AVI --> MPG problem

This one has been baffling me for a few weeks now.

The wifes uncle has sent me down on 4 CD's, video footage of our wedding last year, in AVI format. He can't remember what codec he used to encode it (he doesn't even know what software he used to do now except it came with his camera & DV card!!).

The problem that I am having is that I am trying to encode it to VCD/SVCD (either really) so I can split it into 75 minute segments & burn it to CD to distribute to family who want it to watch on their DVD players, and after encoding it to either MPG1 or MPG2 format, all I get is a black screen upon playback (on both PC & after burning to CD) and just the sound playing back as normal (no picture).

I have used TMPGenc, AVI2VCD, Nero's VCD/SVCD encoding (in v5.5.7.2 upwards including the MP2 plugin for it which I paid for & downloaded from Ahead). It is now getting a little expensive in wasting CD's (must have gone through at least 100 in the last week or so). I have even ripped the files to PCM.AVI format (uncompressed sound AVI files) to see if that is the problem.

Anyone got any ideas???

darron , been doing the same thing myself recently , no dought you have got most software , but heres a link to many (in codacs) <a href="http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html#launchers" target="_blank">http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html#launchers</a>

is it divx ?


as per dvd ripping (slightly off your subject) i am using smartripper to c:\temp then dvdx to produce (inc splitting) then nero 5.x as burner (as VCD NOT SVCD) NOTE that you must burn as PAL (uk) or they dont work!!!

also check frame rate "Frame rate of the output video file. 25 (PAL) or 23.97,29.97 (NTSC).
Warning this value is not automaticaly set, if you choose a different frame
rate from the input a pull ud/down will be performed.
Avoid conversion between NTSC and PAL".

gettin quite good at this !!!!

any links you cant find ,,,,email me

alan

No they are not DiVX Freddy. DiVX files convert easily (as do DVD rips ;) ) to VCD/SVCD standards. It is a very strange format as even after converting them to MPG1/MPG2 format on the HDD they still only play the sound regardless of PAL/NTSC/Film selected or framerate.

Like I said, this one has baffled me to the point of conceding (which is very rare, but getting too expensive now with al lthe blanks wasted upto date. I must buy some CDRW media instead for testing purposes :) :) )

darron ,,are they from the uk ,,or from the states.ie been thru an ntsc format.can u locate make of camera and software?

can u click on win media player and play them?

are there no clues in properties in player?

just a thought ,,as i copied one the other day (accident) as ntsc and there was no vid but got sound.

[quote]Originally posted by freddy:
<strong>darron ,,are they from the uk ,,or from the states.ie been thru an ntsc format.can u locate make of camera and software?</strong>

UK (Scotland to be precise) & don;t know model or make of camera except it was bught in Scotland

<strong>can u click on win media player and play them?</strong>

Before encoding to MPG I can yes, but after encoding, just sound & black screen (b4 & after VCD conversion also).

<strong>are there no clues in properties in player?</strong>

Properties are empty on all fields & MP8 shows no statistics available.

<strong>just a thought ,,as i copied one the other day (accident) as ntsc and there was no vid but got sound.</strong>

I have tried all 3 available formats (PAL/NTSC/Film) and all do the exact same :( <hr></blockquote>

Hello Darren!!

Just a couple of silly questions.
Have you checked the resolution for the MPG output file? You should use 352x288 pixels.
Have you tried the latest version of TMpeg? It is supposed to be the best. That's what I use for myself and never had any particular problem with any kind of videos and codecs.

I'm not sure whether you already know this site or not, but check it out too. <a href="http://www.vcdhelp.com" target="_blank">www.vcdhelp.com</a>

Oh, and another thing. You said it yourself. Don't waste blank CD-Rs. When I'm not sure about the output video I always use a CD-RW one for testing purposes.

Nice to see you back, my friend!

Hi Darren,


I've had this problem also, i used this little tool and it sorted it for me.
<a href="http://www.divx-digest.com/software/avi2vcd.html" target="_blank">AVI2VCD</a>

good luck u need to make sure the audio is decompressed. (It took about 3hours ish on my old system.)

G. :D

TMPGenc version - 2.53.35.130 (downloaded 4 days ago) same problem.

AVI2VCD already tried (including ripping to PCM mode) and same result.

Tried various outputresolutions including the standard vcd 340x288 and others with same problem.

Even formatted system back to fresh to make sure that none of the codecs were corrupted.

Sorted it all out!!!!!!

Forgot that you have to install DiVX Codec's 3.22, 4.x & 5 to decode & then encode to AVI to MPG.

Just installed ALL the DiVX codecs available and the problem is now solved.

Thought I would share this information with you so that if anyone else is having similar probs can fix them.