TMPGEnc conversion of captured TV

[SnoopyDad]

Can anyone help me with this? Two capture/edit/convert issues.

I have captured TV shows using a Pinnacle Bungee and files are captured at DVD quality with an extension of .mpg.

I am trying to use tpmgenc 2.5 to edit and convert (do I need to convert??) to DVD quality but get an error message that says "cannot open or unspported". Anyone know why I get this error?

I also have Pinnacle Studio 8 and have used it for editing, but it seems to very slow in loading the file. (PIV, 2.0G) and the burn option did not produce any video.
If I understand correctly, if I don't edit anything at all, I should be able to burn directly as DVD either using Studio option or Nero. However, if I edit (cut commercials), then I need to convert that modified file to MPEG2. This is where I'm having a problem.

Any advice? Am I going about this all wrong?

Thanks in advance

[Nitemare]

It sounds like the file you captured is already and MPEG2 file. Strangely, although TMPEG will make mpeg2's, it doesn't natively support them. You could try downloading the TMPGEnc MPEG2 Plugin from the tools section here on the site...although it can be a might "buggy"... at least it was for me.

My REAL recommendation is to use DVD2AVI on your MPG file as though you were ripping a DVD and load the d2v and wav files in TMPEG. This works... I do it all the time.

Let us know how you make out!
Nitemare

[donpedro]

I don't beieve that you need to convert. It all depends on you settings during capture.

For editing mpeg2 in PS8, try newest patch (upgrade) from their web.

I don't think that Nero can author DVD. To get DVD from mpeg2 file you need some DVD Authoring software. Pinnacle Studio 8 is one of them, but I don't recomend it for MOVIES. It is not designed to handle that very well. Main purpose is Home Video.

[SnoopyDad]

nitemare...... Thanks for the info so far. I was unable to dld the TMPGEnc plug-in so will be trying the DVD2AVI. The site was in chinese I believe. If I capture in an .avi format instead of DVD format, would I the be able to use TMPGEnc to encode to DVD.


Don Pedro..... I believe Ive got the editing part down fairly well, however, in testing the presets for quality (and rendering time), I produced 9 seperate DVD qual movies and burned to DVD using Nero. The video part worked fine, however, I had no sound on standalone DVD. Any ideas ? This also happend with other (TV) videos that I edited and rendered but not burned, except that there was sound occasionally, it would play for a few seconds, drop out, play, etc - it did seem to be snyced OK when it did play through Windows Media Player 8.

I used this same procedure before I started trying DVD and it worked with VCD and SVCD, except for the quality.

Editing and rendering with PS8

Does anyone know what caused this?

Can anyone recommend an authoring program for movies (TV shows)?

Thanks again in advance

[Nitemare]

nitemare...... Thanks for the info so far. I was unable to dld the TMPGEnc plug-in so will be trying the DVD2AVI. The site was in chinese I believe. If I capture in an .avi format instead of DVD format, would I the be able to use TMPGEnc to encode to DVD.

If you run DVD2AVI, under audio select "decode" then you simply select File->Save Project. This will create a filename.d2v file (a "wrapper" that accesses the MPEG and allows TMPEG to use it) and a filename.wav file. (NOTE: I'm unsure if decoding the audio is needed but I do know that it works)

Load the D2V file as your video source and the wav as the audio source in TMPEG and edit as you wish. You do not actually want to save an AVI file with DVD2AVI as it will save it uncompressed and be enormous.

[DJRumpy]

If your captures are DVD compliant, in regards to resolution, and bitrate, then you should not even need to re-encode. What resolution/bitrate are they? Is there another reason your wanting to re-encode?

[jpconard]

I have to re-encode if I captured MPEG2 at too high of bitrate (still DVD compliant) but too much info to fit on 1 DVD. Then I have tried different things. -
1) DVD2AVI create project to encode in TMPGENC. Although if audio is MP2, I don't think it can decode a WAV as Nitemare says, you have to demux an MP2, then feed both the project and MP2 into TMPGenc.
(CUT out commericials in clip portion of TMPGenc, not MPEG tools before encode)

or

2) First use VDUB-MPEG2 version to find commerical times, then use TMPGenc MPEG tools to cut out the commericals (using those time values), output is a MPG or MPEG file. THen use TMPGenc mPEG tools to demux the MPG or MPEG into MV2 and MP2 files, then author with IFOEDIT (rename MP2 to MPA first), then the file set is still to large for 1 DVD, so I use DVD2ONE (faster than 1st or 3rd method still a lot of work).

or

3) taken original MPEG 2 file and encoded directly with TMPGenc MPEG plugin, can still clip commericals (in TMPGenc clip session, not MPEG tools) before encoding.

I'm not sure if framserving with DVD2AVI provides any benefit to just taking the MPEG2 into TMPGenc. If you have segmented MPEG2 files then frameserving is required.

You can learn the best bitrate to set in WINDVR2 before capture to ensure the final output is properly sized for the time value you wish to burn. This takes some trial and error. You don't want to specify too low or you loose quality. Plus if you want to cut commercials re-encode or transcode is required. In all cases you have to author the MPEG2 file to VOB before burning.

[DJRumpy]

I do this sort of thing all the time, although my captures are in Huffman AVI, the concept is the same. Use AVISynth, and the TRIM command.

Needed:
DVD2AVI (v1.76)
MPEG2DEC
AVISynth ( v2.08 )
CCE or TMPGenc

Load your MPEG into DVD2AVI (version 1.76..1.77 wont work). If you want your audio seperate, set it to DEMUX if you want MP2/AC3 (whatever is in your source), or DECODE if you want WAV output. You should also resample at this point if you need to change the sample rate (say from 44.1 to 48Khz).
Save your project file. This will produce your audio and d2v file.

Open the d2v file with AVISynth ( V2.08 )

LoadPlugin("c:\myplugins\mpeg2dec.dll")
mpeg2source("c:\capture\dvd2avi.d2v")
clip1 = Trim(0,10000)
clip2 = Trim(10300,20000)
Clip1 ++ Clip2

The Trim command lets you quickly cut out commercials, without having to go through the tedious process of saving multiple AVI files. Use VirtualDub to find the frame number. Use the DoubleArrow keys and Keyframe keys to quickly scan between scene changes.
The first number in the Trim command is the starting frame, and the second is the ending frame. Specify 0 in either to indicate beginning or end depending on whether the 0 is in the 1st start or end position
Trim( start, end )

Once you get all of your commericals cliped out, drop it into mediaplayer (or just into CCE, as it will report the movie length). Media player should report the length if you grab the slider. Note, this length is the correct length of your clip AFTER the commercials are removed. Use a Bitrate calculator to plugin in your movies length, and the number of DVD-R/+R's you want it to fit on. It will give you an average bitrate. Set your min to 0, and your max to 9000, and your AVERAGE to whatever the calculator gave you. The resulting file should fit exactly on a DVD-R with the highest possible AVERAGE bitrate.

[SnoopyDad]

Thanks to everyone that has responded so far.

In answer to DJRumpy, the bitrate is 8000, and I think I need to re-encode because I am editing the video, either from VHS or TV capture.

One reason I would like to use TMPGEnc or even CCE, it speed in encoding. The two-hour video mentioned below took ~12 hrs to encode, and my machine isn't exactly slow (P4, 2 GHZ, 256ram, 200 GB HD's). However, it appears that Studio saves these captures, done at full DV quality, as a project and I have been unable to locate these video files unless they have been rendered/compiled by Studio and then saved in its 'auxiliry files' sub-dir. Unfortunately , I do not have the option of capturing at a lower quality which might allow me to open the files, if I could find them, in TMPG.

Does anyone have a link for MPEG2DEC and AVISynth 2.08?

This also goes back to using DVD2AVi as suggested by Nitemare. I can't find the files to load.

This may be off-subject a bit, but does anyone know how/where these editing/captured files in Studio may be kept? Also, where can I find the MPEG2 plug-in for TMPG, the link in the 'tools' section takes me to a chinese? site and I don't know what file name I am looking for.



Another few problems arose, maybe it is a Studio 8 issue, but not sure. In doing T&E for the best rendering, ie. various bitrates, MPEG1 on/off, filter on/off, I used a short clip (~ 1min) and encoded each for a total of nine diff. videos. These were burned using Nero 5.5.10.0 in DVD-ISO (ROM) mode, the video came out fine but there was no sound on the DVD, there was sound when viewed thru Studio 8. I tried another encoding, again with Studio 8, bitrate of 4000, this time of a 2 hr home video, did the editing, etc, again it played in Studio, so I burned it using Nero, and this time I had sound but no video, also the menus did not work.

Can anyone help?

[Headbanger's Ball]

I use a Dazzle DVC100. When I first began to capture from TV and VHS in VCD format, I encountered the same problem. TMPGEnc gave me the same error message. Also Nero said the files needed encoded to be VCD Compliant. I soon found out that the captured files (regardless of format) needs to be rendered. I don't know the specifics of the capturing process but my guess is; the capture happens so fast, the file can't be fully encoded as properly as TMPGEnc does it.
Dazzle's capture device comes with the MovieStar program...the capturing program. It also has a "Render" feature in the editting area. I can only assume that your capturing program has the same feature. Try that.

[DJRumpy]

Doom9 doesen't like direct links to their site, but I think this one works:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/d2a-mpeg2dec.htm

It should have everything you need.

You can also find most everything you need in the TOOLS section to the left. To use DVD2AVI, AVISynth, and MPEG2DEC, make sure you get DVD2AVI version 1.76 (1.77 won't work). You can also get AVISynth version 2.08 from their home site here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023