No video when MPEG-1 saved to XVID with Vdub

[headless chicken]

I searched this forum and could not find any other posts with this particular issue:

I created an MPEG-1 file from two VCDs which I ripped and joined. I would like to sharpen the video and save the resulting file, but VirtualDub only allows me to save into several non-MPEG formats (though I want to eventually author a DVD with the resulting file), so I chose to save to avi with XVID compression.

I am using VirtualDubMod v.1.5.10.1, build-2439 and the internal sharpen filter.

However, the resulting avi file has audio no picture when played back. (Black screen with mplayer, no video at all with VLC). I am able to play other XVID files that I have not encoded myself of the computer. What am I doing wrong?

[jagabo]

You probably only performed the first pass of a 2-pass encode. If you need a 2 pass encode you should encode with Xvid set at "Twopass - 1st pass", then encode again with Xvid set at "Twopass - 2nd pass". The result of the first pass has no video.

[PuzZLeR]

When using multi-pass with several video formats, the first pass is always just, more or less, data for the second (third, fourth, etc) pass. The encoder needs this foresight in advance to optimize the bitrate you assign it throughout.

But if you want to eventually author a DvD with the resulting file then you need MPEG-2, not what VDub does, which is formats for AVI (although it can be done in a non-conventional way).

I would personally use an AviSynth script and feed it to an MPEG-2 encoder like CCE or H Enc (free).

If you want a sharper result from VCD's MPEG-1, add these lines in your script:

LanczosResize(720, 480)
Sharpen(0.2)

For the resizer, you will need 720x576 for PAL video and for Sharpen I'd suggest you experiment with parameter values like 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, etc. I would also recommend you add some grain in the final result.

It won't look perfect going from VCD to DvD, but it may pass for something decent.

[headless chicken]

You're probably right, jagabo. For some reason Vdub wouldn't allow me to do a two-pass encode.

PuzZLer, do you mean HC Enc? If so, forgive my ignorance, but how do I input an MPEG-1? It seems you need a d2v or avs file. Scripts scare me and I've never manually entered one, but if that's the best way to go when editing VCD image for DVD then I'll try it.

[jagabo]

AviSynth script to open a VCD MPG file and sharpen it:

DirectShowSource("filename.mpg")
Sharpen(0.5) #use any number between 0 (no sharpening) and 1 (max sharpening)

You might have to add ConvertToYV12() for HcEnc (depending on what colorspace DirectShowSource() gives you -- it can vary from system to system).

DirectShowSource("filename.mpg")
Sharpen(0.5) #use any number between 0 (no sharpening) and 1 (max sharpening)
ConvertToYV12()

[PuzZLeR]

You can make an .avs file out of almost any video format, except MPEG-1/2, which needs to be indexed first with a .d2v file. Then you can make an .avs file out of this .d2v file.

If the concept of making scripts feels overwhelming, then I believe a good start could be MeGUI, which will create beginner .avs scripts (and .d2v files) for you. It's a simple way to learn first until you can do it on your own later.

Here's a guide for it. Skip the installing and ripping (and even encoding stuff after). All you need do is roughly skim page 3 and 4 for now, which will show .d2v and .avs creation, and you're set.

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MeGUI_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

The AVS creation tool can add resizing, crop, etc lines and even add plugins for you. You can add more lines yourself with Notepad afterwards.

[guns1inger]

Actually, if you have a DirectShow filter installed for mpeg 1/2 (FFDShow, for example) you can use DirectShowSource() in your script and open the file. Not the recommended method, but it does work most of the time.

[headless chicken]

If you want a sharper result from VCD's MPEG-1, add these lines in your script:

LanczosResize(720, 480)
Sharpen(0.2)

For the resizer, you will need 720x576 for PAL video and for Sharpen I'd suggest you experiment with parameter values like 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, etc. I would also recommend you add some grain in the final result.

So for the PAL DVD I would write this instead?

LanczosResize(720, 576)
Sharpen(0.2)


I don't think my authoring software (TMPGEnc Authoring Works) re-encodes the file if it's DVD compliant. I know that it simply resamples the 44.1kHz audio to 48kHz. In this case, is it prudent to resize the picture to PAL DVD proportions or should I live the specs as is at 352x288? Which will give a better overall image when sharpened? Also, how do I add grain?

[AlanHK]

I really doubt that sharpening will improve the image much.
But if you can make an AVS script, you might try deblocking and then sharpening.
I'd resize to 720x576 for PAL.
Then load that into HCEnc and make MPEG2.

But when using a VCD source I just extract and join the MPEG1 (most VCD movies are split into two discs), resample the audio to 48k, using Womble MPEG-VCR, but TMPGEnc should work.

GfD will let you use MPEG1 video without complaining, other apps may insist on converting to MPEG2.

[headless chicken]

I really doubt that sharpening will improve the image much.
But if you can make an AVS script, you might try deblocking and then sharpening.
I'd resize to 720x576 for PAL.
Then load that into HCEnc and make MPEG2.

I did just that and the results were pretty decent. However, I'm shooting for something a bit better if possible. Would using a plugin like asharp, msharpen or xsharpen provide better results than avisynth's native sharpening filter?

[AlanHK]

I did just that and the results were pretty decent. However, I'm shooting for something a bit better if possible. Would using a plugin like asharp, msharpen or xsharpen provide better results than avisynth's native sharpening filter?

I spent some time comparing various sharpeners and in the end usually just use the built-in sharpen.

eg:

AVISource("1_A_Death.avi")
DeBlock_DeBlock(quant=25, aOffset=8, bOffset=16)
Sharpen(0.80)

#Xsharpen(128,0)
#LimitedSharpenFaster(Smode=1)
#UnsharpMask(42,7, 0)

The # comments out sharpeners I tried and discarded.

A plugin may be particularly good for animations, or making a very good source a little better, but starting with a fairly crummy source none particularly distinguished itself.

But you really should try them out yourself.

I strongly recommend AvsP as an editor. You can open multiple versions of a script (double-click to duplicate one to a new tab) and click between them to compare the results of different filters and settings. It makes sliders from the numeric settings.

[headless chicken]

I strongly recommend AvsP as an editor. You can open multiple versions of a script (double-click to duplicate one to a new tab) and click between them to compare the results of different filters and settings. It makes sliders from the numeric settings.

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a try along with asharp with the following values:

asharp(2.5,4.5,0.25,hqbf=true)


I mentioned earlier I was putting two films (film A and it's sequel) onto one disc. Resizing and sharpening the sequel has produced a 4GB d2v file from a muxed 1.3GB mpeg-1. Since I've now crossed the 4.37GB threshold for a disc, should I also resize and tinker with film A since I now have to use a dual-layer DVD-R?

[jagabo]

If you are going to use sharpen filters you should try using BilinearResize() to reduce the artifacting (accentuating DCT ringing) that comes with sharper resizing filters. And use UnDot() to reduce DCT ringing in the source.

[AlanHK]

I mentioned earlier I was putting two films (film A and it's sequel) onto one disc. Resizing and sharpening the sequel has produced a 4GB d2v file from a muxed 1.3GB mpeg-1. Since I've now crossed the 4.37GB threshold for a disc, should I also resize and tinker with film A since I now have to use a dual-layer DVD-R?

I don't understand -- d2v files are indexes for MPEGs. They're maybe a few kb long.

Anyway, no matter how you filter, your result will not be high quality.
If the total runing time is less than 4 hours, I'd just make the bitrate to fit on one DVD.
Higher rates will take more space, but not look any better.

I make an omnibus AVS file (that imports all the separate features), then load that in HCEnc and set the filesize (for the M2V) to 4GB, then use that rate for each job.

[headless chicken]

I don't understand -- d2v files are indexes for MPEGs. They're maybe a few kb long.

Mea culpa. I mean to say a 4GB m2v file.

I've encountered an issue along the way. After authoring my DVD, I discovered that there are some bad frames in the other MPEG which I didn't use AviSynth on which cause the video to freeze up at a particular point while the audio continues.

I checked the mpg on the computer and it turns out it crashes both in VLC and mplayer at the specified point. In mplayer, I get the following error message: MPlayer has finished unexpectedly. Exit code: 1.

Here is the mplayer log if it's of any help.

C:/Program Files/SMPlayer/mplayer/mplayer.exe -noquiet -nofs -sub-fuzziness 1 -identify -slave -vo directx -ao dsound -zoom -nokeepaspect -priority abovenormal -framedrop -nodr -double -wid 38930204 -colorkey 0x020202 -monitorpixelaspect 1 -noass -subfont-autoscale 1 -subfont-text-scale 5 -subcp ISO-8859-1 -vid 0 -aid 0 -subpos 100 -volume 58 -cache 2000 -osdlevel 0 -nocorrect-pts -vf-add screenshot -slices -channels 2 -af scaletempo,equalizer=0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/sita.mpeg

MPlayer Sherpya-SVN-r28126-4.2.5 (C) 2000-2008 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz (Family: 6, Model: 13, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Setting process priority: abovenormal

Playing C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/sita.mpeg.

Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes)
ID_VIDEO_ID=0
ID_AUDIO_ID=0
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG1 352x288 (aspect 8) 25.000 fps 1120.0 kbps (140.0 kbyte/s)
SUB: Detected subtitle file format: subviewer
SUB: Read 849 subtitles.
SUB: Adjusted 6 subtitle(s).
ID_FILE_SUB_ID=0
ID_FILE_SUB_FILENAME=C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/sita.srt
SUB: Added subtitle file (1): C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/sita.srt
SUB: Detected subtitle file format: ssa
SUB: Read 390 subtitles.
ID_FILE_SUB_ID=1
ID_FILE_SUB_FILENAME=C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/Sita.Swayamvar.1976.VCDRip.EoN.CD2.ass
SUB: Added subtitle file (2): C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/Sita.Swayamvar.1976.VCDRip.EoN.CD2.ass
SUB: Detected subtitle file format: subviewer
SUB: Read 390 subtitles.
SUB: Adjusted 7 subtitle(s).
ID_FILE_SUB_ID=2
ID_FILE_SUB_FILENAME=C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/Sita.Swayamvar.1976.VCDRip.EoN.CD2.srt
SUB: Added subtitle file (3): C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/Sita.Swayamvar.1976.VCDRip.EoN.CD2.srt
ID_FILENAME=C:/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Videos/sita.mpeg
ID_DEMUXER=mpegps
ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=0x10000001
ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=1120000
ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=352
ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=288
ID_VIDEO_FPS=25.000
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000
ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=80
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=0
ID_AUDIO_RATE=0
ID_AUDIO_NCH=0
ID_LENGTH=7513.48
ID_SEEKABLE=1
ID_CHAPTERS=0
Opening video filter: [screenshot]
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 352 x 288 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffmpeg1] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-1)
================================================== ========================
ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffmpeg1
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 224.0 kbit/15.87% (ratio: 28000->176400)
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=224000
ID_AUDIO_RATE=44100
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
================================================== ========================
AO: [dsound] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
ID_AUDIO_CODEC=mp3
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 352 x 288 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=1.3347
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 5 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 5 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 1
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 5 -> 4
[swscaler @ 0104F9D4]BICUBIC scaler, from yuv420p to rgb24 using MMX2
[swscaler @ 0104F9D4]using 4-tap MMX scaler for horizontal luminance scaling
[swscaler @ 0104F9D4]using 4-tap MMX scaler for horizontal chrominance scaling
[swscaler @ 0104F9D4]using n-tap MMX scaler for vertical scaling (BGR)
[swscaler @ 0104F9D4]352x288 -> 384x288
VO: [directx] 352x288 => 384x288 Planar YV12 [zoom]
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in I Frame at 0 8
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]skipped MB in I frame at 5 9
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]skipped MB in I frame at 8 10
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 176 DC, 176 AC, 176 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 176 DC, 176 AC, 176 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 176 DC, 176 AC, 176 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 12 15
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]slice mismatch
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 13 10
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]slice mismatch
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in B Frame at 18 13
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 4 16
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 264 DC, 264 AC, 264 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in P Frame at 12 12
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 14 12
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 7 13
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in P Frame at 11 5
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid cbp at 0 7
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid cbp at 5 7
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid cbp at 11 8
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in P Frame at 6 11
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 0 10
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 14 14
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in P Frame at 8 13
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 0 17
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 1 15
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]end mismatch left=2977 713715
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]mb incr damaged
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 308 DC, 308 AC, 308 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]end mismatch left=1589 303725
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 22 DC, 22 AC, 22 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid cbp at 7 16
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]end mismatch left=1173 3EB43
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 44 DC, 44 AC, 44 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in B Frame at 3 0
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid mb type in B Frame at 17 2
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]invalid cbp at 4 4
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 8 4
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 8 5
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]ac-tex damaged at 17 9
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 176 DC, 176 AC, 176 MV errors
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]skipped MB in I frame at 18 6
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]skipped MB in I frame at 8 7
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]skipped MB in I frame at 7 8
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]Warning MVs not available
[mpeg1video @ 00FA1160]concealing 66 DC, 66 AC, 66 MV errors


MPlayer interrupted by signal 11 in module: decode_video
ID_SIGNAL=11
- MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and
disassembly. Details in DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports_what.html#bugreports_crash.
- MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen.
It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your
gcc version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read
DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html and follow the instructions there. We can't and
won't help unless you provide this information when reporting a possible bug.

How I do fix the file? I've passed it through VideoRedo and MPEG corrector but neither output a file which does not crash.

[headless chicken]

By the way, here is the log from VideoRedo if it's of any importance:

Audio frame errors: 5
Input Sequence Errors: 21
Audio resync frames removed: 28
Video output frames: 187877
Audio output frames: 287690

Also, when importing the mpg into virtual dub, I get a number of warnings reporting anachronistic or discontinuous timestamp found in videostream 0 at byte position x, from y to z. This may indicate an improper join.

Playing the problematic portion in VirtualDub Mod produces the following error: Error decoding MPEG audio frame 141082 (1:02:25): incomplete frame.

[AlanHK]

I checked the mpg on the computer and it turns out it crashes

Try an MPEG editor and open and resave it.
Womble MPEG-VCR or TMPGEnc, perhaps.

Also VCDGear is a free VCD tool which can repair MPEG1, try
"MPEG->MPEG" with "Fix MPEG Errors" checked.