Help w/ DVD2AVI encoding and 2-pass!

[Doc Chocobo]

I don't know what happened. I did 1 movie, and it came out fantastic! I used DVD2AVI and 2 pass encoding to get the video and used nandub to synch the audio and video. Then I tried to do another, shorter clip but it doesn't work anymore! I do the first pass and try to view the output avi and it says: no combination of filters can render this stream. I used wmp 6.7, the version that comes with XP, even the Playa (the program crashed when I did that). Its the same when I go on to the 2nd pass. The encoding works fine w/ single pass (quality or otherwise). I have a 800 P3 with XP if that helps anything.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot!

Oh yeah, I'm using the DivX 4.11 to encode.

[LaFouine]

No doubt you're using DivX4.11 if you're doing 2 pass.

1/ It's normal you can't read the generated avi after the first pass. This file is of no use. The important thing is the log file generated after the first pass.
2/ The final avi is generated only after you've done the 2nd pass.
The second pass uses the log file done in the first.

You see ?
Haven't you mixed up between 1st and 2nd pass, or haven't you changed the name of the log file in between ?

[Doc Chocobo]

Its not working! I get an error message every time I try to start the second pass! I get an error from DVD2AVI, invalid log file. Then I get an application error. I used Flask and I get bad files also. I'm really scratching my head here. I have no clue what could have gotten messed up so I can't make 2 pass DivX anymore.

[LaFouine]

Have you tried to edit your log file, and checked what it looks like ?
Normally, its content must be like this :
##version 2
quality 5
Frame 0: intra 1, quant 4, texture 12073, motion 0, total 12073, complexity 150912
Frame 1: intra 0, quant 4, texture 0, motion 0, total 504, complexity 0
Frame 2: intra 0, quant 4, texture 0, motion 0, total 504, complexity 0
Frame 3: intra 0, quant 3, texture 8, motion 2, total 520, complexity 53
Frame 4: intra 0, quant 3, texture 0, motion 0, total 504, complexity 0
Frame 5: intra 0, quant 2, texture 976, motion 160, total 2272, complexity 2439
Frame 6: intra 0, quant 2, texture 88, motion 14, total 641, complexity 219
Frame 7: intra 0, quant 2, texture 0, motion 0, total 504, complexity 0
Frame 8: intra 0, quant 2, texture 0, motion 0, total 504, complexity 0
Frame 9: intra 0, quant 2, texture 582, motion 110, total 1630, complexity 1454
Frame 10: intra 0, quant 2, texture 556, motion 108, total 1587, complexity 1389

And so on... (of course, with different values)...

If everything seems OK, so
No problems of disk space ?

Try to uninstall divX codec and reinstall it...

[Doc Chocobo]

No dice, it does the same thing. I get the error: Invalid Log file. the log file looks fine. I uninstalled and reinstalled the codec.

[omarh]

Ok, when you chose first pass, you chose a new log file name? then chose the SAME file for the 2nd pass right?

I think the fact that you were trying to open the first AVI file after the 1st pass shows you haven't read the guide on it yet...
Try re-reading the guide and following the directions exactly.

[Doc Chocobo]

Irrelvant. THere is only one log file. There is no way that it could get confused with any other log file, so I am back at square one.

[LaFouine]

What the hell is going on with this rip ?
Antoher idea : don't forget to quit DVD2AVI and open it again to start the second pass. If you don't perhaps the log file is not properly closed by Windows, and when you try to open it for 2nd pass you get an error.
I don't know exactly for DVD2AVI 'cause I use FlashMpeg, but you can try this, if you do not proceed this way !

Good luck

[LaFouine]

Another idea to confirm my previous reply :
Try to make a copy of the first pass log file.
Then, in the second pass, use the copy instead of the original... and see what happens

Always the same ?

[omarh]

You know what, stop using DVD2AVI by itself.

Even the DVD2AVI guide doesn't do that.

Instead, use DVD2AVI as a frameserver, with the VFAPI utility.
Then open it in Virtual Dub and use Virtual Dub to compress to DIVX 2 pass.
that works. i do it all the time

[Doc Chocobo]

ahhh... I'm too lazy to follow the rules. I finnally got it to work, it had something to do with what I saved the log file as. It works fine, and boy is it quick. Oh yeah, I'm still using the DVD2AVI + virtual dub way. Would I get better DivXs if I use flask?