Dazzle DVD Complete <-> CCE problem ...

[Liru]

I'm trying to encode a mpg or avi file to a DVD mpeg-2 file, but when i load it in DVD Complete i get the error message "Non-DVD compliant bit rate. Current value: 9,800,800 bits/sec" and it wants to re-encode it.



The setting i used in CCE is MPEG-2 (ES, Multipass VBR) with these bitrate settings:

AVG=3,700
MIN=2,000
MAX=8,000

However, DVD Complete would not accept it.

Any ideas?

[jdizzy40]

Liru my friend you like many of us bought the same piece of crap from Dazzle. Bottom line it doesn't like any video work unless it created it through its own capture source. You'll loose a lot of sleep and become short tempered if you choose to keep using this poorly designed and poorly supported software. There should be a law against selling this sort of product in the U.S..

[Liru]

Hmmm .... i can add here that currently it doesn't support AC3 Dolby Digital either .......

Would you recommend another (preferably not too complicated, like Maestro) DVD authoring package? With AC3 support too ...

Thanx.

[jdizzy40]

Yes I use a few others as well. Adobe Premier, DVDit PE and a few more depending on what I'm doing. You just have to find what works for you with no hassles. I took me 6 months to finally figure out what did and did not work well on 4 different PC's. A few have some programs and vice versus. The P-4's are less picky about what they can run software wise than the AMDs. The trick is finding the software that will fulfill your requirements with what you are doing. If you can get a trail version try it out. For others, just search you'd be surprised what you can download for free.

[negon]

seems to me you could just lower the target bitrate on the dazzle software...

[lrosado]

You may want to make sure you did not tick the "DVD COMPLIANT" feature under the Video preferences. That should solve your problem. Make sure that your bitrates match these and it will not re-encode your movie. Now the audio, if it is AC3 then it will encode just the audio.

-Mpeg II DVD Quality
-Variable Bit Rate (VBR)
-Maximum Bit Rate of 8,000,000 Bits/Sec
-Minimum Average Bit Rate of 2,250,000 Bits/Sec
-Average Bit Rate of 8,000,000 Bits/Sec

[Doggiedaddy]

lrosado hit it on the head you are encoding @ 9800000Bit/Sec max, CCE default for DVD I think. Have you used BitRate Viewer to check the file? DVD Complete has some limitations [lack of AC3] and it is a beginner level authoring program [limited menus ect.] but the problem you are having is input file being non compliant. DVD Complete is very picky about files but can make very acceptable DVD BU or DV authoring. A lot of people badmouth the product but I have found they just did not take the time to understand the program and/or DVD structure and specifications in general. Other authoring programs are the same way they only author. It is up to you to feed DVD Compliant files to the program or it can not do its job. Or just let it re-encode file??

If you would like to try another authoring program download the 30day free trial of DVD lab [see link ] $79.00 cost to buy and a lot more power for the buck. Then again you must feed compliant files to this and all authoring programs. People remember these are $79.00 programs not Scenarist @ $40,000.00 or or even DVDit @ $400.00 and so on.

jm2c
DVD Lab Site
http://www.mediachance.com/

After thought: You do not say what v of CCE you are using but it sounds like you’re encoding @ the CCE default of 9800000Bit/Sec. Are you using ECL and bitrate allocation setting? If so, make sure the global Bit/Sec is 8000000 or below in the ECL adjustment to keep the file compatible with DVD Complete.
Good Luck
Dd

[andkiich]

Yes, DVD Complete is very limited and very rigid it what it will author. It doesn't even support half D1.

I'm still evaluating the DVD-Lab product, but so far, the product seems to be everything that i could ever want and the price is right. 30 day free full function trial can't be beat either.

[Liru]

Using CCE SP ver. 2.66

As i stated in the first post i'm using these settings:

MPEG-2 (ES, Multipass VBR), 3 passes with these bitrate settings:

AVG=3,700
MIN=2,000
MAX=8,000

I'm afraid i don't know what ECL and bitrate allocation setting are.

I re-encoded with the same settings, but unchecked the "DVD Compliant" checkbox and DVD Complete accepted the file.

The problem is now that the resolution of the resulted mpv file is only half of how a mpeg-2 should be, only 352 x 288 (25 FPS).

Why is that?

Now i quote from the CCE manual:

Bitrate limitation In the DVD standard, the maximum bitrate of
Video ES is limited to 9.8 Mbps. In the MPEG-2 VIDEO international
standard (ISO/IEC 13818-2), the size of an individual picture is
limited using the concept of “VBV (Video Buffering Verifier)”. In the
concept of VBV, a stream having a 9.8 Mbps bitrate can create GOP
which has a size equivalent to a maximum of 11 Mbps. This perfectly
conforms to the MPEG-2 VIDEO international standard (ISO/IEC
13818-2), but whether it conforms to the 9.8 Mbps restriction of DVD
depends on interpretation. If DVD complient is selected, instantaneous
bitrate in GOP units is controlled to be a maximum of 9.8
Mbps. During VBR operation, 9.8 Mbps is always written to the sequence
header regardless the specified maximum bitrate. 9.8 Mbps is
the maximum bitrate allowed under the DVD standard. 9.8 Mbps is
used here because in the case of the VBV model in VBR, bit allocation
planning by the encoder becomes more flexible as the maximum bitrate
becomes higher, therefore higher image quality can be achieved.

[Doggiedaddy]

It sounds like you are having more than one problem. Give as much info as possible and someone should be able to help. What is your source file type? How are you frameserving to CCE? Is your source from a DVD to.d2v are you using AviSynth to serve? What is the source RES.720x480? Is it pal or NTSC 29 or 25. ? Did you use DVD2AVI?

Dd

[wwaag]

Liru,

From your quote "During VBR operation, 9.8 Mbps is always written to the sequence
header regardless the specified maximum bitrate. 9.8 Mbps is
the maximum bitrate allowed under the DVD standard. ". I suspect that this is the problem.

As the manual states, CCE always writes 9.8 Mbps to the header, so that when you add the audio bit rate, then the max is exceeded--thus a non-compliant DVD.

I use Tempgen DVD Author. It always tells me that the max bit rate is exceeded, but allows me to override and continue anyway. Always works fine.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to "workaround" the problem. Hopefully, somone else can contribute a solution--if indeed this is the cause of the problem. Hope this helps.

wwaag

[Doggiedaddy]

Mine worked all the way to burn. Try running a script something like the one below and un-check DVD Compliance in CCE. See pic

I just did a test of a 5 min clip from Jurassic Park 2 and got no error with this script and settings. And this all assumes you are frameserving via AviSynth as you can see the file should resize to proper 720x480 and I am NTSC.

AviSynth put your info in between the ("" here "")
______________________________________

loadplugin("C:\ Path here \MPEG2DEC.dll")
mpeg2source"C:\ Path here \MPEG?.d2v")
TemporalSmoother
LanczosResize(720,480)

Sorry about Pic Quality there is a 50kb limit. If you need better pics I can post them on my site.
DVD Complete SS

Uncheck DVD Compliant

ecl file advanced settings FYI, multi pass ecl bitrate allocation/advanced settings screen shoot
Also see http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/cce-advanced.htm for a lot more on these features

[Liru]

Thank you for the info. I was using Virtualdub to frameserve, with direct stream copy and no filters. I guess that i'll just put a resize filter in virtualdub and frameserve it to CCE already resized.

Cheers.

[lrosado]

You should check to see what size you are capturing at, sometimes if you dont change the size of capture (for example 740x480...) then it will capture at a low setting which is what you are encountering, 352x288. Dazzle DVD Complete does not lower the resolution. It has to encode at 740x480 nothing less. Which leads me to beleive that somewhere in your process you accidently captured at 352x288. Check to see if I'm right.

[Liru]

I didn't capture at all. It's a mpeg-1 PAL file, 352 x 288, 25 FPS, which i want to convert to DVD format.

Cheers

[lrosado]

OK then DVD Complete will automatically have to rencode the movie to 720x480 size for you. Make sure you go to the encoding options in DVDComplete so you can pick the same bitrates you used previously so you dont degrade the quality anymore. Have you done this yet.

[Doggiedaddy]

I didn't capture at all. It's a mpeg-1 PAL file, 352 x 288, 25 FPS, which i want to convert to DVD format.
Cheers

You must be re-encoding just to reduce file size. If so and the spec's you gave are correct taking this source of 352 x 288 to 720x480 may degrade quality to an unacceptable level. And you will have to let DVD Complete re-encode this more than likely.

Dd

[Liru]

You both said that i should let DVD Complete to re-encode the file.

Why not open it in Virtualdub, re-size it to 720 x 576 and frameserve it to CCE?

Isn't this the same as DVD Complete does, even better?

The real problem is how's better re-sizing this, without losing too much quality: Virtualdub(bicubic) + frameserve to CCE, DVD Complete itself or TMPGEnc(2 pass VBR) directly?

Waiting for opinions.

Cheers