HEEEELLLLPPP!!!! (with forty-two)

[roger17]

So,

I have a 733 G4 tower, 10.2.6,
I've installed Forty-two "properly",
(mplayer and mencoder are in the application support folder)
I haven't "niced" it.
My Apple DVDplayer plays a DVD automatically when is is inserted in the drive (which is a Samsung sm316), so the drive is known to be working fine.

BUT Forty-Two gives me NO previews (even though "mplayer" appears very briefly on the "taskbar"), and I get NOTHING but empty folders labelled "burn whats in here"

It just DON"T WORK.

I've upgraded to version 1.6.1 and was overjoyed to see that this upgrade was going to make my problem go away - but alas - it hasn't.

What am I missing here folks....

(apart from a brain that is?????)

any help would be MUCHLY appreciated


thanks in advance

Roger

[bilestyle]

the first thing that comes to mind is where the application is located or possibly the paths you are choosing as the output directories for your conversion... if they have any special characters in them (bullets, parenthesis, slashes, dashes) etc... that could cause problems.

[roger17]

Thanks for the reply

Fair point - I read the warning in the manual about no spaces (etc) in the directory path, so I have heeded that warning (and maintained that through-out, with temp and output folders and output file names ALL having nothing but apha strings as names).

Forty-Two produces quite large temp files while it's working BTW, but it erases them when it is "cleaning up" at the end of the rip - leaving only an empty burn whats in here folder, so I'm stuffed if I know what to try next.

is there a codec I should have installed that I don't know about??

any suggestions?

thanks

Roger

[ChrisLong]

Can you send me an email with some more specific details, dvd(s) used, NTSC or PAL, output options, version of forty-two used etc...

Chris Long
chrislong@gol.com

[roger17]

Thanks for the response

- since my last post I have realised one must have mpeg2enc installed in the appropriate application support/library folder. (Not mentioned in the manual - but pretty obvious in hindsight).

So I have now succeeded in previewing, ripping, then burning, ONE SVCD. Problem is, it is disk one in a set of (at least) two. But disk two bin is no-where to be found. The burnwhatsinhere folder only contained one bin image of the first 45 minutes of the film. The 1.8 gig mpeg is also on the drive - but I assume I should be seeing a two "bin"'s? (there's still about 5 gig free on the drive so I'm assuming space isn't the issue)

Any further suggestions??????


Thanks in anticipation

Roger

[freeway]

Have you sorted this problem yet? I am having exactly the same problem and it is driving me crazy. Be very grateful if you find an answer you could let me know.
Thanks
Stu

[roger17]

Well here's the answer (that MANY of you on this thread will find quite offensive).........

I gave up and bought a PC!!!!!!!! - Seriously!!!

I until recently had an employer-provided Toshiba lap-top - upon which I mastered the fine art of ripping and SVCD'ing. I was hoping to replicate this process on my G4 (733meg tower) - but I got as far as the above thread indicates and said ah stuff it!!

With forty two I got as far as producing one working SVCD.
The manual doesn't mention it anywhere - but you must have MPG2ENC in the app support folder or you get no previews (tell-tale sign something's wrong - also not mentioned in the manual) - and get empty folder syndrome.

So upon installing the MPG2 thingy I actually got to see Forty-two running properly - previews and all - but only one SVCD "bin" in the folder - it burned fine in Roxio - it played fine on my DVD stand alone player and all was well. It was theorized that I needed more free space on my drive to get the rest of the SVCD images - but having seen how little control over the end result you get, I gave up. WE needed a new "family" machine anyway (for games/internet/homework , so DVD ripping and speech recognition turned the tide in favour of a PC (all my friends are GAGGING in horror believe me!!!!). Speach regonition on MAC SUCKS!!!!! bigtime, and Dragon Naturally Speaking on PC actually works (and has an Australian Dialect module) - so no contest there!!

As far as ripping,
Smart Ripper. (move vobs from DVD to Harddrive)
Rip-It-All, (convert Vobs to burnable format ) and
Nero (burn end product: fitted, cropped, previewed and MPG2 encoded)
is an unbeatable suite of programs. You decide aspect ratios, can adjust originals to suit your viewing preferences, adjust bit rates, what number of disks the end product ends up on (i.e. do you want a 3 hour movie at a lower bit rate but on two disks, or higher rez spread over 3 or 4 disks - etc)

I know forty-two tries to be friendly (and it is once you FINALLY get it going) but it takes away too much control and leaves you no flexibility. I certainly took me ages to get Rip-it -all working well, far too many variables I didn't understand. But the end products are EXTRAORDINARILY good.

So (sadly), I went PC. it cost me all up about $900 including a video capture card that enable you to plug the svideo straight into the PC and burn in real time to DVDr (which I don't own yet) or straight to disk in burnable increments of 650 or 700 meg in any format you want. The mother board also comes standard with SP/Dif for capturing the audio via digital as well. So a 1.8GIGHz, 512meg ram, 40 gig H/D, ATI hi-rez video card and Winfast Video capture card (98 bucks retail - pretty cheap), Samsung fast combo drive and a good 17" s/h monitor.

All that on a mac would have cost me about $5000 - no brainer.

(and to top it off, the ULEAD video editing and video mastering/burning software that came for free with the capture card leaves some VERY well known programs for dead!! The software has a combined retail value of well over twice the cost of the capture card)


So - sorry - I don't have an answer to the final stage of getting forty-two working coz I never did really - got close though.

\8o(

(advice for the authours. hand the software to a novice, track the mistakes and omissions in your manual - document the common mistakes people will make - like I did - "if there is no preview; do you have MP2ENC installed on your machine?" etc, and maybe build in a few more check boxes - e.g. "do you want to split the final file to two disk images or split at 650/700 meg" and some adjustment of aspect ratios and you will have a winner"

cheers

Roger

"Macs are better, but sometimes love hurts"

[galactica]

sorry its been like that for you.
I have known 42 to be a little crazy, but once you get it working its smooth like a baby's butt.
Uhmmm for speach recognition, which software did you use? Ive been using iListen and its working just fine for me. Dont have a speach recognition on a PC to compare it to, but it does its job.

Its true about the price though. I got a pc back when i had both for under 700, and it was quite nice! but it always had problems. things would crash hardware was not accepted, it was a headache. so i tossed it and stuck with the mac. never had a problem with it.

sorry its been like that for you. there are other ways other than 42 to make SVCD but you now have a way to do it on PC also.

[bilestyle]

if you installed the software PROPERLY it installs mpeg2enc FOR you.. so dont point the finger at us that we didnt somethin wrong. Its a shame that you got so frustrated that you went and bought a pc... one of the few that went in the wrong direction from the right one in the first place.. oh well if it does what you need to whatever, enjoy palladium and longhorn when they come out...

i honestly think the biggest problem is people dont READ. i bet about 95% of the people who have problems with forty-two are the ones who just installed the updater without installing that application, and then they wonder why it doesnt work. It flat out says on the website that 1.6.1 is an UPDATE.. its even italics to emphasize that you need to download and installed 1.6 FIRST..... im not saying this was definitely your problem, but im willing to bet money that its the number 1 cause behind the problems most people would have.

[freeway]

I downloaded 1.6, then the 1.6.1, update and I still get no preview and nothing in the burn whats in here folder. So can you explain what I'm doing wrong because I can actually read!
Thanks
Stu

[zx81]

Dear Roger

The manual doesn't mention it anywhere - but you must have MPG2ENC in the app support folder or you get no previews (tell-tale sign something's wrong - also not mentioned in the manual) - and get empty folder syndrome.

Thank you VERY much for this posting. Since I have put a copy of MPG2ENC in the support folder, forty-two is FINALLY WORKING PROPERLY on my iMac. I am so happy now!

(advice for the authours. hand the software to a novice, track the mistakes and omissions in your manual - document the common mistakes people will make - like I did - "if there is no preview; do you have MP2ENC installed on your machine?"

Since I have been trying for weeks to get Forty-two work, I absolutely agree with your suggestion.

I gave up and bought a PC!!!!!!!! - Seriously!!!

It is a pity that you are not satisfied with 42 and even had to switch to a PC. For me, Forty-two is EXACTLY the program I have always been dreaming of, since the first time I saw all these Unix DVD tools for Mac OS X - they are just far too complicated for an ordinary user and absolutely NOT Mac like.

I know forty-two tries to be friendly (and it is once you FINALLY get it going) but it takes away too much control and leaves you no flexibility.

Advanced users who want to use special options can still play around with ffmpegX and those Unix tools, but I must admit that the OPTION to specify more settings in a hidden window in Forty-two would be a nice extension for future versions.

Regards, Juerg

NB: Many thanks to the developer of Forty-two! I had even purchased the very expensive DVD2oneX (which is fast but an incomplete tool, limited to creating DVDs) when I once gave up with 42. You can be sure that I am going to make a contribution for the much more versatile Forty-two.