I am capturing movies from my mini-DV cam directly to Premiere. Until now I've only been editing and sending back to the camera. I would like to take some clips and put them on the web. The quality I got with Cleaner 5 (integrated with Premiere) was horrible...blurry, banding, etc. regardless of the settings I tried. I have just started using TMPGEnc to convert AVI's to Mpeg, with much better results.

1. Is there a way to integrate TMPGEnc into Premiere, like Cleaner 5 is?

2. In the Wizard, can someone give me a few suggested parameters to use for encoding video for the internet? We are talking 20 sec. clips with a lot of motion (motorcycle, mtn. bike). Obviously looking for the best quality and a reasonable file size...say 2mb or less. Playback size can be smaller, does not have to be full screen.

Thanks in advance. I'm new at encoding, but not new at editing.

I think I solved my own problem, at least the first part of it...

I downloaded the plug-in from www.videotools.com and got it integrated with Premiere. They have a nice online tutorial on how to use it with TMPGEnc! (I also discovered that Cleaner 5 EZ that comes with Premiere is total crap, and doesn't support the video server mode...thus there is no way to control any parameters, even bitrate.)

Other than that, I'm just using mpeg1 so far, my file size is 10mb per minute, which I can live with.

If anyone has any other tips or suggestions for configuring videos for the web, PLEASE let me know!

Well If you are Doing Videos for web distribution then you might get Much smaller file sizes and same a lot of Bandwidth if you maybe tried a Different Format like WMV/ASF format...With WMV you could probably get about the same Quality but at a quarter the file size and anyone with a windows based PC could watch the files no problem...Just a Thought and Yes Cleaner5 is Crap...Cheers

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

Recently, I reinstalled Win XP Pro on my machine at home due to some problems I was having.

Once everything was reinstalled, I came to convert a couple of files I had.

I currently have a settings file that I use however, along with this, I run the project wizard so that I can specify a file size to find out the bit rate (I don't know if there is an easier method, but I find this works).

Anyway, I have now found that whatever files I open, the length is displayed incorrectly (always way too long) which results in the filesize being about 8Gb for a 2000 bit rate.

Having searched through the forums, I have only really been able to find the answer - it is nothing to do with TMPGenc since it gets the information from the file itself.

I have a file that I had converted (before formating my drive and reinstalling P) and the movie length was being report by TMPGEnc with no problems. Also, if I continously open the project wizard and go through to the end, I am occassionally given the correct info.

I am trying to convert XVID and DIVX movies to MPEG-1 Layer II Audio

Is there something I am doing wrong? I don't think that the problem is with any of the files since they were all okay before the reinstall. Since these files were on a different drive, they have not been effected.

I have also installed FFDShow Codec.

Thanks in advance,
Pie

I don't think that this is a problem anymore.

By chance I noticed a thread that mentioned VFAPI. This rang a few bells from the first time I was setting everything up.

After some extensive huntig, I came across the following prority settings -

DirectShow Multimedia File Reader-----Priority 3
AVI2(OpenDML) File Reader-------------Priority 1
Microsoft MPEG-1 Decoder--------------Priority 0
Wave File Reader----------------------Priority 0
AVI VFW Compatability Reader----------Priority 0
BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG File Reader-----------Priority -2
TMPGEnc Project File Reader 2.59------Priority -2

After I had installed the VFAPI codec I set the prorities as above and then checked one of my AVI files. Low and Behold, the length reported was correct :-)

Hi

I am trying to burn a avi file that was encoded as xvid with ac3 to a dvd to play in a stand alone player... I have used virtualdub to sav the audio as a .wav then renamed to .ac3... then used besweet to convert the ac3 to mp2 and then used tmpgenc to convert the mp2 and video from the avi to an mpg file... used the wizard and selected the dvd pal high quality one... to about 7hrs to do a 1hr movie (part of one) The resulting mpg will play in windvd... i have tried to use tmpgenc dvd author to make the dvd files to burn but when i click the "GO" button the elapsed time gets to about 10secs and then an error comes up "stream writing error" i have searched the net trying to find what this means and as far as i can tell it is something to do with hdd space... I have set the destination and temp folders to a drive with 23gb free space so i don't see how that can be the problem....
I am a newbee to this stuff so if some one could help me with this problem it would be greatly appreciated....

PLEASE HELP ME!!

Stop to put your question in BUG term.
check your HDD, and what file system your Hdd is, FAT or NTFS?

hi, i am trying to open an .avi movie file. But TmpgEnc says blah.avi can not open or is not supported. I know its either divx or xvid, how can i change the enviornment settings to have TMPGEnc recognize it and be able to edit it.

Well if it is a XviD file then you should also have the FFDShow Decoder installed Because it Replaces the XviD codec for Decodeing XviD files Because Tmpgenc doesn"t get allong well with the XviD codec...To change the Enviromental setting is so Simple that it should not even be asked..You just Right click on the VFAPI Plugin you want to Change the Priority of and just change it...To get DivX/XviD files to load you raise the "Direct Show"...

Any chance to import chapters from ascii file?
Like Premiere markers export:

Timeline Marker Data Output on 19-10-03 16:30:27
Position Duration Comment Chapter URL Frame Target
00:00:06:00 00:00:00:01 Chapter one
00:09:17:18 00:00:00:01 Chapter two

Or any other formatted ascii file...
Would be a great time-saver.


Jaap

Reply to myself.. 2nd evening playing with DVD Author.

If "Add chapter at specified timecode" would
accept bulk entry pasted from clipboard, a lot
of entry time would be saved..

00:03:06:07
00:09:17:18
00:16:36:03
00:21:45:24
00:31:09:20
00:43:29:14
00:53:54:20
01:04:47:12
etc..


Jaap

Hi, when i try to load any avi file, it a msg comes up and says "file cannot open, or unsupported"?? can anybody pleez help me??!! thanx

Search the board and you will get your answer a million times over.

i downloaded the TMPGEnc Version 2.521 but i get "this zip file is damaged or incomplete" and i can't install it. seems to be a problem with the .dll file too.
what can or should i do?

thanks

Well Try downloading it again...and make sure you have a newer version of WinZip installed or even better something like WinRar...and if you use a Download Manager then try without one...

done! thanks a lot.

I have just installed the trial copy of TMPGEnc Plus (2.521.58.169) and managed to encode an Microsoft AVI file from Premier 6. Two files resulted from the encode: a *.WAV (PCM format) and an *.m2v.

Problem: I cannot merge these two files to make a combined AV MPEG2 file. I tried using Simple Multiplex, Multiplex and Merge from MPEG tools that coems with the free trial. Each time the tool tells me that PCM is not an acceptable audio format. If not how do I get Premier to export AVI files in the right audio format so that TMPGEnc can work with them. I can find no further help on this problem.

Regards

Dave Barr

I think you've got yourself confused.
You can't multiplex a standard MPEG with wav audio. MPEG video only accepts MPEG audio unless you are creating a DVD and using DVD authoring software.

Next time you encode select CBR MPEG audio in the wizard not PCM, but for now just load the wav into TMPG in the audio field then select audio only then encode.
This will then produce the right audio format and THEN you can multiplex with the video.

Thanks for the response Ashy. I am a bit green on video editing and do need help with this.

Using AVI an export file from Premier and then using TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG2 I get two files, one a PMC audio wave file and a video M2V file. Obviously I need to merge these two files somehow to make a fully playable MPEG2. I was only trying to use what TMPGEnc provided from the encode. All I really want is a one step encode that provides a good quality finished MPEG2 with combined Audio & video, I dont understand the need for the extra step of combining audio and m2v files. Looks like I am a bit lost on the process of encoding from AVI to MPEG2.

Any more enlightenment would be appreciated.

Regards

Dave

OK. You obviously did NOT read my post properly because I have already given you the answer.

Here it is again:
>Next time you encode select CBR MPEG audio in the wizard not PCM

The easiest way to encode is to just bypass the wizard altogether.
Simply load your AVI into the main screen then just click the 'Load' button and load one of the templates.

hi, i'm having problems with merge & cut, some of what i have are bare minutes too long and i tried to merge & cut but it would just freeze........is there anything else that i can try?

Well when the Merge & Cut doesn"t want to work the only thing you can do is use a different Mpeg editor,This is an Mpeg editor that usually works Pretty good : http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/m2v_vfp-0.6.40.lzh , It also has a Mpeg2 VFP Plugin for Tmpgenc...If this editor still doesn"t work Post back and I"ll try to find another one...cheers

Minion.....winzip tells me that it shortened the name.......and now i cant even get to read the readme file....what can i do??????
thank you...i sent you an email......but i dont know if it will make it back to me.......

Here is the best advice.
Just get rid of winzip and download Winrar. Winrar is a far superior program and is the best compression program there is.
For a start of it handles almost every compression format there is unlike Winzip. It's also much easier to use and user friendly.

It will unzip this particular file with no problem at all.

I have just installed Sorenson Squeeze, in order to capture from DV and encode Quicktimes.

The DV encoded AVI that it produces from DV camera captures, looks perfect in Squeeze, Windows Media Player, Quicktime and After Effects.

When I open it in TMPGenc, it looks like a very low bit rate MPEG - soft and bad artifacting around edges.

I've tried disabling various vfp plugins to no avail.

Any help much appreciated.

Richard

Try raising the priority of either the directshow plugin or the OpenDML plugin to 2.

Thanks Ashy. Raising Directshow to 2 fixed this. I'd tried unticking the box for AVI2, but this made no difference (Directshow should then have had priority).

Anyway, all happy now.

anybody know if its possible to add audio to the menu screens? - im guessing its not coz i can't see an option for it anywhere, but you guys seem to have a few tricks up your sleeves!

any help is much appreciated

thanks

The way I do it is to create a small MPEG-2 for the menu. I use Adobe Premier to do this but you could use anything. If I want a still pciture, I will tell Premier to play the "still" for say 30 secs, I drag the WAV file to the timeline and then output to MPEG-2 from there, then simpily tell TMPGEnc to use that MPEG and voila, static image and audio for 30 secs, I edit the image in Photoshop to make it a little transparent for a more professional look (if I can be bothered).

I would prefer it to be the same as Sonics DVDIt PE where you simpily drop the 48Khz WAV file into the background image, maybe in a future release ? Another feature I would like to see is to export the trimmed .VRO files to elemental stream MPEG-2s to allow us to easily use them in any authoring package we like (eg DVD-LAb). I love the quick and easy trimming of VRO files from my Panasonic E-100 and wish I had a standalone app as nifty as TMPGEnc DDVAuthor to do just that !

This has been a thorn in my side for awhile.I generally use Tmpeg to encode the still w/audio. When I add it as a backround, the time it takes to write it quadruples!
are you saying that encoding it as a still in PREMIERE will reduce this time?
(EXAMPLE):I have a movie which I want to add audio to the backround of all pages(same backround...and is a still backround at that) the audio is exactly 3min 11sec long.The end result is, not only does it take forever to write it in dvd format,It actually takes the still and uses it as an MPG file, whereby my size is also dramatically increased. Mind you, I understand the last part. I mean, I DID encode it as an mpeg file. But that was only because there is no other way to add audio to the backround. If you encode the still w/the audio in Premiere, does DVDAUTHOR recognize it as a still frame w/audio? or will it still write it as though it was a regular video clip?

I am very new to this and would like to know if I can convert Windows Media to Mpeg with TMPGenc. Thank you in advance

Theoreticly Yes, if you have the latest WMV codecs installed, But some Poeple have had Problems getting the audio to encode , so what is a good idea is to extract the audio from the WMV file to wav format and use the Wav files as the audio source...For extracting the audio from WMV Files I usually use a simple audio encoder called "DB Power AMP" to extract the audio to Wav...You can get DB Power AMP for free at "http://www.dbpoweramp.com" and remember to download the codecs for DB power amp also, there will be a Link to a Place called "Codec Central" at the web site....good Luck

Question - Mr

Answer - Mr.

Tricky ... what is "Mr"? .... people keep putting that in the subject line

It's because he can't be bothered to put a proper subject, so in that case I can't be bothered to put a proper answer.