How can I tell if an AVI file is widescreen or not? I have this AVI that's a DVD-rip and the characters on it seems squashed. The size is 640x352. In TMPGEnc, should I convert it to 352x240? If it is widescreen, what should I do?

Actually, after I emailed the person who encoded it,he said he encoded the wrong size so it is a little squished. :( What should I do now? Let's say it's not widescreen..

I always use "Full Screen (Keep aspect ratio)" or "No Margins (keep aspect ratio)" regardless of the input. Use Preview to see what the result is. The frame rate of the source avi is more important. For NTSC (23.976 or 29.97 fps) I always use 352x240 (MPEG1) and for PAL (25fps) 352x288. My advice is to check the frame rate with avirate.exe and encode with the same fram rate. Let your DVD player deal with the fps conversion.

What is the "No Margins" one for?

Hmmm...when I did the "Full Screen (keep aspect ratio)", black bars appeared at the top and bottom making it widescreen but the video was a bit squashed. But "Full Screen" seems to work fine as it makes the video full screen and the characters don't look like potatoes! Thanks though.

That's because (Keep Aspect Ratio) is mostly the wrong Option.
Which one to use, depants on the Source.

Your Video is 640x352. OK, that's a wrong Aspect Ratio (1.616:1). If you use (Keep Aspect Ratio) the resulting Video also has a wrong Aspect Ratio.

>That's because (Keep Aspect Ratio) is mostly the wrong Option.

This option is usually the right one to choose as long as you choose the correct input aspect ratio for your source that is if you intend the output to look the same as the source.
With any other aspect ratio apart from the preset ones you would have to use the Center(custom size) option to set your own source aspect ratio.

Center (custom size) is a bit tricky, because if you use it, and the Source has not the same size than the Target, it uses the Resizer of TMPGEnc. And that's not the best part of the Program.

I prefer to use AVISynth to to all the Resizing and then to use Center or Full Screen. But there are many way's leading you to Rome... ;)

Yout right AVIsynth is a better way of resizing, but for simplicities sake and ease TMPG can do a decent job of resizing ( I would still like to know from the author what sort of resizing method TMPG uses and why we can't have options included to choose the type we require)

The easiest way to do the resizing with AVisynth is to use GordianKnot, this way you have a visual reference then I would use the Fullscreen(keep aspect ratio) option in TMPG. This way TMPG will NOT resize the image.

Sorry for my intromission, but my question is somewhat related to this thread:
how can I determine the aspect ratio of the source AVI file to use for encoding with TMPEG, when I don't know it?
That is important because I use Keep aspect ratio to have the Output look the same as the Source.
Thanks for help.

Well it's not really that hard to tell is it?
If it's either 16:9 or 4:3 it should be obvious when you play it back, but if that's not good enough then download one of the many utilities that will tell you the properties of the file such as Gspot or even Virtualdub.

>Well it's not really that hard to tell is it?
>If it's either 16:9 or 4:3 it should be obvious when you play it back, but if that's not good enough then download one of the many utilities that will tell you the properties of the file such as Gspot or even Virtualdub.

Sorry again, but in VirtualDub 1.5.3 I don't find where that info is, infact in File Information I don't find anything that is similar to Aspect ratio (there is Frame size of course, but, as I know, this doesn't determine in a unique way the Aspect Ratio...). Must I use Gspot?
When you say "play it back" you mean with a software player like Windows Media Player on the source AVI file or, once converted in mpeg 4:3, with a desktop DVD player?
Thank you very much.

GSpot would give you Much More Information on the File....

Ok download this app. It should tell you what you need to know.
http://avicodec.duby.info/ftp/avicod11.exe

>Ok download this app. It should tell you what you need to know.
>http://avicodec.duby.info/ftp/avicod11.exe

Great, it was what I searching for! Thank you a lot!
One more question on this argument(hope the last one): I've encoded a video (which his Aspect Ratio is reported to be 16:9 by AVIcodec)with frame size 512x288 for a standard VCD, setting Advanced/Source aspect ratio to 1:1 (VGA), Advanced/Video arrange Method to Full screen (keep aspect ratio 2) and Video/Aspect ratio to 16:9 625 line(PAL), when I play the resulting VCD on my DVD desktop player (which is set to output 16:9) and on my 16:9 TV set, it looks fine only when I choose the 4:3 mode on the TV, while it looks "stretched" if the TV is set to Widescreen (16:9). Can you tell me why?
Is because I choose 1:1 (VGA) as Source aspect ratio? If so, what kind of relation must be between this parameter and the "true" aspect ratio of the source video?
Thanks fo your patience.

Why did you choose 1:1 VGA if your source is actually 16:9. This is NOT the right option. 1:1 is a square pixel aspect ratio 16:9 is not.
You should have selected 16:9 PAL as the source ratio.
Set your output to 'full screen (keep aspect ratio)' and the output ratio to 16:9.

>Why did you choose 1:1 VGA if your source is actually 16:9. This is NOT the right option. 1:1 is a square pixel aspect ratio 16:9 is not.
>You should have selected 16:9 PAL as the source ratio.

I've used that option before I knew the correct source aspect ratio (that is before use of AVICodec)...
Anyway, I'll try your suggestion, thank you.

Be aware that to encode to 16:9 you should use MPEG2. Mpeg1 does not have support for anamorphic flags and therefore may not be correctly detected by your player. Also ensure your player is set up for 16:9 output.

I am trying to load the video source but it comes up with the message "can not open, or unsupported". Is this something to do with the codecs?

Also, how can I find out what the details (e.g. the codec used) for each AVI file I have?

The big picture is that I am trying to create Video CD's of files I have downloaded but with little success..... Any advice would be appriciated.

Thanks,
ZAK

To find out what codec your AVI files were compressed to you can use a Little Program called "G-Spot", it will tell you what audio and Video codecs you files use...To get rid of your "Can Not Open Or Unsupported" error you should try this..Go to "options" to "enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the priority of the "Direct Show File Reader" to "2", this should get your file loaded...Another thing you should know is that downloaded movies are the worst files to try to make (S)VCD"s or DVD"s out of cuz Downloaded files usually use Wierd Resolutions and Non-Standard Frame rates and Audio formats, Plus they have a tendance to be corrupted or have corrupted frames in them which makes them difficult if not impossible at times to make Proper Mpeg files out of them....good luck

Thanks a lot for ALL the advice given...it now works!

Cheers,
Zak

i have the same problem as above. i have tried to switch the priority to 2, this did not work. i ran the clip in g-spot and it shows the clip is mp43 codec.
is this my problem? i think mp43 is nero codec. thanks in advance for any and all help.

Mp43 is Not a Nero codec it is Just the Microsoft Mpeg-4 version 3 Codec,if you install the FFDshow Decoder then you should be able to decode this File..

hey minion thanks alot.had it on hard drive just not installed. it did work perfect. thank you for your help.

My file codec was "div3" and I raise the TMPGEnc file reader to "2" but it still showed the same message. Can you plaese help me out?

Try What I said before ,Install the FFDshow Decoder, It is a Decoder for allmost all Formats , You can configure it to decode any Mpeg-4/DivX/XviD format and Mjpeg and DV and Mpeg and it does Many other things also....

can you give me the link? can't seem to find it. thanks

nevermind, I found it but I don't know how to use it. Can you tell what to do?

I have avi's captured off of a camcorder via firewire (i.e. all digital). I have been editing them by using Showbiz 1.1 and Ulead Videostudio 5 and using TMPG to convert to MPEG2. I encounter an error using Showbiz.

I edit them by adding features (transitions, titles, etc) and resave as DV files in AVI uncompressed format. The Ulead files, TMPG has no problem with--it splits them into the audio (PCM) and mpeg2 video (m2v). However, when I use Showbiz, TMPG does its thing but the audio is out of sync/distorted with the video when I author the DVD. It isn't just a time lag, but a "squashing" of the audio as everyone sounds like they are on helium with a slight jitter.

I have tried 2 different computers and this is consistent with EVERY file output by Showbiz. Does anyone know why this might be? Does Showbiz use some wierd format? I don't get any "errors" throughout the process--the files are just screwed up in the end.

Have you Maybe thought of Useing a Totally seperate Program to encode the audio...You can use Something like "Virtual Dub" to extract the audio from the AVI file to wav and then use that as the audio source in your DVD authoring Program..That way you will know if Tmpgenc is screwing up your audio or if it is allready screwed up..You should also consider useing a Different audio format than Wav as Wav audio takes up a LOT of Disk Space that would be better used to Video, Converting the Wav audio to AC3 would be the best as it is a Very high Quality format and the File sizes are very small....Cheers

Have you Maybe thought of Useing a Totally seperate Program to encode the audio...You can use Something like "Virtual Dub" to extract the audio from the AVI file to wav and then use that as the audio source in your DVD authoring Program..That way you will know if Tmpgenc is screwing up your audio or if it is allready screwed up..You should also consider useing a Different audio format than Wav as Wav audio takes up a LOT of Disk Space that would be better used to Video, Converting the Wav audio to AC3 would be the best as it is a Very high Quality format and the File sizes are very small....Cheers

Thanks, that is a good idea, I'll try to split it out separately with a different program. I would really like to know if Showbiz is using a non-standard header that I could just eliminate.

ron

>Have you Maybe thought of Useing a Totally seperate Program to encode the audio...You can use Something like "Virtual Dub" to extract the audio from the AVI file to wav and then use that as the audio source in your DVD authoring Program..That way you will know if Tmpgenc is screwing up your audio or if it is allready screwed up..You should also consider useing a Different audio format than Wav as Wav audio takes up a LOT of Disk Space that would be better used to Video, Converting the Wav audio to AC3 would be the best as it is a Very high Quality format and the File sizes are very small....Cheers

Is there anybody who can give me
a direction how to do such profile?

First, you have to own the full product. Trial versions (at least the older ones) have this disabled.

Then you have to unlock all feature selections (load the extras/unlock template). Options will be in the Setting/Video sheet.

4:2:2 is a little bit of a pain because most decoders can't play it. WinDVD does not and I don't know about PowerDVD. Some DirectShow codecs (e.g. Etymonics) handle it but playing with through DS codecs is a pain. Decoding 4:2:2 Mpeg (or any other Mpeg) for offline reencoding to other formats should be done with DVD2AVI.

Ive used tmpgenc to convert a divx/avi file into a dvd compliant mpg using the dvd template. Which plays fine on its own no problems at all.

After ive authoured it with tmpgenc dvd authour the sound is very choppy and metallic sounding, anyone got any ideas??
many thanks in advance

i'm frequenly use tmpeg latest version that is version 2.52 and yesterday..when i wanna to convert my avi file to mpeg file.. i see that my tmpeg cannot perform step 2/5 in project wizard. when i try to browse video source, the software (TMpeg 2.52) just close automaticly. i don't know what was happening and i hope if anyone can help me solve my problem..i really appriciated so much. i try to use the new Tmpeg that i download from the official website, but still the problem occur. pls help me in solving this problem.

Well, have you tried not using the wizard? When it pops up, close it. Then at the bottom, select your video source and see what happens.

I can't encode my .avi file captured by Adobe Premier6, firewire card, sony digital PC9. The software TMPGEenc Plus show unsupported file.

Change avi to microsoft's dv2 format eg. with Canopus converter
http://www.canopus.com/US/products/DV_file_converter/pm_dv_file_converter.asp

My my another new format! I'm sure TMPGEnc cannot support this by itself. Is there any way to burn it onto VCD? Also, it has 2 audio tracks and I don't want one. Can I remove one?

You can use VirtualDubMOD as Frameserver and to remove the unnead Audio-Stream.
You can also use AVISynth with the DirectShowSource-Command to open and Frameserve the Movie.

Actually, before you replied, I had extracted the audio and video and converted it to MPEG in TMPGEnc. Now, all that's left are the subtitles. But nobody told me what to do with them. :( Do I have to frameserve because I already converted! ;_;

What Kind of Subtitles? Are they muxed into the Video? If so, you can extract them by using the newest Version of VirtualDubMOD (STR- und SSA-Subs).
After then, you can use TextSub (AVISynth-Plugin) to encode them into the Video.
Or you can use SubMux to mux them into the Video. But i never tried this with VCDs, only with SVCDs.

when i try to encode videos which uses the MP43 codec, i get a message in TMPGEnc that says that the format is not supported. can anyone help me fix this?

Install Microsoft MPEG4 codec or FFDSHOW

I have this AVI that's only about 150MB. It's size is 544x416. It's audio sampling rate is 22050Hz. How come it takes 7 hours to encode to 480x480 with 44100Hz at 224kbps?! Now I'm wondering if it's better to to encode it to 352x240. It is a DVD-rip and I want to keep most of the quality.

if u wanna to encode file from 480x480 to 352x240 and u wanna keep all the quality, pls use software that call dvd2avi. this software is comply to Tmpeg current version and f.i.y, i get the tutorial to use dvd2avi that comply to tmpeg current version from this web site : www.dvdrhelp.com or u just click this address that i paste -> http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tmpgencdvd.htm

What the pont of using DVD2AVI? This isn't going to help, you can't import AVi into DVD2AVI.

We need more info, what is the length of the AVI and what other settings are you using, such as motion search, 2pass or CBR?
What CPU do u have?

Hi,
according to CyberHome here in Germany TMPEGnc does not support the VCD 2.0 standard.
This is given as the reason why my DVD player doesn't play my VCDs properly.

Do you have any response? Does TMPEGnc really not support the VCD 2.0 standard to 100% ? Are there any modifications I can do so that my VCDs do play?

Thanks for any help,

-Nils-

TMPGEnc do support VCDs 100%. Maybe your DVD player is not designed to play VCDs or CD-Rs? Have you checked the manual? Many players varies. Mines cannot play CD-RWs or SVCDs.

VCD20 has nothing to do with encoding the Video. It depents to the Burning/Authoring-Program to create a correct Data-Structure.

Thanks for the tip.
So Nero v. 5 is my problem? I will investigate further.
Thanks again.
-Nils-

Actually it has been known for some time that TMPG does NOT create completely 100% VCD2.0 compatible MPEGs.
The problem lies in TMPG's multiplexer. Of course most DVD players do not have a problem with this, but some strict VCD players do have a problem.

Yours seems to be one of them.
All you need to do is demultiplex the MPEG the remultiplex it with the Philips VCD2.0 toolkit
http://www.icdia.org/sw_pc/vcdtools.html

Dear All:
Could you tell me how to use VFAPI Server / Client to make more than a PC render a batch encode list ?
I have tried many times, and I spent a lot of time doing research on it, but in vain..:(
Could you tell me how to use (and configure) VFAPI Server / Client ?
Thanks a lot !! ^_^