More a question for advanced users
does anyone know of a program that will allow me to check the headers of a vcd or svcd compliant mpeg?
for things like aspect ratio
Even let me change for instance aspect ratio without the need to reencode the whole thing?
Or add a comment to the header.
Up to now i've only done straight forward encoding, need to get in a bit deeper into the mpeg matter.

This might be what you are looking for ,there is a program called "Mpeged" that analizes the mpeg for aspect raitio and is supposed to be able to change certain aspect ratio"s, and gives lits of information on The mpeg"s properties.It is freeware and you can get it here: http://wessweb.tripod.com/mpeged/.

There is another cool tool called "DVD Patcher" it will let you patch in different header information on Mpeg files, like if you have a mpeg2/svcd file but the bitrate is to high to be svcd compliant so you can change the header so it says that the bitrate is say 2500kbs so your authoring program will accept it.You can change the aspect ratio bitrate and resolution Headers..It comes in handt for authoring programs that will only accept Totally compliant files..

thanx minion, much obliged.
mpeged works ok.
couldn't find DVD Patcher yet.
But mpeged should suffice for my immediate needs.

I'm a newbie to video capturing and have a question about headers. I have a demo of DVDIt Pro and every time I try to write to a disk I get an error: "Each GOP header must be preceded by a sequence header." Basically, my encoder must set the header but I can't firgure out how with TMPGEnc. I have gone into the GOP settings and messed around, but no luck.

If anyone could point me into the right direction I'd appreciate it.

Paul

I have had numerous errors trying to encode files. I have several movie4s that were ripped from DVD's. These are in "letter box" format. I cannot set the input aspect ratio to anything other than 1:1 or I get all kinds of erros. The last one was a error box saying "-562303043 625056". This is of course usless. What do I do?

1:1 ratio is fine if the source is 4:3 it only means that you use the source as is.
if the ripped video is letterboxed 4:3, then use full screen without keeping aspect ratio
Then you set the output to 4:3 ratio and you should get a letterboxed 4:3 as output again.
but there might be something wrong with the source, if that is the case then forget it.

I recently downloaded blade2 2002 cd1 (cd2 is ready in e few hours from now)
and i'm very impressed by the very good quality, but i have no sound.
what do i have to download to get my sound??

Do you mean that after downloading the file the file has no sound or after encodeing it to mpeg the mpeg file has no sound?If the downloaded movie has no sound you probably just need a codec , but if the audio is gone after encodeing to mpeg then it is probably because the audio format in the avi file isn"t supported by tmpgenc, you need to extract the audio to a wav file with Virtual Dub and use that for the audio source.

I know i need a codec, but wich one. i already have divx and all the codecs of Windows Xp PRo.

You might need an AC3 filter if the audio is AC3, then you will need an AC3 decoder to encode the audio to wav because Tmpgenc does not support AC3...

I have been using the "header trick" for making svcd's working on unsupported DVD players and now I am moving home movies from vhs to svcd and when I use the "header trick", it seems it does not want to work as it does with dvd's. I am using Pinnacle Studio to collect the vhs and create a mpeg1 file and then convert it to mpeg2 with TMPGEnc then try to rewrite the header. So far I have been unsuccessful in changing the header.

Thanks,
Jack

Un-successfull how???are you getting an error is the program crashing ,and how are you changeing the header???(there are a couple ways).......

The svcd will not play on an unsupported player. I am converting the mpeg-1 file created by Pinnacle Studio to mpeg-2, using TMPGEnc. Then I use mpeg-tools to create or change the header through Merge&Cut, output as MPEG-1 Video CD (non-standard). I also tried Single Multiplex. When I try to burn the svcd, my program tells me it is a mpeg-2 file and won't let me burn it as a mpeg-1 like it should or as it does after I have changed the header on other svcd's.

Thanks,
Jack

Now this i don't understand.
you capture a video as mpeg1.
then rencode to mpeg2,
then you try to change the svcd headers into vcd headers.
And What's the point?
ever thought of just using the mpeg1 you start out with?
first of all, not all dvdplayers with vcd support fall for the "header trick"
second, encoding the mpeg1 to mpeg2 does not improve the quality
i even reduces quality.
if you do it anyway, the mpeg2 you make must be svcd compliant too
if you make a 720x480 ntsc mpeg2 the "header trick" won't work.
but you are wasting your time
just edit the mpeg1 and burn the vcd.

One of my players "falls" for the "trick" except for this instance and I find the mpeg-2 is much better than the mpeg-1,in my eyes anyway.

Thanks

Then it is probably a problem with burning program ,I have used this trick a couple of times and I used Vcdeasy and it seemed to burn it pretty good.

Thanks...I have used the trick also when ripping dvd's and had pretty good luck with my burner. It tells the difference between mpeg-1 and 2 with those rips. May be something different when you capture film and vhs and then encode it as a mpeg. When I run the trick it says the header is being re-written, but my burner program does not seem to recognize it with vhs and dv tape.

Thanks again.........

Anybody know how to make a MPEG in Windows Media Player...run fast and when you run in full screen mode it doesn't change the display color depth?
like the MPEGs on http://www,TekkenZaibatsu.com
They run fast on my 300 Mhz comp and when I make them full screen, Windows Media Player doesn't change the color depth...and they still run fast in full screen!
anybody know how to do this?
or can anybody download one of their MPEGs and tell me what settings they used to encode it?
I dont know what they did when they encoded it....and I dont know what software they used...

correction in the URL
http://www.TekkenZaibatsu.com
And if ya going to download some MPEGs to see what i'm talking about.
then I suggest ya download the Tekken 4 ones called Legend Of Dragon, Demon's Darkness Tribute, or the Tekken 4 Japanese PS2 Intro.

They looked fine to me (on my P.O.S. 300Mhz Work computer) their is no magic settings that i know of that will make them play fast other than if you forward through the video it some times tends to speed up till the audio sinks up. As for color depth im not sure I understand you. So excuse me if this sounds off but your screen resolution/Color settings are adjusted in the control panel under display>settings you should have the color pallete set to the max colors possible the only other thing that may limit you is your video card but a bite depth of 24 should be fine. You will probable have to wait till monday till our experts here Minion and Ashy give you some help good luck.

well if you wanna know what Windows Media Player does to the usual MPEGs I download...my screen resolution on boot up and it's default setting is 800x600 at a color depth of 32 bit...that's just the way I like my comp lol...but when I make the MPEGs full screen it will usually change the resolution to 640x480 and the color depth to 16 bit...
But when I downloaded the MPEGs from http://www.TekkenZaibatsu.com
they run very fast and when I make them full screen...it keeps up with the video and everything and plus it keeps them 32 bit...it doesn't skip any frames either lik on a MPEG that's too slow to run in full screen on this computer...
I'm just wondering how they did that....and I wanna know the settings they used to encode it...

Have a file that is 25fps. I know that is not the format for the US. Vcdhelp is down. Can you refer me to a tutorial if it is something that can be done?

There might be a tutorial at "Vcdhelp.com", there are a couple of ways to do it , you can do it by useing "avi frame rate converter" to change the frame rate to 23.9fps, but then the audio track will be shorter than the video track so you need to extract the audio and use a good audio editing program like "Cool Edit" or "Sound Forge 6" to stretch the audio to the exact length of the video file...that is the hard way, the easier way would be to use either a program called "DV Film Maker" it will turn Pal movies into 29.9fps NTSC movies and so will "ProCoder".....

most standalone players will play ntsc vcd's and svcd's as well as pal vcd's and svcd's.
at least the ones i have had in my posession so far.
my experience is that pal vcd played on a ntsc standalone plays better than that same pal vcd converted to ntsc vcd and then played
and that goes the other way around to, a ntsc vcd played on a pal player is better then that same ntsc vcd converted to pal and then played
most standalone players with vcd and/or svcd support have built in convertors.
PAL players will internaly convert the ntsc vcd's to PAL/60 output
which any decent PAL tv can display.
the same sort of thing happens when a pal vcd is played on a ntsc player.
the problem only comes up if you have pal and ntsc sources that you want to use both since only one or the other is allowed for vcd and svcd.
as long as you don't need to mix the 2, you can just burn a ntsc vcd if the mpeg is ntsc or a pal vcd if the mpeg is pal.
The same thing applies to dvd btw, ntsc dvd's can play without problems on pal players and visa versa. (if they are not encrypted that is)

Sorry I'm gonna have to disagree.
Even though most DVD players are capable of playing NTSC or PAL formats. If the movie is not in the machines native format it will be converted to it's native format, but the playback will be choppy as most if not all players do not do proper frame rate conversions. I have experienced this on a few players and as far as I'm concerned is not acceptable viewing.
The only way for satisafctory viewing is to do a proper frame rate conversion with the right tools and not leave it to the DVD player.

ASHY

What exactly are the right tools? Is there an easy way to do this properly?

The easiest and best way I have found for simple conversion is to use AVIsynth which will do a pretty good job without having to bother stretching and shrinking the audio to match the length of the changed framerate movie.

Download it and make yourself familar with it and I'll give a simple script which will do the conversion.

ASHY

Great I will download it and look it over. Thanks

Ashy,
Don't know what I am doing wrong. Downloaded the file, moved the .dll file to windows/system, installed the avisyth, but when I tried the tutorial, it didn't work. Did I miss a step. There was no troubleshooting.

everytime i post here you guys talk to me like i understand what ur saying please take it easy explain it in simple terms. All im trying to do is to make a VCD not SVCD cuz my dvd payer wont play SVCD and dvd author it without reencoding can someone help

load your movie file into the freeware program called tmpgenc.click on the button called "load" on the bottom right corner of tmpgenc and choose the file called VideoCD(NTSC).mcf if u are in america or japan or VideoCD(PAL) for europe or australia. Many dvd players can play both formatts anyway ie NTSC or PAL VCDs.The file u load is called a template and tells tmpgenc to encode the file as a standard VCD.now make sure the output file name is named what u want it named as and then press start. After encoding it u will have to use some cd burning software that can burn it as a VCD.Burning the resulting mpg straight on the cd (ie data cd) will not work. VCDs have the mpg and other special folders and files that must be there for the dvd player to recognise the disk. I havn't used dvd authoring soft so i can help u with that ....i presume it burns vcds and dvds? i use vcdeasy to burn.If u use the tmpgenc template then no re-encoding should be nescerry.

ps if the audio is out of synch with the video when playing back the encoded mpg then u might have to seperate the audio and video of the input file and load them seperately into tmpgenc

hopefully thats simple enough for u. There are some details like framerate not mentioned (ie output frame rate is set to either pal or ntsc that u choose...u should make the choice based on the framerate of the input file. PAL is 25fps and ntsc is 29.97 fps. try to keep the frame rate the same as the input file. Is this correct experts?lol)

load your movie file into the freeware program called tmpgenc.click on the button called "load" on the bottom right corner of tmpgenc and choose the file called VideoCD(NTSC).mcf if u are in america or japan or VideoCD(PAL) for europe or australia. Many dvd players can play both formatts anyway ie NTSC or PAL VCDs.The file u load is called a template and tells tmpgenc to encode the file as a standard VCD.now make sure the output file name is named what u want it named as and then press start. After encoding it u will have to use some cd burning software that can burn it as a VCD.Burning the resulting mpg straight on the cd (ie data cd) will not work. VCDs have the mpg and other special folders and files that must be there for the dvd player to recognise the disk. I havn't used dvd authoring soft so i can help u with that ....i presume it burns vcds and dvds? i use vcdeasy to burn.If u use the tmpgenc template then no re-encoding should be nescerry.

ps if the audio is out of synch with the video when playing back the encoded mpg then u might have to seperate the audio and video of the input file and load them seperately into tmpgenc

hopefully thats simple enough for u. There are some details like framerate not mentioned (ie output frame rate is set to either pal or ntsc that u choose...u should make the choice based on the framerate of the input file. PAL is 25fps and ntsc is 29.97 fps. try to keep the frame rate the same as the input file. Is this correct experts?lol)

There is no way to make a vcd that is authored like a dvd. vcd doesn't have the features of dvd.
To be able to play a minidvd (a dvd burned to cd) your dvdplayer needs to be able to play minidvd (i know of only one).
since it doesn't even play svcd you can forget about dvd like cd-r's
all you can do is make a vcd that has svcd with vcd headers and fool the dvdplayer, but you are still bound to the limitations of vcd as far as chaptering and menu's is concerned.
for making a vcd without reencoding you need a vcd compliant mpeg1.
you could fool the player by replacing the headers of a svcd compliant mpeg2, but not every player will be able to deal with that.
to do just that, you start tmpgenc, choose file>mpegtools from the menu.
that will open a screen with 5 tabs click the tab that says: simple multiplex.
set type to: MPEG-1 Video-CD.
choose the path and file that contains the video in Video input.
if that file also contains the audio it will automaticaly fill the audio input and the output fields, if not choose the seperate audio file in audio input.
eventualy you can choose a different path +filename in output if you want.
click on run and wait, it doesn't reencode, but it takes a while to replace all the svcd sequence headers with vcd sequence headers
when finished, use nero or easy CD creator to burn a vcd.
that's all.
i don't think there is a way to tell you simpler.
the rest is a matter of reading up on vcd's try www.vcdhelp.com, they have several guides that you can use if you want to add chapters or menu's. that has nothing to do with encoding.

I use the Batch Encode in version 2.57.41.146-Free, some time it works but a lot of time, it only run 1 or 2 items in the list and the program quit by itseft. Very rare that it would finish all items in the list.

I have the same problem. It used to work and then all of a sudden it quit working. I never get more than one, whether i use the wizard, or the regular batch list.
Someone suggested changing priority settings in the Environment list, but so far none of these has done anything for me.

FYI -- upgrading to the newest version (2.58 vs 2.57) solved the problem for me.

not for me... i think you just gotta be patient, sometimes mine works and other it doesnt, i havent yet worked out what makes the difference...
any other help?

Encoding puts more stress than other application on your PC, Batch encoding puts
even more! So we need stable system, and over clock is out of question.
Sometime CPU gets too hot while encoding longer then usual, also
statistically, Win2K, XP seems to be better than 9X, Me.

What does "VFAPI" mean? What do i need to download the plugin for?
And what does the option "register TMPGEnc.vfp to VFAPI" mean?

Hi. I am new at this. I have an .avi file from Kazaa and I am able to put the audio information in, but the error "can not open or unsupported" comes up for video. I have no video. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

what version of tmpg are you using?

Hi... For the past few months I have been downloading movies from KaZaa... and 1 out of 4 of the camcorder "now at theater" movies turn out to be blanks. If you have been following the news at WIRED.COM or stories in the NY Times you would be aware that some Congressmen are ass-kissing buddies of the Recording Industry of America (RIAA). There is a bill pending - if it has not already passed- that allows the RIAA and other copyright owners to deliberately place empty space files, or mislabled files, in set-ups like KaZaa. The hope is that by making us waste time downloading and disk space. that we will stop using the programs.
So it may not be a problem on your end at all!
I downloaded a file of XXX the Vin Diesal film. It took 3 hours to download. said it was an .avi file. Went to play it in Windows media player, and got a message that the file was in an unrecognized format. Now I have almost every codec known on my computer... so the "Unknown format" I believe , was simply no video was transmitted. Just a lot of "nothing'.
There may be a better explanation... if so, I'm all ears!!!

try Clone-CD and thank me later!
Just a qwik guess!
In fact quite a few of these mysterious flix that people think are no good or empty are perfctly fine just Clone-CD which wont burn on a reg nurning proggie!

Stop the bowing, just throw money!

I am sorry to post such a aff-base topic but I have searched and searched for a forum that will answer it to no avail. Plus everyone here seems to be so intelligent in all areas of Video editing, I thought there had to be many that could answer my questions. I won't post it now but if anyone is willing to try and answer my questions please reply and then I will ask my question. (they are regarding firewire cards, and dv editing from a camcorder) It is related because ultimately I will use tmpgenc to encode the final product. Thanks

hey minion or any1 else out there these are my settings
Stream type- MPEG-1 video
size- 352 x 240
Aspect ratio- 4:3 525 line (NTSC)
Frame rate- 29.97 fps
Rate control mode- Constant bitrate
Bitrate- 1150
VBV buffer size- 40
profile &level- MAin profile and main level
video format- NTSC
encode mode- non interlace
YUV mode- 4:2:0
DC component percision- 8 bit
motion search percision- normal
would i be able to dvd author this program wath ulead dvd workshop withut it it being reencoded if not how can i make it standard what do i have to change if so how can i increase the quality of my VCD by making it non standard thanx

there is more that you will have to set
if you need to set closed GOPs and 15 frames/GOP or ulead won't eat it, audio should be 224 kbps mpeg2.
standard tmpgenc is set to 18 frames / GOP.
Depending on the template yu choose ulead wil or will not reencode.
if you choose mpeg1 video, it will always reencode as far as i know, if you use mpeg2 (svcd or dvd) you have to set different resolutions and use a cbr mpeg2 as source or it will again reencode there is a template for custom that allows you to set the bitrate, if you use that, set it higher than the cbr source, then it willnot reencode.
Also it only accepts 4:3 ratio mpegs
That is as far as i know.
Its all in the helpfiles of dvdworkshop.
if you are making vcd's or svcd's dvdworkshop is not the way to go.
Then VCDeasy would be a better choice and it works much faster.

good luck
Kitty

im gonna use mpeg1- video format my a dvd book says it will only take vcd's not svcd's so how can i use my current settings and dvd author?

dvd can have mpeg1 content, but it still has to be compliant with dvd.
you can use mpeg1, but it has to be either 352x288 or 352x576 for pal
or 352x240 or 352x480 for ntsc.
You cannot use mpeg2 480 wide with fake vcd headers.
it has to conform to the resolutions
now i don't know what authoring tool you use, dvdworkshop i believe, i don't think that can actualy produce mpeg1 dvd's
you need a professional dvd authoring tool for that.
dvd maestro or the program they use hollywood, scenarist can do mpeg1 dvd.
i think dvd workshop only accepts full screen 4:3 mpeg2 as input
not even 16:9 mpeg2
its a tool for private use, so don't expect to much of it