I tried to add a DVD-Video and selected the title to add as a clip
and after thinking for a while, a window popped up: "Could not initialize
decoder" I have no idea what the problem, whether it is audio or video or how to work around the problem. Others seem to have been able to use this go import
an existing DVD, but this seems like an obstacle. Any suggestions/answers?

Thanks

I am encoding a .avi to mpeg2 for dvd and at the end, where time remaining=0 and status is 100% it freezes on me. I've tried waiting for a couple of minutes and gave up. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

Just try waiting longer.
TMPG is writing the headers and sometimes this can take a while with some movies. Go and have coffee or something.

The file is 695MB and Nero says it's 79.20 sec so it should fit onto a CD [CDs are of course 80 min]. So when I try to burn it says that there isn't enough space on a disk. Any suggestions?

Found a solution... newest Nero has a bug [6.0.0.15] but there's a patch. If anyone has the same problem - get the patch.

I've alsso this problem, then I applied the patch but it doesn't fix the problem :(

Sometimes the problem is that under the last tab the wrong stream type is choosen (something with mpeg1 or mpeg2 system/vbr, but you need video-CD odr SuperVideoCd for authoring)

Hello.
I try to convert div x avi file to mpeg but no sound
what can it be?
thanks

Ac3. You need to extract to a wav first.

What do you mean? cant it take the sounds from the div x file?
And how do i do it? where i dl ac3? is it free?

Thanks.

Your audio is probably Ac3. TMPG does not handle Ac3 audio so you need a program that can extract the audio to a wav file which you can then use in TMPG for the audio.

Virtualdub _ac3 or Virtualdubmod can do this as can AVIMUX04.

If you prefer you can try this codec which can handle Ac3 and should allow TMPG to decode it.
http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/AC3ACM/AC3ACM.zip

thanks, i will check it out

Hi, been searching board for a while with no joy. I'm trying to encode dvd 2 vcd, but i beleive that the "copied DVD" was made from SVCD, as is comes up with svcd on first screen. I did have alot of freeze ups with pc during encoding ,pc locked up at 60-70%. so cut into 3 files and missed one minuute where the error was ocurring, all went fine.

Now after burning the 3 mpeg1's to 3 disks, they dont play video on dvd player, the audio was left @ 48khz for better volume , as i do with most vcd's, and was fine, but the video is green and blotchy and unwatchable.

I hope I got that fairly clear. Havn't posted for a long while, but good to see regulars are still here.
Thanks for any help. Mick C.

First of all did you make sure you set the stream type to 'MPEG1 VideoCD' when cutting the MPEG? If you didn't then here is your problem.

If you did then try the method below.

Don't try encoding directly from the DVD, you need to use a program called smartripper to rip the DVD files from the DVD to your hard drive.

Next get yourself a program called DVD2AVI and load the VOBS into into it. Set it up to output the audio to a Dolby downmixed wav.
When done save it as a project.

DVD2AVI will then create a .d2v file and a wav. Load both of these into TMPG and encode as normal.

Thanks for response, I should have mentioned I used smartripper, then dvd2avi and used project files in tmpeg, and encoaded as mpeg1, made 2 mpeg files(half per cd) but because there was an error near start of second file, and they were to big to fit on cd, i decided to cut into 3 files, missing about a minute where the bad part was. but all 3 vcds run the same green blocky blotchy video, even though I know there were no probs of the 1st 1/3. Could this just be bad idea, when its been encoaded twice already(dvd to svcd back to dvd).
my setting were, vcd 352x288 pal. 25 fps 16.9 display,full screen keep aspect ratio2, set bit rate at 1800, and audio left at 48khz. I nearly always make non-compliant vcd by leaving audio as is, and don't get probs, after reading other posts, I raised the direct show from -1 to 1, but no change in quality.

Is there a possible cure or should i stay away from these copied DVD's?
Cheers again Mick C.

Also while I'm posing a question, I have 2 svcd's that I want to make to VCd's as my brothers dvd players wont play svcd, I tried to do trick of changing header to vcd, using tmpegsimple meltiplex and setting output to mpeg1, but the result was an even bigger file, 1 played green and blotchy video, the other wouldn't fit on cd(890mb) this isnt something I'm doing wrong is it?, like my problem in 1st post! sounds familiar...

Mick C.

All your problems seem to be related to what I first asked you.
Did you or did you not select the correct stream type when cutting the MPEG (this is important)?
If it's a non standard VCD then you need to set the stream type to 'MPEG1 Videocd (non standard)'

Also what speed did you burn the VCD at. You must not burn VCD/SVCD at high speeds or you WILL get trouble with playback. VCD/SVCD needs to burned at fairly low speeds or you will get burning errors on the disk which will affect playback.
4x is the best speed for VCD/SVCD or as close as you can get to it.

The probable reason for your second question is because you did not select 'MPEG1 Videocd (non standard)' when multiplexing. You can't use the standard setting because this will add padding which will inflate the size of the file.

Thanks for reply Ashy, I honestly cannot remember, I may have chose mpeg1 video-cd , and not (non-Standard) when cutting. So if I encoded as as a non-standard vcd , then merged both file to one, which may have been mpeg1 standard, and then cut one file into 3 using standard vcd again, would cause the bad video and "padding" making larger file too?

If so then can the mpeg1 files I have be re-mexed and put right or is it back to the drawing board?
I have to say, i did read posts on merging and cutting, but it was my first time, normally never any probs and two halves fit the disks! (as I select source range and encode both files one after the other ).
that's the learning curve i suppose...

Also I burned at 8x, would this compromise the video stream, it never had any effects before, but I could try 4x on awkward files.
Thanks.

Mick just remux all your MPEG2 files again making sure you choose the correct stream type 'MPEG1 Videocd' or 'MPEG1 videocd (non standard)'

For your MPEG2 SVCD remux using 'MPEG1 videocd (non standard)'

The most important thing to know is do these files actually play ok on the PC and just have problems on your DVD player?

Yes I have tried that, and all my files play perfect on my pc, on wmp and powerDVD too, so It could be my encoding settings, will try to do my next one on the default settings, and see how they are. I'll make sure the output is non-standard if the audio is different.

Thanks for all your help, will keep it all to mind, and at least I can find these posts to jog my memory if i forget.
Cheers Ashy.
Mick.

I've been reading a number of postings, and have found more then once that the response included "don't bother with 2-pass VBR." I'm interested in knowing 1) If 2-pass isn't any better, why is it included? 2)If it is better, when would you use the 2-pass VBR? 3) With apps like CCE that has more then 2-pass, why would they bother with 2-, or 3-, 4-pass?

I'm just trying to better understand the best uses for TMPGEnc Plus.

Thanks.

David

It isn"t a Problem with 2-Pass encodeing in General, It is a Problem with Tmpgenc"s 2-Pass encodeing...Tmpgenc"s 2-pass encodeing doesn"t produce any better Quality encodes than the "Constant Quality(CQ)" setting does...I suppose you Might get slightly better Quality encodes useing 2-pass in Tmpgenc if for instance you were working with a Very limited Bitrate or had a fairly Low Quality source file, But Constant Quality seems to use Bitrate jast as effeciently as 2 Pass does....CCE"s Multi-Pass is Good But you still will get Just as good results when useing the "One Pass VBR" when useing High Quality source files, But even with CCE after 2 or 3 passes the Quality doesn"t get any better even with the Lowest Quality source files...So if you are working with Good Quality source files and don"t have any major limitations on bitrate then CQ is the Setting to use....Cheers

I totally agree with minion.
You may get a slight increase in quality with 2 pass when using quite low bitrates because the bitrate will have to be more judiciously distributed, but on the whole the CQ method produces better results at higher bitrates and in fact is the method most DVD's have been encoded with.

As for CCE even the 2 pass here doesn't have much of an impact when using good sources and reasonable bitrates and it is generally accepted that after 3 passes there is no benefit gained.
In my opinion multipass is really only used with difficult sources and where someone is a real quality freak, who will use every single optimization there is even though it doesn't really make a discernable difference to the actual output.

I suppose it depends on the person and the source, but in most cases I have found that CQ is the way to go.

Hello. I have a movie sized 640x360. It's in widescreen because it looks wide and the top and bottom black bars have been clipped out from the movie so it looks extra wide. The characters look fine, they don't look stretched out. So what settings for Video Arrange Method in TMPGEnc should I select to maintain the widescreen? And what size should I convert to to attain the highest possible quality? I want to make an XSVCD. I am making this non-standard SVCD for my DVD player and in the past, it works well. Here are my settings I've used in the past, just wondering what I should change:

Output Size: 480x480
VBV Buffer: 40KB
RCM: Constant Quality
Bitrate: 2520 kbits/sec
Motion Search: Normal
Video Arrange Method: Center (420x420)

The reason why I have the VAM at center is because the side won't go off the TV screen. But it won't work for this widescreen because it stretches the video to drastic measures! When I tried using Center (420x240), it came out a bit squashed and the widescreen video came out too narrow than other widescreen. please help!

I did it in Full Screen (keep aspect ratio) too and it looked fine on the computer. But when it went on the TV, the characters looked squished. :( And the widescreen is TOO widescreen, too narrow. How do I fix this? :( Is it the source's problem?

You have done a 4:3-Resize... ;)

Try this: Center 464x400 (or 480x416)
Don't use any Keep Aspect Ratio Setting.

>You have done a 4:3-Resize... ;)

>Try this: Center 464x400 (or 480x416)
>Don't use any Keep Aspect Ratio Setting.

I don't think that will work out right, you haven't taken into account the cropping.

640x360 is a PAL 16:9 ratio or very close to it.
To add a 30 pixel border and resize correctly you would need to set the custom size at 416x368 to maintain correct aspect ratio.


Also your VBV buffer is set too low.
This setting is more appropiate for low bitrate such as VCD, it should be higher for SVCD and even higher for XSVCD.

Either set it at 0 and let TMPG decide or change it to at least 112. If you go above 3000 kb/s with your max bitrate setting then set it at 224.

@ashy

640x360 is something around 1.8963:1 (PAL)

The Resizing of 480x416 without any cropping will give you a perfect AR (1.8935:1, only 0.15% distortion).

464x400 do work also (1.9036:1, only 0.38% Distortion). It is optimiced for Macroblock-Sizes.

So I should do 480x416 if I don't want any cropping? What is AR? Also, I tried making a standard SVCD where the VBV was 112 but my DVD player couldn't handle it. And I changed it to 40 and my player worked fine.

@ B_Racer

I'm still not sure about your calculations.

640x360 is a PAL aspect ratio of 1.778:1 not 1.8935:1.
How can the ratio be higher than 1.85:1 if the vertical resolution is 8 pixels higher than a standard 16:9 (1.85:1) PAL 640x352 resolution? It would have to be lower.
The closer the vertical resolution becomes to the horizontal the lower the ratio goes until we reach 1:1 which would be 640x640.

640/360 = 1.778

My calculations are based on what a standard DVD player usually handles.
For example the maximum resolution for DVD is 720x576PAL and 720x480 NTSC and as in essence this is what SVCD gets resized to then these are the values we should work with.
640x360 is close to 640x352 which is PAL 16:9 1.85:1

So to find our correct ratio and to resize image and include a 30 pixel border I would use the calculations below:

720-60 = 660 then rounded down to a legal resolution = 656
656/1.778 = 368.53 which is then rounded down to a legal resolution of 368 this then gives us the correct width.

To calculate the width for SVCD then we use 480-60 = 420 which is then rounded down to 416 to make it a legal resolution.

This then leaves us with a resized resolution of 416x368 = 16:9 taking into account the added borders and is optimized for macro blocks.

Without borders the correct 16:9 height ratio would be 720/1.778 = 404.94 rounded down to a legal resolution is 400 giving us 480x400

The result with borders and resized for SVCD is 416x368 which gives very little aspect error.


>Also, I tried making a standard SVCD where the VBV was 112 but my DVD player couldn't handle it. And I changed it to 40 and my player worked fine.

Hmm... strange your player should react like this. It seems it's VBV buffer can only handle a setting of 40 when playing non DVD which is exactly the standard VCD buffer size.

Theres no reason why your player can't handle higher buffer values because most DVD's have a setting of 224. It's probably just that your player isn't 100% SVCD compatible and just expects VCD only.
Using only 40 for SVCD will likely cause a slight quality loss, but it may not be noticible.

@Ashy

640x360 can be:

1.89:1
1.82:1
1.78:1

It depants on what the Source was and how it was resized. I have seen all of this around the Net - a lot of wrong resized Movies.

If it is 1.78:1, then you are right, if not...

So should I be using 480x416 or 416x368 if I don't want anything to disappear off the sides? I did a test with all the sizes recommended and B_Racer's has more video while Ashy's has more noticeable top and bottom black bars. So..is there a recommendation for which one out of those 2 if I don't want anything to go off the sides of the TV?

@ B_Racer

The ratio is 1.778:1 I know this for a fact because I know my calculations are correct.

As I stated in my previous post my calculations are based on PAL aspect ratios therefore it can't be anything other than 1.778:1
I generally don't use calculators, but if you don't believe it then download a calculator such as FitCD or something similar.

I have checked my calculations with this calculator and they are spot on and as a double check I also tried the calculator in Gordian knot which also verifies my calculations and states the aspect ratio is exactly 1.778 just as I calculated.
It also states the the aspect ratio of a 656x368 source has an aspect ratio of 1.783 with -0.3% error which is as close as you can get while keeping to legal resolutions.

@Sakuya

>So should I be using 480x416 or 416x368 if I don't want anything to disappear off the sides?
480x416 will give you a movie without any boders at the sides, so you will lose some of the image on your TV. 416x368 will give you the borders you require so you don't lose any of the image and will maintain correct aspect ratio.

Sakuya it is up to you whether you want to believe that my calculations and 2 calculators are correct or not or if you prefer to go with B_Racer, I'm not going to get into an argument over who's right and wrong here, but I have explained as much as I can why I believe they are right, so there is nothing more I can do, it is up to you.

@Ashy

I'm a close fried to the Programmer of FitCD/Fit2Disc. ;)

416x368 is definatly a wrong size, because of the big Borders. They are TOO big. On most TV you will see them. The AR is correct, but who want's black Borders on the left and right side?

So, if you are right, and the Movie is 1.78:1 and there's no cropping needed AND you will kick away the Overscan-Effekt, then a Resizing to 464x416 is the only propper way. It's optimized for Macroblock-Settings and optimized for Overscan, but gives a AR-Distortion of 0.6%. The advantage of this way: You don't have visible Borders at the sides and you don't loose anything of the Picture.

Is it me or did you not even read the question this thread was about and the whole point of my post???!

Just to refresh your memory:

>Hello. I have a movie sized 640x360. It's in widescreen because it looks wide and the top and bottom black bars have been clipped out from the movie so it looks extra wide. The characters look fine, they don't look stretched out. So what settings for Video Arrange Method in TMPGEnc should I select to maintain the widescreen? And what size should I convert to to attain the highest possible quality? I want to make an XSVCD. I am making this non-standard SVCD for my DVD player and in the past, it works well. Here are my settings I've used in the past, just wondering what I should change:

>Output Size: 480x480
>VBV Buffer: 40KB
>RCM: Constant Quality
>Bitrate: 2520 kbits/sec
>Motion Search: Normal
>Video Arrange Method: Center (420x420)

>The reason why I have the VAM at center is because the side won't go off the TV screen. But it won't work for this widescreen because it stretches the video to drastic measures! When I tried using Center (420x240), it came out a bit squashed and the widescreen video came out too narrow than other widescreen. please help!


Notice the part where Sakya says he wants a 30 pixel border, I.E. (420x420)
This is the reason why the borders are so big and why I gave the calculations I gave.

How do you know how much overscan Sakuya's TV has?
Sakuya does which is why he adds a 30 pixel border. All I did was do the same and resize the image to maintain correct aspect ratio.

As for knowing the author of FitCD then either I am right about my calculations or you don't really know the author because either way he has not disagreed with my calculations and if he has then I would like him to visit this BBS and point out why and where the calculations are wrong and why his program is making wrong calculations.

If I open a progressive file in TMPGEnc, the 'encode mode' and 'video source type' become 'interlace' which is wrong.

I change them both to non-interlace and choose 'set current project as default'. But when I open a new progressicve .avi TMPGEnc still changes these settings to interlace.

How can I fix this? I have hundreds of small progressive .avi files. Changing these settings all by hand would be very cumbersome.

Set up TMPG with your settings then save the settings as a template.
Load your template in TMPG then load your AVI.
The settings should remain the same.

There is program which will save you a lot of time called 'TMPGEnc Batch List Creator' which can be downloaded here:
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/tmpgenc.html

How do you Know it is Not Interlaced??? If you Load the File into Tmpgenc useing the WiZard it actually analizes each frame of the File and then sets it to Interlaced or Progressive and if it is Interlaced it will set it to the correct Field order..So if you load your File in Tmpgenc useing the Wizard then it should set it to the Correct setting...I know with "Adobe Premier 6.5 and 7 Pro" when I render an AVI file and set it to be Rendered as Progressive it allways ends up being Interlaced anyways, I think this is a Limitation of Some Codecs cuz if I say have a Truely progressive source file and Render it useing the HuffyUV Codec and the Vertical resolution is 480 or above then it is allways Interlaced....Just a thought....

ashy - How do I save as a template? If you mean as a project it doesn't work since adding a new file onto an existing project resets the interlace parameters. I assume the wizard has templates, but I can't find a way to create one. I am trying the batch list creator now.

Minion - I don't know that it isn't progressive. But I do know that the files are physically different with the parameters set differently. I don't have any interlaced gear. Everything is progressive from camera to display, so I don't want any sloppy programs interlacing.

OK, so the batch program almost works. I use ScenalyzerLIVE with leaves a comma in the filename. The batch program doesn't write out the correct format for files with a comma in them but I can work around it.

I can find in the batch program an advanced setting for progressive source. Looks like I can guess correctly how to change the .mcf file in the template directory to progressive output too. So good so far.

Unfortunately I would like to create VBR files instead of the default CQ. Are there any docs on how to change the .mcf files by hand? Is there any way to save a template back out from within TMPGEnc Plus?

>OK, so the batch program almost works. I use ScenalyzerLIVE with leaves a comma in the filename. The batch program doesn't write out the correct format for files with a comma in them but I can work around it.

What's a comma got to do with it? If it's causing a problem just change the file name.

>Unfortunately I would like to create VBR files instead of the default CQ. Are there any docs on how to change the .mcf files by hand? Is there any way to save a template back out from within TMPGEnc Plus?

I don't understand your problem.
You can set whatever parameters you like in your own template, you are NOT restricted to any certain method.
Just set up the template how you need it then save it somewhere and use it with the batch list creator.

By the way... CQ is VBR

My overall aim is to write a divx file to a dvd, to test my brand new dvd wirte that came with my pc.

I found a guide on this page: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread/t-61142.html
however, It suggests cce, and after encoding it all i found it had a gorrible logo in the corner of the screen.

I then downloaded TMPGEnc to try that instead, but when Dvd2svcd gets to the video encoding bit, TMPGEnc gives the message "This window size is not accepted by selected MPEG-2 level".

Is there any way I can get around this? Or Am I just doing things all wrong anyway...

Your resolution is set wrong. Make sure it is 720x576 for PAL or 720x480 for NTSC.

My advice is to forget about DVD2SVCD, you don't need it, just use TMPG and it's wizard.

After waiting a VERY long time (30 hours) for TMPGenc 2.52 to do its job on a 1:40 minute DVD, the end result is flawed because the audio and video in the final MPEG are out of sync by several seconds. (Otherwise, the video and audio quality seem fine.)

I used the following to do the job:

1. Ripped with Smartripper
2. Created AVI with DVD2AVI (For audio, selected 48 -> 44.1, High Quality, Decode and Dolby Surround Downmix)
3. Encoded with TMPGenc

Except for the length of time it all took, the process went swimmingly without any apparent errors reported.

But does anyone have any ideas what I might have done wrong? Obviously, the length of time for this process was unacceptable - particularly for a flawed result - but this was my first such attempt. Still, I'd like to know how to correct this problem. Thanks.

>2. Created AVI with DVD2AVI (For audio, selected 48 -> 44.1, High Quality, Decode and Dolby Surround Downmix)

Here you have made 2 mistakes.
You do NOT use DVD2AVI to create an AVI, this is pointless, you should have selected to save as a project file not an AVI.

The second mistake is converting the audio from 48 > 44.1 with DVD2AVI. This will seriously slow the process down. Leave it as it is and let TMPG do the conversion.

It should only take a few minutes to create a project file using DVD2AVI. You should be left with a .d2v file and a .wav when DVD2AVI has finished.
Load these into TMPG and encode as normal, but don't bother with 2 pass encoding and don't select 'Highest quality' for the 'motion search precision'
selecting just 'High' will give just as good results in half the time.

Unless you have seriously slow PC it should not take anywhere near 30 hours to encode a movie.

hello, I have created svcd mpg (Adobe MPEG encoder) file and since it's more than 700mb I wanted to make it 2 parts. I open the TMPGEnc and selected the "Super video-CD" NTSC and tried to import mpg file that I created from premiere 6.5 but I keep getting error "can not open or unsupported" and can't import the file.

Howerver if I creat VCD file, i can open the mpg file no problem.

any idea?
Thanks for your help

and forgot to mention, I did Raise the "Direct show" file readers to 2 but still i cannot open the file.

and forgot to mention, I did Raise the "Direct show" file readers to 2 but still i cannot open the file.

You Don"t Cut a Mpeg file By loading it Into Tmpgenc...If you want to Cut a Mpeg file into 2 Parts you have to use Tmpgenc"s Mpeg editor...Go to "File" to "Mpeg tools" to merge & Cut" and here is were you can cut your Mpeg file into Parts...You must also Know that you can fit about 800mb on a 700mb CD-R when it VCD or SVCD Format...

I understand that during the encoding I may have a black screen..BUT I was wondering if AFTER the encoding will i be able to view it properly? and if not what should I do?

If you have a Black screen While encodeing then you will have No video in your Mpeg File after encodeing..You can usually fix this by going to "Options" to "Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct Show File Reader" to "2"...