Can someone tell me the difference between the source "16:9 625 line (PAL)" and "16:9 Display"?

TIA

"16:9 625 line (PAL)" is a source captured in PAL resolution and is intended for viewing at 16:9

"16:9 Display" is a source that is not in PAL or NTSC resolution but just a standard 16:9 ratio such as DVD.
Most DVD's use 16:9 display and not PAL or NTSC resolutions as many would expect.
The only difference as far as the image is concerned between a PAL and an NTSC DVD is that in a PAL DVD the black borders will be bigger, the actual image is the exact same size as an NTSC image therefore using the source input ratio as PAL or NTSC will distort the aspect ratio slightly.

I did some test runs. You are right, the borders are bigger with 16:9 PAL/NTSC. I am surprised to hear that most DVDs are 16:9, and not 16:9 PAL/NTSC. Can you tell me what the difference is, and how I can see on the box whether it's 16:9 or 16:9 PAL/NTSC? I checked all my DVDs (Europe) and they show ...
- 2.35:1 (aspect ratio approx)
- Widescreen version 16:9
- PAL
Should I use here 16:9 or 16:9 PAL as source selection in TMPGEnc?

TIA

see if this helps
http://www.movieking.co.uk/visitors/vcd-television.html

As I have already said you should always use 16:9 display for DVD sources or as for that matter most 16:9 sources.

I know it says 16:9 PAL on a DVD or 16:9 NTSC, that is just to let you know the format and for which system it is compatible for, it doesn't relate to it's actual aspect ratio.
There are certain flags in a PAL DVD to let the DVD player know it is in the PAL format, so it plays at the right speed and adjusts the frame size and aspect ratio accordingly.

As for 2.35:1 on some DVD's. This the actual aspect ratio of the cinema screen and the image on the DVD, but since this is wider than a 16:9 screen there will be small black borders added above and below the actual image to make it 16:9.

Thanks for the infos!

I want to make filesize predicition mit Constant Quality. My problem is the that the CQ curve and the encoded filesize doesn't behave linear. Sometimes theres no change in filesize even if i increase/decrease it with a value of 5-10.
I also noticed that depending on start from a high or low cq-value the filesize of the same cq is different.

Is there any way (e.g. formula) to be able to calculate this or are there any plans to make the curve linear?

The 2-pass is hitting the filesize right on target, but i want to use CQ (better quality).

Thanks for making the best encoder!

No the CQ Method is Pretty Hit and Miss when trying to predict file sizes and I don"t know of a way to accurately predict them, I have even gotten different file sizes useing the same file with the same Settings in CQ....Good Luck

There are Tools to predict the File-Sizes:

http://www.boraxsoft.de/CQTester.shtml

http://www.kvcd.net/CalcuMatic.exe

Thanks Minion, thanks B_Racer!
I know CQMatic. I'll take a loook at CQTester, thanks.

I have a large movie that I edited in adobe premier and exported to a DV AVI file. The file is about 1.5 hours long and about 19.5 GB. I now want to convert this to DVD format using TMPGEncode. However, when I actually begin the encoding process, I get and error that it could not open an avi that big. I also tried rendering the file in to several (23) separate avi's and naming them in sequence (I have TMPGEncode set to encode sequences as a single movie). TMPGEncode only picked up the first 15 files though.

Any suggestions on what I can do, I want to end up with a single DVD file.

Thanks,
Josh Breitbach
josh@breittechnologies.com

I have never heard of any errors in Tmpgenc pertaining to not being able to open Big files.....I have opened and encoded files over 90gb in Tmpgenc without a Problem...Well First I would make sure that the Files are Numbered correctly as there could just be a simple Problem of the File name on file # 16 being Incorrect..But if that doesn"t work I guess you can try encodeing the First 15 files then encode the rest of them and join them together useing The "Merge & Cut" ...The Next time you output a Project in Premier Make sure that your Files are OpenDML Compliant and if you output to DV use a codec like the Microsoft DV codec as Tmpgenc seems to like this DV codec over others....cheers

I don't know how to check if my files are OpenDML compliant but I did see a recommendation in another post to up the priority of the direct show file reader in the vfapi plugin settings. I upped it to 3 and the file opened and began to encode which is further than it got before. I will test this out and see how it goes.

Thanks,
JBreits

I get an error when I try to import certain AVI files into tmpgenc, it only does it with certain one's, and I don't know why. Virtual Dub opens them all no problem.

See link for the error details...

Cheers..



http://www.x22.co.uk/tmpgenc_error.jpg

The answer is in this Forum hundreds of times...in Tmpgenc go to "options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the Priority of the "Direct show File reader" to "2"...this should get those stubborn files loaded....Cheers

It didnt work...

I raised the priority of that specific thing to 2, as you suggested, and it hasnt affected it. Still comes up with the same error (see previous post for error)

As i was writing this post, I was struck my common sense. I raised the avi file reader thing to 2, as-well as the directshow one, and tried to add the file.. works perfectly, see screenshot for settings. Thx guys :)

The following is a screenshot of my environmental settings tab thingy

http://www.x22.co.uk/tmpgenc_error2.jpg

This is off topic, but jaysus it must take your PC an age to boot looking at all those programs that have loaded in the task bar!
Take my advice you don't need all those programs loading it will only slow your PC down and hog your memory, so remove some of them from start up and do yourself a favour.
Type MSCONFIG in the RUN bar and uncheck them from the 'start up'

hehe

I assure you, those are all necessary :) [excluding the nforce ones, had just installed new graphics driver :) ]

I run a heavy spec'd computer, and have no problems with shortage of memory :)

When I open an mpg2 file and I begin to encode, the number of total frames is wrong. It says 1948 total frames but I know my file has 1960 frames... Why?

Well possibly your Mpeg2 file ends with an incomplete GOP so Tmpgenc is Cutting it off...Try setting the Beginning and end points of your file useing the "Source Range" and see if it reads all of the frames then....When I have a Mpeg2 source file that I need to encode I find the Best method is to use DVD2AVI and make a d2v Project file and load that into Tmpgenc to encode, it is faster this way and you don"t get problems like you are haveing....Cheers

I have an MPEG1 video file that Nero will accept as valid for making a VCD, however the file is too large to fit on a single CD. I tried cutting it into two parts using Merge & Cut, but the files output by TMPGEnc cause Nero to issue an error "Stream encoding which is invalid for a [Super] Video CD".

I would expect Merge and Cut to produce output file(s) having the same characteristics as the input(s), but this doesn't seem to be the case. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug in TMPGEnc?

Your Problem isn"t Tmpgenc but the way you edited the file...When you edit the file you have to make sure that the Stream setting is set to the correct Format..Since you are editing a VCD then you should have the stream setting set to "Mpeg-1 Video-CD" or "Mpeg-1 Vodeo-CD(Non-Standard)" if you just leave it at the default setting of "Mpeg-1" then it will not output a VCD file but an Mpeg-1 file and there is a Differance of which you are learning now...All you have to do is Re-edit the files with the correct setting....

Anyone knows why when encoding mpg2 with Tmpgenc, it chops off last few seconds at the end of the file?

If you used the Source range to choose the beginning and end point of the file then it shouldn"t do that....

I am new to DVD. I've encoded some VCD's using tmpgenc in the past with success, but in anticipation of my DVD burner I wanted to convert a couple AVI's (DivX) to burn to DVD. Here's my question, problem. When I load a default DVD template in TMPG it tells me I can fit 120-165min worth of video depending on the audio and video encoding I choose (CBR, PCM, etc, etc). That would be great because my AVI's are each about 50min each (qty. 3). So I choose 2Pass VBR, MpegII audio and load the AVI and choose all my settings and at the very end it reports just one AVI takes up 77% of the DVD (about 3.6gb). The problem is, it's telling me I can only fit about 65 minutes onto a DVD. I know I can manually limit the video bitrate and fit more, but what I don't understand is why the TMPG template doesn't do this by default? Why does it allude I can fit 2-3 hours of video onto DVD but than tell me I can only fit 1 hour? I guess more than anything, I'm confused as to why this isn't more user friendly, if it says using this method will allow 120 minutes of video when I select that it should allow 120 minutes of video. Any thoughts?

You seem to be bit confused.
Because you are using a VBR method of encoding TMPG will simply use the highest bitrate it can (while keeping within the limits) to maintain a high quality picture. At the moment your bitrate will be somewhere around 8000 kb/s.

So no matter what length of source you load it will always use up most of the disk. If you had a longer source then TMPG would automatically reduce the bitrate to accomodate the longer file.

What you need to do is number the 3 AVI's in sequence then load them and TMPG will then join all three toghether and treat them as one file and adjust the bitrate accordingly to fit it on to the DVD the bitrate will then go down to something around 4500 kb/s
You may need to go into the enviroment settings first to enable sequencial file opening.

Ok, thanks for the clarification, that makes much more sense. I understand why it does that from one perspective, but it's very confusing when you're trying to cram something like home movies or TV episodes onto one disc because there is nothing that indicates it's trying to fit each file perfectly onto one disc. I'm not sure your suggestion will work in this case though. One AVI is in AC3 the other two aren't (it's not one movie, they're all seperate videos). I'm going to try that AC3ACM tonight when I get home and see I can get it work, otherwise I guess I'll have figure out the appropriate bitrate and encode each individually.

Ok, thanks for the clarification, that makes much more sense. I understand why it does that from one perspective, but it's very confusing when you're trying to cram something like home movies or TV episodes onto one disc because there is nothing that indicates it's trying to fit each file perfectly onto one disc. I'm not sure your suggestion will work in this case though. One AVI is in AC3 the other two aren't (it's not one movie, they're all seperate videos). I'm going to try that AC3ACM tonight when I get home and see I can get it work, otherwise I guess I'll have figure out the appropriate bitrate and encode each individually.

Ok, thanks for the clarification, that makes much more sense. I understand why it does that from one perspective, but it's very confusing when you're trying to cram something like home movies or TV episodes onto one disc because there is nothing that indicates it's trying to fit each file perfectly onto one disc. I'm not sure your suggestion will work in this case though. One AVI is in AC3 the other two aren't (it's not one movie, they're all seperate videos). I'm going to try that AC3ACM tonight when I get home and see I can get it work, otherwise I guess I'll have figure out the appropriate bitrate and encode each individually.

If you have an AVI with AC3 audio you should simple Just extract the AC3 as an ac3 audio file and use that as the audio in your DVD cuz AC3 is the best Format for DVD"s...You can extract the audio to AC3 useing Virtual Dub and AC3-Fix or BeSplit, if you need further instructions Post back....

Any bitrate calculator will tell you what bitrate you need to set for a 150 min movie. In this case the average bitrate would be 3850 kb/s.

I was wondering if I am using 80-minute with 750MB CD-Rs, can I fit 3 30-minute episodes on there with quality at 70? The first file is only about 230MB. So if I have 3 of those, it would only come out to 690MB. Will it fit on a CD-R? :( It is really important that I fit 3 to every CD-R or I will waste so much discs! I would even sacrifice the video quality!

You've got me confused here.
>I was wondering if I am using 80-minute with 750MB CD-Rs

80 minute CDR's are 800mb not 750mb.

>The first file is only about 230MB

Is this an MPEG we are talking about? If so and all three are the same size then 690mb will easily fit a 74 min or 80 min CDR no problem.

Sorry, guess I got mixxed up. So even if all 3 movies added up are over 80 minutes but is under 800MB, it can still fit on the CD-R?

(Actually, my CD-Rs are 80 minutes and 700MB. With overburning selected, I can burn up to 813MB)

OK, an easy one. Why, even with the purchase of the TMPGEnc DVD authoring software can I...

1) Compress an avi file to an MPEG2 file, but...
2) Not be able to view it with even the latest version of Windows Media Player?

Further, I downloaded the Elecard MPEG2 decoder and was able to view these files for, you guessed it, 21 days. When, without warning all these files just appeared scrambly. Turns out, you have to contact the company for a license, which is fine...

But, does it really answer the question of why the heck did I just buy something that would write movie files that I can't watch? If the ENcoder is in the TMPGEnc DVD software why isn't the DEcoder? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.

For a MPEG2-Playback-Decoder, any Company has to pay License-Fees. That's why most(!) DVD-Authoring-Programs don't come with such a Filter/Decoder. Only the expensive one's do include a Decoder.

For Playback MPEG2, you need a Software-DVD-Player. You can try Media Player Clasic from Sourceforge. It includes a simple Playback-Decoder.
Media Player from Microsoft don't come with a Decoder. Microsoft don't want to pay the License-Fee.

Thanks! Still seems a little funny to me that authoring software doesn't make their own decoder and bundle that in with their software. It's kind of like not being able to purchase a car with power locks.

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 :-)