A Way of using PowerDVD codecs in Ifoedit or WMP ?

[maa]

Anyone know a way of making Ifoedit use PowerDVD codecs ?

I'm using the FreeDVD codec and its rubish - stutters, wrong colors etc.
I think I read somewhere that Windows Media Player can use them
but can't find the info anymore...

[voo_doo99]

@maa
I had the same problem with IFOedit from my ATI DV8500 graphic card with ATI-specific driver. After I switched to the Microsoft provided XP driver, the color problem was fixed. Still have the stuttering at start of play with both IFOedit and WinDVD4, annoying...:( oh, well!

[maa]

Hmmm... I can't see why it can't use the codecs that are registered for other apps. Maybe there IS a trick to this.

[maa]

Anyone got an idea or a better codec ?

[jmartina]

I am using Nimo codec pack (default instalation),
and everything is OK.

[maa]

Have you got a link for that ?

[KpeX]

Please don't. Codec packs are a _very very_ bad idea. Search the forum for more info.

[jmartina]

Please don't. Codec packs are a _very very_ bad idea. Search the forum for more info.

Explain why? On my machine, everything is working OK, I and
have almost all DVD relating software mentioned on this
forums (encoders, transcoders, players...)

[Derrow]

The trick must be somewhere in DirectX settings.

Maybe there can be something done using GraphEdit. I'm not sure how it works.

I (IfoEdit) just uses the directX SDK to display mpeg2.
How the filters are attached to the system? I have no idea.

Any DirectX specialists here?

[maa]

Ah - thanks for your response Derrow, I thought it must be something like that because DvdShrink must know the answer.
Can I ask you 150 questions about my favorite tool now ?

Like:
Why can't I add lots of stuff without the IFO getting corrupt?
(I have to find a bigger one and re-write it)
How can I make the "Create Video_ts.ifo" work? - seem always grey.
Why does a simple VOB Strip keeping all make the vobs smaller?

[maa]

Hey Derrow,
thank you for a great tool!

You might like this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59243)

I know its not the way DVDShrink does it but its certainly an improvement over the FreeDVD codecs on the download page.

[Derrow]

That is cool indeed.
Thank you maa.

I'll try to put that into IfoEdit :-)

[maa]

Glad you like it - would you have the time to answer my questions above ?

[Derrow]

Originally posted by maa
Why can't I add lots of stuff without the IFO getting corrupt?

Because there's only the needed amount of memory allocated for this table.
If you add new stuff, you'll overwrite the allocated memory, which will corrupt other tables or data in the IFO.

Originally posted by maa
How can I make the "Create Video_ts.ifo" work? - seem always grey.
Why does a simple VOB Strip keeping all make the vobs smaller? [/B]

By using the donation button on my site and downloading 0.96beta :D

Originally posted by maa
Why does a simple VOB Strip keeping all make the vobs smaller? [/B]
That shouldn't happen. Strange :confused: :confused:

[maa]

Originally posted by Derrow
That shouldn't happen. Strange
It only seems to happen with vobs made by other apps - maybe they are wasting space ?

[maa]

There is massive confusion as to IFOEDITs audio attributes on the DVD Lab forum.

Sample rate is normally in "Khz" but ifoedit shows "Kbps" ?

Quantisation is shown in "bps"
The values offered are 16, 20 and 24.
Those are common numbers when refering to the "Bit Depth"

PowerDVD Quantisation Example:
Dolby 2.0 at 192 Kbps
LPCM at 1536 Kbps
Dolby 5.1 at 448 kbps
DTS at 768 kbps
"Dynamic Range Controll" is nothing to do with quantisation AFAIK
so why is it in the same dialog ?

thanks in advance for clarification,

maa

[mpucoder]

Sample rate should be KHz, Kbps would be appropriate for the bitrate, which cannot be determined by reading the ifo.

bps = bits per sample (not second, in this case)

DRC is a dynamic bit depth as opposed to 16/20/24 which are fixed values. It has nothing to do with the original ADC process, but what is on the DVD. AFAIK all AC3 and DTS will show up as DRC, as that is a fundamental property of lossy compression. LPCM uses a fixed sample size.

[maa]

So - if I've understood ths correctly:
Ifoedit is not using incorrect terminology for Sample Rate and Quantisation.

DRC is a bit depth variable NOT the loudness compression for different listening conditions - that really had me !

"Quantisation" should read "Bit Depth".
The available options should read 16bit, 20bit, 24bit and DRC.

[mpucoder]

IfoEdit has only one error, using Kbps instead of KHz for sample rate.

Quantisation (or quantization in American English) is the technical term for the number of bits in a sample.

[maa]

So if I read you right "bps" = bits per sample " and that is the same as Bit Depth ?

or

20 bit = 20 bps ?

and if the bps = bit depth = variable then its called DRC.

[maa]

In this article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/papers/paper_23/paper_23.html) Dynamic Range Controll is discussed in its many uses and methods. It says nothing about Bit Depth there. The fact that there can be a carrier stream for the Dynamic Range Controll is one thing but the term Quantisation has nothing to do 16, 20 and 24. Those are clearly Bit Depth numbers. Quantisation on an audio CD is 172Kbs at a Bit Depth of 16.
A Google search on "dynamic bit depth" shows 0 results as apposed to "dynamic bit rate".

So I conclude from the inforamtion I was able to find:
DRC = Dynmic Range Control and has nothing to do with Bit Depth.
Quantisation is bps and also nothing to do with Bit Depth or the numbers 16,20 or 24.
The name Quantisation used in Ifoedit is wrong.

[mpucoder]

This is going way off topic.

I'll answer this in two parts. first, as to IfoEdit being wrong, it is not. IfoEdit correctly calls the two-bit field of the audio attributes "quantization / DRC" because, although I have never seen the DVD spec, but know several people who have, that is what the field is called.

Now, more general. "quantize: To limit the possible values of (a magnitude or quantity) to a discrete set of values" - The American Heritage Dictionary.

Dynamic range in audio is a ratio, expressed in decibels, between the loudest undistorted amplitude and the softest. It is closely related to SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). For digital audio the dynamic range is determined by the quantization (= bit depth) level. For every additional bit the ratio doubles, therefore increases by 6db (db = 20logR, the log of 2 is .3). 16-bit quantization, used in audio CD, gives 96db dynamic range. That's good for audio that has little dynamic range to begin with, such as popular music. It's not so good for orchestral music, and terrible for movies. 20 bits will get you 120db, good for orchestral music, so-so for movies (avoid action movies). And 24-bit yields 144db. That's the relationship between quantization level (aka bit depth) and dynamic range. AC3 and DTS vary the number of bits represented in each sample as appropriate for the material. Think of it as floating point (which it is), where the precision is constant, but the range of values changes. For example (and this is neither AC3 or DTS, just an example) using a 12-bit mantissa would mean soft and loud alike have waveforms with 4096 different amplitudes, but the loud material has bigger steps between each amplitude.

Sampling rate does not affect dynamic range, nor is it known as quantization. It does affect frequency response and distortion. Nyquist says the sampling rate must be twice the highest frequency to be sampled without aliasing. Of course, at that point phase information is lost, and waveforms become square.

[maa]

Well yes its wandered off topic and maybe better in a new one.
Thank you for your answer.
I see in various sites that quantization refers to "bit depth" or "word length" as some call it and that the dynamic range is linked to this. I found that "bps" is more or less the same as bit-depth.

Its a shame that methods of controlling the dynamic output with VGA staging or compression were called "Dynamic Range Control" even before the digital era. Only to have a new "variable bit depth" be given the same name as appears in Ifoedit. This surely helps reduce any hiss as the floating format is the ideal weapon.
To define means to seperate and two different items got the same name here - very unfortunate really.