problem with CCE SP Version

[nick101181]

I'm trying to encode an avi file with 6 passes in cce but after doing the first pass and rendering the .Vaf file it freezes with just 2.50 mb of video and audio encoded. Any ideas? I'm using an ahtlon 64 3000+ with 1 gig of pc3200 ram and 120gig 7200 rpm harddrive.

[adam]

Not sure, but you can try picking the encode back up where you left off. Just set the output to the same directory where that .vaf file is and use the same settings. It will skip the .vaf creation and go right to the encoding. See if it gets through it.

[FulciLives]

I realize that this doesn't directly answer your question but my understanding is based the mathmatics of probability ... a 5 pass encode is all you need. Anything more is really just overkill and although there will be some very minor difference between say the 5 and 6 pass after the 5th pass the difference is so freaking minor that it is not noticeable and you are just wasting time.

Something to consider next time around.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[monzie]

6 Passes (your having a laafff)!!!!!!

Lets start with some basics eh?

Have you checked the avi for errors?

What resolution is your avi?

What bitrate is your avi?

What length (in time) is your avi?

Why are you converting the audio with CCE (and whats its original format)?

What is your reason for converting avi to mpg (is it to fit on a 4.7gig DVD-/+r)?

6 passes why?

What version of CCE are you using? and is it a full version?

[nick101181]

I found out what the problem was I had to uncheck audio in cce cause the audio was mp3 and was freezing it. I have another question. I followed a guide that tells me how to calculate the measurements for adding borders and stuff and while it worked for one file it didn't work for another. the video I'm having problem with has these specs:

624x352
ratio of 1.77:1
42:21 length
xvid codec.

I'm wondering what the lanczosresize should be and add borders should be?
Cause using the calculations I came up with left black borders on the sides while in fullscreen. I came up with a y value of 406 and a z value of 37. any ideas?

[FulciLives]

I found out what the problem was I had to uncheck audio in cce cause the audio was mp3 and was freezing it. I have another question. I followed a guide that tells me how to calculate the measurements for adding borders and stuff and while it worked for one file it didn't work for another. the video I'm having problem with has these specs:

624x352
ratio of 1.77:1
42:21 length
xvid codec.

I'm wondering what the lanczosresize should be and add borders should be?
Cause using the calculations I came up with left black borders on the sides while in fullscreen. I came up with a y value of 406 and a z value of 37. any ideas?

use FitCD

It's that easy.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Skynet107]

Try this:
AviSource("video.avi")
LanczosResize(720,371,0,14,624,352)
AddBorders(0,56,0,53)

And get FitCD it will output your scripts for you.

[midnightsun]

the video I'm having problem with has these specs:

624x352
ratio of 1.77:1
42:21 length
xvid codec.

I'm wondering what the lanczosresize should be and add borders should be?
Cause using the calculations I came up with left black borders on the sides while in fullscreen. I came up with a y value of 406 and a z value of 37. any ideas?

Hi!

Since your source has an 16:9 aspect ratio you can work it out in two ways:


1)ENCODE AS 16:9

resize the source to 720x480 ad tell cce to make a 16:9 mpeg. Simple as that


2)ENCODE AS 4:3 WITH BLACK PADDING TOP AND BOTTOM

The display area of an NTSC 4:3 mpeg at dvd full res would be 640x480, and a 16:9 movie encoded as 4:3 and padded to fill a 4:3 screen would be 640x360 (Display size I'm talking about). Now, since your source is 624x352 it's a bad idea to upscale from 624x352 to 640x360 (+padding), you'd be much better off just filling the empty space with black so this is what I suggest:

624x352->resize to 704x352
704x352->addborders(8,64,8,64)->720x480

Tell cce to make a 4:3 mpeg.

This on playback is rendered as 640x480 (remember it has a 4:3 flag), with the "active" area being 625x352, thus it hasn't been distorted


If you're short on disc space you could try using the latter, since you would save some bitrate due to the black areas not requiring much to be encoded.

[monzie]

Yup, FITCD is the way to go (nice to see all the regulars contributors are using it....saves all those calculations).

Just remember to edit the 'your.avi.avs' script in NOTEPAD and delete the last line:

#Trim(0,~).FadeOut(150)

And add this line (from within FITCD on later versions...still on 1.1.2 here):

ConvertToYUY2()

Then SAVE the edited file in NOTEPAD.

Also dont try and point FITCD at an avi that has AC3 audio as CCE will not accept/process the .avs......the way round this is to Direct Stream copy the VIDEO only (from VDM disabling the STREAMS) to a seperate file, only takes about a two minutes, THEN point FITCD at the new AUDIOLESS avi.

As for LANCZOS some may disagree here but I find BICUBIC STD does a better job on upscaling (to my eyes anyway as it seems to give a less soft result).

And finally to CCE itself, after experimenting with multipasses, I no longer bother as CCE does a fantastic single pass CBR which is (again to my 39 year old eyes....and my missus, kids, parents, sister, friends etc) virtually undistinguishable from a multipass when played back on a 28" and a 32" widesceen TV's, maybe a larger TV screen (36" +) may show up the differences but as i aint got one i cant comment. Just keep the bitrate over 4000 and pref around 5000-5500 (and going over 6000 is just a waste of space imo)...dont fall for this 5 or 6 pass malarky as you aint got the best source material to start with have you?. Just use VBR's for extremely long movies, of say, over 2 and a half hours.

Always select 16:9 DAR on 1.77 and above AR's if you have a widescreen TV (or you'll just be ZOOMING up the 4:3 to fill the screen...pretty pointless).

If someone would like to post the difference of a 6 pass 'frame' from a 5000 CBR or a 3 pass VBR frame be my guest and prove me wrong (from a lower resolution compressed .avi source that is upped to say 704 X ~).

[nick101181]

I just wanted to go with the 5 pass because Sometimes when people back up a dvd to dvd-r using a 5 pass encode in cce the results looks stunning. I've got a dvd-r that has a 3 hour movie on it at 720 x 480 and it beats any dvd shrinking program hands down. So I thought I could try to match the results by making tv shows into 5 pass cce encodes. After testing out the single pass 6 mbps it looks damn good also. I'll stick with the one pass cbr. Only takes 45 mins anyway and a 5 pass encode takes 3 hours. I'll try fit cd and those calculations and tell ya how things went.

[nick101181]

Ok I tried everyone's advice but It's still showing huge bars on the left and right side at 100% in windows media player and still shows the same bars in fullscreen mode as well. Here is some pictures of my fitcd settings and an example of how the video looks after encoding. I used to never have this problem before but I never encoded anything 624x352 16:9 either.

In the first pic you see the script and how the video should look according to fit cd.



http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/fitcdscreen.JPG

http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Help1.JPG

[adam]

Your source has a 16:9 aspect ratio so you have to check the anamorphic box on the left. You don't have to, but I would keep it anamorphic by also checking it on the box on the right and setting your encoder to 16:9.

I think you will always have bars on the sides when viewing something in 100% zoom in media player, but no this shouldn't also be happening in full screen mode. Try changing the anamorphic setting and see if that helps.

[nick101181]

Does anyone have any idea why it's got the bars in fullscreen mode?

[nick101181]

Ok I figured why it shows the black bars on the side. It only does it when previewing video in windows media player. all other software shows everything fine. Thanks everyone for all your Help.

[nick101181]

Ok now that the black bars issue has been addressed, I've got another huge huge huge problem. When using fitcd to make the avisynth script with the assumefps 23.976 line my encodes come out with a longer length of time than the original pal 25fps video. Which is odd because you would think that at 23.976fps it would be shorter in length. So this presents a problem when trying to convert the audio because the audio can't be stretched to match the time of the ntsc encoding in cool edit. I took the amount of frames 136309/23.976fps =5685.2268935602268935602268935602 and gave number to cool edit to stretch/shrink the video but after outputting, I'm left with an audio file that has the same length of time as the wav I just converted from. This is so wierd. It has done this with 3 movies after being encoded with cce.

the example in question has these time lengths:

pal = 90 mins 52 seconds
ntsc = 94 mins 45 seconds after encoding to ntsc with assumefps (23.976,true)


any ideas? this is driving me crazy here. Thanks

[FulciLives]

Nothing wrong with your video conversion from 25fps to 23.976fps because the same movie at 25fps is shorter in total running time than it is at 23.976fps so yes the new NTSC version at 23.976fps will have a total overall longer running time.

As for the audio I suggest you convert it to a 16-bit 48k Stereo PCM WAV file first. Then feed that through BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI and go from PCM WAV to PCM WAV using the built-in PAL (25fps) to NTSC (23.976fps) option. Then with your now corrected PCM WAV you can convert it to MP2 or AC-3 or leave it as be for your DVD Video audio file.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
The FPS change option in BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI seems to work best when going from PCM WAV to PCM WAV ... don't try for instance to go from PCM WAV to AC-3 while also doing the FPS change or it will not work correctly resulting in A/V sync problems.

[FulciLives]

the example in question has these time lengths:

pal = 90 mins 52 seconds
ntsc = 94 mins 45 seconds after encoding to ntsc with assumefps (23.976,true)


any ideas? this is driving me crazy here. Thanks

Just to make this perhaps a bit more clear ... here is one way of figuring out PAL to NTSC running time changes:

<PAL running time> multiplied by 25 then divided by 23.976

Using your numbers:

90m 52s = 90.87 (because 52 seconds/60 seconds = .87 seconds)

90.87 x 25 = 2271.75

2271.75 / 23.976 = 94.75

94.75 = 94m 45s (because .75 seconds is the same as saying 45 seconds because 45 seconds/60 seconds = .75 seconds)

See how that works now

- John "FulciLives" Coleman