video stutters! What to do?

[bobbyg]

I am relatively new to vcd/divx/dvd encoding (just bought my first stand alone dvd player last week) and I need some help. I have read the tutorials and guides and have beena ttempting to burn a vcd from a divx file using TMPGEnc and Nero and have explicitly followed your guides. The problem is wehn playing back the end product is unwatchable, both the video and the sound suffer from herky jerky stutter. I have tried going from divx to vcd using both PAL and NTSC encoding and nothing I seem to do will help. I am going thru quite a few disc and need to minimize the waste.

I am using a Dell XPS T450/Pentium III/450 MHz/128 Mb Ram

your help would be greatly appreciated.

[setarip]

This is what I do to create a VCD:

1) Load .AVI file into TMPGEnc
2) Set to "System Video and Audio" (lower right side)
3) Click on "Setting" radio button
4) Click on "System" tab, change mode to "MPEG1-VideoCD" (from default of "MPEG1")
5) Click on "Advanced" tab, change "Video arrange method" to "Center (Custom Size"), change dimensions to 352x288 or 352x240
6) Change "Source aspect ratio" to either "4:3 525 line (NTSC 704x480)", "4:3 525 line (NTSC)", or "16:9 525 line (NTSC)" - If you're in the PAL world choose either of the two similar PAL settings instead
7) Under the "Video" tab, change the dimensions to 352x288 or 352x240 (Note: "Video" tab mode of "MPEG1" is okay) - for highest quality set "Motion Search Precision" to "Highest Quality". Change the "Aspect Ratio" to match, as closely as possible, the "Source Aspect Ratio" you set under the "Advanced" tab.
8) Change "Rate Control Mode" to "Automatic VBR (CQ_VBR)
9) Under the "Audio" tab, set to 44,100 224Kbps
10) Press "Start"

Note that if your video runs longer than 60 minutes, you'll have to subsequently split your VCD-MPG file in two. This too can be easily and precisely accomplished using TMPGEnc. Under the "Files" dropdown menu, click on "MPEG Tools" and select the "Merge & Cut" tab. Once again, make sure to change the mode to "MPEG1-Video CD". Load your file and enter a new (.MPG) name in the "Output file" box. Then doubleclick on the ORIGINAL file's name in the window, which will bring you to the cutting area. Select your desired start and end points for the first half, click on "Okay" which will bring you back to the first window and generate (in a sequence of three automated steps) the first new file. To create the second new file, repeat the steps starting with "Then doubleclick on the ORIGINAL..." (be extra patient with the second half, as the program has to do more seeking to establish the beginning of the new file).

Use a burning program, such as NERO to burn your CD-R or R/W CD as a VCD (DON'T ask NERO to format the file as a VCD, since you've already accomplished this!)

[bobbyg]

is it normal for half a movie to take 12 or more hours to encode?

[setarip]

"is it normal for half a movie to take 12 or more hours to encode?"

On a 450MHz system, yes...

[bobbyg]

stills stutters and has poor ricture quality, the avi looks great on my computer, I don't know what to do next. Is my computer just to slow? When you are encoding and you go to options>preview optons>show all frames is the video supposed to be fluid and smooth while it is encoding? It does not appear that way when I am encoding.

[setarip]

How does the VCD play on your television from your standalone DVD player?

[bobbyg]

plays the same on my computer or stand alone dvd player.

[setarip]

Do the following, which may provide additional insight regarding your difficulty:

1) Load the file into VirtualDub

2) From the "File" dropdown menu, select "File Information"

3) Post (here) EVERYTHING you see (both video and audio information), or post a screen capture .jpg of the information box

[bobbyg]

Here is the info from the file after encoded as mpeg

Video
frame size 352X288 29.970 fps(33367us)
#of frames 107544(59:48)
number of I,P and B frames 6070/29967/71507
I frame min/avg/max total frame size 5084/12868/25936(76282K)
P frame min/avg/max total frame size 85/6100/20029(178524K)
B frame min/avg/max total frame size 94/2080/14317(145285K)
avg bitrate 914Kbps(112Kb/s)

audio
format 44KHz stereo 224Kbps layer ll
# of frames 137368
total size 98120 K



Here is the data from the source avi.

Video
frame size 352X288 12.500fps(80000us)
#of frames time 44855(59.48)
decompressor DivX 5.0.2 Codec
number of key frames 359
min/avg/max/total key frame size 2169/5177/8903(1816K)
min/avg/max/total delta frame size 0/2954/14938(128370K)

audio stream
sampling rate 24000Hz
channels 2 stereo
sample precision 0-bit
compression unknjown (tag0055)
preload skew 3133 samples (0.13s)
# of frames 44849
min/avg/max/total frame size: 429/560/3133(24530K)

I believe that is it.

[setarip]

The .AVI information discloses that:

1) The video is compressed using the DivX v.5.02 codec, which I don't believe any version of TMPGEnc can presently handle correctly

2) The audiostream appears to be a conventional .MP3 stream. Do you have an MP3 codec (such as the Radium .MP3 codec) installed?


You might want to try the following (which assumes that you already have the DivX v.3.11alpha codec installed) to change codecs (compression) used:

1) Load the .AVI into VirtualDub

2) Set "Audio" to "Direct Stream Copying"

3) Set "Video" to "Full Stream Processing"

4) From under the "Video" dropdown menu, click on "Compression"

5) Select the DivX v.3.11alpha codec - If possible, set the adjustable settings to the same as the original file

6) From the "File" dropdown menu, select "Save as AVI" and enter a new filename for the modified file

[bobbyg]

I dont see DivX 3.12 Alpha anywhere in the drop down menu

[bobbyg]

DUh I dont see DivX 3.11 alpha either

[setarip]

As I indicated, "You might want to try the following (which assumes that you already have the DivX v.3.11alpha codec installed) "

It appears that you DON'T already have the codec installed. Therefore, you'd have to download and install it...

[bobbyg]

have the zip file on my desktop but can't get it to install, keeps asking for ....