Possible Dropped Frames explanation

[smitbret]

Forgive my ignorance, but I just use DVD-RB + CCE to make backups and beyond that I haven't really taken the time to increase my knowledge of video encoding. When I get the error message in DVD-RB, what exactly does it mean when it says, "Possible dropped frames (4)" or whatever number shows up in parentheses. I have brushed through several forums looking for the answer but everyone just discusses the causes and how to overcome them. I would love to know exactly what it means, how that affects my final output and how many dropped frames is too many. Thanks.
-Brett

[jdobbs]

When DVD-RB performs the PREPARE it scans the original stream. It does a lot of things during the scan, including getting information about all the frames in that segment. This message is telling you that when DVD-RB looked again at the MPEG video file that was create by the encoder, it found a different number of frames. The number within the parentheses tells you the difference. In your case the video file has 4 frames less than the original did.

There are a number of possible reasons -- most of the are a result of something going wrong with the encoding. The most common cause is an accidental keystroke causing the encoder to stop during the creation. It could have been an error that caused the encoder to crash 4 frames from the end. Crashes are usually caused by overclocking. Another possibility is the use of a very old version of MPEG2DEC3 as a frame server (before Neuron3 corrected it to prevent frame loss).

[smitbret]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. So, how many frames is too many or what is noticeable and may cause problems?
-Brett

[jdobbs]

For me one frame is too many. I've never gotten a missing frame notification on my system.

[jptheripper]

same here. the only time i ever got one was a very scratched disk i ripped. Re-ripping at a slower speed in a different drive fixed it.

[Rockas]

Well... I had once... on the first tests using CCE 2.70 :D

[pbr]

i had this error once.. i just delete this particulary VXXXX segment (the .mpv and .vaf files) and then press encode again...luckely rebuilder do only this segment and not all the project.

[markrb]

I had one encode that I watched and it was pretty messed up. Out of Sync etc...
I loooked at the log and saw the error. I redid the encode and it came out fine the second time.
It turned out it was the encoder used. It was the first time I tried CCE 2.70. One of the very early versions of it. I upgraded to 2.70.04 and haven't had the problem since.
Never had an issue with 2.5.

Mark

[RaistlinMajere]

I had this error when I reinstalled my computer last time and discovered that it was because I had moved the location of the dvd-rb folder and while I had changed the relevant paths in the settings I hadn't changed an old ini entry to the path of decomb.

Even though I wasn't using decomb it caused the frame errors. As soon as I corrected the path to decomb it worked fine.

I don't understand why this was but it worked for me. Maybe something to check

[jdobbs]

Hmm... that's an odd one. I'll take a look and see how that might have an effect. Thanks.