Pulldown after CCE encoding as MPG2 film

[lex001]

I saw in all CCE guides that after you encode your movie as MPEG-2 film, you need to run pulldown with option "Drop frame" on. After I did it and tried to load new video to TMPG DVD author - timing was messed and number of frames was less then it should. I took video and rerun pulldown with option "remove drop frame". After that everything was perfect. What is this option doing and why do we need it for?

Thanks.

[br408408]

See these sites for more info: http://www.ledet.com/coolstuff/software/premiere/timecode.pdf and
http://www.csif.org/html/dropframe.html

Bill

[lex001]

Thanks for this info.

Maybe I'm wrong but what it means that one shouldn't use "drop frame" option when pulldown CCE encoded material. Why? Because this option is to make real (24 frames) film to catch up with 29.97 NTSC. We are dealing with 23.976 frames after CCE - no time adjustment required.

[br408408]

No, drop frame timecode keeps the timecode in the video (a 29.97 fps video) in sync with a wall clock. See this quote from http://www.csif.org/html/dropframe.html "Drop frame timecode counts video frames accurately in relationship to real time. This is why all the networks and cable companies require that the final tape masters to be delivered are on drop-frame timecode." 3:2 pulldown, not drop frame timecode, is what makes a 23.976 fps video play back at 29.97 fps, which is the frame rate your TV is looking for. See this for more info on 3:2 pulldown http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm I don't normally use drop frame timecode, but have found that using it has solved a "freezing" problem on some movie back-ups. I author with DVD Maestro which will accept a drop frame asset. Also, drop frame timecode will keep subtitles in sync, but I live in the USA and speak English so I don't keep subtitles.

Bill

[RB]

I think you'll also have to enable drop-frame when encoding in CCE, the "DF" check box to the right of the time code in encode settings. Not available in CCE 2.50, though.

[lex001]

OK, a bit of math:
I have source VOB (film)which shows 1000 frames in BitrateViewer. If I load it in TMPG it shows 1250 frames. If I had a chapter at 500 frames as shown by Ifoedit - it will match exactly in TMPG. Now I create d2v file with forced film - number of frames is 1000 again. I encode with CCE. Number of frames is still 1000.
Now we have a trick: if I run pulldown with dropframe off - I load it in TMPG again and see 1250 frames - as it was in original. And if I go to frame 500 - I see that my chapter matches original chapter. If I pulldown with drop frame on - after I load in TMPG I see less then 1250 frames and my new chapter won't start from frame 500 - though timewise it will be the same.

[br408408]

You are right, it does throw my chapter times off a little...but like I said I don't don't use it all the time, only when I have a movie the freezes in playback. Funny thing though, normal when I import my chapters into DVD Meastro, it will pause for just a second and then say 29 chapters imported or whatever. But, when I have a movie the has a freezing problem on playback when I use a non drop frame timecode, there is a very long pause before Meastro will accept the chapters, however when I redo it with drop frame timecode, bang, the chapter points go right in. However, as stated before, the chapter points will be off a little. I don't care though, as it stops the movie from freezing. I would say that if everything works fine without using drop frame, don't use it. But if you get a moive that freezes, keep in mind that drop frame timecode might solve the problem.


P.S. My apologies to the mods, as this thread has gotten to the point that it probably should be in authoring.

Bill