Needing help with TMPGenc and Virtualdub

Hey Jimbo,

Hate to bother you again, but Im starting on my next movie.

Got a question. When Im calculating the bitrate from the original file using that calculater you gave me the link to, Do I apply the DVD max bitrate in TMPGenc, or the average bitrate?

I just noticed theres two results. I could of figured it out on my own, but I dont have the last movie on file no more sine I deleted it after making a succesful burn. But when I try to make the video file in M2v, I get an error saying ILLEGAL FLOATING DECIMAL POINT CALCULATION ORDER. So I figured I must of not calculated it right, somehow.

The movie this time is Aliens and its the following in GSpot

Run Time: 2:34:24
xy: 720x480
bitrate: 722kbs
FPS: 23.976
Audio Bitrate: 128kbs


When I added this into the calculater, it gave me

CALCULATED BITRATE: 3820kbits
DVD MAX BITRATE: 9668kbits

So do I use the calculated bitrate, or the DVD max bitrate on the calculater?

I entered in the DVD Max Bitrate and got that error.

 

i had a problem when i tryed to convert avi to mpg the framerate was really slow and just basically pictures

 

DrWho. Use the calculator's output as the AVERAGE bitrate. Set the MAX bitrate to 8000.
This is a 23.976 FPS video, so make sure you encode it in tmpgenc at 23.976 and in the Encode Mode box, set it to "3:2 pulldown".

Doulley, please start your own topic.

 

Hey Jim,

How are you able to figure this all out between the types of videos and all? I mean, aside from using the calculator?

 

You sort of can't...
Tmpgenc's wizard can supposedly figure out bitrate, as can Mainconcept, but it's basically a guess, based on the audio bitrate, and running time, and neither can get it right all the time.
The bitrate calculator gives you some leeway. I always err on the side of caution, and if the calc says 3257kbps, I encode at 3250. Sometimes that little extra bit makes all the difference, especially if you want to use DVDLab and do switched or motion menus.

Aside from that, because DVD structure is very specific, yet the source material is always varied, one must know only 3 things to do it right.
Running time.
Frames per second.
Aspect ratio.

Running time is obvious. The longer the video, the larger the encoded mpeg-2 is going to be. Here's where the calcualtor is needed.
Frames per second. This allows us to select different settings in the encoder, to get the smoothest, highest quality output. Here's where PAL <--> NTSC conversions fall apart, in most cases, causing jerkiness.
Aspect ratio. Here's where we can adjust settings in the encoder again. Also works for PAL <--> NTSC stuff as well. Not done right, and the picture is squashed or stretched, or large chunks of stuff are missing from both sides.

Tmpgenc allows these things to be set easily. Other encoders do too, but sometimes it's not obvious where. (Try with CCE and see how far you get).

 

Oh ok, makes sense, Jim.

So Im guessing when you told me to change the aspect ratio to 5666, the 5666bitrate was from the average bitrate from the calculater, correct?

 

Exactly

 

Ok, let me make some corrections, and Im sure it will work next time. Thanks again, buddy.

 

Hey Jim,

Hey, on the calculator, where you choose what your audio's bitrate is, it seems to give you choices (64, 96, 112, 128, 160, etc etc)

I noticed that under Gspot, the audio results read my audio to be 133kb/s. So since on the calculator, it doesnt have 133, do I pick to the highiest decimal, or do I custom it in?

I chose custom and entered it in, but its asking me what the tracks ISO is. I just left it on what it figured out.

So I guess bottom line is, do I choose custom and enter it in, or just pick a bitrate that is closest to the 133?

 

No, doesn't matter what the source bitrate is, becasue it's not AC3.
Set audio bitrate to 224kbps, then encode it in ffmpeggui to 224kbps.

 

Hey Jim,

What does it mean when you get an error saying OUT OF RANGE in TMPEGenc? I got an error while converting the video to M2V stating it was out of range with a 352 in ( )'s.

Hhhmmmm. Cant figure out what went wrong. Did my last movie with no errors.

RT is 1:11:50 and audio bitrate was 182, so I chose 192 in tmpegenc. Should I just set it to 224 like you mentioned in the last statement?

It could be my audio setting, because when I extracted the audio, I put it at 224, but in tmpeg, I chose 192.

 

Out of range usually means a corrupt video stream.
Check it for errors in virtualdub.
If you're doing audio like I said, with ffmpeggui, don't do any audio in tmpgenc, just blank out the audio line, and select ES Video only.

 

Yah, Im using ffmpeggui to convert to ac3 and all, but I know last time you said to use 224kbits on the last movie, but do I choose 224 on all the movies when extracting and converting the audio to ac3?

Where do I check errors in VirtualDub?

 

Yes, always use 224kbps AC3 audio. You can drop it to 192kbps to leave a little more room for video if needed.
If you're doing the audio in ffmpeggui, then don't bother with it in tmpgenc at all.
To check for errors in vdub 1.5.2, do this:
Open the avi, select video, scan for errors.

 

Well, I have a feeling I screwed up in the audio reading in Gspot, because I didnt put 224 in gspot to figure out the average bitrate, but when I extracted it I did use 224, but the average bitrate didnt match the 224 scale I did on the extraction.

Going to try it one more time using 224bitrate and see what happens. If I get the same error, then the video must be corrupted with errors.

 

Ok, I scanned the video for errors in virtualdub, but didnt say anything after it was done. Nothing popped up.

Just a few video shots came up. Where do I go to read about the errors or does it just bring up the video clips that are bad?

Im also guessing that if the video DOES have errors, you cant fix that, can you? Video is pretty much bad?

 

Ok, I figured it out. It shows you which frames are bad if you go back to VIDEO and ERRORS.

Will masking the videos work to fix them, or should I delete them? Those are my options.

 

Yup, mask the errors, then frameserve, or save out another avi.

 

Once I mask it, do I save it under file in virtualdub and then re-open TMPEGenc 2.5 and do it all over again?

Because I masked it, then closed virtualdub and reopened tmpegenc, and redid the extraction of the video and still got the same error.

Do I have to save it once its masked?

 

Yes, either resave it or frameserve it.
Either way, it must be re-encoded to something with the masked (bad) frames taken out.