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frog
15th November 2001, 07:41
ok, i've never encoded divx before, but i'm trying to do dvd -> divx and i followed the guide that is on this page for divx 4 encoding using xmpeg, and every time i try it, right before i start conversion, i get this error...

An error occured while trying to generate the file. Check that your not using the output file or the program is setup correctly.

i've gone through 3 or 4 times starting over and doing it again, but i keep getting that error, i'm pretty sure i'm following it right...

at the moment, i'm using vdub way, but it seems to be alot longer to do..

any suggestions?

The Ultimate
16th November 2001, 21:07
I have the same problem. With a previous install of winME I installed divx4.01 first. it didn't work with this codec. After that i installed divx4.02. Then it worked. After that i installed winxp (i've never tried in winxp). Now I've installed WinMe again with the divx4.02 codec. It temporaly worked, but now i have the same problem as in the beginning.

So I think it's the codec. Remove the codec. install 4.01 or 3.11.
Remove them and install the 4.02 codec again. This will probably work.

I'm quite sure it's the codec because when i try to encode with dvd2avi i got the same problem.

iryx
19th November 2001, 08:19
Nope, I don't think that the above solution will work because the problem comes from Xmpeg4.1c not from the DivX codec. WinXP also might have something to do with it.

You have two choices from what I know:
1. Try encoding only the video and do audio separately.
2. Try using an older version of Xmpeg.

I'd go with the second option since that's what works for me. I haven't yet had a successful 2pass encoding with Xmpeg4.1c (and alot of other people are reporting the same) so just stick to an earlier version of Xmpeg.

barcoo
20th November 2001, 05:28
:(
I also have the same kind of problem evrey time I work with Xmpeg. I am using wind2k, DivX 4.11 and Xmpeg 4.1c.
:mad:
The same problem occurs when using Xmpeg 4.2a. I used to use DivX 4.01 and 4.02. So I learned other ways...

iryx
20th November 2001, 06:34
Xmpeg4.2a is out and it works great for me :). Automatic 2pass and everything. I'm using it under Win2K Pro with DivX 4.11.

The one thing that bugs me is the way it does the audio: volume is always too low even after setting dynamic compression to a high value (audio volume compared to when done separately with Azid/Lame or V2A)

barcoo
20th November 2001, 08:48
Are you sure this is not a bug?
For some kind of OS and hardware, not only me, it does fail.
Before I post this message, I reinstall my win2k pro sp1 (later upgraded to sp2) and all the codec, but it still failed.
So maybe it will be very helpful to give some solution or useful hint. As you mentioned, this may be related to OS, but since we are using the same win2k pro...
Just can't understand, but it really doesn't work on my computer.

iryx
20th November 2001, 08:53
Try encoding the movie without the audio. Just disable audio processing all together. You can do the audio later with vob2audio and multiplex audio and video with VDub.

SimonT
20th November 2001, 22:54
The Ultimate got it right...

I thought this latest version of Xmpeg would solve my issues with file in use errors that everyone gets. It didn't, everything was exactly as before. I use XP, and prefer Xmpeg as it's easy to use (when it works), but this unable to write file bug had nearly put me off, and when the new version also didn't work, I was determined to find a solution.

After much mucking around and searching, I came across a foreign language forum on www.mp3search.com which suggested installing 3.11, then a Divx 4 codec. I had little to lose, so I uninstalled my Divx 4 codec, installed the 3.11 alpha, then installed 4.11 over it. Xmpeg then worked like a charm! I could hardly believe it. I use the Lame audio codec, but suspect the Radium would work equally well. I don't know WHY this worked but it did.

The Ultimate's suggestion above is a good one. I wish I had seen it and acted on it earlier. Those with Xmpeg failing when decodingaudio as well as video SHOULD try it!

barcoo
21st November 2001, 12:00
As you said, I unstall my DivX 4.11 first, and then install the 3.11 codec. Then install DivX 4.11 again on it. And it happens as follows:

1. the quility-based, 1-pass encoding becomes ok. (Both 3.11 and 4.11) without audio process. It can't work with audio process.
2. the 2-pass encoding is still out of work, the same error message occurs.

:confused:
I have been using other ways to have DivX encoding Like the VDub using DVD2AVI or other program, I just can't understand why I can't work with Xmpeg.
:rolleyes:

sumpm1
21st November 2001, 13:32
I got this problem, where it thinks the file is open in another program, what my problem was, the mp3 codec was messed. So try different video codecs and audio codecs, this will tell you if it is xmpeg or the codec

Chetwood
26th November 2001, 12:13
I've encountered the very same problem on Win2k with Xmpeg 4.2a:

Could not open log file for reading!
An error occured when trying to generate the file.
Check that you're not using the output file or the program is setup correctly.

As I had just set up my system I was quite sure none of the codecs were messed up so I tried a different approach: I generated an empty file on c:\ using the default name that was listed in the options (don't remember at the moment). When I selected 'start' I did NOT get that error message anymore and everything seemed to work just fine. Unfortunaly when I checked after the 2nd pass XMpeg had not generated 2 files but 1 of about 3 GB! So my workaround does not seem to be working either.

What bugs me is that the homepage and forum of Xmpeg seems to be French only. Or can anyone provide me with an english link or has other suggestions as to make it run? TIA!

radster
27th November 2001, 03:37
im having the same problem (an error occured while generating the file--check output or setup) with xp and xmpeg 4.2a..i went through the doom9 faq..

things ive already tried:

-uninstalling/reinstall divx 4.1
-using open dml plug from flask (i couldnt find a opendml plug that supports yv12 colour space)
-just encoding video
-copying logfile to different dirs

is there a fix for this?

Leopold
27th November 2001, 10:33
I had the same problems with xmpeg 4.2a. After trying everything I've read before I found a patch in the download section of doom9. It's called avifile.zip and it'll change your reg. Well. I think it's a fix for older versions of flask but for me it works. I'm using win2k pro sp2, divx 3.11 and divx 4.11. After changing the reg everything is working fine. Perhaps it's a soltion for your problems.
CU

Chetwood
27th November 2001, 13:18
@Leopold

I just tried that running on Win2k Sp2 myself but it still gives the same error message. Damn! Anyone other suggestions?

radster
27th November 2001, 20:15
well after reading all the posts in this thread i decided to try installing divx3.11beta and then 4.1 on top and go figure but it works now (well kinda).

xmpeg crashes after about 1hr of processing...i have no idea why? ill try it without the 2nd pass...

Monsterl
28th November 2001, 02:43
Hi there,
I would like to share my little experience with XMPEG 4.2a
I got the same Output error message before,
so I followed SimonT recommendations & it's fine now.
(Thanks Simon)

Here is what i did,
Uninstall Divx4.11 > Install 3.11a > Install 4.11 over it
I only installed the decoder & the mp3 codecs for the 3.11
(i guess it's the mp3 codec that's doing the trick)

Now I can do 1 pass encoding with audio processing.
I Can also do 2 pass. You just need to do it seperately,
i.e. not by enabling Divx4 2nd Pass option in Global Project Option
You need to finish 1st pass first, then reconfigure Output option to do 2nd pass.
(trying to do the two pass at once would still give Error on opening log file)

Hope this help. Cheers

jim1595
28th November 2001, 05:36
For those who are recieving the-

An error occured while trying to generate the file. Check that your not using the output file or the program is setup correctly.

I think that the problem is actually in the audio codec, not the video...

Reasons:
1) Divx 3.11 comes with a different codec.
2) The it seems to work fine when audio is disabled as many posters have said.

I was having the same problem as the rest of you guys in XP. I tried The Ultimate's fix but i still recieved problems. I noticed that I still had the Radium codec installed through that error, so i uninstalled the Radium codec, then installed Divx 3.11. After installing 4.11 back over it everything worked perfectly.

So just make sure that the Radium codec has been completely wiped from the system, then proceed to install Divx 3.11 and 4.11 over it without adding any external audio codecs...

I hope this helps :)

Jim1595

Chetwood
28th November 2001, 13:02
@frog

Gosh, can't you read or what? This whole darn thread offers tons of suggestions on this problem some of which seem to be working for some ppl so give em a try first!

@The Ultimate

I just tried your method and it did not work for me. However, I'm not sure if deinstalling divx 3.11 worked properly, simply because I don't have any uninstall routines. I downloaded two versions from the net

divx_3.11alpha.zip
divx_311alpha.exe

where the first one has a register.exe but none of them later appear under system|software. So I removed all of them divx-entries in my windir manually including the inf-files. As well, I installed divx 4.11 and not 4.02.

When you're encoding divx 4 only you do not necessarily need the 3.11 codec anymore, right? Cause I was wondering that the 3.11 codec also had a 'set stereo' tool that allowed me to change settings of the mp3 codec's stereo attributes. I thought this would belong to the Radium codec?

Anyway, how can i be sure that I deinstalled divx 3.11 properly?

radster
29th November 2001, 00:41
allright well i managed to encode a 2 pass divx with xp/xpmeg (set on normal) after about 10hrs...

but i started on another and i get a crash during the first pass..this is strange but it seems like im more likely to have a crash with the taskmanager open (strange)..my only explanation is that since xmpeg uses every ounce of my available processor cycles, the cycles the task manager require just takes away cycles from xmpeg.

im using an old computer compared to what everyone else is using which might be part of the problem..a dual p450 with 512mb and 5400 rpm drives...i get 10-17 fps encoding at around a 800 bitrate video/128k sound...

Zarni
6th December 2001, 22:51
HOORAY !!! YIPPEE, It works now, thanks guys.
Simply remove radium codec and 4.11 then install 3.11 and then 4.11 and everything is fine and dandy.
Encoding under XP is working, maybe its time for me to swap permanently, although I do still like W2K ;-)

Spread the word, all is well....

Chetwood
7th December 2001, 01:03
@Zarni

Mmh, I tried that too but it did not work. Possibly because I did not deinstall them properly. How do I do it if they don't appear under Software?

Thx!

Beater
7th December 2001, 09:42
Iīve the same shitty problem, tried all of above, but nothing works.
Itīs the Audio that is the problem, and i have to use DivX Audio Wma, ITīS THE ONLY WAY FOR ME :(

Chetwood
7th December 2001, 10:27
@beater

Well, I wish I had a clean system without any of the codecs; then I would try to verify this.

Considering wma, did you try no audio encoding at all? If this works with xmpeg you can later on use Virtual Dub to encode the audio to mp3 while doing a direct stream of the video. That adds another step to your encoding process but you should come up with a properly encoded file until we've found a way to stop this workaround.

Beater
7th December 2001, 10:38
Originally posted by Chetwood
@beater

Well, I wish I had a clean system without any of the codecs; then I would try to verify this.

Considering wma, did you try no audio encoding at all? If this works with xmpeg you can later on use Virtual Dub to encode the audio to mp3 while doing a direct stream of the video. That adds another step to your encoding process but you should come up with a properly encoded file until we've found a way to stop this workaround.

Yes it works witout audio, but how do i merge the video and audio to one avi. file after that?

Chetwood
7th December 2001, 12:21
@beater

No, you misunderstood me: you do not encode the avi without audio at all but with regular wav audio @ 44 or 48 khz and 16bit. Now you got a file of (depends on the movie) about 1.7 GB. Now load this file into virtual dub and select

video: direct stream copy <-- thus the video is not touched at all
audio: full processing mode | compression: mp3 128 kbit
options: sync to audio is checked

leave all other settings on default and now 'save as avi'

Virtual now encodes the audio in mp3 and you should come up with a perfect video & audio.

Beater
7th December 2001, 12:26
Originally posted by Chetwood
@beater

No, you misunderstood me: you do not encode the avi without audio at all but with regular wav audio @ 44 or 48 khz and 16bit. Now you got a file of (depends on the movie) about 1.7 GB. Now load this file into virtual dub and select

video: direct stream copy <-- thus the video is not touched at all
audio: full processing mode | compression: mp3 128 kbit
options: sync to audio is checked

leave all other settings on default and now 'save as avi'

Virtual now encodes the audio in mp3 and you should come up with a perfect video & audio.

Thanx mate, iīll try that. ;)

Znarf
7th December 2001, 12:56
Hi,

I'm French, and I asked the solution at XiS on the XMPEG site.

This answer was : "Just increase the priority of the MP3 radium codec in Control panel-> option -> audio -> codecs."

In fact, you must change the priority to 2 or 3 (not more than 4).

I expect it's going help you.

Beater
7th December 2001, 13:15
Originally posted by Znarf
Hi,

I'm French, and I asked the solution at XiS on the XMPEG site.

This answer was : "Just increase the priority of the MP3 radium codec in Control panel-> option -> audio -> codecs."

In fact, you must change the priority to 2 or 3 (not more than 4).

I expect it's going help you.
It didnīt work for me... :(

Znarf
7th December 2001, 13:40
I think you must ask to XiS.

Do you have the forum adr ?? that's : http://www.mp3guest.com/Forum_default.asp?c=4

You can send him a mail in english without any problem (the site is in french).

Explain him what is your problem, and what you tried.

good luck, I can't help you more.

Zarni
7th December 2001, 20:59
Sorry it didn't work out for you guys but I've been buggering about with it so much I've no idea what I've patched in or changed. It may have something to do with the files from ver4.1 ones with the flask extension that I copied in and renamed, but I'm just guessing ;-(

I can't wait to get a better processor though it just took 18 hours to encode The Animal, at about 3.5 frames per second !! XP is definately slower than W2K ( perhaps a PII 350 is toooo slow ).

Keep at it and it'll work eventualy, shame its not as easy as it should be though.

Sorry I can't help any but I am only a newbie as well. :-)

Chetwood
20th December 2001, 11:40
Well, I did not give up and tried several approaches till I realized what I'd done wrong all the time. Appearently did I set both the avi plugin settings and the 2nd pass plugin settings to 'second pass'! Silly me. As well it turns out you got to set the plugin settings first. It does not matter which codec is installed, Radium will do just fine. Here's how it worked for me, do it in that order:

1. Options | Global Format Options | Video Codec | Divx 4.11
Set varibale bitrate to 2-pass, _first_ pass and keep the bitrate in mind. Leave the log file settings at it's default c:\divx.log

2. Options | Global Project Options | General | 2nd pass plugin settings

Set varibale bitrate to 2-pass, _second_ pass set the same bitrate you did in the other options and also use the same log file.

Now everything should work fine. Please post some comments if it worked for you.

Beater
20th December 2001, 13:43
Originally posted by Chetwood
Well, I did not give up and tried several approaches till I realized what I'd done wrong all the time. Appearently did I set both the avi plugin settings and the 2nd pass plugin settings to 'second pass'! Silly me. As well it turns out you got to set the plugin settings first. It does not matter which codec is installed, Radium will do just fine. Here's how it worked for me, do it in that order:

1. Options | Global Format Options | Video Codec | Divx 4.11
Set varibale bitrate to 2-pass, _first_ pass and keep the bitrate in mind. Leave the log file settings at it's default c:\divx.log

2. Options | Global Project Options | General | 2nd pass plugin settings

Set varibale bitrate to 2-pass, _second_ pass set the same bitrate you did in the other options and also use the same log file.

Now everything should work fine. Please post some comments if it worked for you.

Thats what iīve done all the time ;)
And it still doesnt work, and iīve both Radium & Lame.
I use uncompressed audio and after the encoding i use Virtual Dub to encode the audio (to mp3). And it works great for me :)

Chetwood
20th December 2001, 17:20
@beater

You are sure, that you did not do it in the wrong order?
I had to do it from 1 to 2. But whenever I tried it from 2 to 1 it did not work...

Beater
20th December 2001, 17:48
Originally posted by Chetwood
@beater

You are sure, that you did not do it in the wrong order?
I had to do it from 1 to 2. But whenever I tried it from 2 to 1 it did not work...

Iīve tried both ways, same shit happens....

mcln
24th December 2001, 11:52
Originally posted by iryx
Nope, I don't think that the above solution will work because the problem comes from Xmpeg4.1c not from the DivX codec. WinXP also might have something to do with it.

You have two choices from what I know:
1. Try encoding only the video and do audio separately.
2. Try using an older version of Xmpeg.

I'd go with the second option since that's what works for me. I haven't yet had a successful 2pass encoding with Xmpeg4.1c (and alot of other people are reporting the same) so just stick to an earlier version of Xmpeg.

I think everything depents on the system cause i can use al kinds of flasks and everything works fine even on xp

Asylum
30th December 2001, 12:07
I tried all of the suggestions and still had the same problem, i found ra-codec12.zip in my downloads, installed it and xmpeg now functions, is this a different version than the one that comes with divx 3.1 installer?

ra-codec12.zip
Fhg Radium MP3 codec v1.263

Jorgosch
30th December 2001, 14:05
The Radium Mp3 Codec was released: June 26, 1999.
Hope that helps.

horseshoe7
25th January 2002, 23:28
I've noticed that there is no common solution- perhaps you need to work around XMpeg's bugs. Everyone generally reports that at some point XMpeg works for them, then it starts giving the "cannot find log file", or "not setup properly" bug. So if it worked at some point in time, what you need is to be able to go back to that. Norton Ghost has been my answer to the problem. I have a dual boot win98-win2k machine (BTW this is very easily set-up, and works seamlessly), and I use the win2k partition primarily for the ripping operation. So what I did was, starting from scratch (or with an existing 98 machine)

Create a partition that you intend to install 2K onto. Partition Magic is good for that, or command prompt, or perhaps shareware.

Install WIN2K
Set up drivers
Install Appropriate ripping tools (DVD Decryptor, Smartripper, etc.)
Install divX 3.11
Install divX 4.11
Install XMpeg

Now, if XMpeg doesn't work now, then you're entirely out of luck. I then suspect the bugs must have some dependence on your hardware. I'll get to that... but first, if it does work and can rip a movie, then use Norton Ghost to take an image of your win2K partition. You can tell Ghost to split the image file to fit on CD's.

After that, you can keep a list of things you can install without affecting your ripping, then keep ghosting. This is a long winded message, but sh*t, there still isn't a definitive solution. I find that as well, I try to keep a systematic way right down to button presses in XMpeg. If it worked once, then why should it fail if you do EXACTLY the same sequence of steps? If you abort a procedure, sometimes that's it. I have to restore to a ghost image to get it working again. But the beauty is, to do that, it only takes 15 minutes!

Finally, perhaps it's hardware. There are different motherboard chipsets, processors, architecture, etc. so perhaps it handles things poorly. I don't know enough to explain it, but here's what i've got in case it helps
Pentium 3-750
Abit BH6 motherboard (BX chipset)
RAM is RAM
IDE is IDE (i have Western Digital 40 gig)

Sorry for the long response- :[

chipzoller
29th January 2002, 21:02
Well,

i'm thinking that you guys here can help since this seems to be the thread.

I encode my movies great. The quality is perfect, sound is great as far is the volume is concerned etc. but one very small thing bugs me.

I don't think this is an encoding problem, but seeing is that I'm not an expert, I couldn't say for sure. I think its more of a playback problem.

Here is whats the deal:

After i encode with 2 pass and all the parameters are correct, I go to watch the movie in its entirety. Only about 2 places in the movie exhibit this behaviour. There are slight places where the video seems to speed up for about 1 second or less and during that time, the audio doesn't play. but after 1 second or less, everything goes along as if nothing happened. It only does this in maybe 2 places, and its not the same every time. And if you backtrack to see if you can make the movie do it again, it won't. So I don't quite know how to stop this. Its not a huge deal, but it can be fixed I'm sure.

has anyone else experienced this problem also?

Please post or email me if you can help.


thanks,


chip
chipzoller@yahoo.com