4gb limit... any suggestions for use w/Tmpeg encoder

bbcoach wrote on 10/15/2001, 5:40 PM
I understand that if I want to print to tape a large avi file (over 20 minutes), sfvidcap will do this seemlessly (though, I have not tried it yet). However, I would like to encode my large (over 20 minutes)avi file to an mpeg 2, using Tmpeg Encoder. Is there any way to do this without changing my OS to Win 2000? I am running win 98 SE.

I think Ligos mpeg encoder works very well, but I think the Tmpeg encoder works even better.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Mark

Comments

SonyNateM wrote on 10/16/2001, 8:49 AM
As there is no way to "stitch" the AVI files together (4GB is as big as files can get on the FAT32 filesystem), unless TMPEG has specific support for segmented files, there is no easy way to combine them to encode one stream.

I do know of a frameclient called AVISynth that will allow you to write a script that will create a virtual stream of audio and video sourced from multiple files. It could potentially be used to workaround this problem.
Chienworks wrote on 10/16/2001, 11:52 AM
Actually you should be able to accomplish this nicely in Vegas. Drag
your .avi file or files onto the timeline, then render the project to MPEG.
You can add as many .avi files as you wish up to the capacity of all the
hard drives connected to your computer. It's very doubtful that your
rendered MPEG file is going to exceed 4GB. Even at DVD quality 4GB
will hold about 56 minutes.

Or am i missing your point here?
bbcoach wrote on 10/17/2001, 12:10 AM
Thanks for the replies! I will check out "avisynth".

I am a basketball coach who would like to put my team's games on DVD. In addition, I would put together a season highlight creation which I would also like to put on DVD. What I am trying to do now is to get pretty good at creating an edited avi file which will be over 20 minutes in length, convert it into an mpeg file, and use DVDit! to author a DVD. I like the TMPEG Encoding Program for encoding my avi file into an mpeg file. It just seams to give me more control over my final project. Is there any way that TMPEG could be used in conjuction with Vegas on large files (probably 50 minutes in length to 70 minutes) without having to switch to Windows 2000?

If I did switch to Win 2000, what is a NTFS drive? Would that mean that I would need to get another hard drive? I know that I would need to update drivers, etc., but is it hard to find all that I need? Does Microsoft help with this?

If anyone has any more ideas, it will surely be appreciated!

Thanks!

Mark
akg wrote on 10/17/2001, 2:44 AM
WHEN U INSTAL THE WIN2000 U CAN SELETE NTSF FORMAT,
SO U DON`T NEED TO BUY A NEW ONE,
BUT NOTICE,
U MUST BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE U FORMAT.
SonyNateM wrote on 10/17/2001, 4:23 PM
Moving to Win2000 can be tricky if you have non-standard hardware, but drivers for most of the devices on your system should be built right into the Win2K distribution. Download Win2000 drivers for any of your important hardware devices from the manufacturer's website before upgrading.

Changing your hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS will require erasing and reformatting the drive, destroying all data. You will want to back up all your important files, email, installers for software/drivers, and anything else you don't want to lose to CD-R or another medium.
Cheesehole wrote on 10/17/2001, 6:25 PM
WinXP Pro may be the way to go for you as it has a lot more built in drivers and built in help compared to Win2k. You should have the option of upgrading your drive to NTFS the first time you install Win2k or XP without destroying data. The best solution however is to get a second hard drive and run a dual boot system in case you need to go back to Win98 for some reason.
dsanders wrote on 10/25/2001, 10:33 AM
Converting from FAT32 to NTFS does not require you to "Reformat" and lose all of your data. Take a look at a product called Partition Magic from Powerquest (http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/index.html). It lets you convert partions without losing anything. But, you still must be running an OS that supports NTFS.
dsanders wrote on 10/25/2001, 10:42 AM
Here is what you are missing:

DVDs require a PCM audio stream (or Dolby Digital which requires a license). The Ligos MPEG encoder creates an MPEG2 file that contains a video and (compressed - non PCM) audio stream. MyDVD or DVDit must then re-render the project to remove the non-conforming audio stream and convert it to PCM. This is a time consuming process (days for a large MPEG file!). Plus, MyDVD and DVDit both include a crappy MPEG encoder, and you may end up with audio/video sync problems. The best way to use MyDVD and DVDit is to give it a DVD compliant MPEG2 file that contains only a video stream, along with a matching uncompressed 48K PCM audio (.wav) file.