TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 Encoding Results In Weird Video Problems

[maek]

Hi.

I have been recently working on a home video project and have come across a weird problem.

I had edited about 6 hours of footage down to 1 hour and 15 minutes and then saved the file in DV-AVI format.

I took the resulting file and converted it into MPEG-2 format using TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 (latest version) via a 2-pass variable bitrate (6200 average) so I can fit the main video and another 20 minutes or so of other stuff.

The problem, however, is that playing this movie back on my Sony DVD S-360 only works only as long as I don't try to fast forward or fast reverse. If I do, the video freezes and all I get is audio.

The WEIRD thing is that all my other titles (which were actually encoded to AVI, not DV-AVI, then to MPEG-2 in the same manner) do NOT exhibit this behavior.

What's stranger still is that this video will work on my DVD burner just fine as well as a Denon 1710 player. However, both players will keep playing on a black screen after the video has ended...it even went to 1 hr 17 minutes and kept counting on a black screen until I hit "next track", which it subsequently did.

Anybody ever come across this bizarre scenario before?

[turk690]

You did not say what program you used to author the DVD with.

[maek]

I authored it with DVDAuthorGUI.

[maek]

Just a thought --

I know that TMPGEnc Plus typically puts a ceiling on bitrate at 8000 Mbps IF YOU USE THE WIZARD.

However, I manually changed that setting to 9000 Mbps when I ran the 2-pass variable bitrate on the encode.

Is it possible, although the total maximum bitrate would be 9192 with the audio, that the bitrate might be too high for some players?

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a "practical" maximum? Can this be the source of my problem?[/b]

[MrMoody]

I authored it with DVDAuthorGUI.

What version? Still have the log?

[maek]

I just tried again with version 1.003. Frame under-runs were detected in one of the titles, but the weird thing is that this particular title plays fine! All of the other titles play fine...except for the one I mentioned.

The title in question does not have frame under-runs. Here is a log with just that title - please note that it even this run had problems during playback:

DVDAuthorGUI 1.003b - 6/23/2005
Send problems with DVDAuthorGUI to liquid_217@hotmail.com
***please wait while the titles are multiplexed.
*multiplexing title: 1.....
INFO: [???] mplex version 1.6.3-rc1 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
INFO: [???] File G:\BOK Author\Video Files\bok ready for mpeg2 coversion.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [???] File G:\BOK Author\AC3 Files\bok movie.ac3 looks like an AC3 Audio stream.
INFO: [???] Video stream 0: profile 8 selected - ignoring non-standard options!
INFO: [???] Found 1 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [???] Selecting dvdauthor DVD output profile
INFO: [???] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (G:\BOK Author\Video Files\bok ready for mpeg2 coversion.m2v)
INFO: [???] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [???] Frame width : 720
INFO: [???] Frame height : 480
INFO: [???] Aspect ratio : 4:3 display
INFO: [???] Picture rate : 29.970 frames/sec
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 9000000 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Vbv buffer size : 229376 bytes
INFO: [???] CSPF : 0
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: AC3 Audio stream 00 (G:\BOK Author\AC3 Files\bok movie.ac3)
INFO: [???] AC3 frame size = 768
INFO: [???] AC3 AUDIO STREAM:
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 24576 bytes/sec (192 kbit/sec)
INFO: [???] Frequency : 48000 Hz
INFO: [???] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [???] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 9386344
INFO: [???] target data-rate specified : 10080000
INFO: [???] Setting specified specified data rate: 10080000
INFO: [???] Run-in Sectors = 89 Video delay = 13019 Audio delay = 0
INFO: [???] New sequence commences...
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] Audio bd: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] Scanned to end AU 133003
INFO: [???] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 133003.
INFO: [???] STREAM bd completed @ frame 277148.
INFO: [???] Multiplex completion at SCR=798144950.
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 0 frame=277136 sector=01701289
INFO: [???] Audio bd: buf= 15360 frame=277148 sector=00105581
INFO: [???] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [???] Video Stream length: 3437432600 bytes
INFO: [???] Sequence headers: 1
INFO: [???] Sequence ends : 1
INFO: [???] No. Pictures : 133004
INFO: [???] No. Groups : 7427
INFO: [???] No. I Frames : 7427 avg. size 69801 bytes
INFO: [???] No. P Frames : 36984 avg. size 38090 bytes
INFO: [???] No. B Frames : 88593 avg. size 17047 bytes
INFO: [???] Average bit-rate : 6196400 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Peak bit-rate : 11396400 bits/sec
INFO: [???] BUFFERING min 15 Buf max 179191
INFO: [???] AUDIO_STATISTICS: bd
INFO: [???] Audio stream length 212850432 bytes.
INFO: [???] Frames : 277149
INFO: [???] BUFFERING min 67 Buf max 12067
INFO: [???] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.
*generating button images.......
*generating highlight button 1 for menu 1
*generating select button 1 for menu 1
*multiplexing menu 1.....
INFO: [???] mplex version 1.6.3-rc1 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
INFO: [???] File G:\BOK Author\Video Files\main menu.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [???] File G:\BOK Author\AC3 Files\last dance.ac3 looks like an AC3 Audio stream.
INFO: [???] Video stream 0: profile 8 selected - ignoring non-standard options!
INFO: [???] Found 1 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [???] Selecting dvdauthor DVD output profile
INFO: [???] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (G:\BOK Author\Video Files\main menu.m2v)
INFO: [???] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [???] Frame width : 720
INFO: [???] Frame height : 480
INFO: [???] Aspect ratio : 4:3 display
INFO: [???] Picture rate : 29.970 frames/sec
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 8000000 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Vbv buffer size : 229376 bytes
INFO: [???] CSPF : 0
INFO: [???] Scanning for header info: AC3 Audio stream 00 (G:\BOK Author\AC3 Files\last dance.ac3)
INFO: [???] AC3 frame size = 1792
INFO: [???] AC3 AUDIO STREAM:
INFO: [???] Bit rate : 57344 bytes/sec (448 kbit/sec)
INFO: [???] Frequency : 48000 Hz
INFO: [???] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [???] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 8633400
INFO: [???] target data-rate specified : 10080000
INFO: [???] Setting specified specified data rate: 10080000
INFO: [???] Run-in Sectors = 89 Video delay = 13019 Audio delay = 0
INFO: [???] New sequence commences...
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] Audio bd: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [???] Scanned to end AU 1887
INFO: [???] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 1887.
INFO: [???] STREAM bd completed @ frame 4757.
INFO: [???] Multiplex completion at SCR=13693366.
INFO: [???] Video e0: buf= 0 frame=004752 sector=00031154
INFO: [???] Audio bd: buf= 14336 frame=004757 sector=00004230
INFO: [???] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [???] Video Stream length: 62996141 bytes
INFO: [???] Sequence headers: 118
INFO: [???] Sequence ends : 1
INFO: [???] No. Pictures : 1888
INFO: [???] No. Groups : 118
INFO: [???] No. I Frames : 118 avg. size152660 bytes
INFO: [???] No. P Frames : 590 avg. size 30769 bytes
INFO: [???] No. B Frames : 1180 avg. size 22735 bytes
INFO: [???] Average bit-rate : 8000000 bits/sec
INFO: [???] Peak bit-rate : 8795600 bits/sec
INFO: [???] BUFFERING min 40 Buf max 201085
INFO: [???] AUDIO_STATISTICS: bd
INFO: [???] Audio stream length 8526336 bytes.
INFO: [???] Frames : 4758
INFO: [???] BUFFERING min 35 Buf max 8547
INFO: [???] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.
DVDAuthor:pumux, version 0.6.12-alpha-2907.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
STAT: 0:00:00.000
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: Constructing blank img
INFO: Pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: Max_sub_size=40
WARN: Read 0, expected 4
INFO: 1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18

Statistics:
- Processed 0 subtitles.
- The longest display line had -1 characters.
- The maximum number of displayed lines was 0.
- The normal display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The bottom display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The biggest subtitle box had 40 bytes.
erase "G:\BOK Author\videohelp test\menu1.mpg"

echo *authoring title(s).....
*authoring title(s).....
"G:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\bin\dvdauthor.exe" -x "G:\Program Files\DVDAuthorGUI\config.xml"
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.12-alpha-2907.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

....

INFO: dvdauthor creating table of contents
INFO: Scanning G:\BOK Author\videohelp test/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.IFO
erase "G:\BOK Author\videohelp test\*.mpg"
echo *process complete
*process complete

[MrMoody]

INFO: Video pts = 0.178 .. 4438.078
INFO: Audio[0] pts = 0.178 .. 8868.946

This doesn't look right, it's saying the audio is twice as long as the video, or more accurately the time stamps go twice as high. My 1st guess would be that the AC3 file is corrupted or invalid. Reencode it and try again.

[maek]

Now that you mention it, yes...the audio file is actually double the size of what I expected.

I believe the root cause might have been trying to create a "stereo" file from an original mono file in Audacity. The original mono file is actually half the size. When I copied it into a new project by copying the mono file in both left and right channels and exported it as a WAV file, the file size doubled.

FFmpeggui was used to create the AC3 file, but I don't believe that was the root of all my grief.

Any ideas for creating a stereo file that just has the mono file output on two channels instead of one?

[MrMoody]

Perhaps it appended another copy of the audio.

ffmpeggui will accept a mono WAV file and still output a 2-ch AC3 file, no need to use something else to convert.

[maek]

Awesome! Will give it a try and let you know.

Thanks!

[maek]

Tried it...didn't work. Let me do it again and I'll post the log (original was inadvertently deleted).

[maek]

Here are those two lines again with the new audio file - the video still has the same problem as noted above.


INFO: Video pts = 0.178 .. 4438.078
INFO: Audio[0] pts = 0.178 .. 4438.034

[maek]

bump

[MrMoody]

Everything looks OK to me. What settings are you using in TMPGEnc? Can you make a test clip of a minute or so from the source and verify it still does it?

[liquid217]

Ive actually had another similar report of a user creating a dvd (encoded with tmpgenc, authored with dvdauthorgui) where when the disc is inserted into the player, it doesn't play any video at all... only audio. This leads me to believe that it has something to do with tmpgenc's encode. either the bitrate was too high, or there was something wrong with the encode. What were some of the settings you used in tmpgenc? Did you use a closed gop? If you could, I would like a template file of the settings you used in tmpgenc. As a test, you might encode your dv footage in one of the free/opensource mpeg2 encoders (such as quenc, freeenc, or even the new gui4ffmpeg)

[maek]

I believe it may have been the encode. I noticed the "output bitstream for edit (closed GOP)" was turned off. Why that happened, I don't know because I never touch it but who knows!

Anyway, here's my complete template file. Please comment on anything else that may seem awry. I only output the ES Video file...I use DVDAuthorgui to take the AC3 file and combine it with the video.

object TMPEGConfigFile
MPEG.WizardTargetMedia = MPEGConfig_TargetMediaType_Unknown
MPEG.WizardAutoCalcVideoBitRate = False
MPEG.WizardAutoChooseList.EnableVideoSize = False
MPEG.WizardAutoChooseList.VideoSize = <>
MPEG.WizardAutoChooseList.EnableVideoGOP = False
MPEG.WizardAutoChooseList.VideoGOP = <>
MPEG.OutputStreamType = MPEG_OutputStreamType_VideoOnly
MPEG.OutputStreamType_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.StreamType = MPEGVideoEncoder_StreamType_MPEG2
MPEG.Video.StreamType_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.Width = 720
MPEG.Video.Width_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.Height = 480
MPEG.Video.Height_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.YUVFormat = 1
MPEG.Video.YUVFormat_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.DC_prec = 2
MPEG.Video.DC_prec_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.VideoEncodeMode = MPEGVideoEncoder_VideoEncodeMode_Interlace
MPEG.Video.VideoEncodeMode_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.FrameRate = 4
MPEG.Video.FrameRate_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.AspectRatio = 2
MPEG.Video.AspectRatio_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.RateControlMode = MPEGVideoEncoder_RateControlMode_VBR_2PASS
MPEG.Video.RateControlMode_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.MaxBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.MaxBitRate_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.MinBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.MinBitRate_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.MinAvgBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.MinAvgBitRate_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.CBR_BitRate = 1150000
MPEG.Video.VBR_MultipassVBRAlgorithm = MPEGVideoEncoder_MultipassVBRAlgorithm_MultipassCQ
MPEG.Video.VBR_AvgBitRate = 6200000
MPEG.Video.VBR_MaxBitRate = 9000000
MPEG.Video.VBR_MinBitRate = 4000000
MPEG.Video.VBR_MaxPassCount = 2
MPEG.Video.VBR_EnablePadding = True
MPEG.Video.MVBR_MaxBitRate = 3000000
MPEG.Video.MVBR_MinBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.MVBR_EnablePadding = False
MPEG.Video.AVBR_MaxBitRate = 3000000
MPEG.Video.AVBR_MinBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.AVBR_EnablePadding = False
MPEG.Video.CQ_MaxBitRate = 3000000
MPEG.Video.CQ_MinBitRate = 0
MPEG.Video.CQ_EnablePadding = False
MPEG.Video.VBVBufferSize = 0
MPEG.Video.VBVBufferSize_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_SeqHeaderInterval = 0
MPEG.Video.GOP_SeqHeaderInterval_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_I_FrameCount = 1
MPEG.Video.GOP_I_FrameCount_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_P_FrameCount = 5
MPEG.Video.GOP_P_FrameCount_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_B_FrameCount = 2
MPEG.Video.GOP_B_FrameCount_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_BitStreamForEdit = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_BitStreamForEdit_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.GOP_MaxFrameCount = 0
MPEG.Video.GOP_MaxFrameCount_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.QuantizeMatrix_Intra_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.QuantizeMatrix_NonIntra_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.Profile = 4
MPEG.Video.Profile_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.Level = 8
MPEG.Video.Level_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.VideoFormat = 2
MPEG.Video.VideoFormat_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.DisplayWidth = 0
MPEG.Video.DisplayWidth_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.DisplayHeight = 0
MPEG.Video.DisplayHeight_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Video.MotionSearchSpeed = MPEGVideoEncoder_MotionSearchSpeed_HighCQ
MPEG.Video.MotionSearch_AlwaysHalfPel = True
MPEG.Video.UseFloatDCT = False
MPEG.Video.QuantizeMode = False
MPEG.Video.QuantizeModeVal_Intra = 35
MPEG.Video.QuantizeModeVal_NonIntra = 35
MPEG.Video.YUVBasicYCbCr = False
MPEG.Video.QuantizeMatrix_Intra = {
081013161A1B1D22101016181B1D222513161A1B1D22222616 161A1B1D222528
161A1B1D202328301A1B1D202328303A1A1B1D22262E38451B 1D23262E384553}
MPEG.Video.QuantizeMatrix_NonIntra = {
10111213141516171112131415161718121314151617181913 14151617181A1B
14151617191A1B1C151617181A1B1C1E1617181A1B1C1E1F17 18191B1C1E1F21}
MPEG.Video.VBR_Quality_P = 0.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.VBR_Quality_B = 20.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.MVBR_Quality_P = 0.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.MVBR_Quality_B = 20.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.AVBR_Quality = 50.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.CQ_Quality = 50.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.CQ_Quality_P = 0.000000000000000000
MPEG.Video.CQ_Quality_B = 20.000000000000000000
MPEG.Audio.StreamType = MPEGAudioEncoder_StreamType_MPEG1_Layer2
MPEG.Audio.StreamType_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.SamplingFrequency = 48000
MPEG.Audio.SamplingFrequency_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.ChannelMode = 0
MPEG.Audio.ChannelMode_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.CantUseMono = False
MPEG.Audio.BitRate = 192000
MPEG.Audio.BitRate_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.CalcCRC = False
MPEG.Audio.CalcCRC_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.OriginalFlag = False
MPEG.Audio.OriginalFlag_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.CopyrightFlag = False
MPEG.Audio.CopyrightFlag_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.PrivateFlag = False
MPEG.Audio.PrivateFlag_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.Audio.EmphasisType = 0
MPEG.Audio.EmphasisType_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.System.StreamType = MPEGSystemEncoder_StreamType_MPEG2_Program
MPEG.System.StreamType_ReadOnly = False
MPEG.System.EnableCommentText = False
end

[MrMoody]

I believe it may have been the encode. I noticed the "output bitstream for edit (closed GOP)" was turned off.

That should be OK, but I don't think having "output interval of sequence header" set to 0 is good. I think it needs to be 1.

[maek]

Yes, I believe you're right. Good catch...I'll let you know how it goes; it's going to take about 22 hours to do the encode. I'm running a 2-pass VBR with noise reduction, sharpening, color correction, and softening the block noise.

The source was my original, sucky Hi-8 camcorder which I have thankfully replaced.

[maek]

Yep, that did the trick...next time, I'll check my settings a little more carefully. In the meantime, I'll go in the corner and kick myself really hard.

Thanks!!!