mpg1 encoding settings help please.

[Biker]

As this is the 2nd time that i have written this i'll now keep it short!

I am trying to encode some 352 x 288 frame based avi files of very fast Supercross racing. This has both horizontal and vertical motion which is eratic and sudden. I noramally use avi2mpg which normally produces very SMALL and clean mpg's (even if a little slow!). But it has not control over motion vectors etc. So the fast mtion is very poor.

I find the new 'avi2mpg2' complicated to try and setup and hence am getting equally as bad movies and VERY large mpg file sizes.

Can anyone give some guidance on settings please - I don't know what most of the setting parameters mean!

Required - Small MPG1 files with 128 kb audio.
Source - 352 x 288 Frame based avi's, Audio 22khz 16bit mono.

I also have access to a friends PC with LSX1.
But we don't know how to set this up either?

I am trying to use 'avi2mpg2' because i am told it has the BBmpeg encoder which is the best!

Thanks in advance. PS. I have searched the archives with no luck.

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[Dr Mordrid]

Why aren't you using TMPGEnc to encode it? It's much more powerful than bbmpeg or avi2mpg. TMPGEnc 12a can do both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 very nicely and it's free. I just used it to encode a bike race so....

Get it here;

http://www.jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/

You'll need to download version 12a, its English translation patch and the VFAPI resource (this provides its file reading plugins). Apply the language patch then the VFAPI plugin and you're off and running.

If you are not making a VideoCD enter the Configure button and select the highest quality motion search accuracy, MPEG-1, CBR and about 2000-3000 kbps (presuming the 352x288 frame size).

If you ARE making a VideoCD then use the Load button to load the PAL VideoCD or SuperVideoCD presets and then enter the Configure menu and set the highest motion search accuracy.

If TMPGEnc cannot produce clean MPEG's then you'll need to use the Panasonic MPEG encoder. Unfortunately it's not freeware.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 January 2001).]

[Biker]

Thanks Doc.
I think I needed a kick up the a** as a reminder.
I forgot I downloaded TPmpg12a (and got confused when found BBmpeg). I will now look for it somewhere in my ever worsening filing system here!!!

Thanks lots for ther settings info. I am making a Multimedia CD with lots of movie clips in it. Hopefully to play back on fairly low spec PC's.

Will send a copy for your amusement when completed, - When, When, When?

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[Dr Mordrid]

Sounds like my filesystem here a few months ago. That's when I finally decided to sort things out and put my old D/L's on CD's. Freed up about 20 gigs

Dr. Mordrid

[Biker]

20 gigs = Gulp!!! - worth thinking about.

Actually Doc Re: Tmpgen12a. Got it working fine - thanks.
Compared to Avi2mpg (very early version), the files 'look' smoother and thats what its all about, - mostly anyway.
It appears to do this largely by producing an mpg file that has far less contrast and with 'smoothed' edges (blurred!), but still looks sharp enough on playback, so its a neat trick, - nice one.

However I have found ONE MASSIVE drawback. The MPG files with Tmpg are 40% larger than when using my old Avi2Mpg1 ? Even when using the same bitrate. This is BAD news as I have to fit 60 mins of video on 1 normal size CD for my project. So I will just have to be selective which AVI's I use TMPG on!!!

Out of curiosity do you know if using the motion search/vector 'thingy' on high quality cause the filesize to increase?



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[Dr Mordrid]

A bit, yes.

You could also try using 2 pass VBR (variable bit rates) to make the files smaller. Using a max rate of about 1850 kbps, an average of 1200-1400 kbps and a minimum of 300 kbps would shrink 'em a tad.

I just finished doing a comparison where a 1 minute 704x480 6.6:1 MJPeg encoded thusly in TMPGEnc 12a using a high motion search accuracy (film of a 2 year old!);

CBR @2500kbps: 22,483,152 bytes = 28.9min/650 meg disk = 31.15 min/700 meg disk

2-pass VBR @1850/1400/300/: 13,053,960 bytes = 50 min/650 meg disk = 53.62 min/700 meg disk

Both rendered into quite acceptable MPEG's.

There are some filters you can use to adjust how the result looks if it's too soft for you. They're located in the Configure/Advanced menu page. Doubleclick on each item to get its configuration menu and check the box to use it in the current project.

The Basic Color Correction item lets you adjust brightness, contrast, gamma, red and blue.

The Custom Color Correction filter adds a bunch more including CMYK, YUV, RGB and a ton of other options including those in the Basic Color Correction menu.

There are also filters for edge enhancement, noise and ghost reduction.

That should give you an idea why TMPGEnc is so popular. Another reason arises if you're using Premiere. Using the AVISynth macro/frameserving software (freeware) you can send data straight from Premiere's timeline to TMPGEnc for encoding.

Since TMPGEnc does a much better job than the Ligos MPEG-1/2 plugin this can be a godsend.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 January 2001).]

[Technoid]

Dr Mordrid,

I thought I saw you say that High motion search in TMPGEnc breaks VBR in ver 12a?

(has anyone else noticed that the emoticons bitmaps has changed randomly a couple of times this month?)

[Dr Mordrid]

The problem is that it slightly overruns when you don't use "normal".

You can still use it if you set the bitrate slightly lower than you want it to be. By setting a peak of 1850 kbps you could end up with ~2200-2500 kbps.

The VBR I encoded above showed an average bitrate of only 1381 kbps with an average bitrate for the I-Frames of about 2584 kbps.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 January 2001).]

[dchip]

Good old TMPGEnc, in my opinion has got to be one of, if not the, best piece of freeware ever.

I captured an hour of cable TV the other night with Matrox G200 and ended up with a slew of 2GB AVI's with commercials at various points in the clips. I used TMPGEnc to encode all of them into MPEG-1 (VCD-style) and then used the MPEG tools in TMPGEnc to join the clips. The nice thing was I was able to zap out all the commercials by setting in and out points using the joiner. If a clip had commercials at several places on it, I just loaded the clip in the joiner a second or third time with different in and out points. TMPGEnc handled the job like a champ. Plus, there are no annoying blips or beeps at the split points in the finished MPEG. Working with MPEG? Get TMPGEnc!

[Dr Mordrid]

Ain't it the flippin' truth??

That program gets more use in my studio than anything but Premiere and MSPro6.

Not to belabor the point, but what I've also been using a lot lately is AVISynth and the AVISynth plugin for Premiere. That capability to frameserve directly from Premiere's timeline to TMPGEnc for encoding is just too neat.

AVISynth can also manipulate data on the way to TMPGEnc, which can be neat for things like transcoding from DV type 1 to DV type 2 and back. The feature set makes leaning it a bit complex, but well worth doing.

Now, if only I can convince the project manager at Ulead to add AVISynth support in the next version of MSPro ;-)

That or someone will have to create a plugin or hack MSPro6 so it will import the *.avs batch files used by AVISynth.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 27 January 2001).]