Here's my story, if you know what i did wrong please tell me :D

There's a couple of movie files that i wanted to encode into a mpeg2 format(not svcd standard, standard mpeg2 file). In order to do that I use dvd2avi to frameserve it to tmpgenc.

Before i actually do the frameserving I would go into clip + resize in dvd2avi and clip away all the black on the top and on the bottom using the free option. So if the original was 720 x 480 it would end up being 720 x 360. I'm not sure if what i'm doing here is wrong or not but i notice that when i select of the other options in the video aspect instead of the free option the resize actually cuts not only the black borders on the top and bottom off but also a little bit of the movie from the top and bottom. For instance if i had a movie that was 1:85 and i used the video aspect of 1:85 a bit of picture from the top + bottom is gone. I also notice that some movies are by default in the format of 720 x 360 before clipping and resizing. If i really didn't like the black borders on the top and bottom of the movie should i use the free option to cut it out or should i use one of predefined aspect ratio that's equal to the movie to cut out the black borders on the top and bottom?(if the movie is 2:35 then in the video aspect i would select 2:35.

For now I use the free option and if the file is 720 x 480 it ends up being 720 x 360 after dvd2avi. If it's default of 720 x 360 then i leave it. The dvd2avi output(d2v file) is excactly the same as the source minus the borders on the top and bottom.

I import the d2v file and then use tmpgenc to resize the movie. So a 720 x 360 movie i would resize it to 512 x 256 (I'm not sure if this is the correct aspect ratio or not if someone can tell me that would be great) I would put in 512 x 256 in the video tab : size box, and in the advance tab: video arrange method i have center (custom size) and the number is 512 x 256. The source aspect ratio is whatever the original movie is. The aspect ratio in the video tab is set to 1:1 since i am watching the files on my pc. I hit encode and in about an hour i have my mpeg2 file.

Now the strange part is the the files work fine on my desktop pc. I use window's media player and ati file player and they look right. However when i watch it on my laptop using WMP the file was in 4:3 aspect ratio and it was totally warped looking. The same thing happen on my friend's desktop when I played it using WMP. WMP showed it in 4:3 but on his laptop using WMP it was fine.

So what did i do wrong here? did i mess up during the dvd2avi process? Did i totally mess up the aspect resizing? Can anyone tell me what that correct aspect ratios are for 720x360 if i wanted to shrink it down to a smaller size?

Thanks for all the help

I think the problem is "media player" it sucks for watching mpeg2 files on cuz it resizes your movie to fit into it"s viewing screen instead of adjusting the viewing screen to fit the dementions of the movie,I"m sure if you played it with something like "power dvd" it would look fine.I to do most of the minor resizing in dvd2avi but I think it is better to do the major cliping and resizeing in tmpgenc cuz you get greater controll over the aspec ratio and frame size than with dvd2avi....

I'm pretty sure tmpgenc cannot convert from mov to something else, but does anyone know what can?

Tmpgenc sure can encode "mov" files, but you need the "mov vfapi plugin" installed, you can download it in the "tools" section at "www.vcdhelp.com"....

I have my son graduation in video file in DV format. I wanted to give his classmate a copy of this using a CD-R compressed in MPEG1 format (so it can be easily viewed using PC windows media player). I want it viewed in full screen and maintain the quality as close to the DV format as possible.

1. For full screen do i have to encode it with TMPEGenc as 720x240 or use the 352x240 (VCD) resolution. If i use 352x240 and increased the the zoom to 100-200% i noticed that the quality goes really bad. In relation to bit rate does it follow that 352x240 with 5000mbps(i.e.) is the same as 720x240 with lower bit rate. What would be the best combination of settings to encode MPEG1, for PC playback, full screen?

2. After playing around with all those settings will i have any problem if reencode the MPEG file to VCD format in the future.

3. I read in the forum using DivX will give better quality, the thing is i dont want to act as Help Desk to this people. Is there any free player which is easy to install. Im thinking of including an autorun file so those guys wont have to do anything anymore.


Thanks

Albert

If you are just going to watch it on a computer screen then divx will probably give you better quality for the file size and media player shouldn"t have a problem playing them as long as the codec is installed on your system.I guess you mean 720 by 480 not 720 by 240, if you decide to do mpeg1 then useing the higher resolution with a higher bitrate will give you better quality then at a lower resolution but to keep the same quality as the lower resolution you have to increase the bitrate quite a bit and depending on how long the file is you might not get it on a cd-r, at 5000kbs you will only get about 20 minutes on a cd-r but it should be close to dvd quality if your avi file is close the the same quality, and useing the "CQ" encodeing method should help keep the file size down.....

After loading the sample.avi files as Video source and Audio source, I did "load-->VideoCD(NTSC).mcf", then "start". I got a 1.1G *mpg file after 3 hours. Is it the correct way to get a vcd file from *.avi file? How can I cut the resulted *.mpg file into two *.mpg files<650MB, so that I can burn them into two 650MB cdrs? I did search the BBS a little bit, but can't find anything about file size. Thanks in advance.

Use "VCD Cutter" (KaZaA)

First off you can get about 750mb of mpeg on a 650mb cd-r, plus tmpgenc has a mpeg editor ,go to "file" to "mpeg tools" to "merge and cut" then edit your mpeg there, pluss you don"t have to edit your mpeg files if you use the "source range" in the "advanced settings" to encode your file in parts so you don"t have to edit, if you are doing a standard compliant vcd each minute of mpeg1/vcd is about 10mb so on a 74minute 650mb cd-r you can get about 74-75 minutes on mpeg1/vcd so you set the source range to encode to the 74 minute mark then you set the source range to encode from the 74 minute mark to the end,this only really works if you are useing the "CBR" encodeing method..But it is a good idea to get a different mpeg editor cuz the one in tmpgenc can cause sync problems or crash on you, you can download a few mpeg editors at "www.apachez.net" but it is best to use the source range so you don"t have to deal with it....

I have been trying create VCD files from ASF but I have problems reading the Audio encoding.
If I read Aoudio and Video from the ASF, it take forever to convert and have audio problems.
If I convert ASF to WMV and read Video from ASF (for better quality) and Audio from WMV, then I can do it in 10 minutes.
Is there any way out ot second layer decoding for Audio that helps to avoid conversion from 2 sources?

Thanks

Load the file into Virtualdub_asf and frameserve it to TMPG.

ASHY

A few things,

- I'm using Sonic(tm) MYDVD to create DVDs on my hard drive. TMPGEnc
crashes while trying to load MPEG-2 layer files both in the wizard
& on the main program screen. If I uninstall MYDVD, TMPGEnc works
like a champ! (fix anyone?) :)

- Would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to see the ability to export to .VOB format in
TMPGEnc so I can get rid of MYDVD altogether. If TMPGEnc created the
.VOB files, there's a proggie out there called IFOEDIT that will
create the necessary .IFO & .BUP files from the .VOB files.

- FWIW, Nero does NOT support the conversion of .MPG to .VOB. Nero
will only create the file system. You have to come up with the DVD. :)

> I'm using Sonic(tm) MYDVD to create DVDs on my hard drive. TMPGEnc
crashes while trying to load MPEG-2 layer files both in the wizard
& on the main program screen. If I uninstall MYDVD, TMPGEnc works
like a champ! (fix anyone?) :)

I have the same problem. The simple solution is to frameserve the mpeg2 files to TEMPGenc using DVD2AVI (to frameserve, "Frame Serve", quite literally means use software in a server-client relation. DVD2AVI serves the movie frames to the TEMPGenc client. there's no loss of quality ;-)

>Would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to see the ability to export to .VOB format in
TMPGEnc so I can get rid of MYDVD altogether. If TMPGEnc created the
.VOB files, there's a proggie out there called IFOEDIT that will
create the necessary .IFO & .BUP files from the .VOB files.

Interesting idea. But if you're going to generate the VOB's you may as well generate the IFO's as well. Then TMPGEnc becomes an authoring package as well.

Griff

Is thier any was to shrink the file size when your converting a mepg2 file to mpeg1? when i try to convert a 159mb file over the estamted file size afterwords is 3361380.36mb??:/ can someone please help me?:) BTW, i dont have any audio in the file...its just video.

That file size estimate is odviously an error,you could make 100dvd"s with a file that size,Try frame serveing the mpeg2 file to tmpgenc from dvd2avi cuz it seems that tmpgenc is reading the file wrong, the size of a mpeg file is directly linked to the bitrate used to encode that file, generally speaking svcd/mpeg2 is about 20mb per minute and vcd/mpeg1 is 10 mb per minute that is useing the standard bitrate specification, so lowering the bitrate will decrease the file size.....

ok im cluless, i dont understand what you mena;)

>Try frame serveing the mpeg2 file to tmpgenc from dvd2avi cuz it seems that tmpgenc is reading the file wrong,

Ok what do you mean by this?:) or how do you do this?:)

Ok, you download dvd2avi and then load your mpeg file into it and make a " d2v project file" then load the project file into tmpgenc then tmpgenc will think the project file is an avi file when it is your mpeg file then encode, if you want to learn about different techniques and what mpeg encodeing is all about go to "www.vcdhelp.com" and read a lot..

Thanks!:) sorry for being such a num skull:)

I think the author of TMPGenc is missing an opportunity. There are a lot of MPEG editors out there selling from $100 to $700 (MyFlix, nanoPEG, mpeg2vcr, M2-Edit). I have been looking for something that I can use to edit VBR MPEG2 files created by the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR model 250. See the following for more info.

http://pvr.opcenter.de/viewtopic.php?t=699

Except for a slight audio sync problem, TMPGenc is the best low cost option I have found. If this problem could be fixed and a few features added, the editor alone could be a product that people might pay for. nanoPEG (which comes with WinTV-PVR) is similar to cut & merge and sells for $200. The output is not as clean as TMPGenc. I purchased TMPGenc several months ago for encoding, but was surprised to find that it's editor is competitive with options costing a lot more.

A couple of suggestions. An option to save/load cut lists from the editor would be very helpful. Occasionally TMPGenc does crash when I am trying to set the cut points. I can live with that, but it is frustrating to have to start over. If I could restore a saved cut list, it wouldn't be a big deal. It would also make it easier to find cut points if there was a way to move forward/back by a larger number of frames. Maybe something like buttons to skip forward/back by 10 and 100 frames. If find zeroing in on the cut frame I want to be one of the most tedious parts of editing. It's surprising that most programs don't provide a better way to do this.

Almost forgot, it would be nice to have an option to split a clip. This option creates two clips from same file with the end of the first and start of the second set by the split point. This way you don't have to keep reloading the same file.

I'm using the Hauppauge WinTV Nova-t digital terrestial card. I think that TMPGEnc is a good editor for the mpeg 2 files that this card creates. The audio sync problem is a problem I also have in TMPGEnc; it's not caused by dropped video frames however, but a bug, which causes the audio to skip occasionaly (it does this on the mpa files even when no video is present).

If you want more sophisticated editing abilities, why don't you try frameserving the mpeg2 files into Premier, I've read that it is possible to do this.

Griff

Thanks for the suggestion. I am also thinking of trying Womble's mpeg2vcr which was suggested by others here. It sounds like a good editor but costs $250. I just think that TMPGenc is almost there as a good cut/merge only editor, and could be a great low cost solution with a little work. There are lots of people getting into PVR who just want to record TV shows and edit out the commercials. They don't need all the features that many editors have, and the cost of the good ones is high. I think there is a market for a good low cost simple editor.

Hi!

Now after getting rid of the "Elecard MPEG2 Decoder"
and installing "m2v.vfp" Plug-in, I only can import the video stream of
my DVD captures.

When I take a look in the VFAPI directory there is the MPEG2 Video Plug-in "m2v.vfp" but no MPEG2 Audio Plug-in. Is this correct?

Is there Missing something?


Thanks !
cubase50

There is no audio plugin for tmpgenc accept the "wav" plugin, the reasom for not being able to load your dvd audio is probably because tmpgenc only supports certain types of audio but it is best to use uncompressed wav audio, but if you install some ac3 filters you might be able to load ac3 streams but i"m not sure..

That plugin isn't the best for TMPG. It's quite slow and doesn't allow audio.
Remove that plugin and install this one instead, it's much quicker and decodes audio. http://www.plmovies.com/mpeg2codec_installer.zip

ASHY

Correction what I should have said it doesn't decode the audio (I don't know why I said it did). You will need an Ac3 filter such as this one to decode the audio.
http://yunks.com/board/data/databank/files/20020215011225/AC3filters.exe

Thanks!!!

I kicked the "m2v.vpf" out and installed the new one.

Now finally it works again!

cubase50

Can some give me step by step instructions on how to put a movie that's on DVD onto DVD-R. Thanks! in advance!

There are some step by step manuals at www.vcdhelp.com......

i. Get a copy of Smartripper, and IFOEdit. Open up Smartripper and in "backup mode" copy the DVD to your hard drive.

ii. Go to the video_ts directory that Smartripper created and check how big the DVD is; if it's more than 4.5GB, the DVD will need to be backed up onto two DVD-Rs and I've explained how to do this previously on this BBS. Just go back about ten pages or so. If the DVD's less than 4.5GB, using IFOEdit open up VIDEO_TS.IFO in the video_ts directory.

iii. Making sure that you've taken out your origional DVD from the DVD drive click on play DVD (in IFOEdit).

iv. Check that each chapter plays correctly. If IFOEdit reports that there's something wrong with the file structure and askes if you would like to correct this, click on yes.

v. If ALL the chapters on the DVD play correctly you're ready to burn the DVD-R. If the chapters don't play correctly, or are out of sequence then most likely the DVD's got a complicated structure that Smartripper can't handle; it may be possible to rectify such problems but if you're new to backing up DVDs I would't attemp it.

vi. Assuming you're using Nero as the DVD-r buner, copy ALL the files in the video_ts directory on your hard drive into the VIDEO_TS directory that Nero creates in its file browser.

vii. Burn the DVD. That's it.

Griff

Thanks for all your help Minion and Griff !! this is good information and i really appreciate your time you took out to reply back with this information, again thanks guys!!

run wizard, load mpg file, and number of minutes is wrong.
I get 336073 min / 27 sec.
file is actually 54 min / 17 sec.
Running win2k
I think 2.53 is ok, 2.56 TmpgEnc is bad.

Tried simple multiplex, no help.

Any advice to solve problem?

Try to demultiplex the Video source from the audio source. Then load them separately into TMPGEnc. Perhaps you have to convert the audiostream into wav (very big file!).
How to demux: www.vcdhelp.com

this is a bug in the new 2.56 version. I went back to 2.54a and all is well.

-d

Lets share your idea.
What do you think is the Best PC configuration for best MPEG encoding with current hardware available (not with hardward MPEG encoder board)?

Im not sure what you eman by 'configuration'
Since TMPGenc is very processor intensive, the faster your processor, the faster encoding ...a nice wad of RAM doesnt hurt either.

It also depends a lot on your settings in TMPGenc

Have a look at this site to check out if your DVD is compatible for VCD.
http://www.vcdhelper.com/

Nicolas

What I mean is what type of processor, p4 or athlon, single or multiple processors, what type of RAM, DDR or RDRAM and what type of Harddisk or disk system.
What type of combination (configuration) will provide best performance in term of speed and quality.

Well since tmpgenc is optimized for Intel"s and Pentium 3 and 4 you might get a bit better performance then with a Athlon and since it is capible of multi-threading so you can use multiple processors and a whack of DDR-ram is better than sdr-ram so say a dual P4 2.2ghz with say a gig of DDr Ram would give you some killer performance probably encode at faster than real time and with the price of fast computers these days it isn"t to expensive to get a real fast cpu anymore,I just ordered a 1.7ghz Intel with everything accept the monitor and it was $499 canadian which is pretty cheap, and for quality I don"t think it really matters how fast or what kind of system you have with quality just the software the your source files...

As far as I know, there is no dual processor board for P4 yet.
Do you think a dual 1Ghz PIII is better than single 2Ghz P4?
Will RDRAM better than DDR RAM?
I notice that the amount of RAM make no different, but will the speed of the RAM make significant different?
How about Harddisk? Speed is important?

DualBoards are a very good choice.
To buy fast RAM and fast HDDs is also a good Idea.