Problems using CCE freezing using either FILM MACHINE or DVD2SVCD read in ....

[The_Mask]

Something went wrong with CCE, I can't see what:

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- 6/9/2005 8:55:22 πμ
- Free on drive D: 41.92 GB
- Video Encoding using Cinema Craft Encoder SP 2.70
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Executing Cinema Craft Encoder.

TFM_Project_File.ecl found
TFM_Project_File.ecl encoding started at 8:55:22 πμ
TFM_Project_File.ecl encoded at 9:09:28 πμ
Encoding finished

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- 6/9/2005 9:09:31 πμ
- Free on drive D: 41.73 GB
- Creating DVD compliant files
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[Davetech]

I have been using D2SROBA + DVD2SVCD using CCE 2.5 for my avi to svcd/dvd conversions.

Sometimes it would work with beautiful quality. Many times, though, it would lock up the computer during the cce encoding phase where the mpv file is created. It might run for an hour or two before the freeze. A retry might finish, or it might lock up again. It worked just often enough to keep me trying. Frustrated at all the lost hours, I sought solutions on the newsgroups. That is where I first learned about The Film Machine.

I downloaded TFM 1.4 and tried it out. I was very pleased with the UI. It was straight-forward, pretty self-explainatory... perfect for n00bs like me (except for the option to "make images" or "use pbc" which I had no idea what meant. They might be explained a little more in the help html.) Awwright! Lets make some movies with this bad-boy!

Alas... I had the same problems. Freezing during the cce encoding phase. It appears the problem was not with dvd2svcd after all. I have problems with cce 2.5. Now, I've read several places that 2.5 is the most stable version, so it won't get any better upgrading it. I've also read how cpu intensive it is. Well, I'm only running an 800 Mhz AMD Athlon on a Soyo KT-600 Dragon mobo, with 512 ram, nVidia MX-420 on win98se. I guess this machine is not really up to the task. But being retired and on a small fixed income, I don't see any Alienware in my near future, so I have to work with what I've got. Heck, it runs Halo! I don't really understand why such a highly touted program as CCE does not have better error handling.

Anyway... the point of my post...

DVD2SVCD has a really nice timesaving button. The crash recovery button. With it, I can resume a failed conversion from the last good finished step. With TFM, unless I have missed something, my only option is to start over from the beginning. The difference (on my machine) can be measured in hours! I'd really like to see crash recovery incorporated into future versions on TFM. If it is there and I've missed it, please correct me!

Other than that, Congrats! The_Mask, for bringing to the world a very nice, useful tool indeed! My paypal will be visiting your paypal soon! (uhh.. don't expect much as previously noted, but I'll at least pay for the bandwidth I used

One quick question: I have been getting a little better results since I have been disabling SETI from running in the background during the process.... should I disable AVG anti-virus as well? Would think it would just be idling during the process since I don't do anything else with the computer during a conversion.

Thanks for letting me bend your ear... Davetech... new n00b

Peace on Earth... or else...

[The_Mask]

No, you better don't disable your Antivirus.

For the crash recovery, this is currently being implemented. First I will release version 1.5.0.16 beta which fixes a few critical error and after that it will be included.

For that time being don't use version 1.4 anymore. Download the latest beta, it has a lot of new features and is more stable than 1.4.

[Davetech]

No, you better don't disable your Antivirus.

Okay, the av stays.

For the crash recovery, this is currently being implemented. First I will release version 1.5.0.16 beta which fixes a few critical error and after that it will be included.

EXcellent!

For that time being don't use version 1.4 anymore. Download the latest beta, it has a lot of new features and is more stable than 1.4.

Yes, I have dl'ed the latest and will try it out tonight with my fingers crossed. Awwww... the sexy robot is gone... I kind of liked her...

[Davetech]

Hope this posts in the right place...

Ok... as I reported in an earlier post, I've been having problems with CCE 2.50 hanging up up while making the mpv file. Usually, I would then throw up my hands in disgust and Click! Click! close down everything and growl. The first thing I would close down would be CCE since it was on top and stareing me in the face. Then I would would close down TFM which would then be trying to continue on with its automated steps. Yesterday (using the beta 16 version of TFM), I mis-clicked and closed down TFM first and to my surprise CCE started chugging back along with its encoding! Six hours later I had a completed mpv file which I manually used with TmpGenc (with the mp2) to produce an mpg file.

Since I'm not intelligent enough to learn how to manually use DVDAuthor, I simply used nero to do a UDF burn of the mpg on to a DVD blank. Now, my goal is not nessesarily to produce a perfect dvd. I have a Phillips 642 that will play an mpg. It will even play many avi vcd files just as they are when I download them, but the quality is pretty poor. Many of them will have the audio and video out of sync. I've found if I can successfully run them through TFM, even vcd's will be much more watchable (and in sync). Why do I even bother dl'ing a vcd? Well, my isp automatically throttles my dl speed after I go over a limit, so it takes me a full day just to dl a vcd!

So a good mpg file is just dandy with me and then the rest of the family can watch the fruits of my labor in the family room, rather than trying to watch it in my cramped computer room (which looks like Fibber McGee's closet) on a tiny 14" computer monitor. That way they think the old man is still good for something and they will continue to feed me.

Where is this fool going with all this?

Well, I found it quite interesting that CCE continued on after the freeze when I closed down TFM. So I tried it again this morning on both of my low powered computers with different avi's. Both of them hung up, on schedule, while working on the mpv file. One 6 minutes into it, the other at 9 minutes. When I closed down TFM, both of them continued encoding. One of them just finished a few minutes ago and produced a good looking mpv. I think I'm on to something here and am throwing this out here so you guys can experiment and see I if you get the same results when CCE hangs up on you. Hopefully, when The_Mask implements crash recovery into TFM, it will be able to restart from the good mp2 and mpv files that have been created (gawd, he must be a busy person to work on the betas AND keep up with this forum investigating all our little quirks and problems!) Thanks again!

I'm not pointing a finger at TFM. This may just be a glitch with MY system. As previously noted, I'm running an older piece of junk with win98se (both computers). But I have found that once I shut TFM down, the CCE encode seems fairly bulletproof. I ~had~ been treating it with kid gloves, doing absolutely nothing with the computer while it was encoding. I decided to experiment on the second computer while it was encoding (after TFM shut down) and cranked up SETI in the background, surfed with my browser, downloaded with NewsRover, and the CCE encode kept chugging merrily away. I'm just hopeing that this will help someone else who has been experiencing the same problems I have been having. I also hope I'm not posting prematurely, but so far, this partial workaround seems to work for me and should save many hours on aborted processes.

[The_Mask]

Can you try the CCE version 2.67.0.23 version. This one works better for me than the 2.50 version and with (too my opinion ) with the same quality.

[Davetech]

No can do. I tried, but the installer gave me an error msg that 2.67.0.23 "runs only on Windows NT 4.0 SP6, Windows 2000 or Windows XP" and would go no further. I'm running Win98se.


BTW, I mis-spoke when I said I was now using TFM beta 16.... I'm still using beta 15. When I realized it this morning, I tried to install beta 16. The install seemed to run fine but when I executed TFM and tried it out, ffdshow listed several registry values as missing and everything stopped. I tried re-booting thinking that would solve the problem, but got the same message on a retry.

[The_Mask]

Can you show me those messages?

[Davetech]

Sorry for the delay. I had uninstalled beta 16, reinstalled beta 15 and started it on a project by the time I saw your request for the messages.

Today I installed beta 16 over 15 to see if I got the messages again. During the installation, I got this error:

"Cannot import AC3Filter.reg: the specified file is not a registry script. You can import only registry files."

When I okayed it, the installation finished.

Ran TFM, set up the path to cce, chose to convert a file that g-spot said was an xvid with ac3 audio, chose SVCD as the output (I could not remember if I had told it to make a svcd or a dvd on the previous attempts) and turned it loose. It went past the place where I had gotten the ffdshow messages and started extracting the audio.

So I stopped it (closed it down) and reran it, this time choosing DVD as output type. This time I got the messages:


<snip>
DirectX Version = 9.0b

Saving Avi-Info files
--------------------------------------------------------------
- 11/30/05 5:05:05 AM
- Free on drive E: 21.55 GB
- Audio Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------------
ffDShow registry value 'allowOutStream' doesn't exist
ffDShow registry value 'alwaysextensible' doesn't exist
ffDShow registry value 'ac3' doesn't exist
ffDShow registry value 'dts' doesn't exist
ffDShow registry value 'aac' doesn't exist
</snip>

So I guess the messages only show up when TFM is set to produce dvd output.

[The_Mask]

What I think is that Win98SE uses another registry format.

Can you try to import the *.reg files manually, they are in the subdirs (of TFM) "AC3Filter" and "ffdshow".

[Davetech]

Okay, I used windows explorer to go to the ac3filter subdirectory under tfm. I double-clicked on AC3filter.reg and it asked if I was sure I wanted to add the info to the registry. I said yes and it gave the error again "not a registry script."

So I tried it with ffdshow. Double-clicked on ffdshow.reg, it asked if I was sure, said yes, and it told me the info was sucessfully added to the register.

Then I retried TFM, same conditions as above that gave the errors....and.... argh!!! Still told me that the registry values didn't exist.

So I decided to go see for myself. Ran regedit, did a search for "ffdshow" and under hKey_current_user / software / gnu / ffdshow_audio there are, indeed, values listed for the "missing" items.

ac3 0x00000010 (16)
aac 0x00000008 (8)
dts 0x00000011 (17)
alwaysextensible 0x00000000 (0)
allowoutstream 0x00000001 (1)

Under HKEY_CurrentUser / software / AC3filter there are values also. These values are for mask and 8 matrix settings.

I am quite saddened that my computer would lie to me like that. I'll have to think up a suitable punishment.

[Matt J]

my problem is that everything freeze's and I have to use the power button on my laptop to restart it, nothing works including the mouse cursor totally dead, does it everytime now.

What should I look at first?

[The_Mask]

Do you have some *.log files?