I'm not sure I have properly diagnosed my problem, but I am at least 90% certain now that the problem lies in how I am muxing my audio/video.

What I am trying to do is create a (K)SVCD.

So far, using FreeEnc for video, HeadAC3he for audio, and BBMpeg for muxing I am not able to create a CD that is fully compatible with my player.

I know the problem doesn't lie 100% with my player, because in the past I have created SVCDs using only TMPGenc with no problems.

Here is a description of the problem:

Audio plays fine, but video plays then freezes, then plays, then freezes, playing for sometimes 30 seconds, and sometimes for only 2-3 seconds.

I have tried using framerates of 23.976 with and without pulldown, and 29.97.

The final CD plays fine on my PC, and also on another standalone player I have. I should also say I have tried burning the .bin file on different media (various brands CD-R and CD-RW) and same problem every time, so I don't think it is the media.

I am really stuck here, and think the problem might be with the settings I am using for BBMPeg - but I'm just using the recommended settings from here:


http://www.kvcd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2224

This is very frustrating, and I don't feel like going back to MPEG-1. I should also note that I tried using the header trick and muxing as VCD, and that works fine, except, the video I am using is anamorphic, and I would like to have the option of playing it on both a 4:3 TV set, and a 16:9 portable DVD player (that unfortunately doesn't have very good zoom options).

Has anyone run into a similar problem before, and if so, have you found a solution?



Thanks!
Icarus

It's clear that your problem is due to freenc. Just drop it if you can't find an other solution !

Freenc and all libav based encoder have bitrate problems. And that causes freezing concerns.

Thanks for the quick response!

Not the response I was hoping for though, as I was just starting to love FreeEnc!

Oh well.. Guess I'll have to wait for the next release...

- Icarus

EDIT: I ran the .m2v file created with FreeEnc through Bitrate Viewer, and it shows a max bitrate of 2554 - slightly above the 2300 I had specified as the max, but well within the SVCD specs (2600 I think?). So I am now running the identical file through TMPGenc to see if that fixes my problem. I'll keep you posted on the results

Update:

Still not sure what the problem is... Now I encoded with TMPGEnc, and multiplexed with BBmpeg, and I STILL can't play the CD without freezing.

This was at 23.976 fps, so I will try again with Pulldown.

Very frustrating... I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but I know it must be something! I have made SVCDs work in the past, but a long time ago, with both TMPGenc, and with DVD2SVCD a few years ago. Recently a friend just lent me an SVCD that plays fine too.

Note: a standalone has a short lifetime... Perhaps you are doign nothing wrong. Let try with an old SVCD you did months ago, to check that.

@Dialhot:

No... other SVCD's work fine..

Anyway, I had another thought...

Has anybody tried creating an SVCD using an MPEG-1 video source instead of an MPEG-2? My reason for doing this is that I am having trouble playing (S)KVCD's on my Pioneer standalone with MPEG-2 files created with NuEnc, but MPEG-1's turn out fine. I like the player to think it is an SVCD though, so that I can get an anamorphic aspect ratio.

Easy enough for me to try when I get home, but I was curious if anyone else had tried this before.

Thanks,
Icarus

I can't get any VBR MPEG-1 clips play properly on my Pioneer so I just mux and burn them as SVCD. Works fine

Idem ! Pioneer DV-454.

okay managed to separate the file into 2 ac3 streams but one is corrupted and tried to use ac3fix to mend it... but donno how to work it... I enter the file give an output name and click process... it just sits there. the other when headache goes beyond the 1st vob file the sound for the remainder of the mpeg sounds like chip munks again.

Then I tried belight... that worked and produced 2 good mp2's with no problems but now I can't use bbmpeg to mux it alltogether.... bbmpeg crashes. I dunno what went wrong.

please help.... nearly there...

thanks