TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress XVID Compression Confusion & Archival Suggested Setting

[timmer545]

I’ve been ripping 8mm tapes and compressing. At one point I was using VirtualDub, but was having problems with audio volume decreasing substantially, so moved to Windows Media Encoder, ripping to WMV, then using TMPGEnc to compress using XVID (Twopass; Advanced Simple @ L5; MPEG Layer-3). I also have K-Lite Codec Pack Full 7.0.0 installed. I’m on Win7 (x64).

My first question is what FPS I should be using to save Archive video rips. Both my 8mm camcorder and player (which worked fine when I put them away a few years ago) have died. I believe this is my last chance to ever capture these 8mm tapes.

My first attempt using TMPGEnc to compress used the install default Target Size of 570000 (I did not set FPS) and it produced very large files (i.e., GSpot indicates FPS of 5136 on one of them). So I decided to reduce and restrain the FPS to 1300, however the resulting same source produced another very large file (GSpot indicates FPS of 6801).

I am completely perplexed as to why TMPGEnc produced this file at 6801 FPS when during the 2nd-pass I specifically tried to limit it to 1300.

--tim

[jamespoo]

use megui

[Vidd]

FPS stands for frames per second. Since your profile indicates you live in the US, you should use 29.97 fps. Europe would use 25 fps.

Capturing in wmv format and then recompressing to Xvid is not the best way to archive video. You will have major quality loss since you are compressing twice. It would be better to leave it in as a wmv, rather then recompressing it again to Xvid.

An archived format should be expected to be around for a long time. WMV is not popular and lacks broad support, and Xvid is in decline. I would suggest capturing with a lossless codec and do only one compression step to a high bitrate MPEG-2 or H.264.


I think your original question refers to bitrate, not FPS. The bitrate you indicated is kind of high for Xvid. I would suggest going through all the advanced settings. TMPGEnc usually asks for the target size and adjusts the bitrate automatically.

[timmer545]

Thank you both for your replies.

Vidd, you are correct. My rips have 29.97 FPS and the kbps are what are coming in very large (anywhere from 3000 to 12,000).

Using TMPGEnce, Xvid, there is a toggle (that I used to be able to make work) to select either target size or set a bitrate. I elect to set the bitrate (for example 1300), but the rips are still coming up and showing in GSpot at around 6,000 kbps. I don't understand why when I select 1300 it's final file is 6000 kbps.

WMV is not what I really wanted to use, but for some reason capturing with Windows Media Encoder (WMV) was bringing the audio in correct, whereas VirtualDub (AVI) was not.

I understand that Xvid is on the decline and friends have suggested that I capture using H.264. My problem with that is that I'd like to provide various video segments to friends that they can play on their DVD players, which if I understand correctly, they will play Xvid, but not H.264.

Possibly I should capture and store in H.264 and export various segments for friends into AVI.

I've downloaded megui, but have yet to try it. Is that a good program for capturing video? Is there a better one?

[jagabo]

Normal DVD players will not play Xvid AVI. Many do have the ability but you still have several issues to deal with. Your video tapes contain interlaced video. Xvid supports that but many playback devices don't properly handle it. Deinterlacing your video will reduce the quality and result in half the motion smoothness. If you insist on using Xvid consider single pass target quantizer encoding (constant quality). That way your videos will always be the quality you specify, regardless of the video properties.

MPEG2 with DVD compatible settings is generally a better choice for archiving. It fully supports interlaced video and all DVD players will handle it correctly.

Shaky, noisy, handheld video tape recordings do not compress as well as clean steady professional film shots, whether you use MPEG2 or Xvid. Don't expect good quality at low bitrates.