Determining DVD compliance of mpeg2 file

[Zarxrax]

Is there a (preferrably free) program which can tell me if an mpeg2 file is strictly dvd compliant, and if not, tell me whats wrong with it?

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Load the MPEG-2 file into VirtualDubMOD. Open the "File Information" screen from the "File" dropdown menu. It will show you all you need to see regarding video resolution, video framerate, average video bitrate, audio sampling frequency, audio format, and audio sampling bitrate...

[Mug Funky]

hehe... that's a tricky one.

there's a program made by philips that parses a VIDEO_TS folder and gives an exhaustive list of possible problems.

there's a catch though (apart from the price):

we ran it over a "fully compliant" DVD and it came up with ~ 200,000 errors and warnings. i think one has to fine-tune it to give the actual errors.

my advice is burn a disc (preferably a DVD+R bit-set to DVD-ROM) and try it on every DVD player you can find.

the DVD spec (and the thousands of implementations of it) are deliberately vague in places, meaning that total guaranteed spec compliance is sort of like a platonic ideal that can never be reached (and even if it was, how would you know?).

[hank315]

The program mentioned by Mug Funky:
http://www.licensing.philips.com/ordering/soft/documents1047.html
Price: $500.-

the DVD spec (and the thousands of implementations of it) are deliberately vague in places, meaning that total guaranteed spec compliance is sort of like a platonic ideal that can never be reached Very true, even if a stream passes the Philips verifier there's no guarantee it will play correct on every HW-player, the MPEG/DVD specs can be read (and implemented) in many ways.

[Zarxrax]

Wow, I didn't know it could be so complicated :eek:

Last year I passed out around 100 copies of a dvd I made and put an ISO of it up for download, and it seemed to work fine for most people, although I have heard a few complaints (2 or 3 people actually bothered to mention it to me, so there's probably a lot more) that it has problems playing at some points.

So I guess that would explain it then--some dvd players might not interpret the specs the same way.

[setarip_old]

@Zarxrax

Despite all the "scary stuff" referred to by "Mug Funky" and "hank315", I'd still suggest to you that you'll be right (that the file is DVD compliant FAR more often (or perhaps always) than not, if you load the MPEG2 into VirtualDubMOD and see the following in the "File Information" box:

Video resolution: 360x480, 360x576, 352x480, 720x480, or 720x576

Video framerate: 29.970fps or 25.000fps

Audio format: PCM (.WAV), .AC3, or .MP2 (Not specifically in spec, but accepted by the vast majority of players)

Audio sampling frequency: 48KHz

Combined A/V bitrate: 9,800Kbps

[Zarxrax]

Yea, I know about those things, I was primarily wondering about more indepth information than vdub can provide. Thanks though.

[Mug Funky]

360 width is not mod16, and hence not DVD compliant... half-D1 = 352x576, CIF = 352x288 substitute 480 and 240 for NTSC of course.

AFAIK these are compliant:

352x240/288 MPEG1 @ 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97fps
352x480/576 MPEG2 @ 29.97 or 25
704x480/576 MPEG2 @ 29.97 or 25
720x480/576 MPEG2 @ 29.97 or 25

MPEG2 must be main profile, main level.

additionally there's limits on bitrates, buffer sizes, aspect ratios and motion-vector lengths (motion vectors must not point out of the screen for instance, which can happen sometimes, albeit only by half a pixel).

audio wise there's LPCM (16, 20 and 24bit, stereo 48k IIRC), MP2, AC3 (max 448kbps, min 96kbps, CBR only) and optional DTS (half-rate 754.75 kbps and full rate 1509.5 kbps, 48k only).

and yes, pretty much any interpretation of the above will work on most DVD players. any problems will likely be player specific or a fault of the muxer.

actually, the other day we had a complaint from a couple of people about a disc that buggered up in 1 spot. only messed up on old pioneer players. the funny thing is it was encoded on DVD specific hardware. for whatever reason, about 6 slices failed to decode correctly and resulted in a glitch that lasted the rest of the GOP. stuff just happens sometimes...

so in short, don't worry too much about DVD compliance. chances are whatever you do will work on most players and bugger up on a vanishingly small number of them, which is not too worrying and bound to happen.

[setarip_old]

@Mug Funky

Thanks for the resolution corrections ;>}

[AVIL]

@zarxrax
You can obtain a quick check with GSPOT. It informs you about general DVD compliance (bitrate, framesize, etc).

For exhaustive test (GOP size, etc ) you can try MPEGvalidator.

Both are free.

Good luck.

[Abond]

Try to mux it with muxman.

[Zarxrax]

Ok, thanks for all the great advice everyone.

And this MPEG Validator program is awesome! I have been looking for something exactly like this =D