DVD2SVCD won't complete - stops - no error

[whftherb]

Trying to convert an AVI to a DVD image I can throw on a disk and play. I've had success before, didn't mess with this for a while, now I'm back into it. DVD2SVCD starts and steps through but then stops midstream. Note: I have a tendency to leave things defaulted.

Here's a copy of what's showing in the "Log" display:


WNASPI32.DLL 4.71.1.0
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/5/2005 10:46:52 PM
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.2 build 3
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
WARNING! You seem to be using "Norton Unerase Protection" and
you want to delete the temporary files created by dvd2svcd.
This can cause DVD2SVCD problems. Even though DVD2SVCD deletes
the temporary files, Norton doesn't, therefore DVD2SVCD
might run into diskspace problems. I suggest that you stop the
"Norton Unerase Protection" Service.
- C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Target AVIs\Bogart - Casablanca {1942}.avi
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/5/2005 10:46:55 PM
- Free on drive C: 132367.04 mb
- AUDIO Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------
Audio extraction finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/5/2005 10:47:11 PM
- Free on drive C: 132296.55 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/5/2005 10:47:14 PM
- Free on drive C: 132296.55 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------

Converting MP2 to WAV. Filename: C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing MADPlay (mp2 to wav). Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\MADPlay\madplay.exe" --quiet --output=wave:"C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa"
Conversion (mp2 to wav) of C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.


Encoding Audio. Filename: C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing BeSweet. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" -output "C:\DOCUME~1\HS~1\MYDOCU~1\MOVIE_~1\Encoded_audio_1.mpa" -payload -logfile "C:\DOCUME~1\HS~1\MYDOCU~1\MOVIE_~1\Encoded_audio_1.log" )
Audio conversion of C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.

Audio conversion finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/5/2005 10:50:23 PM
- Free on drive C: 130040.74 mb
- Video Encoding using Cinema Craft
--------------------------------------------------------

Executing Cinema Craft Encoder.
StreamSectors: 4666096988
AudioSectors: 2324
VideoPAPO: 72280296
ScanOffsetBytes: 221535
SeqAligningBytes: 14079780
DVDBytes: 0
VideoEndHeader: 4
SubtitleSectors: 0
EmptySectors: 238.00
PictureSectors: 0.00
PureMPEGStream: 4579513049.00
Seconds: 6161.91
CalcMPEGStream: 4579513049.00
Frames: 147690
CDSize: 4464.00
Number of CDs: 1
Cut point 4460.00
Variable Settings:
Frames: 147690
Anti Noise Filter: Off
Passes: 3
Image Quality: 17
VAF file creation: On
Video Encoding Mode: Multipass VBR
Min. bitrate: 2000
Max. bitrate: 8000
Avg. Bitrate: 5945
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (No borders, encoded as 4:3)

---AVS Begin---
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\DVD2SVCD\AVISYN~1.5PL\Mpeg2dec\MPEG2D~1.DLL")
AVISource("C:\DOCUME~1\HS~1\MYDOCU~1\MOVIE_~1\TARGET~1\BOGART~1.AVI",audio=false)
ConvertToYUY2()
LanczosResize(552,480)
AddBorders(84,0,84,0)
Import("C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\ResampleAudio.avs")
ResampleAudio(44100)
----AVS End----



And, so, it looks OK but this is where it's sitting (right now as I've left it) apparently dead in the water. Ctl-Alt-Del still shows DVD2SVCD running. But it's been like this for at least 18 hours. When it's doing nothing like this and there's no errors showing, what do you do?

[SallyDog]

WARNING! You seem to be using "Norton Unerase Protection" and
you want to delete the temporary files created by dvd2svcd.
This can cause DVD2SVCD problems. Even though DVD2SVCD deletes
the temporary files, Norton doesn't, therefore DVD2SVCD
might run into diskspace problems. I suggest that you stop the
"Norton Unerase Protection" Service.


Have you tried after heeding this warning?

[whftherb]

Thanks Salty.

I've looked at this issue and ignored the warning. The drive is about 10% full - it has about 120 gig vacant. With that, I don't believe I'm in danger of running out of disk space. If it were 90% full, then yes, but not with the amount of space I see here.

And, I've left this running a second night. Still sits in the same spot, no error, no progress bar(s), Ctl-Alt-Del still shows the app working. I just noticed something I didn't notice before. At idle, the disk activity light is flickering madly!

Could it just be this Athlon 3400+ XP-Pro SP2 (brand new) is still working on the fool thing??? Other than this browser session, DVD2SVCD is the only thing on the task bar (I realize there are other background processes in motion)...

[Manngo]

Hi

I also met the problem once. I just restarted the computer and started the whole project from the beginning. I mean not restarting, but building it again. It just went fine, I could not reproduce the error.

Your sizing looks strange.
4:3 with borders on the left and the right?

Manngo

[Venom_IL]

maybe the nosideborders script as suggested in the sticky wasn't used..

[whftherb]

OK, thanks a bunch to all three of you for your help.

Restarting - well, I've actually done that about a week ago on the first attempt to use DVD2SVCD on this project too when it "hung" up. I got a Windows Update notification overnight, went and downloaded/updated and it prompted for a restart knowing that it was going to kill the already running (but stalled) process. Since it too was about a day old, stuck like it is now, I closed it, restarted, cleaned out the WorkingFolder entirely, reinitialized, relaunched and it re-stuck again right in the same place which is where I'm at right now.

4:3 borders left and right - OK, I'm guilty of leaving things defaulted when I don't understand what they do. Here I thought 4:3 would be OK and wasn't aware that a "borders left and right" was odd. If the default vals are incorrect, what would you suggest or set (or how do you determine what to set)? Having said that, is it possible that this setting has something to do with DVD2SVCD not completing???

Anxious to find out what I'm doing wrong...Thanks again for the help!

[whftherb]

OK, after two and half days, I killed it finally - it wasn't going anywhere - because I discovered "Nick's" post at the top of the forum regarding "no borders". So I copied and pasted in the revised script from Nick's post and relaunched. This time something different:

I get an error from CCE stating that "Framesize 1044 x 56 is not supported - size 720 x 576 should be used". DVD2SVCD had halted and I couldn't call it up from the task bar. Well, after closing it, I went back to the program and checked the Frameserver tab and DVD - 720 x 576 is indeed selected. Nowhere can I find any reference to a framesize of 1044 x 56 in anything I have set. I cleared everything and retried 3 times with the exact same results.

As soon as it hits this error and I dismiss it, CCE's screen (it's in a frame but there's no data) stays up and you're left with either "Encode" or "Exit" - neither of which have any effect. I can't get back to DVD2SVCD's multi-tabbed screen. It's sitting there on the task bar, but I can't open it. And, ctl-alt-del shows it's not responding. Sigh! The only way out is to kill the process in Task Mgr or right click it on the task bar and close.

Anyone have some suggestions for how to get past this error/crash? Note ResampleAudio is ticked - you have to let your mouse hover over the object and you get a nice little bubble helper advising you to leave this on if you use CCE and are on an Athlon (which is my case). So I think I've set that correctly.

Boy, would I love to solve this!!!

[Manngo]

CCE version?
avisynth_scriptfile.avs does play in Win Media Player?
Do you use EclCCE?
.ecl file exist in project directory?
Can you open it with CCE?

I would also try to reinstall CCE.

cheers
Manngo

[whftherb]

OK, thanks for the help!

Let me see if I can answer your questions one by one and then I'll tell you what else I've just tried:

CCE version = 2.5 - came with the DVD2SVCD bundle downloaded last week. I have to assume it's the latest.

avisynth_scriptfile.avs is a 1KB text file. It will not play with WMP. Is that the right filename?

EclCCE.exe = not on the disk. Also searched entire disk for *.ecl - it does not exist so therefore I can't open it with CCE. Perhaps because the process never gets to the point of its creation???

Decided to try TMPGEnc and scrap CCE for the time being. Got through the encoding fine but now I've got:

Here's the log file using TMPGEnc as the encoder:

WNASPI32.DLL 4.71.1.0
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:16:09 PM
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.2 build 3
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
WARNING! You seem to be using "Norton Unerase Protection" and
you want to delete the temporary files created by dvd2svcd.
This can cause DVD2SVCD problems. Even though DVD2SVCD deletes
the temporary files, Norton doesn't, therefore DVD2SVCD
might run into diskspace problems. I suggest that you stop the
"Norton Unerase Protection" Service.
- C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Target AVIs\Bogart - Casablanca {1942}.avi
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:16:12 PM
- Free on drive C: 134323.62 mb
- AUDIO Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------
Audio extraction finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:16:27 PM
- Free on drive C: 134253.13 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:16:30 PM
- Free on drive C: 134253.13 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------

Converting MP2 to WAV. Filename: C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing MADPlay (mp2 to wav). Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\MADPlay\madplay.exe" --quiet --output=wave:"C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa"
Conversion (mp2 to wav) of C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.


Encoding Audio. Filename: C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing BeSweet. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" -output "C:\DOCUME~1\HERBSA~1\MYDOCU~1\MOVIE_~1\Encoded_audio_1.mpa" -payload -logfile "C:\DOCUME~1\HERBSA~1\MYDOCU~1\MOVIE_~1\Encoded_audio_1.log" )
Audio conversion of C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.

Audio conversion finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:20:22 PM
- Free on drive C: 131997.32 mb
- Video Encoding using TMPGEnc
--------------------------------------------------------
- Encoding C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\AviSynth_Script_file.avs
StreamSectors: 4666096988
AudioSectors: 2324
VideoPAPO: 72280296
ScanOffsetBytes: 216
SeqAligningBytes: 13728
DVDBytes: 0
VideoEndHeader: 4
SubtitleSectors: 0
EmptySectors: 238.00
PictureSectors: 0.00
PureMPEGStream: 4593800420.00
Seconds: 12.00
CalcMPEGStream: 4593800420.00
Frames: 240
CDSize: 4464.00
Number of CDs: 1
Cut point 4460.00
Max. Bitrate: 8000
Avg. Bitrate: 7200.00
Min. Bitrate: 2000
Executing TMPGEnc. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\TMP\TMPGEnc.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\TMPGEnc_Project_file.tpr" /Encode /Close
Video Encoding finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:34:20 PM
- Free on drive C: 131997.20 mb
- Multiplexing Audio and Video
--------------------------------------------------------
Executing MPlex. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVDAuthor\mplex.exe" -f 8 -o "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg" "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_Video_TMPGEnc_NTSC.mpv" "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_audio_1.mpa"
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:34:22 PM
- Free on drive C: 131997.20 mb
- Determining length of audio
--------------------------------------------------------
Analyzing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/8/2005 6:34:27 PM
- Free on drive C: 131997.19 mb
- Authoring DVD
--------------------------------------------------------
Executing DVDAuthor. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVDAuthor\dvdauthor.exe" -x "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\DVDAuthor.xml"
DVDAuthor failed for unknown reasons!
For details open: "C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\DVDAuthor_log.txt"

Rats! Opened DVDAuthor_log.txt and here's what I found:

DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg...
ERR: Error opening C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg: No such file or directory

So, what in blazes does this tell me? Somehow the multiplexer isn't creating a file in Movie_Wkg_Fldr? Looked all over the log and can't see a "multiplexing" error. Can't see anything remotely related to it.

Anyone see an obvious omission or mistake in what I'm doing?

[whftherb]

Incidentally, On the Audio Tab, "Do not convert Audio" is unticked as I learned sometime ago. Here also is mplex_log.txt:

INFO: [???] mplex version 2.0.0 (2.2.3 $Date: 2004/01/13 20:45:26 $)
**ERROR: [???] Unable to open file C:\Documents and Settings\HS\My Documents\Movie_Wkg_Fldr\Encoded_Video_TMPGEnc_NTSC.mpv for reading.

Does one error "depend" upon the other??? Wish there was an easy answer...

Thanks for all the help, folks!

[Nick]

Jeez, you're having a hard time!

Does the TMPGEnc encoded file exist in your project folder?
I suspect not as the disc space before and after video encoding suggests nothing happened.

What is the resolution of the original AVI file, by the way?

Oh, and if you open WMP and drag-and-drop the Avisynth Script file into it, what happens?

[SallyDog]

I have a couple of question/comments:

CCE version = 2.5 - came with the DVD2SVCD bundle downloaded last week. I have to assume it's the latest.

I am not aware of any official DVD2SVCD that comes bundled with CCE. Where did you get this?


Decided to try TMPGEnc and scrap CCE for the time being. Got through the encoding fine but now I've got:

You only got 240 frames encoded (maybe 8 or 9 seconds), so you didn't actually get through the encoding successfully.

Maybe I missed this above, but have you completely uninstalled D2S and then tried a clean install.

[Manngo]

Make some things clear:
CCE will not come with DVD2SVCD.
CCE 2.5 will not work without EclCCE.

I'm also waiting to know, if avisynth_scriptfile.avs plays in WMP.
Just drag-and-drop, as Nick said.

[Nick]

CCE 2.5 will not work without EclCCE

Actually, yes it will! :)

[whftherb]

OK, OK - I messed this up. I said that CCE came with DVD2SVCD and I was dead wrong. I failed to remember that CCE comes as a separate package so I need to apologize to you folks for that confusion. I'm pretty usre though that I installed CCE right after DVD2SVCD was installed - so that's probably where my confusion stems from...

Here's what I'm going to do later this eve - uninstall everything having to do with this - DVD2SVCD, EclCCE, CCE, TMPGen - everyting - and start fresh from the beginning and then I'll have a better baseline from which to work. And, I won't start hopping around from software to software either - I think that was a big mistake...

I'm just going to toss this out there and hope that it doesn't wind up getting me in more hot water. DVD2SVCD appears to be a well thought out package - it does quite a bit by assembling and sequencing a lot of actions that would drive the ordinary person off the edge. Wouldn't it be nice for noobs (like me) to be able to read something that says what each module called by DVD2SVCD does? For example, in some of the responses to my posting here, there's reference to AVIsynth and EclCCE and other progs used. Well, my question (among others) is: What exactly does EclCCE do? What exactly does AVIsynth do? What's the purpose of BeSweet and MadPlay in the big scheme of things? Maybe that exists somewhere but I can't find it. Might go a long way toward straightening out misunderstandings of what's going on behind the scenes.

So, I'm going to go ahead and restart everything and will no doubt need some additional guidance. And I'll be lots more careful with info I post from now on, too!

[whftherb]

Finally got around to dumping everything and starting fresh. Decided to keep CCE for the time being. Freshly downloaded lastest DVD2SVCD and kept the orig CCE. So, now I have a completely different result than before but I've also seen this same error on my system before: In the log window, I see:

Executing DVDAuthor. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVDAuthor\dvdauthor.exe" -x "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\DVDAuthor.xml"
DVDAuthor failed for unknown reasons!
For details open: "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\DVDAuthor_log.txt"

So, let's go grab DVDAuthor_log.txt. Here's its contents:
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg...
ERR: Error opening C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg: No such file or directory

OK, not much to tell there - The file MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg isn't being created. Searched disk - no such file. Let's have a look at another log file that was created called: MPlex_log.txt:

DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=C
INFO: Converting filenames to US-ASCII
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg...
ERR: Error opening C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg: No such file or directory

And so the whole process is captured in the file:

WNASPI32.DLL 4.71.1.0
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/16/2005 9:46:24 PM
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.2 build 3
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
WARNING! You seem to be using "Norton Unerase Protection" and
you want to delete the temporary files created by dvd2svcd.
This can cause DVD2SVCD problems. Even though DVD2SVCD deletes
the temporary files, Norton doesn't, therefore DVD2SVCD
might run into diskspace problems. I suggest that you stop the
"Norton Unerase Protection" Service.
- \\Herbs\d\My Music\Incoming\M.Bette Davis - All About Eve (1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz).avi
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/16/2005 9:46:26 PM
- Free on drive C: 120007.54 mb
- AUDIO Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------
Audio extraction finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/16/2005 9:54:04 PM
- Free on drive C: 120019.00 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/16/2005 9:54:07 PM
- Free on drive C: 120019.00 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------

Converting MP2 to WAV. Filename: C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing MADPlay (mp2 to wav). Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\MADPlay\madplay.exe" --quiet --output=wave:"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Extracted_audio_1.mpa"
Conversion (mp2 to wav) of C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.


Encoding Audio. Filename: C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Extracted_audio_1.mpa
Executing BeSweet. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_audio_1.mpa.wav" -output "C:\PROGRA~1\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_audio_1.mpa" -payload -logfile "C:\PROGRA~1\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_audio_1.log" )
Audio conversion of C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Extracted_audio_1.mpa finished.

Audio conversion finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/16/2005 9:56:32 PM
- Free on drive C: 120891.99 mb
- Video Encoding using Cinema Craft
--------------------------------------------------------

Executing Cinema Craft Encoder.
StreamSectors: 4666096988
AudioSectors: 2324
VideoPAPO: 72280296
ScanOffsetBytes: 298253
SeqAligningBytes: 18955603
DVDBytes: 0
VideoEndHeader: 4
SubtitleSectors: 0
EmptySectors: 238.00
PictureSectors: 0.00
PureMPEGStream: 4574560508.17
Seconds: 8295.08
CalcMPEGStream: 4574560508.17
Frames: 198835
CDSize: 4464.00
Number of CDs: 1
Cut point 4460.00
Variable Settings:
Frames: 198835
Anti Noise Filter: Off
Passes: 3
Image Quality: 17
VAF file creation: On
Video Encoding Mode: One Pass VBR
Q. Factor: 60
Min. bitrate: 800
Max. bitrate: 4411
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (No borders, encoded as 4:3)

---AVS Begin---
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\DVD2SVCD\AVISYN~1.5PL\Mpeg2dec\MPEG2D~1.DLL")
AVISource("\\Herbs\d\MYMUSI~1\Incoming\MBETTE~1.AVI",audio=false)
ConvertToYUY2()
LanczosResize(540,480)
AddBorders(90,0,90,0)
Import("C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Tylo\RoBaConditional.avs")
Import("C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\ResampleAudio.avs")
ResampleAudio(44100)
----AVS End----

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:17:01 AM
- AVI to SVCD Conversion
- AVI2DVD ver. 1.2.2 build 3
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
WARNING! You seem to be using "Norton Unerase Protection" and
you want to delete the temporary files created by dvd2svcd.
This can cause DVD2SVCD problems. Even though DVD2SVCD deletes
the temporary files, Norton doesn't, therefore DVD2SVCD
might run into diskspace problems. I suggest that you stop the
"Norton Unerase Protection" Service.
-
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:17:01 AM
- Free on drive C: 111926.64 mb
- Restarting from: Pulldown
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:17:03 AM
- Free on drive C: 111926.63 mb
- Video Pulldown
--------------------------------------------------------
Executing Pulldown. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\pulldown\pulldown.exe" "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_Video_CCE_NTSC.mpv" "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Pulldown_Encoded_Video_NTSC.mpv" -prog_frames p
Video pulldown finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:23:46 AM
- Free on drive C: 107566.32 mb
- Multiplexing Audio and Video
--------------------------------------------------------
Executing MPlex. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVDAuthor\mplex.exe" -f 8 -o "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\MPlex_Muxed_File00.mpg" "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Pulldown_Encoded_Video_NTSC.mpv" "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\Encoded_audio_1.mpa"
--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:23:48 AM
- Free on drive C: 107566.32 mb
- Determining length of audio
--------------------------------------------------------
Analyzing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 5/17/2005 12:23:53 AM
- Free on drive C: 107566.32 mb
- Authoring DVD
--------------------------------------------------------
Executing DVDAuthor. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVDAuthor\dvdauthor.exe" -x "C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Movie\DVDAuthor.xml"

And that's it! So, what can I determine from all this? A needed .mpg file is not being created. No real or obvious reason given. This brings everything to a halt. Very frustrating 'cause this looks like a very well put together package!

Hopefully someone here can take a look and give me an analysis or maybe some hints as to what to do next.

Thanks for all your patience!

[Manngo]

Read, before asking.
We are geting tired of telling always the same tale.

or just convert the audio.

[whftherb]

Well, I can see I'm not making many friends here...

Manngo - please excuse me - I'm very sorry if this is getting under your skin. I am trying to follow the guidance here as best I can. I admit to the mistake made by saying CCE came with DVD2SVCD. OK? I've apologized for it and it won't happen again.

The statement was made "just convert the audio". Clearly, I see in the log file that the program says the audio <<is>> converted. So why am I to convert it a second time? Can't say 'cause I don't know.

Some time ago, I was asked to drag and drop the file: avisynth_scriptfile.avs onto WMP. I pointed out that avisynth_scriptfile.avs was a .txt file. I'm unconvinced that a .txt file will play in WMP but you all are insisting that I still drag and drop the file avisynth_scriptfile.avs onto WMP. OK, OK... just to cover myself, I have tried this drag and drop no less than 6 times this evening. As I suspected, avisynth_scriptfile.avs cannot be dragged nor dropped on WMP. The familiar Windows drag-n-drop icon/arrow always turns into a circle w/ a slash through it as soon as it encounters and "wiped" across all areas of the WMP frame or window. Why? I think it's because it's a text file even though you folks seem to think otherwise and that somehow it should be playable. My experience is that it does not play - period. Does this put the proverbial "tale" to rest?

After all this, I see where Nick mentions the use of something called EclCCE. I did just find it, fired it up per the instructions so now perhaps the .mpg will be created. I'll relaunch another attempt and will try to post back with results.

Once again, I will apologize for any upset people here. It's not my intention at all...

[Nick]

Whoa. Stop right there, everyone. This thread is getting a bit icky for my liking.

OK, whftherb. From the top. Here's the process for you.

We have various input formats available and various output formats available. Each has different specs.

Let's take the output formats first VCD requires video of 320x240 or 320x288 video with MPEG1 compression and MPEG Layer 2 audio. SVCD requires video of 480x480 or 480x576 and MPEG Layer 2 audio. DVD is more flexible and supports various resolutions and audio formats, including MPEG Layer 2 but NOT including MP3. You will note, therefore that MPEG Layer 2 is the constant across the board.

Inputs (ignoring PVA for now), we have DVD or AVI. Now, AVI can be any resolution with any audio format.

So what does the program do?

1) Extract the audio using internal routines
2) Convert the audio to a compatible format using MADPlay and BeSweet. Since DVD, SVCD and VCD all support MPEG Layer 2 audio, this is what it converts to.
HOWEVER, as all DVD's and SOME avi's have DVD-compatible audio streams, DVD2SVCD has a checkbox in the audio tab "Do not convert audio (Use source audio)", so no conversion occurs. In fact if you choose this, BeSweet still runs to do some error and delay corrections, but the input format is retained (AC3 in = AC3 out, MP3 in = MP3 out)
3) Convert the video. In this stage a supported encoder is needed. CCE2.5, TMPGEnc, QuEnc etc. Newer versions of CCE are not natively supported by DVD2SVCD but can be used via EclCCE - DVD2SVCD runs EclCCE which understands commands designed for CCE2.5 and converts them to a format CCE2.6x understands. The chosen encoder then creates an MPEG video stream of suitable filesize and resolution for your chosen output.
4) Multiplex (mix the encoded video and audio together to make an MPEG file) - MPlex(DVD) or bbMPEG(S/VCD) handle this.
5) Author - VCDXBuild for (S)VCD or DVDAuthor for DVD. This stage is where the MPEG file is turned into DVD files or (S)VCD formats.

So what does Avisynth do?
Well, to get the video to the correct resolution for the chosen output it has to be resized and so a frame handling software is needed.
In short, what avisynth does is render the source video frame by frame, manipulate each frame as per a script language and output a stream of manipulated frames.
Take CCE for example, it will encode AVI video to MPEG2 but cannot change the resolution. So, say you have an AVI of 640x480, you want it to convert it to 480x480 MPEG2 for SVCD.
If you encode the AVI in CCE, the output will be 640x480 which is no good. However if you make a script as below

Avisource("myfile.avi")
LanczosResize(480,480)

and save it as whatever.avs,
you can input the AVS file to CCE just as if it were an AVI file. . Avisynth opens frames from the AVI, resizes them and feeds them on. CCE is none the wiser, but the input to CCE is now 480x480 and so the output will be too. Do you follow?

Now you can fool pretty much anything which accepts AVI files into accepting AVS files as a substitute. This DOES include WMP - trust me, I have played HUNDREDS of AVS scripts in Media Player. If drag and drop doesn't work, go to "Open..." in the File menu of WMP. In the "Files of type" dropdown box, select "Any file *.*". Now browse for you AVS file and try it. I think once it has played one, you'll be able to drag and drop in future.

OK. I hope we're getting somewhere now. So, to your problem.
In the last logfile you posted, the BeSweet commandline was the one you get if you have "Do not convert audio" checked in the audio tab. If your AVI does not have DVD compatible audio such as an AC3 stream, this always causes DVD Author to fail and has been reported, like, a hunded times. I think that is why Manngo's fuse is getting shorter on this one :) .

It is also why he is telling you to convert the audio - ie UNcheck that box in the audio tab, so the non-DVD-compliant audio in your particular AVI gets converted to a compatible format. Then MPLEX will recognise it, the muxed .mpg file will be created and DVDAuthor won't fail.

Let us know how you get on. If it works you so owe me a beer.

[whftherb]

Nick, you really ought to make that last post a sticky. It explained more to me than countless hours of cruising the site here. I finally understood what you were driving at and a few other things too that have escaped me. It was specific and it was highly accurate - right on. I've saved a copy on the hard disk and printed it out for my folder.

But it came down to something quite simple - Unticked "Do not convert audio..." and it works!

Thanks to all and I'm so sorry I lit "the fuse". I really did not intend to do that.

[Nick]

Glad it worked out for you.

Sooo...about that beer...;)