h264/5.1ac3 (mkv) to HD-DVD using Scenarist, video & audio duration problem, help!

[stevencday]

First of all, thanks to everyone who has worked so hard in educating and giving the rest of us the tools we need to make this a reality.

I am starting out with 720p h.264/5.1ac3 mkv files and I am converting them to HD-DVD compliant 264 streams and of course not touching the ac3.

I have used the methods DarthMaul explained and everything seems to go smoothly with couple exceptions.

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get my audio and video to have the same duration in Scenarist ACA. I am using the 665i_pulldown version of x264 and h264info 13, but I have read by some that there lies my problem. I have CineVision, but I cannot get it to render without an error.

For cinevision, I was using the mkv->avs->avi via vfapi process but no go.

Is there an alternative to h264info to do the pulldown? Am I encoding the h264 file with x264 in such a way that when I do the pulldown it messes up?

Last question, since I already have an h264 file is it really neccessary to re-encode the file? Can I not just set "flags" or something or somehow just make it "hd-dvd compliant" using some sort of transcode or something?

Forgive the newbie nature of this last paragraph, I am just coming from the mpeg-2 world of DVD and I am not quite getting it yet.

Also,

Since the x264 version I am using is called 665i_pulldown, does that mean I can actually do the 29.97 pulldown during the encoding process and not have to use h264info?

One more thing, what is the pulldown framerate I should use if I have a 25fps h264 file?

[lazyn00b]

It took me a long time to figure it out, but you can use the pulldown version of x264 without resorting to h264info. The key is to have --aud as well as --nal-hrd and --pulldown 32 (or 64) in your command line.

[stevencday]

I am already using nal-hrd, but I don't exactly know what that is or what it's doing. And which do I use, 32 or 64? Are there different numbers for each framerate? These are the two framerates I will be using:

23.976
25

If you could, maybe you could post what your command line for x264 looks like for each one of these framerates. I really appreciate it!

[stevencday]

Also, what is the --aud doing? Obviously I am not touching the ac3 audio, but do I need to?

[stevencday]

I have read that the pulldown built into x264 is for 1080p only... Does it support 720p also???

[lazyn00b]

Sorry I should have been more clear: --pulldown 32 is for 1080p and 480p, while --pulldown 64 is for 720p. 720p is special because not only does it need regular pulldown, but the frames need to be doubled to bring the fps up to 59.94.

I'm pretty sure --aud is for adding something called Access Unit Delimiters. I have no idea what it is or what it means, but I know that you need it for Scenarist to be happy.

I should mention that I've been having problems with 720p stuttering, check the end of this thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125568&page=8

EDIT: By the way, I have no idea what to do with 720p @ 25 fps, hopefully somebody with experience encoding PAL streams will chime in.

[stevencday]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I guess I only perform the pulldown on the second pass, because my encodes keep failing, I am trying one now, so we shall see.

[stevencday]

The clip I am testing with is 36 seconds and 8 frames long. When I encode using the below parameters my video.264 comes into Scenarist nicely, but it shows to be 36 seconds and 7 frames. Help! Help! Help!

x264.exe --pass 1 --bitrate 5000 --stats "film.stats" --vbv-init 1.0 --aq-strength 0.25 --aq-sensitivity 5 --keyint 12 --min-keyint 4 --mvrange 511 --nal-hrd --vbv-maxrate 20000 --vbv-bufsize 14745 --level 4.1 --bframe 2 --b-rdo --weightb --bime --ref 3 --mixed-refs --deblock -1:-1 --qcomp 0.75 --ipratio 1.10 --pbratio 1.10 --partitions "all" --8x8dct --me "hex" --subme 6 --threads auto --no-fast-pskip --aud --sar 1:1 --deadzone-intra 6 --deadzone-inter 6 --non-deterministic --pulldown 64 --progress --output NUL test.avs

x264.exe --pass 2 --bitrate 5000 --stats "film.stats" --vbv-init 1.0 --aq-strength 0.25 --aq-sensitivity 5 --keyint 12 --min-keyint 4 --mvrange 511 --nal-hrd --vbv-maxrate 20000 --vbv-bufsize 14745 --level 4.1 --bframe 2 --b-rdo --weightb --bime --ref 3 --mixed-refs --deblock -1:-1 --qcomp 0.75 --ipratio 1.10 --pbratio 1.10 --partitions "all" --8x8dct --me "hex" --subme 6 --threads auto --no-fast-pskip --aud --sar 1:1 --deadzone-intra 6 --deadzone-inter 6 --non-deterministic --pulldown 64 --progress --output video.264 test.avs