Dowload the latest beta version of The FilmMachine

[r0gu3ptm]

First off all, Happy New Year! to all Second, works cool the new beta Thanks The_Mask, I;ve been looking forward to this new beta :>
L.E: When the stable version will come out ? :/ Because I'm still waiting for the Menu option.

L.L.E: Allright, just finished encoding a 4 episode DVD; must say that 5.1 encoding rock; seems the new engine works now even better than the last one; and I'm glad to see that the DVD Shrink bug is eliminated (TFM 1.6.0.6 had a bug: the DVD5 size target was wrong, inside TFM was 4.37 GB, should have been 4.38 GB; so the DVD Shrink kicked in even that was not necesary). And I'm happy to report that it works great on my Vista Ultimate 32 bit system (no nag screens&crashes). My configuration: Canopus ProCoder2, Sonic Foundry, CCE 2.67 and TFM 1.6.0.7 with ffdshow pack included in the install package.

[bigshot]

Hello, Mask:

I already installed all the components according to ConvertJosh manual, but instead of CCE 2.67.0.23 I installed CCE v2.70.02.12. I did so, because CCE 2.67.0.23 is a trial version and does not have all the encoders. CCE v2.70.02.12 is a FULL version and it didn’t seem to conflict with any other encoders and no errors with it, so far.
I did several conversions with TFM.
In the 1st conversion I used these settings:

Free Image Hosting - PixFarm.net

And you can se the log file after the conversion was finished. It took roughly about 4 hours for the process to fully complete. Nevertheless, the video output was better than all other encoders I have tested. You can see some snapshots of the movie encoded with different converters, for your opinion. The audio output volume though was reduced from original audio, by a noticeable difference.
The output file size reached 4.31GB, just to fill up nicely a DVD5 media to its limit.
Here is the log:

>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

The FilmMachine Avi-Info Logfile

AVI Information
Filename: SHREK 2.avi
Filesize: 697.1 MB
Streams (i.e. Video, Audio): 2
Video
Compression Codec: XviD
Resolution: 608 x 320 (1.900)
Bitrate: 1001 Kbps
Duration: 5545.38 s (1h 32m 25s)
Frame Rate: 23.976 fps
Frames: 132956
Audio 1
Wave Codec: MPEG-1 Audio layer 3
Avg. Bitrate: 32 Kbps
Sampling Rate: 48 Khz
Channels: 2
Delay: 0 ms
Audio 2
Wave Codec:
Avg. Bitrate:
Sampling Rate:
Channels:
Delay:

visit The FilmMachine for more information


>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<

And also TFM log file

>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 4:37:05 AM
- AVI to DVD recovery conversion
- The FilmMachine version 1.6.0.7 beta
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Initializing.

Computer Info
CPU name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
Available memory: 2.00 GB
Windows version : Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
Initializing finished.

DirectX Version = 9.0c

Inserted MediaType is DVD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 4:37:17 AM
- Free on drive E: 42.77 GB
- Creating DVD Image
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MKISofs is writing the DVD Image file.....

Total translation table size: 0
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 0
Total directory bytes: 4248
Path table size(bytes): 42
Max brk space used 0
2262399 extents written (4418 Mb)
Writing DVD Image finished.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 4:43:45 AM
- Free on drive E: 38.45 GB
- Burning DVD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erasing DVD
Starting erase process on dvd at 4.0x(5,540 kb/s)
Erase process finished without error(s)

Start burning iso image on 1:0:0,g: philips dvd+rw dvd8801 ad21
Starting write process on dvd at 4.0x (5,540 kb/s)
Finalizing track
Write/burn dvd process finished

Finished Burning DVD.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 5:14:33 AM
- Free on drive E: 38.45 GB
- DVD creation finished!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

BeSweet v1.5b29 by DSPguru.
--------------------------

Logging start : 01/26/08 , 01:16:59.

BeSweet.dll -core( -input pcminput -output E:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded1_Audio1.ac3 -logfile E:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded_Audio.log -2ch ) -ota( -fs 48000 )

[00:00:00:000] +------- BeSweet -----
[00:00:00:000] | Input : pcminput
[00:00:00:000] | Output: E:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded1_Audio1.ac3
[00:00:00:000] | Floating-Point Process: No
[00:00:00:000] | Source Sample-Rate: 48.0KHz
[00:00:00:000] +---------------------
[01:32:24:696] Conversion Completed !
[00:06:02:000] <-- Transcoding Duration

Logging ends : 01/26/08 , 01:23:01.


>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

Starting Grass Valley ProCoder 3 Saturday, 26 January, 2008, 01:23:15
Converting: E:\My Videos\TFM_Enc_Video.m2v
Conversion Finished


>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

In the 2nd trial I used TFM with CCE as my encoder, while other options were set as before. You can see the log file below for more info. Also, using CCE the video output for my opinion was very very good at about the same quality as the video when used ProCoder3. Audio instead output volume/quality decreased noticeably form the original AVI file, although it is similar to the audio produced form the 1st conversion. What is surprising to me is that CCE 2.7 encoded the file to a size of about 3.2GB and still looked as good as the 1st one!!!!
The time required for the conversion to fully complete was roughly 3 an half hours.
Here you can see a log for this conversion below:

>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<<

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 12:49:22 AM
- AVI to DVD recovery conversion
- The FilmMachine version 1.6.0.7 beta
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Initializing.

Computer Info
CPU name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
Available memory: 2.00 GB
Windows version : Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
Initializing finished.

DirectX Version = 9.0c

Inserted MediaType is DVD+RW
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1/26/2008 12:49:33 AM
- Free on drive D: 59.85 GB
- DVD creation finished!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CCEFront v1.0 RC5, by Tylo (c) 2005 and updated by The Mask (c) 2006
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2008-01-25 23:29:14
- WIN_XP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Input video : 1:32:25 (132956 frames, 23.976 fps)
- Input ecl file : D:\My Videos\CCEFront\work_dir\v001.ecl
- Input avs file : D:\My Videos\TFM_Avisynth_Script1_File.avs
- Output mpv file : D:\My Videos\TFM_Enc_Video1.mpv
- Sample percent : 1.0
- Adjust % : 1.4 (accuracy tweak: no)
- Sizing pass : None
- Select ranges : every 1200, select 12 frames
- Sample frames : 1332
- Using CCE SP version : 2.70.2.12
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Target mpv BR : 6387 (300-9576) kbps, 4427291729 bytes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search for Q:
- Sample encode : Q=32: 1833 kbps, err=-71.3%, size=1271109538, sample sz=12915236
- Sample encode : Q=6: 3639 kbps, err=-43%, size=2522770618, sample sz=25632864
- Sample encode : Q=1: 4559 kbps, err=-28.6%, size=3160564428, sample sz=32113232
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Determined Q : 1 = Round(1 + (-28.6/2.9)) with 1.4% adjustment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2008-01-25 23:32:16
- Start movie OPV encoding (Q 1)
- OPV pass result: 72.5% on target (3210877552 / 4427291729) Speed factor: 1.63
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2008-01-26 00:29:06
- CCEFront successfully finished
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

BeSweet v1.5b29 by DSPguru.
--------------------------

Logging start : 01/25/08 , 23:23:35.

BeSweet.dll -core( -input pcminput -output D:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded1_Audio1.ac3 -logfile D:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded_Audio.log -2ch ) -ota( -fs 48000 )

[00:00:00:000] +------- BeSweet -----
[00:00:00:000] | Input : pcminput
[00:00:00:000] | Output: D:\MYVIDE~1\TFM_Encoded1_Audio1.ac3
[00:00:00:000] | Floating-Point Process: No
[00:00:00:000] | Source Sample-Rate: 48.0KHz
[00:00:00:000] +---------------------
[01:32:24:696] Conversion Completed !
[00:05:32:000] <-- Transcoding Duration

Logging ends : 01/25/08 , 23:29:07.


>>>>>>>>>> <<<<<<<<<<<

In my opinion, other converters I tested produced mediocre video output compared to TFM. For example I tested ProCoder3 standalone, Carbon Coder 2.51 and WinAVI 8 and you can see closely that video is somewhat fogy and blurry. However, the audio output volume increased for Carbon Coder 2.51 and also for Procoder3 after the conversion.
Below you have some snapshots I have included to better understand the difference between them.

Free Image Hosting - PixFarm.net

Free Image Hosting - PixFarm.net

Free Image Hosting - PixFarm.net

Hope you found my unbiased results, useful!!

Question:
1.Why TFM has to use 4 3rd party softares (ProCoder, CCE, QuEnc and HCEnoder), when you can use only one that works best and integrates with TFM engine better?

2. How can I improve sound output volume with TFM? I want to boost audio at least as the source. Can you tell me how to tweak the options for better sound? What will happen if check “upmix stereo audio to 5.1”. How about if I check “boost audio mode”…should that do the trick? If so, which is the best option: DSPGuru, Light or Terra?

3. What is “Edit Avisynth Script File”, and when or what can I use it for?


4. After conversion a huge amount of my HDD is occupied with about 17 GB of converted files. There are three, ~ 4GB files produced: .VOB, .M2V, .MPG and one ~150 MB .AC3 file. As far as I understand, .M2V file and >AC3 file are muxed together to create the .MPG file which is not a readable format for DVD players, right?
If these files are not needed for later processing by TFM should these be deleted safely??

5. After all, which video encoder is best to use for routine conversions of my files? How about audio encoder? Can you tell me any tips/tricks to take maximum advantage of all the encoders I have installed with this package?

6. Can I use TFM to join/split video files together? How about if I want to shrink a DVD-9 to a ~700 Mb AVI file? Can I do this with TFM?

[The_Mask]

Thank you for you testing of the multiple encoders. This is very usefull.

To answer your questions:

1.Why TFM has to use 4 3rd party softares (ProCoder, CCE, QuEnc and HCEnoder), when you can use only one that works best and integrates with TFM engine better?

This is done because not all users like Procoder or CCE and want free encoders. I hoped to integrate all encoders to the best results with TFM. I always use CCE 2.67.0.23 because it always works and is the fastest because of the Roba OPV option.

2. How can I improve sound output volume with TFM? I want to boost audio at least as the source. Can you tell me how to tweak the options for better sound? What will happen if check “upmix stereo audio to 5.1”. How about if I check “boost audio mode”…should that do the trick? If so, which is the best option: DSPGuru, Light or Terra?

If you check upmix then 2 channels become 5.1 channels. The Boost option you have to try yourself which gives the best result. I always use a little moviesample to test the best settings. Most of the times you don't have to use the boost option but sometimes it can help to create a louder output.

3. What is “Edit Avisynth Script File”, and when or what can I use it for?

This way you can tweak the avisynth script which is used for video encoding to your needs. If your original movie has a blurred picture then you can add for example sharpen filters to correct this. For the possibilities of Avisynth Scripting you should take a look at www.avisynth.org.

4. After conversion a huge amount of my HDD is occupied with about 17 GB of converted files. There are three, ~ 4GB files produced: .VOB, .M2V, .MPG and one ~150 MB .AC3 file. As far as I understand, .M2V file and >AC3 file are muxed together to create the .MPG file which is not a readable format for DVD players, right?
If these files are not needed for later processing by TFM should these be deleted safely??

These files could be needed when you do a recovery with TFM. Afterwards when you are happy with the result you can delete them safely. There is also an option to delete temporary files on the option form.

5. After all, which video encoder is best to use for routine conversions of my files? How about audio encoder? Can you tell me any tips/tricks to take maximum advantage of all the encoders I have installed with this package?

Like I said I always use CCE. On the Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource forum there is a thread about CCE with a lot of tweaks etc.

6. Can I use TFM to join/split video files together? How about if I want to shrink a DVD-9 to a ~700 Mb AVI file? Can I do this with TFM?

No, this is not possible. TFM only does AVI, MOV, MP4, RMVB and MKV to (S)VCD and DVD conversions and not the other way arround. There are other tools for that.

[r0gu3ptm]

Good luck with that

[Raging_bull63]

Is there a possibility when you use 'Selectable subtitles' you can choose Bold?
This is an option with 'Permanent subtitles'.
I've noticed that the best results for subs is 'Microsoft Sans Serif,16,0,Bold', but with the selectable subs you don't have the option 'bold'.
I normally use 'Selectable subtitles' on my DVD's but when I choose 'Microsoft Sans Serif, the subs are to thin. At the moment I'm using 'Arial Rounded MT Black' but this gives a poor quality of the subs.

[Zilexa]

Hey I thought there was already a basic dvd menu creator, but I just used the latest beta and it's gone?

[joshua1964]

With subs is try wat you want .Try this with sample ,and a fakesub.

[solamnic]

Any news for the release date of the next version??

is the author still alive and kickin?

[The_Mask]

Is there a possibility when you use 'Selectable subtitles' you can choose Bold?
This is an option with 'Permanent subtitles'.
I've noticed that the best results for subs is 'Microsoft Sans Serif,16,0,Bold', but with the selectable subs you don't have the option 'bold'.
I normally use 'Selectable subtitles' on my DVD's but when I choose 'Microsoft Sans Serif, the subs are to thin. At the moment I'm using 'Arial Rounded MT Black' but this gives a poor quality of the subs.

No you can't. Spumux doesn't support this. I have the best results for selectable subs with Tahoma with size 26.

[The_Mask]

Hey I thought there was already a basic dvd menu creator, but I just used the latest beta and it's gone?

Nope not yet. There was one in a couple of versions ago.

[The_Mask]

Any news for the release date of the next version??

is the author still alive and kickin?

Yes I'm still alive and kicking but very busy.

New version is being worked on but not ready for release.

[Raging_bull63]

No you can't. Spumux doesn't support this. I have the best results for selectable subs with Tahoma with size 26.

Thanks for the reply. I will try this.
Keep up the good work!

[kenyan101]

im having issues converting to vob upgraded to beta and using cce Cinema Craft Encoder SP v2.67.00.27 when i add the avi file which im converting screen flashes twice the operation could not be completed pins are not connected.. i click on okay twice it starts encoding goes through the lengthy process of conversion eventually during conversion to vob it fails or at times it creates a file that only plays for few seconds..any thoughts

[The_Mask]

Looks like a codec problem. Can you post the *.log files.

[ookzDVD]

Dear forum,

I'm using TFM 1.6.07 beta,
I want report that the "delete temporary files to save disk space"
not working properly, not all temporary file deleted while more than
1 avi added to project.

Thank you.