DVD2SVCD hangs when checking AC3 file

[lordkinbote]

Hi all,

this is very strange because it just started happpening to me. I'd been converting AVI2DVD with AC3 audio using D2S for a while and just having it leave the audio, but for some reason, last night, it would start the process, extract the audio and then in the log it would say that it's checking the .ac3 file and then it just hangs. When I go to the D2S log to look at it, it doesn't say anything really. I'll show what it says anyway:

WNASPI32.DLL 0.0.0.0
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2/24/2007 6:14:23 AM
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.3 build 1
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
- C:\Documents and Settings\Lord Kinbote\Desktop\watched\kop.e01.avi
Initializing finished.
---------------------------------------------------------

And that's all it says. I have two PCs and I tried encoding on both, even using AVIs that I encoded just last week and both have the same results (or non-results) of freezing/hanging right after the extracting of the AC3 file when "checking" it. I tried using an earlier version of D2S v1.2.2.b3 and it gets through the whole process because it doesn't do the check of the audio, but the resulting mpeg comes out to be too large, even when using D2SRoba and because it's an older version, it uses bbmpeg to mux and so it splits it into 2 mpegs. So, I have no idea why D2S would all of a sudden freak out when trying to handle AVIs w/AC3 because, like I said, it was fine last week. Both PCs have different versions of the k-lite codec pack, one newer and one older so I doubt it would be the codecs. I've tried with and without D2SRoba and with and without the "Do not convert audio" checked having the same results.

Has ANYONE come across this problem before or have any ideas or suggestions to what would be causing this? Is there any way to possible get D2S to not run the check on the AC3 file?

[Nick]

New one on me.
There is no way to disable the check.
I would start with the VDubMod trick in the "Problems specific to AVI" sticky and see if that helps.

[lordkinbote]

Thanks Nick,
but I don't think that will do the trick because there are no sync issues with the AVIs (I tried multiple ones including ones I'd done before). It seems very specific to me since no one has replied saying they've had something similar happen and I have no idea why it would start doing this all of a sudden when it was fine at least a week ago. What's extremely odd is that it's happening on both my PCs, my old one and new one. Very puzzling.

[lordkinbote]

I am still having this problem on my PCs. I even reformatted and rebuilt my main PC and had it pretty barebones with the codecs, anti-virus, sound drivers and such and it still hung at the same "checking" of the AC3 file part. What's odd is that I installed DVD2SVCD on my laptop and it gets past that point just fine on the exact same files. My laptop is a lot slower than my PC so I don't want to use it for all my encoding. Plus, it REALLY p***s me off that I have no idea why D2S is, all of a sudden, not working on either of my PCs. Compared all the settings, looked at running processes (which I'm still doing), even though my laptop has almost twice as many processes running than my PC, and I haven't come up with any ideas yet. It's driving me CRAZY. :mad:

[Nick]

I am non-the-wiser but may have a workaround. It may be possible (though not automated) to skip this step.

Try this:
Start the encode and when it hangs, close down DVD2SVCD.

Open the file "DVD2SVCD_project_file.d2s" in your output folder into Notepad.

In the first line under [Settings], change Project Position to 94 and then resave.

Now reopen DVD2SVCD and do a crash recover from the Misc tab. You should find you can now choose Audio Encoding from the list of available stages. It should continue normally from there.

Not a solution by any stretch but if it works, what the heck.

[lordkinbote]

I'm with you on that. Or as the Moonenites would say, "Put a period on THAT!" Workaround is what I was looking for, if not a fix. I'll try it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

[lordkinbote]

JACKPOT!

THANKS! It worked as you said!

[lordkinbote]

Okay, you know what's really weird? I mean, really, REALLY weird? I did what you said, it got through the process but I had to renamed the Extracted audio and the pulldown files at the end to what I wanted them to in order to insert them in DVDLab Pro, because it didn't mux them, probably because there was no Encoded audio file. No biggie, right? DVDLab Pro would've had to demux the file anyway. So, the weird part is I start on the next AVI, it doesn't hang. Goes completely through as normal. Now, I'm TOTALLY confused. HAPPY, but confused. Thanks again for your help, Nick!

[lordkinbote]

:scared: My exuberance was a bit premature. This one looks like it may be fixable that I just have figure out how though. I'm posting my D2SRoba logs because this will show the problem. Keep in mind my suggested file size of 530MB when you look at these. When the AVI when through without hanging, it came with this log:

D2SRoBa v3.80, by Tylo
--------------------------------------------------------
- WIN_XP - AutoIt 3.1.1.0
- 2007-03-03 05:12:53
--------------------------------------------------------
- INI file : C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Tylo\D2SRoBa.ini
- Output type : DVD
- CD size : 530
- Sample file size : 1.0% (delete previous: Yes)
- Adjust estimated : 1.4% (accuracy tweak: Yes)
- Sizing pass : Encode (1 pass) if opv pass < -4.0% from target, or Q > 40
Transcode (ReJig) if opv pass > 0.0% above target, and Q <= 40
- Cond. filtering : No
- Run mode : Normal
--------------------------------------------------------
- Waiting for CCE window, or 'Ripping done' message box...
- Detected a CCE encode window
- Detected the movie encode window - shutting down
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:14:20
- Copying D2SRoBa.ini to project dir C:\TempDVD\source\
- Avisynth setup: FitCD
- D2S ver. 1.2.3.1, CCE ver. 2.67.0.27
- Setting process priority 1
--------------------------------------------------------
- Movie length : 00:21:16 (30596 frames, 23.976 fps)
- D2S audio select : 381 + 0 kbps
- D2S video calc. : 2999 kbps, 1 CDs
- Select ranges : every 1200, select 12 frames
- Sample frames : 312
--------------------------------------------------------
Calculations:
- 1 CD: video_br=2999 (2999) audio_br=381+0 video_sz=478381527 fill=100% cbr=0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Using num CDs : 1
- Target mpv br : 2999 (max 8000) kbps, size=478381527 bytes
--------------------------------------------------------
Search for Q:
- Sample enc. Q=26 : 1709 kbps, err=-43%, size=272700913, sample sz=2820328
- Sample enc. Q=8 : 3259 kbps, err=8.7%, size=519941872, sample sz=5377344
- Sample enc. Q=11 : 2767 kbps, err=-7.7%, size=441481987, sample sz=4565896
- Sample enc. Q=10 : Skipped
--------------------------------------------------------
- Determined Q : 10 = Round(11 + (-7.7/5.5)) with 1.4% adjustment.
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:14:48
- Start movie OPV encoding (Q 10)
- OPV pass result: 101.2% on target, 3033 kbps (483940924 / 478381527) Speed: 3.81
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:20:25
- Executing: "C:\ReJig\ReJig.exe" -level 98.85 -o "C:\TempDVD\video\Encoded_Video_CCE_NTSC.mpv" -i "C:\TempDVD\video\Encoded_Video_CCE_NTSC.oversz.mpv" -auto -close
- Transcoding pass: 99.9% on target, 2997 kbps (478113452 / 478381527) Speed: 131.08
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:20:37
- Recover DVD2SVCD: Pulldown
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:21:54
- D2SRoBa successfully finished
--------------------------------------------------------

This one calculated correctly. The one that hung and had to be restarted, instead, looks like this for the projected files sizes:

--------------------------------------------------------
D2SRoBa v3.80, by Tylo
--------------------------------------------------------
- WIN_XP - AutoIt 3.1.1.0
- 2007-03-03 04:57:04
--------------------------------------------------------
- INI file : C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Tylo\D2SRoBa.ini
- Output type : DVD
- CD size : 530
- Sample file size : 1.0% (delete previous: Yes)
- Adjust estimated : 1.4% (accuracy tweak: Yes)
- Sizing pass : Encode (1 pass) if opv pass < -4.0% from target, or Q > 40
Transcode (ReJig) if opv pass > 0.0% above target, and Q <= 40
- Cond. filtering : No
- Run mode : Crash recovery
--------------------------------------------------------
- Restarting C:\TempDVD\source\dvd2svcd project file.d2s
- Waiting for CCE window...
- Detected a CCE encode window
- Detected the movie encode window - shutting down
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 04:58:17
- Copying D2SRoBa.ini to project dir C:\TempDVD\source\
- Avisynth setup: FitCD
- D2S ver. 1.2.3.1, CCE ver. 2.67.0.27
- Setting process priority 1
--------------------------------------------------------
- Movie length : 00:23:57 (34460 frames, 23.976 fps)
- D2S audio select : 0 + 0 kbps
- D2S video calc. : 3001 kbps, 1 CDs
- Select ranges : every 1200, select 12 frames
- Sample frames : 348
--------------------------------------------------------
Calculations:
- 1 CD: video_br=3001 (3001) audio_br=0+0 video_sz=539156135 fill=100% cbr=0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Using num CDs : 1
- Target mpv br : 3001 (max 8000) kbps, size=539156135 bytes
--------------------------------------------------------
Search for Q:
- Sample enc. Q=26 : 1926 kbps, err=-35.8%, size=346033329, sample sz=3544092
- Sample enc. Q=11 : 3094 kbps, err=3.1%, size=556023242, sample sz=5694820
- Sample enc. Q=12 : 2968 kbps, err=-1.1%, size=533383642, sample sz=5462944
--------------------------------------------------------
- Determined Q : 12 = Round(12 + (-1.1/4.2)) with 1.4% adjustment.
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 04:58:46
- Start movie OPV encoding (Q 12)
- OPV pass result: 103.3% on target, 3100 kbps (557054128 / 539156135) Speed: 3.83
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:05:04
- Executing: "C:\ReJig\ReJig.exe" -level 96.79 -o "C:\TempDVD\video\Encoded_Video_CCE_NTSC.mpv" -i "C:\TempDVD\video\Encoded_Video_CCE_NTSC.oversz.mpv" -auto -close
- Transcoding pass: 100% on target, 2999 kbps (538911404 / 539156135) Speed: 127.83
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:05:17
- Recover DVD2SVCD: Pulldown
--------------------------------------------------------
- 2007-03-03 05:09:47
- D2SRoBa successfully finished
--------------------------------------------------------

It's not taking the audio size into consideration and encodes the video to the full size.

And now it's hanging on every file again at the checking audio stage, even the one that just went through without problems before.

[Nick]

Are you crash-recovering from AUDIO conversion or VIDEO conversion? Even if you are using source audio, it still runs BeSweet and does something. If you recover from audio encoding, it should create the Encoded_audio_1 file without you needing to rename and then D2SRoBa should take it into consideration.

[lordkinbote]

I recovered from Audio Processing. It didn't create the Encoded_audio_1 file. In the .d2s file I went in and changed it so the Extracted and Encoded files had the extensions of .ac3. Then when I tried it again, in the D2SRoba log, under D2S audio select, said 381 + 0 kbps like the top example (the worked before), yet it still encoded the video with the whole 530MB in mind. But, this time it did create an Encoded_audio_1.ac3 file and muxed it all at the end. The resulting mpeg was close to 610MB though. Getting closer, but not quite there yet.

[lordkinbote]

Okie dokie,

Here's what I've done do far. After the last time when the final file size came out to 610MB, I ran it again on the next file and it went through without problems correctly. So, I copied that .d2s file to my desktop and viewed it so that if it hung again, I could compare the two and what I changed was the extensions of the Encoded and Extracted files to .ac3, the bbMPEGCDSize to 530 (it was 800, but I'd changed it before to 530 and it still came out to 610), ReduceCDSize to 4 (it was 0), fps=23.976 (it was 0 even though the vifps was 23976), and the AudioBitrate to 384 (it was also 0). The next time it froze and I recovered from Audio Processing and it finished with the correct file size. As long as the specs are the same for the AVIs I'm doing, I'll probably just go in to the .d2s file that worked and change the file location name, save it to the Source folder and restart it and it should go through correctly. Don't know if this helps you to understand what's going on any better, but I thought I'd let you know what I figured the workaround to be. Don't have a clue why it works the odd time after it is recovered and then freezes the next times though.

[jolson]

It seems to be a kind of similarity to my problem here, I have described mine in this thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123818 (unfortunately I can't edit that thread header, since it's not really only related to "a new machine").

The only difference is that for me DVD2SVCD crashes with error code 998 instead of hanging. Otherwise, I have tried with AVI files that have worked before, on two machines, reinstalled...

Maybe the workaround presented here can work for me. Right now I will test AVI2DVD, to see what comes out of it. I remember when I tried it a year ago it didn't produce what I wanted (and it doesn't have D2SRoBa), but maybe it's better now. It says it's only handling 2-channel AC3 audio, but I don't know if it makes a difference if it retains 5.1 AC3 audio when believing it is 2-channel...

Anyway AVI2DVD extracts the audio to an Extracted_audio_1.ac3, then "fixes" it someway and produces an AudioStream 1 AC3 2CH.ac3. I will let it go through and see what I get.

One possibility is a combination, taking the AudioStream 1 AC3 2CH.ac3 (if it would really be 5-channel) and renaming it to Encoded_audio_1.ac3 and then do a DVD2SVCD recover...