IMPORTANT NOTICE: Problems with CCE v2.70

[jdobbs]

---------------------- IMPORTANT NOTICE ----------------------

I wanted to post this message to alert everyone to what I believe is a bug in CCE v2.70 (both CCE SP, and CCE Basic). The result of this error is the possibility that some encoded segments could be missing frames and will not play back correctly. Here are the symptoms:

1. You have what appears to be an extremely undersized disc.
2. When playing back you may see a frozen or blank picture while sound continues.

Here is how it happens: When DVD-RB calls CCE, the encoder is experiencing a "VBR VBF ovf frame #" overflow error, but rather than reporting it, the application is simply exiting with no termination code that would indicate an error -- leaving DVD-RB believing it has completed its task.

I've personally seen it fail when trying to encode the HBO "white noise" screen.

I have tested the same video using CCE SP Version 2.67 and CCE Basic version 2.69.01.10 and both work correctly -- so I am convinced it has been introduced with the CCE V2.70 engine.

I am developing a "workaround" fix that will either catch the error when it occurs (during rebuild), or if possible adjust some parameters to prevent it from happening.

Look for an update to both the freeware and Pro versions later today.


THIS PROBLEM WAS CORRECTED AND IS CLOSED -- STICKY, NO MORE

Thanks,
jdobbs

[RaistlinMajere]

Yep seems to be the problem I am suffering. Seems to be random as encoding the same disc numerous times the gaps are in different places.

I can't seem to understand why its just started happening though when i have been using 2.70 for over a month or so with no problems (this has only started happening for me in the last week or so, and it only seems to affect one of my computers, although to be fair I use that computer for encoding 4 times out of 5. The affected computer is running windows 2000.

[jdobbs]

You're probably doing series discs. From what I've seen it's a lot more likely to happen on NTSC interlaced sources. In fact there's a chance it may never happen on PAL... but I'm not positive on that one.

QuEnc and HC encoder are sounding better every day... neither of them have any problem at all with the source that I can use to repeat the error.

[RaistlinMajere]

my discs are pal and it happens on both series and single movie discs. The single movie discs are just film only with no menu's (ifoedit preprocessed). It seems to be random as well, some scenes fail one encode and are successful the next, and the same that while one is successful the first time, the second it fails, baffles me.

[jdobbs]

Hmmm... could you take look at the vbr_brate_max setting in REBUILDER.ECL for one of the segments that have failed and see to what value it is set? I think the CCE v2.70 engine may be more sensitive and might be bombing when it hits the max (rather than adjusting the quantization). Just a theory...

[RaistlinMajere]

this is one of the segments it bombed out on

[item]
title=V01000000001001
aud_out=0
vaf_file=D:\D2VAVS\V01000000001001.vaf
aud_file=D:\D2VAVS\V01000000001001.mpa
file_focused=0
packet_size=2048
width=720
height=576
frame_rate_idx=3
cbr_brate=6000
vbr_brate_avg=3039
vbr_brate_min=500
vbr_brate_max=7464
seq_endcode=0
dvd=0
half_width=0
half_height=0
lum_level=0
adjust_q_matrix=0
aspect_ratio=3
gop_m=3
gop_nm=4
gop_hdr=12
seq_hdr=1
all_closed_gop=0
fix_gop_length=0
samples_per_sec=44100
stereo=2
brate_idx=7
crc=1
progressive=1
alternate_scan=0
adjust_q_matrix=0
intra_dc_prec=2
intra_dc_precision_9_max=113
intra_dc_precision_10_max=113
aud_mode=0
tc_ref_frm=0
drop_frame=0
fix_vbv_delay=0
letter_box=0
pulldown_detect=0
offset_line=0
create_new_vaf=1
credits_tweak=0
credits_start=0x00000
credits_brate=1000
h_filter=0
h_filter_idx=8
dither=0
dither_max=8
quality_prec=12.48
timecode=0x0000000
q_char_f=12.48
tc_offset=0
v_filter=0
v_filter_val=6
pict_name=
pict_type=3
pict_level=255
video_type=16
vid_file0=D:\D2VAVS\V01000000001001.m2v
vid_file1=D:\D2VAVS\V01000000001001.m2v
vid_out=1
vaf_out=1
opv_q_factor=0
opv_brate_min=0
opv_brate_max=7464
vbr_bias=5
vbr_pass=3
use_filter=0
filter_val=6
non_linear=1
top_first=0
mpeg1=0
mpeg1_cps=1
qmat_idx=0

[file]
name=D:\D2VAVS\V01000000001001.avs
frame_first=0
frame_last=8015
encode_first=0
encode_last=8015

not sure if it will help. If i reencoded it again I could guarentee almost that it would pass thorugh the segment fine but get stuck somewhere else.

I did 2 films sucessfully yesterday and yet the day before they had failed. It seems to be random as to where it bombs out. The same setup worked fine before. I have been using 2.70.01.05 since it came out and its only the last week or so that the problem occurred. Could it be something to do with the missed segment code you added. Its around that time I first noticed the problem although at the time I though it was just a bad decryption to the hard disk.

[jdobbs]

No. The missed segment code is completely unrelated. At the time the problem is happening the computer essentially belongs to CCE, all DVD-RB is doing at that point is checking the TerminateProcess code to see if CCE is done. I've been checking changes to the ECL files, but nothing significant has changed...

Even more telling is that fact that I can take the exact same job (ECL and all) and run it through CCE V2.69.01.10 Basic or CCE SP V2.67 and it will run through without a hitch.

It's definitely CCE V2.70 that's causing the problem.

[jdobbs]

I did 2 films sucessfully yesterday and yet the day before they had failed. It seems to be random as to where it bombs out. The same setup worked fine before. I have been using 2.70.01.05 since it came out and its only the last week or so that the problem occurred. Could it be something to do with the missed segment code you added. Its around that time I first noticed the problem although at the time I though it was just a bad decryption to the hard disk. Just to be sure I just went back to version 0.80 which was released on March 23rd... it gets exactly the same error from CCE v2.70.

[RaistlinMajere]

have been trying the new 0.94 release and so far seems ok. But without watching the films when i get time I can't be sure.

How will I know if the framecheck fails, will it write this in the log? I guess if I haven't seen anything in the logs regarding this then things went ok.


Thanks for your great efforts jdobbs :D

[Cropsy]

I have the same problem with this movie. Im using cce v.2.70. About 1.13.47 into the movie some actors are looking into a tv screen with only static on it (Simular with the HBO screen Jdobbs are mentioning, of course without the HBO logo). When playing the finished result the movie freezes exactly when the static screen appears, with the sound and subtitles still running. This goes on for the rest of the chapter, and the movie is again perfect when the next chapter is starting. Tried encoding 3 times with the same result at the exact same spot.

I am currently running the prosess again with QuEnc as the encoder, and therefor I can't confirm if it works. I'll post in 2-3 hrs.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by RaistlinMajere
have been trying the new 0.94 release and so far seems ok. But without watching the films when i get time I can't be sure.

How will I know if the framecheck fails, will it write this in the log? I guess if I haven't seen anything in the logs regarding this then things went ok.


Thanks for your great efforts jdobbs :D DVD-RB counts the frames and compares it in the rebuild phase now... if it wasn't right you'd get an error that says "Segment XXXX framecount is smaller than original..." and it would abort the rebuild.

[RaistlinMajere]

Originally posted by jdobbs
DVD-RB counts the frames and compares it in the rebuild phase now... if it wasn't right you'd get an error that says "Segment XXXX framecount is smaller than original..." and it would abort the rebuild.

If thats the case thats 4 successful encodes out of 4 for 0.94

fingers crossed the bug is squashed at least with pal discs. :D

thanks jdobbs :thanks:

[lark]

Originally posted by RaistlinMajere
If thats the case thats 4 successful encodes out of 4 for 0.94


i guess you mean 0.84 ;-)
did not want to point that out earlier since i thought it was a typo.

regards
t :)

[Cropsy]

Everything worked as normal when using QuEnc to do the job.

Does this mean that I'll have to switch back to an old version of CCE? I want to use cce because of the shorter workingtime. I used 1 hour with cce and 3 hours with QuEnc.

Or is there a solution to this soon? I hope that not to many of my movies have ended up like this. Been using cce v.2.70 for a while now.

[RaistlinMajere]

Originally posted by lark
i guess you mean 0.84 ;-)
did not want to point that out earlier since i thought it was a typo.

regards
t :)


thanks for pointing that out hehe. jdobbs has enough on his plate without me testing revisions he has got around to writing yet :D

[RaistlinMajere]

Originally posted by Cropsy
Everything worked as normal when using QuEnc to do the job.

Does this mean that I'll have to switch back to an old version of CCE? I want to use cce because of the shorter workingtime. I used 1 hour with cce and 3 hours with QuEnc.

Or is there a solution to this soon? I hope that not to many of my movies have ended up like this. Been using cce v.2.70 for a while now.


version 0.84 works fine for me with 2.70 cce. Perhaps if you give a richly deserved donation to jdobbs for all his hard work you can have your own personalised version of the latest version. hint hint :)

[Cropsy]

I have now made my donation, just cant wait for the program to jump down my e-mail. :D

By the way jdobbs: GREAT PROGRAM

[RaistlinMajere]

THIS PROBLEM WAS CORRECTED AND IS CLOSED -- STICKY, NO MORE

Seems I was a bit premature in annoucing it had fixed my problems. Its still very hit and miss. One dvd I encoded with 0.841 had about 5+ (i gave up after re-encoding the 5 segments) with frames missing.

I have gaven up on cce 2.70 as this is definitely the problem it seems, for the time been and gone back to using 2.67.00.23, where everything seems to be working fine. Unless 2.70 seriously improves in stability I'll stick to the older version. When will I learn, if it aint broke don't fix it lol

[Cropsy]

It did help for the HBOscreen, but not for Into the sun. I have also switched to 2.67.00.23 and it is the same with that version to.

I just found out that if I do a 3 pass encoding it works perfectly, earlier I only did onepass VBR (w/analysis), and the error occured every time. The encoding is not finished yet but it has passed the creation of the M2Vfile that gave me the error earlier. I played it trough powerdvd and it goes beyond the static screen. (The earlier encodings just stopped at the very moment that the static appeared on the screen) So I asume that everything is going OK.

I will confirm how it went tomorrow.

I have not tried a 3 pass encoding with the 2.70.xxxx version so I'm not sure if that works.

Anyway, I'm glad to have made the donation. No hard feelings RaistlinMajere.

[jdobbs]

I sure hope Cinema Craft appreciates how much work I've had to do to make their latest version work... I know I'm not very happy about it. :mad: I could have been working on improvements and ILVU reencoding.

[Cropsy]

Everything went perfect with cce 2.67.00.23 doing a 3 pass encoding.
When it finished I reinstalled the cce 2.70.xxxx, did the same movie again with 3 passes and it worked excellent. It seems that the problem only occurs when I'm doing a one pass VBR (w/analysis).