DVD Authoring and TMPGEnc MPEG-2 Encoder

[Debbie]

Hi All,

I have been doing some authoring for DVDs but for some strange reason after I encode in mpeg-2 with TMPGEnc and auther with Ulead DVD Workshop the clip would "freeze frame" at a lot of places.

After trying sevral options I used the TMPGEnc authoring software and the movie went smoothly.
Have you had this problem? What are you using as mpeg-2 encoder with DVD Workshop.

Regards,

Debbie

[Hulk]

Hello. I've done quite a bit of encoding using TMPGEnc and authoring using DVDWS for about a year now and have never experienced any freezing. I usually start off with one of the TMPGEnc supplied NTSC DVD templates.

- Mark

[Debbie]

Thanks for your reply Mark,

Are you encoding in CBR or VBR ?

[Dr Mordrid]

I encode in CQ_VBR (quality: 65 - 75) or 2-Pass VBR at a DC of 10 and High Quality (slow) motion compensation unless I'm encoding beach scenes or fast action in which I use Highest Quality (very slow). Bitrate chosen by content and program length (to fit on DVD).

Dr. Mordrid

[bitz4brainz]

Same experience

I encoded a movie I had captured in DV, using TMPGenc. I experienced the same freezing you did, using Ulead's authoring. (The .mpg file played okay.) I tried CBR, VBR, 2-pass, Open/closed GOPs, different bitrates. Same problem, more or less.

I was able to get it to work when I authored using TMPGenc's DVD Author. Despite that product's limitations, I gave in settled on DVDA for this purpose. The DVD plays properly on the cheapest settop I could find (on sale in a grocery store!).

What was (perhaps) somewhat unusual about my settings, and which I did not want to change:
- I trimmed and resampled for 16:9 using TMPGenc.
- I reversed the pulldown and encoded at 24p (with the flag to tell the player to do pulldown on playback. This setting is called "Film source" in TMPGenc.

I suspect that the second of these two items is what may have been the problem. But the quality I got was so good that I did not want to omit the setting. It was so good that I got laserdisc quality even at a modest bitrate of 4300 (2-pass, highest motion, of course).

For other less-important material, I will probably continue to use Ulead

[Hulk]

I use VBR, same general settings as Doc.

- Mark

[Debbie]

Hi All,

I have been playing about during the weekend with different DVD authoring software. I am convinced that the problem is the type of encoding on the original clip. The clips that I have been trying to author have been encoded in Nandub.

Since TMPGEnc has not recognised the audio track I strippd the audio using VirtualDub then used that file to substitute the original in TMPGEnc, leaving the same format (NTSC) and encoding in mpeg-2.

The produced file played well in a software DVD player. After authoring in DVD Workshop the clip kept freezing at some points. I reauthored in DVD Workshop rerendering the clip, but at some point the software came up with an error and stoped erencoding.

I then used TMPGEnc DVD Author (very poor in features) but the result has been great not a single freeze and as "smooth as silk"

Perhaps it's not a bad idea to have more than one authoring software !!

Regards,

Debbie