AC3 640 in TFM

[guzonja28]

Hello.

First, just to compliment Mask on his great piece of software.

And now onto the problem; I have an MKV file with AC3 sound. The sound is in 640kbps.
- Question; is there a way to keep AC3 in 640 or do I really have to convert it to 448? I know I can keep the original sound if I'm leaving the movie as is, but I need to convert it from NTSC to PAL. My device only reads PAL DVDs.
As I know, there is no option for 640kbps in TFM, right?
Maybe some batch file or cmd line? Anything?

Thx in advance.

[The_Mask]

You can't do it with TFM but you could use TFM Audio Tool for that. In that program you can do framerate conversion and also select a bitrate of 640 kbps. So the steps are to do the conversion with TFM Audio Tool for the audio, then do the conversion with TFM and while it is encoding the video replace the TFM audio with the TFM Audio Tool audio. One thing though, make sure the original audio has no delay in it.

[guzonja28]

lol... the same thing crossed my mind...
a week ago I tried your solution (did the framerate conversion with TFM Audio Tool) and I stoped before it reached the end. The thing is I'm fitting this movie on 1 DVD and the problem is next: TFM calculates video bitrate after audio bitrate is set. And he writes it to TFM_Project.tfm at the begining of audio conversion. So, in theory, I could make the audio switch (after audio and before video conversion) but the result DVD would be greater then 4.7GB. Coz video bitrate was calculated with smaler Audio bitrate (448kbps) then the file I'm puting instead (640kbps). Please tell me I'm wrong...

[The_Mask]

Yep, you are right. But you can manualy calculate the videobitrate and feed it manualy to TFM.

[guzonja28]

Hmmm... I see what you're geting at. The video will be encoded with fixed bitrate, and while it's being encoded I shoud make the audio switch. I'll give it a try in next couple of days. And post the results.

Thx for the help Mask.

Btw, looking forward to TFM2.

[The_Mask]

It won't be a fixed bitrate but a variable bitrate but you calculated it with the right audiobitrate (640 instead of 448) and that is why it will be a lower bitrate. Just check the manual bitrate option.

Good luck.

[guzonja28]

My appologies. I didn't mean "fixed" bitrate. Just didn't know how to call that coz my english ain't that good.
I know the movies are encoded with VBR. And for the test I tried one last night.

Source: Troy.2004.Directors.Cut.720p.HDDVD.x264-SiNNERS

Audio -> 640kbps (only did framerate conversion 23.976 -> 25)



Audio is only set so TFM can make the conversion. I made the audio switch (640kbps instead 320kbps) before video encoding.

It is clear that bitrate is set 330kbps less then suggested Avg. bitrate = 6030 forcing video to be encoded in smaler bitrate allowing more space for audio. Unfortunatly, the DVD output was a bit high:



So, my question. Is there a more reliable method then "tries and fails"? Coz clearly I'm doing something wrong.

[The_Mask]

No there is no accurate way because variable bitrate is used. Because of that some movies get bigger and other get smaller. It is very hard to calculate. Maybe you can use a bitrate calculator. There are a few arround on the web.

[guzonja28]

Thank you for the answers Mask. Much appreciated.

Keep up the great work and hoping to finish TFM2 soon.


EDIT:

Allready found a good bitrate calculator.


Btw, one more question:

I tried 1080p source last night and CCE crashed. So did ProCoder. In the middle of encoding. Any ideas why?
It only happenes on 1080p sources.

[The_Mask]

Can you try HCEncoder.

[guzonja28]

Here we go...

I did some tests, hence the late reply:


HCEncoder worked on my other comp. I don't understand how...

But I found a solution on this forum:

Dowload the latest beta version of The FilmMachine

It's normal to find HDDVD 1080p MKV movies on net...
So TFM is full compatible with this tipe of media?

Should be no problem at all. You only have to make sure that the MKV only holds 1 videostream and a maximum of 2 audiostreams. So no subs should be in the MKV.

And it worked! I removed subtitles from MKV file and used the same setings as first 2 times and this time it worked. Really weird...

Anyhow, thx for the help Mask.

EDIT:

One more thing: the audio switch worked. Kept 640 instead 448.

[The_Mask]

Good to hear and your welcome.