Can anyone give me general tips on settings within TMPGEnc to get the best quality MPEG1's for VCD. Mostely I'm using downloaded AVI's. Anything would be helpful as I am just getting into the VCD thing.
Thanks!
Lisa

Before the questions, my goal is to take some tapes from Sony 8mm (camcorder) and some VHS tapes from home and convert them to a digital format.

Each of these is about 2 hours long and the VHS tapes were recorded in SP NOT EP.

First question, will 80 gigs of space be enough for all this?

Second, what resolution should I capture them at? Keep in mind the camcorder has an S video output while the VHS uses the RCA cable types.

Third, what format should I keep them in? I want to keep the highest possible quality right now since I may later edit them.

Fourth, once I have capture them and stored the origionals, what program(s) should I use to filter them since these are a few years old and on a VHS or 8mm? Is there any software which can also go through each frame and sharpen them up a bit?, because I've used the sharpen feature in Adobe Photoshop for some images and it seems to work pretty well.

Fifth, do you have any other tips for me so my capturing goes better? (Possibly from past experiences?)

Thanks in advance.
AgaBoogaBoo
ankygupta@hotmail.com

80Gigs isn"t a Lot of space when you are talking about Digital video, I just recorded a 3 hour Movie and it took up 70GB useing The PicVideo Mjpeg Codec...What resolution you capture to Basicly depends on what the Final product is going to be, meaning are you going to make VCD"s or SVCD"s or DVD"s..Or do you just want to store them on your Hard drive or do you Just want to Archive them for safe keeping??? If you just want them to take up the smallest Possible space with the Highest Possible Quality then I would Capture at a High resolution like 640+480 or 704+480(These are NTSC Resolutions) with a Software Codec Like HuffyUV or Mjpeg then encode the Captured File to DivX..This way you could get a whole 2 hour movie on a Single CD-R and be able to store it for later use with the Best possible Quality for the File Size..But since you only have 80GB you will have to Do a single movie at a time..But since we don"t know a lot about what you will be doing I can"t really tell you to much, do you have an analog Capture card or a Firewite Port or digital Capture device of some sort, and what is the end product going to be, and what software are you useing to capture with?

I was trying to convert an avi file to mpg so that I can burn it into VCD. But when I used WMP to play the output mpg file, there is no video (audio is ok).

I tried the conversion again and when I clicked on Preview in TMPG, the display window is blank.

Anything I overlooked? Thanks.

Christina.

Go to "Options" to "enviromental settings" to "vfapi Plugins" and raise the "Direct Show" to "2"....

Thanks a lot Minion. I tried to change the priority but do not know how. I was on that screen, and except the checkbox, I was not able to edit anything. Please kindly advise. Thanks.

Christina.

right click the line to get the option to raise/lower priorities

I have had problems converting a file from avi to mpeg.
Now I am unable to delete the source file - getting the error message the file is in use.. This is not the case or so I think.
How can I delete this file ????

Many thanks

Just reboot then delete it.

ASHY

Ashy I have tried that - believe me.....
All normal procedures have been tried..
The film needed Xvid to run - is it possible that Xvid has got hold of it some how...
I have uninstalled Xvid to try and do the business.
Im sure I have read that it can be removed by going into 'regedit'.

This is a known problem. Once you select the file in order to delete it, explorer opens it... It's a stupid thing of windows... Just go to the command prompt and delete it from there...

Thank You VERY much..
1.5 Gig now to play with..
I was starting to think a format and reinstall system was on the cards..

Many many Thanks

I have Had This Problem also and was able to delete it in Safe mode...

When I convert AVI files to mpeg using tmpeng, and having set direct show to +2, the encoding process gets to about 75% then freezes, locking the program. Any solution or tips?

There is Probably an error in the file were it freezes up..Encode up to were it crashes then use the source range to start encodeing a new file a couple frames after were it crashes then join the 2 files together, of you can try frameserveing the Source file to tmpgenc...

Thanks , but I am new to all this, how do I join the files together?

Go to "File" to "Mpeg Tools" to "Merge & Cut" and Load in the 2 files Pick a name for the new file and Click "Run"...you can edit the file here also...

Ashy,

Could you please confirm there is a memory leak in of the ASF reader in TMPGEnc 2.59?

I doubt this is a memory leak problem related to TMPG. ASF and WMV files are notoriously difficult to encode if there is the slightest problem with them.

My advice is to frameserve the file from Virtualdub_ASF to TMPG.
http://ambamo.free.fr/FILES/avi/VirtualDub14c-asf.zip

ASHY

>I doubt this is a memory leak problem related to TMPG. ASF and WMV files are notoriously difficult to encode if there is the slightest problem with them.

Sorry, but I think it is a problem with TMPGEnc. I think it is related to the DirectShow file reader. Also a thing to note: if TMPGEnc chokes on memory or I abort encoding, all memory that has been eaten by tmpgenc.exe is released. I can't be the MPG encoding part, otherwise all users would be having trouble. I am convinced that the DirectShow reader is simply forgetting to free some buffer in the process...

>My advice is to frameserve the file from Virtualdub_ASF to TMPG.
>http://ambamo.free.fr/FILES/avi/VirtualDub14c-asf.zip

Same problem... Try it yourself, this is the stream I am trying to convert (downloaded with Streambox VCR and renamed to ASF):

mms://a132.v7073d.c7073.t.vm.akamaistream.net/5/132/7073/sonyadtv/1a1a1a0468d6037af168960978e65fc024980e3c9f0e7baa218e02/262D85E403E094FE1D24.wmv

You could try frameserving the video from AVisynth. Load the file into AVisynth using the Directshowsource command, for example:

DirectshowSource("E:Sample File.asf", fps=30)

ASHY

>You could try frameserving the video from AVisynth. Load the file into AVisynth using the Directshowsource command, for example:
>
>DirectshowSource("E:Sample File.asf", fps=30)

Well, that rules out the DirectShow reader, but the memory leak remains! No matter what TMPEGEnc.exe keeps eating 300KB per second, wether during encoding (with or without frameserve) or just playing sound preview (without frameserve, as AviSynth has no audio support for DirectShow).

Do you have an old version (2.58) so that I can test if the bug is there as well?

http://www.netmindz.co.uk/dload/download.php?file=/TMPGEnc-2.58.44.152-Plus-EN.exe

http://www.freeterritory.host.sk/files/TMPGEnc%20Plus%20v2.58.44.152.zip

I give up... same results in 2.58.

I get strange result all over. Encoding in lower res slows the memory leak. I asume that when running TMPEGEnc, the decoding dll's run under that process as well? (That would explain the rising memory under TMPEGEnc.exe.)

Playing the asf through AviSynth in Media Player also shows a memory usage increase. Opening the sound preview starts eating memory without playing. I just can't pinpoint where the leak occurs.

Borrowing a Win 2K box next weekend, see how that goes.

Will there ever be more audio support because I prefer not having to use a seperate program for audio and then merging... just my opinion

What do you mean seperate program for audio and merging?

ASHY

Tmpgenc encodes Audio and Muxes the audio so there is no need to use a seperate program to encode the audio...and If you have the correct codecs and Playback filters you should be able to encode allmost any audio format with Tmpgenc.....

I have a video capture MPEG2 made whit Ati rage 128 ,size 3Gb and lenth 49 min.When I demultiplex whit mpeg tools the video file is only 37 min and too fast but the sound stay at the right time ?

Strange, seems like the file is relying on the audio for correct timing. What does media player report as the frame rate when playing the de-multiplexed file?

Why do you wish to demultiplex?

ASHY

the statistics are not avaible whit the demux file.I want to convert it in SVCD

No solution ?

You must use Mediaplayer 6.4 which is located in the same folder as the new version for the info.

ASHY

the demux file is 25 fps.I have problems for playing the original file whit the media player ,falling to 8 fps or freezing but ok when play whit powerDVD.

Hy,

when i try to load a file in TMPGEnc i get the message "Illegal Stream Format". Why is this coming?

cu
Erik

Maybe it committed some sort of crime.

Next time if you want answers post more details such as file type, where the file is from etc. We're not mind readers here you know.

ASHY

TMPGEnc.exe will not load P3Package.dll after opening exe file. What am I doing wrong? Help

You are not extracting the zip to it's own folder. The TMPGenc.exe file must be in a folder with the rest of the downloaded files and run from there.

ASHY

Hi All,
Which will have better quality when I do the final VCD... If I encode in NTSC Film or NTSC?
Thanks, Lis

There is no quality difference. The difference is the frame rate. NTSC Film is 23.976 fps and NTSC is 29.97 fps.
Which one you use depends on the frame rate of the source.

ASHY

Hi Ashy thanks. It's just an AVI I downloaded off the internet. Is there a way to tell what the FPS is so when I encode it I select the correct one?
Lisa

you can go through windows explorer to the folder with the file in and then right click on the files icon. Click properties and where it tells you what codecs it is encoded with it will also tell you the framerate. If you have virtualdub you can also just open the avi and click the video tab and then framerate. It will ask you if you want to keep it the same and show the current framerate in brackets.

Or just load the file into Virtualdub and click File>File information.
A box will pop up telling you everything you need to know about the AVI.

ASHY

Thanks! You guys will have to excuse my ignorance. This is the first time I'm trying to make a VCD. I do have Virtual Dub so I'll check it out.
Thanks Much! Lisa

I've used TMPGenc some times, and it's a pretty good mpeg encoder, nice work.

BUT the MPEG Tools are somewhat buggy, one thing in particular. I'll try to explain here.
When I use the Merge & Cut feature and do the following it's all ok.
1. Add mpeg file
2. Select the mpeg I want to edit
3. Edit - set the range of the output
4. Browse for destination
5. Run

BUT the if I then want to edit the same/other mpeg, I have to exit TMPGenc first, before I get to point 3 again, or TMPGenc will simply crash. :-((

Would it be possible to fix that bug? Pretty please. :-)

Seems like it's a bug in your system. Never have that problem on my system.

ASHY