Needing help with TMPGenc and Virtualdub

Ok, Im sure there are threads in here that explain all this, but Ive been through searching for days to get the right answers and cant seem to find exactly what Im needing so here goes..........

Ive got movies backed up on my harddrive that are in AVI, MPPEG, or Divx and just started using TMPGenc 5 in 1 package to do the converting to DVD and all, BUT Im getting two problems....

1) Video comes up but NO audio (I did find several threads pertaining to this, but it seemed confusing on what to do in VirtualDub)

2) Video is like VERY choppy or distorted. Blocks everywhere forming around or the picture pauses several times then plays on.

Well with Problem #2, Ive lowered the speed on the burner down to x2 burn in hoping this would work, but no good.

When Im backing up DVD movies by themselves using Nero and DVDShrink, I dont have a problem with choppiness in the video or audio.

In regards to problem #1, I read that I may have to seperate the audio from the video using Virtualdub?? Ive heard of this software and even installed it last night, but I DONT have a clue how to operate it.

Ive read guides, threads pertaining on how to operate VD, but cant find out HOW to actually fix the problem NO AUDIO ON PLAYBACK after converting over to DVD using TMPGenc and Nero.

Can someone help me out and guide me step by step on how to correct problem #2 in regards to getting no audio sound on playback, or point me to a VirtualDub for dummies guide that can show me step by step on what to do?

If anyone knows of an easier way to correct the audio when converting with TMPGenc rather than going through Virtualdub also, PLEASE let me know LOL rofl. Its getting to be a pain. lol

 

Also, this seemed rather weird, but.....

When Im done using TMPGenc DVD Author and its converted my mpg file over to two AUDIO and VIDEO folders, I use Nero Burning Rom to burn the project to CD, but Ive noticed that the movie has been shrunk down to almost NOTHING and its only like 1-2 gigs big. It seems I have enough space on the cd to stick like 3 DVD movies on one cd.

Is this normal for TMPGenc to do this, when doing the converting?? I tried to enlarge the file before converting but couldnt seem to find anything to enlarge the encoding. I figured maybe this was whats causing my video to be blotchy, but I dont know.

 

[bold] Video comes up but NO audio (I did find several threads pertaining to this, but it seemed confusing on what to do in VirtualDub)[/bold]

Extracted from http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/129217:

'Extract the audio from the movie with Virtualdub, with Audio set on Full processsing mode. When you open it, Virtualdub will give some audio warnings, but we knew it, isn't it? Do in Virtuadub File___Save WAV...'

By the way, if you decompressed the WAV, you can directly load it from TMPGenc, putting it into the 'audio input' folder.

[bold]Video is like VERY choppy or distorted. Blocks everywhere forming around or the picture pauses several times then plays on [/bold]
Did you choose motion search precision = very high quality (very slow)' ?
If you did it, probably eve the output movie (and the input one, too) was.

[bold] I use Nero Burning Rom to burn the project to CD, but Ive noticed that the movie has been shrunk down to almost NOTHING and its only like 1-2 gigs big [/bold]
Maybee this is a strange encoding feature of Nero. When you make a Video-CD with nero, the NRG image file size is 7-10 MB larger than the input MPEG-1 movie. Maybe Nero tried to encode the movie because the iput movie you used wasn't a standard 352x240(288 if PAL) mpeg? After all, a MPEG-1 (VCD) is 10 MB x length (in minutes) of the movie large, it cannot be 1-2 GB big!

 

Thanks a bunch on replying.

I did see the thread link you posted up regarding my audio problem, but I cant figure it out. It seems the thread you provided talked like we already know what to do.
=======================================================
Extract the audio from the movie with Virtualdub, with Audio set on Full processsing mode. When you open it, Virtualdub will give some audio warnings, but we knew it, isn't it? Do in Virtuadub File___Save WAV.

2) If you can keep the original .WAV as it is till the conversion has been completed, load it as 'audio input' in TMPGenc. If you cannot do that, compress the about 1 - 1.5 GB .WAV file into a (100-200 MB) .MP2 using BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI (http://besweet.notrace.dk/) choosing as type: "MP2 for SVCD": it will become about 100 - 200 MB. If you check the 'downconvert sample rate' box, BeSweet will also make the conversion 48 kHz (DVD) --> 44.1 kHz [(S)VCD]. Now you can delete the .WAV, since now it's useless.
=======================================================

When it mentions above to extract the audio by setting it to FULL PROCESS MODE, Im not sure what this means. I opened VirtualDub last night and went to FILE, OPEN VIDEO FILE and loaded up my movie.MPEG file into it, but I didnt anywhere under FILE or OPTIONS or EDIT where it mentions to extract the audio from the mpeg file.

How exactly do I do this???

PS - Oh and thanks with the video correction part and no, I didnt set that setting that you mentioned, so Ill do that next.

Thanks

 

To get good output from questionable input, it's wise to know WHAT the input is. You need to know specifically the framerate, aspect ratio, and running time.
Get Gspot and load the avi.
Write down the 3 settings I mentioned.
Post them here, and we'll get you the tmpgenc settings you need for a good dvd from it.
I suspect the choppiness is a bad framerate conversion, and the blockiness is a poor bitrate selection, as well as probably a poor output aspect ratio choice.
Use Virtualdubmod (different than virtualdub) to extract audio.
Open the avi, select Streams, stream list, and hilight the audio you want.
Right click on it, and select Full Processing mode.
Click on the Save Wave button, give it a name, save it.
Get Ffmpeggui or Belight, and transcode the .wav you just made, into AC3 at 48khz.
You now have the correct dvd spec audio for your dvd.
Get the right settings in tmpgenc, and select ES Video only, and encode the video to m2v, mpv, whatever tmpgenc puts out.
Add the two streams into Tmpgenc DVD Author, and make your menus and such.

 

[bold] You need to know specifically the framerate, aspect ratio, and running time.
[/bold]
Wrong. Apart from the 'Source aspect ratio' that you can guess by examining how the output screen comes out (e.g. with 'setting__Advanced__clip frame'), FPS, length etc. are useless for TMPGenc, (apart the effective length, which affects the decision to cut or not the movie into 2 if you make a VCD (< or > 80'?) or which is needed by FitCD to set the VBR, if you make a SVCD and which can be found by simply playing the movie).

[bold]...for a good dvd from it[/bold]
Garbage in = garbage out. You cannot hope to make a decent DVD (4.5 GB!) from a lousy 500 MB AVI.

[bold]... transcode the .wav you just made, into AC3 at 48khz. You now have the correct dvd spec audio for your dvd.
[/bold]
correct, but it's as above. Often a plain VCD with audio = 44.1 kHz .MP2 is more than enough.

[bold] Click on the Save Wave button, give it a name, save it. [/bold]
Which is the same than doing 'save as WAV' in VirtualDub with the Audio menu set on Full processing mode (otherwise VirtualDub doesn't decompress the audio but it save it as it is, calling it wrongly '*.WAV', as VirtualDubMod's 'Demux' command, which correctly gives to the sound file its extension, e.g. MP3 or AC3.

 

OK, source is 29.97fps NTSC aspect at 2h:30min
Load that into tmpgenc and make a PAL full D1 DVD from it, and see what you end up with using default settings. Crap.
If the OP wanted a VCD, I would have given completely different instructions.
I agree, there's no point in making a 4.3gig dvd from this file, however, making a 1/4D1 mpeg-2 (SIF) may be ideal for dvdr. He can then encode 3 or 4 to fit on one disk and make a menu.
I suggested vdubmod, because he said some of his source material is mpeg. Sorry for (sort of) duplicating the instructions.

 

Nah, I dont want to format this to VCD. All DVD format, so to play on most dvd players and all.

Ive got Gspot thought already installed and actually used it last night, but when I looked at the audio file being used, it gave me at the beginning some #'s and letters all garbled and then at the end it said MP3 file.

Is this normal?

So when do I exactly USE virtualdub or virtualdubmod? Do I run TMPGenc first, then DVDsource creater to seperate the files, and THEN use virtualdub? This is still all confusing to me, but Im trying to make sense of all this.

Just seems a LOT to do all just to convert a lousy mpeg file over to dvd. GHEEZ... lol

 

There is a lot to do, if you want it done right.
Getting the proper mpeg file(s) so that a DVD will work, is not something one does in 5 minutes.
Open the avi in virtualdub, or virtualdubmod.
Extract the audio in virtualdub/mod as mentioned above.
Encode ONLY the video to a .m2v as mentioned above.
Transcode audio to AC3 as mentioned above.

We still need to know fps, aspect and running time of the video to give you the settings for tmpgenc (or any other encoder for that matter).

Because your file has mp3 audio, it may, or may not encode properly in tmpgenc (especially if it's VBR (variable bit rate), which is why we suggest ripping the audio in virtualdub first.

 

Ok. thanks a bunch.

Ill give this a try tonight, as Im at work right now (LOL) and dont have the specs on the video right about now, but Ill post them up tonight when I get home for sure.

You guys rock. Many thanks for the help.

 

Oh yah, another question.

You mentioned earlier that after I give you the video specs off of Gspot, that you would give me the correct settings and stuff.

Are these settings what I set for the video in TMPGenc or VirtualDub??

And is it different with every video I look up in Gspot? What site or area are you getting the settings from for each video specs?

 

The settings will be for tmpgenc.
There are certain things that must be set, so that the output video doesn't go all jerky, or squished, and still maximizes the quality of the output.
Every video from a different source, will have different settings. You can download 5 trailers from 5 movie sites, and have 5 different things to change in tmpgenc, so they all come out on dvd properly. There's no consistency.
If you capture with your own capture card, or your source video is always a camcorder or something, then you only need to use Gspot on the first. Providing you don't change any capture settings <grin>
Get used to using Gspot, especially for downloaded stuff.

 

Ok, here goes.

I ran Gspot and this is what I got back.....

Stream Type and A/V is OpenDML Avi

Video Codec is Divx Name Divx 3 Low Motion

Audio Codec is 0x0055(MP3) ID'D as MPEG1 Layer 3

 

If I render it at the bottom it says....

Video type is 4cc Div3

and Audio is MPEGLAYER3 (MP3)

 

Fine, it's a divx3 with mp3 audio.
What's the aspect ratio, framesize, and movie length?

 

How do I look up Aspect Ratio, Framesize, and length up in Gspot?

 

What's in these 5 boxes?

 

Ok thanks for the info. Ok here goes......

Run Time: 01:43:27 (148,816 fr)
XY: 640x272 (2.35:1) [=40:17]
Bitrate: 800 kb/s
FPS: 23.976
QF: 0.192 bits/pixel

Thanks again

 

In tmpgenc, main screen.
Set it up like this:


On the Settings button, beside Rate Control Mode, set average bitrate to 5666kbps.

On the Advanced tab, set Source Aspect Ratio to 4:3 525line NTSC.
Video Arrange Method: Keep aspect 2

On the Audio tab, set mpeg-1 Audio layer II.
Sampling 48000hz. Bitrate 224

 

Ok, so that I get all this correct......

I take the avi file I have and open it in TMPGenc, I set the video and audio as above, and do the convert to mpeg.

I take the mpeg and open it in virtualdub and do the extraction as given to me above to extract the audio from the mpeg file, correct?

Then I use DVDsource creater to conver the audio and video files to dvd AUDIO and VIDEO seperate folders and then on to Nero Burning Rom to do the final burn?

Is this about correct? Just making sure before I do the first run tonight.

Thanks