Cinema Craft Encoder Problems

[mattstan]

Hi,

I'm new to Cinema Craft Encoder and am having some problems with it. [The version is CCE SP v2.67.00.27 and it works fine with DVD ReBuilder.]

The first problem is that sometimes the conversion process simply doesn't start. The avi is loaded, encoding settings set, output dirs set on a drive with masses of room, I click 'encode', the encode dialog pops up stating the total number of frames, and... nothing happens. The encode dialog just sits there with encoded frames, fields, file size, speed, bit rate, etc. all sitting on 0. The cancel button doesn't even become active, it just stays greyed-out and the only way to stop it is to kill CCE with task manager. The avi files play fine in BSPlayer, and GSpot tells me the files are valid avis with 4 compatible codecs on the system. What is strange is that the same files work perfectly with Procoder 2, using the 'same' settings, EG. CBR 6,000, one pass. CCE also seems inconsistant sometimes it works using a DIVX5 avi and sometimes, with a different DIVX5 avi it doesn't. Any ideas what's going wrong?

The second problem concerns what I think is an aspect ratio problem. I keep getting the output video with a thick black border around the video (top, bottom, left and right). What seems to be happening is that the avi's original size is maintained, EG. 640x352, the image is positioned in the middle of the screen and then the rest of the frame is filled with black to make the full DVD size of 720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC). Procoder stretches the image to fill the DVD size as close as possible, while maintaining the original's aspect ratio. With CCE it doesn't seem to make much difference if I select SAR 1:1, 4:3, or 16:9, the image still stays at it's original size with black filling the rest of the frame. Also often the AR is none of these, 1:1, 4:3, or 16:9, which should be selected?

Please advise, these problems are driving me crazy.

Many thanks.

[jman98]

For the first problem - try setting the priority of the CCE program to Realtime after you start it. Look in the Task Manager and right click on the program (I think it's called ccestp or something close to that) and change Set Priority to Realtime. I have to do this when running CCE 2.5 or it will almost always lock up on me. Don't do anything on your PC when running CCE. It's a pig and uses up tons of resources. By any chance to do you have an AMD CPU on your PC? You should be aware that CCE seems to "misbehave" more under AMD chips than Intel for some reason.
Both of my PCs have AMD CPUs and I have to run CCE in Realtime mode or I have a lot of problems. My suggestion may not fix your problem as sometimes CCE seems to just not like its input at all, but it won't hurt to try it and so much the better if it helps you.

CCE can't resize anything, so I think that's why it's adding the borders. You're probably going to have to fix this with AviSynth, but since I am not an expert at that, perhaps others have some ideas.

[mattstan]

Thanks for your reply.

For the first problem - try setting the priority of the CCE program to Realtime after you start it.

Setting the priority to 'realtime' completely froze my PC; CTRL-Alt-Del wouldn't even bring up that dialog which has task manager on it, so I couldn't even try and kill the process, and I had to hit the reboot button instead.

By any chance to do you have an AMD CPU on your PC? You should be aware that CCE seems to "misbehave" more under AMD chips than Intel for some reason.

Nope, it's Intel.

CCE can't resize anything, so I think that's why it's adding the borders.

Ahh, that explains it. I'll stick to Procoder then and keep CCE only so that DVD ReBuilder can use it as *apparently* DVD RB works best with CCE.

Thanks again.

[fritzi93]

Have a look at this thread, scroll down to "Fulcilives" FitCD mini-guide:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=296341

Not all that difficult. And once you've cut your teeth on Avisynth using FitCD, you'll soon be using all the amazing power of Avisynth.

IMO, a good encoder is just an efficient encoder engine. Everything else is superfluous when Avisynth is available. Lots of very bright people have contributed a staggering array of filters, all free. And to my knowledge, Avisynth filters are always faster than their equivalents, and usually better.

Good luck.

[guns1inger]

IMO, a good encoder is just an efficient encoder engine. Everything else is superfluous when Avisynth is available. Lots of very bright people have contributed a staggering array of filters, all free. And to my knowledge, Avisynth filters are always faster than their equivalents, and usually better.

Gotta second this comment. CCE is great when used with AviSynth, and faster than ProCoder in most cases. It's audio functions aren't too good, and poor audio in the source (VBR MP3, for example) can cause problems. That said, I always encode audio elsewhere, so it's not an issue for me.

[Delta2]

The second problem concerns what I think is an aspect ratio problem. I keep getting the output video with a thick black border around the video (top, bottom, left and right). What seems to be happening is that the avi's original size is maintained, EG. 640x352, the image is positioned in the middle of the screen and then the rest of the frame is filled with black to make the full DVD size of 720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC). Procoder stretches the image to fill the DVD size as close as possible, while maintaining the original's aspect ratio. With CCE it doesn't seem to make much difference if I select SAR 1:1, 4:3, or 16:9, the image still stays at it's original size with black filling the rest of the frame. Also often the AR is none of these, 1:1, 4:3, or 16:9, which should be selected?

I use 4:3 when the source height is more than 300 and 16:9 when it is less than 300

then I use letterboxes and CCE to resize the image to avoid black borders at left and right sides