bbMPEG's FAQ
Answers to frequently asked questions about bbMPEG and AVI2MPG2.
How do I make a VCD/SVCD/DVD MPEG file with bbMPEG?
To make a VCD/SVCD/DVD file the input video and audio should be in the following formats:
VCD - 352x240 @ 29.97 fps for NTSC or 352x288 @ 25 fps
for PAL, both with 44.1 kHz audio
SVCD - 480x480 @ 29.97 fps for NTSC or 480x576 @ 25 fps
for PAL, both with 44.1 kHz audio
DVD - 720x480 @ 29.97 fps for NTSC or 720x576 @ 25fps
for PAL, both with 48 kHz audio
Note that with NTSC SVCD and DVD, 23.976 fps can also be used if 2:3 or 3:2 pulldown is enabled during encoding. Also, DVD supports other resolutions, these are the specs for the usual DVD videos bought in stores.
Also note that for SVCD, one should take normal 720x480 or 720x576 size video and resize it to 480x480 or 480x576 without maintaining the aspect ratio! The video will looked squished horizontally but that is OK, SVCD players will stretch it back so it looks correct upon playback.
To make a VCD/SVCD/DVD MPEG file, go to bbMPEG's Video Settings page, enable the PAL Defaults setting if doing PAL work or disable it for NTSC work, then select VideoCD, SVCD or DVD as the video type. This will configure all the settings for the selected type.
For DVD only, go to the General Settings page and deselect the Multiplex Video and Multiplex Audio settings. bbMPEG does not generate DVD compliant program streams (the result of the multiplexer), so the video and audio should be left in separate files and imported into a DVD authoring program which will do the multiplexing itself.
Then start the encoding and the MPEG files will be created and these files can then be imported into an authoring/burning application. For VCD and SVCD, the easiest way is to use a CD burning app that supports VCD and SVCD ( Nero for example), you just select the VCD or SVCD profile and add the MPEG files to the compilation. For DVD, an authoring program is usually needed in addition to a burning app, some do both ( SpruceUp for example), in any case most of them should accept bbMPEG's video and audio files.
Why does the video play too fast after conversion to MPEG?
MPEG only supports 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 and higher frame rates and the frame rate selected on bbMPEG's Video Settings page must match the frame rate of the AVI file. bbMPEG does not do any frame rate conversion, so if the AVI has a frame rate of 10fps and 30fps is selected in bbMPEG, the video will play 3 times faster than normal.
AVI2MPG2 can be used to do crude frame rate conversions, just set the Repeat Frame option to repeat a frame once or more. If the AVI has a frame rate of 15fps, it can be converted to 30fps by setting the Repeat Frame option to 1 (each frame is repeated once). If the AVI is 10fps, it can be converted to 30fps by setting the Repeat Frame option to 2 (each frame is repeated twice). This method only works if the target frame rate is an integer multiple of the source frame rate, it cannot convert 12fps to 30fps or 10fps to 29.97fps.
Why don't I get any audio after encoding?
MPEG only supports audio rates of 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. AVI2MPG2 will convert 22 kHz audio to 44.1 kHz, but that is the only rate conversion these programs support. If the audio is not 22, 32, 44.1 or 48 kHz, bbMPEG will ignore the audio and encode the video only.
The Windows Media Player will not play back MPEG2 files generated by bbMPEG, why?
The Media Player will play back MPEG-2 files as long as there is a DirectShow-compatible MPEG-2 decoder installed that can handle PES format. This includes almost all software DVD decoders, a few hardware DVD decoders.
How do I use bbMPEG with Premiere?
To install bbMPEG as a plugin for Premiere 5.0 and higher, copy the bbMPEG.dll file to Premiere's plugin directory and rename the file bbMPEG.prm (you may also want to copy the bbMPEG.hlp file but it is not needed to use bbMPEG). You should then see bbMPEG loading while Premiere starts up and it should be selectable as the output file type (instead of AVI) when exporting a movie.
There are two ways to change bbMPEG's settings within Premiere. The first
way is within Premiere's export file/video/audio dialogs, this way is convenient
but it is possible to set bbMPEG's settings to conflicting/invalid values
using this method (bbMPEG will complain of invalid settings when encoding
is started). The problem is that bbMPEG limits some settings based on the
input video and audio characteristics (video size, frame rate, stereo/mono,
etc.) and Premiere does not provide these characteristics while using this
first method so settings could be chosen that might be invalid for the output
video/audio.
The second way is from bbMPEG's window via the Settings button, by this time,
Premiere has provided all the video/audio information and it should be nearly
impossible to set the settings to invalid values.
Be aware that after clicking the Start Encoding button, Premiere will most likely send bbMPEG's window to the background and when encoding is finished, bbMPEG will wait for you to click the OK button before returning control to Premiere. You should be able to find bbMPEG's window in the taskbar and bring it to the foreground, or you can enable the Run in batch mode option and bbMPEG will start encoding right away and return control to Premiere automatically when finished.
What is multiplexing?
Multiplexing is a way to combine two or more streams (or files) into a single stream. To combine a video stream with an audio stream into a single stream, the two streams are multiplexed (kind of interleaved) together in the form of packets (chunks of video or audio data) with timing information to indicate when the packets are to be displayed or played. When you convert an AVI to an MPEG file with bbMPEG, the encoded video stream is put into a file (usually a .M2V or .M1V file) and the encoded audio stream is also put into a file (usually a .MP2 file). If multiplexing is not performed, the result of the conversion process will be the video file and the audio file. To combine these to files into a single file, they need to be multiplexed together into a single file (usually a .M2P or .MPG file).
Note that some players will play the audio (.MP2) or video (.M2V or .M1V)
files by themselves, but some players require a program stream (the output
of the multiplexor). You can actually put just a video or just an audio stream
into a program stream, by 'multiplexing' only one stream instead or two.
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