Key TMPGEnc Settings for Best Quality?

[heyjjjaded]

I've captured home videos from my camcorder to my computer. These videos are AVIs. My goal is to encode them to MPEG2 at the highest quality with TMPGEnc Plus before burning them to DVD (NTSC). I realize that I will only be able to fit an hour of video on the final DVD, but that is OK. I've read a lot of the guides involving TMPGEnc here, but I'd be lying if I said that I understand EVERY setting. So my question is ... to obtain the best quality MPEG2, what are some of the key settings that I need to adjust in TMPGEnc? Thank You!

[maek]

I recommend visting the following sites. Depending on how you decide to allocate your bitrate, you are NOT limited to an hour on your final DVD. It's a trade-off between quality and quantity. I have 2-hour DVD's that look perfectly fine!

Anyway, here are some good links:

http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html
http://www.digitalfaq.com/convert/tmpgenc/tmpgencplus.htm

There are a variety of things that will affect quality, but these guides should provide you with some good starting ground.

[Pussylips]

You can get good compression by changing GOP and Quantize Matrices, cannot say what the best is but just try different things. It can be done because I have done it, with low bitrates!

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks - I'm still new to all this and obviously have a lot to learn. I'll keep reading.

[daamon]

Hi heyjjjaded,

I concur with maek's first link - I've found that very useful. Can't comment on the others as I've not used them. Also, there's:

http://www.lordsmurf.com/convert/tmpgenc/tmpgencplus.htm

If you're compressing your audio (recommended) to something like AC3 (valid for both NTSC and PAL) or MP2 (valid for PAL, but probably OK for NTSC though not part of the NTSC DVD spec), then that'll leave you more room for your video, hence higher bitrate, hence better quality.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[maek]

I concur with maek's first link - I've found that very useful. Can't comment on the others as I've not used them. Also, there's:

http://www.lordsmurf.com/convert/tmpgenc/tmpgencplus.htm

If you're compressing your audio (recommended) to something like AC3 (valid for both NTSC and PAL) or MP2 (valid for PAL, but probably OK for NTSC though not part of the NTSC DVD spec), then that'll leave you more room for your video, hence higher bitrate, hence better quality.

I agree with daamon regarding audio compression as well. Audio helps a LOT -- on AC3 compression, I've been able to squeeze up to about 50% more video without having to compress the video -- depends on the quality of your original audio source, the bitrate (224 kbps, 384 kbps, etc.).

Just FYI -- that second link I provided for TMPGEnc Plus should go to the same place as the one daamon pointed out...

Also, if you plan on using Mpeg Audio compression, use TooLame. It's a plug-in that's easy to insert with TMPGEnc...search my other posts for discussions that I had with this plug-in and you will be able to find an executable that won't require any source compiling.

Happy hunting. This is a good place to come to, just keep trying!!

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks everybody! I've read some good stuff & feel like I'm almost there with TMPGEnc. I still don't quite understand how the audio works with this program though. Why am I getting 2 separate files - one video file with no audio & one audio file with no video? There seems to be something very basic that I am not understanding. Here's a better explanation:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=213485

[maek]

Okey dokey...easy fix.

After you get through the wizard (don't encode immediately!) or if you are already in the habit of just going through the main menus, you'll notice something in the lower portion of the screen called Stream Type that looks something like the one that I've hopefully attached correctly.



Forgive the poor quality of the image.

There are five options:

ES (Video Only)
ES (Audio Only)
ES (Video + Audio)
System (Video only)
System (Video + Audio)

Chances are that you have ES (Video + Audio) selected which takes your video and splits it into Elementary Streams (hence, ES). If you want to keep them together, choose System (Video + Audio).

However, that will make TMPGEnc re-encode your audio as well. From what I hear, its re-encoding of audio is not so hot (although I can't frankly tell the difference, but these people are in the know), so the TooLame plug-in is where that helps. Click on TooLame here and download the 02k version.

If you need any more help, please let me know.

[heyjjjaded]

You were right about the setting, maek. I changed it (I think). Thank You!

[heyjjjaded]

Nope. I can't change this setting ... it's greyed out. This seems like the solution, but I can't even figure out how to change this setting.

[jimmalenko]

Load the Unlock TEmplate in the Extra Folder, and you'll be able to change it.

[Will Hay]

If you haven't already, check this out.
I'm like you , I don;t pretend to know everything about this superb softare but what I do know I got both from this guide and this forum.
Good luck
Will Hay

[daamon]

@ heyjjjaded,

I've found ffmpeggui dead easy to install and use for converting to MP2 & AC3. Can't remember what it can convert from coz I only ever go from WAV or DV AVI.

[maek]

Great audio tool!!

Can you use ffmpeggui as a plug-in for TMPGEnc?

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks everybody! The unlock template is the solution. All this talk about using other programs to extract the audio though ... I can see how this would be important if I was trying to put a hollywood movie onto a DVD+R, but is it really necessary when I'm just transferring my family home videos to DVD+R? Thanks again!

[vettesea]

Depends on the quality you want. Try it out and see what you think.

I went for the all in one solution and was a little disappointed at points when there was fast movement. I then tried the split audio/video solution and it was better.

It sounds more complicated than it is. Simply use ffmpeggui to pull the audio so you now have an AC3 file and AVI file.

Then encode just the video using the Video only option in TMPGenc. You then have an MPEG2 file and an AC3. Use these in TMPGenc DVD Author and Bobs your uncle, you end up with your DVD VOB files ready to rock and roll.

[maek]

Somewhat off-topic, but I'm curious to know since it affects how I use TMPGEnc and how I burn movies.

Will Sonic MyDVD 5 support AC3 files that are imported? I know that it currently will encode WAV, MP2, etc., into AC3 but I don't know if it supports AC3 directly or not.

Does anyone know?

[sacajaweeda]

I still don't quite understand how the audio works with this program though. Why am I getting 2 separate files - one video file with no audio & one audio file with no video?

You say you are using NTSC. You should use the ES (Video Only) setting in TMPGEnc. You don't really need the MP2 stream TMPGEnc spits out because it's only an "optional" audio type in the NTSC DVD specification. You'll want to encode your audio as AC3 in an NTSC project, to ensure maximum compatibility.

[daamon]

...but is it really necessary when I'm just transferring my family home videos to DVD+R?

It's not necessary, but compressed audio means there's more room left on the DVD disc, which means you can have a bigger video file, which means (to get a bigger file) you can have a higher bitrate, which (phew, we're there) ultimately means you get better quality.

That said, if the footage yor putting to DVD disc is less than 70 or 80 minutes, it's not really an issue coz the resultant max bitrate will still be high enough to give you good quality.

[heyjjjaded]

Very well said by everyone! I get this stuff now ... thank you! With everybody's help & breaking down the explanations at the links above, I even made a nice little template for my conversions. This DVD is going to be nice!

[daamon]

Can you use ffmpeggui as a plug-in for TMPGEnc?

I've not heard of this being done, and I can't think how to do it, but that's not to say it can't be done... Ask Baldrick (site administrator) as he wrote it.

@ heyjjjaded

Glad you got there... Well done. Enjoy the fruits of your labour now.