Help with aspect ratio using TMPGEnc

Ok, Sorry...I snapped..I've had a long..bad...bad day. And we've been exploring so many different SIDE roads..I've forgotten the True Direction Completely..SO HOW DO you want your Pizza...ha..ha. OK, those two pictures tell everything... The first picture is the Source Video? 720x400(408) 16:9 Widescreen

The second picture is after converting with TMPGenc? With what settings? Full Screen( which means 4:3 btw)?

I use CCE SP 2.7 encoder: I'll post pics of the settings and before and after screen shots...when I get the darn file downloaded.
Try TMPEGenc again....set it for 16:9 PAL source and make sure you're Project Wizard is set to NTSC 16:9 don't keep telling the encoder that you want a FULL SCREEN(keep aspect ratio)4:3....select Video Arrange Method Center(custom ratio) and change the WxH to 720x480

 

That's O.K., those pictures above aren't the actual video files (although they are sreenshots from the movie) I scaled the second one to approximately 720 x 480 to demonstrate the problems i was encountering, with TEMPGEnc (deleted the f'ed up one) but basicly that is exactly what it looked like.

Haven't tried TMPGEnc with the settings you posted the last time because I ran into a problem, TMPGEnc simply wouldn't let me.!?? the options in "other options" is greyed out, I'll try again tho, don't worry about it right now, I know this is going to go much smoother after you get that damn file downloaded! (my thoughts exactly BTW)
can I get a hint on how much time left?

Take a breather for a while if you want

 

Well, I'm in the middle of the Bay, on my boat getting drunk at the moment...very week Wi-FI airlink...as you might expect I'm down to 3kb/s at the moment and it's giving a ETA of 2days still...but I got 60% of it! I don't feel like swimming to Shore right now. I travel, I'm the Grim Reaper...my job is to Fire people from their Jobs...it's a living...you'd be surprised how many people just don't like giving their employees the Boot.

 

3kb/s, OUCH! In the middle of what bay, SF? although you wouldn't be SWIMMING to shore if you were in this bay....EEWWWW, dangerous too.

Damn, hook me up with a job, That sounds SWEET! "Hey you no good sack of sh*t, heres a message from the head hancho- pack up your sh*t, you got 5 minutes 'till security arrives to escort you out. Don't let the doorknob hit ya' in the cornhole on the way out.".......whatya think could I get hired?

Nah, I'd probably be the one on the other end.

 

Yea, too bad it doesn't work that way. The one's that usually NEED firing are the Suits at HQ-X. And my job is to Make the people FEEL good about losing Their Job and come up with a 'good' excuse WHY they're being "let go". On rare occasions, I get to drop the syth on a real turd that needs to go. Usually, it's just "shutting down' whole departments ...overseas branches.....cost/benefit analysis.

 

Yeah, I know. That's the corporate world for ya. If I were you I'd be an alchoholic until the day I went postal...(sorry if you are, I mean that in the best possible way) ..............eh,...awkward moment:-|



ha ha, j/k...(sort of):-|...

 

OK, converted avi to m2v with TMPGEnc using the settings you provided, good news is it seems to have worked but there are some oddities.

The aspect ratio is fine (no stretching) when I open the file in winDVD or when I open the m2v in WMPC in fullscrean mode, but when WMPC is in windowed mode the video is distorted, stretched to 720 x 480 just like the images I posted before. WMPC properties says that the file size is 720 x 480 (as it should be) gspot doesn't give any other information other than file name, type, and file size on disk.

The quality is good, Although I wouldn't call it great. Another thing I notices is that there seems to be an artifact that has popped up, in scenes that have fast motion (quick zooms or pans) there seems to be small horizontal lines that are visible. This definitely seems to be related to interlacing, whether or not it will be an issue in the end since it will be viewed on an ntsc television I'm not sure, maybe you know.?

 

artifact: as in a ghost? these is a advanced setting for dealing with those in TMPEGenc....called ghost reduction...also now that you have it as .m2v you can import it to DVD_LAB_Pro...it can do screen captures of various frames...put it in ,cue it up, pause at the artifact and take a screen capture..does your WINDVD play the mpeg? WinDVD 6 has screen capture too, so does PowerDVD .. if so lets see what you're talking about...it would be nice if you could run out and spend $2000.00 :wink: for a copy of CCE SP 2.7 with avisyth. Actually, you can find it for under $100.OO.

 

Also along with checking Ghost REDUCTION, under Video TaB at the bottom Change the Motion Search Precision to Highest Quality..this should help with the encoding during fast action sequences...but it will increase the encoding time too. Also, under the Quantize Matrix ....change from Default to CG/Animation then save that setting. Keep the other settings as before...be sure your source aspect ratio is set 16:9 and you output matches.

 

Hmm, scratch that I guess, just took another another look in WinDVD and dodn't see the same thing I saw before, maybe I was analyzing to much, or maybe it's because I can see my monitor much clearer now (glare during certain times of day).

Yeah I did set the motion search precision to high, also DC component precision was on 9 or 10 (don't remember probably 10), thought about doing a noise/ghost reduction as well as sharpen edges but decided against it, Didn't know about the CG/Animation, but that might actually help in this case. All-in-all it looks pretty clean , might go back and do a noise reduction or sharpen edges unless you advise against it for some reason.

I do have a trial version of Ccce my "local software dealer" supplied for me don't know if it has all the capabilities of the full version,
he said it should but you never know....you know how those guys at software dealers can be, sometimes it seems like they're smokin' some BAD CRACK;-)

 

I would definately re-set to CG/Animation...and if you still have a ghost artifact then check that to. as for sharpen edges that's up to you/ remember I haven't even see this yet. The Noise reduction controls on TMPGenc scare me...they resemble Noise Gate controls on Sound Forge and the last time I played with those controls messed up a good audio track. And this isn't even the same type of "noise".

 

One of those VIDEO_TS files I was downloading finished last night, unfortunately it ended up being the US release (Dreamworks) which means no english audio, and horrible subtitles, they're actually not even really subtitles its more like closed captioning (for def people). So when there's a gunfight scene words pop up at the bottom of the screen that read: [gunshot sounds] or if there's a scene on a crowded street: [crowd noise],or [sirens],or[helicopter approaching],[screaming],[radio chatter], etc.,etc,etc. This was just in the opening scene, absolutely F*CKING RIDICULOUS!, sorry I had to vent.

One positive is that it is 720x480 ntsc, so I think I'll compare the video quality of the original to the mpg extracted from the mkv, if it's a noticable difference try to find a way to extract the video from the VOB, and possibly use that in the final dvd or just do it for sh*ts and giggles.

I know I asked this before, but are you sure you have the correct ports open on your firewall/router? If your using a bit torrent client there should be a NAT OK indicator somewhere on the UI. BTW, I started downloading the other mkv, the one with polish subs (10hrs left) so at least we'll have the same mkv file.

 

the duel audio .mkv finished downloading friday nite..I've just been too busy to view it..and start "playing" with it. The other one with the polish and the DTS stero is still downloading. Gonna watch this .mkv tonight, and then start unpacking the .mkv with mkvextractor/ mkvtoolnix.

I believe you can drop a .vob streight into DVD_LaB_Pro, but that would be WITH the audio....you could always delete/cut the .mp2 audio stream and replace with another stream. The problem there is getting it to sync with the video...for a job like that you realy need to use a NLE so you can move/adjust the audio etc...and that would require converting the .vob to .avi<<so there's another Encoder I would recommend for that ImTOO. It can encode a .vob ->.avi

 

OK, watched about half...the video quality was excellent, i thought the english and jap audio was both fine..i did notice I couldn't get rid of the "english" subtitles...are they HardTitles with the video? Also, I notice the english subtitles don't match the English Audio..the phrases and dialog are not exactly the same. But the background sound fx seem to be there and in sync.

 

I have the same problem with turning off subs in WMPC. They're not hard subs because I demuxed them, you can do that with VDM. STREAMS> LIST STREAMS.

The english doesn't match the subs because the subs are a direct translation, if you "read" the movie you'll find yourself scratching your head often asking,"what the hell does that mean?". this goes back to the language and cultural barriers I mentioned before. If you watch the movie with english audio you'll be tortured with bad writing, flat acting, and sub-par vocal effects.

I found a nice little program that lets you edit the subtitles, I'll give you more info if you want/need it.

 

take a look at this guide:

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=219535

and this one:

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/html/dvd-lab-pro1.html

I got the subs turned off..had to doubleclick on the OFF option in WMP...Used MKVExtractor to extract all 4 tracks from the mkv..only took 5minutes..now I just need to rename them..and go from there. I did notice somethng strange after demuxing....4 columns of blue dots running vertically across the screen...they can be seen against the black background in the opening of the video..I don't remember seeing them b4 I demuxed the vid. Are they visible in your's. What stage of the project you at right now?

Nope, won't need to edit the subtitles...it's enough for me just to create a working dvd with them...for practice. The demuxing the MKV was a big let down....only took 5 minutes and was a snap with that program MKVextractor...a real "no-brainer". Where do I find Japanesse sub-titles for this movie? and if Jap is written verticaly...how do the subs work...left to right? or right to left?

 

Bookmarked those links.

No blue dots here, try demuxing with VDM, yeah Demuxing is simple I think it takes LESS than 5 minutes with VDM.

Your using the dual audio mkv, right? I guess you haven't noticed, the english audio on that mkv is F'ed up, If you listen closely the voice tracks constantly pan back and forth between right and left channels. If you go to the torrentspy page of that file and read the comments posted, there's a little more info on it. It seems small, but the bigger and better audio system you play it on, the more noticeable it is. Do whatever you want but I'm waiting for a good english version to finish downloading.

In the meantime I started editing the subtitles, I couldn't resist. I've always wanted to try it, it's comming along very nicely the story is concise and fluent. -BTW I'm not using japanese subs, just english subs, so you have the option to experience the film with the original actors. Trust me, If you watch anime this way you'll have a much better experience, but you need good subtitles. english dubs should just be used when you (or the lazy people watching with you) don't feel like reading, or when you need a different translation. OK, I know you could give Sh*t less so I'll spare you my "cartoon" pet peeves FOR NOW, but just trust me.

I also did a little tooling around with Sonic Scenarist, are you familiar with it? Apparently it is the "real deal" when it comes to pro. DVD authoring search it and buy yourself a copy if you can "afford" it. (I'm still planning on using DVD lab for this project, but I thought you'd be interested).

If you have any dvd-rw's or spare dvd-r's, you might want to do a test run with the streams you have, have you converted to ntsc/m2v yet? If not you might want to get rid of those blue dots first. My m2v is ready to go, let me know what you do next.

 

I'm not going to be able to "get rid" of those blue dots...they are in both the video file I extracted and the original..and I make the mistake of extracting b4 making "backup" copy of the .mkv<--silly mistakes like this cost a production lots of time....I'm not re-downloading...I'll just go with the tiny blue dots...

Scenarist ..yes I have it, along with a small library of Books that are suppost to teach you how to use it. I also have LighWave, Maya, Bryce, DreamWeaver, Poser, Manga Studio, PhotoShop CS, Fontographer, FontLaB, a dozen or so "intermedate" NLE softwares, plus a dozen or so "DVD Authoring" programs..
I'm also familiar with the "hair club for Men"....and whenever I start a Scenario in Scenarist..it brings me One step closer to becoming a Member of the "hair club for Men".

What we really need to be Planning out is the Menu layout for this DVD.

It's usually not good to put more than 3-4 Buttons per Menu Screen, So how would you like to set-up the "Scenario"?

Menu 1:
Play->(Default Settings)
Special Features-->Special Feature Menu

or maybe:

Play
Audio Options--->Language

Subtitles

 

I've been thinking about a menu too, unfortunately when I start thinking is when things start getting dangerous. I'm still in the middle of, well, basically re-writing the entire script -why? because I can, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow night. For the sake -of our hairlines I'll keep the menu simple for now.
I was thinking something like this:

Main Menu
----------
Play Movie

Chapters (optional)

Setup>
-Audio>
--Jap 5.1 Suuround
--Jap Stereo
--Eng Stereo
-Subtitles>
--on
--off

( > indicates new screen)

 

Encoding the video and the two audio tonight. Would you like for me to post screenshots of the settings..for tmpeg and cce?