DO A GOOD DEED TODAY - HELP AN IGNORANT NEWBIE LIKE ME!.....

[bluevine]

.....BECAUSE YOU'D MAKE YOUR MAMA PROUD AND I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT TOO.
I bought my video capture card last night (pinnacle with studio 7). I'm running Win ME, Pentium 3, 1 Gig and plenty of hard drive room. I succesfully captured a short (3 min) video to AVI format from video tape. This AVI format pulls up fine in Windows Media Player. Pinnacle's software can convert this to both MPEG1 and MPEG2 but it takes FOREVER so I'd prefer to use TMPGEnc. When I open TMPGenc and select the AVI file as the input the preview pane is a BLACK screen. When I attempt to convert to MPEG1 or MPEG2 it only converts the audio and never shows any video in the preview pane. Is there some trick to getting TMPGEnc to recognizing this AVI file?

[Tommyknocker]

What does the video look like after conversion is complete?

[bluevine]

Its a black screen - just like it was in the preview pane. It goes through the motions of the conversion but the only thing it seems to convert is the audio.

[MaDmiZe]

We will assume that you have used TMPG before and it worked??
The TMPGenc.vfp file is in TMPG's root directory and has been installed??
IF so go to option>enviromental settings>VFAPI plug in....and right click on the AVI vfw reader...select higher priority a couple times...to increase its prioity..(repeat for the avi2(dml) file reader) ..That should help.

[Tommyknocker]

This time, after you load your wedding video, load a template from the Load button. Stop it after a minute and see if the video is what you are looking for.

[bluevine]

Well I haven't gotten to the wedding video just yet!!!!
I started out with a 2 minute scene from Shakespere's Henry the Fifth if you must know!
I have converted quicktime movies to MPEG 1 and 2 before using TMPGEnc and had no problem. I also had no problem with a sample AVI file that came with the Pinnacle software. I just did a search on TMPGEnc.vfp and there is no such file anywhere on my PC. I'm assuming that is the problem. Should I reinstall TMPGEnc to get this file or is it available elsewhere?
Gracias

[Tommyknocker]

You cannot find the templates in TMPGEnc?

[bluevine]

I found the template but it didn't seem to want to do anything. However I just increase the priority on those AVI settings about 3 notches and it seems to be working now.
Many Thanks

[MaDmiZe]

If its up and running that file (TMPGEnc.vfp) is probly somewhere on there so...if it aint broke ....don't fix it.....

Like Tommyknocker said, do always load a template after you have set the source and output files for TMPG.....That way once you adjust (or not) the template to your liking...all your encodes will be the same...
The "VideoCD(NTSC).mcf" is for vcd standard encodes ...the pal one is of course for yous guys w/ pal systems..

[Greyhair]

You might also consider frameservering through Virtual Dub. This will give you many more options for filters and editing too.