Encoding help

[JadeZBaby]

Hi guys. Need some help with something that is baffling me. Hey, I am a chick, but I'm not blonde (at least not now). I have a clean install of WinXp SP 1a, with a few programs installed: premiere, video studio 7, dvd shrink/decrypter, powerDVD 6 and virtualdub. Apart from video drivers and stuff that is all I have installed. I downloaded the latest versions of Xvid and ffdshow and a friend gave me the Main concept h.264 encoder thingy. They are the only video codecs I have installed. Mpeg Layer-3 decoder is the only audio codec I've installed.

Now the problem/s... When encoding DV files - these are taken from my video camera through firewire using premiere or video studio - and I try to use the xvid codec, setting it to "2pass 1st pass" the resulting video file will come up as a black screen with sound. Sometimes I get a classfactory error, but not often. If I set it to "single pass" the file plays fine. Now, if I use ffdshow and set it to use the xvid codec at 2pass 1st pass, the video file plays without a problem. So, why will it encode ok using ffdshow and the xvid codec and not by using the xvid codec itself?

With the mainconcept encoder, I can encode DVD, Mpeg2 etc. but I can't use the H.264 encoding option because all I get is a black screen and no sound. Is this in any way related to the above problem?

I guess this really isn't important, as I can encode the few .avi files I do. Just strange that I can do it through ffdshow but not with xvid. Anyone know what's happening?

Thanks for any help.

PS: Athlon64 3800+...1G ram...WD 120g + SG 80g hdd...radeon x800 pro...winXP SP1a...all latest drivers.

[anonymez]

you have to encode to xvid twice, a total of 2 passes. the first pass 'analyzes' the video, telling the xvid codec where (and in what proportions) to place the data. thus the first pass does not result in a playable file, just a 'stats' file, which is needed for the second pass.

in the second pass, the codec reads the stats file, and makes the actual playable video. 2 passes are HIGHLY recommended, as the quality gain is huge. an excellent guide to using xvid can be found here: http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/xvid_setup.html

the first and second pass settings should be exactly the same, except for the 'number of passes' setting