Tmpeg enc Plus 2.5 selects wrong Aspect ratio

[wozmac]

Hi,

I use Tmpgenc Plus 2.5 to encode my files prior to authoring to DVD.

I use the wizard to import my files and on the Project wizard page 2/5 in the expert Setting for source box it always selects the the Aspect Ration as 4:3 625 line (PAL, 704 x 576) when I believe the capture to be 4:3 625 line (PAL) and so I have to change it accordingly, why is Tmpegenc selecting the wrong aspect ratio and am I doing something wrong?

[mats.hogberg]

Unless your source file carries some kind of AR info (not all do), how could TMPGEnc know the AR? Or am I missing something?

/Mats

[Jim44]

AFAIK, TMPGEnc Plus guesses at the source AR. I've found it's generally OK for most video that I encode, except for the 16x9 DV-AVI from my MiniDV camera - I always have to manually select the correct source AR.

wozmac, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Despite being called a "wizard" it still requires some input (and knowledge ) on the part of the user.

Jim

[wozmac]

Thanks for your answers and yes my knowledge is not great I think I have found out enough to realise how little I know.

I have grown cautious about altering the settings as it has sometimes chosen a Top First Field order for some of my PAL captures and I thought PAL always had a Bottom first field order so I changed it and I got jerky video but when I followed the wizard and trusted its selection it was smooth.

Another question I was looking on the TMPGEnc website for some answers and noticed TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress how do the two products compare if at all?

[Jim44]

Thanks for your answers and yes my knowledge is not great I think I have found out enough to realise how little I know.

But you know more about your source footage than TMPGEnc, was what I was trying to say.

I have grown cautious about altering the settings as it has sometimes chosen a Top First Field order for some of my PAL captures and I thought PAL always had a Bottom first field order so I changed it and I got jerky video but when I followed the wizard and trusted its selection it was smooth.

I've found that TMPGEnc does a better job at getting field order right. I'm not sure, but that may be a more "deterministic" characteristic of the source video (i.e no guessing), but now we're getting into areas I'm less knowledgeable

Another question I was looking on the TMPGEnc website for some answers and noticed TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress how do the two products compare if at all?

I believe the Xpress line of tools are the follow-on updates to the "original" TMPGEnc/Plus. For my purposes I haven't found a reason to upgrade.

Jim

[jagabo]

I have grown cautious about altering the settings as it has sometimes chosen a Top First Field order for some of my PAL captures and I thought PAL always had a Bottom first field order...

An analog video signal is simply an alternating steam of top and bottom fields. It's the capture device that determines the field order when it captures. If it starts with a top field then adds the next field (a bottom field) to complete the frame the video is top-field-first. If it starts with a bottom field then adds the next field to complete the frame it's bottom-field-first.

Regarding your first inquiry about aspect ratio: in all likelihood your video is "4:3 625 line (PAL, 704 x 576)". The 4:3 image is contained in the central 704x576 pixels even if the full frame is 720x480. In any case, I just ran an experiment and TMPGEnc produced exactly the same output with both settings when encoding a 720x576 AVI file.

[45tripp]

Another question I was looking on the TMPGEnc website for some answers and noticed TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress how do the two products compare if at all?

Vastly superior.
Plus is old and tired.