Question for everyone. I have edited and prepared two .avi files using Premiere and a DV500. I know that an AVI file is a upper frame first, while the MPEG-2 format is a lower field first. It is my understanding that to properly encode the video for output on a TV with a DVD player, I need to set the MPEG-2 to a upper field first otherwise I will get jerky video. Question is where to do that. On one of the first pages of the wizard, you are prompted for the source's interlace - but I did not see where you select the output interlace method. Am I missing something or is there a place to set that?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Matt

The field order for mpeg is not Pre determined, if you use the Plus" version the wiZard will scan the file for the Correct Field Order..you set the "Field Order" in the "Advanced" Settings, not in the Wizard...

Here is my concern. The first time that I used my DV500 to export a file that I burned onto a CD rom, it flickered because the AVI file format and the MPEG file format are reversed as to whether it is the upper field first or the lower field first. I learned that if I forced the DV500 program to output to MPEG with the upper field first, this fixed my interlace problem and the DVD played properly on TV. Are you telling me that TMPENC fixes this problem automatically?

Matt

Yes, it does if you are useing the "Plus version" and you load the file in useing the "Wizard" it will take about 10 seconds to scan the file for the correct field order, a window will pop up saying "scanning for field order" then is will adjust it to the field order that it detects.....

Okay - is there not a way to do that in the non-plus version? I have not had a chance to upgrade yet and I am only going to be using this software to do a one-time project.

Matt

Minion, did I lose you? Tell me do you know how long until ver 3 comes out?

i download an avi, it looks like crap: blurry movement, non sharp detail,and overall really choppy. I read about using the "load" settings under "unlock" but i don't know the ballpark figure for bitrate and what to do to clean this crappy avi intlo a crisp vcd or svcd picture?

Encodeing the file to Mpeg is not going to Fix it, encodeing to mpeg will only make it worse not better, ever heard of "Garbage in garbage out" well that is what mpeg encodeing is like...

Ive started to get these errors (after i reformatted my comp, didnt happen before) where when i am encoding i get an error box saying tmpeg crash on kernel or something, i got a different error box yesterday and i wouldnt mind it so much except for the fact if i want to do batch encoding.. the movies i was encoding were both divx's, converting to mpeg for vcd. it hasnt happened before and ive encoded quite a few times.. i would like to know if anyone else has had a similar problem and/or a solution, as i am wanting to convert some episodes and i need to use the batch encode, and if it crashes, its useless.. thanks for your time
cheers
Rick

Hi,
I'm having this problem too, but like you it only happens some times. I havent yet managed to find a common factor in the occurrences... i was using it the day before yesterday and it worked fine and now today it doesnt, after having changed nothing, no doubt in a week or two it will be fine again.
had any luck solving your problem?

This program has been very buggy for me to say the least. I get all kinds of errors, mostly MPG Audio stream errors. I have posted about these on the BBS but to no avail. There is one file I am trying to encode. It worked one time but the aspect ratio was wrong. I can not encode it again. The original source file has not changed. The audio streaming errors occur at different places in the file, never at the same place. It is obviously not anything wrong with the file, the program has major problems. Any program given the same input data should produce the same results. This does not. There are major internal problems, probably memory leaks.

I even used Virtual dub to extract the audio to a wav file and then used that as input with the original video. Errored out after 2 hours of processing.

Does anyone know of another program that actually work?.

Yeah its really annoying

I just got 2.57 and encoding a dvd rip to svcd crashed at 99%... talk about a PITA... it took 7 fcking hours too.. 2pass, high quality motion.

Ok i don't want to start some flame wars here.

Frist off this is considered (and rightfully so) one of the best if not the best software mpeg encoders period. It rivals and beats software encoders that cost in the thousands of dollars. I am heavily into video enocoding and have been using this program for over 2 years.

I restore video from analogue sources, These are captured with an mjpeg codec or RGB huffy lossless codec. Encoding them with tmpgenc has never (ever) given me a problem.

Regarding incorrect aspect ratios, make sure before encoding you load a template (vcd,svcd, vcdfilm) The last one, vcdfilm, is to be used if the source is 24 fps (23.976 to be exact) Play your current file in windows media player, right click and choose statistics and you'll see the current frame rate.

Regarding the crashing and you saying its obviously not the source file. Sigh, your source is probably a downloaded divx. There are 2 divx codecs. The original (3.11 alpha) is riddled with bugs. It can cause errors on encoding even if it will play back all the way through. Try this, go to www.virtualdub.org and download it. This btw is another great video program if you haven't heard of it. load your video file in it. Go through the file all the way with the slider, I'm betting you'll get to a point where virtualdub will report an error and crash. This will be your corrupt frame(s). It's a nightmare trying to fix a corrupt divx, but it can be done.

No program is flawless though. Tmpgenc is a great encoder, but its filters are a little lacking. Also its demux/and remuxing can cause errors (last I tried, game up doing it in tmpgenc but will try again) Virtualdub has much better filtering/resizing methods. You can use virtualdub and frameserve the file on the fly to tmpgenc instead of having to resave the file and incur more loss. Even better is avisynth, a script base video filtering system(with the best ivtc period).

So please stop complaining and try to learn about the tools.

I agree with you wholly on this. Like you said using crap, corrupt and dodgy files from the internet only creates problems for the encoder which is not the encoders fault because these corrupt files are presenting corrupt data to the encoder which it doesn't expect and won't be able to continue encoding until that particular frame is corrected.

Due to the instability of downloaded files I only convert DVD rips or AVI's I have created my self and NEVER have a problem with these.
I promise you if the source is good the output will be and will encoded without a problem.

So please stop blaming the tool for doing a bad job when it is the creater of the original file that is faulty.

I d/l a movie in the avi and started to encode to mpeg to make a vcd. I'm using tmpgnc version 2.57. Okay so I loaded it all up and it stated working but i was noticeing it keep having a purple tint so i looked up at the forums and foun out it was cuz i had that one codec thing that makes it purple so i deleted all that and uninstalled it all then tried to encode it again but know it says file can't open or unsupported. But the file just worked b4 so why won't it work now?

That codec you deleted was a Mpeg-4 codec called "Angel Potion" and maybe this was the only mpeg-4 Codec you had and the AVI file you have is probably mpeg-4, so you probably need to download a Mpeg 4 codec,You can probably use Microsoft Mpeg-4 codecs, or an old Divx codec..But if this doesn"t solve your problem then you probably just need to raise the Priority of the "Direct Show file reader" ,you do this by going to "Options" to "enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show" to "2" this should get it loaded, you should try this first then if that don"t work then you need the Mpeg-4 codec...

>I d/l a movie in the avi and started to encode to mpeg to make a vcd. I'm using tmpgnc version 2.57. Okay so I loaded it all up and it stated working but i was noticeing it keep having a purple tint so i looked up at the forums and foun out it was cuz i had that one codec thing that makes it purple so i deleted all that and uninstalled it all then tried to encode it again but know it says file can't open or unsupported. But the file just worked b4 so why won't it work now?



---Can you suggest any good mpeg4 codec that wont turn tmpenc purle?

I did, Microsoft Mpeg-4, or the old Divx 3x or divx4x.only the Angel potion will cause discoloration......

I did like you said and I do have a viewable picture that my DVD player reads. But......it is very glitchy. Clear, but glitchy

I am trying to divide and encode a file that says under audio stream "unknown ( (tag 2000)
I have to divide the file without extracting the audio, otherwise I get a ACM error. I was able to convert it with TMPGEnc, and burn it with VCDeasy. However, when I put it in my DVD player, it says NO DISC. All of my other regular file can be read by my DVD player. Any suggestions on what to do?

After you converted it, was there audio and video in the mpeg file before you burned it to Cd-R???

yep. I am watching the file on media player right now. When the movie file started, the slider moved quickly to the end and I thought the movie would end, but even though the slider is at the end, the movie continued to play. I don't know if this means anything or not, but thought I would tell you.

Sounds like there is a header problem in the file, it could have happened in Tmpgenc or in VCDEasy cuz VCDEasy rewrites the header if you put in Chapters..You can try running the Mpeg file through the Merge & cut" to put a New header on the file and see if the file plays normally after that and if not you might need to re-encode the avi file....

yes there is sound and video on the converted mpeg file.

I did the merge and cut per your instructions and reburned. My DVD player does read and play the movie, but it is very glittchy, very clear, but glittchy. I didn't get far enough into the file to see if the audio is in sync. Do you have any suggestion about the next step??

Well there isn"t much you can do....You either cun re-encode the avi file and see if it turns out better next time or you can move on to something else...

I downloaded some AVI files. TMPGEnc opens some for conversion and others it tells me they are not supported. They are all avi files and are rips of movies. What is the difference and how can I convert them to a usable format.

Thanks

You Just Need To raise TRhe Priority of The "Direct Show File Reader" in the "Vfapi Plugins" you do this by going to "Options" to "Enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show" to "2".....

>You Just Need To raise TRhe Priority of The "Direct Show File Reader" in the "Vfapi Plugins" you do this by going to "Options" to "Enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show" to "2".....


I have done this and it works most of the time but not always.
For example I have a 519Mb avi file which has the following properties
audio - MPEG Layer-3,127 kBit/s, 44,100 Hz, Stereo (no problems)
video - 352 x 288, 181656 Frames, 25.000 Frames/Sec, 73 KB/Sec, Unknown Format "... can not open, or unsupported."

Any suggestions

regards
Muah_dib

I'm trying to convert some movies that I downloaded (avi's I think) into mpegs so I can burn them as vcds. When I got to convert the movie, it says that it will be too big to put on a single disk. Is there a way to make it split up the file so I can put it on two disks or more? Do I need to split up the file before conversion, or can I convert it and then split up the file? When I split up the file, where will i know to split it at, so I get the best quality and most out of the movie. Thanks!!

After you are done encodeing the long movie you can use the "Mpeg Tools" to split it into parts, they are located under "File"...Or you can use the "Source Range" in the "Advanced Settings" to encode the movie in parts...But if you decide to split the movie after encodeing you might need to use a Dufferent Mpeg editor Cuz the "Mpeg Tools" seem to have A few bugs in them that seem to turn up more often than Not...

thanks for the help! any suggestions on a different mpeg editor?

There are a few mpeg editors that are good but not many of them are free..i don"t use any mpeg editors cuz I haven"t been able to get any of them to work properly,so i just split them with the source range or cut them before hand...

M2-Edit Pro or Mpeg2VCR are fairly good Mpeg editors....

Version 2.57.41.146
Core 1.90.138

Encoded DIVXMPG4 V3 AVI to Mpeg1. Result plays fine, as long as it is played from the very beginning. When fast forwarded/reversed, the audio is lost. Sometimes the video also freezes.

Version 2.57.41.146
Core 1.90.138

How does the CQ-VBR Quality Setting relate to the encoding process?

What is actually being changed?

Is there a method to determine the maximum bit rate, beyond which the video quality will not increase??? (assuming you know the max/min/avg data rate and frame rate of the source)?

Are you trying to find out a Way to figure out what the file size is going to be???If you are it is pretty hard to figure out....All the Quality slider seems to do is allocate more bits to the encodeing proscess so the higher the slider goes the More bits get allocated and the bigger the file size and the better the quality....

I am looking to optimize the quality of the encoded video, without wasting disk space. In the VBR-CQ mode we have already specified the minimum and maximum data rates. If the required video rate falls with the min/max, what does the Quality slider adjust? Pixels/frame? Spaitial frequency limit? Motion threshold?

I am happy to use multiple disks, I just don't want them filled with zeroes.

The Quality slider affects "Quality", with in turn affects File size...It seems that if you move the slider higher the average bitrate gets higher...

Hi,

i have downloaded the TMPEG Enc. 2.57 but i can't convert any .mov-File of the Quick Time Player to MPG. I already downloaded the "QTReader.vfp" but when i converted the file to MPG the quality of the file is very bad.
what can i do?

I don"t think there is much you Can do ,if the QT Reader isn"t produceing good Quality that is the only remedy that Tmpgenc has for encodeing Mov files...You can encode it to AVI then to Mpeg, or you can use CinemaCraft, it supports Mov files, but the mpeg1 quality isn"t as good as tmpgenc but the Mpeg2 quality is better.....

I just had an idea yesterday and i was wondering if it would work or not. Lets say i was making a video that would play at 1500kbps. I know the source file plays at 524kbps so the quality would be better at 1500kbps. I also know the source file affects the quality of the output file. To make the quality best maybe i could encode the video at 5000kbps to get out some of the blockiness. Then i could reencode it down to 1500kbps with the source file at 5000kbps. Since the source file would be the nice 5000kbps video instead of thge 524 one the the 1500kbps video would be nicer when made from the 5000kbps video in comparison to the 1500kbps made from the 524kbps video. Would this work or not? I want to make the same size file video with better quality by using this process. hope you understand what i am getting at cause its kind of hard to understand.

thanks for help

I understand what you are saying but it doesn"t work that way, no matter what bitrate you encode the movie at the mpeg will not have the same quality as the source file,so if you encode it once at a really high bitrate the mpeg will have less quality than the source file then if you encode that at a lower bitrate it will loose even more quality..If you just encode it right the first time you will get the best results...

Are you saying encoding actually messes up quality??????????

Yes It does, A encoded movie will allways have less Quality than the source, sometimes it Might not be noticeable to the Naked eye when useing enough bitrate..

You cannot make Gold from iron. Simple as that and that is more or less what you are suggesting unless you are some kind of alchemist.

As minion says you can't simple improve the quality by increasing the bitrate of the original. All you will end up with is the same crap looking movie, but encoded at a higher bitrate and larger file size. You cannot remove blocks once encoded into the movie, you may be able to reduce the effect with filters, but that is is.
If it was possible to do what you say then we could all encode our movies to a very low bitrate and thus smaller file size for archive purposes and then just re-encode to a higher bitrate when we need the movie to improve the quality.

Lower bitrate means less quality because of less data retained in the original movie. This data cannot be replaced and thus the original can't be improved by simply increasing the bitrate.

ASHY