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I've been using TMPGEnc for some time now. Recently, I purchased a DVD burner and started playing with the idea of getting 2 hours onto a single disc. Compressing the audio to AC3 makes this possible. While playing around with the 2 pass VBR....I noticed that if I set the motion search to high quality.... the encode took about 24 hours on my P4 1.6 and produced a 3.5 gig file (Digital8 source) and setting motion search to fast, the same encode took about 10 hours and produced a 3.5 gig file as well. Now.....on my 32" RCA CRT TV.....it's impossible to tell the difference. Why? Hell....if I can get the same results using fast motion search......I'm there!!! But since it looks exactly as the high quality setting, why use anything but fast? Anyone else notice this?
On a side note......I'm thinking about getting into the business of converting peoples home movies to DVD......what should I charge for something like this? And instead of crunching with TMPGEnc, wonder if I bought a Philips DVR for $1,000 and just pumped the video from my source, straight to the DVR and let it crunch 2 hours to a DVD in real time. Wonder how the quality compares to that vs. using TMPGEnc?
The reason that you probably don't see much difference in the quality of the two files is because you are using a reasonably high bitrate to encode.
The motion search precision only really affects files that are encoded with a lower bitrate as this bitrate has to be better allocated as there isn't any spare to go round unlike when encoding to a DVD.
Using the high quality setting searches further ahead in the file for motion and allocates the bitrate for those frames accordingly and DOES make a difference where VCD and SVCD are concerned and the difference will even then probably only be noticable in fast action scenes, so take another look at something moving fast and compare.
The other explanation is that seeing as you are using a 2 pass, the bitrate for each scene is already set in the first pass for each scene in the second pass and therefore the motion search setting won't have much of an influence except for slowing things down and maybe increasing the quality only slightly, which in any case you would find hard to see on a TV of your size.
On another note the time it is taking to encode a movie is for some reason pretty slow for the speed of your PC, even for 2 pass.
Most movies will take 4 hrs max on my system when using 2 pass set at normal precision.
I capture my video over the firewire port into VegasVideo 3.0 at 720x480. As for bit rates....don't really play with them. Just use the wizards. I keep hearing how CQ is better than 2 pass VBR. It was explained that if you want to fit 2 hours of video onto DVD and have it look nice, use 2 pass VBR. If you want awesome quality video and don't care about size, go with CQ. I was using CQ for moving home videos to DVD but getting 1 hour per disc kinda stunk so I looked into 2p-vbr and 2 hours can easily fit onto a DVD disc with AC3 audio. NOW....I see some people claiming to get 2 hours of CQ onto a single 4.7 gig DVD disc. How so? Even with AC3 audio, my CQ files were coming out around 3+ gigs per hour. What are they doing right? I don't want visual artifacts in my video so I don't wanna lower my max bitrate while using CQ to say 6000. I usually keep that at 7000 or 8000. Is that their trick? CQ with a max bitrate of 6000?
It's not the max bitrate you need to worry about, it's the minimum bitrate and as far as I'm aware 2000 kps should be the lowest minimum when using CQ and 9000 kps the max bitrate. You will then have to play with the quality slider to acheive the best quality and file size to fit on one DVD without artifacts. This should be easily possible on a DVD as I can do it using CQ on to 2 80min Cd's.
I have tested TMPG's DVD template which uses the CQ method and the settings are more or less right to fit a regular movie on one DVD without artifacts. It all depends on the length of the movie.
If you do see artifacts don't play with the bitrate just increase the slider slightly until they disappear.
Ashy, could you please post or email me a .MCF template file which will allow me to put 2 hours of Digital8 footage onto a DVD disc with no artifacts? My video is targeted for NTSC DVD 720x480 rez.
Please please please would it be possible to create some sort of FAQ regarding TMPGenc to answer the most common questions which regularly come up on this board.
The regular users of this board such as myself,Minion and a few of the others are by now fed up with answering the same old lame questions over and over again.
I would be quite willing to create this FAQ and email it to you for you to peruse and edit as you wish and I'm sure there are a few others who would also be happy to help.
Please feel free to email me with any correspondence regarding this matter.
Ashy,
While you are truly, a god-send to us"newbies", surely you must remember when you first started out and had to sometimes ask the same question over and over again. Having a bit of knowledge myself(not nearly the level that you have)I have learned to search out the info rather than ask the question. While I understand the way you feel, I would ask for a little more patience with those of us just starting out.
Thank you again for you help with my problems you have been great.
I am using TMPEGEnc 2.56.39.143 and I am trying to split a 1.2gig file into vcd sized files. I am trying using the MPEG tools to split the file. The problem is that I am only getting the first 5:09 minutes. The process completes with no errors, but I am left with a 52meg file that is only 5:09 minutes long. I don't think that I am doing anything wrong. I will admit that I am new to this, but the process seems pretty simple.
Ok, here goes.
1. File -> MPEG Tools
2. Select Merge & Cut
3. For "Type" select "MPEG-1 Video-CD"
( Have tried all selections, same thing every time)
4. Click on "Add" and browse to and open 1.2gig mpeg file.
5. Select the newly listed mpeg under "File" and click on "Edit"
6. Set the range.
( Have tried manually and with the slide )
( Range 00:00:00 to 58:00:24 )
7. Hit OK.
8. Set location and filename of output file by clicking browse.
9. Click on "Run"
- Video Stream Stops at 310.31 sec
- Audio Stream Stops at 310.33 sec
The output is the same a 52 meg file that is only 5:09 minutes long.
Seems like you are doing it mostly right.
Try this. Move the slider to the point where you wish to split the movie then click the play button, wait for the movie to start playing then click the pause button and then click the end marker }
Now click ok and then click the correct button and then click run.
Tell me how it goes.
The mpeg tools seem to have so many problems I don"t even use them for anything accept putting headers on files ,My advice is if you have problems with the mpeg tools just use something different cuz from my experience there isn"t much you can do to get the mpeg tools to work if they decide not to work....
I'll never understand why people have so many problems with the MPEGtools. I hardly ever have a problem with them and after all this time after of using TMPG have only ever had a few and don't usually use MPEGs encoded by TMPG.
This may have something to do with the fact that I always encode my MPEG2 video and audio separately with different programs and then multiplex with the tools and then cut.
Maybe it's the headers that TMPG attaches when encoding the MPEG that are causing the problem not the tools themselves. In this case maybe it would be a good idea to demultiplex the MPEG and then re-multiplex again and then try and cut.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm totally new to ripping dvds everything that has to do with it. Okay so here's what I've done so far. First i have the Almost Famous DVD. I wanted to be able to have it for viewing on my pc. So i used DVD Decrypter. I think this ripped the DVD. DVD Decrypter gave me 6 VOB files. Next, I used a program called DVD2AVI. I think this program is supposed to convert the VOB files into AVI and WAV files. I dont know why i just got av AVI file and no WAV file! I think this is my problem. I have an AUP file. So next I used TMPGENC and I have a video source which is an AVI file and i selected that. But, I don't have any WAV file for the audio source, and I tried using the AUP file, but got an error that said File cannot open or unsupported.
Can somebody help me so I can enjoy my dvd without having to use the dvd each time i wanna see it?
Wrong, wrong and wrong again.
Firstly you should use smartripper to rip your Vobs from the DVD to your hard drive.
Second regardless of it's name, you don't use DVD2AVI to create an AVI, this is pointless if you are creating an MPEG. You need to create a d2v project file with DVD2AVI.
To extract the audio you need to select track 1 as the track number from the audio tab in DVD2AVI.
DVD2AVI will then create 2 files, one is the video, a d2v project file and the audio is a wav file and you load both into TMPG.
Another question. Are you ripping this DVD to watch on the PC only?
If so it is pointless using TMPG to create an MPEG, you may as well create an AVI instead which will be higher in quality and smaller in file size.
What version of DVD2AVI do you have.
Under the audio tab make sure these options are checked:
Track number - Track 1 (this will give you English audio)
Channel format - Auto select
Dolby digital - Decode and Dolby surround downmix
Mp3 compress>use - disable
This should give you a wav file if it doesn't you have a problem with the vobs and I suggest ripping them again with smartripper or try and use a program called VOB2AUDIO to rip the audio to a wav from the VOBs.
i'm using DVD2AVI version 1.77.3
ok i got the VOB2AUDIO program and ripped the audio.
after that, i ran TMPGENC again. I selected my D2V file for video source.
Next i selected the WAV file that VOB2AUDIO made, but I get an error that says file cannot open or unsupported.
got DVD2AVI version 1.6 did all that stuff over
tried using TMPGENC using new D2V as video source file. And used the same file I used before (that i got using VOB2AUDIO). GOt same error.
Are you absolutely sure you are ripping to a wav and not ac3.
Try this. Go to Options>enviromental setting>VFAPI plugins and right click the wav file reader and raise the priority to 1 or 2.
If that doesn't work you could use dbpoweramp or the much faster MPEGDJencoder to encode you wav to an MP2 file and then multiplex with your encoded video and is the way I do it as MPEGDJencoder is at least 5 times faster than TMPG at encoding audio anyway.
Hello.
It may be interesting to have the possibility of making one MPEG file
from several files. For exemple, you have in input File01.avi File02.avi
and those two files are encoded together, to create a File.mpg.
You'll said : encode the two files and after join them. The fact is that
it will be the same for all encoding process, EXCEPT for the 2-pass VBR.
I had to format my system because of a serious hardware upgrade and after doing so I can no longer open most mpeg files... some of the files in quesiton are from vobs that have been split so that they are the video componet only (no audio) and others are files that I have made WITH TMPGenc!
For example I took 3 older mpeg files and joined them together just fine using the MPEG Tools earlier, but when I try to load that file into the program it just says that its Unsupported! I have all my software and codecs installed just like last time.
One last note, sometimes the program complains about there not being DVD Player software installed? But of course there is, that problem is not major though as it was happening both before and after the format.
And indeed this turned out to be the case. I had to install a CODEC to get it to works... since the files were working fine in Media player I assumed it was a TMPGenc problem... it was not and all is well now. Sorry for the bother. On a side note my XP2200+ is encoding very fast... upgrades are fun.
i don't read a disk encoded theater Dst HTX on my PC DVD
an software exist or not for read these original cd (digital Theater system
inc 2002
think you for all information for this probleme
best regard
JL
Hi there, someone might have asked this question before but I just can't find the thread. And I've been experiencing this for quite some time, wondering if anyone of you here could help.
I would like to use TMPGEnc to output an MPEG movie into AVI format, with the DivX5.02pro codec and mp3 as audio. However, I just don't see the installed DivX codec in the pull down menu. (Only can see codecs like Cineplex, Indeo, uncompressed)
I've tried the recent versions of TMPGEnc, from 2.54 to 2.56, plus or free, same problem. Do they block the codec or what?
I know I can also use tools like VirtualDub to do the job, but for some reason, VirtualDub refuses to open the mpg file, reporting a "MPEG Import Filter: pack synchronization error" message, even after being fixed with VCDGear. And it appears like only TMPGEnc can convert the whole file completely. (I've tried converting to Indeo5.11, no problem)
So the question is, how do I enable the DivX out in TMPGEnc 2.5x?
This must be an installation problem with the codec because I can see it just fine in TMPG. I would uninstall and re-install the codec and try again.
If that doesn't work you can use Virtualdub, but Virtualdub doesn't accept MPEG2 files which is why you are getting the error.
To get around this load the MPEG2 file into DVD2AVI and create a d2v file then load the d2v into the VFAPI converter and create a dummy AVI.
You can then use this AVI in Virtualdub.
Hi there is a file i have and it is divx. The file does not run smooth so i encoded it to mpg and it still sucks is there a way toi fix this problem plz help i have been working on this problem for nearly a year now. Thx
If your divx file sucks then encodeing it to mpeg isn"t going to make it not suck,and might make it suck more, there are certain utilities that you can use to try to fix your divx like "divx fix"or something like that, look at the tools section at the divx web site or at vcdhelp.com....
What i mean by the file not running smoothly is that it drops frames when i used virtualdub i clicked on "move to next dropped frame" there are so many dropped frames and that causes the movie to be not smooth. For example if you move your arm from the top to bottom and your arm does not go smoothly form top to bottom, the motion is not constant. I thought that if i were to convert it to mpg then it would move smoothly.Thx.
Where did you get this bad file from? I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about dropped frames and converting to another format won't make any difference. If the frames just aren't there they can't be recreated by converting to another format. There are programs out there that can help repair these sort of files by interpolating dropped frames, but these programs are usually very expensive and very difficult and time consuming to use.
If it's not that important then just live with it and get your file from a better source next time.
Well i got this file of Kazaa and i asked people on kazaa is the file corupt and they said no and there file runs smoothly so there must something wrong that i am doing. I defraged my harddrive and i am using a Pentium 233 mhz,196 ram, 8 meg video card could that be the source of the problem? There must be something that you might be able to tell me. Thx
So hang on a minute here, what you are actually saying is that the file doesn't actually have dropped frames, it's just that your PC is having a hard time playing the movie without jerking.
If this is the case there are only 2 things you can really do about it. One is upgrade your processor or encode the file to a lower bitrate and resolution so your PC won't struggle when playing it back, you can also lower the bitrate of the audio.
What is confusing me is that you say you used Virtualdub to move the file to the next dropped frame. If Virtualdub says there are dropped frames then regardless of what people are telling you, there must be dropped frames, simple as that.
Alrite that is a good idea for upgrading and the lowering of the bitrate. Now what bitrate should i use? the following info know is: 320x240 22hz audio but i dont now the current bitrate, the code used was fast motion.
I'm basically a beginner with this whole mpeg thing so I'm wondering if someone can help me out a little:D I have a file that I'm trying to encode into mpeg1 so i can give it to my friends. I've been looking around at all the formats and stuff and it just sounds really complicated. So figure why not just go and make a normal mpeg1 file that has goood quality before i go around fooling with standards(ex. vcd,svcd,xvcd,divx..once i can figure this out i'll try the others)
Now i really want to get the best quality for my 90min file and I decided to split that 90 min on 2 cd-r. The source is 720 x 480 and the bit rate i want to use is 1900kbs per cd. Should I shrink the source down to 352x240 to achieve a better qaulity when it's blown up to full screen using a regular file player? In other words what I am trying to ask is would a 720x480 file encoded with 1900kps be better quality in fullscreen or the 352x240 at the same bit rate? Thanks for all the help
You would have better quality at that bitrate with the vcd resolution 352 by 240 ,cuz even though the higher resolution would look beter there isn"t enough bitrate to make the frame size look as clear and crisp as the lower resolution, plus your dvd/vcd player might not play vcd"s with 720 bu 480 resolution, but it might at 704 by 480,.......
i was wondering if its possible to encode maultiple files at once...i have a bunch of 5-7 min clips that i wanna do, is there any way to do them a ll at once so i can leave it for a few hours without having to restart it every 20 mins ? Thanks a lot
Yes It is called "Batch encodeing", what you do is load in a file do your settings then go to "file" and "save project" now do this for all your files , then go to "file" to "batch encode" then load all your files into the batch encode window then click "run"...
hi, im new to this program and was wondering how to use it. I downloaded an avi file, and converted it and burnt it. but the disc didnt work on my vcd player. please help me.