DVDx/Panasonic plugin/CCE - Newbie needs help!

[rob_finch]

Hi,

I have been using DVDx, and have installed the panasonic plug in, but it crashes each time it tries to encode. Windows closes it, and it does this every time. I have tried it with versions 1.6/7/8a. Can anyone help?

I am running Win 2000 on 850mhz Athlon.

On another point, Cinema Craft seems to be very expensive ($190 for the lite version). Is this what everyone on this forum is using? And is it really that good?

Thanks to all who reply.

[Russ33]

Mate if you get it worked out let me know. Did not see your post and have posed similiar question above. I am having exactly same problem. Runs ok on own but as soon as you try plug in no dice.. I guess I am doing something basically wrong but I have searched forum and cannot find any clues.
Russ

[Puneet]

I have tried CCE with DVDX but it again crashes...Panasonic works fine but don't see any improvement in quality...I am giving tmpgenc a test now..

[Keffie]

Panasonic doesn't work with DVDx 1.8a, Ligos neither, CCE dunno (never tried). I managed to get panasonic fired up and running ONCE with DVDx 1.8 on a CLEAN system (fresh Windoze install), afterwards it never worked again. DVDx 1.6 works 100% stable with Panasonic plugin, I've done some DVD - VCD PAL conversions. Frankly speaking I don't see any quality improvement over built-in DVDx encoder, it slows down the process, too. Well, and it will not split the .mpeg file like DVDx does. Ligos plug-in is utter crap. Sure it is lightning fast but quality is hopeless, at least on a PC monitor. Due to this I never went that far as to make a whole movie and burn it to CD (maybe I miss some secret this way, hehe). I've found TMPEGenc to be marginally better in quality than DVDx built-in engine but I have also noticed that a hell of a lot depends on a quality of DVD movie itself. Some of them, when converted to VCD looked better when ripped with DVDx alone. So, at the end, I'm not really any wiser. In fact I am using either DVDx 1.6 alone or DVDx 1.8a with TMPEGenc (coz' DVDx 1.8a alone gives inferior quality to 1.6 and is far less stable, although works much better with subtitles, oh well...)

[Russ33]

I can back up what these guys are saying. Plugin works fine with vers 1.6 but not 1.7 or 1.8 of dvdx ( at least for my system). As for quality I have not had a chance to see if it makes a difference. Interesting comment that 1.6 in built decoder gives superior picture anyway..
Thank you for help again
Russ

[kwag]

DVDx 1.8 and 1.8a should be called DVDxCrap.
I've lost so much time trying to make it work. No matter what you do, eventually you'll get a movie with your audio and video out of sync.

And now their site www.labdv.com is for V.I.P's only!.
You have to pay $12.00 for 3 months access. LOL.
The end of LabDV.

Get Xmpeg 4.31a. I works!.

[valzuniga]

Does anyone know where the old version can be downloaded?

[Puneet]

I finally got DVDX to work and have encoded a DVD to a very good quality SVCD. I was EARLIER using v1.6 as I had tried 1.7 and 1.8 which were not working properly. Then I tried v 1.8a and it worked fine as well.

Well for the plug-ins, I tried CCE which crashed again and again and then Panasonic which didn't give me any better quality. Then I tried TMPGenc with 2-pass VBR. It gave me good quality but it would have taken ages to encode ( about 60 hrs for my 200min movie on my PIII 450 MHz machine). So I tried the Constant Quality settings in TMPGenc and it was OK (35 hrs) but there was added brightness in the encoded mpg. Then I tried "Automatic VBR" (took 32 hrs) with max bitrate = 2200kbps and min bitrate = 1000kbps and Quality = 90.....Also, used "Interpolate" in Deinterlace filter AND used 100MB (buffer) save to Hard disk in the input settings in DVDX (to prevent my dvd-rom from stuffing up) .....Then I checked Multipass.and used RGB32 in the output settings of DVDX and used the videoserver plugin...and used tmpgenc plus 2.51 for external encoding.

The final mpg I got was 3.25GB and I guess I need 5x80min discs to fit that...I don't mind that as long as I get good quality. Also my dvd player is a 3 dvd changer. So if i am watching the full movie in one go then i just need to get up once to change the discs.

[kwag]

@Puneet

Now watch your video very closely with PowerDVD or WinDVD, before you burn it, and see how many places in the movie your mpeg falls out of sync.

You'll find that most of the movie will play fine, and in some scenes, the video/audio ( lip sync ) will be off ( sometimes WAY off ) .

[sumibas]

hi,

i have tried to use panasonic plugin in dvdx1.7 and 1.8 but no lcuk. it gives me error and does not proceed. Now i have DVDx1.8 and USE CCE2.5 SP Plugin. It is Realy great. this gives me more stable and good crisp VCD and the Main par is that it Encodes almost in real time. I had a movice if 1 hr 18 min I got it converted into VCD with DVDX 1.8(P4 version) and CCE CBR 1150 bitrate it finishes in 1hr 30 min. and the quality is better than the inbuilt and the fasted encoding i have ever done so far. and i would say it is better than TEMPEG 2 pass (in my point of view)

[Puneet]

Yes, @kwag the quality isn't thatgood. There isn't any audio/video sync problem but the picture jumps and is jerky. it is not smooth.

It is funny because with the same settings I tried doing a 10min clip of the same movie and it was superb but when I do the whole movie, it is just not smooth. Any clues why could this be so

I am now trying the same movie again with only first 45 minutes. If it works fine then I will do the next 45 minutes.

[kwag]

The clues are.... DVDx 1.4,5,6,7,8,8a are "Chok Full'O Bugs!"
Use something else!. DVD2AVI, Xmpeg, etc.

[Puneet]

The problem is that I don't have a big hard disk. Only 10GB at the moment. I will be buying a new PC in 4-5 months. So guess I will have to wait till then.

[Keffie]

to Sumibas:
how exactly did you set up DVDx 1.8 with CCE 2.5 plugin? Are you using it to decode to VCD or SVCD?
thanks

[Puneet]

@Sumibas

Where can I download CCE SP Trial 2.50. Their site only has 2.64. It crashes all the time. So I thought I might give 2.50 a try. Also does 2.50 support Win XP ?