converting vcd to dvd; sizzle will not accept demuxed .m1v

[tab75-13]

I need help. I have used both ffmpegX as well as tried bbdemux to demux mpeg files into video (m1v extensions) and audio .m2a extiensions. 1)The resulting video files will not play in vlc; they will play in quicktime. 2) more importantly when i go to "add title" sizzle rejects the .m1v files saying no video tracks were found. I have tried everything that i can playing with sizzle in every which way but to avail. Guys. please help. I have downloaded the latest version of sizzle for this; i have also tried sizzle .1. It accepted the files, but is taking for ever to make any progress at all ( I mean not a bit over 0% in making a disk image (making video tracks) and it's been nearly 20 minutes. so i fear the reason it's having difficulty making tracks is maybe the lack of tracks to begin with?... the same topic over which the latest version of sizzle prevented me from adding the .m1vs earlier as titles.

Again, please help. quite stupid with this stuff-- don't know how else to describe it.

thanks a lot.

[sdm]

do you have the program "mpeg info"? if so, post the info for both the muxed mpeg and the m1v file.
If you don't have it, opent the mpeg in ffmpegX and post the info from that.

Did your mpegs actually come from a vcd, or another source. If they came from somewhere else, there is a good chance that they are not VCD/DVD compliant. the info you post will help determine this.

If they arent compliant there are some things you can do, but post the info first.

[tab75-13]

Ok. Thanks for the reply.
I will list below the info for each of the files as according to the info provided by ffmpegx.
This is the info for the first mpeg file I demuxed, avseq01:

VIDEO: mpeg-1, size: 352x240, 29.970 fps, 1120 kbps. AUDIO: mp2, 44100Hz, 224 kbps. Stereo No emphasis.

The demuxed product by both ffmpegX and bbdemux according to information on the file from ffmepgX says: "avseq01.m1v ca not be handeled by this program," this despite the fact that Mplayer in ffmpegX plays the file perfectly and the file opens in the program itself. what does that mean.

2nd file: avseq02.mpg
says:
Mpeg 1 sysytem File [Video/Audio]
Mux rate: 1.41 Mbps
Estimated Duration: 25:32.44s
Size [352x240] 29.97 fps 1.12 Mbps
Ausio: Mpeg 1 layer 2
224 kpps 44100 Hz
Stereo, No emphasis
Info according to ffmpegX for demuxed file says, again for a demuxed file. avseq02.m1v can not be handled by this program; in this case M player in ffmpegX was unable to play the file as well.

3rd file: avseq03.mpg

VIDEO: mpeg-1, Mux rate 1.41 estimated duration: 31:26.51s Mbps size: 352x240, 29.970 fps, 1120 kbps. AUDIO: mp2, 44100Hz, 224 kbps.
after demuxing ffmpegX info: "avseq03 can not be handled by this program." M player in ffmpegX will not play the file but as with the previous one, Quicktime will.

4th file: avseq04.mpg
VIDEO: mpeg-1 system file [ video/ Audio], Mux rate 1.41 Mbps; estimated Duration 16: 30.46 s: size: 352x240, 29.970 fps, 1120 kbps. AUDIO: mp2, 44100Hz, 224 kbps.
after demuxing: "avseq03.m1v can not be handled by this program."

I got the avseq...mpeg files from what is said on the disc is a vcd, though there is also some reference to dvd, but i think that is just a reference as the vcd was mde in a third world country where many would not know the difference between a vcd and a dvd etc, often conflating the two.

one final note, the avseq.mpeg files also play in ffmpegX; every file besides the avseq01.m1v did not play in ffmpegX's Mplayer. the avseq01.mpeg and its .m1v derivative are an animation or graphics of sorts. the remaining avseq files is a video of a live concert.

Please help if you can. I'd be grateful.

Thank you

p.s. i also have three more files from a second disc which is also a vcd whose files have behaved exactly the same way. i haven't provided information on these; i figured the data on these would correspond to the pattern for the mpeg-1 files and .m1v files already seen. thanks

[sdm]

interesting... the only thing that jumps out is that the bitrate should be 1150 kbps, not 1120 kbps.

this is a stab in the dark, but can you re-mux the m1v and mp2 as vcd?
If you don't get any errors, see what happens when you de-mux again.

How you extracted the mpegs from the vcd may also be relevant - how did you do it?

later.

[tab75-13]

well, i tried to mux as a vcd the two files i had demuxed. I got an error in ffmegX, and that is as it should be right? I mean though I know that .mp2 files play, the .m1v files do not play, even in dojo player, a version of Mplayer I recentlry downloaded. In the dojo player, when i go to play the .m1v files, i get a bunch of pixels stirring on the screen, in motion. it seems like the demuxing process while allowing for the demuxing of the music file, the video file was ruined in the process.

Someone told me i could make a dvd out of toast 6: just upload the tracks click dvd and burn. But i was also looking closely at ffmpegX and noticed that the registerd version allows for a one clicking making of a dvd out vcd, producing a video_ts folder and maybe even an image burnable in Toast. Are you aware of this option in ffmpegX? if so, can you let me know a bit about its effectiveness ?
Thanks

Peace,

t.

[sdm]

yes, ffmpegX has that feature and it works. I have the registered version and have tried it. It works, but I'd be surprised if it works in this case. You see the feature basically demuxes, resamples the audio, remuxes and builds a dvd. But if the demuxed video file isn't recognized, you'll get an error.

Also, if you try try to build your dvd with toast 6, I suspect it will re-encode your mpegs, and that is something you want to avoid because of generational quality loss.

How did you get the mpegs off the vcd?

If you can host one of the mpegs somewhere, I'll download it and see if I have any luck with it.

later -- sdm

[tab75-13]

I got the mpegs off the vcd by building an image as Galactica's instructions state in Toast, renaming the file with a .bin extension and the using the Vcd tools application to rip the .bin files, extracting the mpeg files. The problem, it seems to me, lies in the demuxing step as the disk image and the .bin files both play in VLC and Quicktime. I haven't tried, but i think they will also play in DJO player and Mplayer. The strange thing is that even after demuxing, the .m1v files will play in my Quicktime player which has a codec for Divx files in its library (could that have something to do with it, though i doubt it of course?). Why would these files of silent video play in quicktime yet not in M; djo players--does that mean anything? I am really lost and have just about given up; the ffmegX method was my last hope, and you've spilled some waters of clarity on that aspiration as well (correctly so). So now I am waiting for my ffmpegX registration key from its creator to see if what you've prognosticated and what i probably knew all along will predictively happen.

i don't have a website so I can't host any of these mpegs. Is there any other way for someone to upload them from my machine-- i don't think so right--?

thanks for the help,

t.a.b[/quote]

[sdm]

You are right that the Divx codec is *not* responsible for your trouble.
How big are the mpegs in MB? if you want, I'll email you instructions for my work's ftp so you can upload.

BTW as a last resort, you could re-encode your mpegs using ffmpegX with the "fast DVD" preset. that would likely work, using "quicktime to decode". You will take a small quality hit. but maybe it won't be too bad.

Okay let me know.
-- sdm

[tab75-13]

sdm, Thank you very much. You've been really kind. I would hate to bother you much more. If you think ftp'ing some or a couple of these mpegs wont be too much more of a bother, I can certainly send them across to you. I may have mentioned that the files are of a concert of Qawali, a kind of spiritual devotional music from s. asia. The guy in the concert is on the sound track to "Dead Man Walking" and "natural Born Killers." It's a bit of an acquired taste, so you have to bear with some stuff that's pretty meaningless. As the vcd was made in athird world country, no wonder it's giving me trouble; it's quality leaves a lot to be desired.
If you're sure it wouldn't be too bothersome, I can try to ftp some or any number of the 8-9 I have ranging in size from 1.8 M to 350 M., most of them from 160-300 M. I am technologically challeneged and i know that ftp can sometimes be a tiny bit tricky, so if you have time to look at these and it's o.k. that i ftp them to you, just give me a brief run through of what to do, as i'm sure you would've done so. (i have never ftp'ed from a mac before.)

Also, if i'd like to try to rebuild the mpegs through ffmegX, i do the fastDvD preset and the open the mpeg and set a destination and then just hit encode? these steps?
also what would you need, like my private email etc. at all? i don't think it's published.

Thank you so very much once again,
--tab

[tab75-13]

I got the mpegs off the vcd by building an image as Galactica's instructions state in Toast, renaming the file with a .bin extension and the using the Vcd tools application to rip the .bin files, extracting the mpeg files. The problem, it seems to me, lies in the demuxing step as the disk image and the .bin files both play in VLC and Quicktime. I haven't tried, but i think they will also play in DJO player and Mplayer. The strange thing is that even after demuxing, the .m1v files will play in my Quicktime player which has a codec for Divx files in its library (could that have something to do with it, though i doubt it of course?). Why would these files of silent video play in quicktime yet not in M; djo players--does that mean anything? I am really lost and have just about given up; the ffmegX method was my last hope, and you've spilled some waters of clarity on that aspiration as well (correctly so). So now I am waiting for my ffmpegX registration key from its creator to see if what you've prognosticated and what i probably knew all along will predictively happen.

i don't have a website so I can't host any of these mpegs. Is there any other way for someone to upload them from my machine-- i don't think so right--?

thanks for the help,

t.a.b[/quote]

[sdm]

Also, if i'd like to try to rebuild the mpegs through ffmegX, i do the fastDvD preset and the open the mpeg and set a destination and then just hit encode? these steps?

--tab

If you do decided to re-encode:
1. choose the mpeg
2. choose the fast dvd preset
3. [video tab] change the resolution to 352x480 and bitrate to 2300 kbps
or
3. [video tab] change the resolution to 352x240 and bitrate to 1400 or so
4. [video tab] ensure the correct framerate is selected (29.97)
5. [audio tab] choose .mp2 audio codec
6. [audio tab] choose 224 kbit/s audio bitrate
7. [audio tab] change the audio sampling frequency to 48000 Hz
8. [audio tab] choose "Stereo" Channels
9. [options tab] choose "Decode with Quicktime"
10. [tools tab] uncheck "Author as DVD", check "keep elementary streams"
11. encode
12. do this for each mpeg
13. build the dvd in sizzle or dvdsp

-experiment with quality/filesize in step 3.
-some would say that 352x480 is wasting bits if you started with 352x240.

Anyways, I've built dvds with these settings - I'd recommend you test your newly encoded m2vs and mp2s before doing all of them.

otherwise, you could email me one of the mpegs under 5-6 mb.

-- sdm

[tab75-13]

sdm, i hope you can give me some advice as i've been at this project now for this past week. The first sizzle saving-of-theimage, dmg, was the best i believe. it captured all the tracks. but i wasn't satisfied with the presentation of dvd and so began to change some stuff. i added some menu images, changed a couple of mpeg2 files and a couple of the .ac3 files (sizzle wouldn't accept the .mp2 fies if ffmpegx was set to that setting). meanwhile my disc with all the extra mpeg files that i had converted including the tracks obtained from Toast's gathering of disc information from the vcd disc and those i was told by major of ffmpegX to create from the original .dat files in the vcd using VCDGearX (he had intuited that that was the problem causing bad .mp1 files being sensed by szzzle) was filling up. Soon i got close to having to only one gig left on my drive though i didn't detect this until sizzle crashed and i had to restart the computer.

even having cleared the junk from the disc, sizzle has not managed to go through to the end of the process much less a good beginning. Even before the initail crash sizzle was skipping past the 1st title and moving on to the second, multiplexing etc that, but with the crashes (there were a couple of them) sizzle seemed to skip lingering at all on the initial stages of the .dmg process and move to processing the menu; as soon as it did that though sizzle crashes. it keeps crashing and crashing.

before the crashing processes began, after having stupidly trashed my initial .dmg in which all the tracks as i believe worked, i had produced some a couple of .dmgs in which some tracks were missing and when i would click play in their mounted dvd's video_ts folder for these tracks, could not play them. i notced that in the saved file the size of video had been 720x480 for these files whereas it was 352x 240 in the titles that played. So i thought to change these large files to the smaller size, reencoding mpeg files to mpeg-2 format but with making sure that the size of the video was 352x240. It was after having installed these relacement files and then tried to creat the disc image that the sizzle prgram would repeatedly crash, hurryingly rushing past the initial steps i had seen it perform with the 1st disk image created and even the latter ones in which only three of the six tracks had shown up, the others being blocked, ,maybe i suppose because of the larger size of the video. The main problem now is the perpetual crashing of sizzle. i have even downloaded a new sizzle software but it too is crashing the files of the files of sissle for authoring i had saved.
can you or anyone help me, please, again? I am pretty lost once again; what could be causing the sizzle program to crash. I have 9-10 gigs free on my disc and the disc image created is approx 1 gig in size, so i don't think it's the amount of space on the disc that i have that's causing the crash-- i had less than this amt. of space available when i first produced the disc image that (i verty much recall) seemed to work.
any directions would be received with much thanks,

tab

[sdm]

Unfortunately, I have never used sizzle because I have dvd studio pro 2.

funny thing is dvdsp 2 also won't recognize mp2 audio created from ffmpegX - not on my home or work computer, and these mp2s are not coming from a vcd, but rather from .movs etc.
Also of note, dvdsp1.5 does recognize the mp2s created from ffmpegX. -
anyways, since I moved to dvdsp2, I have been using AC3 audio, which I believe is compatible with more standalone dvd players anyways.
- I think I reported this to Major along time ago, but nothing ever came of it.

There are a couple of ways ripping your mpegs off the VCD.
(from a .bin image, and using VCDGearX directly on the .dat)
I too think that your problems may be coming from how the mpegs were ripped.
Do you you have toast 6? if so extract your mpegs this way.

1. Open Toast 6 (the following procedure needs v6)
2. In the Copy tab, make sure toast sees your VCD
3. choose "Disk Info" from the "recorder" menu
4. select the tracks you want and choose "save as"

- them mpegs are extracted!

I believe that you will be best to trash you sizzle project and re-build it from scratch. (sorry)

I'm not sure from your post. Did you re-encode your mpeg1s to mpeg2s?
If you did, those files should work, as long as the resulting files will play.

Remember though, it is better *not to re-encode* as long as the mpeg1s are compliant. (which they are except for the 1120kbps bitrate instead of 1150 vcd standard - that shouldn't matter on a dvd though).

Given this,
1. please try my method of extracting the mpegs.
2. then use the "movie file to AC3" preset in ffmpegX on the mpegs
(change settings: 224kbits/s bitrate, 48000 Hz sampling frequency, stereo)
3. demux your mpegs, and throw away the mp2s
4. re-author your disc with the resulting M1Vs and AC3s

Sorry my answer jumps all over the place.

Let me know if any of this works. -- sdm

[tab75-13]

i just posted to you off site. sorry for lack of patience. i'll try what you said. in fact the mpegs that i used came initally from Toast's extraction. i don't get what you mean by "movie file to AC3." i'll look on ffmpegX though. BTW i was encoding to mpeg-2 as under fast dvd that was the setting given and i kept it on that. so now you're saying i should demux the tracks obtained from Toast and, w/o encoding to mpeg-2 necessarily, take the resulting mv1 and ac3 and put them in sizzle. (sizzle though is killing me; it just wnon't stay in the initial necessary steps of reading the first tracks before moving on to building a menu or something, multiplexing the first track i believe it says, before peetering out 'n dying-- i've even tried a test case beginning from scratch of putting two tracks with audio and video files etc. and attempting to build a disk image, and it dies on me again.) so i don't know what to do. i'll try a new file with your instructions and see what happens i guess and let you know.
thanks again for walking along a bit here,
best,
tab

[sdm]

i don't get what you mean by "movie file to AC3." i'll look on ffmpegX though. BTW i was encoding to mpeg-2 as under fast dvd that was the setting given and i kept it on that. so now you're saying i should demux the tracks obtained from Toast and, w/o encoding to mpeg-2 necessarily, take the resulting mv1 and ac3 and put them in sizzle.

sorry its "movie audio to ac3" and its one of the presets.
you'll select the muxed mpeg1 and this preset. the result is the audio as AC3.

I've been recommending two things, that may be getting confusing.

1. no re-encoding the video, but you must re-sample the audio to 48 khz frequency

2. re-encode to mpeg 2 with the 'fast dvd' preset only slightly modifed.

I can't be too thorough right now. I have company.
good luck.

btw, I can almost guarantee that you can do this somehow.
--sdm

[tab75-13]

ok just an update in the process so i wont forget to make a note of these steps.

i saved the tracks found by Toast 6 from disc info. Probelem: ffmepgX would not accept these for demuxing, saying only vob or mpeg files could be demuxed; well the info according to ffmpegX acknowledges that this same file that its demuxing tool was implying was not a mpeg file was infact a mpeg-1 file with two layers (whatever that means). So i bbdemuxed these files. ffmpegX would accept the mpeg files converted from the disc's .dat files via the VcdGearX program for demuxing though.

When ffmpegX refused to accept the Tracks extracted via Toast for demuxing i turned to bbdemux; it seemed to me to be only tool avaiable to me for use in demuxing.
well while bbdemux would demux both the vcdgearX mpeg and the Toast mpeg, sizzle would not accept either .mv1 video file, saying it lacked tracks. This was the problem that it all began with, so i've returned to the process which for me out of this jam, encoding the mpeg file, presently the one extracted by Toast, as a mpeg-2 file using the fast dvd preset. --i was able to extract the .ac3 file from the mpeg derived by Toast, but now that i have an .mpv file as well as an .ac3 file from the reencoding process of ffmpegX, i figure that i don't need the ac3 file derived singly.

well , just wanted to update you as the process goes along. As i wrote this ffmpegX finished reencoding the mpeg track derived originally from toast and sizzle, with some reservations on the audio file as it wasn't a true 48 khz file it says, has accepted both the files, forming the first track for the dvd to be made--ha ha.

will tell more later,

t.a.b.

[sdm]

now that i have an .mpv file as well as an .ac3 file from the reencoding process of ffmpegX, i figure that i don't need the ac3 file derived singly.

the mpv file is an mpeg 2 video file so that is good.
thats right you don't need the old ac3 file, and should use the one ffmpegX created - it will be 48khz.

It sounds like this is all coming together.

earlier I posted:

3. [video tab] change the resolution to 352x480 and bitrate to 2300 kbps
or
3. [video tab] change the resolution to 352x240 and bitrate to 1400 or so

did you do this? if not, thats okay.
The thing is, if you are up-sizing to 720x480, you are creating a larger file (in mb) but not a better picture.
Do others reading this agree?

How do your re-encoded files look anyways? for quality I mean.

later -- sdm

[tab75-13]

thanks for your reply. i am making sure that the size of the video remains 352x240. that's the size of the original image. it changes to 720x480 when i do the fast dvd preset after having opened the file. i now choose the fast dvd preset before opening file and the file size remain the original of the file, 352x240 and the bitrate lowers down to something like 914 or so. i haven't adjusted it accept onec or twice to the exact reccomended bit rate; i thought i'd let it slide as is, as the bitrate, like the size, seems to keep to the specs of the file itself. i was able to reencode the first two tracks in this second go round, having started the game over, but ran into problems with the third one. ffmpegX's process too for ever. these reencodes take a long time but this one was extraordinary, especially when the progress reached into the 90 % complete area. Finally the process failed, i think at 96%, and i think when it was producing the muxed mpeg-2 QT. i will include the process information below. this process failed for both the track originally extracted via Toast and the one extracted by VcdGearX first. For both processes the .mpv file is produced pretty quickly, and its duration when it's played in vlc is around the 16:30 or so of the original mpeg-1 track encoded. (when this file is opened in ffmpegX for purposes of determining its specs, though, it lists its duration as only a little over 2 minutes; either ffmepgX is wrong here, or because of something being wrong with the video when its read though not when its played in vlc causes this discrepancy to appear). the .ac3 file is just as long, but as i listened to the .ac3 on vlc, near its end, there were a lot of scratches. i suppose this may account for the inability of ffmpegX file to produce the muxed mepg-2 file. after the failure, though i tried to produce a muxed mpeg-2 out of the two vlc files, one the mv2 and the other, the .ac3, produced in the encoding, and the muxing was successful, though i haven't yet. ican tell though as the same thing happened to me last week and also the size of this particular muxed file is over a 125 M, whereas the size of the muxed QT file produced by the encoding was only 45 megs.

ok. i don't know if it will mean much, but here's the info from the failed encoding.

Encoding started on Sat Jul 3 17:32:08 CDT 2004
Input #0, yuv4mpegpipe, from 'pipe:':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 352x240, 29.97 fps
Output #0, rawvideo, to '/Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disc track 3 (reencoded) (track derived via Toast1st)/Track 3.mpv':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video (hq), 352x240, 29.97 fps, q=2-20, 914 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
[mpeg2video @ 0x2320dc]rc buffer underflow
bench: utime=233.210s
video:106124kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
Input #0, mpeg, from '/Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disc tracks/Track 3.mpeg':
Duration: 00:16:27.5, bitrate: 1396 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg1video, 352x240, 29.97 fps
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 224 kb/s
Output #0, ac3, to '/Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disc track 3 (reencoded) (track derived via Toast1st)/Track 3.ac3':
Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 224 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
video:0kB audio:26946kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
**ERROR: [mplex] Too many frame drops -exiting
************************************************** ***********
Here's the process info for the sucessful mux afterwards.

INFO: [mplex] mplex version 2.2.2 ($Date: 2003/05/13 20:27:15 $)
INFO: [mplex] File /Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disk track3 extracted via vcdgear 1st/Track 3.mpv looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [mplex] File /Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disk track3 extracted via vcdgear 1st/Track 3.ac3 looks like an AC3 Audio stream.
INFO: [mplex] Found 1 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [mplex] Selecting generic MPEG2 output profile
INFO: [mplex] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [mplex] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (/Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disk track3 extracted via vcdgear 1st/Track 3.mpv)
INFO: [mplex] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [mplex] Frame width : 352
INFO: [mplex] Frame height : 240
INFO: [mplex] Aspect ratio : 4:3 display
INFO: [mplex] Picture rate : 29.970 frames/sec
INFO: [mplex] Bit rate : 6000000 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] Vbv buffer size : 458752 bytes
INFO: [mplex] CSPF : 0
INFO: [mplex] Scanning for header info: AC3 Audio stream 00 (/Users/tabeerbadar/Desktop/1st disk track3 extracted via vcdgear 1st/Track 3.ac3)
INFO: [mplex] AC3 frame size = 896
INFO: [mplex] AC3 AUDIO STREAM:
INFO: [mplex] Bit rate : 28672 bytes/sec (224 kbit/sec)
INFO: [mplex] Frequency : 48000 Hz
INFO: [mplex] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [mplex] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 6324048
INFO: [mplex] target data-rate specified : 3000000
++ WARN: [mplex] Target data rate lower than computed requirement!
++ WARN: [mplex] N.b. a 20% or so discrepancy in variable bit-rate
++ WARN: [mplex] streams is common and harmless provided no time-outs will occur
INFO: [mplex] Run-in Sectors = 88 Video delay = 43253 Audio delay = 46256
INFO: [mplex] New sequence commences...
INFO: [mplex] Video e0: buf= 235520 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [mplex] Audio bd: buf= 16384 frame=000000 sector=00000000
++ WARN: [mplex] Discarding incomplete final frame AC3 stream 0!
INFO: [mplex] STREAM bd completed @ frame 30852.
INFO: [mplex] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 29669.
INFO: [mplex] Multiplex completion at SCR=89054576.
INFO: [mplex] Video e0: buf= 194179 frame=029669 sector=00054096
INFO: [mplex] Audio bd: buf= 16384 frame=030852 sector=00013733
INFO: [mplex] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [mplex] Video Stream length: 109283166 bytes
INFO: [mplex] Sequence headers: 2473
INFO: [mplex] Sequence ends : 0
INFO: [mplex] No. Pictures : 29670
INFO: [mplex] No. Groups : 2473
INFO: [mplex] No. I Frames : 2473 avg. size 11299 bytes
INFO: [mplex] No. P Frames : 27198 avg. size 2990 bytes
INFO: [mplex] No. B Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [mplex] Average bit-rate : 882800 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] Peak bit-rate : 2060400 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] BUFFERING min 32 Buf max 200717
INFO: [mplex] AUDIO_STATISTICS: bd
INFO: [mplex] Audio stream length 27644293 bytes.
INFO: [mplex] Syncwords : 30854
INFO: [mplex] Frames : 30854 padded
INFO: [mplex] Frames : 0 unpadded
INFO: [mplex] BUFFERING min 22 Buf max 917
INFO: [mplex] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.
************************************************** ***********Sorry for all this information and for taking your time. Here. As the last bit of information which indicates i think a final frame being dropped in order for the muxing to occur?

I believe that sizzle will accept the two--audio and video-- files produced, whether it is able to remux them as ffmpegX has is a different thing i guess.

again, sorry for the info overload. it's more to keep you (and anyone else who may be bothered) up to date in the travails and happenings along the way, and to record them for any later looking back.

thanks again
peace,

t.a.b.

[tab75-13]

just an update. i was able to reencode the track that was giving me problems at the bitrates that you reccommended for the 352 x240 size, of 1400.
i then go to remux the .mpv and the .ac3 file to test i suppose whether they will remux in sizzle, though i don't think this is a foolproof prognosis of what sizzle 'll do. (sizzle as you know has been driving me to despair.) When i compare the remuxed file with the mpeg-2 file generated in the reencoding process, the file generated in the remux is always smaller; it lasts less as long. it does seem to contain the content of the reencode mpeg-2 file, but it goes by quicker. maybe this has to do with a faster bitrate in the remux than the encoding--i can only think?

i know you don't use sizzle, but how does it bode for the multiplexing etc in sizzle that i have been scared to go into for fear of disappointment that i can remux the .mpv and .ac3 files generated in the rncoding process?

thanks for your trouble,

t.ab.

[sdm]

Sorry , I've been on holiday.

You are right, the muxed file should be larger, not smaller.

the higher bitrate means more data per second, not that the video will play faster.

ffmpegX should of created a muxed mpeg.. did it?
Is that mpeg smaller as well?
I suspect you didn't mux with a dvd profile.
What was your method of muxing.

Or maybe by now you've got it all figured out.

later - sdm

[tab75-13]

hi sdm, thanks for the post. yes i am in a better place right now. i ended up using sizzle 0.1 that thoughton reccommended. the new version o.5b2 is crashing for others too. the only problem i had at the end was that toast wouldn't take the video_ts folder produced, i believe because of one of the mpv files that had taken a long time to reencode had some real issues with it. it wasn't a very good film with patches what looked like torn spots as it ran. i then used disc utility to burn the video_ts disc image. i ended up however with a disc that would play in a stand-alone player as well as the computer but not a pc. How could i have avoided this? By clicking on pc and mac in toast's data burning slot? i was sending the disc to friend who has a pc with a dvd player but no standalone player. also it seems that toast is so finicky that it wouldn't accept the image i had produced, i am wondering if it's worth the investment. ffmpegX does a lot of the things toast supposedly does and i can always burn with disc utility or some free burning utility. any comments from your experience would be welcomed if you have time.
thanks,

t.a.b.