couple of questions (TMPGEnc, and another one)

[lymang]

OK! I'm finally getting somewhere! Sweet! I downloaded an older version of TMPGEnc, and this version didn't complain and encoded my AVI to an MPEG2 file without a problem. OK, that's great. I burnt the CD with Nero 5.0.38, and all seems to be looking like it's working great. Well, I play the SVCD in my player, and the movement seems 'flickery' or 'jumpy' at best. So I'm thinking, "Hm.. I should have played that MPG file before I wrote it." So I play it, and on my computer screen, the video looks great (well, as great as a 15 year old videotape CAN look), much smoother and less jumpy/flickery.
So I don't think it was TMPGEnc. What remaining things should I check for to determine what is causing this? Could it be the CDR Media? I'm using generic 80min stuff. Should I switch to 74 min? And if it's my player, is there anything anyone knows that would make it better?
Still, I think I'm close. My 4m10s AVI looks good, and converts from about 1GB to about 90MB MPG2 file. Very nice!

[aldus4]

You might try burning your finished mpeg at a slower rate. Other than that you could of course upgrade to a newer version of Nero.

[lymang]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-05 18:06:42, aldus4 wrote:
You might try burning your finished mpeg at a slower rate. Other than that you could of course upgrade to a newer version of Nero.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I appreciate both suggestions. How will those things help me, though? I don't get it.

Lyman

[Cart Wheel]

Is the SVCD interlaced? If so, try changing the Field order option in TMPGEnc. If you set this incorrectly, the field will be played in the wrong order, which leads to jerky motion on your TV.

-Cart
http://www.geocities.com/lukesvideo/index.html

[tacosalad]

There are lots of problems that could be called 'flickery' or 'jumpy', so I can only guess. If I've got it wrong, please try describing what it actually looks like on the TV in a little more detail.

The first time you record an SVCD, you're likely to get the field order wrong. (There's a 50/50 chance.) This causes a super-fast bouncing of moving objects, as though they're rapidly shaking as they move. To address this in TMPGEnc, click Configure, go to the "Advanced" tab, and choose a different field order. If it says "Even field first" switch it to "Odd field first" or vice versa.

[aldus4]

You wrote:the SVCD you created was jumpy on your DVD Player but not your PC. I understood that you checked the finished mpeg2 file, by playing it from your hard drive.

Or

Are you saying that you played the CD-R with the SVCD on it in the pc and it wasn't jumpy?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: aldus4 on 2001-07-05 18:23:31 ]</font>

[PH]

I've been doing a lot of experimenting in TMPGenc 12a lately. I have found (at least for me) that TMPG reverses the field order of whatever you throw at it. There is indeed a box where you can select field order of your source BUT the selection makes no difference. This could well be a bug. Version 12h does the same.(BBmpeg also does the same thing in spite of it's field options).

The reason the mpegs look fine on the computer monitor is because either the player deinterlaces the video for you or otherwise hides the fact that the fields are reversed. It's next to impossible to judge whether field order is correct while playing back on a PC screen.

One way to check your mpegs is to pull them back into an editing program like Premiere and export them for playback on an NTSC monitor. If the fields are reversed it will look jerky/stuttery.

The solution I am using for now is to pull my AVI's (upper/field 1 dominant)into After Effects and render new AVI's out with the lower field first. These new AVI's, of course, are field reversed but when you run them through TMPG the field order is "corrected" for proper DVD playback. Be sure you select 29.97, NTSC, and check the "interlaced" box in TMPG.

DV codec avi's would not be an issue because, I believe, they are lower field dominant to begine with. Running them through TMPG would reverse the field order and give you an mpeg with the correct field order.

Again, for best results, DVD playback on an NTSC monitor requires field 1 (or upper) dominant interlaced video.

[lymang]

Wooohoo! Thanks to the prior posters who mentioned field order. That was my exact problem!!!
I re-encoded with TMPGEnc 12a and made sure to do Field B first, and pow - my problems with jerkiness went away.

Next on my list is to figure out how to capture at a higher resolution (640x480) and do the conversion down to 352x240. Does anyone know if there are instructions on the web for doing that? I have realized that SVCD's are good for 30 minute or less programs, but I don't think I can fit an hour long program in SVCD quality on a CD, can I?

[Cart Wheel]

You can just capture at 640x480, adaptively deinterlace or possibly inverse telecine to remove any interlacing artifacts (if necessary), and resize to 352x240 with VirtualDub's resize filter. If you really need more help with this, my video guide might be of help:
http://www.geocities.com/lukesvideo/index.html

-Cart
http://www.geocities.com/lukesvideo/index.html