TMPGEnc Problems or maybe I'm just an idiot...

[jonesyboy]

Ok, here's my situation...

I got the idea from someone to use TMPGEnc to convert my AVIs to VCDs so I could fit more on my DVD. It worked great with some files, but now some files have the extreme opposite result. While before the actual size of the files went from 241MB to 193MB with these other files the size goes from 349MB to 1178MB. YIKES! After going through all my other video files I'm having the same problem.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated! Name calling and Newbie jokes are also allowed

[ZippyP.]

Welcome newb!

The only thing that affects the file size is the bitrate that was used to encode the file and the running time. Since TMPGEnc fixes the VCD bitrate at 1150 Kilobits per second then the explanation would be that some of your clips are longer in length than others.

Simple.

[jonesyboy]

he difference in length is about 15-20 min. It doesn't seem to make sense to me that the length would make a difference. With one video file it goes from a larger size to a smaller size but another goes from small to extremely large. Thanks.

[jimmalenko]

As the darkest of all stabs in the dark, maybe VBR MP3 audio is to blame ?

TMPGEnc has been known to blow out file sizes when VBR MP3 audio is present.

[jonesyboy]

How do I find if that's the problem? How would I fix it? I really appreciate all the fast replies!

[daamon]

How do I find if that's the problem?

Use either AVICodec or GSpot (the beta v2.52 is good).

How would I fix it?

Open the original AVI in VirtualDub.
Save the audio to a WAV file.
Use that WAV file as the source for the audio during encoding.

[copiador]

Also the problem could be that some of the avi files are divx encoded. There are many "flavors" of avi. I just wish divx files stop using the .AVI extension. Many problems I've read about not been able to burn a avi file to a DVD is because the avi file is divx.

[jonesyboy]

I used GSpot and found that the files that work nicely are Divx and the ones I'm having the problem with are Xvid. Am I correct in thinking this is the problem? If so how do I go about fixing this.

[daamon]

What are the audio details? Refer to jimmalenko's post above...

Xvid AVIs, on there own, aren't neccessarily the cause of the problems - it could also be the audio they contain.

[jonesyboy]

ahhh yes it is VBR where the files that work fine are CBR. Thank you. So do I just go through the instructions you just posted or is there a way I can convert it from vbr to cbr. Thanks again everyone for helping out!

[daamon]

Just follow what I posted and you should be OK.

[jimmalenko]

http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/ExtractAudio.htm might help you with the procedure. Then when you go into TMPGEnc, specify the AVI as your video source (it will probably automatically specify it as the audio source as well), then manually browse to your newly-created WAV file. This should fix your problems.

[jonesyboy]

thank you

[jonesyboy]

When I opened the file in virtualDub this is what I got right away.

[jonesyboy]

It says:

VirtualDUb has detected an improper VBR audio encoding in the source AVI file and will rewrite the audio header with standard CBR values during processing for better compatibility. This may introduce up to 1485 ms of skew from the video stream. If this is unacceptable, decompress the *entire* audio stream to an umcompressed WAV file and recompress with a bitrate encoder. (bitrate 135.7 + 21.9 kbps)

[canadateck]

Load your AVI into GOLDWAVE or Adobe Audition and save as .WAV then use that.

[jimmalenko]

It says:

VirtualDUb has detected an improper VBR audio encoding in the source AVI file and will rewrite the audio header with standard CBR values during processing for better compatibility. This may introduce up to 1485 ms of skew from the video stream. If this is unacceptable, decompress the *entire* audio stream to an umcompressed WAV file and recompress with a bitrate encoder. (bitrate 135.7 + 21.9 kbps)

Yep, VBR MP3 audio

The guide I linked to above should be able to help you out.

[jonesyboy]

Seems to have worked. I'm going to work nowbut will post the final results when I get back tomorrow.
Thanks a lot!

[jonesyboy]

Guide was more than helpful by the way!

[jonesyboy]

It worked out very well in this case, but I still have files that don't seem to follow suit. They are already cbr audio and yet I seem to be having the same problem.

[daamon]

Use VirtualDub to scan for bad frames, and then fix the frame(s) yourself - i.e. delete video and associated audio. That's a possible cause...