Using CCE 2.70 with DVD2SVCD

[manolito]

DVD2SVCD only supports CCE SP up to version 2.67. Version 2.70 has some interesting new features ("Adaptive Q-Matrix switching" and "Fades on a static scene"), so I decided to try to make it work with DVD2SVCD.

And I think I figured out how. To make this post short, I uploaded the HowTo and some example templates here:
http://scifi.pages.at/manolito/CCE270/D2S_CCE2.70.zip

Please let me know if it works for you...

Cheers
manolito

[Sir Didymus]

Hi manolito!

That's very cool, and interesting...
Bringing the recent releases of CCE working with DVD2SVCD is extremely useful IMHO...

I'll give a try to your method and report back in the next days...

Cheers,
SD

Edit 30-11-2006. Some feedback given via PM.

[Nick]

Hi.

I notice in the Readme that someone reported CCE2.70 fails to close properly with a memory error?

Was that me? If not, I get that too. No problems standalone or with Rebuilder but if called by DVD2SVCD it fails to close.

Otherwise works well. I mainly encode with D2SRoBa and am very pleased with the results although as you say, a slightly smaller target disc size is needed to prevent oversizing. Only problem for me is that each testrun D2SRoBa does to determine the correct Q factor requires me to close CCE manually, so the process has to be supervised up to the main movie encode beginning :(

Otherwise very successful.

[manolito]

Hi.

I notice in the Readme that someone reported CCE2.70 fails to close properly with a memory error?

Was that me? If not, I get that too. No problems standalone or with Rebuilder but if called by DVD2SVCD it fails to close.
It was ChickenMan who reported this memory error. This already puts me in a minority position...:scared:

I really tried to reproduce this error (entered all kind of nonsense into the templates, overclocked my CPU, had a virus scanner run in the background), but no luck. Maybe it is my oldfashioned computer (Celeron 1.1 GHz Coppermine, MMX and SSE, but no SSE2).

But it really strikes me as funny that this happens only when CCE 2.70 is called by D2S or D2SRoBa. What can be different compared to DVD-Rebuilder? In every case the calling program just sits there and waits for CCE to finish, how can it cause CCE to throw a memory error?

Confused...
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Well in one way I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets the error, yes, was I that originally reported the memory error with 2.70.02.10. I get the same error with the later 2.70.02.11 also.

http://www.sympac.com.au/~laughton/cce270error.jpg

Both numbers change but same error each time.

As Nick said, works great with ReBuilder or standalone, just not with D2S for me :(

[Matthew]

I get that memory error too, although maybe only with XviD (not entirely sure).

I don't use DVD2SVCD though, it is not at fault. I dealt with the problem by killing CCE when the .mpv is released, instead of letting CCE exit normally.

[ChickenMan]

Arr... interesting. I just tried with a Divx file ( 4cc of DIVX ) and NO error :) Then changed the 4cc to XVID for the same file and bingo, the error ! Changed again 4cc to DX50, I still get the error. Changed yet again back to DIVX and again NO error :) I now know what to do in the furture to test 2.70 fully.

I have DivX 6.20 and Xvid 1.2 installed on my system.

[manolito]

Looks like we are closing in on this error. I have neither DivX nor XviD installed on my machine (I use the Helix codec for my YV12 needs).

Now we need to know if Nick can reproduce your findings...

In the meantime I have done some more conversions with CCE 2.70, and I have to say that the "Fades on a static scene" option does make a major difference.

Cheers
manolito

[Nick]

Yep.
Curiously I can convert Xvid files standalone but not via DVD2SVCD.

But it's fine with DivX and DVD - just my XviD files throw the crash

[manolito]

OK, it looks like the XviD decoder behaves strangely in combination with D2S and CCE 2.70.

Even though I have no interest in Mpeg4 video I downloaded the current DivX and XviD codecs, created a small XviD AVI and fed it to D2S. Sure enough I got this memory error, too.

Playing with the XviD decoder settings did not help at all. As ChickenMan already pointed out, the only solution ATM seems to be to change the FourCC of the XviD AVI to DivX instead. Easy enough using Nic's FourCC changer which comes with XviD.

Maybe we should ask Koepi if he has an idea what is going on here.

Anyway, I will update the Readme to describe this problem and the current solution.

Cheers
manolito

[Matthew]

It is nothing to do with DVD2SVCD...I get the error message and I don't even have it installed.

If I load an avs manually it is ok, but if I load a cce-generated ecl then it is not.

[Nick]

That would explain it.
DVD2SVCD always loads up an ecl file.

However, it seems odd that only certain FOURCC codes seems to be affected.

[jerohm]

I have used CCE 2.67 Basic (cct2.exe) with DVD2SVCD 1.2.3.b1 without issue. The (LOGICAL) sequence I observed while watching the first invocation of CCE (IF I was to do it manually) is:
a) Open->File->somefile.avs
b) Save_As->somefile.ecl
c) Open->Project->somefile.ecl
d) Encode
e) [Repeat for next *.avs]

When I install CCE 2.70(.01.14) Basic, the invocation of CCE FAILS because instead of FIRST expecting 'somefile.avs', it seems to want to open a project (*.ecl) file right off the bat.

When I manually go through the steps, the user interface seems to be the same, so I ASSUME some default action of CCE has changed. Is DVD2SVCD implemented in a similar manner as 'D2SRoBa' (i.e. a compiled scripting language) and is the source available? Thanks for any insight and help (or maybe there is a registry value that could be changed?) One difference that I have noticed between CCE 2.67 Basic and 2.70 Basic, is that 2.70 uses additional registry values stored under 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Custom Technology\Cinema Craft Encoder Basic'

I have already successfully modified D2SRoBa.au3 to operate with DVD2SVCD and CCE 2.67 Basic. I would be happy to share D2SRoBa.au3, but currently I only made sure it would work on with CCE Basic without regard to CCE SP and such. (I also modified Templates_270.reg to work with Basic - but haven't really tested them).

[El Enmascarado]

Arr... interesting. I just tried with a Divx file ( 4cc of DIVX ) and NO error :) Then changed the 4cc to XVID for the same file and bingo, the error ! Changed again 4cc to DX50, I still get the error. Changed yet again back to DIVX and again NO error :) I now know what to do in the furture to test 2.70 fully.

I have DivX 6.20 and Xvid 1.2 installed on my system.

Is Divx5.05 better then later divxs? I remember many say so... will 5.05 crash if I use it with cce? :sly:

[ChickenMan]

We are talking specifically about the latest CCE version 2.70.x.x. DivX 5 encodes convert fine with cce 2.50, 2.66 & 2.67 using latest DVD2SVCD.

[manolito]

Small update for users BatchMux:

BatchMux has to calculate the chapter points and enter them into the "CellTimes.txt" file. If the source is a DVD and "DVD chapters" are specified, there is no problem with CCE 2.70. But if "Fixed chapters every ... sec" is selected, BatchMux needs to know the correct movie length which it tries to read from the D2S project file. When using CCE 2.70 this value will be 00:00:00, so the "CellTimes.txt" file will be invalid causing MuxMan to fail.

I wrote a small batch file which uses an alternative method to determine the length of the movie. The link in the first post of this thread will get you the new version. Now using DVD2SVCD with CCE_SP_2.70, D2SRoBa and BatchMux is fully automatic.

Only tested wit PAL AVI sources so far.

Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

Small update for users of BatchMux:


BatchMux has to calculate the chapter points and enter them into the "CellTimes.txt" file. If the source is a DVD and "DVD chapters" are specified, there is no problem with CCE 2.70. But if "Fixed chapters every ... sec" is selected, BatchMux needs to know the correct movie length which it tries to read from the D2S project file. When using CCE 2.70 this value will be 00:00:00, so the "CellTimes.txt" file will be invalid causing MuxMan to fail.


I wrote a small batch file which uses an alternative method to determine the length of the movie. The link in the first post of this thread will get you the new version. Now using DVD2SVCD with CCE_SP_2.70, D2SRoBa and BatchMux is fully automatic.

Only tested wit PAL AVI sources so far.

Cheers
manolito


Edit: Corrected a stupid error in the batch file. Please redownload...

[syphoner]

The memory error doenst bother me anymore after re-downloading the whole files :)

[ChickenMan]

Small update for users BatchMux:

BatchMux has to calculate the chapter points and enter them into the "CellTimes.txt" file. If the source is a DVD and "DVD chapters" are specified, there is no problem with CCE 2.70. But if "Fixed chapters every ... sec" is selected, BatchMux needs to know the correct movie length which it tries to read from the D2S project file. When using CCE 2.70 this value will be 00:00:00, so the "CellTimes.txt" file will be invalid causing MuxMan to fail.

I wrote a small batch file which uses an alternative method to determine the length of the movie. The link in the first post of this thread will get you the new version. Now using DVD2SVCD with CCE_SP_2.70, D2SRoBa and BatchMux is fully automatic.

Only tested wit PAL AVI sources so far.

Cheers
manolito
Thanks manolito, works great for me using latest cce 2.7.0.12. Well done :)

[manolito]

@ChickenMan
My pleasure...

@syphoner
I still get the memory error with XviD AVIs. You say that after redownloading the whole files the error went away for you. Which files are you talking about?

Cheers
manolito

[Nick]

I've stopped getting the memory errors from XviD since installing celtic_druid's 10 Mar 07 compile:
http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/XviD/XviD.cvs.head.MTK.exe

Does this work for anyone else?

[manolito]

Does this work for anyone else?
Yes it does! Tested with three short XviD files, no problems. My apologies to Custom Technologies, CCE 2.70 is not to blame.

Thanks so much Nick for finding it, I already updated the Readme.

Cheers
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Sorry for late responce, but yes that new build of Xvid is working for me fine me as well. Thanks for the heads up :)

[manolito]

News for BatchMux fans:

Sir Didymus just released version 1.4 of his plugin, and he fixed the chapter creation issue when using CCE 2.70. Upgrading is strongly recommended...

Cheers
manolito