A newbie question. In terms of quality, which format is better? I hear that you can convert AVI to MPEG to reduce size while RETAIN quality, is it true?

No, the opposite is true.

You can compress an MPEG to a smaller size AVI while maintaining similar quality.

Most compressed AVI's use MPEG4 which is a newer and better codec than MPEG 1/2 and allows much better compression and thus a better file size vs quality ratio.

Thanks! So for older game FMVs, AVI to MPEG is relatively save, right? The reason I'm asking this that I'm trying to make a CG from Final Fantasy 8. The problem is I only have the tools to convert Bink files (FF8 CG files) to AVI. And then I only have tools to edit MPEG. :( I know there probably are other tools out there, but I'm just too lazy to search. So if I don't lose too much quality by converting FF8 AVI to MPEG, then I can do my job.

Just use Virtualdub for editing AVI files. It's the best there is an also free.

Is there a way, hopefully with TMPGEncoder to say insert say black bars of some defined width along the top and bottom of the frame? Basically, the video does not fit the screen and I need to modify the video without affecting resolution and aspect. I was able to do this with yuvscale on *nix with a command similar to yuvscale -nn -MRATIO_720_640_460_480 -OSIZE_720x480.

What is the frame size of the video and what aspect ratio does it use?

Play about with the settings in the Clip Frame option

Yep you'll want to look at the Clip Frame settings. If you turn on the MASK checkboxes (left and right, in your case), it will replace whatever you are clipping out with a color "mask" (which defaults to black). I find this useful for replacing poor (or noisy) letterboxing in source video with fresh letterboxing. I have also read that clipping the frames can cause better video encoding quality because bitrate is not wasted on what is being clipped out.

Whatever you set up in here will probably also "interact" with the Video Arrange method, so depending on what you're trying to do, you'll probably need to experiment there some too, and don't forget about the Output Aspect Ratio. All 3 of these work together to give you what you have set.

I would set a subtitle on a avi movie - and I used this guide http://www.dvdrhelp.com/srtsubsvirtual.htm

But when I come to the point where TMPGenc opens the vdr file - TMPGenc crashes!
In the send report error log - Modname: ole32.dll and a lot of other informations

Have you disabled the "direct Show File Reader" in the Vfapi Plugins"???You need to do this sometimes to get Tmpgenc to load VDR Files.....

If you have no sound in your mpeg output and your file is not encoded with ac3 sound. Just goto option, enviromental setting, then vfapi plugin and set direct show filter to a higher priorty like 1. I know most people know this but I haven't used tmpgenc in a long time and I forgot. So I just thought this might help some new people.

Excellent....im new and i didnt know that so thank you because you just taught me something new. Please dont hesatate to post your tips cause us newbeeeeeeez love ya for it. Dave

No problem dave glad to help.

It would be nice to have the ability to either fade to black or simply add a certain number of seconds of black to the beginning and end of edited clips to give a more professional look to compilations of clips....when authoring discs with many clips there is often a delay between clips, this would make that less apparent.

Hope to see this in a future version of my favorite encoder!
Thanks for the great work and the time involved to bring it to us.

Justin

Interesting problem. Installed early version. Now when I try to upgrade with later version, cannot locate TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5.msi to remove older version, leaving no option but to abort install. Is this a registry edit. Operating system is XP Home.

Hi,
I have my system set up with a box to the internet running win2k server with terminal services (well firewalled) I leave this box on mostly whilst my other XP machine just goes on when I need to line something up to download.. anyhow ...
I'd really like to use my win2k machine to tmpgenc some avi files, but one of the restrictions of terminal services is that the audio device is disabled, so when I start a TS session and try and encode all I can get is the Video.

I was really just wondering why TMPGenc relies on an audio card being present when all it is really doing reading a file and writing a file and not using sound (well not in the encoding).

Is it possible that I could modify tmpgenc so it doesnt rely on my disabled sound card ? All the audio codecs I need are installed its just the TS's thats disabling the soundcard..


Any help would be much appreciated.

Best wishes.

Barrie

This has nothing to do with the audio being disabled by the server or even TMPG relying on the sound card.

Your problem is that you do NOT have the correct codec installed to decode the audio in the AVI. Find out what the audio is in the AVI. If it's ac3 you will need the Ac3ACM decompresser installed or extract the Audio to a wav with Virtualdub _ac3 or virtualdubmod. If it is VBR mp3 then extract it to a wav with Virtualdub.

hmm, I thought I had already stated that I had all the codecs installed ... how do I know this ? .. well I guess I have to be very specific since you dont believe me..... If I log on locally on my terminal server machine and play the video I get sound ok.
Barrie.

>hmm, I thought I had already stated that I had all the codecs installed ... how do I know this ?

Yes and you seem to misunderstand me also and the way TMPG works, so lets not get sarcy.

Don't expect TMPG to be able to use the same codecs that media players can use. TMPG will only work with certain ones especially Ac3 codecs.
TMPG doesn't like certain Directshow codecs. This one is VFW compatible codec which TMPG prefers.

Just because you can play it in your media player it doesn't mean TMPG can decode it.

So lets start again shall we?
Find out what type of audio you have in your AVI by using a program such as Virtualdubmod or Virtualdub_ac3 or something like Gspot then if it Ac3, download the afore mentioned codec and install it.
You should then have audio.

If you don't want to take the advice of someone who has given the same sound advice to many others and solved their problem then don't bother asking again.

I can assure you Iam no idiot and am well versed enough with TMPG to know what I'm talking about

Oooops, sorry for my sarcastic tone, but you sounded very condescending.. anyhow It appears that you were right: I've tried a few other videos and found that some audio will show and some not regardless of Terminal services my the problem video for me had Windows Media Audio V2 codec and maybe that hasnt been installed .. anyhow thanks for your help in making me look again.. Barrie.

It would be nice to have the ability to either fade to black or simply add a certain number of seconds of black to the beginning and end of edited clips to give a more professional look to compilations of clips....when authoring discs with many clips there is often a delay between clips, this would make that less apparent.

Hope to see this in a future version of my favorite encoder!
Thanks for the great work and the time involved to bring it to us.

Justin

yes that would be excellent..................... dave

Hello,
I was wondering if there are any plans for supporting VOBs with more than 1 audio track. I tried importing a VOB off my HDD that contained 3 audio tracks (1 main English track, and 2 commentary tracks) and your software only supports 1.
I don't think any other product has this feature. You could be the first!
I think it would make TMPGEnc DVD Authoring an even more valuable product.

Dave.

Any professional (and expensive!) Auhtoring-Tool is able to do that. An ohter Tool ist DVDLab, but only 2 Audio-Tracks and only be using IFOEdit and some Tricks in assistance.

Hi,

Created 2 Video_ts files with DVD-Shrink (ver 3.0) -about 1.9 GB each-
When I burn one of them with Nero everything is o.k(also the orther)
When I use TMPGenc author and add the two files (with import DVD video ),the files are imported, but the audio is missing.

What I am doing rong??

Thanks

Does it show the audio settings information in the "Add Clip" window after you add the DVD Video? Perhaps the audio isn't being recognized by DVD Author for one reason or another?

Maybe this is the solution of audio missing!

http://forum.digital-digest.com/archive/topic/30640-1.html

how do i use source range to split a movie in half. my video mpeg is too big and needs to be burned on to two disks, how do i do that?

This is so easy I"m surprised anyone would Post such a Question..You go into the Source Range settings and you moove the Slider to the Beginning of were you want to start encodeing and Press the "Set Start Frame" Button, then Moove the slider to the end of were you want to encode and click the "Set End Frame" Button, and that is it, when it has finnished encode the First Part to do the same but for the second part...But if you allready have a Mpeg file and you Just want to Cut in Half Then you DONT use the Source Range, you use the "Merge & Cut" which you will Find if you go to "File" to "Mpeg Tools" to "Merge & Cut" and here is were you can cut your File in Pieces useing the same Basic Steps you would use in the Source Range.....

I had this problem where I load an avi that was captured in dv-avi format and then would go to edit source range and clip frame. When I was done editing in either one and I click on okay tmpg would close. I found out that tmpg doesn't like dv-avi type one files. A little research got me a dv converter to convert dv-avi type 1 to type 2 and tmpg excepts these files.