This forum is for users to exchange information and discuss with other users about a TMPGEnc product.
In case you need official support, please contact TMPG Inc.
Pegasys Products BBS [ Sorted by thread creation date ]
No matter what i try to get my tmpgenc to work it just wont. a little while ago i encoded some files using DVD2AVI and then went to use TMPGENC and it wouldn't work at all - something to do with either file type unsupported or cannot open. i added and installed the VFAPI - no change. next i put the DVD2AVI API into the same folder and it worked for 1 encoding - after that it came up with all of the same messages. they are all the latest versions that i am using and i just can'y understand what is going wrong.
Also is there anyway to make the SVCD contain Dolby Digital instead of AC3???
I think your problem is that the priority of your "dvd2avi" plugin isn"t high enough..go to you "enviromental settings" then to "vfapi plugins" and raise your "dvd2avi project file reader" to "2" this should get your "d2v files" loaded, and remember not to move or delete any of your "vob" files and "d2v files" till encodeing is complaeted....
When I try to convert a divx .avi to SVCD, the file appears to convert fine,
but after it hits 100% an error message comes up "Illegal MPEG System Stream."
The resulting video has noticable flaws, like jerkiness at seemingly random
times, and random blocks that appear on the screen. This occurs when I try
to convert PAL (25 FPS), NTSC (29.97 FPS), or NTSC Film (23.97 FPS), and I
load the proper profile for each (I've even tried loading a different profile).
I've tried 2 pass VBR (setting the average to 2100), CBR (2100), CQ (90), and I
still get the same problem. I can cut the .avi's, and encode say a 5 or 10
minute portion fine, but when i try to do a 20 minute or more portion I get
the error. I'm using a 1.33ghz Athlon with 256megs of RAM, so I don't think
its a hardware problem. I have several gigs free, and I've tried defragmenting
to see if that helps. I'm currently trying this with TMPG 2.54a plus, though
I've tried several versions in the past with the same problem. I'm running
Win2K, and I've even reinstalled but it did not help. I've separated the audio
out and converted to .wav and tried using that as the audio source, and I've
tried leaving out the audio source. I've tried with just divx3.1 installed, just
4, and just divx5, but it makes no difference. Any help would be appreciated,
thanks.
Has anyone had a problem of artifacts (blockiness) show up in their mpeg2 output? Of about 35,000 frames, a total of about 30 or 40 frames exhibit some sort of brief artifact (mostly blockiness) that is annoying. It never happened when I was on Win98SE, but as soon as I upgraded (clean install) to WinXP Pro, I have noticed the occasional occurrence of these "glitches." Is it a problem with TMPGenc, or is it some difference between WinXP and Win98? I'm using version 2.54a.
I do my svcd"s with average 2750kbs and a max of 6000kbs and don"t get any artifacts at all .I don"t see artifacts till I use the "zoom" on my dvd player at 3 times.,when I look at the frames of a vob file right off a dvd I see more frames with artifacts than 30 or 40 per 20 minutes...
I've seen exactly what you're describing, and I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only person who's had this problem!
This happens to me when creating MPEG1 (VCD) files from AVI files created with Pinnacle Studio 7. The glitches (very short bursts of blocky frames, with an audible noise) only showed up sporadically, every couple of minutes or so (otherwise, the quality is very good). I have exactly the same problem converting the same AVI files on 2 different machines (one on Win2000 and the other on WinXP).
***********The only way I was able to fix this problem was to reduce to audio bit rate down to 128 kb/sec.*****************
I don't understand why TMPGenc messes up in the same spots every time when the Pinnacle MPEG1 encoder works fine (although the quality isn't quite as good as TMPGenc). The Windows and Elecard players (different codecs) both glitch on playback at the same spots. The weird thing is that the "bad" MPEG file plays back fine in the VirtualDub playback window!
Steve, it sounds like you and I have similar problems. I am using the latest version of Pinnacle Studio 7 to capture and edit. I use the Canopus ADVC-100 to get my VHS footage to DV format. Even if I use the raw, DV/AVI file as input to TMPGenc, I still get the artifacts (usually I make my movie and output it to AVI from S7 and use that as input to TMPGenc). And, like you, S7 creates MPEG2 files without the blocky frames--it's just lower quality. One difference though is I don't recall any audio distortion--only video. For my TMPGenc settings I generally use the DVD template as is except I change the bitrate to 6000Mbps at CBR and let it rip. On Win98SE I never had an artifact. WinXP is a different story. I'm wondering if XP has different math libraries, more background processing with more interrupts, or something that causes TMPGenc to hiccup and splatter a blocky frame here and there. It seems like I've been able to reduce the artifacts by killing off as many background processes as possible, but I haven't had the time to really tackle this problem like I need to. At any rate I appreciate all who have commented on this. It's a sticky problem. Oh, and by the way, I can't get VirtualDub to play an MPEG2 file. Will it do that?
No- I don't think VirtualDub opens MPEG2 files. I always get a "pack synchroization error".
You may be right about something deep within XP (but also Win2000) versus Win98 that causes TMPGenc to mess up.
I have used Studio 7's own "DVD Quality" MPEG2 setting, and the results are great- from what I've seen first-hand and what I've read here, TMPGenc is not the greatest for MPEG2 anyway, so I'd try that route for high bitrate MPEG2's instead.
It is a real pain, I know! Did you try lowering the audio bitrate to see if the video glitches disappear? For me, (MPEG1) lowering the audio bitrate to 160 helped, but they didn't disappear completely until I lowered it to 128. There is a slight reduction in sound quality, but decent enough for my VCD's. Good luck!
Studio 7's MPEG2 encoder does okay on quality, but is clearly behind the quality of TMPGenc. I tried for a long time to get the VCD angle to work as I didn't really want to buy a DVD burner. In the end though, the lower quality of VCD bothered me so I bit the bullet and went for MPEG2. I'm a whole lot happier now. I found that you need the higher bitrates to get the quailty. Anyway, I believe for DVD I can only go down to 224Kbps and still meet the standard. I really think there's something going on with XP that creates these "glitches" so I'll keep experimenting until I figure it out and let you know--unless I grow old and die first.
I am using TMPGEnc for MPEG encoding for DVD creation. I use Studio7 to capture DV from my camera (Sony TRV-17)and even if I do no editing and rendering, the video quality after encoding and writing to a DVD (using DVDit PE) is still noticably different (worse - not as sharp, some graininess, some limited gause effect) from the original DV. I have used CQ, CBR, VBR all at high settings and while the output quality is good, I expected better and can only fit slightly more than an hour on a DVD.
Maybe my expectations were too high but I would certainly welcome suggestions. Clearly it can be done because studios can put multi-hour perfect videos onto DVD's. Is it just that they use big $ encoders?
You can"t expect to get the quality of say a store bought dvd with a $50 encoder,I use a $2000 encoder and don"t get the quality of the store bought dvd.And you can"t get that kind of quality from captures and home editing equipment..the dvd rip"s I do look about 90% as good as the original dvd,but there is allways the studio quality look you just can"t get with off the shelf software.The best quality allways comes with time...
Are we truly identifying "$50 software" or "Off the shelf software" as the problem? Until I figure out how to do this flawlessly and (somewhat) painlessly, I'm going to be taking my final Avid output on DigiBeta to a post house in L.A. that professionally encodes MPEG-2 for feature films and other high-end projects. But my clients (largely museums who won't be mass producing the final product) want and need to see rough cuts on DVD. I don't see why a $50 software package (or a $5 software package or a $2000 software package for that matter) can't closely approximate the performance of a $250,000 hardware encoder. The hardware encoder, granted, works in real time but the advantage of the software encoder is that it should be able to take its sweet time and flawlessly convert an uncompressed video file into MPEG-2. Many people are working on it, some of them are doing a better job than others. Some are content to sell an obiously flawed product for far more than its worth and others are kind enough to offer their efforts for little or nothing as they strive for perfection. The cost of the product isn't really, it seems, an indicator of its quality. And, obviously, the skill of the operator is the most important factor after the quality of the software. My professional encoder knows, from lots of experience, how to handle a wide range of source material. Build that into a software program and we'll all be happy as clams.
Of course it can closely aproximate the source material, it just wont look like you went to the video store and rented a dvd ..It can only look as good as what you put in,and no software can make it look better than it is.The problem is not the software but false expectations....
I am using TMPGEnc to encode MPEG2 with 2-pass VBR encoding, 6500 kbps avg. and 8000 kbps max. I use the "noise reduction" option with Still=0, Range=1, Time axis=100. My source material is DV taken with my Sony VX2000 camera which is already very low noise, but the slight noise reduction with that setting definitely improves the encode. Of course I also use custom color correction for proper MPEG2 contrast, due to DV following ITU-R BT.601 encoding of black=16, white=235. Bottom line, I find the playback quality is excellent with very infrequent noticible artifacts. There is a slight loss of high-frequency detail but nothing too bothersome.
I think if I had professionally shot 35mm film at 24 fps, scanned in as starting material, then TMPGEnc output in "3:2 pulldown at playback" mode might indeed approach the quality of a store-bought DVD. TMPGEnc does offer you a lot of control, even down to the manual placement of your I-frames if you want to spend the time doing that (just one of the many hand tweeks done in professional DVD production.)
I've been having trouble re-encoding a series of files. When I start up the process, the time remaining is ~5 hours when it normally takes ~1 for a file of the size. After an hour, the process was done, but it was still going on. I stopped it and the video was properly done. However, there was no sound and the last frame of the original video went on for a couple of minutes until the file ended. Anyone ever had this problem before? I haven't been able to get help in solving this yet...
I hear of this happening from time to time and haven"t heard a solution, but there is a way to fix your mpeg file, first edit out the two minutes of the last frame, and de-multiplex the mpeg file and save the video.Next take your divx file and use "virtua dub" to extract the audio to "wav" format.Now just load your wav file into "tmpgenc" click the "audio only" selection and encode your audio, then take the encoded audio file and multiplex it with your mpeg video file and you should have a working mpeg1 file..
I am trying to burn 60 min on a template given to me by Ashy...and the only way I have found to make this work is by reducing the max bitrate to 2000 and the min to 1400...but it seems thats alot to be lowered for an extra 10 min. Is there something else I should be doing to avoid this, other than using 3 cd's for a 120min movie? My end result is 731,318 and Nero is 749,318.
Another question is I am thinking of upgrading to the newest version of tmpgenc..can I just install it right over 2.53?
P.s. Thanks for answering all my stupid questions.
Jules, I take it we are talking about SVCD here.
You will find it very difficult to fit a 2hr movie on to 2 cd's with any acceptable quality when encoding to SVCD.
It is possible, but you will need to reduce the min bitrate to about 1500 as you have done. It isn't necessary to reduce the max bitrate quite so much.
3000-3500 should do it, but lower the quality slider to 60 and the audio bitrtate to 128.
You would be better advised to encode to MPEG1 VCD and up the bitrate to 1600kb/s or use the vcd template I have sent you and reduce the quality slider slightly to say 80 and the maximum bitrate to 3000.
If you reduce the audio bitrate to 128kb/s you could up the video bitrate another 100kb/s.
i tried to convert an avi file but when i click browse to insert the file in the fields, it says, "can not open, or unsupported". what does this mean, what do i have to do?
I thought xsvcd where supposed to be 704x480 but in the templates you sent me it is 480 x 480...is it better quality to go to 704x480...because I end up having to crop to make it full screen..if that makes any difference?
Because as it is now I am using a template with CQ but it is 480x480..and I do not have any trouble burning it to svcd using nero without having to uncheck compatability...is this the correct way of doing it or is it just bringing it back to svcd and not xsvcd.
Who says it should be 704x480? and if it you did want to make it bigger it would have to be 720x480
XSVCD or XVCD is just the name for a non standard SVCD or VCD and doesn't necessarily have any set specifications.
Standard SVCD requires certain constraints and needs to comply to certain requirements to be called a SVCD. The only thing that the template has in common with the SVCD specs is the resolution.
Also what do you mean you are having to crop to make it full screen?
This you shouldn't do, just encode your movie and it will become full screen in your DVD player or your software DVD player on your PC such as WinDVD.
480x480 is the correct size for SVCD or XSVCD. It is possible to make it larger, but you will hardly notice a difference. The extra bitrate required would make the file size unecessarily larger and it may not play correctly on your player.
After encoding just burn in Nero as a normal SVCD.
Now I understand. You had me thinking you were changing the dimensions of the output not just cropping out the black bars.
Jules that is fine if you want to crop the image, you can even set your frame size to 720x480 so it makes it a little easier to see the result, but just make sure you change it back to 480x480 when you have finished.
By becoming full screen , my meaning was that the 480x480 will be stretched back to normal screen size by your player.
Do not rely on Media player to give correct aspect ratio sizes where SVCD is concerned.
Media player is known for showing incorrect aspect ratio's when viewing SVCD's. To see how it will truly look you need a software DVD player such as WinDVD or one of the free downloadable DVD players.
the resolution can be Pal - Audio 44.1kHz / 224 kbit/sec 720x576 @ 25 fps NTSC - 720x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for XVCD and Audio 44.1 kHz / 32-384 kbit/sec Pal 720x576 @ 25 fps or NTSC 720x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for XSVCD... the real question to ask yourself if you want to use these resolutions or use the standard Pal Resolution 352x288 @ 25 fps NTSC Resolution 352x240 @ 23.976 VCD or 29.97 fps Pal 480x576 @ 25 fps NTSC 480x480 @ 23.976 or 29.97 fps for SVCD... the choice should come from the original resolution of the movie... if it is low use vcd resolution... if it is medium use the svcd resolution.... if it is very high use the xvcd or xsvcd resolution size.....x(s)vcd is nothing more that a non-compliant (s)vcd... some players will play them...and some won't...xvcd has the most options available...with many resolutions...the only important factor is to remember that it is necessary to choose a resolution that is supported by your encode method...if you choose pal you cannot use a ntsc resolution...that is the only true rule that must be followed... happy encoding
makeing a svcd or xsvcd with a resolution bigger than 480 by 480 most likely will not play on most dvd players, most xsvcd"s are the same as svcd but just have a higher bitrate.......
Ok basially what i want to do is keep it svcd, but make the screen size bigger.
Ive been trying what you told me to do earlier (using a sample) and i nearly got it, but the audio is always out of sync.
4 Pass!! That is overkill. After a 3 pass you will get NO difference.
How are you achieving this 4 pass? You are not using TMPGenc for this.
How did you mange to multiplex the original audio if you only had a sample?
Did use TMPG to cut a small part of the original SVCD then encode that and then multiplex the audio with that file?
My advice to you is to encode the whole movie, just the video not the audio.
When you have encoded the video part then take your old SVCD and de-multiplex the audio from it.
Multiplex the audio with your new file. If it doesn't sync up, I will then advise you further with instructions how to sync the audio with the movie.
Me again, ok i took the sample and encoded just the video at this setting
MPEG-2 480x480 29.97fps CBR 2520kbps
i picked the setting above because to be honest im not sure which templete to load.
I also de-multiplexed the audio from the original sample, then tyed to multiplex the new m2v file with the audio file. result was audio not synced, you can see the lip movements b4 hearing the sound.
Thx again.
PS.. sorry to be such a pain, but this is bugging me now. and i want to get it right.
Ok now we have established that there is a definite audio delay we can deal with the problem.
I'm going to give you instructions on the way I sync all my movies perfectly.
I have never had a movie I cannot sync yet.
Ok follow these steps.
1. Load the new movie without the audio in to TMPG and load the Mp2 file as the audio.
2. Goto File>Output to file and choose 'wave file'. Choose where you want to save and then click save. This will create a wav file from your audio.
3. Next load the standard VCD template (I know it's SVCD) then 'unlock' it and select video only on the right.
4. Now go to File>save project and save it.
5. Next you will need the VFAPI coverter to turn this project file into an AVI, so download it from here http://www.divx-digest.com/software/vfapi.html.
Unzip the file and run vifpset.bat.
6. Now run the VFAPI converter, click add job and load your TMPG project file.
Click ok on the box which pops up then click convert. You will now have an AVI in the same folder as the project file.
7. Download Virtualdub and run it. Load your AVI you created then click audio and choose 'wav audio' then load your wav file.
8. This is where we find out how much offset we need to add to sync the movie.
Click audio again then click 'interleaving'. Here you will see a box titled 'Audio skew correction'.
In this box you can type in values of millisecs. If your audio is behind in the movie then to sync it you need to reduce the delay by entering a negative value such as -200 or if it's ahead then you need to add a delay, so add a positive value such as 200.
Once you have choosen a skew setting then maximize the VirtualDUB window to full screen and click the first play button, bottom left, to see the result.
This is all trial and error, but doing it this way you will be able to find out the exact value you need to sync the movie.
9. Once you have found the required skew setting which syncs the movie, write it down and post back with it and I will give you further instructions how to use that value to sync your MPEG.
hi, thx for the quick replys. ok ive went right through your instructions, but when i get to playing the files back through virtualdub. the whole thing is very jumpy and its hard to match the audio to the picture. might i have some setting wrong? i see the picture just fine but it like jumps frames.
I didnt encode the film to start with. Its a svcd release from a group who got there hands on the dvd, of which i got the svcd release, which im trying to convert/ or re-encode.
If it's jumpy then it probably means your CPU isn't powerful enough to handle it. You could try clicking on the display window and reducing it by half. This will help, but will make it difficult to see.
If that doesn't work then the next step is to sync the sudio as we would have done after using virtualdub, but your gonna have to guess.
The easiest way to do this is to take your new movie and add the audio to it then using the Merge&Cut feature cut about 5mins of it from a suitable position where people are static and you can see lips moving clearly.
You are going to use BBMPEGS A/V delay feature when mutiplexing to sync your movie.
Look at the instructions on how to multiplex and look at instruction 5.
At the bottom of the picture you will see a row boxes titled 'start up delay(ms)'
Using the 'Video' and 'Audio 1' boxes it is possible to add a delay to either.
Just add an extra 100ms in steps to either the audio or video depending on which needs delaying and then multiplex.
If you want a good starting value try adding an extra 220ms to the delay then increase or decrease it as required.
Now load up your test file as it says in the instructions and use that as a guide for syncing your movie. Once you have found suitable values to sync your movie you can then use them on your full movie.
Note: it isn't necessary to check the SVCD option as this will add SVCD headers making the process slower, you will only need to do this for the final full movie, just choose MPEG2 for now.
Also be careful to check before you start the mutiplex that the values in the delay boxes haven't changed as they have a habit of reverting back to normal when you click one of the option tabs.
wow....ashy...thats crazy... ok ... I have a much easier way of syncing the audio with the video.....first of all I just play the movie and see if the sync is a gradual build-up----i.e. synced in the beginning but not at end....that one is harder...requires stretching or shrinking the audio...the second and most common is where the movie is out of sync for the duration of the movie...the words always comes before the lips or vice-versa....in tmpgenc in the sorce range setting...even if not going to have a source range...i.e whole movie will be encoded...not cut up...anyway...in this screen is an option for audio gap correct...and is adjusted by using a positive or negative number represented in milli-seconds....adjust this setting to match sync your audio....then start the encode...again this is also trial and error...once you ge all the settings correct just encode the entire movie.... happy syncing
according to the original question encoding it this way will not increase the size whatsoever...so yuo will have the same size as original with a lot of time wasted....480X480...the quality cannot be any better than what it originally is...and if you encode to a higher resolution...you will have to encode to higher bitrate to compensate for more bits being used...by highering the bitrate you will have larger files.....so it is not really necessary to change the resolution....now if it is that it has black bars on top,bottom,left, or right...then what you want to use is the clip frame option...clip frame and rresolution are 2 totally different things.... happy encoding
Ok, still not sorted, and im getting very lost. The sync seems fine at the start but at the end of the film its way out of sync. I think i'll just forget about this 1, wish i could get it right but i think its beat me :(
To start with the original film was encoded in 29.xxx so i simply thought i could re-encode it back at ntsc which is 29.xxx but its way out of sync.If there wasa way i could get a copy of the sample to some1 to try, but thats asking too much. If you want to try and explain it more then sweet.
The original is 29.xxx. what template should i use in TMPGEnc to get the closest match.and is it maybe possible to use cool edit pro to sync the m2v and the mp2 files?
Yes IRCGOD Iam WELL aware of the source range function which has the audio gap correct function.
This feature is useless unless you intend to re-encode your movie and I can promise you it isn't easier unless you like re-encoding your movies over and over again.
With the method I use it isn't necessary to re-encode the whole movie again and who would want to.
Why waste a few hours re-encoding the movie when the problem can be sorted in a fraction of the time without re-encoding.
Also you can never guarantee the output with the audio gap correct feature, sure you can do a small test encode, but that doesn't mean it will still be in sync all the way through to the end of the movie.
Correcting the A/V sync when multiplexing is the fastest way to do it and only takes a few minutes. If it isn't synced after mutiplexing you only have to try again and not re-encode your whole movie.
What are the lengths of the audio and video files separately?
If the are different then this could be the reason for the sync prob.
It is possible to sort this with cooledit.
i was converting a divx file to mpg using 2pass vbr, and every time it gets to 50% and starts to actually encode, it stops and shows "illegal floating decimal point calculation order". i tried another video and got the same results.
This happens when your divx file is partialy corrupted,what you have to do to avoid this error is to go to your "enviromental settings" then to the "cpu" tab and un-check the "sse" box then go to your "settings" then to "quantize matrix" and un-check the "use floating point dct". then this error souldn"t come up...
I have one film in divx with the audio in the same file video is compresed with divx codec and audio is 153 Kbps MPEG Layer3 when i try with tmpgenc to have a SVCD o VCD file i get it WHITOUT AUDIO I don¡t know way but if I try with another film in divx that video is compresed with MS-MPEG$ V1 and audio is 31kbps I get the VCD or SVCD file whith audio. Thankyou for your coperation
What you have to do is extract the audio with "virtua dub" and convert it to "wav" then load that in "tmpgenc" for the audio source..As a general rule it is usualy best for quality and to avoid problems to extract the audio to wav and then encode....
I have the same questions as the gentlemen before me had but his was with XVCD.
I guess that XSVCD is better than just SVCD..but how do I know my dvd can play them...it plays SVCD fine. As well does anyone have any templates out there for XSVCD. How high can the bitrate go on SVCD and XSVCD...are the files smaller in XSVCD. Also I wonder if anyone knows why the output after encoding the people seem to be a bit blurred (not much) but it needs to be more (detailed or sharp or something...etc). How can I accomplish this?
Excuse me if I seem a bit dumb on the matter as I have been doing alot of reading about Tmpgenc and I find alot contradictory things...like the "motion search precision" is supposed to be set to normal and not high quality because version 2.53 produces more blockiness on high than normal...is this true?
I think I know which site you read that about the 'motion search precision' Jules and I have done my own testing and can conclude it's a load of c..p.
The high quality setting only gives a slight improvment and a slightly smaller file size when using VBR.
I always use normal as I can't really see much difference in the tests I have done and for the time it takes to encode I don't think it's worth it.
I'm not sure what you mean by blurred as encoding to SVCD should give quite a high res picture. Do you mean interlacing artifacts such as a combing effect on fast moving verticals?
Anyway you asked for some templates and whether you player would play XSVCD. The answer is probably yes, so try the XSVCD and XVCD templates I have sent you to improve your movies. I have sent these to quite a few people now and have had good feedback from most people about them.
So give 'em a shot and see what you think.
Thanks alot for the templates...
The blurred pictures are in general...I used the "no motion search..." option and I do not like what it does to the rest of the movie so I am testing now on not using it ...have to still watch it.
But is XSVCD better quality...the template I have been using for SVCD I have been using CQ max 4000 min 1800. With XSVCD how much higher does this go...and how many minutes can you get on 1Cd from your templates?