CCE 2.5 SP DVD frameserving with Avisynth

[shochan]

This guide is not designed for super newbies or to be used by TMPGEnc encoder. (tmpge can do all this by itself) You have to be familiar with a Ripper , DVD2AVI and a least one encoder. Oh and if you havnt done so already please download and install the Microsoft VisualBasic Runtime 6.

Why do it this way?

I do it this way because CCE 2.5 SP is a excellent and fast encoder. What I can do in TMPGEnc I can do faster and better in CCE. If it takes me 4 hours to encode a movie in TMPGEnc it takes me an hour in CCE 2.5 SP.

My recommendations are as follows:

Smartripper
DVD2AVI
Avisynth 1.05
Mpeg2dec.dll
CCE 2.5 sp
pulldown.exe
TMPGENC 2.5 ( for the audio part)
And a text editor of your choice (notepad, wordpad,...)

Download Avisynth and copy the avisynth.dll to your system32 folder and run the install.reg from the unzipped package.

Use Smartripper to rip your VOBs.

Open up DVD2AVI and load your newly ripped VOBs. Press {F5} to do a preview and pay close attention to the aspect ratio and the video type (Video Type may change after the opening credits so pay close attention and let int run for a few minutes. Now press {Esc} to stop the preview. Once you have your info memorized or written down click (on the toolbar) Video; Field Operation; now if your Video type was film then select forced film, if it was anything else click none. Save your project file.

Now onto the Avisynth script.

Open up a new text document and save it as whatever.avs under file name and set it to all files under save as file type.

Open your new whatever.avs file.

First off we are going to load the mpeg2dec.dll in the script you do that with the loadplugin command and then the destination of the file.

loadplugin("c:\avisynth\mpeg2dec.dll")

Next were going to load in the video with the mpeg2source command, the reason for the "v=" will be explained in a few. in this entry you add in the d2v file created by DVD2AVI

v=mpeg2source("c:\ln\ln.d2v")

Now for the audio. We load this with the wavsource command. As with the mpeg2source this has a "a=" in front of the command. The wav file is derived from the wav file that DVD2AVI makes. Before doing this it is a good idea to change the file name to something easier to remimber.

a=wavsource("c:\ln\ln.wav")

The next command is audiodub. This command is used to mux the video (v=) and the audio (a=) together into one stream for encoding. CCE 2.5 SP has a problem with encoding audio so if you are going to use it then you are going to have to use an external audio encoder. I prefer to use TMPGEnc myself but that is entirely up to you.

audiodub(v,a)

Te next command is bicubicresize. This will resize your video to what ever you choose, the first number is the vertical resolution and the second being the horizontal. Now this is where it can get a little tricky depending on if your final output is planed to be VCD or SVCD, NTSC or PAL, and if your source is 16x9 or 4:3. I will give one for each scenario.

VCD NTSC 4:3 source

bicubicresize(352,240)

VCD NTSC 16x9 source

bicubicresize(352,180)

VCD PAL 4:3 source

bicubicresize(352,288)

VCD PAL 16x9 source

bicubicresize(352,216)

SVCD NTSC 4:3 source

bicubicresize(480,480)

SVCD NTSC 16x9 source

bicubicresize(480,360)

SVCD PAL 4x3 source

bicubicresize(480,576)

SVCD PAL 16x9 source

bicubicresize(480,432)

Ok the next command is only used for 16x9 sources. It is addborders. This is different depending on if it is PAL OR NTSC. It will add the letterboxing we are used to.

VCD NTSC

addborders(0,30,0,30)

VCD PAL

addborders(0,36,0,36)

SVCD NTSC

addborders(0,60,0,60)

SVCD PAL

addborders(0,72,0,72)

The final command in this tutorial is trim. This command will split movies by frame number, the first number being the start frame and the second being the end frame. I use TMPGEnc source range feature to find out my frame range. I load the d2v and go into the settings to source range and slide the slider to find the frame I want to start and stop at. This way I can create 2 or more avs files with differnt source ranges and encode the movie into 2 or more seperate files without splitting one big one later.

trim(0,65432)

Now That we have gone through the basic commands lets throw it all together. Don't forget to use the right command lines for your video source.

loadplugin("c:\avisynth\mpeg2dec.dll")
v=mpeg2source("c:\ln\ln.d2v")
a=wavsource("c:\ln\ln.wav")
audiodub(v,a)
bicubicresize(480,360)
addborders(0,60,0,60)
trim(0,65432)

I just tested this script and if everything is installed right and everything is pointing to the right file this script will work. To encode a multi disc movieSo now onto...

Encoding the newley created avs file is a breeze. ( *Note* Again I say that this is pointless to use in TMPGEnc because it can do all of this by itself.)
Open up CCE and drag your first avs file into the center and right click on it and select edit.

Edit Screen

This is where it all starts at. From here you can change the..

Title : This will change the name of the file only in the main screen.
Input Files : This is where you can change the input file if you desire to.
Video Files : This is where and what your output is going to be.
ES : This splits the file into the audio file and the video file.
PS :This merges the video and audio file into an MPG but since we aren't going to use the audio from CCE just leave it ES.
Video Information File : This file records down all the information of the video, like its bitrate and other advanced info.
Audio File : Uncheck the box next to it so it doesn't encode the audio.

Video Encode Mode : This is where you set the encoder settings either....
CBR : Constant bitrate. Used mainly for mpeg1 VCDs.
One Pass VBR : Same as CQ_VBR in TMPGEnc. you set an quality setting between 1 and 100 and set an min and max bitrate. Used mainly for SVCDs.
Multipass VBR: This is where you set the number of passes to go over the movie. You set a average min and max bitrate.

Don't forget to use a bitrate calculator to find the bitrate values. The one I use the most is a www.vcdhelp.com/calc.htm .

Other Settings : (mpeg2 sample) (mpeg1 sample)
Video : Im not to sure of all the settings but I do know that you change the luminance to "0 to 255" and for SVCD only select "progressive frames". Don't select DVD compliant.
Quality settings : These are all up to you they are real self explanatory.

Now your set to encode click ok to make the changes to your template and click encode to start encoding.

Pulldown.exe

Copy the pulldown.exe and your mpv created by CCE into the directory of your choice, I chose pulldown, No go into the command prompt and navigate to the directory you copied the files to. When there type in..

pulldown movie.mpv (where movie is put your file name)

Now hit enter and let it run. this program adds in something to tell your DVD player or mpeg player to play it with 3:2 dropdown encoding. It saves the file as pulldown.m2v so go ahead and change the name of it to prevent confusion an possibly being overwritten.

On to TMPGEnc and the audio

This one is easy. Open TMPGEnc and load the avs in the audio. Click audio only and change your settings, and encode it. After it is finished click file, mpeg tools, and select the simple multiplex tab. Select what you are making in the dropdown menu. Don't forget to select the standard of VCD or SVCD if that is what you are making. Now add the files where they go and let it fly. After it's done burn and enjoy.

Shochan
VCDHelp.ORG

[kinneera]

Very nice guide!

An alternative to the trim comand for cutting is to specify a frame range in CCE. Basically, create one avs file, load it into CCE as many times as there are going to be discs, and set the frame range for each one (make sure the filename is different for each one, of course).

[Truman]

...

[pookyhead34]

Thanks for the great guide. I've just started using Avisynth with CCE myself. I had a couple of problems trying your method -- when I try to use the mpeg2dec.dll file, I get errors such as "unrecognized exception" and such. However, when I create a dummy AVI file using VFAPIConv, load that into the AVS script file with the v=avisource("name of avi file.avi") command, it seems to work just fine.

Also, I've read that Bicubic resize is really only best for enlarging -- bilinear is better for reductions in resolution.

But thanks again!

[futile]

nice guide, but I'm always having trouble loading AVS files into CCE.. it always crashed .. (WinXP,CCE2.5SP).
I managed to use VFAPI to make AVS into an AVI and this loads ok into CCE... I was wondering something...

I have an AVI source I wanted to have encoded to SVCD with CCE. I attempted to load the AVIsource into the AVS and compile to a new AVI with VFAPI and worked fine, and new AVI worked. It loaded into CCE fine but the encoded MPV contains RED text explaining of an access violation at memeory addresses.

Is there maybe something else I am missing in the AVS file ?

thx

[thecalip]

i am having the same problem when loading the avs file in cce under xp. it crash.

[roach3824]

This guide is great. Do you have any advice for ripping dvd's and encoding into asf's? I am currently running analog out of dvd players into capture cards but there is quite a bit of loss. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Best,
roach3824@yahoo.com

[VidGuy]

The way to get around the crash in XP and 2K is as follows: Use VFAPI to create a "phony" avi file for the d2v file. Load that into CCE. "Save" an *.ecl file. Open the ecl file in Notepad. You'll find a couple of lines to edit.

One will be the line with the phony avi file name - change this to your avs file.

The other will typically be the line with the width - the d2v/avi file will have the width and height as 720/480 - modify these to the settings that will be used by the AVS file.

Then load up the ecl into cce - you're ready to rock and roll...

[bbb]

Also, I've read that Bicubic resize is really only best for enlarging -- bilinear is better for reductions in resolution.

Bicubic resize pixels look blockier/more defined but it retains better sharpness and color detail.

Bilinear resize pixels are not as noticeable but the image is fainter in color saturation and slightly blurry/unclear in detail. If you increase the color saturation and sharpness, it will pixels will look blockier again.

Due to the better color fidelity and sharpness, I never think twice about using bicubic resize; it simply looks better (for svcds that is).

[Bonzi_scores]

I know this is strange, but I have this "guide" that might be similar to this guide except it also uses Sonic Foundry Soft Encode, Sound Forge, and BBMPG which this guide doesn't use. The problem is that this "guide" that I have doesn't show how to use those tools but just the order to use them in. So I have been looking around at guides that use the same tools such as this. I have been able to use Sonic Foundry Soft Encode and Sound Forge to encode the audio. The files that were created by all the tools seem to be working find, such as the wav (from Sound Forge and Sonic Foundry) and mpv (from CCE SP 2.5). The step that I am stuck on is encoding the audio with TMPGEnc where you input the avs file (the same file that was used to input to CCE SP right?). I tested the mp2 output file and all I got were noises. Does anybody know why that is the case? Should VirtualDub be used somewhere in the process? Has anyone used this guide using Sonic Foundry and Sound Forge that could help? Please respond or email me.

Thnx

[shochan]

As long as your avs file has the same info as above you can load it into virtualdub and extract the wav if yu want to.

[Psycho_Dad_Rules]

Thanx for the Great guide.

I cant get an avs to run a .d2v file for the life of me. I'm runnin windows xp. Every time i get an unexpected error. And that shit above about using vfapi then running it through the script??? What are you guys dumb, the whole piont of using avisynth is to not use vfapi, because vfapi uses RGB, and the DVDs use YUV and mpeg2dec uses YUV so there is a speed advantage over vfapi. So doing that kills the reason for using avisynth.
So if anyone knows how to really fix the problem with avisynth not loading .d2v files plz post. Thnx

[Ricko92111]

I've been having problems frameserving to CCE w/avs files also, crashes every time. I'm on XP pro w/PIII 800. I found a note in another guide that mentioned fooling CCE into thinking it had an audio source, otherwise AMD processors would crash. It seems to have fixed my problem. I wasn't doing the audio in CCE, but adding the line "ResampleAudio(44100)" to the avs file worked.

[kangoll]

when i drag the whatever.avs file into cinema craft i get an error saying

"frame size 728x56 is not supported. supported frame size is up to 720x576"

i followed the directions carfeully and i doubled checked the text commands. is this fixable?

[Truman]

This is an Avisynth error message. Play the avs with win media player to see what went wrong.

[kangoll]

hi; thanks for replying i would really like to change encoders now that i tried encoding my dvd to svcd with tmpeg and it only took 25 HOURS on a athlonXP 1600+.

anyways i played the *.avs file in win media player and i got this error msg ;

unrecognized exception!
(D:\Ripping tools\avisynthv105\whatever.avs, line 3)

here is a copy of my script;

loadplugin("D:\Ripping tools\avisynthv105\mpeg2dec.dll")

v=mpeg2source("e:\ln\ln.d2v")

a=wavsource("e:\ln\ln.wav")

audiodub(v,a)

bicubicresize(480,360)

addborders(0,60,0,60)

trim(0,131866)

hope this helps in fixing my problem; thanks

[br408408]

Hi,
That seems like a long time...I use DVD2AVI with TMPGEnc to do the video and BeSweet to do the audio (much better quality btw) and it takes about 10 hours to encode the video and about 45-60 mins. to encode the audio. That is with a Celeron 1Gh and about a 2 hour movie. Then I mux and split with BBMPG, create an SVCD inage with VCDImager and burn with CDRWIN. I am messing around with CCE 2.5, but so far TMPGEnc gives me a better looking picture ( I 've been using it for 2 years and I know what to do with the settings...that could be why). Edges look fuzzer to me with
CCE, but I may not have the settings right...I will continue to play with it as it is faster.
Bill

[bosemannen]

The way to get around the crash in XP and 2K is as follows: Use VFAPI to create a "phony" avi file for the d2v file. Load that into CCE. "Save" an *.ecl file. Open the ecl file in Notepad. You'll find a couple of lines to edit.

One will be the line with the phony avi file name - change this to your avs file.

The other will typically be the line with the width - the d2v/avi file will have the width and height as 720/480 - modify these to the settings that will be used by the AVS file.

Then load up the ecl into cce - you're ready to rock and roll...

THANK YOU, VidGuy !! I've been looking all over the place to solve this problem. I unstalled CCE 2.62 and installed 2.5, but CCE 2,5 would just crash all the time. Thanx to your solution I finally got the frameserving of the .vdr file from VisualDub to CCE to work. Do you now if it's possible to fool CCE 2.62 using this approach as well?

[JJamez]

I'm just curious as to why you wouldn't just use DVD2SVCD - it does almost exactly what you outline in your guide, but the entire process is automated once you choose your settings...

The audio is processed as well, and you get a significantly better quality audio than you do using TMPEG.

You can basically pop the DVD in your drive and come back a few hours later to ready to burn disc images (with chapter entry points, intro and extro pic or video).

As far as the luminance level setting in CCE, I've read some people like to change the setting, but many may prefer to leave the setting alone - make sure you try it both ways so you can decide.

Your guide is a nice adjunct to DVD2SVCD though, as it explains what the program is doing 'behind the scenes'.

JJ

[shochan]

hi; thanks for replying i would really like to change encoders now that i tried encoding my dvd to svcd with tmpeg and it only took 25 HOURS on a athlonXP 1600+.

anyways i played the *.avs file in win media player and i got this error msg ;

unrecognized exception!
(D:\Ripping tools\avisynthv105\whatever.avs, line 3)

here is a copy of my script;

loadplugin("D:\Ripping tools\avisynthv105\mpeg2dec.dll")

v=mpeg2source("e:\ln\ln.d2v")

a=wavsource("e:\ln\ln.wav")

audiodub(v,a)

bicubicresize(480,360)

addborders(0,60,0,60)

trim(0,131866)

hope this helps in fixing my problem; thanks

try redownloading dvd2avi not the one that is on the link above. I was running 98 when I wrote this and when I updated to 2k I was having problems with it. I redownloaded it re ran the vobs through it an the line 3 error went away. I hope it fixes your problem.

[Acolonx]

Am i doing something wrong this is the scrooipt i used:
loadplugin(c:\Avisynth\mpeg2dec.dll)
v=mpeg2source(c:\superman\superman.d2v)
a=wavsource(c:\superman\superman.wav)
audiodub(v,a)
bicubicresize(480,360)
addborders(0,72,0,72)
trim(0,65432)

And when i try loading that to cce2.6 i get an error

NewMovieFromFile[]Failed[]

Have i lost the plot or what.??

[fantomlord]

Am i doing something wrong this is the scrooipt i used:
loadplugin(c:\Avisynth\mpeg2dec.dll)
v=mpeg2source(c:\superman\superman.d2v)
a=wavsource(c:\superman\superman.wav)
audiodub(v,a)
bicubicresize(480,360)
addborders(0,72,0,72)
trim(0,65432)

And when i try loading that to cce2.6 i get an error

NewMovieFromFile[]Failed[]

Have i lost the plot or what.??

can you play the .avs file in WMP? if not, it should tell you what line in the script is giving the problem. the other thing you can do is to add one line at a time to the script, and keep opening the file in WMP, which should show you what parts of the script are ok and which are not.

[Acolonx]

Says a library files needed to run this app cannot be found, thats the error media player gives me but i have visual basic 6 runtimes installed. I'll keep pluging away i'm fed up waiting for tmpenc to encode good quality takes ages and i hear cce 2.5 is soo much quicker. Thanks for the advice anyway man. And so quickily too.

[JJamez]

Don't forget the quotes - although I don't think thats the only problem...

loadplugin("c:\Avisynth\mpeg2dec.dll")
v=mpeg2source("c:\superman\superman.d2v")
a=wavsource("c:\superman\superman.wav")
audiodub(v,a)
bicubicresize(480,360)
addborders(0,72,0,72)
trim(0,65432)

[Truman]

The subject is "CCE 2.5 SP DVD frameserving with Avisynth"
CCE SP 2.6x do not accept Avisynth scrips.

[Acolonx]

Yeah but i got it to accept the dummy avi file i did with vfapi. Anyone know if a crk is available for cce?? 2.6 that is.

[scissors]

Yeah but i got it to accept the dummy avi file i did with vfapi. Anyone know if a crk is available for cce?? 2.6 that is.

You are quite correct mate. You can use 2.6 with the avi wrapper.
I've been doing it for a few weeks now since i got the extra memory req for cce.

for the other guy with script problems i use 2, one for pal, one for region 1.

pal - run the vobs through dvd2avi and save project. Use the wrapper to make a file called film.avi. Make the avs file below and put that through the wrapper. This will create a letter boxed avi that can be use in cce 2.6. In the advanced settings you can add the WAV file produced by dvd2avi.
You should with the right encoder setting get the whole film on one 80min cdr.

PAL

avisource("d:\film.avi")
bilinearresize(432,352)
addborders(24,112,24,112)

NTSC

avisource("d:\film.avi")
bilinearresize(432,304)
addborders(24,88,24,88)

NTSC that has interlace lines on motion

SeparateFields(avisource("d:\film.avi"))
SelectOdd
bilinearresize(432,304)
addborders(24,88,24,88)

The crack - go to satdudez. Go to the dvd section. Go to trevies guide.
The message tells you about digital furums. Go there. I've stuck cce264 and the crack in the ftp area.

PLEASE NOTE all including moderator - the above info works. I REFUSE to get into some bullshit protracted arguement with fools about ithe length and quality of SVCD and the use of encoder bit rates.

Thanks to the original poster for the idea, it's obvious when you think about it.

[scissors]

a couple more avisynth scripts

the first is for avi_IO avis. I use an all in wonder 8 bit with huffy. I capture at 432x282 which is the best the card can do without frame dropping.

obviously the clipping and letterboxing depends on the broadcast.

A good tip i've found is to drop you scripts into virtual dub, so you can see the effects of each line as you add it. makes sence

------

UnalignedSplice(AVISource("d:\capture.00.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.01.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.02.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.03.avi"),AviSource("d:\capture.04.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.05.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.06.avi"),AVISource("d:\capture.07.avi"))
Crop(0,64,432,154)
BicubicResize(432,330)
addborders(24,123,24,123)

---------

the second i don't use anymore as i can't be bothered with menus these days as vcdimager cannot handle films longer than 99.59 mins and have menus, it falls over, so i use the 6.2 classic with false PBC and just dump the film.

the script reqs 7 short AVIs. One is the background and 6 make up the animated clips for chapters (like gladiator). the background should be 48x576 if i remeber correctly and the clips i did at 112x112.

The creation of clips is done by ripping the correct sections of film and saving using virtual dub.

the still backround is done with tmpeg as mpeg and served out using flask, to virtualdub and saving as avi.

finally with all you clips done load the script into virtual dub and serve to encoder. Once you have the method and scripts the process never takes longer than 40 mins and you have the best menus in town.

Anyone familiar with avisynth or having half a brain should suss it.

--------

background = AVISource("d:\background.avi")
clip1 = AVISource("d:\clip1.avi")
clip2 = AVISource("d:\clip2.avi")
clip3 = AVISource("d:\clip3.avi")
clip4 = AVISource("d:\clip4.avi")
clip5 = AVISource("d:\clip5.avi")
clip6 = AVISource("d:\clip6.avi")

slice1 = Crop(0,0,480,40,background)
Slice2 = StackHorizontal(Crop(0,40,110,110,background),Crop (0,0,110,110,clip1),Crop(220,40,40,110,background) ,Crop(0,0,110,110,clip4),Crop(370,40,110,110,backg round))
slice3 = Crop(0,150,480,40,background)
slice4 = StackHorizontal(Crop(0,190,110,110,background),Cro p(0,0,110,110,clip2),Crop(220,190,40,110,backgroun d),Crop(0,0,110,110,clip5),Crop(370,190,110,110,ba ckground))
slice5 = Crop(0,300,480,40,background)
slice6 = StackHorizontal(Crop(0,340,110,110,background),Cro p(0,0,110,110,clip3),Crop(220,340,40,110,backgroun d),Crop(0,0,110,110,clip6),Crop(370,340,110,110,ba ckground))
slice7 = Crop(0,450,480,126,background)

output = StackVertical(slice1,slice2,slice3,slice4,slice5,s lice6,slice7)

return output

[scissors]

[quote="JJamez"]
I'm just curious as to why you wouldn't just use DVD2SVCD - it does almost exactly what you outline in your guide, but the entire process is automated once you choose your settings...

answer = entire film on one svcd cdr in less than 7 hours.