Advice Needed Badly

[Wallkinshaw]

I hope some one can help me... 3 days trying to do this and Im going out of my mind.

I recently converted my wedding video to mpeg2. I had to convert into 2 files as I was transferring from a DV camera and they can only hold 1.5 hours per tape. (Video is 3 hours long)

I used MYDVD for this.

Then used DVTOOL to convert the 2 mpegs together and it made a 10gb file which so far so good. Now for me to get this onto 1 DVD I need to encode this mpeg2 file. I have decided to trial TMPGenc and while it seems to open the file and I choose the settings to make it fit on 1 DVD, my problem is that at the end of the encoding it doesnt get the whole movie on. After its finished encoding and I play it back the end of the movie is near half way of the whole file(Virtually where the first file would of ended and the second one started) this is after 4 hours of encoding.

I have selected the start clip and end clip in the settings as start and end of the movie and I have the settings I think all setup ok. Its taking like 4 hours to encode and it sucks to have to wait and then see the finished product which again has finished short.

I notice the elapsed time, source time are always different. The source time is always behind the elapsed by a far bit. By this and looking at the % complete I can now see at the start if TMPGenc is going to encode the whole movie.


Am I doing something wrong ? Can you encode from mpeg2 - mpeg2 and select lower rates to fit them on a DVD ?

[daamon]

Hi Wallkinshaw,

You've roughly got the right idea, but (IMO) not quite - especially encoding mpeg2 - mpeg2. But hey, that's why you're asking, that's how you learn - hell, that's how I learnt!

I'm not saying this is the best way (disclaimer out of the way...), but I use it and it gets me good results, seems logical and not convoluted.

1. Transfer both your 1.5 hour tapes from DV cam to PC (I find via firewire/1394/iLink the most reliable) as DV AVI format. You're looking at approx. 13Gb per hour of footage.

This means that, so far, you've got the raw footage without any loss of quality. I'm guessing that MYDVD can do this. If not (and you've got firewire) chek out VirtualDub (1st choice), DVIO or WinDV. All freeware. If you get the option, capture as DV Type 2 (otherwise, don't worry).

2. You can use VirtualDub (again) to join the 2 AVI's into one big one. NOTE: You may not want to do this, see later, where point 2 is referenced.

From there, with your AVI, I shall refer you to this link:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=725433#725433

...Pick up from step 4, as you already have your DV AVI - albeit by a slightly different method - no matter.

It's not a definitive guide and I'm not claiming it's the best way, but it's the steps I took to get results I was happy with. I have since edited it as I've learnt more (they're in there too).

If your video is ever longer than about 100mins, you'll need to calculate the bitrate to ensure the finished article will still fit a single DVD (if that's what you want to do). See the DVDRHelp Bitrate Calculator, and there's others in the Tools section.

NOTE: With reference from point 2, as your footage is a fair amount over 100 mins, this means the bitrate will be quite(ish) low, and so (even with compressed audio) will be lower quality.

Instead, you could do 2 discs each of 1.5 hours meaning that you could have a much higher bitrate and so higher quality. Use the same process for each disc.

Feel free to ask questions - especially as I'm typing this at 0230!

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[Wallkinshaw]

Hi Daamon,

I really appreciate the help. I will try your methods for sure.

What I didn't make clear was the fact this orignal wedding video is from VHS so quality is not really an issue and this is the main reason I want to put this only on 1 DVD.

Worst case scenario would be to leave these as 2 seperate files and then use DVshrink to shrink each one to its own DVD. I would still like to put it on one though and its more pleasurable knowing I can do this anytime once I work out how to do it.

[Poppa_Meth]

sound like you may be confusing the start/end setting with the total size settings. I think you may be setting the end point in the middle of your file, thinking that this is the correct size for one DVD, which it may be, but what you are doing is cutting the file in half and only encoding the first half of it to fit. what you need to do is leave start/end and the start and end and adjust your bitrate settings to get you in the correct file size area. Of course I may be completely wrong here but I have a feeling that may be what you are doing wrong.

[BJ_M]

hold on --- tmpgenc can combine two avi files into one mpeg

put both avi dv files into same directory and name them like this:

file.001.avi
file.002.avi

make sure in tmpgenc options that file seq. is checked ...

now open first file in tmpgenc and if you want to check -- use source range and see both files as one ...

this only works for avi files though and your first post is not clear because at one point you say avi dv and elsewhere you say mpeg ..

those file combiners -- generally dont work for this application ... but the above method will ...

use the bitrate calculator to get bit rate for the lenth you have ..

dont use the wizard in this case as it will not combine avi's (i think)

[Wallkinshaw]

Hi,

When selecting the start and end of the film, I am leaving one pointer at the start (number 0) and then I drag the end one to the end of the film (not in the middle). I think the number is like 122800 or something.

Even though I do this, the finished product after it has encoded is around 90mins. Almost the same lenght as the original first clip.

Can anyone suggest their way they would do the following. This may help me more. I will try Daamon's way also.

What would you do in this scenario :-

1 x 3 hour VHS tape with wedding on it.
1 x Mini DV Pansonic Camera which uses firewire port.

Tell me the best way and what programs are best so I can take this video and place it on 1 DVD disk with menus.

Thank you

[BJ_M]

did you even read my post above on how to do it ?

and dont use the file merge app ..

[Wallkinshaw]

BJ_M,

This was not directed at you and I did read your post. I really appreciate the help, but from reading all the forums and the how to's here it seems that many people use their own methods. Some have better results than others. All I asked was for people to mention the way they would do if following the same scenario. I never said anyone's was wrong or I wasn't going to try.

For eg, I tried using TMPGenc Plus and it crashes on me everytime. So I got an older copy of TMPGenc and it works. Thats what Im getting at. I may try these methods above but it still may not work correctly for me. I guess Im trying to cover all bases after spending the last 3 days working on it.

Thanks again

[daamon]

Hi Wallkinshaw,

I really appreciate the help.

No problem.

I tried using TMPGenc Plus and it crashes on me everytime.

Try re-installing the latest version - could've been a dodgy install. It's not known for being flakey like that (or in many ways, really).

What I didn't make clear was the fact this orignal wedding video is from VHS...

Ah, now that makes a difference...

If you have them, join your AVI's and still encode using TMPGEnc. I've not captured from VHS, so can't comment on software and hardware. That said, it sounds like your recording from VHS to your DV cam (guessing 60 minute tapes on long play to get 90 mins?). If that's the case, I'm sure I've seen more efficient ways in which you can capture the full 3 hours. Have a search, there's been a fair few posts over recent months.

But, check out this thread:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=207014&highlight=

...as I reckon it'll be a revelation for you. It goes into capturing VHS and particularly what bitrates and resolution (i.e. picture size) to use to get at least 3 hours of captured VHS onto a single DVD.

A summary is:

Encode your single, large AVI (whether it's two joined our a freshly captured one) at around 3,000kbps CBR with compressed audio (MP2 or AC3 - note MP2 isn't in specs for NTSC but will probably (80% ?) be OK) at around 224kbps. Use a "half D1" resolution (352 x 480 / 576 (NTSC / PAL)) as this is better than VHS, but less bits, so lower bitrate, so smaller file so 3 hours on one DVD.

TMPGEnc is good, but it will take a fair while (depending on your system specs, particularly CPU speed and, to a degree, memory) to encode.

Hope that helps...

[zilog_jones]

Err, why do you need to join the two AVI files anyway? There doesn't *have* to be just one big file with DVDs, you know, and with most DVD authoring software you can set it so there's no delay between different video files.