File is not a valid D2V project -- modified installation

[pdx]

hi folks,

had problems with a rip (audio getting out of sync), done some reading and found out that the DVD2AVI version which i'm using (1.77.3) had problems losing legit frames due to decoding bugs. i downloaded the supposedly fixed donald graft version (1.77.3dg), but ever since i replaced DVD2AVI.exe and MPEG2DEC3.dll with his versions, my gordianknot (0.28.5) fails to load the D2V file with the "not a valid D2V project" message. (it keeps talking about 1.76, but had so far -- before the dg patch -- it finely accepted my 1.77.3 D2Vs, too. weird.) then i reverted back to the original 1.77.3 DVD2AVI, created a project file with that -- mind you, gknot accepted 1.77.3 output before -- and i get the same error message. from this point on, it's quite... cryptic.

so, what's up, docs? is the modified MPEG2DEC3.dll the culprit? or how to work around this?

thanks,

[len0x]

Originally posted by pdx
is the modified MPEG2DEC3.dll the culprit?

i bet it is... If that dll is not based on Nic's 1.08, then GK will not work...

*Edit* I got DG version, indeed it doesn't work, since Donald probably started working on it before Nic added support for standalone dll usage (not inside avisynth), so the code is not there...

[pdx]

ow... that indeed is a very nasty situation. now, if i use the DG modifications to generate the D2V file, then switch back to the original DLL, does that work around the frame dropping by the pristine 1.77.3 DVD2AVI? or is there any other way of avoiding frame drops? maybe a new version of DVD2AVI & GKnot that i'm not aware of? (the DVD2AVI thread lists a lot of new versions, but i'm not sure as of which to use and if they no longer have this framedrop bug, and if they are compatible with my -- or any newer -- gknot.)

thanks,
-p

[manono]

Hi-

GKnot opens my .d2v made using neuron2's version just fine. I'm encoding now using MPEG2DEC3DG.dll with no problem either (but not through GKnot). I'll try some GKnot encoding afterwards. I'm also using GKnot 0.28.5.

Are you using the latest DVD2AVIdg.exe Beta 5 from Sept 10?

[len0x]

Originally posted by manono
GKnot opens my .d2v made using neuron2's version just fine. I'm encoding now using MPEG2DEC3DG.dll with no problem either (but not through GKnot). I'll try some GKnot encoding afterwards. I'm also using GKnot 0.28.5.


Encoding using DG dll is fine, indeed. But GK uses mpeg2dec3.dll for displaying the video. That code was not in the original mpeg2dec3.dll and was added by Nic later. That is why GK cannot open any d2v with DG dll...

P.S. I'll try to check with Don if that is indeed a problem and probably he can update his dll...

[neuron2]

I'll restore that code. I removed it because I didn't know what it was for. :)

Look for beta 6 to have it.

[len0x]

Originally posted by neuron2
I'll restore that code. I removed it because I didn't know what it was for. :-)


much appreciated :)

[neuron2]

I uploaded beta 6 with the code restored. Please advise if it is working OK for you. Of course, you will have to rename the DLL to MPEG2DEC3.dll unless you want to recode Gordian Knot's DLL loading code. :)

http://neuron2.net/fixd2v/decodefix100b6.zip

[len0x]

Originally posted by neuron2
Please advise if it is working OK for you.

It does now! 10x. I'm gonna include those versions in the GK pack then...

[pdx]

yeah, works great! thanks for the quick fix, donald!

i have another question, though... when dvd2avi displays a P.E (picture error) when generating the project file, does it entirely leave out the bad frames out of the final project file? isn't there a way to sort of put in repeat frames of the last good frame instead of skipping bad frames, which causes a nearly uncorrectable audio desynch? or is there any other way to work around lost frames due to p.e.?

thanks,
-p

[hakko504]

Originally posted by pdx
when dvd2avi displays a P.E (picture error) when generating the project file, does it entirely leave out the bad frames out of the final project file? Yes. AFAIK it will mean unsyched audio unless similar problems exist in the audio file. See the DVD2AVI FAQ Q27b (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59272)

[pdx]

yip, thought so... now, how does DVD2AVI recognize a picture error? is it by data returned from the MPEG2DEC3.dll or is there a separate stream parser? because if so, with little effort MPEG2DEC3.dll could be modified to return an empty P frame (keeping the last good frame) (is that the correct letter for the delta frames?) in case of a picture error, thus saving us the misery of having to manually chop up the audio and resynch it to the picture. of course, picture would become a bit garbled, but that's a very low price in exchange for not having to worry about desynched rips... :)

what do you guys think? is it a worthy idea to implement?

thanks for listening,
-p

[hakko504]

IIRC DVD2AVI only looks at the mpeg header and decides if the picture is an I, P or B frame. Anything else produces the P.E. message.
I don't think we should do anything about it, because of two reasons: When making D2V's from DVD's, a P.E. almost always indicates a bad rip - I have never received a P.E. that wasn't recoverable by re-ripping the DVD. When doing D2V's from transportstreams (HDTV/ATSC/DVB) recorded from the air it is likely that you have much more problems than just a single P.E. and the stream is most likely not suited for further processing. Quite frankly, in this case it is also possible that the P.E. comes from a 'false' video frame, i.e. a block not really a video frame, but identified as such because of other errors.To sum it up, you can't cover all possibilities of error and since this tool was originally for converting DVD's I think we should keep it the way it is.

[neuron2]

Originally posted by len0x
It does now! 10x. I'm gonna include those versions in the GK pack then... I just released a beta 7 that fixes another really weird kludge in MPEG2DEC3. It might be better to wait until we get to a point where we aren't getting a new beta every day. :)

[len0x]

Sure :) I didn't say that it's gonna be released right now though...