Hi!

I do a lot of capturing on a Formac Studio DV/TV (connected to a Mac). There I get .dv files contained in a quicktime file, these files I want to encode to MPEG2 with TMPG then.
For this I use the QTReader plugin for TMPG.

But encoding them brought up to problems:

1. the quicktime.dv, when imported in TMPG only comes out in low quality, although the quality setting is set to Hi (checked with the QuickTime Player)

2. problem is that the movie has a framerate of 600 fps! in TMPG (but the movie is in 25 fps/PAL, checked in QuickTime Player)

But I got solutions for both problems!

For 1.
I open the quicktime.dv in QuickTime Player, press (ctrl+j) check the video quality setting button to "Hi Quality", then save the file as quicktime.mov (reference not selfcontaining movie!)

For 2.
It get's more complicated here; by accident I found a forum thread linking to the Apple QuickTime Tool "Dumpster", which will let you change the various resource settings in a quicktime file easily!

So, I opened the before created quicktime.mov and searched for the wrong frame rate entry, changed the value from 600 to 25 (you have to put this in on the bottom window and they must be hex numbers). I put in 019 which results to 25 in decimal numbers) and press the "apply" button to confirm changing the setting!

Also you have to look for the "Duration" values, which should then be divided by 16 an put in instead! (they are in hex coding too!)

Do this for all occurrences you may find, always press the "apply" button, then close the quicktime.mov, now you can put this reference quicktime.mov file in TMPG and it works as expected!

Hope this is helpfull for someone too :)

nok

Im sure that this Info will be helpfull to someone as these are Problems inherant to the QT Mov Plugin, The Plugin was made for Quicktime 4 and 5 and does not Properly support Quicktime 6 files and the Plugin has not been updated since it was released and the author of the Plugin is nowere to be found but you can feel free to rewrite the QT Plugin so that it works properly ,that is if you have these skills...ThanX for the Tip....Cheers

If you new that the actual frame rate of the source was actually 25 fps why didn't you just set the frame rate to 25fps in TMPG? It would have encoded correctly regardless of what was contained in the headers of the source file.

It really bothers me that there is no direct way to convert an AC3 .avi to a VCD...Will there be support for AC3 files on the next release??

I don"t think there will be any sort of AC3 support till Tmpgenc V3.0 and the AC3 support it will have is not what you are looking for, I think they will have AC3 encodeing Support But not AC3 Decodeing Support...AC3 audio is mostly Only used in AVI files that are usually downloaded off of the net which are the worst files to encode to Mpeg cuz they have a Habbit of being Corrupted and have Non-standard Frame rates and Audio formats...You can allways use Virtual dub to extract the audio to wav from your AVI file and there is a New AC3 decoder Plugin you can get for Virtual Dub so you can extract better wav files useing Virtual dub and you can now useing this AC3 plugin Frameserve decoded AC3 audio to Tmpgenc....

Minion says: "AC3 audio is mostly Only used in AVI files that are usually downloaded off of the net..."

Wrong. AC3 audio is mainly used when making DVD's. For complient NTSC DVDs, you have the choice of either PCM (wave) audio (a very large file) or AC3 audio (Dolby) that come out to be about the same size as MPEG Audio.

TMPGEnc will multiplex AC3 audio (but not PCM Wave) though the MPEG tools dialog.

You can take MPEG audio from TEmpgEnc, run it though AC3Machine, then multiplex it to get what you want.

Also, TMPGEcbDVDAuthor supports AC3 audio.

Joe

>Wrong. AC3 audio is mainly used when making DVD's. For complient NTSC DVDs, you have the choice of either PCM (wave) audio (a very large file) or AC3 audio (Dolby) that come out to be about the same size as MPEG Audio.

So what's your point?
I think minion is quite aware that most DVD's have Ac3 as the audio.
I think you have missed the point of his answer. When minion quoted the line you have posted he was referring to AVI only not what format of video Ac3 is used in generally, but the fact that most AVI's downloaded off the net use the original Ac3 track ripped from the DVD.
How else do you expect the Ac3 track was added.

>TMPGEnc will multiplex AC3 audio (but not PCM Wave) though the MPEG tools dialog.

>You can take MPEG audio from TEmpgEnc, run it though AC3Machine, then multiplex it to get what you want.

This doesn't relate to the question asked either.
The point was that TMPG will not accept Ac3 as a valid audio source for encoding to MP2 or wav therefore a third party program must be used to convert the audio to a format TMPG will accept.

Nobody asked how to multiplex Ac3 audio to MPEG video or for that matter convert the audio to Ac3.

Maybe you should read the post twice before posting comments in the future.

What I wanted to do was take a movie I have that's an .avi with AC3 sound, and convert it to a VCD...TMPGEnc cannot handle that, and I wanted to know if a future release will do it

All you need is a Decoding-Filter like AC3Filter. After installing that, TMPGEnc is able to hanlde AC3-Sound too. But it isn't optimized for that. Consider on, TMPGEnc is an Encoder, not a Decoder.

And..um...which filter is that may I ask because every single Ac3 filter I have tried in the new version doesn't work even the ones that used to work in earlier versions don't work.
'Ac3filter' will only allow AVI with AC3 to be loaded into TMPG, it won't allow VOB or MPEG with AC3 or Ac3 audio itself and even though it will load an AVI with AC3 it still won't decode it because all you get is silence.

Exactly - it works with the odd file, but no way will it work with all of them...I just want TMPGEnc's next version do have support for AC3, so I wouldn't have to extract the audio, convert it, re-multiplex it with the new vcd, take all that extra time, and finally discover the sound is now slightly out of synch...

I'm using this Filter on VOB-Files too, but have to demux it first. Maybe there is something installed on my Machine you don't have? (no idea what...)
However, the best Way to decode/transcode AC3-Audio is an external Program like BeSweet or, if the Source is DVD, DVD2AVI.
An other Way if the use of GraphEdit. Unfortunatly that's not easy to handle, but fast and good.

I don't use either, the best and fastest way I have found for extracting audio from DVD is VOB2AUDIO.
VOB2AUDIO works in the same way Graphedit does because it uses the same 'Imedia Multiple MPEG2 Source filter' as Graphedit and because it uses directshow it is more reliable as far as sync issues are concerned and also doesn't exhibit the low sound level problem that DVD2AVI has.

For AVI with AC3 I use AVIMUX04 which is simple to use and seems to give the best results and allows you to extract the audio to whatever format you wish. I don't like besweet as it's a far too complicated and messy program for doing something as simple as extracting AC3 or converting it to a wav.

whats the differency between stream type ES (video + audio) and System (video + audio).

You never clicked onto this option?

ES (video + audio) means elementary Streams. You will get separated Audio and Video-Streams (2 Files). This is usefull for DVD-Authoing.

System (video + audio) means, you will get one System-Stream. Audio and Video-Streams are muxed into on File. This is... hm, usefull, if you want 1 File. It can be used by some Authoring Tools directly, but the secure way is to produce elemantary Streams.

DOES TMPGEnc SUPPORT WMV ENCODING?

Yes....But poeple have problem with encodeing WMV files because WMV files are so compressed that they are very prone to errors, and if you are Haveing Problems Loading WMV files into Tmpgenc you should try Raiseing the Priority of the "Direct show" in the "Vfapi Plugins"....And if all else fails you can allways convert the WMV files to AVI then encode the avi files in Tmpgenc...

No. TMPG does not support WMV encoding.
It can only decode WMV.

tmpg seems to have trouble interpreting the color palette of my clip. Its AVI uncompressed 352x288@25fps (VCD PAL standard) trying to convert to mpg. I searched this bbs and a there are quite a few questions with same/similar problem, but no suitable answers. I dont have angel codec (its a fresh windows 98 install), and no other player has problems with the color. Its the full picture is mostly blue, it occasionally changes to red, but it looks like tmpg is unable to read it. Other files seem ok, just these ones. Conversion to MPG ends up like that (unusable).

I tried it on another computer, its the same there too.

Try the following:

Get AVISynth, install it, write the following Script:

AVISource=("your_movie.avi")
ConvertToRGB24()

Save the Script into the same directory where the AVI is as test1.avs (the name doesn't matter, but the extension is important) and open it instead of the AVI in TMPGEnc. What happens now?

update: I couldnt' get it to read the files, but i ended up downloading a new version of Lifeview's TVR (capture program for the FLYVIDEO 3000 capture card) and the files it captures NOW are accepted by TMPG. I still think my original hypothosis was correct. Maybe it was using something that was incompatible with tmpg (or non-standard avi). Anyway, the new program is also a lot easier to use and is compatible with TMPG, so i can keep encoding/converting with it.
BTW, while this card isn't great, it certainly does about as good as you possibly can with VHS.

B_racer thanks for your advice, i'll keep a reference to that (sounds like you think its not 24-bit?)

You said that your Files were Uncompressed AVI files, If these files use YUV or YUY2 or YV12 Colorspaces then Tmpgenc will not read them properly Cuz Tmpgenc works in RGB and since Uncompressed Files do not use a Codec there is Nothing to convert the Colorspace to RGB for Tmpgenc, that is why the convertToRGB() Command in AVISynth was sugested to solve your Problem but if one doesn"t know anything about AVISynth then it would be hard to figure out.You should consider useing the HuffyUV Codec for Captureing cuz it is Lossless so it will produce the same Quality as Uncompressed would and it has an option to convert to RGB on Decode so the files work with Tmpgenc...Cheers

Sorry about posting the revision after the original. Don't know how to delete original post.

Ok. Here's my problem. First off, I have used this program numerous times to sucsessfully convert an .avi video to .mpg video for burning to a VCD. I never had a problem with video or audio conversion in the final resulting file. Now hpwever, I'm trying to encode (Samurai Jack Episodes) so I can put them to DVD at my friends house. I have so fae unsucsessfully gotten a complete video and audio render to mpg. I have tried three or four different ways that would possibly solve the problem. 1.) tried decompressing audio, then used the decompressed audio video source. 2.) used the original .avi file. , 3.) used a .wav of the audio and .avi for video. I'm pretty possitive it needs to be in NTSC format. Could I be Wrong?, If not, Can someone help me solve the problem? I'd really appreciate it.

Ok. Here's my problem. First off, I have used this program numerous times to sucsessfully convert an .avi video to .mpg video for burning to a VCD. I never had a problem with video or audio conversion in the final resulting file. Now hpwever, I'm trying to encode (Samurai Jack Episodes) so I can put them to DVD at my friends house. I have so fae unsucsessfully gotten a complete video and audio render to mpg. I have tried three or four different ways that would possibly solve the problem. 1.) tried decompressing audio, then used the decompressed audio video source. 2.) used the original .avi file. , 3.) used a .wav of the audio and .avi for video. I'm pretty possitive it needs to be in NTSC format. Could I be Wrong?

So your Problem is that you have no Video in your Mpeg file Right??? This problem can usually be fixed by going to "Options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct Show" to "2", this should make it to there is a Picture in the file the next time you encode, There will only be a Picture in the file if you can see a Picture in the Tmpgenc screen while encodeing....

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it out. However when I posted this problem I was getting a video picture in the picture box while encoding. Maybe your tip will fix the problem for the finished file. Also, I would like an explanation about some of the features, (i.e., The Quantinization Matrix: Will changing some things bring out better quality? etc). Again, Thanks for your help

You should leave the Quantize Matrix on the Default matrix unless you have your own matrix that you can just copy into the Boxes...If you have a Clean good Quality Source file then it is best to not use any Filters and just use standard settings but if your Source file isn"t of the Highest Quality you would then have to determine what aspects of the video need improovment and try to find a Filter that corelates with it, Like if your Source file is a Little Blurry then you might try the sharpen filter, or if it has a Bit of Noise then you would try the noise filter , you can also brighten the image and do color correction ect..the Filters really slow down the encodeing so it is good to use the Filters from Virtual Dub or AVISynth and Frameserve the file to Tmpgenc...Cheers

>Thanks for the tip. I'll try it out. However when I posted this problem I was getting a video picture in the picture box while encoding. Maybe your tip will fix the problem for the finished file. Also, I would like an explanation about some of the features, (i.e., The Quantinization Matrix: Will changing some things bring out better quality? etc). Again, Thanks for your help


DONT mess with matrix settings unless you know what you are doing. For better quality stick to raising the bitrate and resolution. If you want explanations about matrix's look around the net. They are far too complicated a subject to explain here.
The next time you encode click the preview option to check the image before you encode.

Newbie question here:

I am taking mpegs off my tivo to save to dvd for my collection. Basically I was recommened to use tmpgenc to clean up the video...ie to remove a green bar on the left side of the picture and noise (closed caption) from the top. I input the mpg file, it cleans it up just like I want, but then it splits the file into 2 parts: video and audio (wav). I can't seem to find out how to make it stop doing that. I don't want 2 files. I tried to muliplex them back as one file but the program complains that it can't do that to pcm audio.

1) Is there a way to get tmpge to clean up the video without spliting up the file?

2) How do I recombine?

Thanks Fletch

Tmpgenc Makes 2 seperate Files when encodeing for DVD Because you Need 2 seperate Files in Most DVD authoring Programs, and there is No way to Join Mpeg video and Wav audio unless you Join them in your DVD authoring Program, What I would sugest to do is to Encode the Wav audio to AC3(Dolby Digital) then Load Both files into your DVD authoring Program then Author them to DVD like you would with Any DVD..But you might be useing one of those Really low end DVD authoring Programs like a Few of the Cheaper Ulead Programs that will only accept Mpeg files if they have Mpeg 1 layer 2 audio in them, In that case I would get a Better DVD authoring Program but if you can"t then you will have to encode the Wav audio to Mpeg1 Layer 2 audio(You can do this with Tmpgenc)Then use the "Multiplexor" to Join the Mpeg audio with the Mpeg video then Author it to DVD with your DVD authoring Program.....

You choose the wrong option, Instead of selecting 'CBR linear PCM audio' choose 'CBR MPEG1 LayerII audio (MP2)'

In anycase it is not necessary to re-encode the audio. The audio is already in the correct Mp2 format. Simply encode the video only.
After setting up the wizard uncheck 'start encoding immediately' then select 'Video only' and encode.
When done load the re-ecoded video into the Video field of the 'simple multiplexer' in the TMPG MPEGtools and load your TIVO MPEG into the audio field of the 'simple multiplexer'. If You are intending to author this to DVD then select the 'stream type' as 'MPEG-2 program(VBR)' then click run.

Big draw back with creating menus. DVD Author allows the user to set a font for all items in the menu but doesn't allow a user setting for font size and color that can be applied to all chapter numbers and chapter descriptions within a project. The same limitation can be found in menu settings like "previous" "next" "chapter menu" and "play track".

It's very tedious changing each of these individually. Is there a quicker method? Why not add more user defined settings?

I am using DVDX as a file server to TMPGenc through the premiere video server. DVDx gives a too much sample error which means I have to force 24Hz frame rate(although the supposed output frame rate is 29.997fps). When I then set the encode fps in TMPGenc to 29.97 the audio and video go out of sync as the movie progresses. I am tryng to make an MPEG1 VCD. Should I use the 3:2 pulldown in the advanced setting of TMPGenc? When I tried this the video quality seemed to get worse. What do you think I should do? Thanks for your help.

In this Case you should Just encode it in Tmpgenc as a 24fps File because VCD can use 24fps, It is called "NTSC Film" ..But if you can you should Try to Load the File directly into Tmpgenc because if you are forceing it to be 24fps it can cause sync Problems....

I am trying to make the VCD be playable on a regular TV. If I encode at 24 fps I may get that strobing effect, since the TV wants 29.97 fps. Does the DVD player perform a pull up/down? I am not sure if the DVD player will correct the fps without some flags or something? Thanks for your help.

I forgot to add some more info. Last night I tried the to use the 3:2 pulldown in the TMPEGenc advanced tab and still got audio sync problems. The software also locked up on both my attempts at the same location (after many hours of encoding) in the DVD. One attempt was with no pullup-down, and one attempt was with pullup-down. I am not sure it the two problems are related. If I encoded at 23.997 FPS is there another piece of software I can use to make it 29.997 fps for my TV? Thanks for your help.

I'm not surprised your having problems doing it the crazy way you are.
There is only one true way to frameserve to TMPG and is the best, fastest and most tried and trusted method there is.

Don't bother with silly programs like DVDX. Do it like a professional not an amatuer!
Get yourself Smartripper, DVD2AVI and TMPG.

Simply rip the VOBS from the DVD to your hard drive using Smartripper then load the VOBS into DVD2AVI then in DVD2AVI click 'File', select 'Save project' and hey presto in minutes you have a d2v file and a wav you can easily load into TMPG and encode.
Simple as that.

If you have any problems using this process such as no audio then just post back and we'll tell you what to do to cure it.

What I"m telling you Is that your DVD Player does NOT want 29.97fps when it comes to VCD ,The VCD Standard allows for 23.97fps(24) NTSC Film and it Will Play Fine, You will only get a "Strobeing Effect" with Interlaced material and it will NOT happen with a NTSC Film VCD...I would Say that if you were useing Mpeg2 then you could Use something like "DoPulldown" to add Pulldown Flags to the file But Mpeg1 doesn"t support this, So don"t worry about It as 23.97fps(24fps) is Fully VCD Compliant and it will Play Just fine As Most Poeple actually use this Frame rate with VCD"s because the Lower Frame rate means that there are More Bits for each Frame which will Produce a Better Quality VCD ...

I AM A PATHETIC LOSER NOT EVEN WORTHY OF POSTING. THANK YOU MASTER MINION AND ASHY FOR CORRECTING ME. (no really thanks for your help. I'll write back if i have problems)

When I encoded a movie it sent it to my save folder but the format just says file. Not movie file or mpeg. Just file. Why did this happen?

Well that can happen if when you opened the Save File dialog you had it set to "All files" and didn"t put a Mpg extention at the End..Is the File the Right size??? Cuz all you would have to do is Rename the File to File.mpg and it should work....