Hi to all,

I have a problem with Avi to Eva convertion on PC. Convertion stops at frame 1620, with a Windows error. Why?
How many version of "avi2eva.com" are there?

Thank you in advance.

could you write down what kind of error you get? What Windows are you on? The AVI2EVA I use, has version 0.8. Maybe a nice tool for you, I have EVAWIN0.4 here as well :-)

Hi D-Tail,

I tried on both Win98 and WinXP, it seems that some frames are damaged, but I don't know why always on 1620. I use VirtualDub to convert from vob, mpg, etc. to uncompressed avi.
Maybe avi2eva lost synchronization with hard disk, or something like that (hd speed too high...)

Ah, one more thing... I'm converting 3 GB of video (more or less 4/5 minutes), is it too big???

The AVI2EVA converter just sucks quite a big time. AFAIK latest version is 0.8 Usually the crash is caused by sound codec. Most typical situation is that it just gives you error like "can not get audio size" or something similar, but sometimes it just crashes in middle of conversion.

I suggest you to try some other video. If you really want to convert just this movie, then I would suggest you to try to install some other sound codecs. Don't know if that helps though... Too bad, this tool does not have "no sound" option.

Size is not a problem. I have converted for example StarWreck V (encoded with some version of DivX), that is about 45 minutes long minimovie. (I converted directly from version, that can be found here: http://www.starwreck.com/oldies/downloads.php)

Umm... lost track of this topic for a little while, sorry for that ^_^...

But it is indeed as NYYRIKKI says -- sound is often a big problem. Sometimes, when you've got DivX or XviD or more exotically encoded AVIs, it won't grab them either. I often used shareware or trial programs from the internet to convert these to MPEG, and convert them back to AVI. Most of the time, it will work then. Sometimes those encode/decode programs don't do what you want (or do what you not want ), so a little bit of figuring out is required.

Thank you,

yes, you're right, I remember that no errors appeared when I converted from mpeg to avi.
So I have to convert from vob to divx (at some quality), and then to avi.
I'd like to find a "standard" and quick procedure to convert dvds to eva...

Thank you again.

I didn't use any extra converters. AVI2EVA can read (at least some) DivX files without problems.

I really wonder why a MPG2EVA hasn't been made, instead of an AVI2EVA...

Yeah, and why it does not support SCREEN 8... MSX EVA player supports SCREEN 8, but there is no tools to make SCREEN 8 EVA-files. Could someone with knowledge of PC programming write a new EVA converter?

Meanwhile, there's the EVAcon workaround

I'd like to do a new EVA converter, NYYRIKKI, but I don't know a heck about MPG/AVI or the EVA sound system. Therefore I should decompile the original (which was written in C or C++) and I don't really have faith in that

Besides, a new converter made by me would probably be written in JAVA again, since that's about the only language in which I can code

Converting from S12 picture is not very good solution...

Hi,

I thank you for your suggestions, now conversion of my video works (from a DivX5.1 to EVA)!

But I have other questions now...

I can't find documentation in English or Spanish about AVI2EVA, and I can't understand some options of AVI2EVA utility: can you help me to translate/explain them???
This is the altavista translation of the "readme" help file:

*******************
===================
AVI to EVA converter ver0.8
===================
[...]
Case we would like to convert
AVI2EVA [ conversion original file name ] [ output file name ] -HSIZE128 -ADJUST -DITHER

to 12FPS, -FPS12 please add.

Option
-HSIZEn side size of the conversion buffer is appointed.
-VSIZEn vertical size of the conversion buffer is appointed.
-STARTn frame number of the AVI file which starts conversion is appointed.
-FPSn frame rate of the EVA file is appointed. Default is 10 [ FPS ].
-FRAME the number of output of the EVA file frames is appointed.
-DITHER dither processing is done.
-ADJUST aspect ratio adjustment is done.
-MONO it outputs blackly and whitely.

After the picture which is grasped from the AVI file reduction (enlargement) being done to the conversion buffer it is written to the EVA file. If size of ?? ??which is appointed with -HSIZE and -VSIZE other than 128x106dot, conversion buffer central 128x106dot is output to the EVA file. When -HSIZE and -VSIZE has not appointed both, the buffer of the same size as the picture of the AVI file is guaranteed. -HSIZE the ? it is when either one -VSIZE just one side is appointed, large of the one which is not appointed to come, it reaches the value which calculated appropriate size from the picture size of AVI.
********************


So, help file suggests these parameters "-HSIZE128 -ADJUST -DITHER -FPS12" for a good conversion, but I think "-DITHER" is not to use in most of cases...
What do you think?

The last question: I don't remember why there's "-fps10" option, is this because of keeping MegaSCSI compatibility of EVA?
I always create fps12 eva files: so, are these files playable with all EVA players and MSX configurations?

Thank you in advance for your help.

What of the parameters you don't understand? Typically -HSIZE128 or -VSIZE106 are good options for conversion. If you want to change aspect ratio you need to put both of them. Dithering is kind of taste issue. Some people like it and some not.

-fps10 is meant for 50Hz play and -fps12 is meant for 60Hz play. 10 fps picture naturally takes a bit less space from you HD/CF/CD-ROM.

You can play both type of EVA files on MegaSCSI as well.

In addition: 10fps @ 50Hz interrupt or 12fps @ 60Hz interrupt ensures the standard of 1 frame per 5 interrupts (50/10 vs 60/12). Personally I like the 12fps @ 60Hz variant better -- the animation is much more 'smooth', if you'd like to call it that way.

Dither is particularly useful when you'd like to convert it to SC8. Otherwise you'd be left with greenish and blueish frames, while dithering more or less spreads the color. It is as NYYRIKKI says: you'll have to like it

ADJUST: Normally, most videos are 4:3 shaped. Thus, a target resolution of 128x96 seems more appropriate, compared to 128x106. It will indeed be fixed when you use the options -HSIZE128 -ADJUST. On the other hand, some movies are 16:9 shaped. when you'd fill in -HSIZE128, there will be nothing left of the video, for the VSIZE will be squeezed. In that case, you should use -VSIZE106/-VSIZE96 -ADJUST.

The START and FRAME directives are particularly useful for cutting a passage out of a movie -- first determine the frame to grab (and calculate it in respect to the 10/12FPS) and fill it in at the START directive. Then determine the frame to stop grabbing, convert that as well to the target frame number. Determine the difference between that stop-frame number and the start number and fill it in at the FRAME directive.

When FRAME is left blank, AVI2EVA will convert from frame number START to the end of the movie. Same counts when FRAME is filled out, but START is left blank -- it will convert the first FRAME frames.