fixing my .mp2 mistake...help please

ok, like i have see that several others have done, i made the mistake of capturing some files with ATI's MultiMedia Center in their MPEG 2 format (.mp2). after searching around i have found a way to demux and end up with usable files (video and audio seperate). i am about to convert the video parts, which are now .m2v, to .avi so i can remerge them in VirtualDub. i want them to remain at 640x480, but other than that, what settings do you recommend for encoding these to Divx. these are things like clips from t.v. and stuff, so i just want them to look decent, they dont have to be DVD quality or anything (using newest version of Divx 5 Pro). thanks for the help guys.

Not sure if your problem is that the audio is nonstandard or what precisely, but there's tons of information on encoding in the guides and forums. A few points: I'd use AVISynth to do de-interlacing (if needed). You can use BeSweet to convert the audio, if that's being problematic. Other than that, I think you'll need to be more specific with your problems/concerns to get any useful help.

ok, the files arent really a problem anymore. i was curious about you guys advice on the coversion to Dixv at a good setting. i demuxed in Tmpgenc wich made the video a .m2v file, converted the .mpa to .wav with BeSweet, and now i am gonna convert the video to .avi for VirtualDub (so i could remerge into one file and edit out commercials and stuff) and i wanted advice on that. the video has not been compressed anymore than whatever it was during the original capture and so in the conversion to Divx, i want to keep as much quality as i have right now as long as it doesnt go overboard on size. this is a one time thing, i just wanted to make these files either useable or storage friendly and in the future i will capture in a format i can work with. thanks for the help.

Ah! Then I'd definately use AVISynth (personal preference) to trim out the commercials. It saves you from making that intermediate HUGE avi file. It is, perhaps, a slightly complicated process to learn, but once you get it down, it will provide the best quality. Open up the m2v in DVD2AVI, make sure there are no field order changes, and save the project to create a d2v file. Create an AVISynth script, loading the d2v file (you'll need the mpeg2dec3 plugin for this), give it the names of your video and audio files, and combine them. It's going to look something like this: LoadPlugin("c:\plugins\mpeg2dec3.dll") video = mpeg2source("c:\captures\mycapture.d2v") audio = wavsource("c:\captures\mycapture.wav") output = audiodub(video,audio) Now that all that's out of the way, you can begin trimming the commercials out. You can use VirtualDub to find the frame breakpoints and whatnot, and do it like this: output = output.trim(startframe,endframe) + output.trim(startframe2,endframe2) + ..... etc When you've done that, your avs file will act like a raw AVI (while taking up no more space than the original files) and you can treat it as such, encoding in Virtualdub, TMPGEnc, whatever. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T DELETE THE ORIGINAL MPEG STREAMS UNTIL YOU ARE DONE! (sorry, just didn't want this to happen accidentally) When you get comfortable with this process, you can begin using other filters. Resizing, blurring, deinterlacing (may be important for you to learn this one early, if you're using > 240/288 vertical resolution) etc. can all be done in AVISynth very well.

i dont know what it is that you said, but i have read through like 4 different tutorials on AviSynth and just ended up more confused. that made sense to me for some reason, and i just saved that post so i dont loose it. thanks a lot. i will give that a try when i get home from work in the morning.

i keep having the same problem opening the .avs files in Virtual Dub. i have followed a couple different guides on using AVISynth (all the way down to starting from scratch and reinstalling them) and went step by step...but when i try to open the .avs file in Virtual Dub it says there was an "error reading line 2". i have, however, been able to do do my trimming in the same basic style of Vdub within TMPGEnc and it was much quicker and retains the same quality. i also havent had any synch problems. i am still gonna have to convert these to .avi, but i think this will save me a lot of time since the editing is so much faster than in Vdub. if you have any other suggestions or if you have any ideas as to how i can get AVISynth to work for me, they are more than welcome, i am excited about learning to do some of this stuff you guys are talking about.

You'd have to post your whole AVISynth script so we know what line 2 is (or did you just use what I wrote above?) If you are able to edit in tmpgenc, that's fine, but I know that sometimes ATI MMC doesn't insert an I-Frame at the commercial break, meaning you'll either lose a few frames of TV show or you'll get 1-10 frames of commercial in your final video, which is why I went the AVISynth route myself.

i did just copy and paste what you wrote for the AVISynth script, and just to make sure i had the location exactly correct, i right-clicked the file and went to "creat shortcut" and cut and pasted the location directly out of there. i have tried opening the .avs file in both the newest version of Virtual Dub and the version of Virtual Dub Mod that was packaged with the Gordian Knot Rip Pack and got the same error message with both. In Virtual Dub Mod, i can open the .m2V file type and .wav i got from demuxing. will Virtual Dub allow for more precise editing so i can get those loose frames at the beginning and end of the commercial break? i still plan to convert to DIVX, and i dont mind doing a bit more precise trimming, but the initial editing was much faster in tmpgenc. also, what are these "I-Frames" you were speaking of and how would i go about working with them (if not on this stuff, on future captures)?

ok, i am sure there is a lot more to know on the subject, but that made sense. i had seen those letters before and never knew what they were. i am at work, so i will have to wait till i get home in the morning and i will get the exact script and exact error message and let you check them out. once again, thanks for all your help.

ok, here is my .avs script: LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\Gordian Knot\MPEG2Dec3.dll") video = mpeg2source("C:\My Documents\Video\SNL - Punked.m2v") audio = wavsource("C:\My Documents\Video\SNL - Punked.wav") output = audiodub(video,audio) and here was the error message in Virtual Dub: Avisynth open failure: MPEG2Source: couldn't open file (C:\My Documents\Video\SNL - Punked.avs, line 2) i also tried making the ".m2v" file a DVD2AVI project file (.d2v), and here is my script: LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\Gordian Knot\MPEG2Dec3.dll") video = mpeg2source("C:\My Documents\Video\SNL - Punked.d2v") audio = wavsource("C:\My Documents\Video\SNL - Punked.wav") output = audiodub(video,audio) and the error from trying it that way: Avisynth open failure: the script's return was not a video clip also, i noticed that in capturing with the ATI Multimedia Center i could control the number of "B" and "P" frames created or have it captured in all "I" frames...should i leave it at the default or should i change those settings.