I am capturing Dishnetwork with a Canopus ADVC-100. I am then compressing with TMPGEnc to a 250 GB hard drive, not to DVD. I want the smallest file size with no quality loss.

I am using a resolution of 704 x 480. I am using the Constant Quality (CQ) mode with Quality set at 65.

I was using a max bitrate of 3400 but this seems to result in quality loss in terms of resolution/sharpness. I increased this to 5000 and it seems better.

How does one tell the Max bitrate to use without losing quality and keeping the file size as small as possible? It is hard to do subjectively.

Thanks much!

Well there is No such thing as encodeing to Mpeg without Quality Loss..Mpeg is a Lossy format so there will allways Be some Quality Loss...And at that Resolution 5000kbs is a fairly low Max Bitrate ,You should Try setting to say 7500KBS with 3000kbs as the Absolute lowest Bitrate if you want Quality..It is a Trade off you either Get very High Quality with Large File sizes or Low Quality with small File sizes the Trick is to Find the Perfect Medium between the Two and it will be different for every file depending on the Video Complexity of each file so the settings that work for one File will not nescessarilly work with the next file...But if you are Not Encodeing to Mpeg for DVD then why are you useing Mpeg at all?? If you are Just storeing them on your PC to be watch on your PC then there are Better compression methods that will produce the same or better Quality with Much Lower File sizes Like Mpeg-4/Divx...Cheers

>But if you are Not Encodeing to Mpeg for DVD then why are you useing Mpeg at all?? If you are Just storeing them on your PC to be watch on your PC then there are Better compression methods that will produce the same or better Quality with Much Lower File sizes Like Mpeg-4/Divx...Cheers


I tried DivX for months but could never obtain high quality even at very high bitrates. There were a lot of motion artifacts like skipped frames. I am not aware of an MPEG-4 program that compresses better than TMPGEnc. I tried one but it was worse. I have other MPEG-2 encoders that do not compress as well as TMPGEnc. They are much faster but the quality/file size is much lower. TMPGEnc is the best encoder that I have found. I will do some testing at higher max bitrates to see if this helps. I have found that leaving the min bitrate at 0 results in much smaller files because CQ will drop the BR very low when it does not need it. It seems to have a much higher dynamic range than 2 pass and has a higher quality/file size from visual inspection and studying the log files.

mpeg4/Xvid encoding gives you almost dvd quality with half the filesize mpeg-2 would give. There must've been something wrong with your settings or codec.

I agree MPEG4 DIVX/XVID can obtain much higher quality at lower file sizes than MPEG2 could ever dream of. In the future I'm pretty sure MPEG4 will become the new DVD standard.
As for motion artifacts such as skipped frames, it is very unlikely unless you are capturing to MPEG4 with a computer that can't cope with the settings you are using.

>mpeg4/Xvid encoding gives you almost dvd quality with half the filesize mpeg-2 would give. There must've been something wrong with your settings or codec.

I agree, if done correctly MPEG4 will give much higher quality results than MPEG2 when using the same bitrates.

Hi

Posted this on the DVDA list but it seems pretty quiet there. Just in case any of u good folks have experience with DVDAuthor, help appreciated.

So far TMPG DVD Auth has been v easy to use and effective. However I have something that I cant seem to do. Most authoring programmes use the filename of the mpeg as the defaul chapter name, but in TMPG the titles are Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc (as far as I can remember) and I have to rename each track. How do i just get it to use the filenames? After all, the filenames are already in the Chapter window.

Cheerio!

Hi

I have been making very good DVD files from my Type 1 AVI, but on a particular file of sports, which has fast motion, the rendering was particularly bad.

I used all the maximum settings to no avail, but I did get improved results with the I Pictures Only setting for the GOP. I experimented with I and P only, I could not see much difference, but I only was faster in encoding. The differences in file size were small.

Is this advisable? Is there a better way? I looked thru the original avi and the sequences were clear.

Cheers

Well I"m sure Raiseing the Bitrate will help Cuz Sports and other High Motion Video uses a Lot of Bits to encode and Make sure that you have Pre-Filtered out as Much Noise as you can cuz Noise in the Source Footage will suck up a Lot of Bits also.....

Hey Firends,

I have a problem Converting DivX or Xvid to a VCD format, everytime that i try to do so through Tmpeg the problem that i face is The DivX which has a resolution of 608 x 256 will convert it into a PAL format of 608 x 256 resolution which makes the video quality of the VCD real bad.
I would like to know if there is any setting in Tmpeg or eovideo to overcome his problem.

Any Suggestions to Resolve this issue are more than welcome.

Thank you.

Just load the VCD template or use the project wizard.

hi everyone! i'm trying to burn a mixed media CD that contains 3 audio files & 1 video file (mpg - roughly 4 minutes long) but can be played on all three of the ff: 1) regular audio-only CD players (i.e. Discman), 2) generic vcd/dvd players, 3) a PC.

i use the X2CD burner and the resulting CD can't be played on a Discman since it converts the audio tracks into video system files. Nero's mixed mode CD, on the other hand, has playable audio tracks (on a Discman) but requires a PC for the video to be viewed.

Furthermore, is the above also possible if the video format is DivX (or any DVD-quality video file format) and i burn it to just an ordinary CD?

Thanks for your help!

I can tell you this now, what you are asking is NOT possible, so don't waste your time trying.

You can create a mixed mode CD with Video and audio data, but as you have realised the video is only playable on the PC.

The lead in and lead out can hold info for either MPEG VCD or audio, but not both at the same time.

Hi

So far TMPG DVD Auth has been v easy to use and effective. However I have something that I cant seem to do. Most authoring programmes use the filename of the mpeg as the defaul chapter name, but in TMPG the titles are Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc (as far as I can remember) and I have to rename each track. How do i just get it to use the filenames? After all, the filenames are already in the Chapter window.

Thks.

SO far no one has commented on this so perhaps I would like to repost this question. Some advise pse?

Cheers
ch

hi, i tried this software and after i've converted a movie to vcd format and tryed to play, there was no sound in it (under win2k), only on my computer or it will be the same on my dvd player? please help me....

There is No Sound in the Mpeg file because the Audio in your Source AVO file was of a format that is Not supported by Tmpgenc..So before encodeing you have to Extract the audio from your AVI file to Wav format then use the Wav file as your Audio Source in Tmpgenc..You can extract the audio useing something like "Virtual Dub"....

Just started with TDA and I must say it looks very promising. however I would like to choose if a link to another menu or item is a button or text. it doesn't seem as if this is possible now. I want to have two buttons on my main menu... one for play, and one to go to the chapters menu. also you should be able to delete links that you don't want.

this would be a selling feature for me, with the motion menus and the ability to change the "selected effect" with layers in photoshop, TDA would be just what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

if an avi has a framerate of 23.976 (ie it's NTSC encoded) can I convert it to an mpeg-1 with a frame rate of 25 (and change the other settings too) so that it will be viewable on a PAL TV?
Or can you only convert an NTSC avi to an NTSC mpeg-1?

>Question - mr
Answer - mr

Whenever I convert a file in TMPGEnc, my computer shuts down halfway through. I've found that it doesn't always do this when I keep the computer active, but it still does it even when I've only left it idle for 3mins. Does anyone know what this might be, or how I can fix it?

Thanks in advance.

-Stephen

This Could be any of a Number of things of which None really have to do with Tmpgenc....It could be that your Proscessor is OverHeating because encodeing is extremely CPU Intensive and your CPU Heat will Jump when you start encodeing.....

Thank you for your reply. :) I'll try messing around with my computer's settings.

Download one of the many CPU utitlites which monitors your CPU and motherboard temp and check it for overheating.

I'm having problems with the size of the file output. It nere seems to be what the program "estimates" before encoding... I am working from a D2V+wAV format, and am trying to burn a DVD... I have messed with the bit rate repeatedly to no avail... is there something I am missing? I mean, I set it up and hit start with it saying the end product will be an MPG of about 650Mb and it will turn out like 1.05Gb.. I don't get it...

What settings are you using and how what is the length of your source file?
650MB seems very small for DVD.

I am using my Equillibrium DVD to test some tutorials. So the original file tends to be about 5.5G. The 650 (or 700) meg file is what I am trying to encode after running it through DVD2AVI for frame serving purposes.

I used this tutorial: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/userguides/84759.php
for info on how to crunch it to one VCD, but if you read through the tutorial the person that wrote it is clearly uninformed and most of the setting he says to use without any reason for them... some of them he even states are just guessing on his part.

The settings I use are this:
Vid Info (from self made template):
Resolution: 352x240 pixels
Framerate: 29.97 fps
Bitrate: average 1150 Kbps (this is just the default I have dropped the bitrate to 352 without getting smaller file size)

Audio Info:
Samp Freq: 44100 Hz
Number of Channels: 2ch Stereo (when I DVD2AVI I chose to export it like this as well)
bitrate: 224 Kbps (often change this trying to shrink the file size)

For source I have:
Vid File: .../equillibrium.dv2
audio file: .../equillibrium AC3 TO1 3_2ch 448Kbps 44.1Khz.wav
Settings;
Vid Type: interlace
Field Order: Top Field First (field a) (have tried bottom first on someone's suggestion as well)
16:9 525 line (NTSC)

Bitrate Settings:
Movie Info: 352x240 29.97 fps / 44100 Hz Stereo / 106 min 50 sec
Vid Res: [greyed out] 352x240 pixels
Average vid bitrate: 710 kbits/sec
Audio btrate: 224 kbits/sec
estimated filesize: 726.35 MB
media type: CD-R 74min (vcd/svcd) makes filesize 99.77% of disk capacity

I got my bitrate from the " Forte for Java " calculator that I loaded to my server (http://clixim.com/calc/)... am I missing something here or is this just not possible? I mean I know that the run time is extensive but I wasn't sure if that mattered... with that or the file size being the VCD governing agent. Still the problem is that it won't let me output a file at the size it claims to.

If you are Trying to use a Lower than Standard Bitrate for VCD then you have to change the "System" setting to "Video-CD NON-Standard" and you know you can fit about 750mb on a 650MB CD and about 800mb on a 700mb CD in VCD Format, and you should also know that Useing a Lower than Standard VCD Bitrate will Only serve to Make a Awefull Looking VCD so if your Goal is to Fit a Full Movie on a Single CD-R then you are Going to have a Really Bad Looking VCD, So Don"yt try to put more than 80minutes of Video on a 70MB CD-R.....

The calculations for the file size are correct.
Your problem is that you are attempting to make a 'non standard VCD' using the 'standard VCD' template.

If you wish to lower the bitrate then you will be creating a 'Non standard VCD' and thus you will need to go into the expert settings and change the stream setting to 'MPEG1 VCD (non standard)' otherwise padding will be added to the output.
You will find the stream setting under the 'System' tab. You will have to unlock the setting first by right cliking on the words 'Stream type'

You can remove the padding from the existing MPEG you have created by running it through the 'simple multiplexer' using the above mentioned stream setting.

Also be aware that what you are attempting to do will produce awful results. You should really split this between 2 80 min disks and raise the bitrate.

Sorry about the repeat minion, must have been typing while you were posting.

I could just as easily burn them to DVD (have the Sony DRU 510A) but I want to try to fit it on a CD because they are going to be semi disposable... I plan on sending them to my brother-in-law in Iraq (in the army) and would rather go the cheap route.. he only has one of those mini personal dvd players, so I am sure that the quality isn't going to be that great anyway...

Thanks for the info, I never would have found that... so under system I change it to VCD/MPG-2 (non-standard)... I'll go try that now... thanks again, guys!

Hi i have the free version and i still have time on the mpeg2 usage...every time i try to go to merg and cut in the mpeg tools section in order to cut out clips from the main file, it loads the file...but it will freeze up if i try to move the slider or use the time code boxes. im running an athlon xp 2000+ with an nvidia ti 4400 graphics card. i have 768 megs of ddr pc2100 ram. I have lots of hd space formatted in ntfs and im running windows xp pro with sp1. any help would be appreciated...