BatMan - first aid in technical problems

Hi BobbyQ!

First of all I'd like to thank you for this amazing converter. I never use anything but Batman for converting films to my M6. I used to use Meizus own converter but yours is way better!

But recently I've started messing around with Batman trying the different functions to play films on my PC. I have no problems getting good picture quality or the sound to work. The problem I get is with the zoom. Where do I change the zoom aspects when using your custom menu. I've got a film that isn't 4:3-format that I want to keep in its original format. How do I do this?

I've tried the different zoom-modes and tried to find a special command in the custom option, but to no avail. Can you help me?

Thanks!

Hi Willy, BatMan will always maintain the original aspect ratio, no matter which zoom mode you choose. If you don't have egg-heads before converting, you won't have egg-heads afterwards (look here and scroll down to find out how to correct egg-heads).
The meaning of the 3 zoom modes is explained in detail in the help (invoke with "?"). In case you have black bars encoded within the original movie, take a look at this picture how zoom modes affect such a movie.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

Hi Willy, BatMan will always maintain the original aspect ratio, no matter which zoom mode you choose. If you don't have egg-heads before converting, you won't have egg-heads afterwards (look here and scroll down to find out how to correct egg-heads).
The meaning of the 3 zoom modes is explained in detail in the help (invoke with "?"). In case you have black bars encoded within the original movie, take a look at this picture how zoom modes affect such a movie.

Strange for me the vids aspect ratio is converted from 720:404 to 720:540. I've tried it with different dvds and the result is always the same.

When converting I follow the steps you stated in your manual pc-conversion.

While converting I get this message: "ODML: vprp aspect i 4:3" Does this have something to do with my problem?

No, I don't think so. Mosts DVDs have a different pixel aspect ratio, but that normally gets checked automatically by mencoder. All the DVDs I have here run fine. Do you have another DVD to confirm this ? However, the quickest way to solve your problem would be to use a state-of-the-art DVD2AVI Ripper like AutoKG or any other program of your choice, rip it down to DivX and then convert with BatMan.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

No, I don't think so. Mosts DVDs have a different pixel aspect ratio, but that normally gets checked automatically by mencoder. All the DVDs I have here run fine. Do you have another DVD to confirm this ? However, the quickest way to solve your problem would be to use a state-of-the-art DVD2AVI Ripper like AutoKG or any other program of your choice, rip it down to DivX and then convert with BatMan.

Ok. I'll try some other programs before I get back to you. I have tried to convert to completely different DVDs with the same result. Thanks for your help!

I just tried 3 random DVDs, they all convert fine. Are you sure you have the latest BatMan (2008/02/01) ?

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

I just tried 3 random DVDs, they all convert fine. Are you sure you have the latest BatMan (2008/02/01) ?

The prepass works fine. The resulting large file retains the aspect ration of the original dvd. But after the first pass the aspect ration is changed to 4:3. Could it have something to do with codecs for Batman (I always use VLC so I never manually update codecs)?

I have now tried four random dvds all with the same result.

I didn't ask if you have the latest beta for no reason ... you are describing a solved bug.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

I didn't ask if you have the latest beta for no reason ... you are describing a solved bug.

I guess I'll have to download it again. The version I'm running was dowloaded 2008-02-02 so I assumed it was the latest. Sorry if this was not the case.


UPDATE! Just downloaded the latest BETA-version of batman and it still switches the aspect ratio to 4:3. Oh well, I guess I'll use some other software when not using it fo my M6. Thanx for your help BobbyQ!

Hi bobbyq,

Redid the movie with Q4 and the stuttering of video and audio is now gone, however the fast foward and rewind does not work..... any ideas... seems to me that going lower on quality clears up some problems so I wonder if there is a file size limitation in the M6 as far as Videos go..... (Fastforward works fine on a couple of movies that are less than an hour long.)

Also I tried to rip a DVD which has 4 eposided of a show on and the first 3 came out fine, when i try the 4th, batman hangs at the point where it is looking for the chapters information... Any ideas or Bad DVD info..... Play fine in a DVD player.....

Thanks in advance.

@Willy : I need the following info : device, zoom mode, quality profile, content of lastswitch.ini, and what do you mean by changing to 4:3 exactly (egg-heads or not ?)
@fwheeler : the FF problem has a beard ... have you tried "repair" ? Have you tried holding FF for a while ? the chapter 4 problem : read FAQ 1.2

Bobbyq,

As soon as you Hit FF it drops out back to list of videos.....

What is this beard?

Where are these FAQ 1.2 listed. Search on this site to no avail...

Thanks in advance

- I said hold FF, hold like in pressing down and not releasing
- a problem with a beard = a problem that is so old that is has grown a beard
- BatMan has a built-in help (which contains a FAQ) which you invoke by entering "?"

bobbyq

When you HOLD the FF key down the picture freezes and the numbers at the bottom change constantly...(even going negative number) Also the status bar go from clear to full red and back again constantly. when you finally let go it goes back to video listings....

Will check help on batman. Sorry did not know that was what you were talking about... My fault....

As always thanks for any help ...

hold FF for 30 seconds or longer. It will suddenly start FFding at some point. It always does. And no, there is no real solution to that (since nobody really knows why this happens). "repair" sometimes helps, sometimes not.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

@Willy : I need the following info : device, zoom mode, quality profile, content of lastswitch.ini, and what do you mean by changing to 4:3 exactly (egg-heads or not ?)

Device = pc
Zoom = default (none chosen), but I have tried at least two different zoom modes with the same result
Quality profile = pc default, 1, 5, and custom
content of lastswitch.ini = How do I access that? What is that?
4:3 = Yes everyone looks like their from the cast of coneheads! Coneheads (1993)

- there is no "default" zoom mode (the 3 modes are FULL, WIDE, MEDIUM)
- device mode "PC" uses no zoom modes at all, that's why Z doesn't appear in the menu ! if you still press Z, undesired effects can occur (in the next version, I will forbid entering Z in PC mode)
- forget the lastswitch.ini thingy, if you have never used "switch", there just is no .ini (you would normally find that in ~ProgramFiles\BatMan\ini
- with all my DVDs it works like a charm, with Avisynth and without, and with any zoom mode

Do you have Avisynth installed ? What does the menu say regarding to that ? If you had Avisynth installed, try doing it without by doing the following :
in the main menu, enter "exe", then enter "set avisynth=no", then proceed as usual. If that fails too, please start over, and when it asks you for a special command, you enter "set>setout.txt&setout.txt" and send me the contents of the displayed text in a PM.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

hold FF for 30 seconds or longer. It will suddenly start FFding at some point. It always does. And no, there is no real solution to that (since nobody really knows why this happens). "repair" sometimes helps, sometimes not.

I only found this a problem when the file size is over around330mb.

Originally Posted by Jay R

I only found this a problem when the file size is over around330mb.

au contraire : I have clips <100 MB here that have that problem and files >400 MB that FF fine. As I mentioned before, nobody knows but the Meizu Firmware guys.

Stupid question, suppose I want to run Batman from some other program, unattended. How do I specify the quality/zoom info over the command line, so the prompt doesn't come up?

ie: batman <what goes here?> file.avi

Thx