minion, i am very bad at this dvd thing please explain it an the easiest way possible how is a VCD totally compliant and how can i check please explain it step by step. these programs are just like movies i download then convert and now i want to add like chapters and menus to make it look professional

If you are useing Tmpgenc to encode your VCD"s then all you have to do to make a Compliant VCD is to use one of the Premade Templates..All the templates are set to the perameters that will make it totally compliant..So a compliant NTSC VCD(for north america)has a resolution of "352 by 240" with a Video bitrate of 1150kbs and audio bitrate of 224kbs with a frequency of 41000khz..The VCD templates assure that you will be makeing a Compliant VCD..The Quality of a Compliant VCD is Usually Much Lower than That If A NON-standard VCD....

so your saying as long as i convert to VCD with tmpgenc it will be compliant and i can author it with dvd workshop? if so how can i make it a non standard to up the quality

NO,NO,NO.......

I use Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro on my Mac. I want to try and encode QuickTime .mov files from my mac that are over 2GB. I have W2000 on my PC. I can use a firewire drive to get files to PC. Is there a plug-in that I can use in TNPG to go straight to mpeg2 without converting .mov to .avi and will it handle files over 2GB? If so is it included in "Plus" version?

There is a "Mov" plugin for Tmpgenc that allows you to encode Mov files to mpeg, I don"t know if it has a file size limitation or not....It took me a while to find this for you cuz it is no longer supported by it"s author but you can download it here :http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4942/svcd.html
Enjoy.....

can tmpg player convert windows media to mpeg.

Yes and No, Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn"t.....

My experiences wih WMV have been excellent. Only one thing I find that you must seperate the Audio and Video first then recombine them in TMPGenc. I use total recorder to capture the audio then use the origanal WMV for the Video source.
You can get the trail at http://www.highcriteria.com/ also if you need it let me know feel FREE to email me.~NewtronX

I guess I should have mentioned that ,newtron is right ,you need to encode the audio to wav, cuz tmpgenc does not like WMA audio, I use "DB Power Amp" for this, But I have had lots of trouble encodeing WMV files especially if they are Long files, that is why if I can"t get tmpgenc to encode it correctly I use a program called "Stoik Video Converter" to convert the WMV to AVI...

I have made a DVD from two DV *.avi files. I encode them with TmpegEnc in mpeg-1 CBR or VBR until 1856 Kbps maximum (compliant with DVD specs). I make the authoring and burn a DVD. The second movie, in any time between 1h10..1h30 becomes jerky. 1 awful jump every second, more or less.
I have tried to reencode with less bitrate, CBR, VBR, Motion Estimate, Slow Motion search,... and always exist those jumps.
I have tried encoding even with CCE 2.50, and same result (and less image quality).
BUT, i tried with the trial versi?n of CCE 2.64.01.10 in CBR (no VBR option) and the video plays perfectly. The TmpegEnc image quality is still a bit better.
Mi question is, ?is this an "encoded stream quality" or a "user quality"? I don't know if I have omitted any important parameter. I have used the DVD templates, modified, with a max. GOP=15 (PAL), 1 sequence header every GOP, 352x288 mpeg-1 CBR or VBR (max 1856 Kbps) and so on (DVD parameters from http://members.aol.com/mpucoder/DVD/dvdmpeg.html )

I love the TmpegEnc image quality. Do you know any solution?

VBR ist NOT compliant for MPEG1 on DVD! Only CBR is alowed.

Maybe the VBV-Buffer-Size is to small. Set it to 112, i bet, the Video is not longer jumping. And don't forget to set a Header to every GOP like in MPEG2! That's mandatory for DVD-Authoring.

The last tests were done in mpeg-1 CBR (it's faster). The VBV buffer has been 112 in every attempt, 1 sequence header every GOP and 15 frames per GOP.
I am now trying with a lower bitrate (exists several 1920 bitrate peaks with CBR 1750 ??? ), and if no success, I'll try to put a value of 40 in VBV (VCD standard).

I have done the test with vbv=40. The result is perfect! That was the wrong parameter!
This issue is not seen with a 1 hour file. ???

I've made a amature movie with a DV cam, edited in Premiere and exported the movie from Premiere to TMPGEnc (DVD settings).

After i've encoded the clip into a PAL Mpeg2 i get over exposed colors,
look at the picture below, the orginal DV clip to the left and the mpeg2 to the right... look at the grass, its overexsposed.. Its most over exposed at sunlighted spots (like the grass)

i trid both CBR and VBR at 4000 kbits

i've tried the set equation for color space

Whats wrong?

http://www.dac.se/colors.jpg

OK, you have deinterlaced the Video (not a good Idea, see the heavy "ghosting"), and maybe, you used wrong settings:

Settings -> Quantize Matrix -> Output YUV Data as Basic YCbCr....

Yesterday I found an article in the internet concerning the quality of TMPGenc v2.53 compared to version beta 12a showing the that the quality of 2.53 is much lower than 12a.

I have done my own tests with 2.57 an 12a and I tried sevaral settings (where I kept the settings identical in 12a and 2.57). I saw that in 12a the quality was alway noticeable! better than in 2.57. Especially in scenes with a lot of fast motion I saw small blocks in 2.57 encoded file, while there a much less (and therefore of cource much more details) in 12a encoded file. I worked with DVD settings and always high bitrates (about 5000kbits/s) 2pass VBR and CQ_VBR.
I didn't use any filters. GOP settings and matrices where identical in the tests. I didn't turn on the "soften block noise" switch.

In the article there was even claimed that in 2.53 quality decreases if you go from normal motion search to highest quality.

My question would be now: Is there a reason why quality decreased in 2.5x versions compared to 12a (may be compatibility) or are there any differences in the settings which could improve quality in 2.53

Thanks and best regards
Mike

I think I have seen the article, but it is not fair, because it compares only a part of movie or a still picture of a movie.

In my opinion, 2.5X is lot better than 12a, in terms of bitrate allocation, bitrate efficiency, and quality etc.

Plus, 12a is not legally available any more.

What you write might be correct. But I did compare single frames of my movie as well and I think thats the only possibility to compare two movies (single frames). Since I have a home made video, there are a lot of critical scenes and especially in this scenes I detected a loss of details (due to blocks) in 2.57 whereas the picture was much "clearer" in 12a. Even when I went to high bitrates in 2.57.

Please don't missunderstand me, I really do want to use the new version (of course the user interface has also improved a lot). But may be there are some settings where I can achieve the same quality as in 12a.

Best regards,
Mike

12a and 2.5x are acting much different (Rate control mode). If you use the same Parameters for both Versions, the 12a may be much better (and much slower).
So you CAN'T use settings from 12a in 2.5x.
If you use the RIGHT settings for version 2.5x, the quality will be a lot better.

If you are useing such High bitrates in your test"s then there shouldn"t be any blocks to notice in either Version,Usually once you get up to 2500kbs the Blocks should have totally dissapeared, Even in high motion scenes..I know in my xsvcd"s there aren"t any Macro blocks at all once the bitrate is above 2500kbs,unless the source file has Macro Blocks then they will allways be transfered to the encoded file.....

Unless you are making dvd's, mpeg layer 2 with a higher bitrate than 2600 kbps is useless, since that is the max bitrate for svcd.
Also as POP rightfully mentioned, the encoding algorythms of 1.2a and 2.5x are different, you cannot use the settings for 1.2 in 2.5x and expect the same quality. Also the way the input is handled affects the output quality an that's different too in 1.2 and 2.5x.
i have made perfect svcd's with 2.5x couldn't wish for better quality.
take your time to experiment with settings and give special attention to 2-pass VBR with all bitrates (VBR, CQ, CBR) i get a better looking video with 2.5x if the files produced by 1.2 a and 2.5x are approx the same size.
I.M.H.O. TMPGenc is teh best encoder yet. Thanx Hori san.

First I think I have to correct myself a bit: Unfortunately, it seems that I didn't compare the same frames. Even if I set the GOP and the number of IPB pictures to the same values in 12a and 2.57 there seems to be a small difference between the starting point of the GOPs (I had exactly the same clip used for both versions). Since the frames are not the same of course I can't really compare them. Therefore, as you all wrote I would now simply assume that there is no quality degradation from 12a to 2.57.

However, another thing worries me a little bit. I use the high bitrates because I want to burn DVDs from my home made videos. However, even at the high bitrates, there are artifacts (block) in scenes with fast motion (of the camera, and of the people or worse: both together). I also saw horizontal mismatch between even and odd lines in preview, even if I changed field order in source or tried to change the field order in Premiere and tmpgenc.

However, I will play around a little bit and I hope to find the correct settings in near future. :)

Best regards,
Mike

That article is complete and utter crap.
I'm a mega quality freak and if 12a was any better than the current versions I would be using it.
I saw this article ages ago and decided to do many tests with it.
NON of the claims where founded. I could not reproduce any better quality using 12a with identical settings as the new version. In fact I could not see any difference at all. As for the speed that was the same to the second too.

I don't think the encoding engine of TMPG has changed much in any of it's versions except in one of the versions where it became worse but was then corrected. The main changes in TMPG are it's features.

The only thing I can assume why this particular person got the differences he claims is because of the differences in the way the settings work in the new versions compared to the old versions and had probably misjudged or neglected a setting when making the comparison.

ASHY

why am i unable to choose the stream type?
where do i choose it?
it's faded and i cannot choose

Use settings -> extra -> unlock.mcf

You are NOT going to believe this!!!!After trying everything(thanks for all your help and checks and balances, could not have done it without you)it turned out to be the fact that I had PBC unchecked. I checked the box in VCDeasy, re-wrote it, and it is a beautiful thing. Just call me tanacitious. Not bad for a girl huh guys. Again. If not for all of your input, guidence and patience, I never would have been able to learn this alone. Thanks ever so much. After I am sure that this is down pact....On to the next level of ripping. :-)

I have just purchased version 2.57 and when I try to convert an AVI to MPEG2 for an SVCD about 1% into the encoding I get the error "Stream Writing Error". I did not encounter this problem using the TMPGEnc 2.5 evaluation version. I converted many files using it to MPEG2. Can anyone tell me what the error means and any tips on how to fix my problem.

Thanks in advance.

There is a bug in the 2.57 version that gives it this error when writeing the Header on SVCD file, The only way I know how you can get file file encoded is to encode it as a plain "Mpeg2" not a "Mpeg2/SVCD", All you have to change in the settings is go to "Settings" to "System" and in the "DropDown Menu" change it to "Mpeg2-VBR", Depending on the authoring/Burning Program you Might have a problem burning it but if you are useing "VCDeasy" it will burn it, and so will most Ulead Burning program but if you have a problem you can put the SVCD header on the "Mpeg2" file by useing the "Mpeg Tools" "Merge & Cut" and load in the file and choose "SVCD/Mpeg2" from the dropdown menu then choose your output file and then click "Run" then it will make a exact copy of the file but with the SVCD header so you can burn it with any authoring program, BUT you will have to use the "MPEG TOOLS" from a different version of Tmpgenc cuz Tmpgenc 2.57 has this bug writeing SVCD Headers....

@Minion:

Does this bug occur only in certain circumstances? I just tried to encode an SVCD with 2.57 and it worked fine. Nero also accepted the output as fully SVCD compliant.

Best regards,
MikeH

No It doesn"t happen all the time and It seems to pop up more in the Mpeg tools, it will crash with an error right when it starts writeing the svcd header..There have been a lot of poeple complaining about that one..

Every time I rip a DVD and set it to 16:9 with TMPG that have the built in Wizard it always go back to 4:3 even thow I set it at 16:9 TMPG that does not use the Wizard does not have this problem is there a way to fix this problem im useing WINDOWS 2000

That is because the wizard uses premade templates and these templates are set to 4:3 cuz that is the standard TV Resolution, I don"t use the templates or the wizard accept for finding out the correct field order, if you don"t use the templates you can adjust your own settings to what ever you want you can change the bitrate and have a wider selection of settings and filters to choose from, but you have to know your way around Tmpgenc pretty good and know what most settigs do...So to change the settings, like the output "Aspect ratio" after you are done with the Wizard go the the main Screen and click the "load" tab in the bottom right corner, then look for the "Extra" folder then find the "Unlock.mcf" template, double click it and then all the settings should be unlocked so you can change then then click the settings tab then under Video you can change the Aspect Ratio to "16:9......

Thanks for the help it work's like a charm also does this fix when you set the audio bitrate to 224 so it does not go back to 384 when I use Ulead I get lip sync problem's with audio at 384 but not with 224. Once again thank you for your help

Yes The audio should stay At 224kbs.....

I encode with 2.56 but I think I field wrong ulead would not take the file and the video was choppy but I think the setting was right

ok i got this proggy (tmpgenc) now im trying to convert from avi to mpeg but the problem im having is i have audio but i have no video i run win 2000 pro please let me know what the problem is

The problem is that the audio in your avi is not supported in Tmpgenc ,what you have to do is extract the audio from your avi file to Wav with Virtual Dub and use that as the audio source....Tmpgenc doesn"t like to encode compressed audio formats ,sometimes it works but other timres it doesn"t so it is allways good to extract the audio to wav just to be safe......

I am having the same problem. I followed everything step by step but I only have audio.. no video. The screen is completely black though I can hear everything. The file generated was 1.6gig and took 10 hours so I believe it should all be there.

Please let me know if you have a clue as to what is wrong.

I am going to start the tutorial over again to see if a different program failed somewhere.

Paula

Try saving the original avi as an avi file with PCM audio using Virtualdub.
video select same codec as original file - full processing mode, Audio to full processing PCM.
This will create an avi file about 2.5* the size of your original but will encode correctly with tmpeng (this reripping can take about 2hrs or so depending on pc used)

PAULA, You 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"...

Direct Show File Reader" you do this by going to "Options" to "enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct Show" to "2" - "1" worked well for me as well (0,-)

Hello test