Incompatible formats according to TMPEng

Brooktop

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I've recorded some footage on my Canon MV800 in widescreen mode. I've copied it onto RAM disk on my Panasonic E55 in SP mode throughout. I now want to copy the footage to a DVD-R disk on my PC, using TMPeng DVD author. Unfortunately TMPeng is saying it has a fatal flaw that it can't overcome because of incompatible formats in the same program(16:9 and 4:9 or MPEG 1 and MPEG 2). I don't understand how this can happen.

Anyone got any ideas? Your help would be appreciated. :rolleyes:
 
You can't combine MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 on a DVD spec compliant DVD.

You can have different aspect ratios on the same DVD & it be compliant, but in order to do so they can't be in the same VTS (Video Title Set). A lot of budget authoring programs however only have one VTS available.

You may have to re-encode some of your files so that they are all the same format but re-encoding MPEG again may leave some nasty artifacts (particularly MPEG-1 to MPEG-2)
 
This problem is caused by the "hybrid resolution" option on the DVD recorder.

Basically where it can the player switches recording resolution from 720x576 to 352x576 to save disc space (reduce bit rate). This is what causes the problem you are seeing. It's not only TMPEG that doesn't like this.

Disable this and all will be well :smashin:
 
Thanks guys. I haven't switched between mpeg 1 and 2 - I wouldn't know how to (is that on the camcorder or the DVDR?). Anyway, seems like the main culprit could be the hybrid bit rate. I looked into this previously and, from memory, my options in the Hybrid Resolution are 'fixed' or 'variable' (or is that 'automatic'?). I currently have it set to fixed though.

I thought of going this route because it seemed easier to put all the recording onto a RAM disk (in SP mode), chop out the boring bits and then copy the RAM to DVDR. Then it does this!!!

I have also tried doing it on the PC - but an AVI file will only get about 20 mins on one disk. I also tried capturing it as 'DVD' using Ulead Video 7 last night - and that got the whole 1hr 15 min of footage down to 4.3Gb, but I don't seem to have sound. Doh! The programmes I have are Windows Movie Maker, Ulead Video 7, TMPGenc DVD author and Ulead DVD Maker (or something like that). To be honest, I'm fumbling in the dark as I'm a newbie to video (been more of a stills man!). Anyone know of a tutorial I can follow that keeps it simple. Goodness knows how the average person in the street goes on; I like technology, but am drowning a bit with this one! :rolleyes:
 
Brooktop said:
Thanks guys. I haven't switched between mpeg 1 and 2 - I wouldn't know how to (is that on the camcorder or the DVDR?). Anyway, seems like the main culprit could be the hybrid bit rate. I looked into this previously and, from memory, my options in the Hybrid Resolution are 'fixed' or 'variable' (or is that 'automatic'?). I currently have it set to fixed though.

I thought of going this route because it seemed easier to put all the recording onto a RAM disk (in SP mode), chop out the boring bits and then copy the RAM to DVDR. Then it does this!!!

I have also tried doing it on the PC - but an AVI file will only get about 20 mins on one disk. I also tried capturing it as 'DVD' using Ulead Video 7 last night - and that got the whole 1hr 15 min of footage down to 4.3Gb, but I don't seem to have sound. Doh! The programmes I have are Windows Movie Maker, Ulead Video 7, TMPGenc DVD author and Ulead DVD Maker (or something like that). To be honest, I'm fumbling in the dark as I'm a newbie to video (been more of a stills man!). Anyone know of a tutorial I can follow that keeps it simple. Goodness knows how the average person in the street goes on; I like technology, but am drowning a bit with this one! :rolleyes:

Yes, fixed is the option you want.

I've been messing about editing MPEG2 video for about 6 years now and have tried so many programs (Womble MPEG2 VCR etc). All of these have been hopeless - really they are that bad!

About 6 months ago when I discovered Video ReDo. This program is quite simply the dogs dangleys and I use it all the time to edit MPEG2 files either recorded with my DigiTV or on my DMR-E30.

http://www.videoredo.com/

It's not often I buy software, but this was something once used I couldn't live without and really is worth every penny... Support is excellent also.

Once I've edited with Video Redo I normally author the DVD using TMPEG DVD Author. If I want to burn more than one copy (I have 3 DVD writers) then I create DVD structure on HDD and burn all at once with Nero. Works a treat every time :thumbsup:

Rob.
 
Hmmm..it's a puzzler....because I'm 95% sure that the hybrid res was set to fixed when I copied it. I wonder if it's something to do with the fact that I record in widescreen mode....which I believe isn't actually recording in 16:9, but merely cropping the 4:3 image that it's REALLY recording.

I notice this because when I captured the video on the pc, it's playing back in 4:3.
 
Shouldn't make a difference if you record on the camera in 4:3, widescreen letter box or 16:9 anamorphic.

I suggest you download Video ReDo and get a trial key. I have seen the error you describe when there's an error in the MPEG2 video stream (sometimes get this when recording from the DigiTV). Even if you don't want to edit the video I always let Video ReDo re-multiplex the stream - this helps to increase compatability with other programs I've found.

Another program useful for quickly scanning through the MPEG (once you've copied it from RAM disc to HDD) looking for errors is DGMPEGDec.

http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html

If you see the video "split" vertically and have two different video's running next to one another that means Hybrid Resolution was enabled. I don't know about later Panny recorders, but on my E30 this option was set to auto "out of the box" and I had to disable.

Rob.
 
Thanks Rob. I've checked my DVDR and it was indeed set to 'fixed' hybrid bit rate (the other option was 'automatic'), so it's obviously not that.

I take it that Videoredo doesn't capture the video. What would you recommend to capture video? Thanks
 
Hmm... Confusing. There's no reason (unless I'm missing something) what you are doing shouldn't work okay. What drive to you have on the PC to read the RAM disc?

It might be an idea to read this thread if you haven't already...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101191&page=1&pp=15

With regards to capturing the video are you now looking to connect the camera to the PC using firewire and then edit and encode to MPEG2 on the PC and bypass the DVD recorder stage?

Video Redo is purely for editing MPEG2 files and it does that very well. It does not capture.

Personally I still use my Matrox RT2000 to "capture" and edit my home video's. I normally use TMPEG or CCE to encode the DV AVI into an MPEG2 video file.

Rob.
 
Hi Rob

I would ideally like to drop the footage onto my computer. I had been using Windows Movie Maker or Ulead Video Studio 7 to do this. There were 2 problems: the files (in avi format) were huge and I was struggling to do much editing, in terms of chopping bits out, adding text and music. I suppose trying other formats that the software offers, is going to be a compromise...and to be honest, the quality of the footage captured on DVD by using my DVD recorder (albeit going thro' analogue) was pretty good.

So I thought that was the simplest route (shame I'd invested in a firewire card and cable!). I suppose I could drop it straight onto DVD-R, but it would be nice to edit on the RAM disk.

My PC's burner is an LG - so it reads all formats, including RAM. I did get the problem with TMPGenc after I'd recorded some TV off cable...but I thought that was because I'd upgraded from analogue NTL to digital NTL. It's certainly a mystery. I'll read that link when I have more time and do some more experimenting. Time for bed now.... :boring:
 

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