Nerovision Express 2 Transcoding Problems

Well, I'm back... after trying everything and then some. Decided to uninstall everything again, deleted all files which smacked of nero in any way, ran their general cleaning tool, and re-installed the entire program from scratch. Started with Nero software which came with my Sony DRX710UL burner, a version w/VisionEX2 and worked upgrades incrementally to the most current.

Got my first DVD burn with VisionEX3, and with a menu! Took 4 hrs 41 minutes as the program insisted on trancoding regardless of the file being mpeg2. Couldn't wait to view the result, everything seemed near perfect with exception of a chapter button refusing to be customized without crashing the program during menu creation - so I left it saying chapter 1 (not the end of the world). Fired the DVD up, hit the chapter navigation button, movie started w/music, then all audio vanished and it was like watching a silent movie. I made a log file this time... in case there is anyone who might know what went wrong? Here are specs from that log in case they contain information which reveals the problem - wasn't sure which part of the log was most pertinent:

[18:08:30] ExpressUI ------<NeroVision Project Information>--------
[18:08:30] ExpressUI --- Project type: DVD-Video
[18:08:30] ExpressUI --- Project video options ---
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Video mode: NTSC
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Aspect ratio: Automatic
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Quality: Automatic
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Resolution: Automatic
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Sample format: Automatic
[18:08:30] ExpressUI File type: MPEG-2
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Audio format: Dolby Digital (AC-3) 2.0
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Encoding mode: High Quality (2-Pass VBR)
[18:08:30] ExpressUI --- Project space information ---
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Used disc space: 3.00 GB
[18:08:30] ExpressUI --- Project contents ---
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Sample format: Automatic
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Audio format: Dolby Digital (AC-3) 2.0
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Encoding mode: High Quality (2-Pass VBR)
[18:08:30] ExpressUI Number of titles: 1

Discovered what might be wrong with the Pilates exercise videos I bought at a yard sale and tried to copy. Turned out to be an incompatible frame size - PAL?, tried to change frame size by conversion and to .avi to shrink it down, but haven't tried to burn it yet.

Error message I got prior was: "The MPEG file screen size is 480X576. NTSC standard is 720X480" If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd love to hear it. Sent my email address to Craig, so far no reply. Sure hope he's in Germany right now working on this and gets back to us. For a newbie, I'm sure getting broken in to all this the hard way.

 

Must be more to it than PAL. I use NVE2 to make all my PAL to NTSC conversions (NVE3 choked so I'm back to 2).

 

MysticE,

Good to know you've had no problem converting PAL with Nero, process of elimination is all I have to work with at this point. I'm not sure what this software will or not do anymore. Frame size must be the problem, but this is something I'm only now trying to learn more about while putting out Nero's fires.

Tried using NVE2 before updating and had far worse results. Hated updating to NVE3 knowing buttons and 'content' would not be nearly as nice, nor do I much like the newer functions as much as NVE2. Beyond me why fixing software must entail making functions far worse, or artistic features unavaliable to use.

Then I discovered the Nero package included with my Sony burner is limited to functioning only with my Sony burner! It does not support my system's LG combo drive, so if I wish to burn a CD with Nero, it must be done through the Sony burner. Cute.

This alone made me wonder what other functionality might have been truncated by Sony's limited Nero license, and tempted re-installation of the version of this software I'd originally installed. Sometimes newer is not better. It was deceptive of Sony to not include this information in their product description, leading the consumer into thinking they would get a fully functional version of Nero along with their package. ~grumbles about this are more than justifiable~ It isn't as if I didn't know Sony was paranoid about copy protection being in the movie industry, but one must look before they leap nowadays. If it 'sounds too good to be true' as they say, and this time it was.

 

Whilst we wait for Nero to perform some extensive magic, I have been trying other software.

TMPGEnc DVD Author V1.6 from http://www.pegasys-inc.com has impressed me greatly. It's not shareware - but I am taking advantage of the 30 day trial.

It has worked with my MPEG-2 files very well, and has made it very easy for me to edit my movie. I have only played with it for a day, but it has so far been 100% reliable, and very fast.

I like the fact that I could use my PC for other things whilst it was working in the background, unlike with Nero Express 3.

Nero sure have some work to do!

However, what I thought was very interesting and may provide some clues as to the transcoding issues Nero Express is having... is that TMPGEnc complained that my MPEG-2 file had a too large a GOP. Never having seen this type of message before - I searched google/forum - and found others mentioning it also. The answer is to select the "ignore" button, and don't look back. Maybe Nero is having an issue with the GOP size?

 

a.steele,

Must admit to not knowing what GOP stands for (grand ol' party?) But I've gotten the same error message and so understand what you mean about hitting the 'ignore' button. Still can't help wondering about the end result. Usually if a program kicks out an error message, there's a reason. Must do more research before trusting this as a working solution.

I have the full version of TmpGEnc Plus, but it turned out slightly sophisticated for a newbie to learn on. Have spent enough time beating my brain over Nero (which is comparatively easy, but only good for burning), so you can guess where my next round of energy will be spent. The more I learn, the more confident I am using other programs though. No doubt this is a good call on your part.

Lawmanxxx,

Did exactly as you described, and must agree with your methods being best. Believe this is what Sony support was trying to get at when they told me to burn to HD first, but they left out details which make it understandable. Still got a set of files that play without sound though... :^/ Movie music starts playing, then vocal conversations are completely gone. The movie is an old 50's Sci-Fi, but being as the file plays flawlessly beforehand tells me the problem is most likely in transcoding it.

 

i also had the problem of it nve2 first locking up in the create chaters section or if it got past that transcoding would hang indefinately as others described.
after removing my existing divx codec i got rid of the locking up in the chapters section and after installing the ffdshow codecs it now seems to be transcoding ok. thanks to all who suggested this espically the guy who suggested running it with divx and changing the configuration of ffdshow.

 

Good to hear that you have having success... now try with NVE 3!

I am actually having fun doing this once again, but this is how I am authoring my DVD's.

(1) Use TMPGEnc to edit my large MPEG file, extracting/editing it into individual MPEG files. All at 6MB/s with 224K for audio.

(2) Use TMPGEnc DVD Author to made a "DVD" from my multiple MPEG files. Add additional chapters if I need to, but mostly I go with the default chapter with each image. I could just miss out step (1) - but find it easier and more flexible doing things this way. Design a nice DVD menu (takes 20 seconds!) - and finally create/export my masterpiece to a hard disk directory.
* I overfill my "DVD" by approx 20%

(3) Use DVD Shrink to do a "deep analysis" of the newly created directory, and then use it's automatic compression to make a DVD-5 disk ISO image file. I am getting 1hr 50mins of video per DVD, and the quality is great - just what I want!

(4) Use Nero V6 to burn the ISO image to a DVD.



I am using this procedure to get our home movie footage to DVD(s), where I create my large MPEG file by playing the video recorder into my PC's Tuner Card's AV port. There are other flashier ways using iLink etc, but this simple recording produces superb quality.

I have also used DVD Shrink to get a 2hr 20m video recording onto a DVD. The picture quality was not brilliant - but in this particular case I was quite prepared to sacrifice some video quality in order to fit the show onto one DVD disk. It is certainly watchable... but fitting 1hr 50mins onto a disk is more ideal.

 

I just have to comment on the latest post from a.steele.
To avoid double posting, I would like to refer to a thread that I posted earlier today: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/148708
I guess if your just converting a few home movies it might be worth all that farting around but for a project the size of mine, I would have gone bonkers waiting for TMPGEnc Plus to chew through 27 dvd's. I didn't mean to insult your choice of software, I just don't get it. Can you imagine how long it would take to transcode a full double-layer disc? What about these new Blu-Ray DVD discs that are being talked about? How long to convert 30gb? A week? I'll stick with NVE3, me thinks! I feel lucky to have been able to solve the problems that I was having ( see my post Jan.8th in this thread) and I hope others will get the help they need here as well.
Lawmanxxx...

 

Interesting feedback, and of course it all comes down to the best tools for the job that you are trying to do. You and I are doing very different things here!

Personally, I am not looking to convert AVI to MPEG, I already have the MPEG files as my files are created as MPEG - I am not ripping them from a DVD!

My experiences with Nero Express 3 is that it is wanting to transcode my MPEG files into its own MPEG files - and this process can take up to 6 hours for a single DVD that I am wanting to author... except that it doesn't take 6 hours, as it never completes!

Other users have also commented that Nero is still being too fussy about wanting to transcode video that doesn't "need" to be transcoded. (I think it may come down to a GOP incompatibility.)

Anyway, I have had several very frustrating few weeks trying to work with Nero Express 3 in order to author a DVD... and failed.

I found TMPGEnc and TMPGEnc DVD Author - and both of these programs have been superb. NO crashes, easy to use. Fantastic!!

 

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the long absence from this and other forums. I hope to catch up on all the issues quickly.

I'll be the first to admit that our NVE3 has a ways to go still. We have improved support for detecting MPEG2/DVD Compliant files, but some files are still being re-encoded. We have a standing bug report opened on this issue, and I am collecting MPEG2 samples created by programs such as TMPEGEnc and others to provide to our Engineers so they can resolve this issue. It will take a little time.

Our Engineers did find an issue that still causes hangs in NVE3 when it comes to creating Slideshows, and this has been resolved in NVE3.0.1.25, and we hope to have this posted on our website soon.

There is also a known issue in NVE30118 when you have 'Burn-At-Once' enabled. This will fail all the time. We have already addressed this as well in a new build.

And we are looking to add support for a number of new Capture Card Devices.

These are just a few areas we are looking and working to improve in our software.

NVE3 is not yet where we want it to be, but we will get it there.

Regards,

Craig
Ahead Software
USA

 

Thanks Craig - you already know just how much your posts are appreciated, it's great to know that Nero care and have a team working on issues and improvements.

 

Craig, another user and I have solved our mutual problem with 'could not burn disc structure - 129 error' messages by dumping InCd. Seems an instant cure. See http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1/148590#772922 in case this helps your techies

 

Thanks A.Steele!

Hi Nozwaldo,

That is valuble input. We have seen InCD cause problems with NVE and Nero Express/Burning ROM in the past. And we fix it and then break it again. :-(

Our InCD team is constantly working to improve the software, and we are always at the Microsoft sponsored IFSPlugFest to further this end.

I will forward this information on to our InCD team.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,

Craig
Ahead Software
USA

 

So, it seems i have the same problem as a few other people on this board
- nerovision express hanging during transcoding
- the progress bars stop, the time spent keeps going up though.
- also, if i try to capture images for chapter images, that freezes if i do anything but push play
- and even that usually freezes it after a few seconds.

I really like the menu creation system and i think that this will be really good software once it ... works

Do we have an ETA for an update/patch?

Thanks

 

Same Same other post , STOP on Trancoding .I let it run for 24hr same spot it did not move . Looks like the newer the Ver the Less it will work ?

 

Craig,
Will NVE3.0.1.25 take care of the Recode, "Blank check command error" problem, too?

 

We just posted NVE30127 on our website to address a number of bugs we found and that were reported by users.

This should address most if not all the issuse reported here.

There is an issue reported by a user where our NVE3 software hangs or crashes when importing with "My XP Theme (OpusOS) packs, and we are looking into this now. The Standard XP Theme and Standard Classic Them packs do not show this issue.

Regards,

Craig
Nero Inc
USA

 

nope
still crashes on chapter creation and just crashed on attempting to write the dvd to my hard drive...
after ending the task, i can click the abort button, but theres no way to close it so i have to end the task again
infact, it crashed much sooner on the writing attempt than usual...

 

More detrails, please.
You may get a benefit by unchecking BurnAtOnce. Also burning to virtual image.
Ron

 

Craig,
Thanks a bunch for the heads up. I used the clean tools to clean out all of the old Nero and installed the new. My problem (Blank check command error) is gone. I used Recode to do one backup and all went well.