Hi all,

I'm going to be building a new system specifically for video editing. Was wondering if some of you could share encoding perfermance/system specs so I can gauge what I'll need.

Today I have Athlon XP 2000+ with 1GB of RAM. The system I'm specing will be a Dual Xeon 2.4Ghz with 4Gb PC2100. It will have 3 SATA disks.
1. 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache for OS and other programs
2. 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache for videos and temp space
3. 36GB 1000RPM 8MB cache for swap space

Anyone have a similar setup? How many FPS encoded?

Thanks

Dan

I wouldn't have the TEMP space on the same drive as the working drive. You should just use the drive purely for Video only, you don't want the heads moving back and forth between the TEMP and Video space on the drive which will ultimately slow down the process.

It would be preferable to have the TEMP space on the same drive as the OS. Also your not even gonna need the swap file at all, so I would just turn it off completely.
With 4gb of RAM, Windows shouldn't even touch the swap file. The maximum size a paging file can be is 4GB anyway.
Even with 1GB of memory it's unlikely the swap file would get used very much if at all.

If you intend to do any multiplexing then I would one drive for the source Video and Audio and another for the target file.

This is how I would do it:

1. 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache for OS and other programs and TEMP

2. 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache for Video and Audio only

3. 36GB 1000RPM 8MB for multiplexing target files.

This way the OS can quickly read and write to the TEMP and the drive for Video and Audio never has to dramatically move it's heads from one position to another, but can remain more or less static for improved performance.

Lastly 36GB is plenty for MPEG files which are only to be multiplexed and not stored on this drive.

In reality 4 drives would be best one for the OS, one for audio, one for Video and one for multiplexing target files, but that is extreme and the above config should give a pretty decent performance.

As for my specs:

P4 2.8 533fsb O/C at 3.2ghz
80gb 7200 for Video/audio and OS
40GB 7200 for Target files
512DDR PC2100 RAM

Encoding speeds from compressed AVI in TMPG at DVD resolution output is about 1.5x real time at 'High quality' setting.

Encoding speed for the same source in CCE is about 2 to 2.5x real time, at half resolution 352x240 CCE encodes at 7x real time and in TMPG it is 3 to 4x real time.

Hi all,

Has anyone had much success with MPEG source files and TMPGEnc? I'm pulling files from my ReplayTV, which are MPEG2 encoded. I'm then converting them to DVD. But every other tool I've used (outside of Adobe Premier) has very bad quality or fails during render. And Premiere is to slow (2+ DAYS for 2hrs of video) even though I have AthalonXP 2000+ with 1GB RAM. I hear the TMPGEnc encoding quality is excellent but it's also very much geared toward AVI source files. They say you can use a third party decoder to support MPEG2 source files but does this degrade the quality of the output or limit features of TMPGEnc?

Thanks

Dan

Hmm, I don't know who told you that TMPG is geared towards AVI as this isn't true at all.

TMPG will accept most formats just as easily as any other as long as it is correctly configured to do so.
TMPG has long supported MPEG,AVI,JPEG,Bitmaps and many other input sources even from other encoders such as Virtualdub and DVD2AVI and even Premier.

The new version of TMPG plus also has it's own MPEG2 decoder. If you have the free version then this codec seems to be the best to use:
http://www.marumo.ne.jp/mpeg2/ just configure it correctly and make sure it has the highest priority for decoding MPEGs in the VFAPI plugins.
You will have full use of ALL TMPG's features, TMPG does not limit third party codecs in any way.

As for Premier taking 2 days for encoding 2 hours of footage, there is something seriously amiss there, even a machine with half the speed of yours wouldn't take that long.

We are looking for products which can convert 1080i or 720p content into 720x720p format (non-square pixel) and then encode it in MPEG-2 format. Any info or suggestion is appreciated.

I wish to convert DV AVI files (exported from Adobe Premiere 6) into MPEG 2 files but TMPGEnc does not recognize the file format. Is there a plugin I can use? Will the Plus version recognize this format?

Thanks in advance.

Depending on the DV Codec used you would Either go to "options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the Priority of the "Direct show File Reader" or the "AVI VFW Compatibility reader" or the "AVI2(OpenDML) File reader" but in Most cases the "Direct Show" is Probably the best if you are useing a Direct Show DV Codec like the Microsoft DV Codec....

I encode AVI to MPG and have one problem with this process: the size of output file about two times larger than the sourse file !!!
How I could resolve this problem

This Probably isn"t a problem...The Size of your Source file has Absolutely no bearing on how big your Mpeg file will be...IT doesn"t matter if your Source file is 100mb or 1000GB what Matters is the Length of your Source file...If you are encodeing to a Standard VCD then the File will be about 10mb per minute of Source file, and about 20mb per Minute of SVCD and 40MB+ per minute of DVD....

Hi,

I'm a newbie and I keep getting the same error when I go from TMPGEnc to TMPG Author. Author tells me that the video sequence header is incorrect and to use the wizard in TMPGEnc to create the file. However whenI use the wizard it creates seperate audio and video tracks. What am I doing wrong?

Open TMPGEnc and Check:

Setting -> GOP Structure -> Output interval of sequence Header

It has to be 1.

thanks, that worked!

I'm attempting to encode a DivX4 movie to mpg, using the AVI2 VFAPI plugin. When I start the encode it gives me an error window that says "Invalid Pointer Operation". If I disable the AVI2 plugin, and use the DirectShow Multimedia File Reader, the file will encode, but seems to lag a bit. It also seems to blur a small portition of the screen near about where the subtitles are. I'm encoding a fansub episode of a anime called 'Naruto', so the subtitles are a part of the video stream, and not in a seperate stream. The other episodes I have encoded were using DivX3, and had no problem encoding with AVI2 VFAPI plugin.

I did attempt to search the BBS to see if this had been posted before, or if the AVI2 VFAPI plugin supported DivX4, but I was unable to find anything relating to this problem.

According to GSpot v2.21, the video has the following specifications, CodeC 4CC:DIVX/XVID , Name:DivX 4 (OpenDivX) , Runtime:00:23:05 (166,034 fr) , xy:640x480 (1.33:1) [=4:3] , BitRate: 842 kb/s , FPS: 119.875 , QF:0.023 bits/pixel. I think the Frames Per Second should read 23.976, since that is setting I encoded to mpeg with using the DirectShow VFAPI, and had no audio sync issues with.

Thanks, I really enjoy using TMPGEnc, it has a very easy to understand interface, and is a really stable program for me. I have had no problems with it except for the one listed above.

Download ffdshow as Decoding-Filter for DivX/XViD. It is much better than the Original-Decoder.

Thanks B_Racer, that fixed the blurring on the video.

Are you refering to the AVI2(OpenDML) reader?
I think this plugin is more suited to uncompressed AVI which use multi segments such as captured AVI.
I would stick with Directshow or VFW for DIVX or XVID.

Yes, I was refering to the AVI2(OpenDML)File Reader. The DirectShow Multimedia File Reader uses the codecs installed in your system to work with the video. I know this, because when I have the DivX5 'Disable Logo' unchecked in the DivX 5.1 decoder options, TMPGEnc will show/encode the DivX logo in the bottom corner of the screen, the same way MediaPlayer displays it when the file is played with this option unchecked. The AVI2 File Reader is TMPGEnc's internal avi filter that does not rely on any outside codecs, as far as I know.

I think I found out why the AVI2 File Reader was giving me an error. A friend had suggest that I try and change the FourCC header of the file. I downloaded, Nic's Mini AviC FourCC Changer, and ran the episode through it. For some odd reason, it told me that the FourCC Description Code was xvid, and the FourCC used codec was DivX. So, I changed the FourCC Description Code to DIV3, and tested it with TMPGEnc, with the AVI2 File Reader. Worked perfectly, and has the same video quality as the ones that I had previously encoded.

I want to thank everyone again, for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.

If you are encodeing a Divx file and you are useing the "AVI2(OpenDML)Reader" in the VFAPI Plugins still Means that you are Useing the DivX codec to decode the File, any File that is Compressed will have to use a codec installed on your PC to decode the File there is No way arround it...The AVI2(OpenDML) File reader Isn"t a Decoder so it is Not acting as a Codec .....

Minion is right.
No compressed AVI can be decoded without a relevant codec installed.
As Minion says the "AVI2(OpenDML)Reader" will still need to be fed a decoded input from an AVI codec such as DivX.
It is the structure and type of file that determines whether the "AVI2(OpenDML)Reader" can read the AVI not it's compression format.

If what you are saying was true we wouldn't need to install any codecs at all.

i have no problems using tmpg when the source file is already a good framerate but i do have several movies from tmd and they are pretty much ALL at 14.987fps and tmpg will never recognize this, the audio loads but the video won't!! either on drag and drop or clicking the browse button on the first screen! i've talked to several people that do convert these 14.987fps movies just fine but still have not recieved any help on how i can do it. thnx

Are you getting a "Can Not Open Or Unsupported" Message??? If so this Can usually be solved by Going to "Options" to "Enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct Show File Reader" to "2"..This will usually get rid of the Unsupported Message ....

Using the DVD Writing Tool, whenever I hit "Write DVD", I get the following message:

"The disk label includes nonstandard characterswhich might not be displayed correctly on some players. Do you want to continue the writing process?"

Since I'm only using roman letters in the disk label, I'm wondering why this message.

Help appreciated!

Only uppercase alphabetic, numeric, and "_" characters are
legal for ISO-9660 labels. If you include spaces or lowercase
letters, you'll get the warning. It's probably OK to ignore
it, but I usually just use all caps.

When I load my XviD file, it detects it as 1:1 ratio, which it is not, then estimates a 1000+ mb file size, when it should only be 450mb or thereabouts. he;lp please!

Don"t believe what Tmpgenc says about File sizes and definately don"t let it stop you from encodeing...If you are encodeing to VCD the File size will be about 10mb per minute of Video so Just encode the File and Don"t worry about what Tmpgenc says about File size....

How long is the AVI?

When encoding for DVD PAL when I set the BIT rate at a constant CBR 8000 I get an error report at about 3% into the encoding.I am exporting from Avid as a quick time reference file and combing the audio & video together.Any Ideas?

Well One thing I can tell you is that Encodeing QT Refrance files seems allways end up in some sort of Error as I do not believe that Tmpgenc actually fully supports them, and the QT Plugin allways Has Problems with QT Referance files and it could be because I don"t thing that the QT Plugin supports Files made with Quicktime 6 ....We Get Posts evey now and then in here about the Same Problem you are Haveing and There hasn"t really been any solutions...The only thing I can sudgest is to Maybe try rendering your Project as a AVI file then Just encodeing the File Like normal....good luck

I'm new to dvd authoring, and I'm having trouble getting smooth-playing MPEG-2 from a video source. The video is captured with a Media 100 card on a Mac system (.mov) and converted in TMPGenc to MPEG-2. It's a small clip, just under 4 minutes, basically a long commercial. Lots of graphics flying around, and video mixed with stills, etc.. The stuttering/hesitation in question is constant, but especially pronounced when a graphic enters the screen. I'm using CBR/7000, and I've tried all kinds of different GOP configurations to no avail. Any ideas on how to get this to play back smoothly on a set-top dvd player? I'm authoring and burning with ReelDVD 3.1.1 and a Panasonic a06/106d burner. Oh yeah, it's not a field order problem, I checked that first.

What is the source frame rate and what frame rate are you encoding to?

>What is the source frame rate and what frame rate are you encoding to?

29.97 on both. I'm thinking now that the problem lies in the way Windows is handling Quicktime files created on a Mac. I was able to solve the problem by rendering the .mov as an image sequence, and re-rendering the image sequence as an .avi, which results in a smoother mpeg from tmpgenc. I have no idea why this works.