mpeg2 IN to tmpenc

[branch]

Not sure if this is the right forum (too many forums), but perhaps someone could offer a suggestion here:

Everybody seems to claim that tmpgenc will support the ligos codec - well, it doesn't here - has it been blacklisted by the tmpgenc people as well, or is there some other explanation?

[RabidDog]

AFAIK ligo is an mpeg2 encoder/decoder. tmpgenc is an mpeg2 encoder. So your question is somewaht irrelevant. Do you mean will tmpgenc support mpeg2 input?? yes it will ..

[branch]

No my question is not irrelevant.

No, Tmpgenc will not support mpeg2 input on its own, it needs help (not the free version anyway)

That help seems to be in external codecs, but they also seem to blacklist most of them and only allow a few

Ligos was supposed to be one of them (according to some people on the net, and some of the ravings in their 'revision history') but it doesn't work here.

Therefore back to the original question - anybody know why?

[bugster]

In my experience, the most reliable way of inputting mpeg-2 into Tmpgenc is to use dvd2avi and framserve it.

[branch]

Yes, well it works. But how is the quality. Or do you think that decode is pretty much decode and there isn't any quality difference there?

[bugster]

decode is pretty much decode

That about sums it up.

AFAIK, it will use whatever the default mpeg-2 codec is on your system for the decode stage.

[branch]

decode is pretty much decode

That about sums it up.

AFAIK, it will use whatever the default mpeg-2 codec is on your system for the decode stage.

When you say "IT" you mean dvd2avi? (Tmpgenc doesn't)

[jimmalenko]

Are we forgetting that the free version of TMPGEnc only supports MPEG-2 for 30 days ?

[energy80s]

As long as you have an MPEG2 codec installed on your system, then TMPG will accept MPEG2 files fine. However you need to have the plus version, the free version is only for MPEG 1.

[bugster]

As long as you have an MPEG2 codec installed on your system, then TMPG will accept MPEG2 files fine. However you need to have the plus version, the free version is only for MPEG 1.

Actually, I believe the free version will accept mpeg-2 source materials just as well as the plus version. The free version will only output mpeg-1 though (once the trial period is up).

[branch]

As long as you have an MPEG2 codec installed on your system, then TMPG will accept MPEG2 files fine. However you need to have the plus version, the free version is only for MPEG 1.

Ah, this may be the first really usefull piece of information. This is very misleading i think. Any version of tmpgenc you download has a trial period of mpeg2 - so you would assume that any of them can read mpeg2. But they can't. Seems you are right. Only the plusversion will do it, the other version black codecs.
How annoying, but at least it seems to have solved the problem.

[adam]

You should always use dvd2avi when loading mpeg2 files into TMPGenc. The dvd2avi plugin is specifically designed to frameserve mpeg2 sources. If you load mpeg2 sources directly into TMPGenc it will use directshow filters to access it, and these filters are specifically designed to PLAY mpeg2 sources. They really aren't meant for frameserving, so they are not as reliable.

As far as quality, there probably isn't any difference though dvd2avi does allow you to use forced film on true FILM sources, which is probably the single greatest tool for DVD backups there is, and it allows you to control how the colorspace is converted.

[branch]

So after all you say, decoding just isn't decoding

(I'd also prefer to have less rather than more software installed)

[energy80s]

Remember that Force Film is only for NTSC discs, for everything else DON'T use it!