Problem with TMPGEnc!

[Recaro]

Basically I want to convert something from widescreen to widescreen. Sounds easy enough. But when I try to convert a film (which is in widescreen) I've downloaded into a mpeg, the output is either in widescreen (smaller then the original input) which has squahed the picture and looks wrong or full screen which makes the picture stretched.

Does anyone know how I can convert the film to the same size as the inputted source?

I'v played and played and I'm getting fed up with this!!

Cheers

[theDruid]

Hi Recaro,

There are two settings to look at (assuming you're using the Project Wizard):

On the first page, 'Expert Setting for Source' - set the aspect ratio here to match the source file you're feeding in.

On the next page, click on 'Clip Frame' then choose 'Arrange Setting' - it sounds like you want 'Full Screen (keep aspect ratio)'.

You should be able to get your output to preserve the correct widescreen aspect ratio with these two settings.

One thing to note though is that (especially with downloaded avi's), the source file may not exactly match one of the settings available in TMPGEnc. Some widescreen DivX's etc.. have some wierd aspect ratios, and you'll just have to choose the standardised setting that is the closest match to your source.

' hope that helps,

cheers,
mcdruid.

PS. Also, reading back through your post, I'd point out that if you're using TMPGEnc to encode to one of the standard outputs (e.g. PAL VCD etc..) you'll have to allow 'letterboxing' to get the right aspect ratio. Standard compliant VCD/SVCD are not in widescreen aspect ratio, and you'll have to put up with the black borders at the top and bottom. All you can do is try and get the dimensions of the video in the midde right so the picture is not stretched or distorted.

Of course, you can encode to your own settings (not the standard-compliant templates - you can do this by closing the Wizard, and loading the 'unlock' template with the 'Load' button in the bottom right), but then you're less likely to make a (S)VCD that your DVD player will be able to play (and you'll have to author the file as a non-compliant disc).

[tempe]

I'm also having a problem with my TMPGenc lately... I hope I'm in a right thread to ask this question.

I've been succesfully encoding an AVI to MPG all this while. Just recently, I decided to frameserve from avisynth to TMPGenc for faster processing speed. I'm deinterlacing, filtering and resizing using avisynth and feed the result to TMPGenc for encoding. The speed is very encouraging where I save more than 50% of the time. However, it is not always a success. It's really depend on luck. Sometimes I will get an error message saying that TMPGenc unable to read a certain address, but when I re-encode again, I get a same error message but on a different address. Sometimes, with the same AVI and same script, I can succesfully encode the whole clip... Does anyone know why I got this intermittent error.

By the way, here is my AVS script.
---------------------------------------
Avisource("Project 1 Final.avi")
SeparateFields()
ConvertToYuy2()
Weave()
Telecide()
FieldDeinterlace(full=false)
Convolution3D(preset="movieLQ")
saturation = 0.8
cu = - (1-saturation)*256
ColorYUV(off_y=0, gain_y=64, cont_u=cu, cont_v = cu)
LanczosResize(352,288)

Can anyone let me know what is the problem with my script?


Rgrds

[theDruid]

hi tempe,

I would start a new topic about that if I were you mate.

(& I don't know nearly enough about AVIsynth to be any help! - but maybe post what version of TMPGEnc you're using)

cheers,
mcdruid

[tempe]

hi tempe,

I would start a new topic about that if I were you mate.

(& I don't know nearly enough about AVIsynth to be any help! - but maybe post what version of TMPGEnc you're using)

cheers,
mcdruid

Thanks for the advice, I will start a new topic...

[Recaro]

Its better then it was but its still outputting the movie slightly bigger (bout half an inch top and bottom).

Is there anything else I can do or set before?

[theDruid]

All you can do is try those different settings in TMPGenc, or use a different setup altogether (try the different ARRANGE SETTING under clip frame, and you can actually preview what the output is going to look like).

You could use VirtualDub to resize the source & then frameserve to TMPGEnc, or use AVISynth (see guides here, but AVISynth is far from user-friendly).

Or, you could use a totally different encoder. Panasonic Encoder standalone (VCD/MPEG1 only) allows you to choose how tall a border you want to add at the top and bottom in letterboxing.

I say again, that all you can hope for with encoding a widescreen aspect ratio vid to (S)VCD is to preserve the aspect ratio so that the video inbetween the black borders at the top & bottom is not distorted or stretched.

cheers,
mcdruid.

PS. Saying there is still bout half an inch top and bottom is not really telling us much - this would be a lot on a 8 inch TV screen, but not much on a 100 inch wall projector! Try expressing it as a percentage of the viewable screen.

In general you really need to be quite specific if you want people to be able to help.

[Mr Grumpy]

As theDruid said, try frameserving (with resizing either from VDub or AVISynth) to TMPGEnc.

However, the easiest way to work out what sizes to use, is to point FitCD (you'll find that in the tools section) to the AVI and FitCD tells you what sizes to use. It will also create the AVISynth script for you