Newbie Total Confusion

[schmidtew1]

:confused: O.K. I've been going thru the forums, checking out the links to the different encodeing programs etc. The more I read the more I'm getting confused, or maybe information overload! I'm trying to get a decent looking VCD from downloaded movie files 'cause I HATE watching movies on the computer.All my results come out looking really,REALLY, bad. I've taken the downloaded files (usually MS-MPEG4 V3 at either 14.985 fps or 12.5 fps at 44kb/sec) running them thru VirtualDub until they look pretty good on the computer screen, rencoding to MS-MPEG4 V3 as AVI from VirtualDub,then encoding to MPEG-1 in TMPGEnc using the default block smoothing settings so I can write a CD-RW (My DVD player wont accept CD-R's) VCD with Nero. My end results always look like I didn't even spend the 10+ hours of filtering. What with Everything looking like its made out of squares,being blurry, color shifting from one end of the spectrum to the other every 15 to 20 seconds, big purple blocks in the background! It's enough to make me want to toss my cookies! H-E-L-P! What am I doing wrong!?!?:(

[schmidtew1]

1. How do I convert from 14.985 fps to 29.97 with MINIMUM visual effect on the quality of the image?
2. Same for 12.5 fps?
3. Which editor/filtering program works on MPEG-1.

Any help along these lines of thought would be greatly apreciated.
If I missed a forum thread that addresed these problems,could you direct me to it.

ThankYou, ES

[hakko504]

First: any conversion will cause you to loose quality; that's inevitable.

Secondly: This AVIsynth script will double the framerate (from 14.985 to 29.97 or 12.5 to 25 fps):AVISource("file.avi")
SelectEvery(1,0,0)


To change from 12.5 to 29.97 you also need to manually reduce the speed of the sound in an external editor by a factor 0.999 and use the following AVIsynth script:AVISource("file.avi")
SelectEvery(5,0,0,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4)
Assumefps(29.97)


AVIsynth can be used for filtering AVI data before feeding it to the MPEG decoder. Any spatial filtering should be inserted before Assumefps and temporal filtering after. If you dl the GordianKnot pack AVIsynth and some filters are included and then you should be able to use something like this to filter the AVI and resize it for VCD:
LoadPlugin("mpeg2dec.dll") #I think this line is needed for temporalsmoother
LoadPlugin("Avisynth_Spatial.dll")
AVISource("file.avi")
TemporalSmoother(2)
SpatialSoftenMMX(1,4,6,false,false,4,4,6,8)
BicubicResize(352,240,0,0.5) #Change to (352,288) if you do PAL VCD
SelectEvery(1,0,0) #Change to (5,0,0,1,...) if you convert from 12.5 fps to 29.97)
TemporalSmoother(2) #Change to (3) if you convert from 12.5 fps to 29.97

The resize will of course be different if you don't have a 4:3 input file.

[TheWEF]

Originally posted by schmidtew1
I'm trying to get a decent looking VCD from downloaded movie files 'cause I HATE watching movies on the computer.

1) downloading moviez is a sin ;)

2) vdc always looks terrible. if you want decent looking quality you have to convert to 3-cd-svcd (if your player supports it). still, quality will be less than in the original avi.

3) buy a gfx-card with tv-out plus a long cable or a radio transmitter... and you live happy ever after.

4) read the forum rules.

wef.

EDIT: forgot something!

5) never download a movie with 14.985 or 12.5 fps. that's truly a waste of time and bandwidth.

[schmidtew1]

Hakko, thanks a bunch! I'm sure this will help, you are pointing me in a direction I can understand. All the info I was reading was just getting me more and more confused as to which way to go.


theWEF, VERY good idea about the card. As to the fps, I guess it's to minimize file size. They're just about the only frame rate that can be found on K...:scared:
Whoops!(pound on forehead!) DON'T say the K word,DON'T say the K word...:D
As for #4, I did'nt THINK I was breaking the rules... Where did I BooBoo?

[hakko504]

Forgot one thing: AVISynth documentation can be found at Videotools (http://www.videotools.net).

[TheWEF]

Originally posted by schmidtew1
As for #4, I did'nt THINK I was breaking the rules... Where did I BooBoo?

9) Use a title that describes the content of your post.

;)

wef.

[cofferscuffs]

Well, imho if you didnt think u were braking the rules; you obviously hadn't read them.

[theReal]

They're just about the only frame rate that can be found on K...Even this is not the right place to talk about stuff like that, but I just have to add one comment:
If you only find movies with a framerate of 12.5 or 14.985 fps at a certain place, then this is certainly a place you shouldn't waste your time at! ;)