Kwag:

I took your advice and tried HCEncoder. I liked everything about it except that it produces video that is not compatible with my standalone :(

I suspect it has to do with not having control over the minimum bitrate.

Do you know how to use BlockBuster (trick) ;)
You can "seed" a very small amount of noise, which will bring the noise floor to around 200 to 300 kbps, and that will give you a steady MIN bitrate :)

-kwag

That trick is burried deep inside the Mencoder part of the forum ;-)

Wow! Again an Encoder where some SAPs got Problems! 8O
(BTW: If Minbitrate would be the Problem then CCE also fails on your Standalone as CCE ALSO does drop on some scenes below the min mark.

Kwag:

I read the thread on the Mencoder forum about the blockbuster trick, and will give it a try.

Question:

If I want to add the line:
To my script that now reads:

Where do I add it?

Thanks!

1/ add border should be the last line in any script
2/ blockbuster should be the line just before addborder to not add noise in the borders AND to avoid to have the noise filtered by other lines of the script

So in your script, you have some line order to change.

Thanks Phil!

I'll give it a try.

I used this script:

On my DV source, using HCEncoder, and same results on my standalone - plays for < 1 sec, freezes, plays for <1 sec freezes, etc...

When encoded with TMPGenc it works fine.

Now I'm not so sure the problem is even min bitrate related, as the problem is evenly distributed throughout the video - not anywhere near "black" video screens, but during very active colorful scenes.

Is there a way to force HCEncoder to run at CBR as a test? What if I set Average Bitrate = Max Bitrate? If my math is correct, this should force it to encode at CBR.

Bad news (for me anyway)... :cry:

HCEncoder encoded material will not play in my SAP no matter what I do.

I encoded with closed GOP, avg bitrate=max bitrate, used the blockbuster trick, all had the exact same result as my first (and second, and third, etc...) try with HCEncoder. plays and freezes and plays and freezes.

TMPGEnc just does "something" different than either HCEncoder or Libavcodec encoders... so far noone can tell me exactly what it is.... I don't think it is a max/min bitrate issue , because the bitrate looks fine in bitrateviewer.

Last thing I can think of trying is patching it through DVD patcher... maybe there is a header that my player doesnt like...

What about the VBV :?: :idea:
Can you try and patch your .m2v with VBVPatcher, a little utility I wrote some time ago :)
http://www.kvcd.net/downloads/VBVPatcher.exe

-kwag

Kwag:

Does it work in windowsxp? Nothing seems to happen when I run it.
(also tried in "dos" mode - said it can't run in DOS mode)

Thanks,
Icarus

Hi Icarus,

Sorry, I gave you a wrong build :oops: :oops:
Here's the one: http://www.kvcd.net/downloads/VBVPatcher-0.1.exe

-kwag

Thanks Kwag!

I tried it out, but unfortunately it didn't make any difference to my SAP. :cry:

Oh well, I guess I am stuck with TMPGEnc for now (which isn't so terrible, but I feel left out! :roll: )

Thanks anyway,
Icarus

Tell us the Brand/Model (maybe I didn't catched that).


Did you try CCE (a Tryout version is available on cinemacrafts website):
http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/trial.html#sp

My standalone is Pioneer DV-440

Had a trial version of CCE many years back... I used to use it with DVD2SVCD, and I know my player liked the results just fine.

And I can confirm that my player still likes the output from CCE.

TMPGenc, no problem.

But anything created with libavcodec or HCEncoder will not work on my player.

I can live with that, but am very curious to know the reason why! What about HCEncoder does my player not like?

I don't remember if you already tried, but encode in CBR at 6000 (putting MAX=AVG=6000) and test it.

Yes I did try that already with HCEncoder, with the exact same result as VBR.

It seems that the bitrate control is not perfectly CBR though, as some fluctuations did show up in bitrateviewer. I don't have the files with me, but I seem to recall the bitrate stayed within the range of 5000-6000.

Just for go a little bit further with your tests, could you do a little sample with HC Encoder with *cq_maxbitrate option enabled?

A thought:

Do mux your HC or Libavcodec Video Stream and your Audio.
Get "ProjectX", a Tool used to check/fix mpeg2 mpeg2 Transportstreams.
In ProjectX do import the muxed mpg and choose "demux".
Now while demuxing, ProjectX watches out for non compilant packets within the video/audio streams.

That application is the first choice in the DVB Scene to make DVB streams working on SAPs. As DVB SAT Streams do very often come in the PC as timecode-crap etc. ;)