strange new problem with CVD/SVCD conversions (re-mux fixes)

[spooky130]

Until a few days ago, all of my conversions to SVCD and CVD played on my standalone DVD player (Samsung DVD-V1000) just fine..... Now, however, I'm seeing some strange new problems (that I have seen before in another person's SVCD encodes, btw---except not as consistent).

First, I'm capturing with VirtualVCR using MJPEG (Q19), editing with VirtualDub, and frameserving to TMPGEnc for conversion to CVD.

As of a few days ago, some (not all) of my captures have a problem on playback *ON THE STANDALONE* (it's fine on the computer) between 18:00 and 20:00. The problem is always between 18--20 minutes, at least, in my case (the other person's encodes that I mentioned seemed to have trouble at any random point in the video). The video will "freeze up" for a bit, skip forward, freeze, skip forward, etc., until it hits the 20:00 mark, and then it's fine again (audio sync sometimes stays good, and sometimes is lost until I stop and re-start from there). When I check the MPEG on the computer, it appears to be fine. In all but one case (so far), a simple re-multiplex using TMPGEnc's MPEG Tools fixes the problem for my encodes (for the other guy's, the re-mux failed about 50% of the time).

Oh, and when I check the original capture, there are no dropped frames (seems the few dropped frames I get are almost always during commercials).

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Does anyone know what might have suddenly broken (without changing anything that I know of on the system)?

If I've left out info that would help solve this, just let me know---I don't know what is and is not important for this one. I don't even know where to start (except for asking for help here, that is).

Thanks,
--jim

[tito13kfm]

run it through bitrate viewer and see if there are any rate spikes around that time.

Are you using VBR with tmpgenc? I always have issues getting it to stay above the max bitrate I set on 2 pass VBR's

[spooky130]

I'm using CBR, not VBR, with TMPGEnc. But then, for 45 (well, really more like 43) minutes on one 800 MB CVD, CBR works very nicely ... IMHO, of course. Then again, until this annoying problem is fixed, about 50% of them aren't working at all w/o re-muxing. :-(

I did at least rule out one thing last night---it isn't a bad pack of CD-Rs. I read the MPEG back from the disk (using VCDEasy's ripper) and compared it to the original. MD5 signatures matched perfectly. Of course, if it were just bad CDs, it'd be one heck of a coincidence that the re-muxed one always works out right, but still ... rule out whatever you can, then see what's left, right? :-)

[RabidDog]

Have you tried scanning your hard disk? or even defragging it? or what is the size of your source file. Maybe memory problems too. Most importantly you've neglected to say what where and how you burn at what speed. do you have AV software ?. What other memory resident software is running? what have you changed in the last two weeks?

for the other guy's, the re-mux failed about 50% of the time).

more info about this..

[spooky130]

On the hard drive, yes, I defrag it often---have to, or I'd get dropped frames during captures (at least, I'd be a lot more likely to). AV software is, and has been, running, but NOT for that drive (i.e., real-time stuff is turned off). This is how I've been running all along, though.

As for the capture-->burn details ... repeating (and filling in gaps):

I capture using VirtualVCR w/ MJPEG at Q19. I get about 2--6 dropped frames over a two hour capture when capturing from broadcast, and as many as 12 for two hours (usually in big clumps around an obvious bad spot in the tape) when source is old VHS tape. None of this is new. For broadcast caps, the dropped frames usually appear during commercial breaks (say, 90% of the time). Oh, and captures with zero dropped frames still show the same problems lately.

I edit (and adjust the frame rate to 29.973 for audio sync---it's always ended up being 29.973 or 29.974, but the latter is usually a bit off compared to the former) using VirtualDub 1.5.4 (P4 optimized version) and then frameserve to TMPGEnc for conversion to CVD (or SVCD, depending on the source). Again, nothing new.

I burn the CDs (700/800 MB 80 minute CD-R) with VCDEasy at 24x (using eight equidistant chapters for easier fast-forward when I need/want it). Still nothing new.

Oh, and let me repeat---when I check the MPEG on the computer, it's fine. Whatever the problem is, it's only a problem for my standalone DVD player (again, Samsung DVD-V1000).

What's changed in the last two weeks? A new pack of CDs. But again, checked the burned copy against the original MPEG w/ MD5 ... they match. So I doubt that this is it, particularly given the coincidence that the second copy (if there is a need for one), where I've re-muxed it with TMPGEnc's MPEG Tools, is always good.

Suggestions?

[spooky130]

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? Any suggestions for debugging it?

Thanks......