Hi .

I have 3 questions which need your help :

1) Current "TMPGEnc" software can't directly read from " DV500 pro" created AVI files produced by "PINNACLE" company. I'd like to know, is there any alternative which could be used to enable "TEPGEnc" read directly from DV500 files.

2) I'd like to know what's the differece between the shared software "TEMPGEnc" vs the purchased one , in terms of speed, and functionalities ?

3) If I'd like to purchase the "TEPGEnc" software, would you please advise the way of purchasing it.


Thanks a lot for your help.
Jackson
ekl@2911.net

If you can"t get Tmpgenc to read the files useing the DV500 try captureing to a codec that Tmpgenc does support, you can read sequential files in Tmpgenc with the Canopus DV codec,But I don"t know if you get a choice of codecs to capture to with DV500 but you do with studio 7DV,As for the differance between the demo and the registered version The registered version has fewer bugs and it is a bit faster and has a better 2 pass mode but over all it isn"t that much different than the demo but you do get a help manual, you can download it for a 14 day test run at the site you link to when you click the banner below and that is where you purchase the registration code when you decide to buy it, you need a credit card..

Help. keep getting error "cannot read P3package.dll"

Search and ye will find enlightenment.

VirtualDub 1.4.9 (build 137) is the last
working version of itself. The 1.4.10
does not work properly. Someone here
suggested a good test: Frameserve a
VDR/AVI file and open a 2nd copy of
Virtualdub and try and read it.
Version 1.4.9 can, version 1.4.10 cannot.

Thusly the latest version of TMPGEnc found
here (v2.57.41.146) with the default VFAPI
settings set, works on the first try.

So for me VDub 1.4.9 and TMPGenc 2.57 works.

Just make sure to run the Auxsetup for VDub
and the VFP install BATch file for TMPGenc.

PS: Should that be the case for most of you,
maybe someone can email the Virtualdub programmer
and suggest that VDR/AVI test for 1.4.10 and all
subsequent versions to see if it passes. I cannot
since I'm in the middle of a Windows reinstall and
don't have my email set up yet.

Hmm, it was I who gave the suggestion about opening another instance of Virtualdub to check if the frameserver was working ok.
Funny thing is I have no problem what so ever opening frameserver files in Version 1.4.10. or TMPG

Have you tried completely uninstalling the framserver client and then re-installing using using version 1.4.10?

ASHY

Yep, I've tried and tried
and the 1.4.10 version of
VDub gives me the same file
`unsupported' message when
opening a 2nd instance of
VDub as would TMPGenc if I
tried to frameserve. But
when I switched to the 1.4.9
version and 1.4.8 versions
that error and message did
not occur and TMPGenc runs
great.

Strange. Have you tried downloading another copy of the latest version. It may be corrupt.

ASHY

I guess it could be corrupt,
although it executes well
enough. But at this point
I'll just be happy it's
working. When 1.4.11 or so
shows up, I'll try it again.
<sigh> ;-)

where do i get the settings for NTSC-vcd and where do I load the settings to convert the mpeg file.
barman

What exactly do you mean????The more information you provide the more information you will get back.......

I downloaded an mpeg movie that plays fine on my computer but whenever I make a vcd using nero 5.5 and try to play it on tv through my dvd player it's in black and white and the picture jumps like a vcr tape that needs the tracking adjusted. Someone told me that the mpeg is in pal and needs to be converted to ntsc. I'm new to making vcds and they told me to use TMPG and load in the settings for ntsc vcd
load in you pal program and press start it will now convert to ntsc. I'm not sure how to do this process. Thanks for any help in advance!

Barman

Well who ever told you that didn"t tell you the whole truth, you can sort of turn it into a ntsc mpeg but you will have jumpy and jerkey playback on your dvd player but if you want to do it anyway you just load the file into tmpgenc and click the "load" tab in the bottom right corner then choose the "ntsc vcd" template then you just click "start" at the top and it will encode it to mpeg, but you should know what trype of file you have for sure before you encode it , but I think you will get pretty close to the same results as before you could allways burn it as a pal vcd most players should play it..The proscess for converting pal to ntsc is a lot more involved and takes a lot of trial and error to do it properly.....

I finally stumbled into a problem with DVD endcoding with TMPGenc. (A true first, a problem with DVD -- I used to have continuous problems with SVCD recording -- Thanks be that that is in the past!! -- Bless DVD-R recorders!!)

Anyway, the problem is an error message from TMPGenc when the file size exceeds (I believe) 4096 MB. The message says that exceeding 4096 MB may take the DVD session out of compliance. Indeed it does.

This was a backup of a 4 hour movie and was necessarily long. I set the bitrate to 2200 kBPS so that the final product was just below the 4096 MB limit but it went over by a small amount.

The resulting MPG file could not be authored by Nero or any other tool. I will crank down the bitrate and reprocess this (15 hours.

I would still like to know the DVD limit that TMPGenc warned me about.

Dee

hello, u need NTFS on your hdd (or on one partition);
then file size can get so big then your hdd is...

No. I think you missed the point. I have a 30 GB space available for processing.

The error message that I'm getting is launched from TMPGenc as soon as it detects a pending process which creates a MPG-2 file greater than 4 GB.

It does not detect free space (which is much greater than 4 GB). It still triggers a warning based upon some DVD standard which I'm not aware of.

Dee Tent

I'm not sure of a 4096 DVD limit...That would seem weird.

But I think what mAcHiNe was trying to say was that Win95/98/me FAT file systems (or XP with FAT) will never allow a single file to exceed 4096mb. If you are running Win2k/XP with NTFS, then you can exceed this limit. mAcHiNe's comment had nothing to with free space, but with the limitation of the file systems on a single file size.

So, if you are running Win95/98/me, OR XP with a FAT drive then this is a O/S issue, and cannot be solved. If you are running Win2k or XP with a NTFS drive, then the problem lies elsewhere.

mGuru

I'm not sure if it is worth the effort (15 hours of processor time) to reproduce this situation. The two parts of this problem were:

1) A warning from TMPGenc more or less saying "The file size exceeds 4096 MB. This file may cause an error during DVD authoring". This came at the final page of the Wizard (where the horizontal bar and percent of total disk usage are displayed.)

2) An error during DVD authoring using Nero. An error message stating that "This file does not meet the DVD specification." This was followed by an abort. First time I've seen this one.

The partitions I'm using are 100% NTFS and very large. Any limitation must be inherent in the DVD standard.

Again, this issue is just something that I've never seen before. It is easy enough to work around by either splitting the single MPEG-2 into 2 pieces or reducing the bitrate a little more. I also have more respect for TMPGenc's warning even if I don't understand the reason behind it.

Dee Tent

From the final page of the wizard adjust the bitrate until the horizontal bar is just on or slightly over the 4Gb mark. Make a note of the bitrate.

Cancel out of the wizard and select a DVD profile from the main program.

Enter the bitrate you made a note of from the wizard. Adjust other parameters to suit your requirements and encode.

TMPGEnc is very conserative when it estimates the final DVD file size including authoring.

Remember too that a 4Gb MPG will create an Image file of approximately 8Gb. That's a minimum of 12Gb of H/D space needed for one DVD.

Encode it in two different parts.This can be done by frameserving with
Virtualdub.

I'm not sure of a 4096 DVD limit...That would seem weird.

But I think what mAcHiNe was trying to say was that Win95/98/me FAT file systems (or XP with FAT) will never allow a single file to exceed 4096mb. If you are running Win2k/XP with NTFS, then you can exceed this limit. mAcHiNe's comment had nothing to with free space, but with the limitation of the file systems on a single file size.

So, if you are running Win95/98/me, OR XP with a FAT drive then this is a O/S issue, and cannot be solved. If you are running Win2k or XP with a NTFS drive, then the problem lies elsewhere.

mGuru

To Exceed 4Gig File limits Use 2000 or XP setting the encoding HDD partition to NTFS.
TMPGenc wont make a file over 4Gig due to Windows Fat Limitation Period.

I recomend XP Its what ive been running for a year without 1 single blue screen or any big problems.

The Second option is to make two files instead of 1.

Their is no other magic going one here its just the 4Gig limit inherant to the Fat file system so get XP already and enable at least 1 NTFS Partition. K

Thanks all.

This was a knowledge base question not a how-to. I already am using Win2k, already using a 30 GB NTFS partition.

I also already know at least three ways to get around this problem: 1) Split using SmartRipper, 2) Reduce bitrate, 3) Split output file using TMPGenc (although this is risky because of the audio de-sync.)

The author of TMPGenc coded in a warning message about 4 GB and authoring limitations. There is no explanation for this. I was just wondering why. I'm still wondering why.

Dee Tent

Sorry didnt know you had 2000 and a ntfs partition.
Strange you get the message after you get the message does the program finish the encoding properly?

I am having a problem with the audio in the finished video cd cutting out every few seconds when using all modes except CBR. I am attempting to improve the picture quality of my finished movie by using Automatic VBR_CQ or Manual VBR modes. The video is much better, the file is smaller, but the audio becomes erratic. I have tried normalizing it, changing the volume (both up and down), and splitting (de-muxing), the final product, then adding the audio from a dbpoweramp encoded file, all with the same result. I have frame served both audio and video (as well as just video) from vdub. I can play the vcd fine on the computer, but when I put it in my dvd player, the audio problem happens. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for this bulletin board,
Wits End

I use to have the same or simular problem ,I would listen to the audio file and it would sound fine untill I muxed it with the video and played it, then the audio would cut out and get really scratchy.But I soon realized it was media player because it would play perfectly in power dvd, Just a thought if you are useing media player to view your mpeg files try power dvd or other dvd playing software and the problem might dissapear but if it doesn"t then maybe try useing a audio encoder plugin for tmpgenc like "toolame" or "SCMPX"..

Several Test Questions:

Are you able to watch the VCD on the computer without having this problem? (Windows Media Player for MP-1 and, say, PowerDVD for MP-2).

Is your peak bitrate greater than 2200 KB/s?

Is your DVD player near the bottom of the line?

If the answer is YES to these, you may have to do some more research on your DVD player. Most DVD players are optimized for, well, DVD. They have no problem decoding 5 MB/S. For some reason, they cannot seem to handle VCDs and SVCDs quite as well.

My solution was to abandon my CD burner and take the $250 hit in buying a DVD-R burner. This solves a multitude of problems. It even allowed me to keep my cheapo TDK DVD.

If you cannot manage this, try reducing your peak bitrate to, say, 2100. It is worth a single CD-R to use Batch Process to try different bitrates to see if this is the problem. Set a cut of, say, 2 minutes from your full movie where you have seen the problem before. Depending upon they type of TMPGenc bitrate management, try different bitrates. Example, minimum = 200, average = 1800, maximum = 2000, 2100, 2200, ... See if there is a threshold for this problem.

Good luck.

Dee Tent

Go to VCDhelp.com and have a look at the DVD player list. Look up you player and have a look at the maximum and minimum bitrates your player will allow.

Iam pretty sure that it's the maximum bitrate which is your problem. Some DVD players can only handle SVCD/VCD bitrates up to a certain threshhold due to the fact that the drive is incapable of spinning the disk fast enough to read the high bitrate data from the disk.
The reason it works for DVD is down to the fact that DVD has much smaller pits on the disk thus allowing these pits to pass much quicker under the laser than ordinary CDR pits.

When your player is hitting this bitrate threshhold you player can no longer supply the data and thus is giving rise to playback problems, this is usually accompanied with jerky playback.

Remember that the total bitrate threshhold is the audio plus the video bitrate added together.
Try to keep your bitrate under 2600 kb/s as this seems to be a common value with players which have this problem.

ASHY

Thank you, Thank you , Thank you...It was in fact the maximum birate causing the problem (I had the peak set at 5000). I guess it is time to invest in that dvd burner. Are there other ways (settings within tmpgenc) that will improve picture quality without raising the birate above 2600 ?

> I guess it is time to invest in that dvd burner

And then you're current problems will seem as nothing to the problems you'll encounter.

Seriously though, a DVD burner's an excellent investment, rather than &pound;x1000 for a powerful VCD converter.

Griff

Or get a new DVD player which can handle it.

ASHY

Ok some tips for a better quality MPEG.
Enable the block noise reduction in the quantize matrix.
The MPEG standard matrix setting will also give you a better picture with less blocks, but will increase the file size slightly.

Use the 'high quality' motion search precision setting. If your paranoid about quality use the 'highest quality' setting, but honestly I have never noticed a difference in quality between the two and considering the extra time involved isn't really worth it.

Use the 'Constant quality(CQ)' setting not the 'manual VBR' or 'automatic VBR' setting this will give you the best quality picture vs file size.

If you reduce the audio bitrate down to 128 kb/s this will allow you to raise the video bitrate an extra 100 kb/s.

Last but not least the finished product is usually only as good as the source. The better the source the better the output.

ASHY

after upgrading to a new PC (Pent 4, 2.26Mhz) there is some kind of vertical jitter/flicker/offset. It looks as if each frame is displayed twice (the second is vertically offset by approx 2 centimetres on my TV screen), yielding strong flickering.
Operating system: Win XP prof.
TMPGEnc version 2.5
I convert .avi stream to SVCD .mpg
Output with identical parameters on my old PC with Pent 3 866Mhz is perfect.
At least the TMPGEnc parameters on both PCs seem identical to me.
Is there anything to look for? I tried various combinations of (de)interlace parameters without success.
Please help!

Thanks a lot, norbert

It could be your source file,It sounds like you could have the field order wrong or maybe even encoded the file to a different frame rate than the avi which would give you a flickering jumpy effect, so check the frame rate of your source file...

Thanks Minion,
I tried that before; it's not field order etc either,.

I tried the same encoding on the new PC with an Windows2000 system and it worked flawlessly.
So it must have something to do with the Windows XP system.
I dont have anything special installed on this system yet.
All I have is an AOpen graphics card (Aeolus TI4200) and a Pinnacle PCTVPro installed

??

I had the same problem and I have Win2000. In my case it
was field order related. Turns out the field order setting
in advanced menu has a bug. If you select Field order A
it actually gives you field order B and vice versa!.

Maybe this was a bug that is fixed in later versions. I
have version 2.55.38.142.

BTW, I thought this was free. But it keeps telling
me that I have only few days left for my trial version
(for MPEG-2 encooding). Is this something new? Are
there older versions which do not have this "trial"
version feature?

- Hirendu

It was my fault - the solution seems to be as follwows..
the .avi file was created with Pinnacle Studio on one PC and I tried to encode it to SVCD with TMPGEnc on another PC. When processing the .avi file on the second (new) PC TMPGEng had apparently problems reading the video correctly because the necessary plug-in, DLL or something else needed to process the video was not present on the new PC. In some way the new PC was different and had a different DLL (or something else) needed to decode the .avi installed.
Creating the .avi AND encoding with TMPGEnc on the new PC works fine now!

I have a strange VCD PLayer which doesent accept standart bitrates when encoded with tmpgeng. It playes movies best with a video bitrate of 1246 and
audi of 128, but when i do this with tmpgenc the system clock is always off (I
check this with Easy CD creator 5) which seems to effect the way the movie is
played.

The error you are talking about is only produced by Easy Cd creator and is usually due to the fact that you have not added the correct VCD header to the file.

Dump this software NOW and download and use NERO. Your problems will be solved.
Just make sure that whenever you create or cut an MPEG with TMPG that you choose 'MPEG1 VCD(non standard)' as the stream type and use the VCD burning option in NERO.

ASHY

i was wondering if it was possible to convert a .mov file to mpeg with this program...thanks in advance!

Yes but you need to install the "Mov Quicktime plugin" you can download it at the "tools" section at "www.vcdhelp.com........

ASHY, here's my problem. every movie I burn looks either dark or blurry. sometimes they have alot of little squares. I have virtualdub,nero5.5 and click -n-burn. I don't know how to change the framerate using nero. It seems to do everything automatically. What is the simpliest way I can burn a movie and get the best quality? Thanks

Those "little squares" are "macro blocks" and the easiest way to get rid of them is to raise the bitrate, and if the movie seems to dark you can use the color , contrast and other settings to increase the brightness...

Hello,
I am having problems with audio sync.
I have posted question here couple of times to get some answer, but
nothing fixed my problem.
I am coverting ntsc-avi to pal-vcd-mpg.
I was trying different things and I did a demultiplex of the encoded
mpg and then did multiplex. the mpg file i got after multiplex was
30kb less in size than the original mpg. any idea why?
regards,
-Sajid.

That happens because when you are encodeing tmpgenc apply"s padding to the video and audio stream in an attempt to align the data packets then when you de-mux and re-mux the padding gets removed, don"t worry about it it isn"t bad thing it is a good thing......

TMPGE team I need your assistance.

I am using TMPGE 2.54 within dvd2svcd. I can never get tmpge to complete the encoding without freezing up my computer. I will take several restarts / reboots in order to finish the and create the .bin file. I do eventually get there. I get a freeze and not a blue screen. I have tried CCE and like TMPGE better. This happens when I run tmpge by itself outside of dvd2svcd.

I have a 1.8 amd with 512 ram and 40 gig hd.

What can I look for that would give me a clue on why this is freezing? I am not seeing anything in the event manager.

THank you.
LS