AVI Tech Question

[sisabet]

Okay - so I have all of these avi video files that are, I assume, all using mpeg-4 in either a divx or xvid container. Am I right so far?

So - I also know that these files (most of them are bittorrented) are labelled something like "Desperate_Housewives_1x05_hdtv_xvid_tcm" or "Lost_1x13_hdtvlol_avi" or something. This is just an example - I've never even downloaded Lost.

I have 2 questions:

1. What does "LOL" and "TCM" mean? Is it something to do with the audio compression?

2.Is there a way to correct for what I assume is a frame-rate inconsistency? For example: certain avi files seem to play jerky for me - the movement looks a bit *off* - now the audio will generally sync but the actual play is just - stuttery. I am not certain but it may be on the files labelled TCM (I need to actually look at this in depth). Coverting the avi to mpeg2 does not improve the movement issues, probably because this does not correct frame rate problems.

According to g-spot, these files play just fine and I have all the necessary stuff running in the background.

But I want smooth looking video - How do I achieve this? What am I doing wrong? Is this a PAL-NTSC thing? I thought we had worked all those issues out. Do I need to force film something? Force feed something? Should I use the force?

Comments

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

LOL and I think TCM are the names of the groups that made the file, it doesn't indicate anything about the compression per se, but the LOL group probably uses the same standards from file to file.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Name of the Groups: LOL, LOKi, FoV, SFM, Fanta, CTU, CRIMSON, and FTV

These names will often be attached to the files. They identify who was responsible for the “rip”. This allows downloaders to have an idea of what kind of quality the rip is going to be. Some are shortened versions of the names. For example FoV = Future of Vision, and SFM = SciFi Maniacs. LOL is one of the most active groups - with their captures of many of the more popular shows being some of the most wildly distributed. LOKi has also become quite popular of late, capping many of the popular shows that LOL hasn't. FTV was once one of the most common tags you would see on rips. They do MPEG-1 analog captures, and have become less popular in the last year or so.

http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9784

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

And I knew what crimson and ftv meant because of the newsgroups and newzbin. Hmmm.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

LOL and TCM are both supposed to be using XVID codec.

From the XVID FAQ:

4.9 Picture and sound is having problems with skipping

The reason for this is most likely that your computer isn't fast enough to play XviD movies. You can try disabling some post-processing options and lower the resolution as described in section 2.3 and 2.4. If this doesn't fix the problem, we recommend users to try BSPlayer, since it uses considerably less CPU and memory than Windows Media Player. The program can be downloaded from the XviD players section.

http://www.xvidmovies.com/faq/#4.9

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I've gone thru that FAQ and it doesn't help. My PC is plenty fast - and the jerkyness persists even when I convert the footage.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I am having this problems - whether divx or xvid. at first I thought it was the avi ---> DVD conversion software I was using. switched to 2 PC apps and it persists (DVD Santa and WinAVI).

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna go thru and post a few filenames I am having problems with and their stats. Once I get home (eventually).

[luminosity]

LOL and TCM and a few others are the tags that specific seeders use to ID their files. They mean nothing as far as compression, but for the most part, I think the LOL group is the most consistent.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Are you getting jerkyness on certain avi files?

[luminosity]

Not that I've noticed, but I'll pay closer attention today. Where are you picking these up? Have you bookmarked http://www.btefnet.net/ ??

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well a torrent is a torrent no matter what search you use to locate it - right?

Smallville - I'll have to look at the exact file names today - but some of the avis I DLed play horribly - like the one where Clark's little girlfriend dies. That looks terrible on my PC and most of the clips I have made of it are so bad (movementwise - capped individually they look fantastic) that I can't use them.

House - most of the House I've DLed looks terrible. I DLed Desperate Housewives for my aunt and if just plays a teeny bit off.

I keep thinking there is just this *one* thing I need to fix these files or whatever, but I can not identify what that one thing is.

[scarlettgirl.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what you are talking about but damn, it was really hot!

What with the forcing and jerking and g-spot...

[mcfeste.livejournal.com]

I've had the same problem with bittorrent files in the past -- actually, I'm currently having it again but I'm too lazy to fix it -- but all I had to do to fix it the first time was update my codecs, and then the jerkiness went away. In the meantime, however, the only player that will play the files correctly for me (without updating) is the DivX player itself. No problems there. *shrug*

Hope that helps.

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Skipping during playback will often depend on what is being used to play the content. If it's the divx decoder then it could be a b-frame compatibility problem. The most recent divx decoder is better with this.

If they encoded the file with xvid then it means they have likely chosen to use 2 b-frames. Divx only supports 1 and although it can playback files with 2 b-frames sometimes you have to try enabling or even disabling the "Smooth Playback" option.

There are other things I could advise you on but I'd need to know what your ultimate goal is in all this. If your ultimate goal is to watch the files on your pc without skipping then look into the options I say above or try using a decoder like FFDShow or the VLC movie player instead. If your goal is to convert these into mpeg2 for burning to dvd and displaying on a tv then that's a whole different kettle of fish and some new advice will be required :)

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Yay! You know all - thanks for applying your giant brain to this!

My ultimate goal is to be able to clip from the file for vidding. I could care less about watching these things on the PC - although I wonder how they will play as avis on my DVD player? I shall experiment.

I use these files (or would like to use them) for vidding. Right now, using VDub to capture, my clips (compressed with the PanasonicDV codec) are noticibly jerky from these files (other files are fine). When I convert these files using TMPENGC to mpeg 2, the jerkyness remains.

I think I will also have to be more specific about the files that have this problem vrs the ones that do not. I will do that when I get home.

::looks at mound of work on desk::

Eventually.

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

Well although I have various theories, they might all come to naught if the problem is in the source. There are possible explanations but I'd rather not send you on a wild goose chase of settings and codecs if it's not fixable anyway.

So, I'm currently downloading the LOL version of ep 5 of desperate housewives. If that's not a file you have then let me know and I'll try and get a file that you have.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

That is not a file I have! I was just making all that up as examples. I'll give you and actual file name when I get home.

You, you are pretty damn wonderful, thank you.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

First of all - thank you.

Now I am at home and looking and I think it is an issue of me and my PC because it looks like all xvid files appear (and clip as such) jerky.

My thoughts are that I am missing something that I need to have. I uninstalled Xvid and redownloaded and installed it and the problem still remains.

I shall let Clark Demonstrate the issue at hand. This is a 13 sec demo (cause this is the vid I am working on): The first part of the demo is Clark being molested by whorey sorority girls. As you can see, the footage is all...jerky. The second part of the demo (at 7 seconds in) is Clark being molested by a cheerleader in the weight room. As you can see, the footage is smooth and flows.

http://headtilt.com/jerkyconfusion.wmv

What can we gather from this (other than Clark is very confused and quite jumpable?)- The jerky sorority girls stuff is from smallville.s04e13.hdtv-lol (VDub says it is xvid mpeg-4 and fps is 23.976). The smooth (yet still just as horny) cheerleader stuff is from smallville.s04e01xsvcd.

So there is something up with me, my PC and xVid. Or Mpeg-4. Or something. And it has to just be me and not the source because these things play well for other people. It is just me. And it looks like this ::points to jerky sorority girls::

G-Spot says my installed codecs are as follows:

DMO MP4S Mpeg4s Decoder DMO
DMO WMV Screen decoder DMO
DMO WMVideo Decoder DMO
DMO MP43 Mpeg43 Decoder DMO
DMO MPG4 Mpeg4 Decoder DMO
DSH DV Video Encoder
DSH Indeo® video 5.10 Compression Filter
DSH MJPEG Compressor
DSH MPEG1 MPEG Video Decoder
DSH MP43 ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder
DSH XVID XviD MPEG-4 Video Decoder
DSH DIVX DivX Decoder Filter
DSH MP4S DivX MPEG-4 DVD Video Decompressor
DSH MP43 Microcrap MPEG-4 Video Decompressor
DSH DVSD DV Video Decoder
DSH DIVX DivX Decoder Filter
DSH MSS1 Microsoft Screen Video Decompressor
DSH WMV1 Windows Media Video Decoder
DSH WMV2 Windows Media Video Decoder
DSH InterVideo Video
DSH IV41 Indeo® video 4.4 Decompression Filter
DSH IV50 Indeo® video 5.10 Decompression Filter
DSH MJPG AVI Draw
DSH TM20 TrueMotion 2.0 Decompressor
DSH Video Port Manager
DSH AVI Decompressor
DSH QTRpza QT Decompressor
DSH MJPG MJPEG Decompressor
DSH CyberLink Video/SP Decoder
VFW CVID Cinepak Codec by Radius Radius Inc.
VFW DIV3 DivX MPEG-4 Video Codec Kristal Studio
VFW DIV4 DivX ;-) MPEG-4 Fast-Motion
VFW DIVX DivX Pro 5.0.2 Codec
VFW DVSD Panasonic DV CODEC
VFW HFYU Huffyuv v2.1.1 Disappearing Inc.
VFW I420 Helix I420 YUV Codec
VFW IV32 Intel Indeo(R) Video R3.2
VFW IV41 Intel Indeo® Video 4.5
VFW IV50 Indeo® video 5.10 I
VFW IYUV Intel IYUV codec
VFW M261 Microsoft H.261 Video Codec
VFW M263 Microsoft H.263 Video Codec
VFW MP42 MS MPEG-4 3688 V2
VFW MP43 MS MPEG-4 3688 V3
VFW MPG4 MS MPEG-4 3688 V1
VFW MRLE Microsoft RLE
VFW MSVC Microsoft Video 1
VFW XVID XviD MPEG-4 Codec
VFW YV12 Helix YV12 YUV Codec

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I'd like to chime if and see if I can get the same advice. I have 2 goals - 1. burn the avi to a DVD that I can play on my DVD player in the living room 2. Vidding (source clips).

I don't think the problem is the source since this cuts across a wide range of shows/files (and even across PC/Mac platforms).

[elz.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to correct for what I assume is a frame-rate inconsistency? For example: certain avi files seem to play jerky for me - the movement looks a bit *off* - now the audio will generally sync but the actual play is just - stuttery. I am not certain but it may be on the files labelled TCM (I need to actually look at this in depth).

Are you having this problem with regular players or just when you preview things with VirtualDub? If you're using VirtualDub, do you have any filters set, or have you made any changes to the frame rate?

(I have all of the House LOL encodes, and they all play fine on my computer.)

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if this information is at all helpful to you, but I was having trouble with jerkiness and audio on some .avi files--LOL rips among them--on both WMV and DivX Player, but then I uninstalled DivX Player and installed Media Player Classic and ffdshow and have had no problems with playback since (which is the ONLY time in my life a fix has ever been that simple).

[arjumand.livejournal.com]

Hi, I saw your post on Queer as Folk recs; re. your avi problem.
The last time I had the 'jerky video' problem I downloaded the latest codecs from Divx.com and I haven't had problems since: in fact, I've read in the Divx forums that sometimes it's worse to have too many codecs 'cos they interfere with each other, if that makes any sense!
The last problem I had with .avi files is that the sound and the video were out of sync. Since then I started playing all my downloaded tv eps movies etc with the VLC player: just google it and download the latest version: the only complaint I have about it is that it doesn't disable the screensaver but just put it on 'fullscreen' and problem solved.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your help - but my problem isn't so much playback as encoding.

Hi, I saw your post on Queer as Folk recs

I'm curious - my what at what?

House

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

I know this doesn't go with your subject but if you do get House working, save it for me..I forgot what night it is on and missed it...so much for my new favorite show....love, mom

Re: House

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I missed it as well - I'll download it later this week.