AfroPic 0.3

[bilestyle]

bin/cue output added, mp2 audio processing (not re-encoding) added, mov re-encoding added (some mov audio isnt supported, sorry i'll fix this later) DVD Folder output added as well. - mp2 48000 khz audio is the audio needed. bitrate calc added as well. save shell to desktop will save the shell script to the desktop for troubleshooting purposes, u can press the red close button and the application will quit, the mpeg2enc installer was fixed, the installer for the application and binaries is all in one now, running the application off the disc will NOT work (yet...)

for dvd folder output drop the new folder in toast under dvd mode and burn, u can view in dvd player application to test it out.




from the read me:

version: 0.3: Okay ALOT of new additions on this version. I added a bitrate calculater to the Decoding tab, be certain if you use the bitrate calculator that you change the mode in encoding tab to whatever format is necessary (i.e. if you are doing svcd choose user svcd, vcd choose user vcd etc...). I also added post processing to bin/cue as well as DVD Folders. The DVD folder function currently only works with mp2 48000 khz audio, for now. I added partial functionality with mp2 audio and mov file input, it is possible to put in a file multiplexed with mp2 audio to re-encode just the video portion and then multiplex with original mp2 audio, mp2 audio direct re-encode is NOT supported yet, mp2 input is not support for elementary stream input either.

---

http://www.anycities.com/user/bilestyle/Files/AfroPic.sit

[bilestyle]

0.3r2 released to fix the problem with the metapackager installer, sorry first one i made, bound to be problems with it, its fixed in the new upload. everything else is the same.

http://www.anycities.com/user/bilestyle/Files/AfroPic.sit

[pmcd]

Thank you!

philip

[Regensturm]

If I try to create a generic mpg1 format in either AfroPic or ffmpegX, all I get is an mp2 audio file that then disappears at the end because a video file was not created.

I get "access denied" to usr/bin for mpg2enc, but I am not encoding an mpg2. AfroPic "compiled" this (what is there to compile?), but then did the same thing as ffmpegX. Is this file also responsible for decoding?

This file is installed (I checked in 9 and made it visible with ResEdit), but it was nothing but text when I downloaded it (shouldn't a binary file have been a .sit file??) AfroPic said no installation was necessary.

All I want to do is create a garden variety muxed mpg1 that doesn't skip or look like it's been burnt by a flamethrower (reg. ffmpeg mpg1 encoding) and is in synch. Both of these apps. say I can do this, but so far no luck.

[emoralescheers]

Hello Bilestyle,

I'm a newbie. When creating an SVCD from a VOB, does your program Afropic utlize the same Altivec enhanced routines as FFmpegX?

[bilestyle]

there are two different sets of optimization in the binaries included with ffmpegx .. with regards to the ones doing svcd it uses mpeg2dec and mpeg2enc... but those dont keep sync properly, the decoder i use is also included in ffmpegx which is movtoy4m, whether or not that has the full altivec optimization as mpeg2dec i do not know. But i do use the same mpeg2enc binary that is used in ffmpegx.

[emoralescheers]

Thanks Bilestyle, I'll try Afropic .3 when I get home.

[bilestyle]

new release AGAIN... sorry that damn metapackage stuff is really killin me. So i just went back to old release format, the "-5000 network permission" or whatever error is gone if you just copy the afropic 0.3 off the disc image to wherever u want instead of usin the installer from 0.3r2


0.3r3- thats the only change, sorry for all the mixups.


http://www.anycities.com/user/bilestyle/Files/AfroPic.sit

[Regensturm]

I tried the "drag and drop" version you posted. It chugs along fine until the end, producing a temp video file while it encodes the audio as mp2. Then I get the following error:

rm: audio.ac3: No such file or directory
INFO: [mplex] mplex version 2.2.1 ($Date: 2002/04/20 19:08:30 $)
**ERROR: [mplex] Unable to open file /Volumes/Macintosh HD B/Dokumente B/Video/LACon/movie for reading.
rm: movie: No such file or directory
rm: audio.mp2: No such file or directory

Something circular is going on here. "Movie" (it was the default so I didn't bother to change it) is what is to be created after multiplexing, not before. The temp video file disappears, leaving me with the audio file.

[arri]

Hi bilestyle

I get this ERROR when I press convert.


AppleScript Error
can't set <<class fcrt>> of ** to *TVOD*. (-10006)

How do I fix this, Thanks

[bilestyle]

arri -

i know what the error means, but im not certain why it happened.. unfortunately there isnt anything i think you can personally do to fix it, but i can try and do something and incorporate it in the next release, which will be soon the other one was just to get it out and see if people had problems , there is some cleaning up i had to do and with that error in mind ill see what i can do.

regen-

im not really sure why that would happen either, if u have the full terminal output i'd like to see it, the shell script would probably be useful to, u can email them to me if yuou dont want to post here the full output.

[rockinsage]

Bilestyle,

Been using afropic 0.3r3 to create vcd and svcd from ntsc 29.97 vob. The resulting muxed mpeg1 or mpeg2 stays in sync for about 3/4 of the way through, then gets about 1 second out of sync for a while, then by the end of the movie is back in sync again. The vob is > 4 GB, but I am checking that option. I tried VCD and SVCD, happened on both. Any ideas?

-- rockinsage

[prideofvietnam]

Fisrt off. Great Program.

Second I too also had that problem. Im Encoding Blade 2 to fit a dvd r. Created chapters in dvdsp and Burned to dvdr via toast and the movie was working fine until the last chapter. I noticed during the last chapter the sync was off about a half second too. Any ideas?

[bilestyle]

hmmm interesting.. i haven't experienced any problems like that so im not certain as to why they are happening, when i clear some space and have more time (later next week) ill be able to run more full blown tests to see if i can replicated (and hopefully fix) whatever problem u are having

[Lynx_TWO]

Sorry, I just tried installing AfroPic .3r3 and the installer just sits there without doing anything. The application quits when I try to open it as well.

[rockinsage]

prideofvietnam,

That's interesting -- I am running into the same sync problem when backing up my copy of Blade 2. I guess it's possible that this issue is isolated to this movie, but it seems strange.

-- rockinsage

[AntnyMD]

I'd love to try out AfroPic now that I bit the bullet and spent the $129 for Jaguar. However, is there some way around having to install Mediapipe in order to fully utilize AfroPic?

[prideofvietnam]

rockinsage,

Have you come across any other movies with that problem? Blade 2 was my first attempt at Afropic

[bilestyle]

lynx-

The installer problem i wish i could tell ya what was goin on... im not sure what the problem is with that. my only idea would be the package installer isnt compatible with earlier versions of 10, what version of OS X are you running?

anthony -

well its funny you asked about that because i just spent a full night workin out 0.3.1 (to be released later, HOPEFULLY today) which takes away the need of a binary installer (they are all embedded) so the only installer needed now is the mpeg2enc installer. Mediapipe was also completely phased out so it is no longer needed either. In addition mp2 re-encoding has been added and more extensive quicktime movie conversion has been added as well. plus TONS of bug fixes (but im sure there is more to phase out). So keep your eyes peeled for 0.3.1 for the new functionality.

[rockinsage]

prideofvietnam & bilestyle --

I figured out part of the audio sync problem on blade 2. I have no idea if this is universal, because I haven't tried backing up any more of my DVD's with AfroPic yet. Here's the deal:

If you look at the shell script that is created, you see that at some point two temporary mpg files are created, usually called something like temp-1.mpg and temp-2.mpg. The first one is right around 4 GB, the other around 1.5 GB (depending on the size of the source vob). AfroPic eventually deletes these files, but I copied them to another partition before they were deleted. If I opened both temp mpg's in quicktime, I saw that the break/split between them was at the exact point in the final mpg1 (if vcd) or mpg2 (if svcd) where the audio lost sync a bit. Sure looks to me like the audio sync loss is happening at the exact point of the split between temp-1 and temp-2.

Hope this helps to track down the problem. By the way, I'm loving AfroPic, great app.

--rockinsage

[bilestyle]

i have yet to replicate your problem, but unfortunately if it is a problem with the join process than its one based on mpgtx and since that is a program outside of my scope i can't work to fix it, maybe it has something to do with dummy headers or something like that.. who knows... the sooner i can replicate the problem the sooner i can TRY to fix it. Let me know when u do more tests if you still have the same problem, ill try more tests to see if i can replicate the problem so i can start to troubleshooting different possible solutions.

[Lynx_TWO]

The installer problem i wish i could tell ya what was goin on... im not sure what the problem is with that. my only idea would be the package installer isnt compatible with earlier versions of 10, what version of OS X are you running?

I am running OS X.1.5

[rockinsage]

bilestyle,

Running some tests to confirm or deny the audio sync problem. Haven't totally nailed it down yet, but did discover a couple other things:

1) I ran the test again on the original .vob (converting the .vob to two VCD's), and I decided to try the GOP settings you mentioned (-g 9 -G 15) in the AfroPic GUI. Looking at the shell script, I noticed that the GOP settings were only applied to the 2nd of the two mpg files:

movtoy4m -h 240 -w 352 -F 30000:1001 -a 4:3 -i temp-1.mpg | mpeg2enc -v 0 -V 230 -S 9999 -b 1152 -2 1 -4 1 -h -I 1 -f 1 -r 16 -a 2 -M 2 -o temp1 ; 

movtoy4m -h 240 -w 352 -F 30000:1001 -a 4:3 -i temp-2.mpg | mpeg2enc -v 0 -V 230  -S 9999 -b 1152 -2 1 -4 1 -h -I 1 -f 1 -r 16 -a 2 -M 2 -g 9 -G 15 -o temp2 ;

I don't know if this could possibly account for the audio sync problem in the 2nd file? Probably not.

2) The other thing I noticed is that if I use a muxed mpeg2/mp2 file as the progressive source, AfroPic eventually errors out. Looking at the shell script, looks like even though I selected 'mp2' in the audio section, AfroPic tries to demux the source file into a video file and an ac3 audio file. Of course the ac3 file it creates is 0 bytes. Later on it tries to mplex the newly encoded mpg1 video file with the empty ac3 file and errors out.

Hope this helps,
rockinsage

[bilestyle]

eventhough the name pops out as an .ac3 at the end it is still an mp2 file (or it should be) be certain not to run afropic one time after another, unfortunately there is a bug i STILL can't track down which leads any input but the first to error out (very weird) i'm not sure if the gop size would make the difference for the audio syncing, it is a slight possability (there are other problems that i have just found today as well that COULD have caused it) so i'm workin out a lot of bugs and new features so hopefully 0.3.1 can come out soon. Thanks for pointing out the GOP problem tho, i didnt notice it before and it is now fixed.

[rockinsage]

bilestyle,

Thanks for the reply. Regarding the mp2/ac3 audio, I wasn't running AfroPic multiple times in a row. I understand what you're saying about the .ac3 file really being a .mp2, but regardless of what format it actually was, the .ac3 file was 0 bytes and then when the script tried to mux the finished video with it, it errored out becuase it couldn't "read the ...ac3 file".

Hope this helps, and thanks for your ongoing work on this program!

-- rockinsage

[bilestyle]

well either way 0.3.1 will no longer require binary installations (minus the install for mpeg2enc, which im currently considering wrapping up into afropic itself) has also removed the need for mediapipe for audio encoding, so hopefully the changes i made in the script to accomodate other decoders/encoders will also remove whatever problems you seem to be having. Me and my testers are doing ALOT of work to make sure this next version isnt as buggy as the previous (hence me sayin 0.3.1 is commin out one day, only to find more bugs from concurrent tests, delayin release for more stable versions). I think today 0.3.1 is closest its been to release so there is a good chance it will be out with a LOT of bugfixes

[Lynx_TWO]

Great! 8) :P