I recently downloaded an avi file that plays well on my PC, looks good, sounds good but I can't seem to encode it in either pal or ntsc. The frame rate is 12.5 fps. Does anybody know what settings may be needed to overcome this and eventually get the file on VCD?

Many thanks in advance for replies.

Yes there is an easy way to do this with TMPG.

Load in your file as normal in TMPG then load the PAL VCD template. Click Setting>Video.
Next click where it says 'Framerate' and choose 'unlock' from the menu.
This will unlock the setting.
Now click the setting button. This will pop up a box.
Input these Values 25 / 2 = 12.5fps then click 'OK'

In the framerate box it should now say 12.5 fps(internally 25 fps)

Now go ahead and encode. Your AVI will be encoded at 25 fps.

NOTE: This option is better than simply loading the VCD template then encoding as TMPG will do a framerate conversion to 25 fps. TMPG cannot do this correctly and will exhibit undesirable effects such as jerky playback.

Doing it this way will maintain the original framerate, but instruct your player to add extra frames to create the correct 25 fps framerate when playing back.
Even so at this low framerate there maybe some playback artifacts to be expected.

ASHY

Hi again, after I converted my AVI files, they have lots of blocky images when put on the TV. For instance, in a very dark scene with lots of black colors, you can see lots of blocks. I would make an SVCD but it always comes out screwed up on the TV, meaning there's lots of unwanted trash everywhere covering up the entire video!

Those Blocks are From have a Low Bitrate, to eliminate the Blocks Try raiseing the Bitrate...

Do I use TMPGEnc (recently purchased) to convert ¡Æraw¡Ç video BEFORE using Show Biz?

Or do I create movies with ShowBiz first, and then run them through TMPGEnc, then onto MY DVD? Which method gives the best results?

I am using Show Biz 1.2.3.11 to capture video clips from Sony DCR PC5, and MY DVD 4.0.1 to create DVD.

I am not personally familiar with Show Biz, but I believe it is a video editor. (I am assuming it is the Arcsoft title that I got with my Pioneer A05, but I have never used it as I use Adobe Premiere.)

If this is the case, you would likely use Show Biz to edit your content, then save your project as an AVI. This AVI would then be the input for TMPGEnc to create MPEG-2 file that MyDVD will use.

Note that with some video editors, such as Premiere, you can frameserve directly to TMPGEnc. This cuts out the intermediate step of creating a new AVI based on the editing of your source AVIs, and just feeds an output stream to TMPGEnc. I do not know whether this is available with Show Biz.

I would further suggets that you configure TMPGEnc to create separate video (.m2v) and audio (.wav) elementary streams, which MyDVD will import. This setting is on the main screen, lower right, under "Stream Type", where you select ES (Video + Audio). The audio should be set for 48 kHz, 16 bit PCM.

For an excellent primer on TMPGEnc settings to create high quality DVD, check out
http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/Compression.html

I believe the only settings that you should change from the guide for the sake of MyDVD compatibility is the stream type, discussed above, and the MyDVD requirement that the GOP structure be closed (under the "GOP Structure" tab), as opposed to open as suggested in the guide.

Make sure that the audio and video files have identical names except for the extension (which is the default condition for TMPGEnc) and that they are in the same subdirectory. When you import assets into MyDVD, it will only show the video files, but it will automatically pull in the audio file with it.

Regards,

Eric J

Hi folks,

to convert audio streams I use tooLame as an external tool. Normally this works quite fine in combination with TMPGEnc, but not when the audio source is different from the video source.
Example: I extracted the audio stream to a WAV file using VirtualDub. Now I put this WAV into the "audio source" field of TMPGEnc and start encoding. TMPGEnc now creates a temporary WAV file, regardless of the fact that there is already one in the right format! What a waste of time!
Bug or feature? Please tell me.

Best regards and merry X-mas,
Uwe.

In Version 2.59.47.155 on the MPEG Setting, Quanitize Matrix tab, the Soften Block Noise settings below the check box are almost entirely hidden. You can not scroll down or tab down to see what values (I think these are numbers in the two fields) are present for the Soften Block Noise.

I have tried video resolutions from 800 X 600 to 1600 X 1200 and none allow me to see what the values are for the Soften Block Noise filter. I want to use this filter but I need to see the values. I am running under Windows XP Home edition. Would different size fonts help?

Thank you.

Problem solved. Win XP allows you in Settings Control Panel Display Settings Advanced to increase the DPI (dots per inch) for everything on the display to make everything larger, not just the fonts. I used this to run the monitor in fairly high resolution for the size of the monitor but still have everything ledgible.

However, this results in the bottom portion of TMPGEnc's window for Soften Block Noise to disappear. This is the first program I've had this problem after several months at 120 DPI. Setting the DPI back to the normal 96 rather than 120 solves the problem for now. I would rather that TMPGEnc properly display at the higher DPI setting. I do not know how difficult it is to program TMPGEnc to handle different DPI settings or if Win XP is a hinderance in this regard. From a user standpoint, it would be preferable for TMPGEnc to display properly at the higher DPI display setting.

Thanks. TMPGEnc is quite nice and there is a lot to learn!

If you leave the font size to 96dpi in "Advanced" and select Large Fonts from the Appearance Tag your problem will be solved.

Any program designed for use in "Windows" will use the modules built into the operating system, and that includes font selection.

Tmpeg has done a wonderful job of converting my files
to mpeg2. But I have noticed on a couple of motion files
and one playing clip, where there is a lot of fast motion,
the video seems to produce lines all through the video and
some motion seems to be almost strobed.
The original video plays fine in Non-linear system. I figure
there is a setting that I am missing in Tmpeg.

Those Lines are Interlace lines, they are actually part of the structure Video, and when you get the strobeing effect that usually means you have the incorrect field order set,these lines will usually show on a computer monitor cuz it projects a Progressive image but on a TV they should not be visible if you have the field order set correctly, you can allso use a De-interlace filter to help get rid of the lines...

I have the mpeg file, but I want to know how to split it so I can fit the file onto to 2 cd's, what do I have to do??

Go to "File" to "Mpeg Tools" to "merge & Cut" and remember you can get 800mb on a 700mb 80 minute CD-R...

does vcd audio have to be 16 bits/sample? or can it be 8

It has to be 16bits. If your source audio is 8-bit you have to convert it first...

thx fellas for both sets of advice......but guess what?....after spending the entire weekend trying everything that i think is possible i still have the out of sync problems.......here are some additional details.....
winXP pro...trying to make vcd from dvd with pcm audio.....claddvdxp1.3....tmpgenc.....STILL OUT OF SYNC......used this same set of progs earlier this year and everything worked perfect.....are the new versions of tmpgenc not able to handle lpcm audio?.....i really really need some advice......even tried smartripper, then dvd2avi, then tmpgenc...same problem...HELP PLEASE ANYBODY!!!!!

Tmpgenc doesn"t have any problem with PCM audio..I use SmartRipper and DVD2AVI and never have sync issues, you might try ripping the audio with something else like VOB2Audio..Is the audio just go out of sync on your DVD player or is it out of sync on your Computer also??

hey minion...i need all of the help that you can offer me.....the audio is out of sync on the mpeg2 file that i create using tmpgenc....at the beginning of the file it's ok but progressivly gets worse as we move along in that file....overt this weekend i tried smartripper for the first time to do the rip....everything seems ok with those files and that part of the process....then i use dvd2avi for the audio.....finally tmpgenc to put it all together for the mpeg2 file.....nero to burn.....where do you think that the problem is? with aspichk it says that aspi is installed ok and functional....is there anything that i am missing like some files to install or anything?.....i'll owe you if we can solve this one.....funny thing is that everything worked perfectly earlier during the year...do you think that i should do a reinstall of my OS (xpPRO)?......HELP & THX!!!!!

4got to answer the question that was asked......aiming to create VCD's from the DVD.....but i dont bother to do the burn cause when i look at the mpeg video on the pc audio/video is out of sync.....therefore makes no sense to burn although somewhere on this board i read that one fella said that when he did his burn everything went into sync even though it was out on the PC.....so i tried but of course that did not work...what did i expect!!!!.....please help me

Well I don"t know what the Problem could be, Maybe you can Try a Different Mpeg encoder, The New MainConcept Mpeg encoder is Pretty Good and Quite fast..Or you can try doing what I sudgested earlier and Rip the audio with something else like VOB2Audio...

Keep using Smartripper to rip your files as it very reliable and the best ripper there is.

To rip the audio don't bother with PCM audio. You should be ripping the DD 5.1 Ac3 track to a wav.
For this the best and more accurate way than DVD2AVI is VOB2AUDIO, just ensure you rip the correct Ac3 track. There will be a text file in your folder where you have ripped your VOBS to which contains the audio stream info.

Once you have chosen the correct stream in VOB2AUDIO run it and it will create a wav.
The next step is to use the d2v file which Smartripper 2.41 should have created in the same folder as your VOBS.
If you are using Smartripper there is no need to use DVD2AVI at all, but it still needs to be installed for TMPG to use the d2v file.

Load both of these files into TMPG.
Choose the correct template to encode. I.E. if your DVD is PAL choose the PAL VCD template, if it is NTSC choose the NTSC VCD template.
DONT try to convert one format to another.

Before encoding in TMPG click File>Preview and move the slider to the end. Note it's time code info then load the wav into media player and play. Check that both are the same time length.

If both are the same length you can now go ahead and encode and you should end up with an in sync MPEG.

ASHY

By the way what does Aspichk report as the Aspi layer version? 4.7 is bad 4.6 is good.

ASHY

minion....thx for the advice but most likely i'll stick with smartripper-dvd2avi-tmpgenc combination......its' now 2312hrs local time here and i'm xtremely tired....so no more xperimenting for tonight......

ashy......some positive news though....the dvd's that i am most interested in converting to vcd have only pcm audio stream along with the video stream....these are dvd's with music videos like what you see on mtv....earlier during the year i had no problems at all using cladxp1.3-tmpgenc but now i get a message that i never did b4 saying 'authentication routine failed to unlock locked sectors' but clad still rips the vob files anyway.....so today i tried a dvd movie and guess what...everything worked fine which means that the problem has to be specific to those music dvd's......used smartripper then tried with clad with no sync problems both times.....

tomorrow i will continue to experiment again....like most times the problem may be something staring us right in our faces.....

still don't give up on me as yet...i'm learnig from you both....

thx again
and merry xmas

c

so now with this e

4got to answer.......aspi check says

COMPONENT VERSION DATE SIZE

WNASPI32.DLL 4.60(1021) 09/10/99 45056
WINASPI.DLL 4.60(1021) 09/10/99 5600
ASPI32.SYS 4.60(1021) 09/10/99 25244
WOWPOST.EXE 4.60(1021) 09/10/99 4672

ASPI is properly installed and is fully functional.
A total of 2 host adapters have been detected.

thx ashy

Hmm strange problem. Your sync problem is almost defintely linked to the DVD not being decrypted properly and the sectors remaining locked.

Any ripper will still rip the locked VOBS, but when you come to encode these VOBS there will be problems because they are still encryted and this is where your sync problems are beginning.

The 'authentication routine failed to unlock locked sectors' error is usually due to a bad ASPI layer or blemishes on the surface of the DVD, so ensure it's clean. (is it only this one music DVD or all music DVD's?)
Even though you do have the correct layer installed I would kill it and re-install it again. There is program called killaspi.bat which can do this which I guess you already have as it comes with 'Forceaspi 1.7'

Another option is to play the disk for a few seconds first with your PC DVD player software such as WINDVD. This will authenticate the disk then try again with Smartripper.


If all else fails after this then I would try the very best ripper out there VSTRIP which can rip any DVD on this planet.
It's a bit more complicated to use, but gives guaranteed results. If VSTRIP can't do it then there is something wrong with the disk.
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/vstrip.html

ASHY

hey ashy.....yes the prob now seems to be not those music dvd's but something else cause i tried to convert one that i had successfully done in the past and i got that authentication problem....i too seem to think that it's with this aspi layer....i had a HD problem in june and had to do a complete reinstall and after that is when the problem started.....i lost the aspi that i was using then....today i successfully converted 'mission impossible 2"...know what i noticed today....with smartripper when i did the movies successfully,when you hit the start button in the 'code info' area of that dialog the 'aspi' sign ligkt up....this does not happen with the music dvd's....i am going to experiment a little later and will fill you in again...will try to remove and reinstall aspi to see what happens....hope that it works this time......

thx again....
cary

I have many RM files that I would like to put onto a VCD but the quality is bad. Is there some way I can improve its quality and then encode it into MPG to put onto a VCD?

NO.....It would Be Quite Difficult to Clean Up RM files, Plus these RM files would First have to be Encoded to AVI which would make the Quality worse, that after converted to AVI then encoded to Mpeg which would make you loose even More Quality...RM Files Just aren"t a Good Format to Make VCD"s out of...

Thanks for the help! It seems almost everyone hates Realplayer nowadays...

The Tool EO-Video is able to convert RM to AVI or MPEG1 directly (RealPlayer have to be installed). But It's no Freeware and it's very slow.

I'm using the program more and more these days especially encoding vcds from avi files. Some of these files are in the 2.35:1 amorphic widescreen mode. To date I have been clipping the source file to maintain the aspect ratio but would like to see a choice in the source of 2.35:1 so I can be sure to get the whole image.
Thanks
Rick

Click the 'arrange setting' button in the 'clip frame' filter amd use the Center(custome size) option to adjust your image to the correct ratio.

ASHY

Thank you for the reply Ashy. I tried it on a dvix I'm encoding now and it seems to do the job perfectly.

Rick

Hi;

I am cutting an mpg and when it is cut and I play the cut version, the video part is there but the sound is gone. Could you please help me with this matter.

Thanks

All I can Sudgest is to use a Different Mpeg editor, a Good One is "Womble Mpeg2VCR"......