Yes, does anyone out there have any experience with CDR duplicators? I have an 5 bay CDR duplicator, I have burned/copied VCDÃÅ but they seem to always have the color blocking, I have tried adjusting the read speed, and write speeds to no avail, can anyone help?

Thanks!

Exactly what speed are you burning at and what brand of disks are you using?

all of them, 8x 10x 16x 32x 48x, i am using 90min cdr which do not report a manufacturer with cdr dianogstic, they are silver on top and green on the bottom. Thanks Ash

all of them, 8x 10x 16x 32x 48x, i am using 90min cdr which do not report a manufacturer with cdr dianogstic, they are silver on top and green on the bottom. Thanks Ash

Well first of all your disks may not be compatible with some DVD players, but your problem is most likely your burn speed.
VCD/SVCD need to be burned at low speed or you will get errors on the disk and to be honest 8x is too fast. Usually 4x is the best speed, but you may get away with 6x. Usually any higher and you will run into problems.

The burn speed also depends on the disk and to some degree the DVD player (Ignore the crap they put on CDR's about being compatible for high speed burning). Some disks will let you burn at faster speeds than others without problems. The best that I have found are Ritek disks. Usually under the DATASAFE brand, but watch out for crappy Prodisc under the same name.

As for the disks you are using they sound like very cheap ones. I have used something similar myself and ALWAYS had problems with them.

Thanks Ash, I was kinda thinking the same things you were saying. I quess i will have to cough up a little more cash for the riteks. By the the i forgot to mention with the disk i was using burning at higher speeds did reduce the blocking. Damn i hope the riteks solve the problem!. Thanks again Ash for the good information.

I have a pal mpg file (352x288 25hz) I can use window media player, powerdvd ... etc. to play the file but I cannot open the file using tmpg. It gave me an error " cannot open or unsupported ..."
I am trying to convert the file to ntsc format and burn vcd for use by a standalone dvd player. Please help.
Thanks.

Is it MPEG1 or MPEG2? If it's MPEG2 you need a MPEG2 decoder installed.
Secondly you can't convert from PAL to NTSC with TMPG It won't do it correctly. You will encounter playback artifacts.

You may also need to mess around with your option/environment settings/vfapi plug-in

Here's what I use for configuration

directshow multimedia file reader +3
avi2(opendml) +1
avivfw 0
cyberlink mpeg2 0
microsoft mpeg1 0
wavefile reader 0
bmp/ppm/tga/jpg -2
tmpgenc project file reader -2

Your list will probably not look exactly the same but try making the changes and see if it works for you
I pretty much never have any problems opening a file after making these changes to a newly installed version of tmpgenc. with the normal settings about a quarter of my files wont load. Good luck

I heard that it is less strain on the pocket PC CPU if you encode the video to play at a 90 degree rotaion BEFORE you encode the video, but I don't see the option of how to do that in the TMPG software. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bob

STOP Double/Triple/Quad Posting Please!!!!

I'm trying to encode a QT reffence movie outputed from Avid Xpress DV.
The procces starts ok.. but as time goes the swap file is getting bigger and bigger and the aplication stop respoding.
I search the forum and I saw that this problem is quite often with tmpgenc
examples:
http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbscgi/search/docs/en/tmpgenc/box47/tmpgenc_post_18810.html
http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbscgi/search/docs/en/tmpgenc/box43/tmpgenc_post_17592.html
Any hint how this problem can be solved?
I'm using also Canopus procoder which works ok.. also media Cleaner 5, so my sistem is OK.

Well I wouldn"t Call this a Big report as the QT Plugin isn"t really supposed to be for QT Referance Files, and that Tmpgenc does not Natively support QT Mov files and only does so because of the QT Plugin which was written By someone what has no Relation with the Makers of Tmpgenc, and the Plugin was released over a Year ago to be used with Older versions of Tmpgenc and with Quicktime 5 files, and the Plugin has not been updated since it was released so there are Compatibilities with it and newer versions of Tmpgenc and of Quicktime 6...Since there is No support for Mov files you will either have to deal with it By trying to figure it out or use a Encoder that Natively support Mov files , Like Maybe CCE which does support QT Mov files and is a Higher Quality Mpeg2 encoder....

TMPG won't work with QT reference files it will just crash. The QT plugin is not meant for reference files. I think it has something to do with the 2gig limit.
There is a possibility of getting around it and opening QT files with AVIsynth. You would need Quicktime installed for this. Use a command such as below:

DirectShowSource("C:Video.mov",fps=29.970)

or you may be able to use the TMPG QT plugin with a script such as this:

LoadVFAPIPlugin("C:QTReaderQTReader.vfp", "QTReader")
QTReader("C:Video.mov")

After I've tried 3 times with the same results last night I said.. "ok.. one last chance" and it works ok. The encoding time was ok (10h for 1 h footage, high quality, PIII at 1GHZ),the quality was good.
It is still a mistery for me why this time it works ok, but not before. I must tell that the "old plugin" refered above works ok, even with QT refference movies.
I think you should serious consider fully supporting QT in TMPG becouse there are a lot of users from postproduction area that wants to buy youy product.
Thanks for this super encoder!

hi i gota question when encoding a get a red or purple shadow on my finish video does anybody know how i can fix this try looking for the angel codec no place to be found

Well the Angel Potion Codec is the Only reason for this effect That I know of ,The codec will be listed in your Device Manager under "Video codecs" as something like "apmpeg4v3.dll", if you find it delete it....

I heard that it is less strain on the pocket PC CPU if you encode the video to play at a 90 degree rotaion BEFORE you encode the video, but I don't see the option of how to do that in the TMPG software. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bob

ASHY

I wonder if you could email me your CQ template please?

I have read a lot of posts about it and have copied most of your settings such as Max 4000 and Min 1800 and how you calculate file size for CQ, but I am still having trouble getting my 1 minute tests down to the 13Mb you talk about. Mine are all about 20Mb. I am still having problems with blocking artefacts so would like to see your template complete.

I have searched both this site and the net but could not find it posted anywhere. If you could help I would be very grateful.

It all depends on your movie how large it will be.
If your movie is full screen then it will need more bits to encode which means TMPG will use higher bitrates and therefore will result in higher file sizes. Also the same will happen if there is a lot of action scenes in the movie

The template output size is based on a regular 16:9 movie. If you have movies which are full screen then you may have to reduce the max bitrate and the quality slider to reduce the file size.

Anyway try the templates.

Ashy

Thank you for the email and for your advice. Yes, the movies are full screen and yes, there is a lot of action so thank you. I'll try again.

I heard that it is less strain on the pocket PC CPU if you encode the video to play at a 90 degree rotaion BEFORE you encode the video, but I don't see the option of how to do that in the TMPG software. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bob

You will have to use something like Virtualdub or AVIsynth to rotate it then just frame serve the file to TMPG.

I get the above error when trying to select a video file in the little wizard deal in TMPGEnc. I had tried converting it to SVCD before, and it gave me a bad codec problem, so I uninstalled my current xvid codec (nic's I believe) and installed FFDshow. Clearly, however, I am a bit worse off now than before, as I can not even open the file to begin with. Any thoughts?

Did you make sure you checked XVID as one of the formats to decode in the FFDSHOW configuration settings?

In the ffdshow settings, it gives me two options with xvid to decode: "libavcodec" and "disabled" So I chose livabvcodec and assumed that meant ffdshow would handle the decoding. Am I looking in the wrong area?

Maybe you just need to raise the priority of the Directshow reader in the VFAPI plugins.

*blink*

I haven't the foggiest how or where to do that.

go to "Options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show Multi-media File reader" to "1" or "2"..

Sweet, that worked. Thanks a lot guys, now I just need to see if it comes out in sync :P

Well the encoding seems to have gone well, I just have one problem. Why is there a small icon of 9 boxes in the top right of the movie?

This is because you have installed the Elecard MPEG2 decoder on your system. Probably from one of those daft codec packs.
You need to unregister it then install the M2v.vfp plugin instead.

Hi, I'm having troubles with converting a DivX to MPEG because the initial file has a weird resolution [one of those DVD ones - 640x272]... Now when I convert and burn a VCD it still displays it full screen on my DVD [really streched out]. What's the best way to fix this? Thanx

This is an anamorphic resolution in 24:10 ratio.
You will have to use the custom settings to acheive the correct aspect ratio for this.
Just load your movie as normal and select 'Center (custom size)' as the Arrange method then set your frame size to 352x136.

Nope, didn't work [I did exactly what you said] - the image is still streched out on DVD even though it's correct in Media Player...

What settings are you using and which way is it stretched out, vertically?

These are the settings you should have:

1. Input aspect ratio - Set as stated above.

2. Output Resolution 352x240

3. Output aspect ratio 4:3

4. Make sure your DVD player is set for 4:3 output

If it still doesn't work with these settings then your DVD player has a problem with aspect ratios. Does the preview look correct in TMPG with black borders above and below?

Which software are you using to burn the VCD?

Yes, these are all the settings that I use. But I think the problem is that the black borders are not displayed. In Media Player the file seems right but the black borders are missing. As a result the output is stretched vertically in a DVD player [4:3 aspect ration, yup].

Thanx for your help.. after playing around with it for half an hour I figured it out. Regards

Im quite new to making VCD, only used nero making using files it would encode quite happily. Just downloaded a wicked film in this XVid format. But its 1hr 38mins long so first off i know it needs chopping in half and then i need it to goto vcd not svcd. Tryied to load the file into TMPG 2.5, the free one, but wouldnt have it
Any help would be greatly appreciated
andy

Try VirtualDub to cut the film in two parts and to convert to .AVI. Use TmpgEnc to convert from AVI to MPEG-1

No, no, no... don't waste time and quality by re-encoding to another AVI.
Install FFDSHOW then load your XVID. If you still have problems make sure XVID is checked in the FFDSHOW configuration settings and raise the priority of the Directshow reader in the VFAPI plugins.

TO ASHY - got to be honest i didnt understand much of that. I installed this ffdshow i got from mpegx.com Doesnt seem to be a program tho. So am complelty lost heading in that direction

to roland, i got virtual dub and ran into the problem of a huge sound sync problem towards the end of the file. So i gave up with that one.

Tonight i tried using adobe premier 6.5 to split the file into the encode a vcd file that way. Great except ive got no sound.

From what i gather i can take the sound file from this using vdub, but i dont like the program much. Wondered if any of yer knew of a program that will extract a wav file for me from the xvid.

seeing how premier is prop end and i know how to use it, thinking this is my way to go

You may also need to mess around with your option/environment settings/vfapi plug-in

Here's what I use for configuration

directshow multimedia file reader +3
avi2(opendml) +1
avivfw 0
cyberlink mpeg2 0
microsoft mpeg1 0
wavefile reader 0
bmp/ppm/tga/jpg -2
tmpgenc project file reader -2

Your list will probably not look exactly the same but try making the changes and see if it works for you
I pretty much never have any problems opening a file after making these changes to a newly installed version of tmpgenc. with the normal settings about a quarter of my files wont load. Good luck

FFDSHOW is an MPEG4 decoder for all types of MPEG4 AVI, DIVX,XVID, MS-1,2,3 and usually much better than the original codecs themselves.

If you have installed the correct version you should then be able to load, or play for that matter, any MPEG4 AVI into TMPG or Media player.
If not then you should find the configuration settings under FFDSHOW in your Programs list.

Hi. I downloaded an AVI that ended right at the last frame of the episode instead of showing the ending credits. So is there a way to add extra still frames of the last frame of the AVI? On my past VCDs I made, it seemed that the VCD stopped a few seconds before the end of the clip for some reason. But that was the ending credits so it doesn't really matter. Now I'm afraid for this current AVI because it doesn't have ending credits that aren't important!

Use the "Source Range" in the "Advanced Settings" and set it so tmpgenc encodes all the way to the end of the file then you shouldn"t have a Problem...

That's not the problem. I don't use Source Range when I'm encoding so it encodes the whole thing. I played the MPG file on the computer to make sure it goes to the end. But on the DVD player, it stops maybe 1-2 seconds before the actual ending. Why is this? Will Source Range solve the problem?

Well yes It Should ,that is Why I sudested it..The source Range tells Tmpgenc what part of the File to Encode so if you configure the source range to encode from the Very beginning to the very end then the Mpeg file should be the whole file and not missing a few seconds at the end...

You can try using VCDEasy to make your VCD. After youve made your VCD, open VCDEasy, click on the (S)VCD icon, then on the Main tab, then Add File and add the mpeg, then click on the Interactivity tab, then try setting it up like this 'PLAY ONCE then Wait 5 seconds then on timeout VIDEOCD END'. That way it plays to the last frame, pauses for a few seconds, and then stops.