Hi..
No .avi file i put in the load quene seems to be accepted..
What am i doing wrong?

The message reads: The file "filename.avi" cannot be opened, or not supported.

Why? Please advice.

/Dixen

Go to "options" to "Enviromental settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct show File reader" to "2"..Now your Files should Load Normally but you also need the Correct codecs installed...Cheers

you need codecs
try either klite codec pack or nimo codec pack both are just as good
and bobs ur fathers brother

NOOOOO.........OOO!

Don't EVER install one of these codec packs! Not unless you want to seriously mess up your system.
Jaysus, these things cause more problems than they solve and anybody who is PC savvy will tell you this, just ask the guys in other forums who are experienced coders.

Installing every codec known to man on your system is NOT a good idea, the people who put these codec packs together have no idea what they are doing. They cause lock ups, conflicts and can interfere with other software which relies on it's own codecs.

You only need to install the codecs you require, so keep it minimal and you will have far less problems.
Why do you think there are so many people posting problems on this BBS? Many of them are related to and caused by these dreaded codec packs.

its the lazy newbie way i know:
but too tell you the truth i havent had any probs with (nimo or k-lite codec) no locks-ups, no slow downs, no codecs getting in the way of each other and i have 36 audio codecs and 40 odd video. now wait, i know i dont need nearly half of them but who really cares, none of them are conflicting each other or slowing down my system in any way, i find all my codecs work well together not a sign of a conflict to be seen. if anyones gonna be slowing down because of conflicting software its me, im on a P.O.S p2 350 128mb ram im slow enough already :/
the reason i gave this option is because i tried the way you suggested(ashy) and remember having no luck with avi formats (or any other format for that matter), but after installing the packs tmpgenc is my one and only for any format conversion.
If you dont want all the codecs that come with the packs, which is fair enough, there is a program called 'GSpot codec information' it will tell you exactly what codecs you need

and bobs ur fathers brother

Or your aunties husband....

Hi, I'm using the English version of DVD Author 1.5, but I would like to enter Japanese text into the menus. Is this supported, or must I use the Japanese version?

This is the only feature that I am missing, otherwise this would be the ideal DVD Authoring program!!!

it can be done with the English version.

Use the Control Panel to add Japanese language support, and add Japanese as the unicode language support.

Copy the Japanese menu text from MS word or other source, then paste the text on DVD Author menu editor. Done.

In my machine (W2K) it works by doing:

1-In control panel, regional settings, set the system default locale to Japanese (you can leave the user locale in English, it doesn't matter)

2-Enter the text using the IME (somehow copy-paste isn't working, it only works when I type it).

You'll need to install the IME (if you don't have it already).

I have made several hundred sucessful SVCD's. I keep my hard drive defragged and clean. My last couple of attempts(however) have produced SVCD's with bad video for about 5 to 10 seconds and sometimes a loud squeak. afterwards it all returns to normal.
It appears to happen at the same time no matter which movie I am watching.(about 1/3 of the way into it). I have cleaned my stand alone player with one of those disc cleaners. I have burned them from 1X to 12X(all with same results).
My only guess is the media I have been using. I believe I switched to Memorex from Sony cause they were on sale. Can the media really make a difference? even when I thought Memorex was a good brand?

The media makes a big difference and Memorex is crap for VCD anyway.

Ritek are usually best for VCD and SVCD and quite reasonable.
The burn speed is also a factor. Keep it to 4x if you can.

Ok, if I abort an encoding job, will the mpg that has been created thusfar be useless, or will it play up until the point it was aborted? Thanks in advance.

The File should play like normal ....

There's also a way to set your mark-in and out points to just render a section of the video, if that's what you're trying to do.

By cutting a 1,4GB MPG2 File (1h54min) into peaces the cutter stopps after 57 min (the cutting end is set to 59min). Also if I try to start a cut after 57 min up to the end it produces errrors. when I start at 55 it ends up after 2 mins?

Well First off Tmpgenc"s editor is only officially supposed to be for Files that were originally encoded By tmpgenc ,With that Said Tmpgenc"s editor Can at times be a Little Buggy and I do not think there is anything really you can do about it accept use a Different Mpeg editor....

Thanks 4 your informations, originally the files has been converted and merged with tmpgenc's editor, I've cutted them now with TVTool, a nice but generic tool (www.musclesoft.de/combatman/).
4 all other things TMPGEnc is realy nice!

Ok, I've been experimenting with some templates and have noticed something: on my videos, the macro blocks, etc, that I noticed in my earlier post apparently disappear when I switch from I-frame only mode to IBP mode.

Is this supposed to happen? I thought that creating an I-frame only video would result in the HIGHEST quality possible?

My goal is to create the absolutely highest quality video possible, I don't care if it takes 50 hours to encode 1 hour of video.

Can anyone shed some light on why this might be happening? My only explanation is that for some reason at 8mbps, with I-frames only there is not enough bit-rate to go around for 30fps. Does not seem right though since that equates to 26.6KB per frame, which at 720x480 should result in a decent quality JPEG image...

Thanks for any help!

Actually it's more like 34KB.

You need to remember that a frame containing motion and detail is a lot harder to compress than a still image or low detail image and therefore requires more bits per frame to maintain the quality of the image without macroblocks, so while your calculations may work for still images it's a whole new ball game when you involve motion.

If what you are saying was true then we wouldn't need VBR encoding methods or B and P frames and we could just treat each frame of video as a full frame still image and use the same amount of bits to encode each frame.

http://www.broadcastpapers.com/editing/Pinnacle4MPEGMyths01.htm

I'm not sure what's going on, but whenever I cut small portions of a file out using this program, it will reduce the resolution and bring the file to about 1/10 of the size (when I'm only clipping a few minutes here or there).

I'm quite sure it is in this step, because if I don't do it, it will remain a very large file.

Thanks for any help.

How are you Clipping the Files??? If you are useing the "Merge & Cut" to edit your Files (Which is the only way to do it in Tmpgenc unless you are re-encodeing) There is Absolutly No Change in the Video At all ,No resolution Changes No Quality Changes No Changes at all accept for the length that you Clipped off....

Right...that's what I thought...

I don't know why where or how, but if I just go straight through to the part where you make the vcd, it'll be a few hundred mb's too large, but after cutting a few minutes it suddenly becomes like a 100mb file and the quality is very low.

Maybe I'm doing something else that I'm not aware of...

I thin you need to explain the steps you are making. It doesn't seem to me like you are cutting at all. Cutting would not have this affect, it is impossible. It seems more like you are changing some other setting, like the source range perhaps.

Ok, I've been experimenting with some templates and have noticed something: on my videos, the macro blocks, etc, that I noticed in my earlier post apparently disappear when I switch from I-frame only mode to IBP mode.

Is this supposed to happen? I thought that creating an I-frame only video would result in the HIGHEST quality possible?

My goal is to create the absolutely highest quality video possible, I don't care if it takes 50 hours to encode 1 hour of video.

Can anyone shed some light on why this might be happening? My only explanation is that for some reason at 8mbps, with I-frames only there is not enough bit-rate to go around for 30fps. Does not seem right though since that equates to 26.6KB per frame, which at 720x480 should result in a decent quality JPEG image...

Thanks for any help!

I frame Doesn"t nescesarilly Create the Highest Quality, I frames are Just Less compressed than B and P frames Pluss there are no Mpeg Video standards that Support I frame only Files so the Use of them for DVD/VCD/SVCD is not supported....Cheers

You've answered your own question. If you want to create a high quality I-frame only MPEG then you are going to need a high bitrate, compression will be less and the file size will be huge and in no way will fit a DVD.

>this supposed to happen? I thought that creating an I-frame only video would result in the HIGHEST quality possible?

The highest quality possible would be complete uncompressed frames of which you might get about 5 mins worth on one DVD if your lucky (248Mbps to create a series of uncompressed 720×480 images at 30fps in 24-bit RGB color)

>I frame Doesn"t nescesarilly Create the Highest Quality, I frames are Just Less compressed than B and P frames Pluss there are no Mpeg Video standards that Support I frame only Files so the Use of them for DVD/VCD/SVCD is not supported....Cheers

Actually there is no limitation in the DVD/VCD/SVCD standard which frames have to be used in a GOP, but in DVD there is a limit to the amount of frames in a GOP whether they be I-frames or P/B frames. However it's not pratical for DVD because the data rate would just be to high for the DVD player to handle.

Actually, I use the I Frame only option to be able to edit MPEGS at the frame level, since TMPEnc products (encode and DVD Author) are not good enough to edit
anything else at frame level (they can only cut at an IFrame).

I capture at 8mbs, run it though TMPGEnc with I frame only and 8mbs CBR (it seems very fast), then splice and dice using DVD Author, then run the resulting VOB's though DVD2AVI and back through TMPGEnd and do a VBR encoding at a lesser bitrate.

Suprisingly, I do get reasonably good quality.

Joe

Why don't you just use a proper frame accurate editor such MPEG2VCR. It's a lot less finicky about formats than TMPG, can do multiple edits on one file and when used properly gives good results.

>Suprisingly, I do get reasonably good quality.

It surprises me too.
I wouldn't think that 8Mb/s is a high enough bitrate for I-frame only encoding. You must be losing quality doing this.

8Mb/s is good enough for for GOPS that contain P,B frames because the compression is much higher for these frames and therefore 8Mb should be plenty for each GOP, but I-frames don't compress too well and the data rate per second would have to be quite high to maintain any sort of quality with full resolution files.
I would estimate the bitrate required to encode an I-frame would have to be at least twice as high as a B or P frame 15-16 Mb/s, probably higher.

You may want to take a look at the page below. This is not the first one that I have seen which suggests a minimum of 25 Mb/s for I-frame only encoding.

http://www.broadcastpapers.com/editing/Pinnacle4MPEGMyths01.htm

I brought up the ULEAD Mpeg2 file and saw that its VBV buffer was set to 112 not 224 as TMPGEnc has its set. I encoded a TMPGEnc Mpeg2 using the NTSC DVD template, only changing VBV from 224 to 112. When I was finished, I looked at it in BitrateView and it said the VBV was 56???!!!

Does the BitrateView program you gave me accurately display VBV settings or is it halfing them?

Oh and I'm delighted to say that this fixed my skipping problem. But I'm still confused about the mismatch between programs...

Can I try a VBV setting between 224 and 112? Does it have to be a divisor of 56?

For some reason which I'm not sure about myself the value is always half of the actual value. Whether there is a reason for this I don't really know.

As for the difference in VBV settings of Ulead and TMPG. If I remember rightly I advised you in one of the first posts you made to drop your VBV buffer, but you chose to ignore it.
http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbscgi/ebbs/board.cgi?board=tmpgenc&page=2#topic26124

At least now you know the problem.

>Can I try a VBV setting between 224 and 112? Does it have to be a divisor of 56?
You can use any value it doesn't have to divide by 56, but why change it if you know it works fine?

Because it is now showing to be a DVD compliant stream with a VCD's VBV...

Why do so many things not make sense? Where is the middle ground on this process? I've got a friend that's been in the broadcast business for 30 years and I now understand his hatred for DVDs. Sure this is fun from a tweakers point of view, but what ever happened to just hitting record after you've edited? Are standards being withheld by the industry because how can any program say they are giving you compliant settings when they don't work like all the DVDs that you've played in your player before?

Is this all just hit or miss? And if so why?

Got this from http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/434/mohsenian.html

"The encoding scheme is responsible for eliminating any overflow or underflow condition that the decoder buffer may encounter. This is accomplished by examining a hypothetical decoder buffer, i.e., video buffer verifier (VBV), and computing lower/upper bounds on the number of bits assigned for a picture type. The lower bound should be a large enough nonnegative number to prevent the overflow condition, while the upper bound should not be larger than a predetermined value above which the VBV buffer will underflow."

The above statement refers to an upper and lower setting for VBV. TMPGEnc only has one setting. What is TMPGEnc's setting referring to, upper or lower bounds?

I suppose you misunderstand it's explanation. I posted an indepth explanation of the VBV buffer a while ago, you may still be able to find it on this BBS.

The explanation above refers not upper and low limits which are set as such, but to the size of the actual buffer regarding how it handles the amount of data passing through it.

For example if it is set too high you will get an under flow of data this is the upper limit. If it is set too low you will get an over flow this is the lower limit.

To explain it quick, imagine the buffer as a pipe, you can set this pipe to a certain size by changing the VBV buffer setting thus changing the amount of data that the pipe can hold.

Lets say we set the VBV to 224. When the pipe (buffer) fills to this capacity data will flow from one end through to the other. If data is not fed into the pipe (buffer) fast enough to fill the buffer because it is too large the buffer will empty as the decoder from the other side takes the data from it. When this happens there will be a shortage of data to the decoder side thus causing an interuption to smooth playback and hence the jerky playback and resumes as soon as the buffer fills again for data to flow through to the decoder.

A similar thing happens with a pipe (buffer) is too small, but instead this time too much data is being fed too fast into the pipe (buffer) before the decoder on the other side can deal with the data. This causes the data too overflow out of the pipe (buffer) causing a loss of data to the decoder and again playback problems such as stuttering where the data has been lost.

This is the simplest way I could think of explaining it. I hope you understand it better now.

If i imported an jpeg image for my menu background what size should it be so that it will look good on my TV screen.

thanks

Your image size should be 640x480.

ahm.
i think full D1 should be best choice.
which would be 720x576 for PAL and 720x480 for NTSC.

or am i getting something wrong?

The manual says either, but 640x480 is exactly the proper 4:3 aspect ratio as non-widescreen NTSC TVs. That's what I've been using, and the aspect ratio looks correct for everything I've done.

Why doesn't TMPGenc support Windows Media Video files. If anyone can help me out with this I would surely like to know. Is there anything I can do to make it support it? If anyone can give me some answers I would greatly appreciate it.

Tmpgenc DOES support WMV/ASF Files ,You Might have to rename WMV files to ASF Files and you might have to go to "options" to "Enviromental Settings" to "Vfapi Plugins" and Raise the "Direct show File Reader" to "2" and have the Correct Codecs installed but if all of these Things are done you shouldn"t have a Problem, I don"t....Cheers

or if ur dumb and lazy like me get:
db powerAMP Music Coverter and make sure you download and install the 'WMA V9 codec', tmpgenc should now recognise wmv and ur'll also have a not bad mp3/wave/wma encoder as well

>or if ur dumb and lazy like me get:
db powerAMP Music Coverter and make sure you download and install the 'WMA V9 codec', tmpgenc should now recognise wmv and ur'll also have a not bad mp3/wave/wma encoder as well

That will only encode the audio NOT the video.

>That will only encode the audio NOT the video.
Sorry that should be:
That will only decode the audio NOT the video.

Hey, this is regarding my widescreen problems. Ashy and B_racer helped me last time. Here is the last post if you want some looking back:
http://bbs.pegasys-inc.com/bbscgi/search/docs/en/tmpgenc/box66/tmpgenc_post_25142.html

This time, my AVI is the same as last time: 640x360. I followed Ashy's solution and converted to MPEG using a video arrange method of Center (416x368). I don't have a widescreen TV and B_racer's 480x416 would surely cut off some of the subtitles on the video. So after converting using Ashy's methods, I find that in some scenes, the faces are a bit long yet in other scenes, they look pretty normal. Is there something wrong with the size 416x368?