Print Page - Tutorial: Re-encode Hd-dvd/bluray (mkv Source) To Wvc1

First off, I would like to thank impimpin206. He authored a great tutorial on how to use TMPGEnc to re-encode HD-DVD/Bluray ripped MKV sources to WVC1 (WMV) in order to stream to the Xbox 360. I have since come up with an updated process on how to accomplish the same thing. I have also provided some additional information in the tutorial that some may view as unnecessary. However, based on the rudimentary questions posed in his thread, I have included some basic information.

Please note that this tutorial is a work in progress, and will be updated. I will *not* post the tutorial here, but rather a link to the Microsoft Office Word 2007 document. As we all know, XS does not allow updating your posts. I feel this is counter intuitive to forums, and this is a workaround I have come up with.

So, grab the latest version of the tutorial here.

NOTE: If you are not using Microsoft Office 2007, and an older version you will need the Microsoft Office Converter Pack prior to opening my tutorial.

I will also post a tutorial in the upcoming weeks on how to rip your existing DVD's to WMV or Xvid. I'm tossing around upscaling during the encode, but I have yet to find a process that I like and that produces a good quality encode.

Please, comment on my work here. I will provide support as best as I can. The search feature of this board is the first step all should take before asking questions.

Enjoy! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pop.gif)

Excellent tutorial, this is the new MKV bible! I'm glad there are people like you out there, thank you Chris!

This one should be pinned.

v1.0.20080130.2 has been posted. Same link as I have in the first post of this thread.

[EDIT]

DAMN IT!!

Of course, I go to upload the new version to Orbitfiles, and it generates a new URL. Bastards. I will email the admins of this forum to see if they can allow edit rights.

Here's the updated URL.
[/EDIT]

This post has been edited by chrislynch: Jan 31 2008, 02:45 AM

Great tutorial-actually one of the best I've seen on this site or any other site for that matter. Should definitely be pinned.

will2learn

awesome tutorial i finally got it working. Thanks again for all you help i will let you know how it turns out in about 17 hours

Should be pinned!

Chris - Check your email!

Thanks alot, very appreciated!

This post has been edited by latentpsycho: Jan 31 2008, 06:41 PM

My only problem thus far is that I haven't been able to get a working mirror to download your format profiles. Any other mirrors besides those in the tutorial?

Thanks again

Yep. Here you go. I just uploaded the profiles last night. I didn't update the document yet, which reflects the Orbitfiles.com URL.

This tutorial looks excelent.
Ill give it a shot with windows xp pro.

thanks!

This post has been edited by robert74: Jan 31 2008, 10:37 PM

Nice work chrislynch!

Thank you to all who have downloaded the document thus far. I am curious on feedback you all have so far.

Just as a note, I am going on vacation here, and I will not have access to email, nor Internet, for over a week. I will update my document while on vacation, and upload a new version when I get back.

For some reason Im getting some jumpy video every 30 to 40 seconds. Im sure Im dropping some frames. Any help?

Thanks!

QUOTE(robert74 @ Feb 3 2008, 08:03 AM)

For some reason Im getting some jumpy video every 30 to 40 seconds. Im sure Im dropping some frames. Any help?

Thanks!

Are you streaming the video to your 360? If so, how? Is your 360 wired or wireless? Are you playing the final version on your PC, or on the 360? Is it 720p, or 1080p content?

Please, if anyone runs into problems, the more information you can provide, the easier it will be for all of us to help you. If you simply just post what robert74 did, that doesn't help me or anyone else, as there are multiple different things that can cause the above issue.

Also, please know that this is my last post of the day. I am now on vacation.

QUOTE(robert74 @ Feb 3 2008, 08:03 AM)

For some reason Im getting some jumpy video every 30 to 40 seconds. Im sure Im dropping some frames. Any help?

I had the same issue and what I found was that anything that was encoded over 3000Kbps caused the stream to stutter every so often. Lately I've been encoding 1280 x 720 @ 3000Kbps and AC3 @ 384 and getting pretty good results. There were some video artifacts at first but then I started to do 2 pass encoding and they cleaned up right nice.

I am having a different issue. I have a .mkv file that is h264 video and 6 channel AAC audio but I cannot get the sound right. I've tried a number of ways Tmpeg being the latest but none working. When I use avidemux the audio channels switch the fl with c. When I use this method it only decodes 2 channel. I've tried to decode the AAC files in to 6 mono waves and re-encode to AC3 but my timing is always off and it never matches up with the source video. Has anybody run into issues like that? If so what worked for you? Thanks in advance.

I noticed the exact same thing on all of my encodes. Between 30-40 second intervals and it stutters (video only) very briefly. It's actually hard to notice, but once you know it's there it drives you crazy. BTW, AWESOME guide Chris, thanks for the help. In response to your request for more info, I've seen this issue on the PC and on the xbox, my xbox is wired, and I've also had the same issue when I actually connect the harddrive it's on (HFS+) directly to the xbox. It still stutters. I've had it do that on every video I've encoded (720p and 1080p). I'm going to give imdickie's suggestion a try and I'll report back with the results tomorrow

Ok, so I reencoded a 720p source overnight with a bitrate of 3000kB/s and that didn't seem to fix anything. I still got the picture stuttering between every 30-40 seconds... any other ideas?

Hey

Your link to the tutorial seems to be down

Orbitfiles appears to be down at the moment due to "the server being busy". My suggestion would be to try back in a day or so. If it doesn't come back up, I can try to mirror it somewhere else if Chris is still on vacation.

There is a PDF version of this guide mirrored on my blog.

http://www.ryanwalsh.ca/blog/?p=8

Orbitfiles came back for me this AM. I was able to download the tutorial doc and profiles.

Yesterday I discovered the previous tutorial by impimpin206, read through that thread (very long) then followed the links here to Chris Lynch's tutorial. Very nicely done, Chris!

I'm running some test encodes now and will report back on my findings soon. And, yes, I just now joined this board to participate in the discussion, but I'm not a n00b when it comes to video conversions.

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 7 2008, 08:57 AM)

Ok, so I reencoded a 720p source overnight with a bitrate of 3000kB/s and that didn't seem to fix anything. I still got the picture stuttering between every 30-40 seconds... any other ideas?

dakidark

Are you using the chrislynch's idea of using 24 frames/sec as the source (even though it may come up as 23.976)? Also what framerate are you encoding as? I've had the same problem of stuttering every minute or so in the movie (no issues with quality). I was talking to a friend who has been in the encoding scene for a bit and he said this issue doesnt sound like a bitrate problem, but perhaps a framerate problem. I played around with an MKV that was encoded at 25 fps. I re-encoded a sample to 25 fps WMV and it came out fine. No beginning stuttering issues (like the ones first reported) and no stutters like what you and I (and probably others) have been having. I'm going to play around with the framerates of some of the movies that I have that were encoded at 23.976 and see what happens. I'm sure it's fixable. Just have to trial and error it.

The source mkvs I have are encoded at 23.976 fps, but I've tried using 24 as well as 23.976 and both methods seem to be having the same issue. I'll set a few movies to reincode using other bitrates today while I'm at work and see what happens! Thanks for the insight though!

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 8 2008, 10:24 AM)

The source mkvs I have are encoded at 23.976 fps, but I've tried using 24 as well as 23.976 and both methods seem to be having the same issue. I'll set a few movies to reincode using other bitrates today while I'm at work and see what happens! Thanks for the insight though!

Did you have any codec packages installed previous to following this guide? A different version of ffdshow may be the culprit. The reason I suggest it, is that the latest build of ffdshow is often bundled in multiple codec packages (CCCP, k-lite, etc). However, most of the latest builds are beta and not "stable". The latest stable build was almost a year ago.

This post has been edited by jacanuck: Feb 8 2008, 05:12 PM

QUOTE(jacanuck @ Feb 8 2008, 11:10 AM)

Did you have any codec packages installed previous to following this guide? A different version of ffdshow may be the culprit. The reason I suggest it, is that the latest build of ffdshow is often bundled in multiple codec packages (CCCP, k-lite, etc). However, most of the latest builds are beta and not "stable". The latest stable build was almost a year ago.

Do you have to use ffdshow? I use CoreAVC as suggested by chrislynch. I have the most up-to-date software.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 8 2008, 08:42 AM)

I was talking to a friend who has been in the encoding scene for a bit and he said this issue doesnt sound like a bitrate problem, but perhaps a framerate problem.... I'm sure it's fixable. Just have to trial and error it.

I'm with your friend -- it feels like a framerate problem to me. Let's review.

The original video stuttering problem was seen when directly importing the mkv file into TMPGenc Xpress and not changing the input framerate. I have seen this myself and it's very ugly. The motion becomes jerky and it is constant and unbearable.

Chris discovered the magic technique of changing the input framerate to 24 fps when it is detected as 23.976. This makes the constant jerking go away, but seems to add the "hiccup" every 41 seconds. In every test render that I've done so far, I get the hiccup. It's much better, even watchable, but no good for archiving.

BTW, the playback testing I've been doing is in WMP11 since the output is a wmv. The hiccup is the same in WMPC -- 41 secs -- so this has nothing to do with the Xbox 360.

Finally, a quick rundown of my setup: Vista Home Premium, TMPGenc Xpress 4.4.2.238 (full retail), Haali Media Splitter, ffdshow-tryout 4a. I do not have CoreAVC installed (yet), nor AC3Filter.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 8 2008, 10:27 AM)

Do you have to use ffdshow? I use CoreAVC as suggested by chrislynch. I have the most up-to-date software.

See Appendix B. ffdshow rev. 610 (20061201)-stable Installation and Config on page 16 of the guide. This will show you how install ffdshow to decode MPEG-2.

The reason I asked originally, is that if a user has ffdshow previously installed, it may be conflicting with CoreAVC (a few of the beta builds of ffdshow cause the stuttery playback).

The very first step in Chris's guide should be to Uninstall all existing codecs and codec packages that are not part of the XP / Vista default installation. Then follow Chris's installation instructions for the codecs listed in the document. This will ensure that an old version of any conflicting codecs are not installed.

QUOTE(jacanuck @ Feb 8 2008, 06:18 PM)

See Appendix B. ffdshow rev. 610 (20061201)-stable Installation and Config on page 16 of the guide. This will show you how install ffdshow to decode MPEG-2.

The reason I asked originally, is that if a user has ffdshow previously installed, it may be conflicting with CoreAVC (a few of the beta builds of ffdshow cause the stuttery playback).

The very first step in Chris's guide should be to Uninstall all existing codecs and codec packages that are not part of the XP / Vista default installation. Then follow Chris's installation instructions for the codecs listed in the document. This will ensure that an old version of any conflicting codecs are not installed.

I did have a codec package installed, but removed it completely and installed coreAVC instead. Evidently today while I was at work something strange happened and my encoding didn't work, so I'm trying again now. Here's a brief snapshot of my setup:

Vista Ultimate x64, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress v4.4.1.237, Haali Media Splitter and CoreAVC Professional 1.6.0.0, 4GB dual channel DDR2, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz running @ 3.25GHz).

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 8 2008, 07:26 PM)

I did have a codec package installed, but removed it completely and installed coreAVC instead. Evidently today while I was at work something strange happened and my encoding didn't work, so I'm trying again now. Here's a brief snapshot of my setup:

Vista Ultimate x64, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress v4.4.1.237, Haali Media Splitter and CoreAVC Professional 1.6.0.0, 4GB dual channel DDR2, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz running @ 3.25GHz).

Did you install the Haali Media Splitter that is bundled with CoreAVC? If so, uninstall CoreAVC and reinstall without Haali Media Splitter. The version of Haali Media Splitter linked separately in the guide on page 5 is newer, and seems to work better.

Unfortunately no joy. I followed Chris's guide to the letter and only installed the standalone and unchecked the option to install the one bundled. My re-encode just finished, so let me fool around with that for a few minutes and I'll report on what I did and whether it worked in a few. Thanks for the tips though!

Ok, so using placebo3681's suggestion of encoding with a framerate of 25 and having no issues if the source is 25, I decided to see what would happen if I encoded at 25 fps with a source of 23.976. The results were pretty good. I did still notice one glitch with my movie, but it may have been the source or network. As far as I can tell there is no reoccuring glitch every 41 seconds. I'm going to try with another source and see what happens again, but if you all get some time and want to try this out, I'd be much appreciative to hear of your thoughts.

First, thanks to impimpin and to chrislynch. These tutorials have been great, and I've read every page in both tutorials.

On the skipping issue, I changed the 23.976 to 24 on my input clip (even though it was auto-found to be 23.976), and on the format tab I set my output to 23.976. I'm noticing the skipping every 41-42 seconds as well.

I'll toss this out there to see if anyone can find a way to use it...
Notice that 24 - 23.976 = 0.024 seconds.
Now, notice that 0.024 * 41.667 = 1 second.

So, it would seem that every 41.667 seconds the frames are 1 second off where they should be, and either the key frames or some other mechanism is causing the video to skip back to where they should be.

Alright, so at least for me, if my source is 23.976, then I get no skipping if I leave my input and output as both 23.976, not changing anything to 24. So until I run into some other problem, that's what I'm doing.

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 8 2008, 11:51 PM)

Ok, so using placebo3681's suggestion of encoding with a framerate of 25 and having no issues if the source is 25, I decided to see what would happen if I encoded at 25 fps with a source of 23.976. The results were pretty good. I did still notice one glitch with my movie, but it may have been the source or network. As far as I can tell there is no reoccuring glitch every 41 seconds.

I tried this with a video encoded at 23.976 fps. When I set the input fps to 25 in TMPGEnc Xpress, it does indeed make the 42 second glitch go away. However, the motion is still not perfectly smooth for me. It's different with this setting and hard to describe. I would say it's smooth for a couple seconds, then there is a mild stutter, then it is smooth again. Smooth, smooth, stutter, smooth, smooth, stutter. I saw this in WMP11 on the PC and playing from a DVD-R on the Xbox 360.

This new stutter is less disruptive than the 42 second glitch when the input is set to 24 fps, but it happens more often. It's watchable, but no good for archiving. There is a problem here and changing the input fps fixes one thing but breaks something else, for me. As mentioned before I'm not using CoreAVC, but I will be giving it a try soon.

Also, I've started calling that glitch a 42 second glitch, because it seems to be closer to 42 than 41.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Feb 10 2008, 03:31 AM)

I tried this with a video encoded at 23.976 fps. When I set the input fps to 25 in TMPGEnc Xpress, it does indeed make the 42 second glitch go away. However, the motion is still not perfectly smooth for me. It's different with this setting and hard to describe. I would say it's smooth for a couple seconds, then there is a mild stutter, then it is smooth again. Smooth, smooth, stutter, smooth, smooth, stutter. I saw this in WMP11 on the PC and playing from a DVD-R on the Xbox 360.

This new stutter is less disruptive than the 42 second glitch when the input is set to 24 fps, but it happens more often. It's watchable, but no good for archiving. There is a problem here and changing the input fps fixes one thing but breaks something else, for me. As mentioned before I'm not using CoreAVC, but I will be giving it a try soon.

Also, I've started calling that glitch a 42 second glitch, because it seems to be closer to 42 than 41.

I too noticed the glitch that is really hard to explain. It seems like it definitely is better, but still not where it should be. There should be some sort of fix for this.

QUOTE(xobx360 @ Feb 9 2008, 10:16 PM)

I'll toss this out there to see if anyone can find a way to use it...
Notice that 24 - 23.976 = 0.024 seconds.
Now, notice that 0.024 * 41.667 = 1 second.

So, it would seem that every 41.667 seconds the frames are 1 second off where they should be, and either the key frames or some other mechanism is causing the video to skip back to where they should be.

Good catch! I made the same calculation before and drew the same conclusion. Just one thing that I have to point out: your math is correct, but your units are not. I'm an engineer, so this was drilled into me in college. Not to dis you, but if I didn't correct this, I would bring shame on my teachers and my father (also an engineer).

In the first equation, the units are fps - fps so the resulting units are still fps (or f/s) => 0.024 f/s
In the second equation the units are f/s * s so the resulting units are frames => 1 frame

So, every 41.667 seconds, the video is off by exactly 1 frame. Like you, I believe that something is trying to correct this error and that correction results in what we have called the 41 or 42 second glitch. I would like to know what is making the correction: TMPGEnc Xpress? the DirectShow filter? Knowing that might help resolve this issue.

Alright, I've done 2 encodes and watched them fairly carefully. You guys are absolutely correct, approx every 40-42 seconds, it looks as though the frame rate is corrected.

I've just done a sample encode using the detected input frame rate (23.976) as the output frame rate, and so far, I don't see any corrections.

Why again did we chose "24" fps as the output method for this tutorial? It doesn't make sense to adjust the frame rate from the source.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Feb 10 2008, 02:52 AM)

Just one thing that I have to point out: your math is correct, but your units are not. I'm an engineer, so this was drilled into me in college. Not to dis you, but if I didn't correct this, I would bring shame on my teachers and my father (also an engineer).

No offense taken. I was once an engineer, so I should have gotten that right myself, but it was late last night when I calculated it and I was more focused on the numbers than the units. That makes more sense though, being off by one frame than one second. Getting off by a second would make a much bigger skip in the playback. The actual skip is a much quicker event.

To follow up on my last post, I tried encoding at 23.976 input and 23.976 output, to match my source, but now I have the constant stuttering issue for the first five minutes. It seems to be almost exactly five minutes. The rest of the video, including the 42 second skip, is fixed.

I may go back and get impimpin's method running again, since his avs script seemed to correct both the 42 second skip, and the 5-minute stutter. (I was having audio problems with his method before, but I think I have that corrected now.)

The other options I'm tempted to try: (1) playing with the prefetch video cache settings in TMPGEnc, under Options, CPU, multithread settings (right now both prefetch caches are unchecked; and (2) add 5 minutes of video to the front of my encode which I can trim back off after it's complete, to get rid of the stuttering in the beginning.

Anyone else have any experience with either of those?

QUOTE(jacanuck @ Feb 10 2008, 01:18 PM)

Alright, I've done 2 encodes and watched them fairly carefully. You guys are absolutely correct, approx every 40-42 seconds, it looks as though the frame rate is corrected.

I've just done a sample encode using the detected input frame rate (23.976) as the output frame rate, and so far, I don't see any corrections.

Why again did we chose "24" fps as the output method for this tutorial? It doesn't make sense to adjust the frame rate from the source.

I think xobx360 summed it up in the last post about the video having that constant stutter for the first 5 minutes. It's not the normal 42 second stutter, but more along the lines of the one I get if I set all the framerates to be 25 , ie much smaller but constant.

In response to xobx360's post, I haven't fooled with the pretetch video settings, but my gut tells me that just prefetching the video and audio won't do it because I believe the issue falls under TMPGEnc trying to correct that framerate hole. I believe it is a TMPGEnc issue because the issue appears to be present for both those using coreAVC as well as ffdshow.

I know having the skip is good in the long run because it prevents the video from getting out of sync with the audio, but I think the overall issue at this point is what is causing the issue when encoding a 23.976 source to a 23.976 video. If the 5 minute stuttering issue can be fixed, the whole issue goes away and we don't have to deal with the 42 second stutter.

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 10 2008, 02:21 PM)

In response to xobx360's post, I haven't fooled with the pretetch video settings, but my gut tells me that just prefetching the video and audio won't do it because I believe the issue falls under TMPGEnc trying to correct that framerate hole. I believe it is a TMPGEnc issue because the issue appears to be present for both those using coreAVC as well as ffdshow.

My thought with the prefetch goes back to someone's comment in the middle somewhere of impimpin's thread. Someone mentioned it and then no one followed up on it.

It seems that encoding at 23.976 for a 23.976 is the way to go to fix the 42-second skip, but that causes the 5-minute stutter in the beginning. It seems TMPGEnc might have a cache which takes about 5 minutes to get up and running, I'm wondering if using a video/audio prefetch might build up that cache from the very beginning and fix the early stutter. Of course if that were the case, then the 5-minute stutter should happen all the time, which it doesn't for me - only when using 23.976fps, not when using 24fps.

I agree, I'm increasingly convinced that this is a TPMGEnc issue, so I'll check with their support as well.

Anyway, that's my next trial-and-error test for tonight, I just haven't had time yet to check it out.

This post has been edited by xobx360: Feb 10 2008, 08:56 PM

Well, I am back from vacation, and I'm glad to see people posting.

I firmly believe this to be an issue with TMPGEnc, and not any other source. If you use WMP11 or MPC (with the internal filters disabled), you are in affect using DirectShow, which is what TMPGEnc will use. I believe that their internal video render is trying to compensate NTSC and PAL video with time shifting.

I wonder if anyone can please chime in with how they are viewing the final product. Are you viewing it on your local PC? Streaming it from your PC to your 360?

24FPS always works for me, and I stream my video across an 802.11n wireless network without issues. I do make sure that Diskeeper is not set to auto-defrag my 1TB drive (where my video content is stored.)

I will be posting an update to the tutorial later this week. I had some time to put some new things together. I'm also thinking about adding other apps like Microsoft Web Impressions (the replacement to Windows Media Encoder), and quite possibly WME itself. Let me know if that would help anyone.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 10 2008, 03:37 PM)

I wonder if anyone can please chime in with how they are viewing the final product. Are you viewing it on your local PC? Streaming it from your PC to your 360?

Welcome back, Chris. I'm viewing my finished product locally an my PC using WMP11, locally with VLC, and streaming to my xbox over a wired connection, and I get the same 42-second skip and 5-minute stutter using all three playback methods.

I get the quick skip every 42-seconds throughout the entire video when I choose 24fps as my input while using a source with 23.976fps. Easy to notice if I encode a quick sample of a movie's scrolling credits, because it's easy to see the skip as the text scrolls by.

If I encode using 23.976fps to match my source, then I don't get the skip every 42-seconds, but the first few minutes of my video stutter. It's almost constant, just a very un-smooth playback for the first five minutes, as if it's playing every other frame (though VLC says I'm not dropping any frames). Then after that first few minutes everything is smooth for the rest of the video.

Neither of these issues creates any problem with audio-video synch. My audio remains synched and smooth throughout.

Finally, the 5-minute stutter seems harder to troubleshoot - if I do a short sample clip from the middle of my source, I get no stutter in the sample. It needs to be a full encode (or maybe a clip from the beginning of my source?) to see the stutter. Happens with all of my sources, though.

This post has been edited by xobx360: Feb 10 2008, 10:41 PM

QUOTE(xobx360 @ Feb 10 2008, 01:39 PM)

Welcome back, Chris. I'm viewing my finished product locally an my PC using WMP11, locally with VLC, and streaming to my xbox over a wired connection, and I get the same 42-second skip and 5-minute stutter using all three playback methods.

I get the quick skip every 42-seconds throughout the entire video when I choose 24fps as my input while using a source with 23.976fps. Easy to notice if I encode a quick sample of a movie's scrolling credits, because it's easy to see the skip as the text scrolls by.

If I encode using 23.976fps to match my source, then I don't get the skip every 42-seconds, but the first few minutes of my video stutter. It's almost constant, just a very un-smooth playback for the first five minutes, as if it's playing every other frame (though VLC says I'm not dropping any frames). Then after that first few minutes everything is smooth for the rest of the video.

Neither of these issues creates any problem with audio-video synch. My audio remains synched and smooth throughout.

Finally, the 5-minute stutter seems harder to troubleshoot - if I do a short sample clip from the middle of my source, I get no stutter in the sample. It needs to be a full encode (or maybe a clip from the beginning of my source?) to see the stutter. Happens with all of my sources, though.

I saw above that you were using ffdshow to decode x264 video. I do not support, nor work with ffdshow to decode x264 video. Please use CoreAVC if at all possible. The 5-minute stutter has been linked to ffdshow in the other post with impimpin's tutorial. If you cannot, jacanuck has a reg file posted on his site that should fix the stuttering issue. Again, I do not help you further with ffdshow.

As for the intermittent stutter every 42 seconds, I have not experienced that at all, except where I have Diskeeper 2007 (and upgraded to 2008) where if I left Autodefag enabled, I would get lousy playback. If you do have any sort of automatic defrag tool, or real-time virus scanning tool, I highly suggest you disable or exclude the directory where you host your video.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 10 2008, 05:04 PM)

I saw above that you were using ffdshow to decode x264 video. I do not support, nor work with ffdshow to decode x264 video. Please use CoreAVC if at all possible.

I previously used ffdshow under impimpin's method, but I have since uninstalled everything and only installed the items in your tutorial. ffdshow is no longer installed, nor has it been since I began posting in your thread. So this shouldn't have anything to do with ffdshow.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 10 2008, 05:04 PM)

As for the intermittent stutter every 42 seconds, I have not experienced that at all, except where I have Diskeeper 2007 (and upgraded to 2008) where if I left Autodefag enabled, I would get lousy playback.

I don't have autodefrag, and my virus scan doesn't seem to be the issue. The 42-second stutter isn't intermittent. It's every 42 seconds; I can sit with a stop watch and hit it every time. I'm positive this is an issue with 24fps vs 23.976fps, and only happens when I choose 24fps as my input even though my source is 23.976.

I'm going to do some more troubleshooting on my end, though, and will post back if I ever track anything down.

Thanks again

QUOTE(xobx360 @ Feb 10 2008, 06:32 PM)

I previously used ffdshow under impimpin's method, but I have since uninstalled everything and only installed the items in your tutorial. ffdshow is no longer installed, nor has it been since I began posting in your thread. So this shouldn't have anything to do with ffdshow.
I don't have autodefrag, and my virus scan doesn't seem to be the issue. The 42-second stutter isn't intermittent. It's every 42 seconds; I can sit with a stop watch and hit it every time. I'm positive this is an issue with 24fps vs 23.976fps, and only happens when I choose 24fps as my input even though my source is 23.976.

I'm going to do some more troubleshooting on my end, though, and will post back if I ever track anything down.

Thanks again

I've been having the exact same issues with the same setup. The issue appears in local playback on the PC, wired network streaming, and with USB playback (HFS+) on the xbox. I too am using coreAVC along with only the items mentioned in the tutorial. I currently have no program setup to defrag (it's two 10000 RPM HDDs in RAID 0, so speed shouldn't be a factor) and no antivirus installed. To simplify, the issues are listed below:

23.976 Source (treated as 23.976), outputted to 23.976-> Stuttering for first 5 minutes, perfect afterwards
23.976 source (treated as 24), outputted to 24 -> A skip every 42 seconds in the playback. Very subtle, but definitely there

Can you all verify that both Video and Audio cache is enabled in TMPGEnc's Preferences, and set to their max values: 1024MB and 32MB (assuming you have at least 2GB of RAM.)

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 10 2008, 04:04 PM)

I saw above that you were using ffdshow to decode x264 video. I do not support, nor work with ffdshow to decode x264 video. Please use CoreAVC if at all possible. The 5-minute stutter has been linked to ffdshow in the other post with impimpin's tutorial. If you cannot, jacanuck has a reg file posted on his site that should fix the stuttering issue. Again, I do not help you further with ffdshow.

That was me. I'm the motherless son-of-a-gun who was using ffdshow for a while there. And, not just the accursed ffdshow, but the ffdshow-tryouts beta. Dang my ornery hide!

But I now have CoreAVC Pro 1.6.5.0, I have turned off H.264 decode in ffdshow (which is still installed), and I set CoreAVC to "preferred decoder". I think that should give CoreAVC the highest merit and the DirectShow graphs that I have checked show that it is indeed being used to decode these MKV files. I wanted to make it very clear in my previous posts that I was not using CoreAVC, as prescribed in the tutorial. However, I find it interesting that ffdshow-tryouts gave me the same results as others on the same settings.

All of this leads me to agree with the current consensus that TMPGEnc Xpress is the most likely culprit. We have practically ruled out CoreAVC and ffdshow-tryouts 4a as the root of the problem. Both of them give me smooth-as-glass playback from MKV files in WMP11 and MPC.

Welcome back, Chris. Hope you enjoyed your vacation.

QUOTE

Welcome back, Chris. Hope you enjoyed your vacation.

Thanks. I did enjoy my vacation. Had a great cruise down Mexico.

I do firmly believe the issue is with TMPGEnc. If all of that have actually paid for TMPGEnc, we should open a support case with Pegasys to hopefully find a root cause.

For the time being, I would strongly suggest anyone who has had a codec pack installed on their machine, do the following:

1. Remove all codecs. Yes. All of them.
2. Reboot.
3. Download and acquire CCleaner and K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool. Install both.
4. Run CCleaner, and have it do a registry check. Select YES when prompted to backup the registry before it "cleans it."
5. Run K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool, and have it detect for broken codecs.

If all comes back clean, then go back to the tutorial and install the components I outlined. Also, the version that is up there does not state to enable Video and Audio Cache. If you have disabled these, I would suggest re-enabling them before you encode. Also, try changing the Encode Type from 2-pass VBR Peak/Avg, to 2-Pass VBR Avg. I will update the TMPGEnc templates to reflect this change tomorrow.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 11 2008, 12:47 AM)

Can you all verify that both Video and Audio cache is enabled in TMPGEnc's Preferences, and set to their max values: 1024MB and 32MB (assuming you have at least 2GB of RAM.)

Ok I didnt see how to check the audio and video in prefrences. But i did have ffdshow installed so i uninstalled it then gonna try again

QUOTE(bling20 @ Feb 11 2008, 12:23 PM)

Ok I didnt see how to check the audio and video in prefrences. But i did have ffdshow installed so i uninstalled it then gonna try again

It's under the CPU settings in preferences. It's the prefetch cache that we were discussing earlier. I'm testing an encode right now with all the new steps followed exactly. Will report back in a few hours

Alright chrislynch. this is in response to what you told me to do in the previous thread.

I ran ccleaner and fixed all problems in the registry, then I ran K-lite codec tweak tool and it was clean. I then reinstalled CoreAVC Pro, AC3Filter, and Haali Media splitter. I also configured them as the guide told me to.

When I open the .mkv video with media player classic and WMP, It plays perfectly. When I try to drag it into TMPGEnc Xpress, it still says it cannot open the file.

Here is a copy+paste of the MediaInfo:

Format : Matroska
File size : 7.95 GiB
PlayTime : 3h 12mn
Bit rate : 5902 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2006-07-30 22:35:14
Writing application : mkvmerge v1.7.0 ('What Do You Take Me For') built on Apr 28 2006 17:20:19
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.0

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
PlayTime : 3h 12mn
Bit rate : 5275 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 5507 Kbps
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 784 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 2.449
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 48 svn-537M

Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=6 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / slices=2 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=5507 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30

Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Bit rate mode : CBR
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, Subwoofer
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Language : English

Text #0
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : English

Text #1
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Danish

Text #2
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Swedish

Text #3
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Norwegian Nynorsk

Text #4
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Finnish

Text #5
Codec : VobSub
Codec/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Icelandic

Hopefully this helps.

I posted a new version of the tutorial. The steps are the same, I have simply added more information. Take a gander if you like.

@dgarst:

I don't know what to say. Opening an MKV source within TMPGEnc is rather easy. Are you running Windows XP or Vista? 32bit or 64bit? What version of TMPGEnc are you running? You are following exactly how the tutorial walks you through opening an MKV source to a new TMPGEnc project?

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 12 2008, 12:26 AM)

I posted a new version of the tutorial. The steps are the same, I have simply added more information. Take a gander if you like.

@dgarst:

I don't know what to say. Opening an MKV source within TMPGEnc is rather easy. Are you running Windows XP or Vista? 32bit or 64bit? What version of TMPGEnc are you running? You are following exactly how the tutorial walks you through opening an MKV source to a new TMPGEnc project?

I am running Windows Vista 32-bit. I am running TMPGEnc V.4.4.1.237. And I am dragging the mkv into the "add a clip" box

However, I might have used K-lite Codec tweak wrong. I just checked the "Fixes" box and the "Generate text file containing" box. I dont know if that did anything. That could be it. How do I make sure that I don't have any other codecs installed? I know I have no codec packs, I looked in the add/remove programs area. But single installed codecs I am not too sure of.

Alright, I fixed it. I had to check Directshow filter in the plug ins section in preferences. I went ahead and checked everything in the plugins list. is that ok?

Im starting to encode at the most recent settings, with 2-Pass VBR Avg. and the audio and video cache checked.

I will let you know how it looks once it is done.

The original setup causes the first 5 minutes to be stuttery, but then runs smoothly afterwards, right?

Isn't it possible to add 5 minutes worth of black screen to the video before you encode it? That way you wont have any choppiness when the actual movie starts. Or is this not possible?

If I play a encoded wmv file on the xbox360 from harddisk wil I also get 5.1 surround? Or is this only possible if I stream the file from PC with AC3 Filter?

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 12 2008, 03:33 AM)

The original setup causes the first 5 minutes to be stuttery, but then runs smoothly afterwards, right?

Isn't it possible to add 5 minutes worth of black screen to the video before you encode it? That way you wont have any choppiness when the actual movie starts. Or is this not possible?

Again, if you do not set the Source FPS to 24 frames per second, you will have choppy/stuttering video.

QUOTE(Awakener @ Feb 12 2008, 05:27 AM)

If I play a encoded wmv file on the xbox360 from harddisk wil I also get 5.1 surround? Or is this only possible if I stream the file from PC with AC3 Filter?

It does not matter where the source WMV is located. If it contains a valid WMA 10 Pro 5.1 audio audience/stream, then you will have 5.1 audio. Of course, your receiver needs to support 5.1 Dolby Digital, which is what the Xbox 360 decodes the WMA audio audience/stream to.

AC3filter would not be used to stream anything to your Xbox 360, unless you used something like TVersity or Transcode360 which transcode/re-encode on-the-fly from the source to WMV. Not something I would recommend anyone use or do to stream HD content to their 360. Unless you like standard def.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 12 2008, 02:31 AM)

Alright, I fixed it. I had to check Directshow filter in the plug ins section in preferences. I went ahead and checked everything in the plugins list. is that ok?

Im starting to encode at the most recent settings, with 2-Pass VBR Avg. and the audio and video cache checked.

I will let you know how it looks once it is done.

Hmm.. I wonder how that go changed. That is not a default configuration. Without DirectShow Filter enabled in TMPGEnc, you will be unable to load any type of video or container that TMPGEnc does not have native support.

So I checked the audio and video caches and did another encode and still twitchy ever 40 seconds or so.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 12 2008, 12:47 PM)

Again, if you do not set the Source FPS to 24 frames per second, you will have choppy/stuttering video.
It does not matter where the source WMV is located. If it contains a valid WMA 10 Pro 5.1 audio audience/stream, then you will have 5.1 audio. Of course, your receiver needs to support 5.1 Dolby Digital, which is what the Xbox 360 decodes the WMA audio audience/stream to.

AC3filter would not be used to stream anything to your Xbox 360, unless you used something like TVersity or Transcode360 which transcode/re-encode on-the-fly from the source to WMV. Not something I would recommend anyone use or do to stream HD content to their 360. Unless you like standard def.

I actually use Tversity, and you can set it to not transcode files supported by xbox, so it can stream HD-WMV and such. This is useful because you can stream files >4GB to xbox without issue, in full quality.

I also have the 5mins stuttering, rest of movie ok problem, using CoreAVC. Can we clarify that chris does have the 23.97, 5min problem, and not the 41 second problem? So the 41sec thing is not something with TMPGEnc, it's codec related?

I don't know how chris can avoid the 41 sec problem, mathematically, since the 23.976fps is a pretty standard framerate for video, without the video getting out of synch with the audio, since the source video is at 23.976. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine for more on how that works)

QUOTE(thelelander @ Feb 12 2008, 01:37 PM)

I actually use Tversity, and you can set it to not transcode files supported by xbox, so it can stream HD-WMV and such. This is useful because you can stream files >4GB to xbox without issue, in full quality.

Yes, it can stream WMV content to the 360. I was referring to it re-encoding (some call it transcoding) on the fly. This is *not* what you want to do with HD MKV sources. Your PC simply does not have enough power to re-encode HD content from one format to the other in real time.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Feb 12 2008, 01:37 PM)

I also have the 5mins stuttering, rest of movie ok problem, using CoreAVC. Can we clarify that chris does have the 23.97, 5min problem, and not the 41 second problem? So the 41sec thing is not something with TMPGEnc, it's codec related?

I don't know how chris can avoid the 41 sec problem, mathematically, since the 23.976fps is a pretty standard framerate for video, without the video getting out of synch with the audio, since the source video is at 23.976. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine for more on how that works)

I have never noticed this "41 sec" problem some are posting about. I have experienced the 5 min stutter problem, and figured out if I use 24fps for the source clip, that goes away. I am on the road until Friday. When I get home, I will play my content and watch for any stuttering around 41-42 seconds of playback on my PC and 360.

I also believe the issue is caused by TMPGEnc. Reason: If you use Windows Media Player 11 or any other DirectShow-capable media player, stuttering does not exist during playback. Only within TMPGEnc.

QUOTE

so once encoded, how can i get it onto my xbox 360?
Sorry for the noobie question

This is why I put in a section into my guide that goes over the different methods on how to stream your WMV content to your 360. What I will not go over is how to setup the various different methods. Please go visit the Xbox Support site, as Microsoft has written some good documents on how to do this already.

QUOTE(dakidark @ Feb 11 2008, 08:41 PM)

It's under the CPU settings in preferences. It's the prefetch cache that we were discussing earlier. I'm testing an encode right now with all the new steps followed exactly. Will report back in a few hours

Any luck with this?

Hey guys I just wanted to give my input on the stutter every 40 or so seconds. I have been following this thread since the beginning and have tried EVERY suggestion thrown out so far and still have the same problems that everyone else has had. That is until I tried this....
I noticed that when I would import a mkv into tmpgenc xpress the time duration for the audio would always differ a little from the video. Example: Terminator 2 would have the video at 2hr 16m 35ms and the audio would be at 2hr 16m and 30ms. This always seemed odd to me so I figured I would try to adjust the input framerate to get the audio and video timestamps to match. The framerate was detected at 23.976 so I bumped it down to 23.975 and the video and audio timestamps matched! I did a test encode of the first five minutes of the movie and set the output framerate to 23.976 and I'll be damned if the stupid stutter problem did not go away completely. I hope this helps some of you guys!
BTW I followed chrislynch's guide to setup all the programs.

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 12 2008, 09:13 PM)

Hey guys I just wanted to give my input on the stutter every 40 or so seconds. I have been following this thread since the beginning and have tried EVERY suggestion thrown out so far and still have the same problems that everyone else has had. That is until I tried this....
I noticed that when I would import a mkv into tmpgenc xpress the time duration for the audio would always differ a little from the video. Example: Terminator 2 would have the video at 2hr 16m 35ms and the audio would be at 2hr 16m and 30ms. This always seemed odd to me so I figured I would try to adjust the input framerate to get the audio and video timestamps to match. The framerate was detected at 23.976 so I bumped it down to 23.975 and the video and audio timestamps matched! I did a test encode of the first five minutes of the movie and set the output framerate to 23.976 and I'll be damned if the stupid stutter problem did not go away completely. I hope this helps some of you guys!
BTW I followed chrislynch's guide to setup all the programs.

So how did you know what the audio was? And how do you shange it to match up? Can you be alittle more specific there is alot of people having this problem. Thanks

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 12 2008, 08:47 PM)

Any luck with this?

Sorry, work kicked my butt today... No luck with the encoding. If I use it at 24fps, it still does the 42 second skip and if I do it at 23.976, it does the 5 minute stutter. I never thought such a little thing would start to be the bane of my existance. I've been asking everyone I possibly can and no suggestions are yielding results.

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 12 2008, 10:13 PM)

Hey guys I just wanted to give my input on the stutter every 40 or so seconds. I have been following this thread since the beginning and have tried EVERY suggestion thrown out so far and still have the same problems that everyone else has had. That is until I tried this....
I noticed that when I would import a mkv into tmpgenc xpress the time duration for the audio would always differ a little from the video. Example: Terminator 2 would have the video at 2hr 16m 35ms and the audio would be at 2hr 16m and 30ms. This always seemed odd to me so I figured I would try to adjust the input framerate to get the audio and video timestamps to match. The framerate was detected at 23.976 so I bumped it down to 23.975 and the video and audio timestamps matched! I did a test encode of the first five minutes of the movie and set the output framerate to 23.976 and I'll be damned if the stupid stutter problem did not go away completely. I hope this helps some of you guys!
BTW I followed chrislynch's guide to setup all the programs.

Hmm, strange. My times match exactly in the import process for tmpgenc. Still no joy :-(

how noticeable is the 41 second thing?? Because i cant tell if i am seeing it or if i just believe im seeing it. Is it obvious? Or subtle?

QUOTE

So how did you know what the audio was? And how do you shange it to match up? Can you be alittle more specific there is alot of people having this problem. Thanks

I'll try to post screen shots later... but you know when you load a mkv it will show the total duration for the audio and the video. Well where chrislynch said to change it to 24fps I changed it to 23.975fps and that made it match the length of the audio track, down to the ms. My stutter problems totally went away! Hope this helps

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 12 2008, 08:56 PM)

I'll try to post screen shots later... but you know when you load a mkv it will show the total duration for the audio and the video. Well where chrislynch said to change it to 24fps I changed it to 23.975fps and that made it match the length of the audio track, down to the ms. My stutter problems totally went away! Hope this helps

Yes, I too have used 23.975 as a test. I still had issues with varying sources; 720p vs 1080p vs 40 min shows vs 2 hr movies. 24fps always has given me consistent results.

For those that have this 41/42 second stutter issue, try 23.975fps for the source. Only encode 2 minutes max, so you are not wasting 10+ hours.

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 12 2008, 08:13 PM)

I noticed that when I would import a mkv into tmpgenc xpress the time duration for the audio would always differ a little from the video.... The framerate was detected at 23.976 so I bumped it down to 23.975 and the video and audio timestamps matched!...

zimzum, great find! I, too, had noticed that the audio and video length didn't match, but unlike you I didn't know what to do about it. I should have at least posted the info. Anyway, I was searching for an answer and I saw someone mention h.264 encoding at 23.97. Can anyone confirm if 23.97 (no 6 at the end) is a legal framerate for h.264 encoding? Could it be that x264 is not using 23.976? Or, maybe TMPGEnc Xpress is not detecting the actual oddball framerate, whatever it is?

It feels like we are getting close to an answer. I'm going to start a test encode and will report back ASAP.

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 12 2008, 10:44 PM)

how noticeable is the 41 second thing?? Because i cant tell if i am seeing it or if i just believe im seeing it. Is it obvious? Or subtle?

I have to say that the 42-second glitch, as I like to call it, is quite subtle. It's kinda like the stutter you would get if streaming video and some frames were dropped. Sometimes, it just seems like a frame freezes on the screen for longer than it should, but not much longer. The glitch is much worse in high-motion scenes, and may be unnoticeable in low-motion scenes.

As has been stated before, this glitch is very punctual. Put a stopwatch on it, or watch the time index. Also, in my experience, it is always there. So, if you are using a PC player (WMP, MPC, etc.) you can drag the slider back and watch it again and again.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 13 2008, 12:07 AM)

Yes, I too have used 23.975 as a test. I still had issues with varying sources; 720p vs 1080p vs 40 min shows vs 2 hr movies. 24fps always has given me consistent results.

For those that have this 41/42 second stutter issue, try 23.975fps for the source. Only encode 2 minutes max, so you are not wasting 10+ hours.

just did a test where i changed the opening to 23.975 and left the output at 23.976 and it works fine for me no stuttering this might do the trick. Thanks

OK, gang, the results of my test renders are in and the results are good. Very good. The video sources that I'm working with report as 23.976 fps, but there seems to be a discrepancy there that is fixed by modifying the input fps. Here's a rundown of the results that I have gotten by changing the input framerate as follows:

23.976 - leave the fps alone, output is jerky and stutters for 5+ minutes, then smooths out.
24 - Chris's magic number makes the playback smooth, but I get the 42-second glitch.
23.975 - zimzum's suggestion works well. Playback stutters for 10-15 seconds then smooths out.
23.97 - my own speculation from before. Playback stutters for 3-5 seconds, then smooths out.

Of course, this is for the video sources that I'm using. Your sources may differ, as suggested by the posts with different results.

As zimzum pointed out, adjusting the input framerate can correct differences in the duration of the audio and video streams. In my last test, using 23.975 fps brought the two durations to a difference of 2 frames. With 23.97 fps, the two durations match exactly down to frame number.

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 12 2008, 11:56 PM)

I'll try to post screen shots later... but you know when you load a mkv it will show the total duration for the audio and the video. Well where chrislynch said to change it to 24fps I changed it to 23.975fps and that made it match the length of the audio track, down to the ms. My stutter problems totally went away! Hope this helps

What version of TMPG are you using? I went to take a look at that scenario and I don't have an option to use 23.975. Where you using Progressive or Interlace? Probably should have checked that now that I think of it.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 13 2008, 08:23 AM)

What version of TMPG are you using? I went to take a look at that scenario and I don't have an option to use 23.975. Where you using Progressive or Interlace? Probably should have checked that now that I think of it.

you have to type it in there is no quick option

I just changed the input framerate on two movies to match the video length to the audio length. This has solved all problems for me. I suggest anyone with stutter problems to try changing your input framerate. However, 23.975 isn't always the framerate that will fix it.

Type in a framerate and push enter.
Then check to see if the lengths of both video and audio match. If they don't, type in a new framerate and push enter.
Repeat this until they match.

On one of my movies I had to change my input framerate to 23.979 in order for the times to match up. And this was a 3 and a half hour movie. It synchs up perfectly with no stutters.
Everyone try this!

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 13 2008, 10:45 AM)

I just changed the input framerate on two movies to match the video length to the audio length. This has solved all problems for me. I suggest anyone with stutter problems to try changing your input framerate. However, 23.975 isn't always the framerate that will fix it.

Type in a framerate and push enter.
Then check to see if the lengths of both video and audio match. If they don't, type in a new framerate and push enter.
Repeat this until they match.

On one of my movies I had to change my input framerate to 23.979 in order for the times to match up. And this was a 3 and a half hour movie. It synchs up perfectly with no stutters.
Everyone try this!

Yes, I did notice this while I tested different FPS settings a while back. I guess I haven't noticed the 41/42 second glitch those have talked about. If I get more people saying that varying FPS works, I will update the doc to reflect this. I'm hoping to figure out a method to the madness here, as a workaround. Obviously, the best option would be TMPGEnc fix this issue, or add MKV support to their product.

Thanks for all who have provided their feedback thus far.

Thanks again Chris for your tutorial and all your help I think this new idea will work out great

I have had this problem ever since I started encoding.

Whenever I start to do the Batch encode program on a 3.5 hour long movie it says it will take about 10 hours to encode. Well, once I come back 10 hours later, it has 6 hours remaining and it takes about 2-4 seconds for the countdown to go down 1 second. Is there any reason it slows down the encoding when I am in the middle of the encode? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process? I have set it at High priority, but that is all I can think of.

BTW, whats the difference between the Batch Encode and the normal encode process?

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 13 2008, 07:45 PM)

I just changed the input framerate on two movies to match the video length to the audio length. This has solved all problems for me. I suggest anyone with stutter problems to try changing your input framerate. However, 23.975 isn't always the framerate that will fix it.

Type in a framerate and push enter.
Then check to see if the lengths of both video and audio match. If they don't, type in a new framerate and push enter.
Repeat this until they match.

On one of my movies I had to change my input framerate to 23.979 in order for the times to match up. And this was a 3 and a half hour movie. It synchs up perfectly with no stutters.
Everyone try this!

I noticed this too after I tried some different movies. Just like you said, put in a different framerate until both the audio and video match and your stutter problems will go away!
I hope this fixes everybodys problem. This was the only thing holding back an otherwise awesome guide by chrislynch!

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 13 2008, 01:33 PM)

I have had this problem ever since I started encoding.

Whenever I start to do the Batch encode program on a 3.5 hour long movie it says it will take about 10 hours to encode. Well, once I come back 10 hours later, it has 6 hours remaining and it takes about 2-4 seconds for the countdown to go down 1 second. Is there any reason it slows down the encoding when I am in the middle of the encode? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process? I have set it at High priority, but that is all I can think of.

BTW, whats the difference between the Batch Encode and the normal encode process?

Batch Encoding is simply what the name implies: Have a bunch of saved TMPGEnc projects, and encode all of them in the batch list. If you have a lot of sources to convert, the Batch Encode tool is the best way.

I have not found a way for the tool to give an accurate time remaining. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz, and TMPGEnc exhibits the same thing.

QUOTE(zimzum @ Feb 13 2008, 03:42 PM)

I noticed this too after I tried some different movies. Just like you said, put in a different framerate until both the audio and video match and your stutter problems will go away!
I hope this fixes everybodys problem. This was the only thing holding back an otherwise awesome guide by chrislynch!

Thank you for the positive feedback.

For those that have the "glitch", please post what version of TMPGEnc you are using. I am using 4.4.1.237. I was just chatting with someone else who is using 4.2.3.193, and they have perfect encodes, even with the source FPS set to the detected value of 23.976. I am testing with this version to see if there are any video quality issues. You can find this specific version out there. Please do not ask me for a copy, or a link to get it.

What hardware would speed up the encode process? i might be interested in purchasing anything that would speed up this process.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 13 2008, 04:09 PM)

What hardware would speed up the encode process? i might be interested in purchasing anything that would speed up this process.

I would recommend the following:

Intel Duo-Core Q6600
nForce 680i or 780i chipset
4GB of RAM, DDR2 PC6400 (800MHz) or PC8500 (1066MHz)

The Intel Q6600 is probably the best CPU on the market right now. It can easily be overclocked to greater than 3GHz with the stock heatsink and fan. And, it's roughly $274.

I have the Asus P5N32E-SLI, and it's a decent board. It is plauged with RAM compatibility issues. If you want to future proof yourself, get the Asus Extreme II, which is based on the vastly improved nVidia 780i chipset. I have read nothing but great reviews on it. Or course, the Intel mobo chipset is a pretty good alternative.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 13 2008, 07:37 PM)

I would recommend the following:

Intel Duo-Core Q6600
nForce 680i or 780i chipset
4GB of RAM, DDR2 PC6400 (800MHz) or PC8500 (1066MHz)

The Intel Q6600 is probably the best CPU on the market right now. It can easily be overclocked to greater than 3GHz with the stock heatsink and fan. And, it's roughly $274.

I have the Asus P5N32E-SLI, and it's a decent board. It is plauged with RAM compatibility issues. If you want to future proof yourself, get the Asus Extreme II, which is based on the vastly improved nVidia 780i chipset. I have read nothing but great reviews on it. Or course, the Intel mobo chipset is a pretty good alternative.

Right now I have:
XPS 720, Intel Core2 Extreme processor QX6700 (2.93GHz,1066FSB) w/Quad Core Technology and 8MBcache
768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
3GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz-2X1GB/2X512MB

How does this compare?

All my movies already have the audio and video time stamps exactly right and I still get the stuttering. Is there anything I can do? Chrislynch, let me know if that version of TMPG works cause I'm at a loss.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 13 2008, 06:53 PM)

Batch Encoding is simply what the name implies: Have a bunch of saved TMPGEnc projects, and encode all of them in the batch list. If you have a lot of sources to convert, the Batch Encode tool is the best way.

I have not found a way for the tool to give an accurate time remaining. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz, and TMPGEnc exhibits the same thing.
Thank you for the positive feedback.

For those that have the "glitch", please post what version of TMPGEnc you are using. I am using 4.4.1.237. I was just chatting with someone else who is using 4.2.3.193, and they have perfect encodes, even with the source FPS set to the detected value of 23.976. I am testing with this version to see if there are any video quality issues. You can find this specific version out there. Please do not ask me for a copy, or a link to get it.

I am using version 4.4.0.234.and am using AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor 2GB RAM and everything is working out good. Just got this new processor and it is working out great. could be overclocked but i havent works out great awsome processor. I havent done a full encode yet with changing the FPS just 2 min test and they have worked out. just keep updated on how it is going for everyone

Originally i thought all my prayers had been answered. Just bought a new TV to go with my surround sound and Xbox. Did a bit of research on converting some mkv's to wmv to keep the 5.1.... read the guide, followed it ... then nothing but headache LoL
For anyone that cares... Here is what i have tried with my system:
Setup: AMD Athlon X2 4200+, Asus A8N32 SLI Delux, 2Gb OCZ DDR400, Asus 7900GTX.
So not a great system, but does what i need it to. A 42minute encode at HIGH quality on 2pass takes
around 24+Hours.... But once you start looking over 10 hours does it really matter?
Dont know if i can mention this here but what the hell... The source im using is:
Lost.S04E02.720p.HDTV.x264-CTU
And my TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress is v4.4.1.237.
Ok so started with Fresh format and install of Vista Business (32bit) compliments of MSDNAA.
Installed CCCP, then CoreAVC and Haali Splitter (Separate d'load) then AC3 Filter and finally
TMPGEnc version above.

So firstly followed the guide to the letter using the magic number (24fps). Average: 3675 Peak: 4675
So encode took 24hours +... stuck it on dvd and played it on xbox.. Seemed fine, apart from i seemed a little disappointed in quality, i expected exactly the same as x264 quality, but i noticed it wasnt. Maybe something to do with bitrates. As i was watching i noticed the glitch.... its very subtle, but once you have seen it, damn its anoying.

So then i decided to try it with fps from mediainfo. Did same with bitrates and encoded. Day or so later put it in xbox and got the stuttering. Didnt watch more than 30 seconds so dont know how long it lasted.

Also i spoke to chris and he mentioned some source problems with the container. So i de/re-muxed it using mkvtoolnix and tried it all again. Same problems. So now a week on, im no further.

Now im just frustrated.....
Just a note, has anyone tried it with CBR video? I know you loose quality on motion scenes, but i mean just in the interest of testing. Same glitches? (42s/5min)

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 13 2008, 11:07 PM)

Installed CCCP, then CoreAVC and Haali Splitter (Separate d'load) then AC3 Filter and finally
TMPGEnc version above.

So firstly followed the guide to the letter....

My friend, if you installed CCCP, then you did not follow the guide to the letter. Chris specifically recommends against codec packs, though more emphatically in this thread than in the guide. There are some who like codec packs and others who don't. I'm sure you could easily start a flame war somewhere just by asking which is better. For me, I am siding with those who are against codec packs. I prefer to install just the codecs I need and no others, configure them myself, set merits, check for broken filters, and so on. I suppose everyone has to decide what they are comfortable with.

However, from the results that you describe I don't believe that CCCP is causing you any trouble. We are all trying to figure out why this conversion gives so many of us so much trouble. Thank you for sharing your config and results. Every bit of data helps.

QUOTE

Also i spoke to chris and he mentioned some source problems with the container.

I've also wondered if the matroska container could be part of the problem, but I don't know enough. Could the container be reporting a framerate that is different than the video stream? I tried demuxing the audio and video with MKVextractGUI to see if that would help. But, I can't get TMPGEnc Xpress, or anything else, to read the resulting .h264 video file. Is there another container that the 2 streams could be re-muxed into? AVI maybe? I'll try anything at this point.

Ignore my last suggestion. One of the movies I encoded at the changed framerate stutters for about 5 seconds everytime you push chapter forward. At first I just thought it could be the fact that I was skipping so far ahead and it was having a hard time catching up, but then I would rewind it after I would push chapter forward. It still skips at the same part. You can play it over and over again which makes me think it was an encoding issue. It also gets terribly out of sync. I don't know what to do. Looks like we are back to square one. Or atleast I am.

So the next thing to try is to get an earlier version of TMPEnc. People are reporting that this helps right?

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 14 2008, 08:40 AM)

Ignore my last suggestion. One of the movies I encoded at the changed framerate stutters for about 5 seconds everytime you push chapter forward. At first I just thought it could be the fact that I was skipping so far ahead and it was having a hard time catching up, but then I would rewind it after I would push chapter forward. It still skips at the same part. You can play it over and over again which makes me think it was an encoding issue. It also gets terribly out of sync. I don't know what to do. Looks like we are back to square one. Or atleast I am.

So the next thing to try is to get an earlier version of TMPEnc. People are reporting that this helps right?

If my testing with an older version does not product favorable results, then I will change my guide for now from using CoreAVC to ffdshow-tryouts Beta4a for AVC/x264/H.264 decoding. There is a reg fix for ffdshow that resolves, or adds a fix to ffdshow. Otherwise, with the default settings, you get the very same output as we have with CoreAVC thus far.

Alright just to sum up the tests I've done and the results they yielded.

I am using the latest version of TMPGEnc, which is v. 4.4.2.238.

Keeping the source framerate the same (23.976): First 5-10 Minutes are a complete mess of stuttering. Smooths out afterwards.

Changing framerate to 24: 42 second glitch. Annoying as hell.

Change framerate to match up the video & audio length: Stutter Every 10-15 minutes, but gradually gets out of sync. Near the end of a movie, the audio is almost 1 second ahead.

While I have just repeated what everyone has been saying, I am posting this because this is what happens to this particular version of TMPGEnc.

So, my suggestion is to not use TMPGEnc 4.4.2.238.

I will do the same exact tests I have been running on an older version of TMPGEnc now.
I will post the results of TMPGEnc 4.4.0.234 by this weekend.

I am using Version 4.4.0.234 right now and am still getting the nasty stutturing. I'm trying some different setups including encoding in 2 pass CBR. The MKV I encoded had a framerate of 23.976 yet TMPG was posting it as 23.975. Not sure why. Because of this I was unable to match the audio and video time stamps exactly. The closest I got was 1 ms off. Still got the nasty begining stuttering. I haven't tried seeing if the 42 second glitch is still there, although I am assuming it would. I'm thinking I might just call up TMPG support and get their input.

Reporting from TMPG version 4.2.3.193.

FPS left as detected, zero encoding issues. The infamous 5 minutes of hell is not present. Smooth playback.

QUOTE(jacanuck @ Feb 15 2008, 07:04 AM)

Reporting from TMPG version 4.2.3.193.

FPS left as detected, zero encoding issues. The infamous 5 minutes of hell is not present. Smooth playback.

I just encoded a few samples with this version. Here is what I have:

Detected FPS 23.976: Stuttering through out
Changed FPS 24: This reported 42 second "glitch" is hardly noticeable. But, slightly visible
Changed FPS to match video and audio length: No glitches at all

I will do some further testing with other sources today. I would also like to hear form those that have had issues with video "glitches" or "stuttering", please use 4.2.3.193, and change the source FPS so the video time matches the audio.

If we cannot get this to work still, I will change my tutorial to reference ffdshow for the time being. I still want to use CoreAVC in the long run.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 15 2008, 10:45 AM)

I just encoded a few samples with this version. Here is what I have:

Detected FPS 23.976: Stuttering through out
Changed FPS 24: This reported 42 second "glitch" is hardly noticeable. But, slightly visible
Changed FPS to match video and audio length: No glitches at all

I will do some further testing with other sources today. I would also like to hear form those that have had issues with video "glitches" or "stuttering", please use 4.2.3.193, and change the source FPS so the video time matches the audio.

If we cannot get this to work still, I will change my tutorial to reference ffdshow for the time being. I still want to use CoreAVC in the long run.

When you matched up the video and audio length, was the framerate set higher or lower that 23.976? If you haven't noticed yet, several framerates make the video and audio match. I had one video that when set to 23.974 and 23.979, the video and audio would match up. I'm wondering when i encode 2 different framerates that match the audio and video, if they will yield the same results? or different?

Also I think someone should test this idea. I don't know if its possible ( I'm not really educated in video editing). Someone take an MKV and, with a video editor, add 10 minutes of pure black frames to the front of the video. Then encode it with the detected input framerate (23.976). Shouldn't that fix the stutter problem within the first 10 minutes? By the time it reaches the actual video portion of the movie, it will have already smoothed out. I have a feeling this would be a quick fix for our problem.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 15 2008, 09:20 AM)

When you matched up the video and audio length, was the framerate set higher or lower that 23.976? If you haven't noticed yet, several framerates make the video and audio match. I had one video that when set to 23.974 and 23.979, the video and audio would match up. I'm wondering when i encode 2 different framerates that match the audio and video, if they will yield the same results? or different?

Also I think someone should test this idea. I don't know if its possible ( I'm not really educated in video editing). Someone take an MKV and, with a video editor, add 10 minutes of pure black frames to the front of the video. Then encode it with the detected input framerate (23.976). Shouldn't that fix the stutter problem within the first 10 minutes? By the time it reaches the actual video portion of the movie, it will have already smoothed out. I have a feeling this would be a quick fix for our problem.

so far I have tested with the following, all MKV sources and using TMPGEnc 4.2.3.193:

The Simpsons Movie 1080p
Payback Straight Up 1080p
1408 DC 1080p

All have used 23.969 as the source FPS, which the audio and video times are identical. No initial video stuttering, no ~41 second glitch.

Ok so I switched to version 4.2.3.193. I still notice stuttering BUT it lasts less than 5-7 seconds. It's the exact same result I get if I encode the movie using 2 pass CBR. If I use two pass CBR in this verision and one previously thought to work I get stuttering that lasts 5-7 seconds but I still get it. No 42 second glitches. The framterate I encode at has the same video and audio times. Not sure what's going on. Perhaps it's a system thing? I have Xp MCE on an AMD Athlong dual core 2 gigs memory.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 15 2008, 01:30 PM)

Ok so I switched to version 4.2.3.193. I still notice stuttering BUT it lasts less than 5-7 seconds. It's the exact same result I get if I encode the movie using 2 pass CBR. If I use two pass CBR in this verision and one previously thought to work I get stuttering that lasts 5-7 seconds but I still get it. No 42 second glitches. The framterate I encode at has the same video and audio times. Not sure what's going on. Perhaps it's a system thing? I have Xp MCE on an AMD Athlong dual core 2 gigs memory.

Your issue just may be specific to your system. You may want to increase the thread priority by going to the Options button, selecting Task Priority, and change the Foreground and Background to the same level you want.

Also, is this 5-7 seconds through out the video, or just in the beginning? What is your disk storage? Have you defragmented your system with Diskeeper or something similar?

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 15 2008, 11:20 AM)

Also I think someone should test this idea. I don't know if its possible ( I'm not really educated in video editing). Someone take an MKV and, with a video editor, add 10 minutes of pure black frames to the front of the video. Then encode it with the detected input framerate (23.976). Shouldn't that fix the stutter problem within the first 10 minutes? By the time it reaches the actual video portion of the movie, it will have already smoothed out. I have a feeling this would be a quick fix for our problem.

^^Alright I tested this method. It didn't work at all. Don't do this.^^

Right now I'm testing Children of Men 1080P at 23.969. If this works, it means that 23.969 is the official framerate to use on a 1080P movie.
We need to find an official framerate for 720p movies as well.

I did find something interesting just now. I have LOTR Return of the King 1080P with a detected value of 25FPS. The audio and video length are the exact same length. SO, with movies of 25fps you don't have to change the framerate to match the audio and video. I am going to encode the movie after Children of Men and see if any problems arise.

Here's the latest I've found. I don't think making the audio and video timecodes match perfectly is really important, except for an important secondary effect:

My source is 23.976 fps. I changed to 23.975 to make my timecodes match, and my two minute samples were all perfect. So, I encoded a couple full length videos with the same settings. On a hunch, I fast-forwarded to about 16 minutes, 40 seconds into the video. Sure enough, there was a 1-frame skip. Fast forward to roughly 33:20, another skip. See my earlier post about when we were using 24 fps as the input and you'll see where I'm going...

23.976 fps - 23.975 fps = 0.001 fps
Multiply that by 1000 seconds, and you will be one frame off.
1000 seconds = 16 minutes, 40 seconds.

So, every 16 minutes and 40 seconds, the video skips one frame to get back where it should be.

Now, I can live with a single frame skip every 16:40, so this will be my method for now.

But being a perfectionist, I'm convinced that matching the input with the source 23.976 is the "correct" way to go, and something else is causing the five-minute constant stutter in the beginning when doing it that way.

So, some thoughts for the group:
1) Yes, pasting 5 minutes of "blank" or "dummy" video on the front end will probably fix the 5-minute opening stutter, but that's a work-around which is too much work considering I can get "good enough" from using 23.975 as my input.

2) I've noticed when I play a video in WMP11 and look at the Advanced Statistics (view->Statistics) the "actual frame rate" sometimes takes a few minutes to ramp up to its "true" 23.976 frame rate. If the same thing happens when encoding, it would mean that TMPGEng might be constantly stuttering because it's trying to keep the frame rate where it should be. In other words, while the "true" frame rate is ramping up and is showing 23.3 for example, the video will skip every 1.48 seconds as it constantly corrects itself every time it gets 1 full frame off (23.976fps - 23.3fps = 0.676fps, so every 1.48 sec it's 1 frame off). I think this is what we should look into further. Is this a codec issue, a system issue, a source encoding issue, or a cache issue, which causes the "true frame rate" to ramp up to speed in the beginning of the video?

3) One other thing, when I add the video to TMPGEnc, next to the frame rate is a button called "Analyze," but it's always grayed out for me. Does anybody else have this button available to analyze the source frame rate? I think it's analyzed automatically on importing the video, but just curious why the button is there, then.

Oh, and I'm using TMPGEnc version 4.4.1.237.

QUOTE

But being a perfectionist, I'm convinced that matching the input with the source 23.976 is the "correct" way to go, and something else is causing the five-minute constant stutter in the beginning when doing it that way.

I completely agree that 23.976 should be used. However, with all of the video issues we have experienced, different FPS mitigates this, but not completely eliminating the issue. Also, when I encode non-protected Blu-ray sources (which use the same DirectShow filters, i.e. Haali Media Splitter, CoreAVC and AC3Filter,) the detected framerate is 23.976 (which I leave alone,) and I get flawless encodes. It's only when the source is MKV.

QUOTE

So, some thoughts for the group:
1) Yes, pasting 5 minutes of "blank" or "dummy" video on the front end will probably fix the 5-minute opening stutter, but that's a work-around which is too much work considering I can get "good enough" from using 23.975 as my input.

I do not believe this should ever be tried, nor used as a solution.

QUOTE

2) I've noticed when I play a video in WMP11 and look at the Advanced Statistics (view->Statistics) the "actual frame rate" sometimes takes a few minutes to ramp up to its "true" 23.976 frame rate. If the same thing happens when encoding, it would mean that TMPGEng might be constantly stuttering because it's trying to keep the frame rate where it should be. In other words, while the "true" frame rate is ramping up and is showing 23.3 for example, the video will skip every 1.48 seconds as it constantly corrects itself every time it gets 1 full frame off (23.976fps - 23.3fps = 0.676fps, so every 1.48 sec it's 1 frame off). I think this is what we should look into further. Is this a codec issue, a system issue, a source encoding issue, or a cache issue, which causes the "true frame rate" to ramp up to speed in the beginning of the video?

I do not have any skipping issues during source playback from Media Player Classic or WMP11. I believe this issue is with TMPGEnc.

QUOTE

3) One other thing, when I add the video to TMPGEnc, next to the frame rate is a button called "Analyze," but it's always grayed out for me. Does anybody else have this button available to analyze the source frame rate? I think it's analyzed automatically on importing the video, but just curious why the button is there, then.

This is greyed out for me as well.

BTW, I posted a new thread over at Doom9.org. There are a bunch of extremely knowledgeable people there. I'm hoping someone could help shed some light on this.

Well looks like I'm quitting. I can't get any of this work and it'sstarting to get incredibly frusterating. I'll keep track of this tread though and see if anything ever changes. Thanks for everyone's help.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 15 2008, 08:38 PM)

By the way, chrislynch, what software do you use to rip your Blu-ray to PC?

I use TMPGEnc. As long as the Blu-ray source does not have any BD+ encryption, you can use TMPGEnc to convert it. I have no issues ripping directly from the source to WMV.

Don't give up. I'll modify the tutorial to include ffdshow for those that want to use it. I'll modify the ffdshow installer appendix to include what would be needed for H.264/MPEG-4 decoding. I will also add a link (and mirror) to a reg file that is supposed to fix ffdshow and eliminate all of the stuttering everyone has been experiencing.

I'll post this hopefully later tonight.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 15 2008, 10:45 AM)

I will do some further testing with other sources today. I would also like to hear form those that have had issues with video "glitches" or "stuttering", please use 4.2.3.193, and change the source FPS so the video time matches the audio.

OK, I gave it a shot on my system. Backed down to 4.2.3.193 and loaded up a couple different videos to test. Problem is that I couldn't get the audio and video durations to match! When I change the input framerate, TMPGEnc Xpress changes the number of frames in the video for some reason. I tried many different values, incrementing and decrementing by .001 frames from the original 23.976. No joy.

Other than that, v4.2.3.193 produces the same stutters and glitches as 4.4.2.238 with the same values. Until a better method comes along, here is the procedure that I'm using:

* Load the video and audio and split it in two at around time index 6:30 (to get past the 5+ min stuttering)
* Encode the first 6:30 of the video with the input fps set to 24fps, resulting in a 42-second glitch for that part
* Encode the rest of the video with the input fps as detected (23.976) with no stuttering, because it's out beyond the 5 minute mark, and no glitches.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 16 2008, 01:57 AM)

I use TMPGEnc. As long as the Blu-ray source does not have any BD+ encryption, you can use TMPGEnc to convert it. I have no issues ripping directly from the source to WMV.

Don't give up. I'll modify the tutorial to include ffdshow for those that want to use it. I'll modify the ffdshow installer appendix to include what would be needed for H.264/MPEG-4 decoding. I will also add a link (and mirror) to a reg file that is supposed to fix ffdshow and eliminate all of the stuttering everyone has been experiencing.

I'll post this hopefully later tonight.

Thanks a lot chrislynch. I'll stay tuned and wait for the update. So are you still thinking this is a TMPG issue or perhaps now a codec issue? I did end up writing to TMPG support about this issue. Hopefully I'll hear back within a week.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 16 2008, 12:24 PM)

Thanks a lot chrislynch. I'll stay tuned and wait for the update. So are you still thinking this is a TMPG issue or perhaps now a codec issue? I did end up writing to TMPG support about this issue. Hopefully I'll hear back within a week.

Email me offline so you and I can communicate to TMPGEnc together. My email address is in the tutorial.

I do believe this to be an issue with TMPGEnc, as I have stated a number of times so far.

Why do I believe this? Simple. TMPGEnc does not natively support the MKV container, like they do with AVI, or MPG. They rely completely on DirectShow filters. Windows Media Player 11 and Media Player Classic operate in the very same fashion. And, since they both playback video without any glitching, the problem must reside with TMPGEnc.

I have also contacted TMPGEnc support about this issue. We should all keep each other updated on what they say.

I am only asking this just in case this problem never gets fixed. Is there any other way to stream video to your tv without the xbox? And can this alternate product stream x264 so I don't have to encode them anymore?

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 17 2008, 12:35 PM)

I am only asking this just in case this problem never gets fixed. Is there any other way to stream video to your tv without the xbox? And can this alternate product stream x264 so I don't have to encode them anymore?

Yes. What you can do is get a PC that you would use in place of your Xbox 360 to stream video to. You can load the codec's and filters needed, and Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center should play them just fine.

You can build it yourself. Or, go look at MyMovies, and click on the Installers link. From there, you can find pre-built solutions, that use not only PowerDVD, but also Windows Media Center. I use MyMovies heavily, as it is a very powerful WMC add-on for movies.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 17 2008, 05:04 PM)

Yes. What you can do is get a PC that you would use in place of your Xbox 360 to stream video to. You can load the codec's and filters needed, and Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center should play them just fine.

You can build it yourself. Or, go look at MyMovies, and click on the Installers link. From there, you can find pre-built solutions, that use not only PowerDVD, but also Windows Media Center. I use MyMovies heavily, as it is a very powerful WMC add-on for movies.

But won't I have to get a computer that has high definition outputs like hdmi? Because if I set my TV as my monitor won't it appear grainy?

Noob here, help! What else from below/original Thread by impimpin206 do I need to install?? I know I have to install TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0. Thanks.

- My custom TMPGEnc Xpress profile (available here)
- TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 (available here)
- MKVtoolnix (available here)
- MKVExtractGUI (available here )
- Avisynth (available here)

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 17 2008, 03:26 PM)

But won't I have to get a computer that has high definition outputs like hdmi? Because if I set my TV as my monitor won't it appear grainy?

Yes. Most of the MPC's I have seen have HDTV support. Either with HDMI or DVI-I support.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 17 2008, 06:30 PM)

Noob here, help! What else from below/original Thread by impimpin206 do I need to install?? I know I have to install TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0. Thanks.

- My custom TMPGEnc Xpress profile (available here)
- TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 (available here)
- MKVtoolnix (available here)
- MKVExtractGUI (available here )
- Avisynth (available here)

Please read my tutorial again. Keep in mind that the software I outline in my tutorial does not outline what impimin206's tutorial does. I am simply referring to it, as it was a catalyst to me writing my own. You should not combine them together.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 13 2008, 01:45 PM)

I just changed the input framerate on two movies to match the video length to the audio length. This has solved all problems for me. I suggest anyone with stutter problems to try changing your input framerate. However, 23.975 isn't always the framerate that will fix it.

Type in a framerate and push enter.
Then check to see if the lengths of both video and audio match. If they don't, type in a new framerate and push enter.
Repeat this until they match.

On one of my movies I had to change my input framerate to 23.979 in order for the times to match up. And this was a 3 and a half hour movie. It synchs up perfectly with no stutters.
Everyone try this!

Thanks to Chris for the awesome tutorial, just tried a 1 min sample encode and amazed with pic quality.

Regarding the above post, how and where do I change the input framerates and press enter?? And where do I see the lengths of audio and video to see if they match?? I am a bit confused, I followed Chris's tutorial exactly and got it to work but not sure how to perform the instructions on the above post. Exact details would be appreciated.

Thanks much.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 17 2008, 10:57 PM)

Thanks to Chris for the awesome tutorial, just tried a 1 min sample encode and amazed with pic quality.

Regarding the above post, how and where do I change the input framerates and press enter?? And where do I see the lengths of audio and video to see if they match?? I am a bit confused, I followed Chris's tutorial exactly and got it to work but not sure how to perform the instructions on the above post. Exact details would be appreciated.

Thanks much.

Well, this solution isn't working for everyone.

However, the source framerate is in the Cut-Edit window (click on the Source tab, then Edit.)

Well here's the reply from TMPG support, and in a nutshell, we're SOL.

"Basically .mkv file is not supported by TMPGenc, however looks like you
can read it.
MKV is a container of video files, ex Divx, Xvid... Please try to update
the codecs of videos which your .mkv contains.

Also please try to increase the Bitrate and at "Video encode type"
choose "2 pass VBR", if it doesn't work its not possible.

Best regards"

So short of trying a different codec, it seems like there's no where else to go which I hope isn't true. Any other thoughts?

PERFECT SCENARIO...MICRO$OFT starts support for MKV just like it did with xvid/divx on their next update.(not likely).
It looks like the people from TMPG dont really care about mkv container and its a shame being such a great software.
I know Chrislynch or IMPIMPIN will find a final solution to this and for all of us waiting...we can wait a little longer. Props for these two guys who wont stop trying to find the best way to convert mkv to xbox360 compatible file.

thanks

Hey chrislynch, didn't get an e-mail. Let me know what addy you sent it to. Will you be updating your tutorial to include ffdshow-tryouts? I'd like to give it a whirl with that, but I know there was talk of specific reg files or whatever that are needed to get the settings right. Not sure what they are or where to find them.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 18 2008, 11:33 AM)

Hey chrislynch, didn't get an e-mail. Let me know what addy you sent it to. Will you be updating your tutorial to include ffdshow-tryouts? I'd like to give it a whirl with that, but I know there was talk of specific reg files or whatever that are needed to get the settings right. Not sure what they are or where to find them.

If you are not Adam, then ignore what I said.

As for using ffdshow-tryouts, that is a bust IMO. I spent the better part of the past two days tinkering around with ffsdhow. I could not get consistent results. So, I thought to myself, what is the common issue here? The source is MKV. I can use the process outlined in my tutorial with converting Blu-ray sources perfectly. So, why not eliminate the source of the problem: Get rid of the MKV.

I am currently testing on extracting both the video and audio into the raw formats. I have successfully converted both House s04e11 "Frozen" and 1408 1080p using CoreAVC as the codec. I would like some volunteers to help confirm this with me. PM me, or email me directly please.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 18 2008, 05:27 PM)

If you are not Adam, then ignore what I said.

As for using ffdshow-tryouts, that is a bust IMO. I spent the better part of the past two days tinkering around with ffsdhow. I could not get consistent results. So, I thought to myself, what is the common issue here? The source is MKV. I can use the process outlined in my tutorial with converting Blu-ray sources perfectly. So, why not eliminate the source of the problem: Get rid of the MKV.

I am currently testing on extracting both the video and audio into the raw formats. I have successfully converted both House s04e11 "Frozen" and 1408 1080p using CoreAVC as the codec. I would like some volunteers to help confirm this with me. PM me, or email me directly please.

I'm Adam and I just sent them what you said.

I can also help you out with what your experimenting with. Just e-mail me the details and I'll get to work.

thank you!!!

So, for those that have been waiting, I have updated my tutorial.

Please do not freak out that I have added a pretty major step to the process. This little venture has turned into a bigger challenge than what I originally thought.

Please, download the tutorial again, and read through it before you do anything further. I am also including the link to the PDF for those that want it.

Please provide feedback.

Also, here's how I came up with the new idea:

Well, if I wasn't so anal that I want to have the trailers along with the movies themselves, I may not have stumbled across this. I was looking for HD movie trailers. Pretty much all of them are hosted over at Apple.com. And what format are they in? H.264 in a MOV container. Well, I was able to convert them to WMV-HD just perfectly. I too noticed the DirectShow Filter status for the source, instead of the built-in TMPGEnc QuickTime filter. So, I knew that you could take a raw x264/H.264 stream, mux it into an MP4 container. I tried it, and got the same result as you did: it sucked. Then, I said, what if I changed the file extension to MOV. BAM! Worked like a champ. Then, I had the idea, instead of extracting the video and audio, why not use the MKV as the audio source. Not all MKV containers have AC3 audio. Some have DTS, and TMPGEnc does not support DTS audio. I didn't feel like loosing more audio quality than what I already would have when I ripped it to WMA.

Let me know how your encode goes. I have had nothing but 100% success with this method so far.

Also, please give me a run down of EXACTLY what you have for H/W, and S/W. Including OS and SP level.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 19 2008, 05:40 PM)

So, for those that have been waiting, I have updated my tutorial.

Please do not freak out that I have added a pretty major step to the process. This little venture has turned into a bigger challenge than what I originally thought.

Please, download the tutorial again, and read through it before you do anything further. I am also including the link to the PDF for those that want it.

Please provide feedback.

Also, here's how I came up with the new idea:

Well, if I wasn't so anal that I want to have the trailers along with the movies themselves, I may not have stumbled across this. I was looking for HD movie trailers. Pretty much all of them are hosted over at Apple.com. And what format are they in? H.264 in a MOV container. Well, I was able to convert them to WMV-HD just perfectly. I too noticed the DirectShow Filter status for the source, instead of the built-in TMPGEnc QuickTime filter. So, I knew that you could take a raw x264/H.264 stream, mux it into an MP4 container. I tried it, and got the same result as you did: it sucked. Then, I said, what if I changed the file extension to MOV. BAM! Worked like a champ. Then, I had the idea, instead of extracting the video and audio, why not use the MKV as the audio source. Not all MKV containers have AC3 audio. Some have DTS, and TMPGEnc does not support DTS audio. I didn't feel like loosing more audio quality than what I already would have when I ripped it to WMA.

Let me know how your encode goes. I have had nothing but 100% success with this method so far.

Also, please give me a run down of EXACTLY what you have for H/W, and S/W. Including OS and SP level.

Trying this now. WIll post the results tomorrow most likely

Also trying now and will report back shortly

Ok so i just tested the new method. My setup is:
AMD64 X2 4200+, 2Gb RAM, 64Gb 10k Raptor, 7900GT
Windows Vista Business RTM.... Stripped using vLite. No Updates.
Very basic software installed... AC3Filter 1.46 CoreAVC Pro 1.6.5.0, Haali Media Splitter 1.7.401.3, MKVtoolnix latest. The only other filters and like i have installed are. Latest quicktime and Real Alternative 1.7.5 not that they are relevant. TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress 4.4.2.238.

So i got in late and read the new revised tutorial and thought id give it a quick go with a 3min music video.
The video source info from MediaInfo is :

General #0
Complete name :music-video.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 186 MiB
PlayTime : 3mn 31s
Bit rate : 7386 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-10-10 01:17:02
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
PlayTime : 3mn 31s
Bit rate : 6700 Kbps
Width : 1280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-671
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=6 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=2 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=crf / crf=21.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Bit rate mode : CBR
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, Subwoofer
Sampling rate : 48 KHz

Now i did notice that this is a different fps to the "tv shows" that are stored in mkv format. So i decided to do the old method and the new one to compare. As well as just ripping the video and converting the audio to aac 2.0.

I was pretty tired and didnt quite follow the guide 100%, ive been using a program called GOTSent convert my mkv into mp4 with 2.0 sound for a while, whilst looking for a solution. Ive spent many an hour surfing the net looking for answers. Much gratitude to chirs for all his work. Amazing mate. Neway so i used gotsent to convert the mkv into mp4 and did it with 1.0 audio for speed and because its not needed. Renamed it. Then opened up tmpgenc and added the mov as video and mkv as audio. Didnt change anything on the fps etc... just as the software set it. No cut-edit was needed ... only 4 mins long.

The Format settings are just from the Xbox 360 720 VBR file. Changed the res. Then set the average bitrate to 7000 and the peak to 8000.
I dont really understand how to take the mediainfo bitrate and come up with a peak one for tmpgenc that well so i just add 1000.

Audio wise, as i want too concerned with it just did 1 pass CBR @ 384kbps, 48kHz, 5.1channel 24bit CBR.

So i put all the files musicvid.mp4 musicvid-mkv.wmv and musicvid-mov.wmv on my usb stick and plugged them in.

Firstly the trusty mp4...Worked fine, video looked awsome, but only 2.0 sound... and really quite at that. Boo!
Secondly the mkv (original method).... Still the same, lots of stuttering.
Finally the new mov method. Perfect. I actually watched it about 6 times to check, flawless, and with 5.1 AUDIO!!!!

I know this is only a small victory as it was a music video. But my next test is some TV show i find. But the encode took around 40mins... for 3mins 31seconds. So 42mins prob looking about 6-10 hours and as its now 5am i think ill leave till tomorrow.

Sorry for the long post, look forwards to hearing how everyone elses testing goes. Good luck

Just tested Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl 720P with the new .mov method.

Works flawlessly! Chrislynch you have fixed all the problems! Amazing work my friend!

Did a 10 min sample and also confirms that it works. No stuttering at all. Did a side-by-side comparison with a previous MKV to check for quality and the new method still has excellent quality. Well done, chrislynch. Oh and please let us know when you complete the Rip from Blueray Source tutorial. I just got a blueray drive for my comp and have been wanting to know the proper procedure to rip straight from the source. Thanks for everything and wonderful tutorial.

Tested 36 sec mkv clip...Flawless.
No stuttering and quality is excellent. Will try a longer clip later today.
So far so good.

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 19 2008, 10:17 PM)

Ok so i just tested the new method. My setup is:
AMD64 X2 4200+, 2Gb RAM, 64Gb 10k Raptor, 7900GT
Windows Vista Business RTM.... Stripped using vLite. No Updates.
Very basic software installed... AC3Filter 1.46 CoreAVC Pro 1.6.5.0, Haali Media Splitter 1.7.401.3, MKVtoolnix latest. The only other filters and like i have installed are. Latest quicktime and Real Alternative 1.7.5 not that they are relevant. TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress 4.4.2.238.

So i got in late and read the new revised tutorial and thought id give it a quick go with a 3min music video.
The video source info from MediaInfo is :

General #0
Complete name :music-video.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 186 MiB
PlayTime : 3mn 31s
Bit rate : 7386 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-10-10 01:17:02
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.1.0 ('Another Place To Fall') built on Aug 19 2007 13:40:07
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
PlayTime : 3mn 31s
Bit rate : 6700 Kbps
Width : 1280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-671
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=6 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=2 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=crf / crf=21.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Bit rate mode : CBR
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, Subwoofer
Sampling rate : 48 KHz

Now i did notice that this is a different fps to the "tv shows" that are stored in mkv format. So i decided to do the old method and the new one to compare. As well as just ripping the video and converting the audio to aac 2.0.

I was pretty tired and didnt quite follow the guide 100%, ive been using a program called GOTSent convert my mkv into mp4 with 2.0 sound for a while, whilst looking for a solution. Ive spent many an hour surfing the net looking for answers. Much gratitude to chirs for all his work. Amazing mate. Neway so i used gotsent to convert the mkv into mp4 and did it with 1.0 audio for speed and because its not needed. Renamed it. Then opened up tmpgenc and added the mov as video and mkv as audio. Didnt change anything on the fps etc... just as the software set it. No cut-edit was needed ... only 4 mins long.

The Format settings are just from the Xbox 360 720 VBR file. Changed the res. Then set the average bitrate to 7000 and the peak to 8000.
I dont really understand how to take the mediainfo bitrate and come up with a peak one for tmpgenc that well so i just add 1000.

Audio wise, as i want too concerned with it just did 1 pass CBR @ 384kbps, 48kHz, 5.1channel 24bit CBR.

So i put all the files musicvid.mp4 musicvid-mkv.wmv and musicvid-mov.wmv on my usb stick and plugged them in.

Firstly the trusty mp4...Worked fine, video looked awsome, but only 2.0 sound... and really quite at that. Boo!
Secondly the mkv (original method).... Still the same, lots of stuttering.
Finally the new mov method. Perfect. I actually watched it about 6 times to check, flawless, and with 5.1 AUDIO!!!!

I know this is only a small victory as it was a music video. But my next test is some TV show i find. But the encode took around 40mins... for 3mins 31seconds. So 42mins prob looking about 6-10 hours and as its now 5am i think ill leave till tomorrow.

Sorry for the long post, look forwards to hearing how everyone elses testing goes. Good luck

Awesome to hear!

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 20 2008, 12:54 AM)

Just tested Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl 720P with the new .mov method.

Works flawlessly! Chrislynch you have fixed all the problems! Amazing work my friend!

Excellent.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 20 2008, 05:00 AM)

Did a 10 min sample and also confirms that it works. No stuttering at all. Did a side-by-side comparison with a previous MKV to check for quality and the new method still has excellent quality. Well done, chrislynch. Oh and please let us know when you complete the Rip from Blueray Source tutorial. I just got a blueray drive for my comp and have been wanting to know the proper procedure to rip straight from the source. Thanks for everything and wonderful tutorial.

As for Blu-ray, I do outline how to rip it to WMV-HD. What is not done is BD+ support. We have to wait until Slysoft releases a version of AnyDVD HD that removes the BD+ protection. You can rip non-BD+ material, which I do cover. Really, the process between non-BD+ and BD+ Blu-ray sources are not different from each other.

So, the one last item I need to work on is an automated method of extracting the video and muxing it into an MP4 container. I work on a solution to this to help those that want a more automated method.

I have'nt noticed any stuttering issues with the 9 HD movies I've converted to WMV-HD. I burn them all to disc instead of streaming. But since I've had no isssues is there any reason I should try to updated method? Does it make the process faster (15 hours in my case) or improve video/audio quality, or is it simply to fix stuttering problems for people that have it?

QUOTE(ES0090 @ Feb 20 2008, 11:02 AM)

I have'nt noticed any stuttering issues with the 9 HD movies I've converted to WMV-HD. I burn them all to disc instead of streaming. But since I've had no isssues is there any reason I should try to updated method? Does it make the process faster (15 hours in my case) or improve video/audio quality, or is it simply to fix stuttering problems for people that have it?

If you weren't having problems before, I see no reason why you should do the extra step. It would add another 20-40 min to your process. I wonder why you aren't having any stuttering anywhere. Thats crazy.

QUOTE(ES0090 @ Feb 20 2008, 09:02 AM)

I have'nt noticed any stuttering issues with the 9 HD movies I've converted to WMV-HD. I burn them all to disc instead of streaming. But since I've had no isssues is there any reason I should try to updated method? Does it make the process faster (15 hours in my case) or improve video/audio quality, or is it simply to fix stuttering problems for people that have it?

No. You do not need to follow the additional steps. However, I find it very strange that you have no video issues. Can you email me offline so we can discuss this?

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 20 2008, 01:01 PM)

Guys, I had recently used Chris's first method successfully to convert with stutterings. Now I only need to get and install the foll. right?? I am reading the doc in detail but just wanted to reconfirm, no need to reinstall anything else right???

MKVtoolnix and MKVExtractGUI
YAMB

Thanks.

Yes. MKVtoolnix, MKVExtractGUI, and YAMB are the only new tools used and referenced in the tutorial. I did expand the ffdshow installation section so for those that want to use it for H.264/x264/AVC decoding instead of CoreAVC, they can do so.

Me, too! I mean, the new method works for me as well. I encoded two 41-minute long videos, and the playback on the Xbox360 is just as good as the original MKV. No stuttering or glitches like before. Great job, Chris!

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 20 2008, 03:01 PM)

MKVtoolnix and MKVExtractGUI
YAMB

The YAMB package that I got does not include MP4Box, so you may need that also if you don't already have it. After all, YAMB is a front-end GUI for MP4Box.

QUOTE

The YAMB package that I got does not include MP4Box, so you may need that also if you don't already have it. After all, YAMB is a front-end GUI for MP4Box.

If you downloaded it from the URL I provided, it does include MP4box.

Chris, you are the best! I have yet to try the latest method, waiting for 2GB more ram which I should get tomorrow!! But can you help me/others out with something??

Before MS allowed Xvids to be playable on the 360 I used Encode 360 on my laptop to convert them to wmv and it took around 10hrs, old laptop.

I bought a new PC, Inspiron 530 and used your methods and installed only whats listed in your tutorials to convert mkvs and it takes around 10 hrs for 720p files. And thats with only 1Gb, can't wait to make it 3Gb total.

Now if I want to convert some of my old xvids/avis to wmv(which are unplayable on my 360 sue to whatever reason) to wmv what steps do I need to take, codecs to install etc. without screwing up you wonderful working system of converting mkvs to wmv-hds??? Can I still ise TMPGENC somehoe?? It would not load the avi files as of now obviously.

Appreciate the help very much, thanks!! No worries if the above is a waste of your time/efforts.

YESS!!! I'm amazed you found a workaround this quick. Question: How does one turn on subs with CoreAVC? I know how to do it in FFDShow, and for some reason just selecting the stream in in Haali doesn't do it with core.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 20 2008, 04:24 PM)

Chris, you are the best! I have yet to try the latest method, waiting for 2GB more ram which I should get tomorrow!! But can you help me/others out with something??

Before MS allowed Xvids to be playable on the 360 I used Encode 360 on my laptop to convert them to wmv and it took around 10hrs, old laptop.

I bought a new PC, Inspiron 530 and used your methods and installed only whats listed in your tutorials to convert mkvs and it takes around 10 hrs for 720p files. And thats with only 1Gb, can't wait to make it 3Gb total.

Now if I want to convert some of my old xvids/avis to wmv(which are unplayable on my 360 sue to whatever reason) to wmv what steps do I need to take, codecs to install etc. without screwing up you wonderful working system of converting mkvs to wmv-hds??? Can I still ise TMPGENC somehoe?? It would not load the avi files as of now obviously.

Appreciate the help very much, thanks!! No worries if the above is a waste of your time/efforts.

The Xbox 360 will play Xvid AVI's. I have played quite a number of them without needing to re-encode them to WMV. I have not attempted to convert them myself.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Feb 20 2008, 06:47 PM)

YESS!!! I'm amazed you found a workaround this quick. Question: How does one turn on subs with CoreAVC? I know how to do it in FFDShow, and for some reason just selecting the stream in in Haali doesn't do it with core.

Did you install DirectVobSub? Without it, you will not be able to load subtitles. However, if you have a real licensed version of TMPGEnc, it does load subtitles. I would strongly suggest using TMPGEnc to load and burn-in the subtitles.

If it's still not working, you can try extracting the subtitles with MKVExtractGUI. Rename the extracted subtitles to the exact same name as the MOV file, but with the SRT or SSA file extension.

yeah, 90% of my xvids work on the 360 but every once in a while some don't work and they are new, like the one I got for American Gangster and it stops playing after it starts, don't know why? Hence was wondering how to convert xvids to wmv w/o screwing up the set-up I have now.

BTW, converted a mkv using the new method, just a sample, no 42sec glitch, you are the man!! Thanks!!

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Feb 20 2008, 09:03 PM)

yeah, 90% of my xvids work on the 360 but every once in a while some don't work and they are new, like the one I got for American Gangster and it stops playing after it starts, don't know why? Hence was wondering how to convert xvids to wmv w/o screwing up the set-up I have now.
BTW, converted a mkv using the new method, just a sample, no 42sec glitch, you are the man!! Thanks!!

Converting AVI containers that contain Divx/Xvid video streams would be no different then what you do with MKV sources. TMPGEnc natively support AVI containers and the Divx/Xvid codec. Just add the AVI as a source in TMPGEnc. You can still use the templates I provided for the Output. Just match the resolution to the source, and encode. It should be pretty simple.

So, I spent the last few hours figuring this out, might as well post it here...

I couldn't load the subtitle file into TMPGEnc (v238) at all, it would not accept the SRT that was ripped from the mkv (and give no error message). So, I took a look at the other option, ".subtitle" - which is TMPGEnc's own format. Using Subtitle Workshop - found here - I imported the .srt then used "Save as - Custom format" then used the following:

CODE

[LayoutData]
"Picture bottom layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,1,2,0,1,0.005,0
"Picture top layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0.005,0
"Picture left layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0.005,0
"Picture right layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,2,1,1,1,0.005,0

[LayoutDataEx]
1,0
1,0
1,0
1,1

[ItemData]
{RepeatSub}
{SubCount},1,"{swStart}","{swEnd}",0,"{swText}"
{EndRepeat}

Then save as a .subtitle and bam! subs import correctly! You may have to play with the new line char to get the spacing right but that's the basic idea. You can change formatting by right clicking on any sub if that font isn't for you.

Hope that helps somebody.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Feb 20 2008, 10:47 PM)

So, I spent the last few hours figuring this out, might as well post it here...

I couldn't load the subtitle file into TMPGEnc (v238) at all, it would not accept the SRT that was ripped from the mkv (and give no error message). So, I took a look at the other option, ".subtitle" - which is TMPGEnc's own format. Using Subtitle Workshop - found here - I imported the .srt then used "Save as - Custom format" then used the following:

CODE

[LayoutData]
"Picture bottom layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,1,2,0,1,0.005,0
"Picture top layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0.005,0
"Picture left layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0.005,0
"Picture right layout",4,Tahoma,0.1,17588159451135,0,0,0,0,2,1,1,1,0.005,0

[LayoutDataEx]
1,0
1,0
1,0
1,1

[ItemData]
{RepeatSub}
{SubCount},1,"{swStart}","{swEnd}",0,"{swText}"
{EndRepeat}

Then save as a .subtitle and bam! subs import correctly! You may have to play with the new line char to get the spacing right but that's the basic idea. You can change formatting by right clicking on any sub if that font isn't for you.

Hope that helps somebody.

Absolutely! Great find. I'll play around with this, and update my tutorial accordingly.

I'm having a slight issue with MP4Box. I've done 3 h.264 into MP4 container conversions using MP4Box. After it completes, I get the Windows error saying that the program has caused problems and needs to be closed, do I wish to send an error report, yada yada. Yamb says that the file converted successfully. Basically I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this. I'm going to reinstall Yamb and MP4Box tonight as I haven't had a chance yet, but wanted to check in and see if anyone else had this problem. I haven't watched any of the 3 completed conversions to WMV yet (I will tonight) so hopefully there isn't any issue.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 21 2008, 05:02 AM)

I'm having a slight issue with MP4Box. I've done 3 h.264 into MP4 container conversions using MP4Box. After it completes, I get the Windows error saying that the program has caused problems and needs to be closed, do I wish to send an error report, yada yada. Yamb says that the file converted successfully. Basically I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this. I'm going to reinstall Yamb and MP4Box tonight as I haven't had a chance yet, but wanted to check in and see if anyone else had this problem. I haven't watched any of the 3 completed conversions to WMV yet (I will tonight) so hopefully there isn't any issue.

I have not run into this myself. What version of YAMB are you using?

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 21 2008, 07:02 AM)

I'm having a slight issue with MP4Box. I've done 3 h.264 into MP4 container conversions using MP4Box. After it completes, I get the Windows error saying that the program has caused problems and needs to be closed, do I wish to send an error report, yada yada. Yamb says that the file converted successfully. Basically I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this. I'm going to reinstall Yamb and MP4Box tonight as I haven't had a chance yet, but wanted to check in and see if anyone else had this problem. I haven't watched any of the 3 completed conversions to WMV yet (I will tonight) so hopefully there isn't any issue.

I have the same issue and it has no effect on the encode. I don't know why that happens but I always just click "cancel" or "Don't Send" when it happens. It will complete once you do that.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 21 2008, 12:51 PM)

I have not run into this myself. What version of YAMB are you using?

Not sure, I'll check when I get home. I assume it's the latest one and it comes bundled with MP4Box. But I'm glad I'm not the only one who has the problem. Thanks for the update dgarst. Glad it still works.

I updated the tutorial to include thelelander's suggestion of Subtitle Workshop, and removed DirectVobSub.

Enjoy, and please provide feedback.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 21 2008, 08:02 AM)

I'm having a slight issue with MP4Box. I've done 3 h.264 into MP4 container conversions using MP4Box. After it completes, I get the Windows error saying that the program has caused problems and needs to be closed, do I wish to send an error report, yada yada. Yamb says that the file converted successfully. Basically I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this. I'm going to reinstall Yamb and MP4Box tonight as I haven't had a chance yet, but wanted to check in and see if anyone else had this problem. I haven't watched any of the 3 completed conversions to WMV yet (I will tonight) so hopefully there isn't any issue.

I had the same issue, I pressed Dont Send etc. and it worked fine. THe Yamn version is the one from your link, the first link with Yamb and MP4Box installer. I am assuming a lot of people are getting this error/message and is nothing to be concerned about? I am running XP btw.

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 21 2008, 07:02 AM)

I'm having a slight issue with MP4Box. I've done 3 h.264 into MP4 container conversions using MP4Box. After it completes, I get the Windows error saying that the program has caused problems and needs to be closed, do I wish to send an error report, yada yada. Yamb says that the file converted successfully. Basically I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this. I'm going to reinstall Yamb and MP4Box tonight as I haven't had a chance yet, but wanted to check in and see if anyone else had this problem. I haven't watched any of the 3 completed conversions to WMV yet (I will tonight) so hopefully there isn't any issue.

From a previous post, I believe you are running XP MCE. Which version of MCE is that? I'm surprised the folks with XP are having more trouble than those of us on Vista. I have Yamb 2.0.0.8. The About tab just says "Yamb 2.0", but the extended version info was in changelog.txt. Also, find out what version of MP4box you have. Here's what I get:

CODE

>mp4box -version
MP4Box - GPAC version 0.4.5-DEV (build 16 - Feb 1 2008) - compiled by Kurtnoise

GPAC Copyright: (c) Jean Le Feuvre 2000-2005
(c) ENST 2005-200X

Also, someone should run MP4box on the command line to see if the application that's crashing is Yamb or MP4box.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Feb 21 2008, 08:16 PM)

From a previous post, I believe you are running XP MCE. Which version of MCE is that? I'm surprised the folks with XP are having more trouble than those of us on Vista. I have Yamb 2.0.0.8. The About tab just says "Yamb 2.0", but the extended version info was in changelog.txt. Also, find out what version of MP4box you have. Here's what I get:

CODE

>mp4box -version
MP4Box - GPAC version 0.4.5-DEV (build 16 - Feb 1 2008) - compiled by Kurtnoise

GPAC Copyright: (c) Jean Le Feuvre 2000-2005
(c) ENST 2005-200X

Also, someone should run MP4box on the command line to see if the application that's crashing is Yamb or MP4box.

Interesting. The author of YAMB must have updated mp4box. I have version 0.4.4, which is a stable, non-dev version. Try to find this version of mp4box. Let me know if you cannot, and I can make a ZIP file of what I have and post it somewhere.

Uh oh. Problems are starting to arise for me. 2 out of 4 movies encoded have synch issues once you reach about an hour into it. I have set all the setting correctly, I'm a little confused as to why this is happening.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 22 2008, 10:44 AM)

Uh oh. Problems are starting to arise for me. 2 out of 4 movies encoded have synch issues once you reach about an hour into it. I have set all the setting correctly, I'm a little confused as to why this is happening.

AUdio Video or both. My first movie had synch issues with the audio but i only got an hour or so into the movie and didn't notice any video glitches

QUOTE(placebo3681 @ Feb 22 2008, 10:57 AM)

AUdio Video or both. My first movie had synch issues with the audio but i only got an hour or so into the movie and didn't notice any video glitches

I am not sure. I just watched about the first ten minutes of each movie, saw no problems. Then I skipped about an hour in and started noticing synch issues. I never saw any stutters in video or problems with sound. When I previewed it in tmpgenc before the encode, there were no issues. So the problem happened during the encode. I am reencoding the movie now to see if it still happens. At the time of the encode I was downloading a lot of stuff so I may have been overworking my computer or something.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 22 2008, 12:26 AM)

Interesting. The author of YAMB must have updated mp4box. I have version 0.4.4, which is a stable, non-dev version. Try to find this version of mp4box. Let me know if you cannot, and I can make a ZIP file of what I have and post it somewhere.

I usually get my video tools from videohelp.com. So, these are the links I used for: Yamb 2.0.0.8 and MP4Box 0.4.5 dev.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 22 2008, 11:09 AM)

I am not sure. I just watched about the first ten minutes of each movie, saw no problems. Then I skipped about an hour in and started noticing synch issues. I never saw any stutters in video or problems with sound. When I previewed it in tmpgenc before the encode, there were no issues. So the problem happened during the encode. I am reencoding the movie now to see if it still happens. At the time of the encode I was downloading a lot of stuff so I may have been overworking my computer or something.

Most likely, it is because your are over tasking your system. If you are going to have multiple apps running, while you are encoding video, then change the task priority of TMGPEnc to High or Highest (both Foreground and Background Task Priority.)

Also, I have noticed a lot of MKV sources have video artifacts, and are not always the best. Try to find the actual source, and rip from that instead of MKV. MKV should always be your last resort.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Feb 22 2008, 12:01 PM)

I usually get my video tools from videohelp.com. So, these are the links I used for: Yamb 2.0.0.8 and MP4Box 0.4.5 dev.

Try mp4box v0.4.4, and not 0.4.5-dev. I try to stay with the stable releases as much as possible.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 22 2008, 03:56 PM)

Most likely, it is because your are over tasking your system. If you are going to have multiple apps running, while you are encoding video, then change the task priority of TMGPEnc to High or Highest (both Foreground and Background Task Priority.)

Also, I have noticed a lot of MKV sources have video artifacts, and are not always the best. Try to find the actual source, and rip from that instead of MKV. MKV should always be your last resort.
Try mp4box v0.4.4, and not 0.4.5-dev. I try to stay with the stable releases as much as possible.

Well I jsut reencoded the same movie twice now. This time with no other tasks running and on high priority, foreground and background. The same thing is happening. Somewhere along the way it gets out of synch. The original mkv is in synch and when I preview it in tmpgenc it is also in synch. Its only the final product that gets messed up. I'm confused.

QUOTE(dgarst @ Feb 22 2008, 05:29 PM)

Well I jsut reencoded the same movie twice now. This time with no other tasks running and on high priority, foreground and background. The same thing is happening. Somewhere along the way it gets out of synch. The original mkv is in synch and when I preview it in tmpgenc it is also in synch. Its only the final product that gets messed up. I'm confused.

Well, that is strange. I have encoded 10 movies so far, and no issues. Email me the details of what you are trying to convert.

So, I have had the same problem - one movie - Eastern Promises, looks great but the audio is about a half second off by the end of the movie. Another movie, Ratatouille, is perfect. Here are the respective media info's for the source MKV files.

Ratatouille
General #0
Format : Matroska
File size : 4.37 GiB
PlayTime : 1h 50mn
Bit rate : 5665 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2007-11-15 15:55:40
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
PlayTime : 1h 50mn
Bit rate : 3896 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 4151 Kbps
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 2.400
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 56 svn-680
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4151 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : DTS
Bit rate : 1536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, Subwoofer
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Language : English

Eastern Promises
General #0
Format : Matroska
File size : 4.35 GiB
PlayTime : 1h 40mn
Bit rate : 6188 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2008-01-20 10:29:58
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.0.2 ('You're My Flame') built on Feb 21 2007 23:40:55
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec profile : [email protected]
Codec settings, CABAC : Yes
PlayTime : 1h 40mn
Bit rate : 4398 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 4674 Kbps
Width : 1280 pixels
Height : 688 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 1.860
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Progressive
Writing library : x264 - core 57 svn-709C
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / fpel_cmp=sad / subme=6 / me-prepass=0 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / mbaff=0 / bframes=4 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=41(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4674 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:0.3:15.0
Language : English

Audio #0
Codec : DTS
Bit rate : 1536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, Subwoofer
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Title : English 5.1
Language : English

I don't see any difference in the two, other than Rat being 1080 and EP being 720. Both were encoding under the same system stresses.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Feb 23 2008, 09:46 AM)

So, I have had the same problem - one movie - Eastern Promises, looks great but the audio is about a half second off by the end of the movie. Another movie, Ratatouille, is perfect. Here are the respective media info's for the source MKV files.

[...]

I don't see any difference in the two, other than Rat being 1080 and EP being 720. Both were encoding under the same system stresses.

I don't know what to say here. If the framerate is correct, then you shoudln't have an audio sync issue. Email me offline of your AC3filter configuration. Please provide me screen shots of all tabs in AC3filter.

sorry guys i didnt have time to read through the whole thread but i did skim through and have a few questions

i currently use encode 360 with no issues at all and it was the only way to for me to get 5.1 audio the bad news is dan has stopped working on it and nobody picked up the source code to continue his work.

anyway

does this method keep 5.1 audio can you keep DTS audio and is the video quality and encode times any better

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 25 2008, 09:28 PM)

Ok so ive now had success with re-encoding a file.... However i seem to loose quality in some scenes, one inpaticular ive noticed is from lost s04 e02... The 2 image files are before, the mkv and after the wmv.
The only way i seem to be able to get these to look similar quality is to encode wmv @ 8000 instead of the same bit rate as the file which is around 3675. Anyone any ideas??

[images removed]

Looks like you have a codec issue, or you modified the templates to where you are not using the Windows Media 9 Advanced Profile option. Make sure you have Windows Media Player 11 on your system to begin with. I don't spell this out in the tutorial, as I already assume you have this installed.

Or, you messed around with the quality settings. Can you provide a screen shot of the Format tab in TMPGEnc of this encode? I have yet to come across this sort of visual quality problem you are encountering.

Could somebody please re-upload the file? It's been down for days and I'd like to try the tutorial.

THanks

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 26 2008, 08:39 PM)

Try using 1 Pass CBR instead of 2-pass Peak VBR.
Uh, read my tutorial's Appendix C.

To keep it simple, there is no reason to go above the source MKV's bitrate. You will gain nothing. You could use the default's in the templates. That's completely up to you.

Maximum Key Interval as defined in the user manual:
I'm looking into what the optimum setting should be. I know I have my templates set to 8000 miliseconds (or 8 seconds.) I have seen in other forums 5 seconds being used. It couldn't hurt to change this value to 5000.

Going above Quality 95 will only increase bot the file size and length of encode. Most will not even notice a difference between 95 and 99. Not unless you have a large (i.e. 50' or greater) HDTV and you are encoding 720p video.

Tried using 1 pass CBR instead of 2-pass Peak but my problems persist. Im going to do a clean install and see what happens.

QUOTE(robert74 @ Feb 26 2008, 07:47 PM)

Tried using 1 pass CBR instead of 2-pass Peak but my problems persist. Im going to do a clean install and see what happens.

That would be a great idea. Let us know what happens.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 26 2008, 11:12 PM)

Looks like you have a codec issue, or you modified the templates to where you are not using the Windows Media 9 Advanced Profile option. Make sure you have Windows Media Player 11 on your system to begin with. I don't spell this out in the tutorial, as I already assume you have this installed.

Or, you messed around with the quality settings. Can you provide a screen shot of the Format tab in TMPGEnc of this encode? I have yet to come across this sort of visual quality problem you are encountering.

Yeah WMP11 installed. Could be a codec issue, but after a clean install all thats on there is CoreAVC, Xvid and AC3.
My format tab looks like this.

Ive just watched the episode and it looks ok, apart from that scene. So maybe its just me being picky.

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 27 2008, 03:54 AM)

Yeah WMP11 installed. Could be a codec issue, but after a clean install all thats on there is CoreAVC, Xvid and AC3.
My format tab looks like this.

Ive just watched the episode and it looks ok, apart from that scene. So maybe its just me being picky.

Try changing the Quality bar or value to 97. You do not need to encode the entire video. Just create a sample (using the Cut-Edit screen), and encode that to test.

One more thing, and I"m not 100% sure if this will help. For those that have video and audio sync problems, have you ever installed the Windows Media Encoder 9 tool? If not, please do so. There is a patch for Vista systems, that you can only install it by right-clicking it and selecting "Run as administrator." Otherwise it will fail.

Then, re-install TMPGEnc, and try your encodes again.

I also would love to have the tut, but the link is broken now. Says no file found.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 28 2008, 02:03 AM)

Try changing the Quality bar or value to 97. You do not need to encode the entire video. Just create a sample (using the Cut-Edit screen), and encode that to test.

One more thing, and I"m not 100% sure if this will help. For those that have video and audio sync problems, have you ever installed the Windows Media Encoder 9 tool? If not, please do so. There is a patch for Vista systems, that you can only install it by right-clicking it and selecting "Run as administrator." Otherwise it will fail.

Then, re-install TMPGEnc, and try your encodes again.

*Also I am assuming this is something that is not installed with Windows Media Player 11, right?

Just wanted to double check regarding Media Encoder 9 Tool. For us with XP should we do the following inorder?
1) Uninstall TMPGEnc
2) Install Media Encoder 9 Tool
3) Reinsall TMPGEnc

So we don't need to do anything with the codecs etc.? And no need to worry about patched etc. on XP right?

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 27 2008, 05:01 AM)

That would be a great idea. Let us know what happens.

No luck. I will check if its the source thats giving me problems since this is also happening while playing the original source on media player.
Chris: Being new at this and you the expert on this subject matter, lets say my PC lacks the power to play these type of files smoothly(lagging,slow-motion on action sequences,etc). Will I see the same effects while encoding to wmv-hd? Final results I mean.

QUOTE(Whatup1049 @ Feb 27 2008, 02:24 AM)

Could somebody please re-upload the file? It's been down for days and I'd like to try the tutorial.

THanks

QUOTE(ghostyroasty @ Feb 28 2008, 03:22 PM)

I also would love to have the tut, but the link is broken now. Says no file found.

This is a mirror of the most recent tutorial that i have.
Remember all credit goes to chris... im just mirroring it.

Mirror for Tutorial

When trying to encode with WME9, it's dropping pretty much all of my video frames. it dropped ~950 / 1000 in the first minute or so of video, I stopped it because i knew it wasn't doing something right. Im running a kind of older machine (athlon 2800, 1.5 gigs ram), could that be the problem?? or might it be setup related...

EDIT: found my problem, it truncated my 5500 kbps video bit rate to 5.5kbps...

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 28 2008, 09:41 AM)

This is a mirror of the most recent tutorial that i have.
Remember all credit goes to chris... im just mirroring it.
Mirror for Tutorial

Thank you syncman. I will be changing the URL location of the tutorial to Gigasize.com, and one other URL that I'm working on. I will add a list of the mirrors into the document for reference.

QUOTE(aclark20 @ Feb 28 2008, 09:53 AM)

When trying to encode with WME9, it's dropping pretty much all of my video frames. it dropped ~950 / 1000 in the first minute or so of video, I stopped it because i knew it wasn't doing something right. Im running a kind of older machine (athlon 2800, 1.5 gigs ram), could that be the problem?? or might it be setup related...

EDIT: found my problem, it truncated my 5500 kbps video bit rate to 5.5kbps...

Well, that would do it. The Athlon 2800 is pretty old, and you should think about upgrading or using another system. Your encodes are most likely taking 10+ hours for a 45min show. I couldn't imagine how long it would take for a feature length movie.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 28 2008, 10:36 AM)

The Athlon 2800 is pretty old, and you should think about upgrading or using another system. Your encodes are most likely taking 10+ hours for a 45min show. I couldn't imagine how long it would take for a feature length movie.

~36 hours

QUOTE(aclark20 @ Feb 28 2008, 10:16 PM)

~36 hours

It takes about 8-15 hours on my Q6600, which is OC'd to 3GHz.

QUOTE(robert74 @ Feb 28 2008, 11:11 AM)

No luck. I will check if its the source thats giving me problems since this is also happening while playing the original source on media player.
Chris: Being new at this and you the expert on this subject matter, lets say my PC lacks the power to play these type of files smoothly(lagging,slow-motion on action sequences,etc). Will I see the same effects while encoding to wmv-hd? Final results I mean. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/uhh.gif)

Not Chris, but I'll take a stab at your question. If your PC lacks the power to playback the original h.264 video file, then converting to VC-1 is unlikely to help. While it's true that h.264 decoding requires more compute power (especially with CABAC), it's unlikely that converting to VC-1 at the same resolution and bitrate will fix playback issues due to a slow CPU/GPU combo.

I'm guessing that you have an Xbox 360. You may find that the 360 is a better player than your PC. That was my situation until recently. My previous PC was a [email protected] GHz and could not playback all 720p content, or any 1080p content properly. But, I could use that system to stream WMVs to my 360 or convert HD MKVs for playback on the 360.

So, even if your PC can't play the video without problems, the conversion will produce a video free of those same problems. The conversion is not real-time, like playback, so it can take as long as needed to get the results right. If your final result is a valid VC-1 video, it will play back perfectly with the right hardware.

Keep in mind that VC-1 was used for most HD-DVDs, so that's a good endorsement of the codec. This has got me wondering now. If you have a MKV that was ripped from an HD-DVD, aren't you probably going back to the original codec? The original VC-1 is converted to x264 then converted back to VC-1. Three lossy compressions has got to take a toll!

Hi if I encode a file with this guide and the source is DTS, will I also get DTS quality with the encoded file if I play it on my xbox 360?

QUOTE(robert74 @ Feb 28 2008, 09:11 AM)

No luck. I will check if its the source thats giving me problems since this is also happening while playing the original source on media player.
Chris: Being new at this and you the expert on this subject matter, lets say my PC lacks the power to play these type of files smoothly(lagging,slow-motion on action sequences,etc). Will I see the same effects while encoding to wmv-hd? Final results I mean. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/uhh.gif)

As zLensman said, you should be able to encode the video. However, playback may prove to be difficult to do on your PC. Streaming the content to your Xbox 360 would be the best way for playback. He also pointed out that re-encoding x264 is not the best way to go. The source already had some sort of compression (if the source was based on the VC-1 codec, and not AVC/H.264 as compression is not mandatory), the MKV contains a highly compressed x264 version of the source video. You are then feeding the compressed video through another encoder to do the same thing, albeit to convert from x264 to VC-1 that the Xbox 360 can playback.

It is always best to obtain the source, then to re-encode MKV. Will most be able to tell the difference between an encode of the source or MKV to WMV? Most likely no.

QUOTE(Awakener @ Feb 29 2008, 02:52 AM)

Hi if I encode a file with this guide and the source is DTS, will I also get DTS quality with the encoded file if I play it on my xbox 360?

As long as you use WMA 10 Professional as the audio codec in the Format section of TMPGEnc, you should retain the audio quality as much as possible. DTS is still a compressed audio codec, as is WMA. WMA 10 is a much better codec than previous generations of WMA, and can provide a better audio experience than Dolby Digital/AC3. Unless you have a top of the line receiver, you would most likely never tell the difference between a DTS or WMA 10 @ 768kbps audio stream.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Feb 28 2008, 07:03 AM)

Try changing the Quality bar or value to 97. You do not need to encode the entire video. Just create a sample (using the Cut-Edit screen), and encode that to test.

One more thing, and I"m not 100% sure if this will help. For those that have video and audio sync problems, have you ever installed the Windows Media Encoder 9 tool? If not, please do so. There is a patch for Vista systems, that you can only install it by right-clicking it and selecting "Run as administrator." Otherwise it will fail.

Then, re-install TMPGEnc, and try your encodes again.

Tried all these, still cannot get a good encode of the scene. The only way is to raise the bitrate to about 8000.... but the source is only 3500ish. Bug?

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 29 2008, 12:20 PM)

Tried all these, still cannot get a good encode of the scene. The only way is to raise the bitrate to about 8000.... but the source is only 3500ish. Bug?

I don't think so. I have some content that contains dark scenes, and I can say I have not ever had that poor visual quality. If you click on the Video tab (in the Format tab), you have an option to increase a slider (I forgot what it was called ATM.) If you increase it to the right, does that improve the quality? You could also set the Max Birate for 2-pass VBR to 8000 or higher. That should also help, but keep the file size down if the average bitrate is set to the source.

QUOTE(syncman @ Feb 29 2008, 02:20 PM)

Tried all these, still cannot get a good encode of the scene. The only way is to raise the bitrate to about 8000.... but the source is only 3500ish. Bug?

syncman, I've been playing around with encoding that same scene and I can't get a good encode of it either. I've pushed all of the quality sliders to the right. "Video Quality" on the video tab is 100 (+picture quality) and "Performance" on the other tab is pegged at +picture quality. Using VBR average/peak, even with a peak of 8000 Kbps, still does not produce a good result.

In the output WMV file, the problem starts with the video snow just before the ROV feed shows up. There are artifacts in the snow -- macroblocking maybe? -- it's hard to tell with snow, but it is not as clear as the original. Then, when the scene switches to the video feed from the ROV, it looks to me like it's missing an I-frame so I just see difference frames (like the cap you posted in #176). It takes about 4 secs for this to clear up, then the ROV feed comes back into sharp focus almost as if a new I-frame came along to fix the video stream.

I don't know whether the problem is with TMPGenc or with the WMV 9 Adv codec, but something is definitely wrong. My guess is that the motion detection in TMPGenc is the problem. It should detect the complexity of this scene and allocate more bandwidth, use more I-frames, and shorten the GOP length.

So, my hard drive crashed and now I am up and running again - this seems like a stupid question, but in the Format tab my only options are Windows Media Video V7, V8, and 9, but not 9 advanced profile. I have the latest WMP 11 and have no idea why tmpgenc isn't finding it.

Hi there,

I've been looking through your document and I have to admit it's incredibly thorough.

I went out a bought CoreAVC Pro and TMPGEnc Xpress but am having a similar problem to someone else in the thread.

Here's what I'm using:

Latest Haali Media Splitter
TMPGEnc 4.4.2.238
YAMB
CoreAVC Professional 1.6.5.0
XP Professional SP2

Here's the problem. I take my source, I split the video off, run it through YAMB and for whatever reason, I try to load it into TMPGEnc and it says it can't load the file. I look inthe preferences and under the Input/Output format list it lists MainConcept MPEG-4 AVC as UNAVAILABLE.

I am also getting the same weirdness in GSpot where it says the Codec Status is Undetermined.

Anyway, I am guessing some codecs have gotten screwed up, but short of reinstalling windows, I'm wondering if it's possible to completely wipe the computer of any codecs that aren't in a clean install.

I know I'm so close to getting encoding, I just can't cross this final hurdle.

Chris

QUOTE(thelelander @ Mar 2 2008, 01:20 PM)

So, my hard drive crashed and now I am up and running again - this seems like a stupid question, but in the Format tab my only options are Windows Media Video V7, V8, and 9, but not 9 advanced profile. I have the latest WMP 11 and have no idea why tmpgenc isn't finding it.

As long as you have WMP11 installed, you should have the WMV9 AP. If not, I have a link to the Windows Media Encoder 9 toolset. Download and install it, as that will definitely provide WMV9AP.

QUOTE(snakefactory @ Mar 2 2008, 02:25 PM)

Hi there,

I've been looking through your document and I have to admit it's incredibly thorough.

I went out a bought CoreAVC Pro and TMPGEnc Xpress but am having a similar problem to someone else in the thread.

Here's what I'm using:

Latest Haali Media Splitter
TMPGEnc 4.4.2.238
YAMB
CoreAVC Professional 1.6.5.0
XP Professional SP2

Here's the problem. I take my source, I split the video off, run it through YAMB and for whatever reason, I try to load it into TMPGEnc and it says it can't load the file. I look inthe preferences and under the Input/Output format list it lists MainConcept MPEG-4 AVC as UNAVAILABLE.

I am also getting the same weirdness in GSpot where it says the Codec Status is Undetermined.

Anyway, I am guessing some codecs have gotten screwed up, but short of reinstalling windows, I'm wondering if it's possible to completely wipe the computer of any codecs that aren't in a clean install.

I know I'm so close to getting encoding, I just can't cross this final hurdle.

Chris

I would remove all installed codecs through Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet. Then, use K-lite Codec Tweak Tool to detect broken filters/codecs. Then, re-install your codecs. I'm also speculating if you have Quicktime installed. Not the Quicktime Alternative, but the Apple version. If not, try installing it, and see if you can load it into TMPGEnc.

Thank you for responding!

As always, you end up solving these problems by following previous instructions.

So here's what I did.

I used System Restore to go back to before I started trying all of this. I followed the instructions TO THE LETTER and everything worked.

System Restore is your friend. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)
Chris

If you're lazy like me, you don't like too much waiting and clicking.

I have made a script to automate the extraction of h264 and convering it to mov. It processes all MKV's in current directory and all subfolders. After executing the script you will have a .mov file for each .mkv file, nicely paired in the same directories. All you need to do is to double click the .bat file.

Please let me know if you are interested and I'll post the script here.

This post has been edited by Utsi: Mar 3 2008, 09:03 AM

QUOTE(zLensman @ Mar 1 2008, 01:21 PM)

syncman, I've been playing around with encoding that same scene and I can't get a good encode of it either. I've pushed all of the quality sliders to the right. "Video Quality" on the video tab is 100 (+picture quality) and "Performance" on the other tab is pegged at +picture quality. Using VBR average/peak, even with a peak of 8000 Kbps, still does not produce a good result.

In the output WMV file, the problem starts with the video snow just before the ROV feed shows up. There are artifacts in the snow -- macroblocking maybe? -- it's hard to tell with snow, but it is not as clear as the original. Then, when the scene switches to the video feed from the ROV, it looks to me like it's missing an I-frame so I just see difference frames (like the cap you posted in #176). It takes about 4 secs for this to clear up, then the ROV feed comes back into sharp focus almost as if a new I-frame came along to fix the video stream.

I don't know whether the problem is with TMPGenc or with the WMV 9 Adv codec, but something is definitely wrong. My guess is that the motion detection in TMPGenc is the problem. It should detect the complexity of this scene and allocate more bandwidth, use more I-frames, and shorten the GOP length.

Cool, as long as its not just me thats had this problem. Ive basically tried changing every setting there is on this, 100 on everything with a 8000average and 15000peak gets an ok result. But then the filesize is almost 3x the original.

hey chris,

first and foremost, thanks for the outstanding guide! very professional and easy to follow.

i'm having a slight problem - my MKVs have AAC audio, and i can't seem to get it to recognise in TMPGEnc. any suggestions? i'm not sure as to what codec i should download to rectify this.

thanks again.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Feb 29 2008, 09:08 AM)

Not Chris, but I'll take a stab at your question. If your PC lacks the power to playback the original h.264 video file, then converting to VC-1 is unlikely to help. While it's true that h.264 decoding requires more compute power (especially with CABAC), it's unlikely that converting to VC-1 at the same resolution and bitrate will fix playback issues due to a slow CPU/GPU combo.

I'm guessing that you have an Xbox 360. You may find that the 360 is a better player than your PC. That was my situation until recently. My previous PC was a [email protected] GHz and could not playback all 720p content, or any 1080p content properly. But, I could use that system to stream WMVs to my 360 or convert HD MKVs for playback on the 360.

So, even if your PC can't play the video without problems, the conversion will produce a video free of those same problems. The conversion is not real-time, like playback, so it can take as long as needed to get the results right. If your final result is a valid VC-1 video, it will play back perfectly with the right hardware.

Keep in mind that VC-1 was used for most HD-DVDs, so that's a good endorsement of the codec. This has got me wondering now. If you have a MKV that was ripped from an HD-DVD, aren't you probably going back to the original codec? The original VC-1 is converted to x264 then converted back to VC-1. Three lossy compressions has got to take a toll!

Thanks for your response as there are some us who are still new at this and now I understand the process in a more clearer way. I appreciate your help!

QUOTE(thelelander @ Mar 2 2008, 10:20 PM)

So, my hard drive crashed and now I am up and running again - this seems like a stupid question, but in the Format tab my only options are Windows Media Video V7, V8, and 9, but not 9 advanced profile. I have the latest WMP 11 and have no idea why tmpgenc isn't finding it.

Whats your Tmpegenc xpress version? Have you installed windows media encoder 9? Check these 2 and write us back.

QUOTE(snakefactory @ Mar 2 2008, 08:19 PM)

Thank you for responding!

As always, you end up solving these problems by following previous instructions.

So here's what I did.

I used System Restore to go back to before I started trying all of this. I followed the instructions TO THE LETTER and everything worked.

System Restore is your friend. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)
Chris

Glad to know you are able to get your system to work.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 3 2008, 12:01 AM)

If you're lazy like me, you don't like too much waiting and clicking.

I have made a script to automate the extraction of h264 and convering it to mov. It processes all MKV's in current directory and all subfolders. After executing the script you will have a .mov file for each .mkv file, nicely paired in the same directories. All you need to do is to double click the .bat file.

Please let me know if you are interested and I'll post the script here.

If you want to post it, go right on ahead. I'm about finished with an HTA (HTML Application) that will do the exact same thing.

QUOTE(syncman @ Mar 3 2008, 02:23 AM)

Cool, as long as its not just me thats had this problem. Ive basically tried changing every setting there is on this, 100 on everything with a 8000average and 15000peak gets an ok result. But then the filesize is almost 3x the original.

I will test this encode tomorrow.

QUOTE(anandr @ Mar 3 2008, 06:21 AM)

hey chris,

first and foremost, thanks for the outstanding guide! very professional and easy to follow.

i'm having a slight problem - my MKVs have AAC audio, and i can't seem to get it to recognise in TMPGEnc. any suggestions? i'm not sure as to what codec i should download to rectify this.

thanks again.

Well, I would suggest following the steps outlined in Appendix A to show you how I installed ffdshow. ffdshow should give you AAC support that you need.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Mar 7 2008, 09:25 PM)

Well, I was a bit skeptical, too, but there may be a place for lossless compression. I have used lossless codecs for storing music and it works great. I didn't remember that WMA lossless could handle 5.1 ch audio, but it can. As a test, I ran a little conversion with a 720p trailer from apple.com and, sure enough, it plays back on the 360 just fine.

Consider this: the results of the conversion we are discussing in this thread are a WMV container with VC-1 video and WMA 10 Pro audio. Chris makes a good point that WMA 9 doesn't have a promising future, but the same could be said about WMA 10 Pro. At least the VC-1 video stream has potential since it is part of SMPTE 421M, and is required on Blu-ray (and HD-DVD, while it lasts). At best the files we are making are WMV-HD compatible and that standard is unlikely to have a bright future either.

Unfortunately, there is no one file container, video stream, and audio stream combo that I know of that will playback on Xbox 360 now and will likely be useful in the future for anything other than Xbox and PC playback. If you assume that Blu-ray will become a popular standard, these files we are making could theoretically be converted for playback. The video stream would only need to be re-muxed, no conversion should be necessary. But, the audio stream will need to be converted again. So, if you want to avoid any more lossy compression, using WMA Lossless might be worthwhile.

Now, I personally think that lossless audio is overkill for this conversion, but some people are into that. With the high bitrates, sample rates, and bit depths available in most HD sources, multiple lossy compression schemes are unlikely to degrade the sound to where my ears can hear it. Still, it would be the optimal solution in the short term.

I may test it out myself with some newly purchased content. However, is it really necessary to use WMA 9.1 Loseless? I think not in most cases. If the source is AC3, the max bitrate it will support is 685kbps. Setting the audio codec format to WMA 10 Pro at 768kbps will more than make up for difference in bitrate. Now, if the source is DTS, then you most certainly want the best audio codec format.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 8 2008, 01:12 AM)

Unlike Chris I don't have a super computer, just an average laptop with dual core and 2 megs of RAM. After applying the changes to the registry with the PowerToy, it took me 56.5 hours with a 1080p movie(10GB). It just finished now and it looks great.

I don't have a supercomputer. I too used to use my AMD Turion64 X2 laptop to encode video. That took way too long for me. So, I upgraded my home PC from an AMD Athlon64 3200 to an Intel Q6600. Encoding is much better.

QUOTE(johnnynuge @ Mar 8 2008, 08:50 AM)

56.5 hours?!? Holy shit. Is that with the +speed slider all the way to the left?

Most likely not. 1080p encoding is extremely demanding and taxing on a system.

QUOTE(johnnynuge @ Mar 8 2008, 05:50 PM)

56.5 hours?!? Holy shit. Is that with the +speed slider all the way to the left?

No, I had forgotten to do that, it was at 95%

I guess my next encodes will finish much faster. My bad.

QUOTE(johnnynuge @ Mar 8 2008, 05:50 PM)

56.5 hours?!? Holy shit. Is that with the +speed slider all the way to the left?

For us with slower PCs(P4, 2gb ram), moving the slider all the way to the left instead of 95%:
Wouldnt this lower the quality of encodes? How much quality would I loose? If this is the case, I would preffer quality over encoding time.

QUOTE(robert74 @ Mar 8 2008, 09:41 AM)

For us with slower PCs(P4, 2gb ram), moving the slider all the way to the left instead of 95%:
Wouldnt this lower the quality of encodes? How much quality would I loose? If this is the case, I would preffer quality over encoding time.

As long as the bitrate you set matches, or is higher than the source, you could set the Speed slider all the way to the left. However, on complex scenes, the encoder may not have enough time to properly render the series of images to make up the scene. You could loose quality, while decreasing your encode times. I typically do not recommend this. You may wind up wasting time re-encoding the same content to improve the visual quality. YMMV. Create a sample and see what it looks like. If you feel that decreasing the encode time produces a quality encode for you, run with it. It's completely up to you.

Ok I just completed this whole thing, and it worked!!!! Thank you ChrisLynch for the awesome guide and that last little tweak to make it all come together!!! have been following this thread trying all of it silently in the backround, had 5 min stuttering issues then the once every 41sec issue, and now a PERFECT copy. My source was a MKV with H264 and AC3 and after doing the video ripping and remuxing it worked!!. I am in the process of doing one more video right now with H264 but with DTS audio. I'll let you all know tomorrow since it'll take that long.

but now we need to work out some video sizes. I don't want a 5gig file when a 3gig file will work. I had a template for Xvid(but Xvid and 5.1 suround will not work on the 360) and the same video I just encoded into WMV-HD at 4.3gigs looked beautiful at 3gigs in an Xvid format. I am redoing that movie right now to see if a 3gig file in WMV-HD will look at good as an Xvid 3 gig file! I know the bitrate thing for both audio and video, but I will make 10 recodes of one movie to find out the sweet spot if I have to. I'll let you know if the 3gig looks as good as the 4.3gig when it completes(kind of a WMV-HD to Xvid comparison). the movie is high in car action and must retain all the fine detail so the cars shine!

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 11 2008, 01:43 PM)

I had a template for Xvid(but Xvid and 5.1 suround will not work on the 360) and the same video I just encoded into WMV-HD at 4.3gigs looked beautiful at 3gigs in an Xvid format.

The 360 can play back an XviD file with 5.1 sound. You need to use an AVI container, XviD video stream, and AC3 audio stream. This is a format sometimes used by sceners, and usually called HR.HDTV. Here's the specs on a file in this format that I have played on my 360 (data from MediaInfo):

CODE

Format            : AVI
Length            : 701 MiB for 40mn 59s 896ms

Video #0          : XviD at 1996 Kbps
Aspect            : 960 x 544 () at 23.976 fps

Audio #0          : AC3 at 384 Kbps
Infos             : 6 channels, 48 KHz

Have you encoded video to XviD format at full HD resolution, either 720p or 1080p? How does it look? From what I have read, I would expect that an ASP codec, such as XviD, would not do as well as an AVC codec, such as VC-1 or H.264.

I do like XviD for encoding 720x480 video for playback on my PMP. For this application, I prefer XviD to DivX and Nero Digital.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Mar 11 2008, 05:36 PM)

The 360 can play back an XviD file with 5.1 sound. You need to use an AVI container, XviD video stream, and AC3 audio stream. This is a format sometimes used by sceners, and usually called HR.HDTV. Here's the specs on a file in this format that I have played on my 360 (data from MediaInfo):

CODE

Format            : AVI
Length            : 701 MiB for 40mn 59s 896ms

Video #0          : XviD at 1996 Kbps
Aspect            : 960 x 544 () at 23.976 fps

Audio #0          : AC3 at 384 Kbps
Infos             : 6 channels, 48 KHz

Have you encoded video to XviD format at full HD resolution, either 720p or 1080p? How does it look? From what I have read, I would expect that an ASP codec, such as XviD, would not do as well as an AVC codec, such as VC-1 or H.264.

I do like XviD for encoding 720x480 video for playback on my PMP. For this application, I prefer XviD to DivX and Nero Digital.

STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!!!! yes I am yelling.

Do not attempt to make an xvid HD movie with AC3!

I have been encoding and encoding and encoding Xvid HD in 5 million ways and it does not work. 1280X544 AC3 will not work, check out the other topics in the forums. I and others have posted info on what it does. it is worse than the 41 sec skip we were getting here before Chris solved the problem. Sorry for yelling, but I don't want you to waist your time. All the Xvid HD conversions I have done look fantastic and play smooth as butter on the PC hell even on a UMA(Intel/AMD embedded graphics) but place them on an hard drive or anything and play it through the 360 and it will skip bad. Xvid HD with an MP3 file plays fine, but mix that with an AC3 audio track and it is over. We are waiting for MS's response.

Personally, I like the WVC1 codec, and I tend to stay away from Xvid HD encoded video. While the compression does appears better (in terms of file size) I like the quality of WVC1 better. Plus, all of the reported issues with Divx/Xvid playback keeps me away from streaming that content to my 360. The only content that is Xvid based is the weekly posting of Top Gear (since we do not get the full show here in the US.)

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 11 2008, 08:35 PM)

STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!!!! yes I am yelling.

Do not attempt to make an xvid HD movie with AC3!

OK, I hear ya. I wasn't planning to use this for HD encoding. Well, maybe a quickie test of a 2 min trailer, but now I won't bother. I was just pointing out that XviD+AC3 files can play back on the 360, not that I recommend it. Also, looking at the specs from MS, they put a theoretical bitrate limit of 5 Mbps on files in an AVI container so this is clearly not meant for HD.

Different codecs have their uses. XviD is good for mobile phones and portable media players because it is less complex and requires less compute power to decode. For HD video, an AVC codec (VC-1, H.264) is more appropriate because of the advanced encoding features, but it requires more compute power for decoding. Both of these tools have a place in my video "toolbox" for use on different types of jobs.

For video that is already encoded in XVID+AC3 at 540p, it plays back smoothly and looks very good on my 360. The quality is not as good as HDTV, but is better than broadcast NTSC and the file size is much smaller. Before this support was added on the 360, I used to convert those files to WMV but now there is no need.

Sorry I didn't mean to go crazy, but I just cannot let anyone else fall into the trap blindly. If you want to take a stab at it, I highly recommend that you dont, then by all means, and good luck.

Also I have a few 480P movies with 5.1 and they do just fine, but once you hit that 1280 mark it is over with, I don't know what happens, but the 360 just falls apart, and I have even tested a 1280x544 AC3 with a vid bitrate of 800k not 8000k but 800(looked like crap of course) and it still had issues playing which is really funny. We have all assumed it is the cheap codec that MS added to the 360 to decode Xvid that is causeing the issues. and there is no work around as I tested 3 codecs for encoding and they all produced the same issue. Oh well VC-1 looks awesome so I'm sticking with it, but I do have one complaint, WMV-HD uses a larger file size than Xvid at the same quality pretty much, but then I was encoding the AC3 file at 224 and I'm doing the WMA HD at 768 or something in that neighborhood so the file size is bigger cause of that...... ok enough of the xvid junk....

I have now encoded 4 movies and they all work flawlessly both AC3 and DTS sources. Also just got my file size down for bitrates...

a 40min 720P HDTV show can look great at 2gig as well as a DVD reencode to WMV.
a movie 90-120 720p looks fantastic at 4gigs
and anyhting over 2hours scales 1gig per half hour
now all these sizes are video only no audio as that adds a whole different field, so to get the movie size just click the video only adjust to the size and then reclick the audio and video. This is for those putting the movies on a harddrive or server(that is what I am doing) not for DVD burning. and this is based on two high action movies one with car chases and one with tons of explosions.

Hi all, i've been using these methods to make movies for awhile now and have not had ANY problems. Just wanted to say thanks to the creators. The only thing is now im having a problem... I have a mkv that has an .srt subtitle and was wondering if there was a way to add it to my movie before i convert it ? PLEASE anyone with a suggestion is much appreciated, thanks.

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 12 2008, 09:08 AM)

Sorry I didn't mean to go crazy, but I just cannot let anyone else fall into the trap blindly. If you want to take a stab at it, I highly recommend that you dont, then by all means, and good luck.

Also I have a few 480P movies with 5.1 and they do just fine, but once you hit that 1280 mark it is over with, I don't know what happens, but the 360 just falls apart, and I have even tested a 1280x544 AC3 with a vid bitrate of 800k not 8000k but 800(looked like crap of course) and it still had issues playing which is really funny. We have all assumed it is the cheap codec that MS added to the 360 to decode Xvid that is causeing the issues. and there is no work around as I tested 3 codecs for encoding and they all produced the same issue. Oh well VC-1 looks awesome so I'm sticking with it, but I do have one complaint, WMV-HD uses a larger file size than Xvid at the same quality pretty much, but then I was encoding the AC3 file at 224 and I'm doing the WMA HD at 768 or something in that neighborhood so the file size is bigger cause of that...... ok enough of the xvid junk....

I have now encoded 4 movies and they all work flawlessly both AC3 and DTS sources. Also just got my file size down for bitrates...

a 40min 720P HDTV show can look great at 2gig as well as a DVD reencode to WMV.
a movie 90-120 720p looks fantastic at 4gigs
and anyhting over 2hours scales 1gig per half hour
now all these sizes are video only no audio as that adds a whole different field, so to get the movie size just click the video only adjust to the size and then reclick the audio and video. This is for those putting the movies on a harddrive or server(that is what I am doing) not for DVD burning. and this is based on two high action movies one with car chases and one with tons of explosions.

Keep in mind that Microsoft added Divx/Xvid support just to add the codec. They do not support all versions of the codec, nor high bitrates. This is clearly stated in their Divx/Xvid FAQ over at Xbox.com.

QUOTE(kasto @ Mar 12 2008, 04:42 PM)

Hi all, i've been using these methods to make movies for awhile now and have not had ANY problems. Just wanted to say thanks to the creators. The only thing is now im having a problem... I have a mkv that has an .srt subtitle and was wondering if there was a way to add it to my movie before i convert it ? PLEASE anyone with a suggestion is much appreciated, thanks.

Download the latest version of my tutorial and I show you how to add subtitles to your movies with TMPGEnc.

hey reddragon72, just wondering what was the latest exact procedure that worked for you? Meaning, did you follow only Chris's new updates including installing Media Encoder 9 etc. or did you have to also add Johnnynuge's procedure in Post 220/page 15 using Avisynth/AVS scripts/Power Toy etc. to get a perfect encode???

I am only worried about stutteting issues etc. that some ppl are getting 1 hr into the movie and such...quality I will worry about later....think I am satisfied with results from Chris's method and will try Power Toy etc. when I get a better PC..

thanks.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Mar 13 2008, 01:34 AM)

hey reddragon72, just wondering what was the latest exact procedure that worked for you? Meaning, did you follow only Chris's new updates including installing Media Encoder 9 etc. or did you have to also add Johnnynuge's procedure in Post 220/page 15 using Avisynth/AVS scripts/Power Toy etc. to get a perfect encode???

I am only worried about stutteting issues etc. that some ppl are getting 1 hr into the movie and such...quality I will worry about later....think I am satisfied with results from Chris's method and will try Power Toy etc. when I get a better PC..
thanks.

First Chris.... I have done everything to get Xvid to work on the 360. it works great for DVD backups at 480p with AC3, but every attempt at creating an AC3 HD(720p) has resulted in the video stuttering issue(not like the one we seen here) but the moment I took the AC3 out and replaced it with a MP3 2CH audio track all was fine. You can check other posts, but this is a widespread issue that I poured 3 months into to try and fix. AutoMKV and other easy programs to doing a very long demuxed individual encode of both video and audio then remux later and niether worked. So I gave up on that and went with WMV-HD.

Now for xb360xls, if you are refering to the WMV-HD method I am useing ChrisLynch's method and it is coming out quite nicely. I have nothing but time so I am moving the speed slider all the way to the right and second to last quality spot, and next I'm going to mess with filters and the resize options to see if I can get a clearer pic, but right nowmy recodes look as good as the source so I'm happy, but I love to play as well.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Mar 15 2008, 08:29 AM)

Now, since I will be archiving some of these movies, wondering if I can use ONLY PowerToy as suggested by Johnnynuge. don't think I want to mess with AVS scripts and Avisynth....or do I HAVE to follow the entire process and install Avisynth, use AVS scripts etc. for PowerToy to work??

Yes, you can use the WMV9 PowerToy with Chris Lynch's process. You will get better quality, but longer encodes. There is no need to use Avisynth, which is just an alternative way to get the H.264 video stream into TMPEGEnc without stuttering. Whichever of these alternatives you use, the process of encoding the video to VC-1 is the same because TMPGEnc will call the WMV codecs to do the compression work, and the PowerToy makes registry changes that affect how the WMV codecs work. Actually, the changes the PowerToy makes are even independent of TMPGEnc, so they would affect any encoder that you used.

I haven't done a lot of encodes with the PowerToy, but I have seen the results and they are stunning. I use the "Compression Optimization Preset" which provides a very noticeable quality improvement. It also about doubles my encode times. But, if you are going to archive this is definitely the way to go.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Mar 15 2008, 02:29 PM)

Well I just watched a movie last nite, I used Chris's method word for word and no stutterings or anything of the sort in the entire movie, 122mins, I was watching closely, thanks a bunch Chris, you are the best!!!

Now, since I will be archiving some of these movies, wondering if I can use ONLY PowerToy as suggested by Johnnynuge. don't think I want to mess with AVS scripts and Avisynth....or do I HAVE to follow the entire process and install Avisynth, use AVS scripts etc. for PowerToy to work??

I have a working set-up and don't wanna mess it up and have to reinstall/install/reinstall any of the components and hence asking but at the same time wondering if I can get a better picture, I mean I love what I obtained but you know...in the back of mind I am wondering if I can get a better picture for a future 50inch 1080p set...

Thanks.

You should use the Avisynth method, it saves you a couple of hours and is less fuzz. If you've followed Chris' excellent guide you should have no problems with it.

If you really want your movies to be "future proof" you should keep your MKV's, they will unlike wmv most likely be supported. I've done the PowerToy thing and I'm using the fast method when I'm processing cheesy TV shows like say Lost and the slow method when I'm doing movies and TV shows there's a slight chance I'll want to see again. I haven't noticed any quality loss so far with the fast method but I know there could be.

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Mar 15 2008, 05:29 AM)

Well I just watched a movie last nite, I used Chris's method word for word and no stutterings or anything of the sort in the entire movie, 122mins, I was watching closely, thanks a bunch Chris, you are the best!!!

Now, since I will be archiving some of these movies, wondering if I can use ONLY PowerToy as suggested by Johnnynuge. don't think I want to mess with AVS scripts and Avisynth....or do I HAVE to follow the entire process and install Avisynth, use AVS scripts etc. for PowerToy to work??

I have a working set-up and don't wanna mess it up and have to reinstall/install/reinstall any of the components and hence asking but at the same time wondering if I can get a better picture, I mean I love what I obtained but you know...in the back of mind I am wondering if I can get a better picture for a future 50inch 1080p set...

Thanks.

If you have nothing but time, I would encode with the higher settings the PowerToy enables. However, IF the source is MKV, then it will be pointless. If the source is a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disk, then I would go for it.

QUOTE(zLensman @ Mar 15 2008, 08:11 AM)

Yes, you can use the WMV9 PowerToy with Chris Lynch's process. You will get better quality, but longer encodes. There is no need to use Avisynth, which is just an alternative way to get the H.264 video stream into TMPEGEnc without stuttering. Whichever of these alternatives you use, the process of encoding the video to VC-1 is the same because TMPGEnc will call the WMV codecs to do the compression work, and the PowerToy makes registry changes that affect how the WMV codecs work. Actually, the changes the PowerToy makes are even independent of TMPGEnc, so they would affect any encoder that you used.

I haven't done a lot of encodes with the PowerToy, but I have seen the results and they are stunning. I use the "Compression Optimization Preset" which provides a very noticeable quality improvement. It also about doubles my encode times. But, if you are going to archive this is definitely the way to go.

I just watched an encode of 3:10 to Yuma yesterday on my 40" 1080p TV. Simply amazing. I did not change the default WM9 encoder settings with the PowerToy. I also had a chance to see the original Blu-ray disk on my friends home theater. I saw no difference between the two. However, it's all up to you. I'm not about to hold anyone back from what they want to do with their encodes.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 15 2008, 01:27 PM)

You should use the Avisynth method, it saves you a couple of hours and is less fuzz. If you've followed Chris' excellent guide you should have no problems with it.

If you really want your movies to be "future proof" you should keep your MKV's, they will unlike wmv most likely be supported. I've done the PowerToy thing and I'm using the fast method when I'm processing cheesy TV shows like say Lost and the slow method when I'm doing movies and TV shows there's a slight chance I'll want to see again. I haven't noticed any quality loss so far with the fast method but I know there could be.

Personally, I have had issues with AVIsynth and TMPGEnc. That is why I stumbled upon muxing the H264/x264 ES into an MP4 container, renamed as .MOV. The process has worked flawlessly for all video.

Heck, I just encoded Equilibrium that the source was a TS container. I had to demux the audio and video streams into separate containers (MOV for video, and MKA for audio) just so TMPGEnc would detect the correct frame rate.

As with all of this, YMMV.

I had been trying forever to get this process working, and while chrislynch's process works for some people it was not working for me, I was pretty fed up with TMPGEnc. I poked around the internet, dabbled with ProCoder and some other programs, and finally found an incredibly easy way to do all of this, no mp4 shenanigans and all that, straight MKV to WMV. First I started out using Windows Media Encoder, which is free. This takes a MKV straight to WMV, but the setup is a bit tedious the first time around.

Directions are in snrsuave's post here:
http://www.avsforum....57#post10575257

Note that if you've been using the chrislynch method there should be no need for additional codecs. CoreAvc, Haali, etc work fine. There is some additional troubleshooting in the thread.

But, I was running into a few problems/bugs with this method, I believe there are some problems with using [email protected] and wme. So, I bit the bullet, and spent $40 on WME Assistant (http://www.wmeassistant.com/), which is literally a 1-click conversion from MKV to WMV. Add file, set bitrate and resolution, and bam, 8 hours later you have your WMV. It also allows for batch encoding, which is handy if you want to do a whole tv season. There are some bugs, it crashes sometimes after doing multiple encodes, but it's the best thing i've found. The downside is that yes, you do have to pay $40, which i think is outrageous for what is basically a handy frontend to a free program. I'm good at finding things and I found jack squat on this little program. You can convert up to 3 minutes with the trial version, so try it out on some samples before you buy. I have converted 9 movies with this guy and have had no problems, audio synch issues, frame dropping, anything. In the end $40 was worth the time i was wasting trying to figure this all out.

If you are downsampling, ie going from a HD-DVD or large file to a small file, WME is only capable of 1-pass encoding mkv files. However, 1-pass with Powertoy adjustments (http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg/Elephants-Dream-Sample/Default.aspx) looks perfect if you are sampling at the same bitrate as the source file. There is really no point in doing 2-pass at the same bitrate, even fast motion scenes look great. A 2 hour movie on my Athlon 4400+ dual core with powertoy tweaks takes about 8-10 hours. I set "Performance" to 20 and quality to 94.

Anyway, I hope that was helpful for some people, I was looking for a hassle free way to convert and found it. Props to chrislynch on the work he's done.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Mar 16 2008, 08:03 PM)

I had been trying forever to get this process working, and while chrislynch's process works for some people it was not working for me, I was pretty fed up with TMPGEnc. I poked around the internet, dabbled with ProCoder and some other programs, and finally found an incredibly easy way to do all of this, no mp4 shenanigans and all that, straight MKV to WMV. First I started out using Windows Media Encoder, which is free. This takes a MKV straight to WMV, but the setup is a bit tedious the first time around.

Directions are in snrsuave's post here:
http://www.avsforum....57#post10575257

Note that if you've been using the chrislynch method there should be no need for additional codecs. CoreAvc, Haali, etc work fine. There is some additional troubleshooting in the thread.

But, I was running into a few problems/bugs with this method, I believe there are some problems with using [email protected] and wme. So, I bit the bullet, and spent $40 on WME Assistant (http://www.wmeassistant.com/), which is literally a 1-click conversion from MKV to WMV. Add file, set bitrate and resolution, and bam, 8 hours later you have your WMV. It also allows for batch encoding, which is handy if you want to do a whole tv season. There are some bugs, it crashes sometimes after doing multiple encodes, but it's the best thing i've found. The downside is that yes, you do have to pay $40, which i think is outrageous for what is basically a handy frontend to a free program. I'm good at finding things and I found jack squat on this little program. You can convert up to 3 minutes with the trial version, so try it out on some samples before you buy. I have converted 9 movies with this guy and have had no problems, audio synch issues, frame dropping, anything. In the end $40 was worth the time i was wasting trying to figure this all out.

If you are downsampling, ie going from a HD-DVD or large file to a small file, WME is only capable of 1-pass encoding mkv files. However, 1-pass with Powertoy adjustments (http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg/Elephants-Dream-Sample/Default.aspx) looks perfect if you are sampling at the same bitrate as the source file. There is really no point in doing 2-pass at the same bitrate, even fast motion scenes look great. A 2 hour movie on my Athlon 4400+ dual core with powertoy tweaks takes about 8-10 hours. I set "Performance" to 20 and quality to 94.

Anyway, I hope that was helpful for some people, I was looking for a hassle free way to convert and found it. Props to chrislynch on the work he's done.

While I agree with you that using WMEA is pretty easy, the problem I do not like about it is the *extremely* slow development of the application. I too purchased it, only to find certain things did not work. I could not add multiple items into the UI, and each have their own encoding settings. Something that should be pretty easy to do, isn't there. Plus, multi pass simply does not work, no matter how many times the devs tell me it does.

If you have success, great for you. Trust me, I have spent over a year on finding a pretty good way of converting MKV to WMV.

However, the absolute best way is to find the actual source (not an MKV rip) and encode directly from it.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 17 2008, 01:36 AM)

While I agree with you that using WMEA is pretty easy, the problem I do not like about it is the *extremely* slow development of the application. I too purchased it, only to find certain things did not work. I could not add multiple items into the UI, and each have their own encoding settings. Something that should be pretty easy to do, isn't there. Plus, multi pass simply does not work, no matter how many times the devs tell me it does.

If you have success, great for you. Trust me, I have spent over a year on finding a pretty good way of converting MKV to WMV.

However, the absolute best way is to find the actual source (not an MKV rip) and encode directly from it.

Yup, I agree 100%. They are not really competent, and the points you raise are valid. They are certainly not into bells and whistles, it could be a much better app (ie, give you a prompt when something goes wrong, rather than just saying encoding is done). I'd also like an option to turn off that awful chime that lets you know it's done. But, for me, and a lot of people here that I assume are converting from MKV to WMV, 1-pass with powertoy looks perfect, and it is pretty painless by comparison. I will take that over TMPGEnc's framerate anomalies any day.

Anyway, just another option for people if they can't get TMPGEnc cooperating.

QUOTE(thelelander @ Mar 17 2008, 01:59 AM)

Yup, I agree 100%. They are not really competent, and the points you raise are valid. They are certainly not into bells and whistles, it could be a much better app (ie, give you a prompt when something goes wrong, rather than just saying encoding is done). I'd also like an option to turn off that awful chime that lets you know it's done. But, for me, and a lot of people here that I assume are converting from MKV to WMV, 1-pass with powertoy looks perfect, and it is pretty painless by comparison. I will take that over TMPGEnc's framerate anomalies any day.

Anyway, just another option for people if they can't get TMPGEnc cooperating.

Wait, I thought that the powertoy worked with TMPGEnc? I used it for a movie over the weekend but it was at work so I have to wait to take it home today to see if there is a difference.

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 17 2008, 08:15 AM)

Wait, I thought that the powertoy worked with TMPGEnc? I used it for a movie over the weekend but it was at work so I have to wait to take it home today to see if there is a difference.

The Windows Media PowerToy is for the Windows Media Encoder engine. Not TMPGEnc. TMPGEnc uses the Windows Media Encoder engine (that is provided by both Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Media Encoder Toolkit, which has been replaced by Microsoft Web Essentials.) You do not need to use the PowerToy, unless you want to change the default encoder settings. TMPGEnc does not expose these settings.

For the average person, you do not need to use the PowerToy to change any default setting of the Windows Media Encoder. However, if you want the finest, absolute best looking video, you would want to use the PowerToy tool.

QUOTE

1-pass with powertoy looks perfect, and it is pretty painless by comparison. I will take that over TMPGEnc's framerate anomalies any day.

Anyway, just another option for people if they can't get TMPGEnc cooperating.

that is the part that confused me. Basically it says that instead of TMPGEnc use owertoy. I knew that TMPGEnc used WMP11 codecs and also powertoy(whish I have used), but his statement made it sound like powertoy was a seperate app that could be used as a full on encoder.

I have done two movies now with TMPGEnc and powertoy, and can see a slight difference, especially in the "fog" layer that seems to plauge WMV encodes.

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 17 2008, 11:31 AM)

that is the part that confused me. Basically it says that instead of TMPGEnc use owertoy. I knew that TMPGEnc used WMP11 codecs and also powertoy(whish I have used), but his statement made it sound like powertoy was a seperate app that could be used as a full on encoder.

I have done two movies now with TMPGEnc and powertoy, and can see a slight difference, especially in the "fog" layer that seems to plauge WMV encodes.

Nope. The Windows Media PowerToy application Alex Zambelli provides is simply to change the WME9 settings one would have to change in the registry. It's simply a GUI to change WME9 settings, and *not* an encoder tool. WME would be. TMPGEnc uses WME to encode Windows Media.

thanks for the input Chris. yeah I watched two movies encoded from mkv sources using only Chris's method and fortunately had no stutturing issues at all, so will stick with that for now, why mess a good thing. BUT will use PowerToy next time, questions: Thanks in Advance

1) So I should use PowerToy before I start up TMPGenc, Hit Apply and then close it?

2) Pls chk image below showing PowerToy settings I will use, this is the 'Better Preset' but not sure if I have the options selected correctly, don't see the exact options for Better Preset listed below:

* Complexity = 3 (-v_performance 60)
* Lookahead = 30 (-v_lookahead 30)
* Loopfilter = On (-v_loopfilter 1)
* Motion Search Level = Auto w/ Integer Chroma (-v_mslevel 0)
* Motion Search Range = Auto (-v_msrange 0)
* Motion Vector Cost = Dynamic (-v_mvcost 1)
* B-frames = 1 (-v_bframedist 1)

I guess Adaptive is same as Dynamic and I could not find Auto w/ Integer Chroma, only Fixed Integer Chroma for Motion Search Level. And looks like 16 is the max for Lookahead now?

Link for pic:
http://swingon.s14.d...oy/powertoy.jpg

3) Do I simply ignore "Encoder Profile' options? option on the right side towards bottom

4) and I guess don't have to worry about Decoder tab....?

5) How do I save these settings for next time??

Thanks again!!

QUOTE(xb360xls @ Mar 17 2008, 08:11 PM)

1) So I should use PowerToy before I start up TMPGenc, Hit Apply and then close it?

As long as you apply your PowerToy settings before you hit "encode", you're fine. The PowerToy makes changes in the registry that are sticky until you change them again.

QUOTE

2) Pls chk image below showing PowerToy settings I will use, this is the 'Better Preset' but not sure if I have the options selected correctly, don't see the exact options for Better Preset listed below:
[snip]
I guess Adaptive is same as Dynamic and I could not find Auto w/ Integer Chroma, only Fixed Integer Chroma for Motion Search Level. And looks like 16 is the max for Lookahead now?

Your settings look fine. BTW, you are very close to the "Compression Optimization Preset" settings.

Since that post that describes the "Better" preset, Alex Zambelli has updated his tool to reflect the correct names and limits of the advanced settings. For example, 16 is and always has been the max Lookahead and I think 30 was a mistake. Keep in mind that Lookahead is only used on 1-pass encodes. If you want to read more about these settings than the tooltips that you get by hovering your mouse pointer over them, read all about it here.

Complexity is set by the encoder, so it's not in the PowerToy. If you use the "Compression Optimization Preset" it will automatically use 3 and ignore the encoder. How do you set the complexity in TMPGEnc Xpress? I'm not sure -- it's supposed to be a value from 0 to 5. Does anyone know for certain?

QUOTE

3) Do I simply ignore "Encoder Profile' options? option on the right side towards bottom

4) and I guess don't have to worry about Decoder tab....?

Encoder Profile options is for forcing absolute VC-1 compliance on the advanced settings. If you choose a profile, say "Main", it will gray out the options that are not VC-1 compliant. I left it alone. The settings on the Decoder tab seem to be there for debugging (again, hover to read). They would only affect playback on that PC and not your Xbox 360. I would guess that Alex put them there to be thorough. My advice would be to leave them alone.

QUOTE

5) How do I save these settings for next time??

When you hit "Apply", the changes you have made are saved to the System Registry. They will remain that way until modified. When you launch the PowerToy, it should show you the current settings -- it does on mine. Also, you could check the registry keys at:

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Scrunch\WMVideo

No problems at all using Chris method with ffdshow, flawless encodes finally!!
Has anybody here had any problems with the batch encode tool in tmpenc xpres? After first encode on the list is finished ,the next on the list is stuck . Anybody had these problems?

QUOTE(robert74 @ Mar 18 2008, 11:49 AM)

No problems at all using Chris method with ffdshow, flawless encodes finally!!
Has anybody here had any problems with the batch encode tool in tmpenc xpres? After first encode on the list is finished ,the next on the list is stuck . Anybody had these problems?

Only when using an older version of TMPGEnc or there is a codec issue on your machine. I always use the batch tool, and have yet to have an issue where it wasn't my own doing (i.e. tinkering around with different codecs.)

Hello, whenever I open my source in MKVExtractGUI and I hit extract I get an error saying "Error Creating Chilg Process. CreateChildProcess (exename, command line, fchildstdoutwr)" Whats causing this and how do I get past it? Thanks

QUOTE(poopsickle @ Mar 20 2008, 07:05 PM)

Hello, whenever I open my source in MKVExtractGUI and I hit extract I get an error saying "Error Creating Chilg Process. CreateChildProcess (exename, command line, fchildstdoutwr)" Whats causing this and how do I get past it? Thanks

Make sure that MKVExtractGUI and mkvextract.exe are in the same directory.

thanks for the help chrislynch

I have another problem now. When I use Yamb to make the new .mov file, the program says it created the new file but it doesnt. Whats its problem? thank you

I must admit that I was a bit quick to embrace johnnynuge's method using AVISynth and 1 pass CBR and speed slider all the way to the left after doing the PowerToy thing.

First of all, avoid AVISynth, it's causing a video delay so that the audio/video gets out of sync. This could be compensated by using the audio gap option in TMPGEnc, but finding the right value will probably cost you more than the half hour the ChrisLynch mov thing takes (using the batch script).

Johnnynuge mentioned a scene from Planet Earth with a lot of birds that caused choppiness when converted with 1 pass CBR and the performance slider (in the other tab) all the way to the left, so I thought that it would be a good idea to use that very scene as a benchmark to find the fastest way to get an acceptable result.

The source is a MKV 720p@5606 kbps and I adjusted the settings in TMPGEnc accordingly. Here's what I tried:
(This is only applicable for those who have tweaked their systems with the PowerToy using johnnynuge's suggestion)
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 1 of 5 : Completely useless.
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 3 of 5 : Useless.
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 5 of 5 : Almost, but still too choppy.
2 pass CBR, performance slider set to 5 of 5 : Almost, but still too choppy.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 4 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 3 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 2 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 1 of 5 : Too choppy.

Conclusion: 1 pass VBR with the performance slider set to 2 of 5 is enough for the bird scene in Planet Earth, so maybe it's good enough for the average movie.

Chris, I bet you're tired of answering questions about this all the time, but I ask you anyway: What do you think of this, would I get the same results when doing a 1080p version of the same scene and/or with higher bit rate? What scenes have you used when you've tested, have you got any one particular scene in a movie that you would suggest using as a benchmark?

QUOTE(poopsickle @ Mar 21 2008, 08:11 AM)

thanks for the help chrislynch

I have another problem now. When I use Yamb to make the new .mov file, the program says it created the new file but it doesnt. Whats its problem? thank you

Do you have MP4box.exe in the same directory as YAMB?

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 21 2008, 08:23 AM)

I must admit that I was a bit quick to embrace johnnynuge's method using AVISynth and 1 pass CBR and speed slider all the way to the left after doing the PowerToy thing.

First of all, avoid AVISynth, it's causing a video delay so that the audio/video gets out of sync. This could be compensated by using the audio gap option in TMPGEnc, but finding the right value will probably cost you more than the half hour the ChrisLynch mov thing takes (using the batch script).

Johnnynuge mentioned a scene from Planet Earth with a lot of birds that caused choppiness when converted with 1 pass CBR and the performance slider (in the other tab) all the way to the left, so I thought that it would be a good idea to use that very scene as a benchmark to find the fastest way to get an acceptable result.

The source is a MKV 720p@5606 kbps and I adjusted the settings in TMPGEnc accordingly. Here's what I tried:
(This is only applicable for those who have tweaked their systems with the PowerToy using johnnynuge's suggestion)
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 1 of 5 : Completely useless.
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 3 of 5 : Useless.
1 pass CBR, performance slider set to 5 of 5 : Almost, but still too choppy.
2 pass CBR, performance slider set to 5 of 5 : Almost, but still too choppy.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 4 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 3 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 2 of 5 : OK.
1 pass VBR, performance slider set to 1 of 5 : Too choppy.

Conclusion: 1 pass VBR with the performance slider set to 2 of 5 is enough for the bird scene in Planet Earth, so maybe it's good enough for the average movie.

Chris, I bet you're tired of answering questions about this all the time, but I ask you anyway: What do you think of this, would I get the same results when doing a 1080p version of the same scene and/or with higher bit rate? What scenes have you used when you've tested, have you got any one particular scene in a movie that you would suggest using as a benchmark?

I do not have a particular movie or TV show to use as a bench mark. Honestly, you should treat each video content its own. Meaning, you should do some tests for each video you have. Simply create a 30sec to 2 minute clip, and encode. Then, verify the quality.

As with 1080p content, you should get identical results. However, you should be shooting for DVD9 size bitrates. If you go below 7Mbps for live action, you will most likely wind up with horrible image quality.

FWIW, I have never used CBR in any of my encodes with TMPGEnc. I strictly use VBR.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 21 2008, 06:27 PM)

Do you have MP4box.exe in the same directory as YAMB?

yes

QUOTE

Next, click on File -> Save As, then click the Custom format button. This will bring up the Custom Formats window, as show in Image 47. Select the Load Project button, and browse to the TMPGEnc Subtitles.cfp file. Select the Save! button, and specify the file name to save as.

Here is where i ran into the problem. I used the custom format template provided bij chrislynch in this link
https://www.orbitfil...ad/id2591486585

Is this the TMPGEnc Subtitles.cfp file? I couldnt find it anywhere so i assumed this was it, but its only 1kb. Does ayone know what the problem could be? Or am i using the wrong custom format template?

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 21 2008, 06:27 PM)

I do not have a particular movie or TV show to use as a bench mark. Honestly, you should treat each video content its own. Meaning, you should do some tests for each video you have. Simply create a 30sec to 2 minute clip, and encode. Then, verify the quality.

Creating a 2 minute sample of a movie, wouldn't that only be helpful if those minutes contained the most complex scene in that particular movie? I'm thinking that if I can find the most complex scene in any movie, a kind of a worst case scenario, then find the settings that encodes that perfectly, I would be home free. Am I insane?

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 21 2008, 06:27 PM)

As with 1080p content, you should get identical results. However, you should be shooting for DVD9 size bitrates. If you go below 7Mbps for live action, you will most likely wind up with horrible image quality.

I don't care about disk space and I always set the video bitrate to match the source. Are you saying that I should set the bitrates higher than the source if it is below 7Mbps?

I keep seeing people talk about bitrates with different codecs. I hope you all realize that one codecs bitrate does not match those of other codecs. So choosing the same does not mean an exact match. It has never been this way and never will be. Every codec has it's own range and compression methods, and therefor each codec(even if based on the the same base codec legend) will have a different result even at the same bitrate. Don't believe me do a CBR on any 1080p(keep the resolution cuase you want it to look nasty) movie at 2000k and you will see that different codecs will look better. So watch out for the bitrate matching stuff, they are not equal.

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 21 2008, 08:45 PM)

I keep seeing people talk about bitrates with different codecs. I hope you all realize that one codecs bitrate does not match those of other codecs. So choosing the same does not mean an exact match. It has never been this way and never will be. Every codec has it's own range and compression methods, and therefor each codec(even if based on the the same base codec legend) will have a different result even at the same bitrate. Don't believe me do a CBR on any 1080p(keep the resolution cuase you want it to look nasty) movie at 2000k and you will see that different codecs will look better. So watch out for the bitrate matching stuff, they are not equal.

I was under the impression that h264 and Wvc1 were pretty close when it comes to compression. If that is incorrect, perhaps you could enlighten me? Is there a formula I can use to calculate the bitrate when converting my mkv's to wmv like "mkv_bitrate*x=wmv_bitrate" (that is if I'm keeping the same framerate)? My concern is quality not size; I don't mind an extra gigabyte or two.

OK, had another look at the results I posted above, and noticed that the difference was that TMPGEnc sets the video bitrate itself when 1pass VBR is selected. So I had another go on 1pass CBR where I increased the video bitrate from 5606 to 8606 to see if it made any difference. And so it did. The bird scene from Planet Earth did, as far as I can tell, look just as good the 1pass VBR and used less than 1/3 of the disk space. I then tried to reduce the bitrate to 7606, but that gave choppy results.

Making the sample at 1-pass CBR with performance slider set to 1 of 5 was nearly 5 times faster than doing it the 2pass VBR avg/peak way but takes much more disk space.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 21 2008, 10:26 AM)

Creating a 2 minute sample of a movie, wouldn't that only be helpful if those minutes contained the most complex scene in that particular movie? I'm thinking that if I can find the most complex scene in any movie, a kind of a worst case scenario, then find the settings that encodes that perfectly, I would be home free. Am I insane?

I don't care about disk space and I always set the video bitrate to match the source. Are you saying that I should set the bitrates higher than the source if it is below 7Mbps?

Yes, you should choose a complex scene for your two minute sample. Notice I didn't say choose the beginning of the movie or content as your sample. You could, as the opening studios graphics can be pretty complex (i.e. Warner Bros., Lions Gate, etc.)

QUOTE(reddragon72 @ Mar 21 2008, 11:45 AM)

I keep seeing people talk about bitrates with different codecs. I hope you all realize that one codecs bitrate does not match those of other codecs. So choosing the same does not mean an exact match. It has never been this way and never will be. Every codec has it's own range and compression methods, and therefor each codec(even if based on the the same base codec legend) will have a different result even at the same bitrate. Don't believe me do a CBR on any 1080p(keep the resolution cuase you want it to look nasty) movie at 2000k and you will see that different codecs will look better. So watch out for the bitrate matching stuff, they are not equal.

Correct. However, from most of the x264 compressed video I have seen out there, they use very similar compression settings that are defaults for the WMV9 Advanced Profile encoder. I say to start with the same bitrate as the source (if MKV is source) as a minimum value and work from there. By no means is it exact. However, I have not had any issue using the same birate value as the MKV source in my WMV encodes with brilliant results.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 22 2008, 01:17 AM)

I was under the impression that h264 and Wvc1 were pretty close when it comes to compression. If that is incorrect, perhaps you could enlighten me? Is there a formula I can use to calculate the bitrate when converting my mkv's to wmv like "mkv_bitrate*x=wmv_bitrate" (that is if I'm keeping the same framerate)? My concern is quality not size; I don't mind an extra gigabyte or two.

Sort of. AVC/H.264/x264 is *not* the same as VC-1/WVC1 in terms of codecs. They can provide similar compression results, but VC-1/WVC1 having a more complex algorithm in compression techniques that can be far superior than AVC/H.264/x264.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 22 2008, 03:17 AM)

OK, had another look at the results I posted above, and noticed that the difference was that TMPGEnc sets the video bitrate itself when 1pass VBR is selected. So I had another go on 1pass CBR where I increased the video bitrate from 5606 to 8606 to see if it made any difference. And so it did. The bird scene from Planet Earth did, as far as I can tell, look just as good the 1pass VBR and used less than 1/3 of the disk space. I then tried to reduce the bitrate to 7606, but that gave choppy results.

Making the sample at 1-pass CBR with performance slider set to 1 of 5 was nearly 5 times faster than doing it the 2pass VBR avg/peak way but takes much more disk space.

And as it should. Setting the Performance slider to 1 will instruct the encoder to perform basic compression analysis. I do not like the results of this setting, and have found the 4th setting to be the best looking for the least amount of time. Setting it to 5 will not add much to the overall quality, unless you have a top shelf monitor or HDTV.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 23 2008, 04:54 AM)

Yes, you should choose a complex scene for your two minute sample. Notice I didn't say choose the beginning of the movie or content as your sample. You could, as the opening studios graphics can be pretty complex (i.e. Warner Bros., Lions Gate, etc.)

I'm not sure if I agree with you. Here is why:
-I watched the movie "Earth 720p" (@0:38:30-0:38-53) that I had previously re-encoded using 1pass VBR and found that in the middle of the movie there were an even more complex scene (even more birds) than I had anticipated, and it was choppy as hell. Therefore, unless you've seen the whole movie, you can never know for sure.

Further more, I undid the changes I had made with the PowerToy so that my setup should be similar to yours, then I reinstalled Windows Media player 11 and the runtime. I then tried to re-encode that particular scene using 2pass VBR(avg=8660/peak=11670) with bitrates way above the source (5660), and guess what, it looked like shit, real boxy! I had to pinch myself in disbelief. I can mail you a sample if you don't believe me. Then I re-encoded the same scene using 1pass CBR @9660, performance 3 of 5 and it looked much better.

You say that you get the best quality by using 2pass VBR avg/peak, but how do you measure quality? Artifacts? Boxy pictures? Smoothness? I'm not 100% sure if your statement is always true or if the high compression comes at a price other than encoding time.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 23 2008, 10:10 AM)

I'm not sure if I agree with you. Here is why:
-I watched the movie "Earth 720p" (@0:38:30-0:38-53) that I had previously re-encoded using 1pass VBR and found that in the middle of the movie there were an even more complex scene (even more birds) than I had anticipated, and it was choppy as hell. Therefore, unless you've seen the whole movie, you can never know for sure.

Further more, I undid the changes I had made with the PowerToy so that my setup should be similar to yours, then I reinstalled Windows Media player 11 and the runtime. I then tried to re-encode that particular scene using 2pass VBR(avg=8660/peak=11670) with bitrates way above the source (5660), and guess what, it looked like shit, real boxy! I had to pinch myself in disbelief. I can mail you a sample if you don't believe me. Then I re-encoded the same scene using 1pass CBR @9660, performance 3 of 5 and it looked much better.

You say that you get the best quality by using 2pass VBR avg/peak, but how do you measure quality? Artifacts? Boxy pictures? Smoothness? I'm not 100% sure if your statement is always true or if the high compression comes at a price other than encoding time.

I know exactly what you are talking about. I had the very same problems when I re-encoded Dexter on my older system. I'm wondering if you have a system performance issue more than anything else. i can tell you that every encode I have done with my new rig has been flawless in detail and motion.

Email me offline so we can figure this out why you have problems with encoding.

QUOTE(fromthestars @ Mar 23 2008, 02:08 PM)

great tutorial so far, amazingly written and laid out.

my only problem is..after doing the step with YAMB my .MOV file is unable to be opened in TMPGEnc? is there a fix for this or a reason why? at first I Thought it was because my mp4box.exe was failing at 99% each time, but i replaced that with a newer one, didnt get the error message, and I still cannot open my file. any suggestions?>

Do you by chance have Quicktime installed? If not, there are reports that installing it will help, even though Quicktime is not used to decode the video.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 23 2008, 08:31 PM)

Do you by chance have Quicktime installed? If not, there are reports that installing it will help, even though Quicktime is not used to decode the video.

I simply unchecked the MOV/quicktime option in properties and that let directshow take over. I do not have quicktime installed.

hey chris - is it possible to put 2 audio streams into the WMV-HD?

i have an anime with a japanese and an english track. thanks.

QUOTE(anandr @ Mar 25 2008, 05:06 PM)

hey chris - is it possible to put 2 audio streams into the WMV-HD?

i have an anime with a japanese and an english track. thanks.

I do not believe that having two audio tracks is valid inside an ASF container (Microsoft's WMV container format BTW.) You could "try" it. I have not tested it. You may wind up with two files: one with English, and the other with Japanese.

hello all...

First let me say I love the guide. I have encoded about 20 movies thusfar with little issues.

Out of the 20 movies I have encoded 3 movies have been out of sync. I have rencoded them again figuring I did something wrong and they are still out of sync. I tried resyncing them and recoding but they still run out of sync in different parts.

Anyone able to offer a suggestion as to why I have a sync issue with 3 movies out of 20...

I checked the mkv source and they are perfectly in sync. I have no stuttering at all and the video quality is perfect. Im using 2 pass vbr and audio settings as suggested in the guide.
I have a quad core processor and 4 gigz of ram. Takes about 8-9 hours to re-encode a movie

Anyways thx for the help...

QUOTE(Rikochet @ Mar 27 2008, 08:22 AM)

hello all...

First let me say I love the guide. I have encoded about 20 movies thusfar with little issues.

Out of the 20 movies I have encoded 3 movies have been out of sync. I have rencoded them again figuring I did something wrong and they are still out of sync. I tried resyncing them and recoding but they still run out of sync in different parts.

Anyone able to offer a suggestion as to why I have a sync issue with 3 movies out of 20...

I checked the mkv source and they are perfectly in sync. I have no stuttering at all and the video quality is perfect. Im using 2 pass vbr and audio settings as suggested in the guide.
I have a quad core processor and 4 gigz of ram. Takes about 8-9 hours to re-encode a movie

Anyways thx for the help...

I'm not sure why you have out of sync audio and video. What is the source audio: DTS or AC3?

Also, I have been playing around with Microsoft's new Expression Encoder 2 tool that is in Beta 2. So far, I like the interface and it's capabilities over the original Windows Media Encoder 9 they put out. I have done some tests with MKV sources and I can say that there are ZERO sync issues thus far. I just may update my tutorial to include this tool as an alternative to TMPGEnc. Do know that Expression Encoder 2 does have batch source capabilities.

The audio on the 3 movies have been all AC3. However 6 other encodes which I just checked had AC3 audio and they came out fine. Im wondering would it be worthwhile to extract the audio as well from the mkv or use a different encoder for the audio.

QUOTE(Rikochet @ Mar 28 2008, 01:13 PM)

The audio on the 3 movies have been all AC3. However 6 other encodes which I just checked had AC3 audio and they came out fine. Im wondering would it be worthwhile to extract the audio as well from the mkv or use a different encoder for the audio.

No, I don't think extracting the audio will help.

No, I doubt it's the encoder at fault.

Can you verify if the source video frame rate is indeed 23.976 or 25, or something else? That's all I can think of that could cause this issue.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Mar 28 2008, 07:41 PM)

I'm not sure why you have out of sync audio and video. What is the source audio: DTS or AC3?

Also, I have been playing around with Microsoft's new Expression Encoder 2 tool that is in Beta 2. So far, I like the interface and it's capabilities over the original Windows Media Encoder 9 they put out. I have done some tests with MKV sources and I can say that there are ZERO sync issues thus far. I just may update my tutorial to include this tool as an alternative to TMPGEnc. Do know that Expression Encoder 2 does have batch source capabilities.

Please do tell us more about Expression Encoder 2. I did a short test, but I didn't get the audio right, it didn't detect the 5.1 sound and the max audio bitrate was only 192kbps. I'm sure I overlooked something, but what?. Other than that, it looked nice.

Yes the source frame is 23.976... I made like 5 samples from different parts of the movie and they all we're perfectly in sync. I reencoded the movie and ill be dammed it was out of sync....hahahaha frustrating... I dunno I give up...

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 29 2008, 09:21 AM)

Please do tell us more about Expression Encoder 2. I did a short test, but I didn't get the audio right, it didn't detect the 5.1 sound and the max audio bitrate was only 192kbps. I'm sure I overlooked something, but what?. Other than that, it looked nice.

Yes, I too have run into this problem. That's why I said I am testing

QUOTE(Rikochet @ Mar 29 2008, 05:02 PM)

Yes the source frame is 23.976... I made like 5 samples from different parts of the movie and they all we're perfectly in sync. I reencoded the movie and ill be dammed it was out of sync....hahahaha frustrating... I dunno I give up...

That is strange. Email me offlist what you are trying to re-encode, and I'll see if it's something I have already done.

An update here folks.

I have been playing around with Microsoft's Expression Encoder 2 Beta 2, and like some of you, I have found that not all of the WM codec support is complete. By the time it RTM's, it should have a lot of features we can use instead of TMPGenc, as their development is extremely slow. Also, CoreAVC is about to release v1.70, and it is supposed to have quite a number of fixes, which one of them is a DirectShowFilter bug found in all older versions of their codec. I cannot wait to test it myself once it's released.

Also, I have possibly found a new way for subtitle support. If anyone has ever heard of SAMI, or Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange, I am looking to see if the Xbox 360 supports this. From what I have read thus far, SAMI has been part of Windows Media for a number of years. I would rather have a way to playback subtitles without burning them into the video during encode.

Hi, i have encoded my first 23.976 fps movie (my country is Pal based, this framerate is unusual) and the result was a first 5 minute of constant stutter.

I tried the "set input at 24fps" fix, re-encode everything and i noticed the "42 second glitch"

Now i'm trying with the "avsynth method":
Directshowsource("My_Movie.mkv", fps=23.976, audio=false)

It SEEMS to work fine.. So is this the best method for encode 23.976 with Tmpgec 4 Xpress?

I tried also the .mov method, but tmpgenc was unable to read it..
I'm still thinking about convert audio track from 23.976 to 25 fps and remux all in a new .mkv file at 25fps

Thanks!

PS: I posted the same on another thread.. no response.. Pleeeeeasee...

QUOTE(Italian_Guitar @ Apr 5 2008, 05:37 AM)

Hi, i have encoded my first 23.976 fps movie (my country is Pal based, this framerate is unusual) and the result was a first 5 minute of constant stutter.

I tried the "set input at 24fps" fix, re-encode everything and i noticed the "42 second glitch"

Now i'm trying with the "avsynth method":
Directshowsource("My_Movie.mkv", fps=23.976, audio=false)

It SEEMS to work fine.. So is this the best method for encode 23.976 with Tmpgec 4 Xpress?

I tried also the .mov method, but tmpgenc was unable to read it..
I'm still thinking about convert audio track from 23.976 to 25 fps and remux all in a new .mkv file at 25fps

Thanks!

PS: I posted the same on another thread.. no response.. Pleeeeeasee...

I honestly can only support the method I have posted in this thread.

Go into TMPGenc, select Options, the Preferences. Go to "File Input Plug-in" and uncheck QuickTime File Reader. Some have reported success. Or, make sure that you have Quicktime installed on your system.

I do not recommend using an AVS script, as you will most likely have out of sync audio and video.

Thank u so much!!
I encoded a few movie with avisynth method, no audio synch issue btw..
It's so boring to demux and remux all movies.. i hope they will fix the tmpgenc's matroska compatibility..

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Apr 4 2008, 09:58 PM)

Also, I have possibly found a new way for subtitle support. If anyone has ever heard of SAMI, or Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange, I am looking to see if the Xbox 360 supports this. From what I have read thus far, SAMI has been part of Windows Media for a number of years. I would rather have a way to playback subtitles without burning them into the video during encode.

I checked out SAMI, or .smi files, but xbox 360 doesn't recognize them. I also tried making an .asx file with references to a movie and to a .smi file, but the damn box won't play that one either

Everything will be fine once I get my Popcorn Hour unit in a couple of weeks..

QUOTE(Italian_Guitar @ Apr 6 2008, 04:32 AM)

Thank u so much!!
I encoded a few movie with avisynth method, no audio synch issue btw..
It's so boring to demux and remux all movies.. i hope they will fix the tmpgenc's matroska compatibility..

Again, I cannot stress enough obtaining the original source, not an MKV version. With Blu-ray sources, it is extremely easy to convert to WMV without muxing or workarounds. HD-DVD is another story.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Apr 6 2008, 05:26 AM)

I checked out SAMI, or .smi files, but xbox 360 doesn't recognize them. I also tried making an .asx file with references to a movie and to a .smi file, but the damn box won't play that one either

Everything will be fine once I get my Popcorn Hour unit in a couple of weeks..

Indeed. I just received my LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD SATA combo drive for my PC, and it simply rocks. Along with AnyDVD HD, I can rip anything I own.

hey again chris.

i'm using subtitles for the first time, small issue.

i used your custom template, but the subtitles have a "|" visible in them, which i assume is meant to mean "next line". i used SRT and this was not a problem - so i assume i can just do this, but you did mention that SRT files have issues in TMPGEnc.

also, when subtitles go over 2 lines (when there is a "|"), they don't align centrally even when i select center in the TMPGEnc settings. they always are left justified. any way around this?

thanks again mate, hope all is well.

QUOTE(anandr @ Apr 11 2008, 06:37 AM)

hey again chris.

i'm using subtitles for the first time, small issue.

i used your custom template, but the subtitles have a "|" visible in them, which i assume is meant to mean "next line". i used SRT and this was not a problem - so i assume i can just do this, but you did mention that SRT files have issues in TMPGEnc.

also, when subtitles go over 2 lines (when there is a "|"), they don't align centrally even when i select center in the TMPGEnc settings. they always are left justified. any way around this?

thanks again mate, hope all is well.

Yeah, I too have run into this. I don't have many sources that require subtitles. What bothers me is that the | character is used for a new line in TMPGEnc. Are you running the latest version of TMPGEnc?

I'm hoping that the next release of Microsoft Expression Encoder 2 has full Windows Media codec support. If so, then that helps. I have used AVS scripts with the older Windows Media Encoder 9 tools with success. If this is true with the new version, that will mean that you can use AVS to call DirectVobSub to display the srt or aas source subtitles. I just hate TMPGEnc's subtitle support, IF you want to call it that.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Apr 12 2008, 12:20 PM)

Yeah, I too have run into this. I don't have many sources that require subtitles. What bothers me is that the | character is used for a new line in TMPGEnc. Are you running the latest version of TMPGEnc?

I'm hoping that the next release of Microsoft Expression Encoder 2 has full Windows Media codec support. If so, then that helps. I have used AVS scripts with the older Windows Media Encoder 9 tools with success. If this is true with the new version, that will mean that you can use AVS to call DirectVobSub to display the srt or aas source subtitles. I just hate TMPGEnc's subtitle support, IF you want to call it that.

yeah i'm running the 2nd latest version of TMPGEnc, i had an issue with the newer one (i forgot what it was, long time ago).

i'm sure i can deal with the subtitles being misaligned haha - at least it still works. subtitles are also fairly rare for me as well.

thanks for the help.

what would be the difference (or advantages / disadvantages) of using this method over encode360?

QUOTE(anandr @ Apr 12 2008, 03:10 AM)

yeah i'm running the 2nd latest version of TMPGEnc, i had an issue with the newer one (i forgot what it was, long time ago).

i'm sure i can deal with the subtitles being misaligned haha - at least it still works. subtitles are also fairly rare for me as well.

thanks for the help.

NP. I'm working on a process to playback embedded subtitles (i.e. the Presentation Graphics stream inside a M2TS file, aka Blu-ray source.)

QUOTE(latentpsycho @ Apr 12 2008, 07:58 AM)

what would be the difference (or advantages / disadvantages) of using this method over encode360?

Well, Encode360 is no longer in development, nor maintained. You can edit the source, as TMPGEnc provides a Cut-Edit feature. I am not aware of Encode360 supporting this. Take a look at the tutorial. If yo ufeel it's too much work, or not for you don't use it.

Hey Chris: From what I have been reading someone tried SAMI and didnt work. Any luck using other methods? Embedded subtitles work great but still it would be better selecting subtitles anytime during the movie.
Keep up the good work.

hey chris,

new problem

. i've been using my slower computer to do the encoding, and am now trying to get it going on my faster computer (save some time, no doubt). everything is fine up until encoding - 50% of the process (analysing) works, then at about 53% for any file an error stops the output, the code is C00D0BC3.

the small file that is managed to be outputted has no sound, so this suggests to me something wrong with audio encoding. i've tried both an AC3 and an AAC source, so decoding doesn't seem to be a problem (i use AC3filter and ffdshow for AC3/AAC).

where can i find settings for the audio encoder? it has me stumped - i'm running vista on this computer by the way.

QUOTE(anandr @ Apr 16 2008, 05:35 AM)

hey chris,

new problem

. i've been using my slower computer to do the encoding, and am now trying to get it going on my faster computer (save some time, no doubt). everything is fine up until encoding - 50% of the process (analysing) works, then at about 53% for any file an error stops the output, the code is C00D0BC3.

the small file that is managed to be outputted has no sound, so this suggests to me something wrong with audio encoding. i've tried both an AC3 and an AAC source, so decoding doesn't seem to be a problem (i use AC3filter and ffdshow for AC3/AAC).

where can i find settings for the audio encoder? it has me stumped - i'm running vista on this computer by the way.

Maybe Chris is busy actually watching some of the movies :-)

I had the same problem and Chris helped me fix it. You should uninstall all codecs and codec packs, then start from scratch following the guide step by step. If that doesn't help, try a clean Windows install.

Right now I'm using an older computer myself, and here's how I speed up my jobs:
Use 1-pass CBR instead of VBR. Set the video bitrate to twice the MKV source's bitrate. On the "other" tab, set the performance slider to 3 of 5. This saves you a lot of time but also wastes a lot of disk space.

QUOTE(anandr @ Apr 15 2008, 07:35 PM)

hey chris,

new problem

. i've been using my slower computer to do the encoding, and am now trying to get it going on my faster computer (save some time, no doubt). everything is fine up until encoding - 50% of the process (analysing) works, then at about 53% for any file an error stops the output, the code is C00D0BC3.

the small file that is managed to be outputted has no sound, so this suggests to me something wrong with audio encoding. i've tried both an AC3 and an AAC source, so decoding doesn't seem to be a problem (i use AC3filter and ffdshow for AC3/AAC).

where can i find settings for the audio encoder? it has me stumped - i'm running vista on this computer by the way.

I ran into this issue, and it was caused by ffdshow and the VC-1 codec was enabled. Either disable it within the ffdshow Video Decoder Configuration util, or change the value to wmv9.

QUOTE(Utsi @ Apr 16 2008, 10:44 PM)

Maybe Chris is busy actually watching some of the movies :-)

I had the same problem and Chris helped me fix it. You should uninstall all codecs and codec packs, then start from scratch following the guide step by step. If that doesn't help, try a clean Windows install.

Right now I'm using an older computer myself, and here's how I speed up my jobs:
Use 1-pass CBR instead of VBR. Set the video bitrate to twice the MKV source's bitrate. On the "other" tab, set the performance slider to 3 of 5. This saves you a lot of time but also wastes a lot of disk space.

Sort of.

I'm officially pissed off at TMPGEnc now.

I have wasted 20 hours trying to encode Walk Hard, and Juno. There is something seriously f'd up with TMPGEnc. I'm going to officially dump this product once Expression Encoder 2 is released (hopefully May 1.) I am encoding Walk Hard right now with Expression Encoder 2 Beta 2, video only. So far it's working. I just may post a quick workaround using Expression Encoder 2 for video, as it does not support 5.1 audio encoding yet.

I will not know the quality of the encode until Walk Hard is finished, about 6 more hours.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Apr 18 2008, 10:00 PM)

I ran into this issue, and it was caused by ffdshow and the VC-1 codec was enabled. Either disable it within the ffdshow Video Decoder Configuration util, or change the value to wmv9.
Sort of.

I'm officially pissed off at TMPGEnc now.

I have wasted 20 hours trying to encode Walk Hard, and Juno. There is something seriously f'd up with TMPGEnc. I'm going to officially dump this product once Expression Encoder 2 is released (hopefully May 1.) I am encoding Walk Hard right now with Expression Encoder 2 Beta 2, video only. So far it's working. I just may post a quick workaround using Expression Encoder 2 for video, as it does not support 5.1 audio encoding yet.

I will not know the quality of the encode until Walk Hard is finished, about 6 more hours.

What sort of problems are you having with tmpgenc?

QUOTE(robert74 @ Apr 22 2008, 03:32 PM)

What sort of problems are you having with tmpgenc?

I was going to ask the same ...

QUOTE(Utsi @ Mar 3 2008, 07:15 PM)

HTA is new to me, but again, so was batch files. Looks like we did twice as much as we had to, but I had fun figuring it out anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing your solution.

I haven't actually used the output, my TMPGEnc is currently busy processing a large 1080p movie, so I'm not quite sure if the output is what we are looking for.

Installation:
To make this batch file work, you need to have MKVInfo.exe, MP4Box.exe and MKVInfo.exe in your windows path. You already have theese if you've installed MKVExtractGUI and YAMB. The quickest (and dirtiest) way to achieve this, is to copy them into your system folder (in XP that is C:/WINDOWS/System32/).

Usage:
Copy/Paste the script into a txt file and save it as "ExtractMKVVideoAndConvertToMOV.bat". Place it where you'd like on your hard drive and double-click it. It will process all MKV's in current directory and all sub-folders. Make sure that you have enough free space on your hdd before executing the script.

*edit*

I just tried your Batch script. It is absolutely Awesome!! Works Perfect! Shortened the whole MKV -> h.264 -> Mp4 -> MOV procedure to a One Click Solution! You're brilliant man! I applaud you.
I don't see any reason why anyone shouldn't use your script and do it the manual way!

Thanks!

Problem:

Chris' guide states that BOTH Audio & Video should show "DirectShow File Reader" in TMPGEnc Xpress once you load the MOV & MKV. I'm getting DirectShow for the Video File (MOV), but I'm getting "MPEG File Reader" for the Audio (MKV). Does anyone know why? And how I can correct it?

Thanks!

Thanks Chris - After disabling the MPEG Plugin in TMPGEnc, I was able to get 'DirectShow file reader' show up under both Video and Audio. I've also set my Speed/PQ slider back to 75% for the next encode, so hopefully it won't take as long.

Did have one question for anyone who knows more about this Speed/PQ Slider under "OTHER" in the "FORMAT" tab in TMPGEnc Xpress. How much does this actually affect Picture Quality? My question stems from the fact that once we've defined Bit rate & resolution, which are the two prime factors affecting PQ - If let's say I were to slide the Slider more towards "Speed", and bring it down to 50% (Instead of default 75%), would it actually affect PQ at all?

Thanks!

QUOTE(Utsi @ May 1 2008, 11:31 AM)

If you want fast results, use CBR instead of VBR. This is if you want fast results but don't care about the output file size. Here's my how I did it:
1) In the "video" tab, leave the slider at 95%. Set the "video encode type" to "1 pass CBR". Set the video bitrate to twice the bitrate of the MKV source. !!!This is extremely important, otherwise you'll get utterly crappy results!!!
2) In the "other" tab, set performance slider to 2/5.

Then you're good to go. This should save you lots of time but will produce files that are a couple of gigs larger than if you had used the VBR method. This may or may not affect the quality. I, however, have not been able to tell the difference.

Very interesting. Well, I definately do not care about output file size. Couple of gigs more isn't an issue. I have an external hard drive connected to my XBOX 360 off which I'm running these videos. I do care about PQ though, and well, I guess the long encode times are somewhat annoying - which is why I'm looking at these options.

I probably should take one encode and use your settings to see the results. I've understood what you've explained and it doesn't seem difficult at all. Importantly, assuming this doesn't reduce PQ at all, does this reduce encode time? If yes, then this might be the way to go!!

Thanks!

Sorry can't edit...
It seems like a bad 24p compatibility with my 1080i @ 60hz..

QUOTE(Utsi @ May 1 2008, 06:31 AM)

If you want fast results, use CBR instead of VBR. This is if you want fast results but don't care about the output file size. Here's my how I did it:
1) In the "video" tab, leave the slider at 95%. Set the "video encode type" to "1 pass CBR". Set the video bitrate to twice the bitrate of the MKV source. !!!This is extremely important, otherwise you'll get utterly crappy results!!!
2) In the "other" tab, set performance slider to 2/5.

Then you're good to go. This should save you lots of time but will produce files that are a couple of gigs larger than if you had used the VBR method. This may or may not affect the quality. I, however, have not been able to tell the difference.

Hi, I am going to use this method until I buy something like PopcornHour in the future, hopefully prices for these devices drop to less than $100 with time and competition....but using above method, I assume we also have to apply the PowerToy settings right, the one mentioned a few pages ago??? I think posted a screenshot with Jonnyhuges settings.

Thanks.

QUOTE(chrislynch @ Apr 27 2008, 02:00 AM)

I have tried to encode Walk Hard 4 times, and every time the audio and video got out of sync. The source was in perfect condition. Just the encode did not come out right. However, I tried the same thing with Expression Encoder 2, and the same result. I may have spoken too soon.
You have to disable the MPEG built-in filter to TMPGEnc. It's located in the apps Preferences.

I had problems with out of sync encodes from some sources but others(majority) came out perfect... Go figure.
As mentioned before in this forum, there are other methods(example tversity streaming) but require alot of cpu power and if for some miracle you make it work audio comes out 2.0 stereo.
I will stick to this method until I have some $$$ and buy the infamous popcorn hour which everybody here has been talking about.

cheers!

QUOTE(xb360xls @ May 8 2008, 06:58 PM)

Hi, I am going to use this method until I buy something like PopcornHour in the future, hopefully prices for these devices drop to less than $100 with time and competition....but using above method, I assume we also have to apply the PowerToy settings right, the one mentioned a few pages ago??? I think posted a screenshot with Jonnyhuges settings.

Thanks.

No, you should not use the PowerToy as it will sure as heck make the process take at least as long as with the VBR method

Hello, first just want to say thanks to chris and everyone else who has helped in this thread.
I was using an old guide and thought the 42 second stutter was an error with my HDD or something.

So my question is, does anyone have any info on converting m2ts files? Whenever I import one into TMPGEnc it crashes. I have all the codecs properly installed and I have Vista. Any help is appreciated!

QUOTE(hdDani @ May 31 2008, 12:00 AM)

So my question is, does anyone have any info on converting m2ts files? Whenever I import one into TMPGEnc it crashes. I have all the codecs properly installed and I have Vista. Any help is appreciated!

Try to demux the .m2ts with tsMuxeR_1.7.3(B) and remux the .h264 track into an .mkv or .mov file.
It worked for me.

I finally finished reading through all of the posts and followed Chris' method to a T, but I have run into a problem.
I did a sample encode and had no issues, but when I tried to do the full file, tmpgenc stops at 49% after analysing the last frame.
No error message, no nothing. It just stops before encoding. Anyone know what may be going on and how to fix it?

I have been using this method for a while(about 60+ encodes) with no problems for 720p untill I tried a 1080p source. Right after reaching 50%, tmpenc closes suddenly(second pass).
Chris, have you experienced anything like this?

thanks!

QUOTE(robert74 @ Jun 21 2008, 02:03 AM)

I have been using this method for a while(about 60+ encodes) with no problems for 720p untill I tried a 1080p source. Right after reaching 50%, tmpenc closes suddenly(second pass).
Chris, have you experienced anything like this?

thanks!

Robert, I've used this method on 30+ 1080p sources (MKV) - I haven't experienced this at all. In fact, I haven't experienced any problem at all. I use Utsi's "ExtractMKVVideoAndConvertToMOV.bat" file to convert MKV's to MOV's and load the MOV for video, MKV for audio, and use Chris' 1080p template. Endless excellence.

Which version of TMPGEnc are you using?

QUOTE(robert74 @ Jun 24 2008, 07:55 PM)

Got it working! Source had wrong AR and made Tmpenc crash, corrected AR and now I just encoded my second 1080p source with no problems.

Excellent!!

This method has been working flawless since the MKV -> MOV inception.

If you've used the other method(s) without issue then I wouldn't worry about it.

This is the difference between this method and others:

"In order to eliminate the video stuttering and glitch issues people have reported, we will extract the x264 video stream and mux it into an MP4 container. However, TMPGEnc doesnt handle MP4 files in the right way. TMPGEnc does handle MOV containers just fine."

If you don't have those issues I wouldn't worry about it...

guys. when you import your mov file into tmpgenc, how long doe this take? Mine takes about 20 mins.

Alright, I've got problems from TMPGENC xpress when encoding mkv to wmv too.

My system:
Windows Vista 64bit
Core 2 duo E8400 3.00 Ghz
6.00 GB RAM
ATI radeon 4850HD
CCCP installed
Avisynth 2.57 installed
WME x64 installed
TMPGENC 4.5.1.254

So i opened source and added MKV video, the source shows 23.976 fps. I output as the same source and got slow,jerky video
switch input to 24 fps ----> got 42 second glitch
move to 25 or 29,97 or 30 fps input------> unsmoothed video
move to 50 fps input----> smoother
move to 60 fps input----> as smooth as 24 fps without 42 second glitch

SO i decided to go for 60 fps with 2 pass CBR video, 1 pass CBR audio. Everything was great but encoding time slower (about 5 hr each movie). Anybody has other ideas ? Chrislynch. what do you think about this method? Please tell me. Thank you.

I've followed every step of this guide and for some reason I'm getting a failure at 50%. It will encode the first 50 frames of video then fail. I get an error code c00d0bc2. What am I doing wrong here? I mean the 50 encoded frames look fine, but there is no sound. I just don't get what's wrong here.

I've been playing around with this all day. I've come to it must be a problem with ac3 filter. If I uninstall CoreAVC and AC3 filter and install CCCP, my encode will finish, but the audio is all scrambled. If I uninstall CCCP and install AC3 filter and CoreAVC, the sound plays fine in the clip edit, but it crashes at about 60 frames of encoding. This is really starting bother me, why would is play fine in the clip edit (CCCP was scrambled in clip edit too) and then crash during the encoding. Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi all,

I've created a fresh build of XP in a VM environment to be sure there are no old codecs or anything causing issues, but I'm still getting a problem when following the tutorial.

When I click Encode after setting the bitrates, I get an error saying:

The selected codec cannot process the specified video encode type.

The codec is WMV 9 Advanced and the encode type is 2 pass VBR (average/peak). None of the 2 pass types will work, but the 1 pass ones do work. If I change the codec to just WMV 9, I can use the 2 pass types.

Have I missed something obvious?

so im reading through this thread, can someone please post the script, what SW i need installed and the template?

QUOTE(d940217 @ Nov 22 2008, 07:15 AM)

so im reading through this thread, can someone please post the script, what SW i need installed and the template?

I too just went through this whole thread and the post on the first page really needs to be updated with the latest tutorial as I get a 'File not found' error. Reading through all 24 pages led me to a post about 2/3 the way in that links to a PDF which appears to have been updated with a new method to remove the 5-min garbage and/or 41 sec glitch.

Here is the link

If this is not correct, then somebody please feel free to post the latest one.

With a bit of clever googling, I was able to find the updated .doc file. I rehosted this as well as the TMPGEnc templates on mediafire for all who want to use this method.

P.S. I just tried it on a 1-min clip of The Dark Knight in 720p with 5.1 audio and I couldn't be happier with the results. Two odd things I should mention is that 1) Yamb appears to freeze at 99% on Vista but if you click "Close the Program" when Vista pops up the error message things seem to be fine. 2) When I tried to play this on my 360, it popped up an error saying this format may not be supported (wtf?). On a whim I decided to rename the file from a really really long name to just TDK.wmv and thank god that seemed to do the trick.

Hi-Def Encode Tutorial
TMPGEnc Profile

hi all I've followed the tutorial and had success with one movie, but all of my subsequent attempts have led to TMPGenc taking 20 to thirty minutes to load the .mov and never actually start encoding it. If I load the .mkv instead it loads up and I can move right into the encoding (but I get the jitter).

I did notice that haali splitter does not show up in the task bar when I load up the .mov

I am using TMPGenc 4.6.2.226

my system specs are as follows:

Intel Q8200
Vista64
6 Gigs of RAM

I've read every post in this thread and didn't see anything refrencing anyone else having the same problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated

So if I encode a movie that is over 4GB and is in HD wmv format, will it be playable on my 360?

QUOTE(Raqueem @ Dec 9 2008, 07:58 PM)

God bless the original xbox, which allows me to play anything anyway I want it.

Does it play HD content?

I hope this thread is still active!

So my TMPGEnc is not cooperating. Whenever I load up my .mov file, it slows to an absolutely unforgiving CRAWL. Then when I finally come to the encode screen... ha!.... it took over 45 minutes for the ANALYZE step to complete 24 frames... that can't be right.... right?! At that rate, the conversion would take weeks!

Am I missing something? Is this normal?

one more thing....

USTI's bat file doesn't seem to work for me. Which files need to be in my systems folder? The bat file quickly reaches finished, with the mkvinfo reading this;

(MKVInfo) Error: Couldn't open input file C:\Documents (No error).

?

QUOTE(creedo @ Dec 11 2008, 08:05 AM)

I hope this thread is still active!

So my TMPGEnc is not cooperating. Whenever I load up my .mov file, it slows to an absolutely unforgiving CRAWL. Then when I finally come to the encode screen... ha!.... it took over 45 minutes for the ANALYZE step to complete 24 frames... that can't be right.... right?! At that rate, the conversion would take weeks!

Am I missing something? Is this normal?

one more thing....
USTI's bat file doesn't seem to work for me. Which files need to be in my systems folder? The bat file quickly reaches finished, with the mkvinfo reading this;

(MKVInfo) Error: Couldn't open input file C:\Documents (No error).

?

try moving the .mov file to a different directory. I had the same issue when I had the .mov in the same folder as the MKV file.

QUOTE(creedo @ Dec 11 2008, 08:05 AM)

one more thing....
USTI's bat file doesn't seem to work for me. Which files need to be in my systems folder? The bat file quickly reaches finished, with the mkvinfo reading this;

(MKVInfo) Error: Couldn't open input file C:\Documents (No error).

?

have you been able to get the bat file to work? I get a similar error and can't figure out what is causing it. I think it might have something to do with the install directories since I'm using vista 64. what OS are you running?

I just read Chris's tutorial on using the ffdshow Tryouts and in his tutorial in states it needs a ffdshow.reg to fix the problems with the 5min and 42 sec glitch, where can I download that reg file? Most of the links in this forum are broken. Thanks.

I had been trying to use impin206 method for a while and finally gave up on his method with avisynth. If you look at his post I have put up an explanation for what is going on with avisynth on vista 64, its stickied so it should not be hard to find.

This post should be stickied as well but isn't.

My solution was similar to chrislynch (for different reasons of course. I couldn't get the encode to finish!)and was to use a different container, in my case I tried using an m2ts container. This forces tmpgenc to use the internal mainconcept standard decoder (bitrate limited to 20mbps, uses dx9). At any rate it was after I came to this conclusion that I came across the chrislynch post and saw he was putting them into .mov containers. The problem I see here is that when I bring up tmpgenc in process explorer from microsoft(http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspx) it shows it is using the internal mainconcept decoder for decoding .mov files. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that both chrislynch and impin602 are suggesting you purchase coreavc. In my case, I can't get coreavc to work at all with avisynth and when using the chrislynch method coreavc is not used.

But I spent 15 bucks for the software anyhow.

Now the mainconcept decoder uses about 30% of my cpu when decoding avc. Coreavc uses about 60% of my cpu when decoding avc. I am running a dual cpu 3.4 ghz workstation. As you can see the mainconcept decoder uses less cpu resource. This should reduce encoding times due to the fact that the cpu is spinning less cycles on decoding and giving more cpu to encoding.

I am working on a way to get the cyberlink decoder to work with purevideo as the decoder, so far I am having the same kind of luck I did with avisyth but am making progress. This should decrease the decode cpu cycles to about 3% if I can get it working. I'll probably post something up if there is any demand.

Chris I just wanted to thank you so much for your guide. I believe your guide covers the best method of encoding with mkv sources in the best possible way. It filled me in on little obscurities that allowed me to figure out what was wrong with my codec setup on my system. Now that I have my codecs setup right and the settings the way you recommended I cut my encode times in half, got rid of motion jitter/judder or whatever, and now thmpgenc accepts 5.1 sources of all types and with no sync problems. All thanks to you.

thanks for this. very helpful!

Hi, the link to the tutorial is no longer active.

I'm not so much interested in streaming, just converting HD .mkv files to a format readable by the xbox360 in HD .. is there an idiot-proof program for this?

thanks!

QUOTE(fatvince @ Mar 28 2009, 01:22 PM)

Hi, the link to the tutorial is no longer active.

I'm not so much interested in streaming, just converting HD .mkv files to a format readable by the xbox360 in HD .. is there an idiot-proof program for this?

thanks!

Use XenonMKV to convert to mp4 with 2ch stereo. There is a 4GB size limit on mp4 so anything larger will be split by XenonMKV. Also this method doesn't re-encode the video portion, just the audio, so it can take literally minutes to convert an MKV.

Or, you could try using Expression encoder which I find to be quicker than TMPGEnc and produces smoother/crisper output. Try this thread, and more specifically, this post. Using the Video Encoder front-end you only need a couple of clicks to convert to WMV. Advantages include unlimited file size, and 5.1 audio if you have the setup for it. The only downside is if you have a weak PC then it can take many many hours to convert.

would anyone be kind enough to post chrislynch tutorial? the link is dead in the OP.

UPDATE

I just wanted to issue a major update to Chrislynch's method for anyone still using this method to create the most astounding quality WMV-HD's with 6 Channel Surround Sound and creating a library of high definition movies on their External Drives:

When this method was intially released to public, there was a critical "stutter" issue where the video would "jump" every so often. To resolve the problem, an additional step was added wherein the h.264 video was Extracted from the MKV and repackaged into MOV, and thereafter in TMPGEnc Xpress, the MOV was used as source video and the original MKV as source audio.

As it appears, in one of the recent Updates to TMPGEnc Xpress, this "stutter" problem has been completely eliminated and this Re-Packaging into MOV step can be completely eliminated from this process. You no longer need the YAMB, MP4Box for this anymore.

The process is much simpler now, and I can confirm it works on the latest TMPGEnc Xpress 4.7.3.292

Follow the rest of the procedure as usual, for the exception that you can simply load your MKV as the source. TMPGEnc Xpress will pick up the audio automatically from the MKV. You do not need to change the FPS anywhere. Just make sure your Source FPS matches your Target FPS. Encode the MKV directly to WMV-HD. No need for extracting & re-packaging video into MOV. I have encoded over 20 high definition MKV's using this new simpler method without fault!!

Also, I will be taking Chrislynch's guide and modifying it slightly to post the simpler method, but for anyone still looking for the guide, you can get it here: Download Guide

Question? Shoot ....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by mickey797: Oct 7 2009, 05:49 PM

QUOTE(mickey797 @ Oct 7 2009, 12:48 PM)

UPDATE

I just wanted to issue a major update to Chrislynch's method for anyone still using this method to create the most astounding quality WMV-HD's with 6 Channel Surround Sound and creating a library of high definition movies on their External Drives:

When this method was intially released to public, there was a critical "stutter" issue where the video would "jump" every so often. To resolve the problem, an additional step was added wherein the h.264 video was Extracted from the MKV and repackaged into MOV, and thereafter in TMPGEnc Xpress, the MOV was used as source video and the original MKV as source audio.

As it appears, in one of the recent Updates to TMPGEnc Xpress, this "stutter" problem has been completely eliminated and this Re-Packaging into MOV step can be completely eliminated from this process. You no longer need the YAMB, MP4Box for this anymore.

The process is much simpler now, and I can confirm it works on the latest TMPGEnc Xpress 4.7.3.292

Follow the rest of the procedure as usual, for the exception that you can simply load your MKV as the source. TMPGEnc Xpress will pick up the audio automatically from the MKV. You do not need to change the FPS anywhere. Just make sure your Source FPS matches your Target FPS. Encode the MKV directly to WMV-HD. No need for extracting & re-packaging video into MOV. I have encoded over 20 high definition MKV's using this new simpler method without fault!!

Also, I will be taking Chrislynch's guide and modifying it slightly to post the simpler method, but for anyone still looking for the guide, you can get it here: Download Guide

Question? Shoot ....

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Works great. I've done several movies so far with no problems. The only setting I have to change the most is the pixel height to match the source. Also if anyone has problems running this version of TMPGEnc Xpress in Vista, I found that it ends up working if setting the compatibility mode to run on XP.

does it work ok in Win 7 ?

does anyone have the subtitles.cpl file? I lost all my stuff on a USB key, but I have everything back accept the cpl file which is nowhere to be found.

thanks

QUOTE(mickey797 @ Oct 7 2009, 05:48 PM)

UPDATE

I just wanted to issue a major update to Chrislynch's method for anyone still using this method to create the most astounding quality WMV-HD's with 6 Channel Surround Sound and creating a library of high definition movies on their External Drives:

When this method was intially released to public, there was a critical "stutter" issue where the video would "jump" every so often. To resolve the problem, an additional step was added wherein the h.264 video was Extracted from the MKV and repackaged into MOV, and thereafter in TMPGEnc Xpress, the MOV was used as source video and the original MKV as source audio.

As it appears, in one of the recent Updates to TMPGEnc Xpress, this "stutter" problem has been completely eliminated and this Re-Packaging into MOV step can be completely eliminated from this process. You no longer need the YAMB, MP4Box for this anymore.

The process is much simpler now, and I can confirm it works on the latest TMPGEnc Xpress 4.7.3.292

Follow the rest of the procedure as usual, for the exception that you can simply load your MKV as the source. TMPGEnc Xpress will pick up the audio automatically from the MKV. You do not need to change the FPS anywhere. Just make sure your Source FPS matches your Target FPS. Encode the MKV directly to WMV-HD. No need for extracting & re-packaging video into MOV. I have encoded over 20 high definition MKV's using this new simpler method without fault!!

Also, I will be taking Chrislynch's guide and modifying it slightly to post the simpler method, but for anyone still looking for the guide, you can get it here: Download Guide

Question? Shoot ....

Cheers for letting us know this, I have recently started converting MKV's to WMVHD's again now that TMPGENC Xpress is now compatable with Windows 7. In the past on my Vista setup I used to convert the movies by creating the AVS script of the MKV and then using MakeAVIS to create a AVI pointing to that AVS file, in the past I did find that the first 5 minutes of video would stutter and this is well documented in previous posts, particularly in impimpins tutorial and I don't think anyone ever found a fix.

I ended up bearing with it and making do, and since reading that TMPGENC Xpress now resolved most issues with MKV files, I decided to give it ago, and now I have exactly the same problems again! even using my old method, or any that I can find.

I've tried running the encodes on different hardware, running the videos off different machines onto the Xbox and it is always choppy at the start. But the strange thing is, playing the WMVHD directly on the computer in Windows Media Player seems fine and I cant really see the choppiness, its as soon as you check it out on the Xbox (I've tried multiple Xbox's too!)

Any ideas as I'm really starting to pull my teeth out.

Using latest TMPGENC Xpress with CoreAVC and AC3Filter.

xboxscene.org forums

Xbox360 Forums => Xbox 360 General Forums => Xbox360's Multimedia Features => Topic started by: chrislynch on January 30, 2008, 04:11:00 PM