TMPGENC problems

[tachishoben]

Hey all,
I am obviously new here and need some advice. My issue is a two parter. I have some knowledge of burning vcd's and and limited knowledge of the programs used to encode them. I am currently using TMPGENC, (Don't know the version but I can find out later). My probelms are these: 1. When I encode, the color comes out messed up, it will fade in and out from say original color to a lighter messed up shade and then go back again throughout the whole movie. 2. In one particular movie (Backdraft) I am trying to encode and as usual the color is an issue but on this particular film it will not have sound once I burn the disk. It works on the pc just fine no problem at all. Why when I encode does my color come out slightly messed? And on the particular film, is there something I should try to make it have sound? If it is any conselation, It used to take me 12-14 hours to encode and now and average of 1-2 hours ( have no clue what I did) Could I be encoding too fast? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John

[tachishoben]

My system is an Athlon1800 1.6 256 ram 80gb drive with 20 free.
John

[mh2360]

You didn't say whether you where ripping a DVD or converting an AVI, but two possible solutions spring to mind.

1. If converting AVIs make sure you have the right codecs installed, either DIVX 5.x or XVID (or both).

2. The symtoms you describe sound like Macrovision copy protection, make sure you disable this when ripping your movie (a long shot)...

EDIT...

Your change in encoding times could mean you have changed a setting somewhere. 12 hours using an 1800+ is a bit long. 1-3 hours would be about right (depending on movie length). Give us more details on exactly what you are doing...

[tachishoben]

mh2360 wrote: You didn't say whether you where ripping a DVD or converting an AVI, but two possible solutions spring to mind.

1. If converting AVIs make sure you have the right codecs installed, either DIVX 5.x or XVID (or both).

2. The symtoms you describe sound like Macrovision copy protection, make sure you disable this when ripping your movie (a long shot)...

EDIT...

Your change in encoding times could mean you have changed a setting somewhere. 12 hours using an 1800+ is a bit long. 1-3 hours would be about right (depending on movie length). Give us more details on exactly what you are doing...

Sorry for any confusion. I am trying to encode an avi.
Here is what I have done exactly: I am using tmpgenc version: 2.57.41.146. I will go into the program via the wizard, screen 1. I choose the vid, select non--interlace, 4:3 ntsc or 4:3 ntsc (740x480). Screen 2. Source range, cut the vid to fit the disk set audio gap correct to 1, select other settings set video motion search precision to highest, go to the advanced tab and set the video arrange method to full screen (keep aspect ratio) I leave all other settings as is because I don't understand what they mean for the most part. I have a pretty fast burner using Nero and burn my discs at 32x, could this be too fast and be part of the color distortion problem? Any suggestions on what to do next and where I should go?
John

[tachishoben]

Well I know my last reply was a little lengthy but bueller? Anyone with a suggestion?

[mh2360]

What Divx video codecs do you have installed? Do you have an AC3 audio codec installed? I would change source aspect ratio to 1:1 (VGA) rather than 740 x 480. Do the mpg files play ok in media player? And burning at 32x?, Read this thread...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=503347#503347

[tachishoben]

mh2360 wrote: What Divx video codecs do you have installed? Do you have an AC3 audio codec installed? I would change source aspect ratio to 1:1 (VGA) rather than 740 x 480. Do the mpg files play ok in media player? And burning at 32x?, Read this thread...

Thanks for the reply. I don't know really if I have that one, I have divx5, angel potion, and an SMR patch codec. I don't have a problem playing the file. It looks good and sounds good but it won't play with sound after encoding. What will the setting 1:1 vga do for me, that setting is for playing on a computer on I thought? See this thread: https://www.videohelp.com/tmpgencexplained.htm The only thing I might think that would be a problem with burning at 32x would be the slight color distortion after encoding, otherwise the burn is fine.
Thanks
JOhn

[corob4]

dont know if this will help, but i had simular audio problem on my brothers comp. i droped the audio rate from 224 to 194 and got sound.
under settings > audio . you may have to unlock the template by closeing the wisard > load > svcd/vcd template you want to use > ok > load again >in folder templates > extras > unlock> that will now allow you to change all the settings of the template.
if do change it up to what you want now you can press save > movie.name.mcf .
then file > wisard you will have your template there and you can use the bitrate calculator built in to tmpg.
now not really a fix but...
.........
why are you useing 740x480 any piticular reason you are spreading the bitrate over a larger area, ie. less per pixal, usally reduces quality.
have you tryed 480x480 with the same bitrates and see the diffrence. do like 5 or 10 mins of video for a test.
for the block issue , are you useing 2pass vbr
some dvd players have a hard time with tmpgs default 0 min. change it to 300 and check padding.
this will make sure the min dont go below 300. you may have to move it up higher as some posts here reply they need even a higher min to get quality, vise versa others report a max rate to high will give the same poor results, these would only show up on playing in your dvd player, so you may have to try a few setting to get it right.
you can look up your dvd player on the Left <<< under dvd players and see what other actual owners of your player found worked and didnt work.
i would contact tmpg if you have furthier problems as thats what you paid your 50 bucks for!
best advice about encodeing try changing things one at a time, see what you like dont like, find what looks great to you because thats what counts.
great encodes are only going to come with trial and error, trial and more error

[tachishoben]

corob4 wrote: dont know if this will help, but i had simular audio problem on my brothers comp. i droped the audio rate from 224 to 194 and got sound.
under settings > audio . you may have to unlock the template by closeing the wisard > load > svcd/vcd template you want to use > ok > load again >in folder templates > extras > unlock> that will now allow you to change all the settings of the template.
if do change it up to what you want now you can press save > movie.name.mcf .
then file > wisard you will have your template there and you can use the bitrate calculator built in to tmpg.
now not really a fix but...
.........
why are you useing 740x480 any piticular reason you are spreading the bitrate over a larger area, ie. less per pixal, usally reduces quality.
have you tryed 480x480 with the same bitrates and see the diffrence. do like 5 or 10 mins of video for a test.
for the block issue , are you useing 2pass vbr
some dvd players have a hard time with tmpgs default 0 min. change it to 300 and check padding.
this will make sure the min dont go below 300. you may have to move it up higher as some posts here reply they need even a higher min to get quality, vise versa others report a max rate to high will give the same poor results, these would only show up on playing in your dvd player, so you may have to try a few setting to get it right.
you can look up your dvd player on the Left <<< under dvd players and see what other actual owners of your player found worked and didnt work.
i would contact tmpg if you have furthier problems as thats what you paid your 50 bucks for!
best advice about encodeing try changing things one at a time, see what you like dont like, find what looks great to you because thats what counts.
great encodes are only going to come with trial and error, trial and more error
As for the sound issue, that sounds like a good idea, I will try it. Not that I wouldn't try any of the others. I only used the 740x480 because newbie was still new to the vcd thing until a couple of months ago and the avi-vcd write-up I read stated that I should use NTSC. After getting into the software and finding that it had 4 types of ntsc I chose the 4:3 ntsc because it was mentioned in the write-up. I, being new to this only assumed the 740x480 version was the video screen size. Dumb but I am trying. I'm not real good at multimedia and such. Anyway, the 2pass vbr, what is it, and where could I find it to modify? I am willing to try anything. I agree with you that trial and error is good but not fun if you don't know a program very well. I have read some of the tmpgenc write-ups on this site and have gotten a better understanding of the values in the software so I only now feel a little more comfortable with it. Again thanks for all you help! I will try and see.
John

[tachishoben]

I have tried just about every settig possible that corob4 suggested and then some. I think I am half there. No sound on the particular video, but video color is better. I used gspot to determine codecs and it said I was fine with what I have. What to do next? Anyone?

[corob4]

can you get sound with a diffrent file?
to get the vbr 2pass
load the template you want to use > load > unlock (this is found under folder EXTRAS) this will unlock the template as before.
now click > settings > video tab
rate control settings > drop down menu to 2 pass vbr
click settings box beside that change min bitrate to 300
advanced tab > set source range for about half the movie
advanced tab > set change the aspect ratio to what you want usally full screen keep aspect ratio.
try a test make sure you like the look.
you could and should if other files wont give sound as well, use a seprate ripper like vdub or cool edit
load the file > save audio as wav
then you can load the video from orginal file and use the wav for audio source.
there are many other programs that will convert the audio to mpg1 and you can multiplex it later with the video you get from tmpg
if you choose this option make sure to leave enough room when you encode in tmpg to add the audio, so you wont go over 800mb or the file will not fit on cdr

[tachishoben]

The only thing I haven't tried so far is to extract the audio. I have gotten better color quality over all, but still no sound. Now this is only on this one particular video. I can get sound while playing it in any of the other players on the PC but no sound after I encode. I will try to extract the audio to a .wav and do it that way. Any suggestions as to what prog. to use to extract the audio and change it?
John

[tachishoben]

ok I extracted the audio yesterday and it seems to work now. When in tmpgenc it wouldn't say anything about errors. But, in virtual dub, it stated that the audio was in an incorrect format even though it could be heard as an avi in just about any media player. I think now I will just have to figure out the movie quality, throw some chapters in there and we are golden!
Thanks to all who contributed thier time... much thanks. :P