVI file and open a 2nd copy of
Virtualdub and try and read it.
Version 1.4.9 can, version 1.4.10 cannot.

Thusly the latest version of TMPGEnc found
here (v2.57.41.146) with the default VFAPI
settings set, works on the first try.

So for me VDub 1.4.9 and TMPGenc 2.57 works.

Just make sure to run the Auxsetup for VDub
and the VFP install BATch file for TMPGenc.

PS: Should that be the case for most of you,
maybe someone can email the Virtualdub programmer
and suggest that VDR/AVI test for 1.4.10 and all
subsequent versions to see if it passes. I cannot
since I'm in the middle of a Windows reinstall and
don't have my email set up yet.

Hmm, it was I who gave the suggestion about opening another instance of Virtualdub to check if the frameserver was working ok.
Funny thing is I have no problem what so ever opening frameserver files in Version 1.4.10. or TMPG

Have you tried completely uninstalling the framserver client and then re-installing using using version 1.4.10?

ASHY

Yep, I've tried and tried
and the 1.4.10 version of
VDub gives me the same file
`unsupported' message when
opening a 2nd instance of
VDub as would TMPGenc if I
tried to frameserve. But
when I switched to the 1.4.9
version and 1.4.8 versions
that error and message did
not occur and TMPGenc runs
great.

Strange. Have you tried downloading another copy of the latest version. It may be corrupt.

ASHY

I guess it could be corrupt,
although it executes well
enough. But at this point
I'll just be happy it's
working. When 1.4.11 or so
shows up, I'll try it again.
<sigh> ;-)

where do i get the settings for NTSC-vcd and where do I load the settings to convert the mpeg file.
barman

What exactly do you mean????The more information you provide the more information you will get back.......

I downloaded an mpeg movie that plays fine on my computer but whenever I make a vcd using nero 5.5 and try to play it on tv through my dvd player it's in black and white and the picture jumps like a vcr tape that needs the tracking adjusted. Someone told me that the mpeg is in pal and needs to be converted to ntsc. I'm new to making vcds and they told me to use TMPG and load in the settings for ntsc vcd
load in you pal program and press start it will now convert to ntsc. I'm not sure how to do this process. Thanks for any help in advance!

Barman

Well who ever told you that didn"t tell you the whole truth, you can sort of turn it into a ntsc mpeg but you will have jumpy and jerkey playback on your dvd player but if you want to do it anyway you just load the file into tmpgenc and click the "load" tab in the bottom right corner then choose the "ntsc vcd" template then you just click "start" at the top and it will encode it to mpeg, but you should know what trype of file you have for sure before you encode it , but I think you will get pretty close to the same results as before you could allways burn it as a pal vcd most players should play it..The proscess for converting pal to ntsc is a lot more involved and takes a lot of trial and error to do it properly.....

I finally stumbled into a problem with DVD endcoding with TMPGenc. (A true first, a problem with DVD -- I used to have continuous problems with SVCD recording -- Thanks be that that is in the past!! -- Bless DVD-R recorders!!)

Anyway, the problem is an error message from TMPGenc when the file size exceeds (I believe) 4096 MB. The message says that exceeding 4096 MB may take the DVD session out of compliance. Indeed it does.

This was a backup of a 4 hour movie and was necessarily long. I set the bitrate to 2200 kBPS so that the final product was just below the 4096 MB limit but it went over by a small amount.

The resulting MPG file could not be authored by Nero or any other tool. I will crank down the bitrate and reprocess this (15 hours.

I would still like to know the DVD limit that TMPGenc warned me about.

Dee

hello, u need NTFS on your hdd (or on one partition);
then file size can get so big then your hdd is...

No. I think you missed the point. I have a 30 GB space available for processing.

The error message that I'm getting is launched from TMPGenc as soon as it detects a pending process which creates a MPG-2 file greater than 4 GB.

It does not detect free space (which is much greater than 4 GB). It still triggers a warning based upon some DVD standard which I'm not aware of.

Dee Tent

I'm not sure of a 4096 DVD limit...That would seem weird.

But I think what mAcHiNe was trying to say was that Win95/98/me FAT file systems (or XP with FAT) will never allow a single file to exceed 4096mb. If you are running Win2k/XP with NTFS, then you can exceed this limit. mAcHiNe's comment had nothing to with free space, but with the limitation of the file systems on a single file size.

So, if you are running Win95/98/me, OR XP with a FAT drive then this is a O/S issue, and cannot be solved. If you are running Win2k or XP with a NTFS drive, then the problem lies elsewhere.

mGuru

I'm not sure if it is worth the effort (15 hours of processor time) to reproduce this situation. The two parts of this problem were:

1) A warning from TMPGenc more or less saying "The file size exceeds 4096 MB. This file may cause an error during DVD authoring". This came at the final page of the Wizard (where the horizontal bar and percent of total disk usage are displayed.)

2) An error during DVD authoring using Nero. An error message stating that "This file does not meet the DVD specification." This was followed by an abort. First time I've seen this one.

The partitions I'm using are 100% NTFS and very large. Any limitation must be inherent in the DVD standard.

Again, this issue is just something that I've never seen before. It is easy enough to work around by either splitting the single MPEG-2 into 2 pieces or reducing the bitrate a little more. I also have more respect for TMPGenc's warning even if I don't understand the reason behind it.

Dee Tent

From the final page of the wizard adjust the bitrate until the horizontal bar is just on or slightly over the 4Gb mark. Make a note of the bitrate.

Cancel out of the wizard and select a DVD profile from the main program.

Enter the bitrate you made a note of from the wizard. Adjust other parameters to suit your requirements and encode.

TMPGEnc is very conserative when it estimates the final DVD file size including authoring.

Remember too that a 4Gb MPG will create an Image file of approximately 8Gb. That's a minimum of 12Gb of H/D space needed for one DVD.

Encode it in two different parts.This can be done by frameserving with
Virtualdub.

I'm not sure of a 4096 DVD limit...That would seem weird.

But I think what mAcHiNe was trying to say was that Win95/98/me FAT file systems (or XP with FAT) will never allow a single file to exceed 4096mb. If you are running Win2k/XP with NTFS, then you can exceed this limit. mAcHiNe's comment had nothing to with free space, but with the limitation of the file systems on a single file size.

So, if you are running Win95/98/me, OR XP with a FAT drive then this is a O/S issue, and cannot be solved. If you are running Win2k or XP with a NTFS drive, then the problem lies elsewhere.

mGuru

To Exceed 4Gig File limits Use 2000 or XP setting the encoding HDD partition to NTFS.
TMPGenc wont make a file over 4Gig due to Windows Fat Limitation Period.

I recomend XP Its what ive been running for a year without 1 single blue screen or any big problems.

The Second option is to make two files instead of 1.

Their is no other magic going one here its just the 4Gig limit inherant to the Fat file system so get XP already and enable at least 1 NTFS Partition. K

Thanks all.

This was a knowledge base question not a how-to. I already am using Win2k, already using a 30 GB NTFS partition.

I also already know at least three ways to get around this problem: 1) Split using SmartRipper, 2) Reduce bitrate, 3) Split output file using TMPGenc (although this is risky because of the audio de-sync.)

The author of TMPGenc coded in a warning message about 4 GB and authoring limitations. There is no explanation for this. I was just wondering why. I'm still wondering why.

Dee Tent

Sorry didnt know you had 2000 and a ntfs partition.
Strange you get the message after you get the message does the program finish the encoding properly?

I am having a problem with the audio in the finished video cd cutting out every few seconds when using all modes except CBR. I am attempting to improve the picture quality of my finished movie by using Automatic VBR_CQ or Manual VBR modes. The video is much better, the file is smaller, but the audio becomes erratic. I have tried normalizing it, changing the volume (both up and down), and splitting (de-muxing), the final product, then adding the audio from a dbpoweramp encoded file, all with the same result. I have frame served both audio and video (as well as just video) from vdub. I can play the vcd fine on the computer, but when I put it in my dvd player, the audio problem happens. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for this bulletin board,
Wits End

I use to have the same or simular problem ,I would listen to the audio file and it would sound fine untill I muxed it with the video and played it, then the audio would cut out and get really scratchy.But I soon realized it was media player because it would play perfectly in power dvd, Just a thought if you are useing media player to view your mpeg files try power dvd or other dvd playing software and the problem might dissapear but if it doesn"t then maybe try useing a audio encoder plugin for tmpgenc like "toolame" or "SCMPX"..

Several Test Questions:

Are you able to watch the VCD on the computer without having this problem? (Windows Media Player for MP-1 and, say, PowerDVD for MP-2).

Is your peak bitrate greater than 2200 KB/s?

Is your DVD player near the bottom of the line?

If the answer is YES to these, you may have to do some more research on your DVD player. Most DVD players are optimized for, well, DVD. They have no problem decoding 5 MB/S. For some reason, they cannot seem to handle VCDs and SVCDs quite as well.

My solution was to abandon my CD burner and take the $250 hit in buying a DVD-R burner. This solves a multitude of problems. It even allowed me to keep my cheapo TDK DVD.

If you cannot manage this, try reducing your peak bitrate to, say, 2100. It is worth a single CD-R to use Batch Process to try different bitrates to see if this is the problem. Set a cut of, say, 2 minutes from your full movie where you have seen the problem before. Depending upon they type of TMPGenc bitrate management, try different bitrates. Example, minimum = 200, average = 1800, maximum = 2000, 2100, 2200, ... See if there is a threshold for this problem.

Good luck.

Dee Tent

Go to VCDhelp.com and have a look at the DVD player list. Look up you player and have a look at the maximum and minimum bitrates your player will allow.

Iam pretty sure that it's the maximum bitrate which is your problem. Some DVD players can only handle SVCD/VCD bitrates up to a certain threshhold due to the fact that the drive is incapable of spinning the disk fast enough to read the high bitrate data from the disk.
The reason it works for DVD is down to the fact that DVD has much smaller pits on the disk thus allowing these pits to pass much quicker under the laser than ordinary CDR pits.

When your player is hitting this bitrate threshhold you player can no longer supply the data and thus is giving rise to playback problems, this is usually accompanied with jerky playback.

Remember that the total bitrate threshhold is the audio plus the video bitrate added together.
Try to keep your bitrate under 2600 kb/s as this seems to be a common value with players which have this problem.

ASHY

Thank you, Thank you , Thank you...It was in fact the maximum birate causing the problem (I had the peak set at 5000). I guess it is time to invest in that dvd burner. Are there other ways (settings within tmpgenc) that will improve picture quality without raising the birate above 2600 ?

> I guess it is time to invest in that dvd burner

And then you're current problems will seem as nothing to the problems you'll encounter.

Seriously though, a DVD burner's an excellent investment, rather than &pound;x1000 for a powerful VCD converter.

Griff

Or get a new DVD player which can handle it.

ASHY

Ok some tips for a better quality MPEG.
Enable the block noise reduction in the quantize matrix.
The MPEG standard matrix setting will also give you a better picture with less blocks, but will increase the file size slightly.

Use the 'high quality' motion search precision setting. If your paranoid about quality use the 'highest quality' setting, but honestly I have never noticed a difference in quality between the two and considering the extra time involved isn't really worth it.

Use the 'Constant quality(CQ)' setting not the 'manual VBR' or 'automatic VBR' setting this will give you the best quality picture vs file size.

If you reduce the audio bitrate down to 128 kb/s this will allow you to raise the video bitrate an extra 100 kb/s.

Last but not least the finished product is usually only as good as the source. The better the source the better the output.

ASHY

after upgrading to a new PC (Pent 4, 2.26Mhz) there is some kind of vertical jitter/flicker/offset. It looks as if each frame is displayed twice (the second is vertically offset by approx 2 centimetres on my TV screen), yielding strong flickering.
Operating system: Win XP prof.
TMPGEnc version 2.5
I convert .avi stream to SVCD .mpg
Output with identical parameters on my old PC with Pent 3 866Mhz is perfect.
At least the TMPGEnc parameters on both PCs seem identical to me.
Is there anything to look for? I tried various combinations of (de)interlace parameters without success.
Please help!

Thanks a lot, norbert

It could be your source file,It sounds like you could have the field order wrong or maybe even encoded the file to a different frame rate than the avi which would give you a flickering jumpy effect, so check the frame rate of your source file...

Thanks Minion,
I tried that before; it's not field order etc either,.

I tried the same encoding on the new PC with an Windows2000 system and it worked flawlessly.
So it must have something to do with the Windows XP system.
I dont have anything special installed on this system yet.
All I have is an AOpen graphics card (Aeolus TI4200) and a Pinnacle PCTVPro installed

??

I had the same problem and I have Win2000. In my case it
was field order related. Turns out the field order setting
in advanced menu has a bug. If you select Field order A
it actually gives you field order B and vice versa!.

Maybe this was a bug that is fixed in later versions. I
have version 2.55.38.142.

BTW, I thought this was free. But it keeps telling
me that I have only few days left for my trial version
(for MPEG-2 encooding). Is this something new? Are
there older versions which do not have this "trial"
version feature?

- Hirendu

It was my fault - the solution seems to be as follwows..
the .avi file was created with Pinnacle Studio on one PC and I tried to encode it to SVCD with TMPGEnc on another PC. When processing the .avi file on the second (new) PC TMPGEng had apparently problems reading the video correctly because the necessary plug-in, DLL or something else needed to process the video was not present on the new PC. In some way the new PC was different and had a different DLL (or something else) needed to decode the .avi installed.
Creating the .avi AND encoding with TMPGEnc on the new PC works fine now!

I have a strange VCD PLayer which doesent accept standart bitrates when encoded with tmpgeng. It playes movies best with a video bitrate of 1246 and
audi of 128, but when i do this with tmpgenc the system clock is always off (I
check this with Easy CD creator 5) which seems to effect the way the movie is
played.

The error you are talking about is only produced by Easy Cd creator and is usually due to the fact that you have not added the correct VCD header to the file.

Dump this software NOW and download and use NERO. Your problems will be solved.
Just make sure that whenever you create or cut an MPEG with TMPG that you choose 'MPEG1 VCD(non standard)' as the stream type and use the VCD burning option in NERO.

ASHY