WMV>MPEG2: conversion settings and tools?

[Sulpicio]

Hi

I have just purchased WM Recorder in order to capture video streams (WMV). My goal is to make DVD compliant. Most of the materials I capture have following specs:

AUDIO:
306 Kb/s
16 bit
2 channels
22 kHz.

VIDEO:
(352x288)
260 Kb/s
24 bit



question:

1- which converter can you recommend for quality (and ease of use, maybe also)?
2- I have installed Super, but I could definitely use some advice for settings: I am trying to get a quality equivalent to SP or LP.
3- audiowise: do I have to chose AC3 or will mp3 comply with the DVD standard?
4- video: I guess I'll have to chose resize x2 , 352x288 isn't DVD compliant, or is it?

thank you a bunch!

[jimmalenko]

1. I use TMPGEnc Plus.
2. No idea with super. But I think your quality expectations might be too high given your source. It's not every day your audio has a higher bitrate than your video
3. AC3 or PCM is universally compliant; MP2 will play on a lot of devices. MP3 is a no-no.
4. 352 x 288 is DVD-compliant. Check out https://www.videohelp.com/dvd for more info.

[Sulpicio]

thanks for your input

I was thinking..... (it happens):

will Vegas Movie Studio convert WMV in a good quality? Asking cuz I am considering to get Vegas anyway, so if it does a good job at conversion, I might as well save some $$ and get that.

[mats.hogberg]

I did a wmv to DVD conversion recently - first try was encoding with MainConcept, via AviSynth DirectShowSource. The end result turned out horribly out of sync - both from the start, and drifting thruout the clip.
Second try, I loaded the wmv into Windows Movie Maker and exported as DV AVI, which I in turn encoded to mpg with MainConcept. Perfect.

/Mats

[Sulpicio]

thanks mats, worth a try as well.

I have had some success with Super, only I am at a quandary with settings: twenty minutes of footage took like 1 GB on a dvd-r disk. I guess I got I need to reconsider some of the settings.

[guns1inger]

20 minutes = 1 GB, therefore 4 GB is around 80 minutes - sound fair if you want to preserve reasonable quality at full D1. Does seem high for VCD resolution though.

Make sure, in SUPER, that you have either 352 x 288 or No Change ticked for resolution. Drop your bitrate to 1824 and audio to around 224 and you should get around 4 hours 55 minutes to a single DVD5

[Sulpicio]

thanks to you also, guns1inger! Good advice there.

I have converted another vwm with Super. Quality is acceptable and 50 min. resulted in a 650 mb file.

One thing I don't get though is why the heck Nerovision transcodes the dvd-compliant mpeg that Super outputs. Am I doing something wrong or should I burn with some other tool?

[mats.hogberg]

NeroVision probably thinks DVD video should be 720x576 - Avoid! Try TMPGEnc DVD Author to author instead. Or one of the free DVDAuthor based apps - take a look under TOOLS.

/Mats

[Sulpicio]

I am now testing TMPGEnc Plus

Strange: converting WMV to MPEG2 is going to take 1 hr. for every 10 minutes? Super did it much quicker. Probably it's just me getting it all wrong, but I am more confused than before.

[mats.hogberg]

Even if your cpu isn't the fastest there is, and TMPGEnc isn't the fastest encoder there is, 4 fps seems awfully slow! If you have set motion search precision to "Highest", lower it a notch or two - it makes a huge diff in encoding speed, but barely no visible difference (absolutely none if you leave it at "High")

/Mats

[Sulpicio]

Hi

I am encoding 11 minutes with following settings:

DVD PAL (MPEG-2 352x576 25fps CBR 5999kbps, Layer-2 48000Hz 224kbps)
Motion search precision: normal

my pc is an AMD64 3200+ with 1024 mb DDR ram.

[mats.hogberg]

Your profile says 2 GHz - but that makes it even odder. I'd imagine more like 20-25 fps!

/Mats

[Sulpicio]

Tried again with TMPGEnc Plus, this time with these settings:

DVD PAL (MPEG-2 352x576 25fps VBR 5550kbps, Layer-2 48000Hz 384kbps)
Motion search precision: low quality

this time the reincoding time is more like 1:1, 25 minutes for about 20 minutes of footage, the encoding time is more acceptable, but then I don't know: maybe my eyes aren't as trained as yours, but Super appeared to me to do a nice job.

[Jim44]

From memory, I seem to recall having "slowness" issues with TMPGEnc Plus and WMV files as well. For several reasons, speed being one of them, I started feeding TMPGEnc Plus Avisynth scripts. Seemed to take care of the "slowness" while staying with CBR encoding - my encoding time is very close to 1:1.

My 2 cents,
Jim

[Sulpicio]

Hi again:

as I decided to buy TMPGenc Plus for the task of encoding WMV>MPEG2, I have these questions:

- what settings should I use in order to retain as much of the original (mediocre) quality? CBR or VBR 2 pass? Interlace? Non-interlace? Noise filter?

- as the original is 352x288, I'd like to burn it on DVD so that the picture is scaled to 150% while the MPEG becomes 704x576, so I have more place for subtitles in the bottom. How do I do that in TMPGEnc?

thank you so much!

[Sulpicio]

Hi again:

as I decided to buy TMPGenc Plus for the task of encoding WMV>MPEG2, I have these questions:

- what settings should I use in order to retain as much of the original (mediocre) quality? CBR or VBR 2 pass? Interlace? Non-interlace? Noise filter?

- as the original is 352x288, I'd like to burn it on DVD so that the picture is scaled to 150% while the MPEG becomes 704x576, so I have more place for subtitles in the bottom. How do I do that in TMPGEnc?

thank you so much!

excuse me if I quote myself: just to say that I found out about question number 2. I still could use a hint on the settings, CBR or VBR? Which filters are good in TMPGEnc?

a little WTF: CCE Basic doesn't support WMV as input.
Procoder: a no no as long as the license isn't easily transferable to a new pc if the old one dies.

[mats.hogberg]

One solution for "can't open" problems is to create a simple AviSynth script:

DirectShowSource("stubborn_clip.wmv")

and feed that to your encoder.
See http://www.avisynth.org/DirectShowSource for further info.

/Mats

[Sulpicio]

Hi guys

I'm starting to get it: I am now getting fair results in TMPGEnc Plus with custom settings (high VBR, 2 pass and filters). The encoding times are killing me (about 1:8 ratio), but after all a good output quality is my first priority.

@ Mats: thanks for the suggestion, but I don't care much for fiddling with Avisynth scripts yet.

[KBeee]

Filters will kill your encoding speed in TMPGEnc.
If you use the TMPGEnc wizard, use the DVD Pal (Low Resolution) option. This will keep your movie at the original 352 X 288, which is a valid DVD resolution, and will give you about 5 hours of of playtime on a DVD. Don't use any filters at all until you've seen the final results on your TV.
Author and burn (onto a DVD-RW if you wish), and view it on your TV, as colours and brightness are very different between TV and your computer monitor.