DVD Movie Factory vs TMPENC DVD Author & DVD-Lab ????

[katolo]

Hi!

I also have PVR 250 and am still having trouble with out of synch audio after authoring.... can u tell me which version of the drivers you have and which program u use for capturing, and also which version that program is.

[Ranger One]

I'm using the latest drivers that I downloaded from the Hauppage web site about a month ago. Which program are you using to author & what are you authoring > dvd's or svcd's?

I used the "DVD Standard" settings > DMF had no problems but to author with other programs I had to change to "Output Stream" to "Program". That solved all my problems.

[katolo]

I'm capturing DVDs .... I capture with Ulead DMF 2 .... and when I author them with DMF 2 the A/V is out of synch..... I have also tried to author with DVD-Lab, TmpgENC Author still out of synch....

Do u use DMF to capture or wintv2k to capture

[ashy]

Just do as Ranger one suggests and change the output to 'program stream' for Christs sake. How many times does it have to be said?

Why not try another capture program.
IUVCR is one of the best I've tried so far:

http://www.iulabs.com/

If you wish to capture to MPEG2 you will need YMPEG also.

[Ranger One]

"Do u use DMF to capture or wintv2k to capture?"

I use the WinTV 2000 program to capture > just go into the mpeg configurations & create a new configuration with the info I posted earlier. Sync problems solved!

[katolo]

ashy.... you don't know what the hell you are talking about.... I asked him which software his capturing with..... read my questions..... and the pvr 250 dosen't work with all kind of software....

[katolo]

tested with those settings... still out of synch with Tmpgenc.... haven't tested the other author software.... but will probably be the same thing.....

[Ranger One]

Katalo:

Are you using the latest drivers? What operating system are you using? How much memory do you have? What processor are you using? What kind of hard drive are you capturing to?

I use the Wintv2000 tv program to capture as the decoding is done directly thru the pvr 250 card itself (hardware decoding). If you capture using another program then you are "software decoding".
(Anyone: if I explained this wrong feel free to correct me!)

You wrote "I'm capturing dvd's". Are you capturing video tape to create dvd's or are you capturing dvd's from your home dvd player? If the later there are several ripping programs you can use.

I use the following:
AMD Athlon XP1500+
512mb crucial pc2100 ram
Hauppage pvr 250 pci card
8mb Maxtor ATA 133 hard drives
Windows 2000 Professional

Notice the processor isn't all that powerful. I usually engage the Zone Alarm internet lock & disable Norton Anti-virus auto protect.

The reason for the above questions:
If you are using Windows 2000 or XP then I suggest you go to Black Vipers web site and read his article & guideline for disabling unneccessary services especially with XP).

Hard drives: obviously the faster the better. 8MB cache drives are better for capturing & editing video.
Ram: If your using less than 512mb ram from my experience that can definitely cause problems.

Using the "DVD Standard" settings with the WinTV2000 program I had no problems at all capturing & THEN using DMF 2 to author. With these settings though there were sync problems with TMPGENC DVD Author & DVD-Lab.

When I discovered the info about using "Program Stream" for the "Output" setting instead of "DVD" that solved the sync problem with using the other programs.

Using the WinTV 2000 program you have to create a new configuration for your mpeg settings:

I did the following: open the program go to "preferences" > "movies" > quality level > advanced . Select the one for "dvd standard: > > video tab > set the "output stream" to "program" iinstead of "dvd" > go back to the "configuration tab" at the bottom where "save new configuration" is greyed out > type in a name for your new configuration > as soon as you start typing the button will become active. Then use this new setting to capture.

Those settings are my current preference > you could use some of the lower dvd settings if want to get more on a dvd.

Do you have Power Dvd or some other dvd viewing program to view you captured files?

When you capture directly thru the pvr 250 card with Wintv2000 prorram those files should be in sync. That is the first place to look > if you are already out of sync then none of the authoring programs will solve your sync problems.

Also > are you capturing to the same partition as your operating system? That is definitely something that will cause problems.

Also are you demultiplexing & remultiplexing your files with TMPGENC PLus? There is no need to do this if you are capturing properly. Both DMF 2 & TMPGENC DVD Author will work with your captured mpeg file without running them thru TMPGENC PLus.

I hope this helps > took me quite awhile to get my problems solved.

Good Luck!

[katolo]

My system specs are:

AMD XP2100+
256 MB Ram
120 GB IBM Ultrastar 7200 RPM, 2mb cahce
120 GB Samsung 5400 RPM, 2mb cache

The driver version is 1.17.390.21283 according to the devicemanager in XP but the CD that came with the card is labled HCW1_7_21288_PP2, so I guess it's 1.17.390.21288

I'm capturing VHS tapes with wintvcap, it is using hardware and not software. I have tested output as both program and dvd stream... same problem with both.

The captured file is always in synch, it only gets out of synch after the authoring tool. Something strange is IF I de-multiplex a 30 min captured file then the audiofile is 7 seconds shorter then the videofile.

I'm also capturing to the same harddrive as the OS, that's because it's on the 7200 rpm harddrive, but I will try with the 5400 rpm now and see what happens.

I also have both windvd and powerdvd for viewing, same result with both.

I'm sitting behind a router with hardware firewall so I don't I need to shutdown the internet with a software firewall, and when I capture with the computer the computer is off limits, no one touch it or use it until all capturing is complete.

But like I said.... I have installed black vipers "safe" service reg file and will try to capture to the other harddrive.

[Ranger One]

"The captured file is always in synch, it only gets out of synch after the authoring tool. Something strange is IF I de-multiplex a 30 min captured file then the audiofile is 7 seconds shorter then the videofile".

Ram could be part of the problem > 256 is basically the minimum needed to run XP. Video capturing/editing requires more.

XP has so much running behind the scenes. I have a Linksys Router, ZoneAlarm Pro & Norton A/V > I usually block internet access & disable the Anti-virus auto protect just to eliminate excess traffic & processes.

Are you using your captured mpeg file straight up or are you demultiplexing it before you put it in an Authoring program?

In DMF 2 there is a setting > go to "Project Settings" > it brings up a box for "MPEG properties for file conversion" > make sure the box for "Do not convert compliant MPEG files" is checked.

You said you were capturing on the same hard drive as your OS. Are you capturing on the same partition as your OS? With XP you would also be dealing with a pagefile & system restore.

DMF came with the PVR card > so it should work without any problems. Check that "compliant" setting.

Definitely think about adding more ram.

[katolo]

I managed to solve the problem temporarly.... I used PVAStrumento on the captured file.... the new file was then authored with DMF2 and also with TMPGEnc DVD Author.... it worked with both of them..... The audio is completely in synch except for 10 min at the end... it's out of synch with maybe 100 ms or so.... not so notable.... the movie is 1h and 45 min.....

I also tried to capture to the other harddrive, still the same problem.....

So for now I will use this method..... maybe will put in 256 mb of ram later.....

I know that the problem with my files is dropped video and audio frames.... but don't know what's causing them.....

[Bambusbln]

As I had the same trouble since I use this f***ing card for more over a year, I have read some posts in various forums about the problem of asynchron Audio/Video with MPEG-videos recorded by the hardware MPEG encoder card Hauppauge PVR 250/350

The funny thing is that the MPEG-2-recording (DVD quality) with this card seems absolutely fine at first and also seems to be A/V-synchron. However as soon as the MPEG gets edited, cut or otherwise rendered again or put on a DVD, the A/V gets asynchron the longer the MPEG goes, usually already noticeable after 30 minutes. Obviously there are lost or "empty" frames in the video which get filtered out by rendering again. If only 10 frames are lost, you will notice this by asynchron audio.

There were a lot of ideas about why this problem occurs and a lot suggestions were made to solve it, some of them helped some people a bit, none of them did really solve the problem. A couple of ideas were just silly, like: "There is a time-code on a VHS-tape which the card doesnt work out well" etc. It is simply bull**** that any digitalizing hard- or software uses the timeline of the VHS-tape, as the only information transferred to the input of your computer will be the RGB-signal and the audio-signal.

Recently I tried digitalized my VHS-videos with another card, a simple TV-card without MPEG-hardware-encoding. I used WinDVR, a wonderful program for recording and the card is (paradoxically also Hauppauge) a Win-TV-PCI. Now wonder what happens? Even with long MPEGs (4 GB) the audio stays ABSOLUTELY synchron, before and also after cutting, editing and rendering again. I tried with many videos and hours and hours of stuff, always same fine result, no problem anymore.

There is only one conclusion:
The hardware encoder of the PVR250 itself produces this problem and Hauppauge doesnt seem to be able to solve it by driver updates (anyway they are poor with new software and drivers, the last ones are from middle of last year, even this card is supposed to go with the new Windows media center computers, poor guys who buy it...). I guess they dont acknowledge the problem or maybe they are simply not able to solve it because it cant be solved by software, only by hardware.

There is only one solution, guys:
Get rid of this ****ing card and sell it as long as still anybody (poor guy again) wants to have it.

For those who want to keep it anyway or cannot afford a new (simple, cheap) TV-card or graphic card with TV-in (ATI wonder etc.), only one thing helps: render your MPEGs in small pieces at 20-30 minutes and then reconnect them, rendering them again. Complicated, time-wasting, but at least the A/V stays mostly synchron.

[DirtyRobotFeet]

The best place for information on Hauppauge TV cards is <a href = "http://www.shspvr.com/forum/">SHS forums</a>.

[drosen001]

I was browsing around the net and came across this thread, and although its a bit old thought you might be interested in knowing more about the problems with the PVR cards.

As the author of VideoReDo, a new MPEG2 editor I've done extensive analysis of the PVR streams and the associated sync problems. On my systems, about 5% to 10% of videos recorded with the PVR end up being out of sync when authored to DVD. The cause of this missing and/or corrupt audio and video frames. Generally these occur in frequently at random places in files. My guess is that another program, like a virus checker or something else decides to monopolize the disk and the PVR drivers drop some data.

When you play these streams back in a normal software player you can't tell that the frames are droped. All PC-based software players will continually resync the audio and video as they encouter PTS time stamps in the program stream. The problem is that the authoring programs don't do this. They generally demux the two streams sequntially totally ignoring the embedded time stamps. If you have missing frames, the authoring program sjust don't care.

FYI, VideoReDo will detect missing frames and resync your programs.

[sjdean]

Ranger One and drosen001, hopefully you can be my life savers.

I've seen this audio video sync problem on my PVR 250 too. The source file is always in sync, and is recorded correctly using DVD MovieFactory, but after any kind of rendering, even opening in VirtualDub MPEG2, you will find audio/video sync problems.

But this for me only happens when the original video source is bad.

Try recording a perfect video, and press slow rewind for 10 seconds, then play. The file plays back perfectly when using the Cyberlink PowerDVD Codec. When editing, there is then a sync problem after the rewind.

Whether this is a Time Base Corrector fixable problem or not, I dont know. But I do know one thing that might be more than coincidence - demuxing the file, on a 30 minute file, usually results in a video file that is 7 minutes shorter than the audio, but actually plays back from beginning to end over 30 minutes.

And also, checking over those 10 seconds using the Parse MPEG utility of DVD-Lab, I see several "Quant Matrix Extensions". Is this a coincidence that these frames are there?

Can they be removed?

Im very confident that if the original source file can be played back correctly using Cyberlink PowerDVD Codec, it must be possible to convert that to a more standard MPEG2 that can then be used correctly by programs such as TMPGEnc.

But hopefully now I've found the answer ... I shall try recording as a program stream, and I shall see about this VideoReDo.

Would anyone care to comment on these Quant Matrix Extensions however?

Cheers
Simon