tmpgenc is encoding audio in elementary streams and is taking 50 hrs

hi,
iv been using tmpgenc plus now for every movie i have ever encoded and it only very usually takes no more than 10 hrs for a regular movie. but this movie 'the godfather part 2' is giving me pretty bad probems (source video is avi and audio is mp3). im encoding it by doing an elementary video stream only and adding ac3 audio later when authoring. this is the 4th time im encoding it. the first time i changed the fourcc code from div3 to divx (i heard that tmpgenc encodes DIVX faster) so i left it to encode over night. the morning later i looked at it and it said that there was still 35 hrs left and the preview window just showed a completely black screen, i open up the m2v file and it just shows 3 hours worth of blackness. the 2nd time, i left the fourcc code to div3 and encoded the movie as normal leavin it overnight. in the morning it was done so i authored it and the resulting vob files showed me that the last quarter of the film was heavily out of sync so i looked at the m2v file that tmpgenc made for me and it turns out that it was encoded with audio (that was still out of sync badly by about 10 seconds) but the main point here was that it wasnt supposed to encode with audio because i did an elementary stream video only. so i deleted it and did it again, the 3rd time tmpgenc stopped halfway and said that there was no disk space left i checked the m2v file and it was 6gb! although i used a bitrate calculator to judge the video bitrate for a dvd and everything. i opened it up and strangely again it had audio with it. the 4th time i stareted encoding, left it overnight and now in the morning its done 30% and says its still gonna be 40hrs so i stopped it and opened the m2v file and again it has audio encoded with it.
I also turn the task priority when active and idle to highest all the time and switch off everything in the background
I dont know whats going on, somebody please help me
MubZZ

 

So what is this source AVI? An Xvid with VBR audio?

 

yes thats right, anyway i changed the direct show multemedia file reader priority in environmental settings to +2 and it seems to have fixed the 50 hr problem
but now i have a new problem that i had in one of the previous encodes,
i did an elementary video stream encode to create an m2v file i then added the ac3 audio later when authoring,
what i find is that at 2:14 mins there appears a blue/green/purple screen with various other colours for a few seconds (this screen was present in the sorce video)and after this screen the audio goes out of sync (this problem was not present in the original source avi)
i tested these vob files on my cpu on nero showtime and windows media player and i had the same problem iv also burnt the vob files to a dvd and played it on my computer and i still get the same problem
Please can someone help me

 

The reason I asked is although TMPGenc is a wonderful program and excellent encoder, Xvid/Divx encoded AVI's are not really it's intended use. The Xvid's quality is pretty much set in stone at this point and you see the hoops you have to jump through to get TMPGenc to convert it. Then you still have to go to another app to finish the job. Unless there are some specific things in the original source that need addressing, color correction, noise reduction etc. there is nothing to be gained by TMPGenc's long encode time and tedious set up. A quick run through ConvertXtoDVD (a program specifically designed for Divx/Xvid) at it's highest quality setting will produce excellent results, quickly, with no preparation on your part. It handles VBR audio well, subtitles, and your AC3 will come through intact. You can burn the resultant files right to disc or use another burning app to finish.

It might be worth trying the free trial.

 

no thank you i think ill stick with tmpgenc simply because of its quality and beause of the fact that i can mess around with it loads, encoding time isnt an issue either you can tweak it to decrease encode times and besides, i leave it on overnight anyway.
do you know of a way i can fix these sync issues noting that im not actually encoding the audio with tmpgenc; im converting it to ac3 using an audio convertor and then adding the ac3 when authoring.

 

Nope sorry.

Seems a bit odd that someone concerned with quality would be dealing with Xvid conversions in the first place.

Good Luck.

 

theyre downloaded so i have very little choice

 

I cannot say anything about video encoding, bat about the audio, did you check the existance of MP3 VBR audio in the AVI with VirtualDub? (see my FAQ; you'll see also a solution)

 

i fixed the sync issues, what i did was that i cut the green scrren out using vdubmod and then demuxed and converted the audio later adding it when authoring and it seemed to have worked
i just need to know one thing, why is there audio present in the resulting m2v file that tmpgenc produces although i set it to do an elementary stream and encode video only

 

I think that under
[bold]Stream type[/bold]
on the main screen of TMPGenc you have
ES (Video + audio) ,
which is how TMPGenc is set, by default.

The only mode to create an elementray stream is to choose DVD (16:9) in the wizard, set 'encode elementary streams' at the end of the wizard (unchecking 'start encoding immediately') and THEN choose on the main TMPGenc screen [bold]Stream type = ES Video only [/bold].

The main problem, when you follow this path, is that , under Settings___Video, [bold] Aspect Ratio [/bold] is 16:9 while AVI are 1:1, and therefore all pixels are made rectangular instead of square.
You have to 'unlock' (right-click it) [bold] Aspect Ratio [/bold], change it from 16:9 to 1:1 (VGA), lock it again (right-click it again and change it) and save the project as 'AVI to DVD.tpr', so the next time you'll have it again without working (don't forget to put motion search precision = very high quality).
The next time you'll just have to change the (average) bitrare , depending on the AVI movie's length and the audio's bitrete you'll use (I encode the AVI sound into an AC3 with the same bitrate value of the source, that is:
- AC3 128 if AVI sound was MP2 128 CBR;
- AC3 160 if AVI sound was MP2 128 VBR
and so on.
Alas, if you simply choose DVD you cannot choose 'encode elementary streams' after the wizard, and if you choose 16:9 the movie is to 'squeezed' if watched on a 4:3 television.
I made my tests on my TV and I saw that 1:1 (VGA) is the most appropriate setting.
I don't know if ther are good for all TVs but once I read that AVI are encoded VGA mode, so this setting should be the most appropriate for doing AVI --> DVD.

One last caution: on 1% of the AVI there is a constant delay between A/V which I cannot estimate correctly (YAAI is able to detect the existence of a non-zero delay, but it gives an uncorrect value).
Luckily, if TMPGenc nakes ES (Video+Audio) with Audio=WAV, the uncmpressed sound has 0 delay even in those rare cases you had a delay.

In conclusion, my safe 'AVI -> DVD' method is:
(1) open the AVI with VirtualDub. Sign down the movie's length and the audio bitrate; If the audio is compressed VBR you'll receive a warning;
(2) in a bitrate calculator (I use DVTool), I insert the movie's length + the audio's proper bitrate (equal to source's if the AVI audio was MP3 CBR or AC3 , higher than the source if MP3 VBR);
(3) encode AVI --> M2V + WAV with TMPGenc (this issue should correct all un-sync issues, both the one due to VBR MP3 compression (which usually requires audio decompression), both the one due to a non-zero A/V delay);
(4) encode WAV --> AC3 with FFMPEG GUI;
[bold]If the AVI audio is AC3 instead of MP3 I don't decompress the sound, but I simply demux it with VirtualDubMod.[/bold] You'll see it because TMPGenc leaves the audio output blank, since it cannot load AC3 audio, without plugins.
(5) author M2V + AC3 --> DVD set of files with your favorite authoring application.

I hope this helps....

 

i dont use the wizard, i find that if i do it manually then i get to fiddle with it a bit and so i can get optimum quality,
i do select the video only elementary stream but i still get audio in the output (although this audio is replaced by the ac3 audio after i author the dvd so its not a problem) but i just feel that its not right even after iv set it to do an elementary video stream only

 

Why? I personally use TMPGenc only for encoding the video and extracting a plain WAV audio I'll encode later.
The only thing I noticed is a wrong estimate for encoding multipass.
For example, my PC encodes a 2h video in 15 hrs, which means about 10.5 h for 'analizing' and 4.5h for 'true encoding'.
The only TMPGenc (but I use v2.5) error is that it estimates about 21 hrs up to 50% of the time (2*analizing time). Then the estimated time lowers and I see the right encoding time in the screens after it reaches 100%.

But:
- video has a quality which depends only upon the input AVI
- A/V are always in-sync
- the overell DVD files size after authoring M2V+AC3 is about 4570 MB.

Why aren't you feeling the settings aren't right? The only needed caution from the 'DVD 16:9' wizard's settins I had to change was to put [bold]Aspect Ratio[/bold] to from 16:9 to 1:1 VGA , [bold]Motion search precision [/bold] to very high quality, and [bold]Video arranghe method[/bold]to Full screen (keep aspect ratio).
In TMPGenc Xpress [bold]Full Screen[/bold] always keeps aspect ratio.

 

thanx for all of the ADDITIONAL information, but ALL that i wanted to know is that why is there audio in my output m2v file when i set tmpgenc to do an elementary video stream ONLY

 

yes, it is impossible the m2v contains audio. i think there should be a audio file with same name as the m2v's. when you play the m2v file,the player also include the audio file automatically.