Modify NTSC slow-down

[EJones216]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a little problem with the Region 1 DVD edition of "Once", regarding the fact that this is the rare time that we experience what PAL video-watchers have to deal with on a regular basis: listening to movies in the wrong pitch.

Not much of a problem for most movies, but being that "Once" is a musical, hearing the music in a slightly lower pitch can arguably detract from the experience, so my question is this:


Is there a way to re-encode the 23.978fps stream to be sped-up to its proper 25fps (24.975fps?) on an NTSC DVD, and retain the original chapter stops and subtitle options... or is this one that I have to drag into VirtualDub, speed up there, and re-encode several times?

[setarip_old]

Hi!

I can only tell you that I experienced no such audio problem with my R1 version...

[EJones216]

"Once" was filmed with PAL HDV cameras (25fps), but to notice the audio problem you need only compare to the soundtrack album. I know they slowed it down deliberately to be compatible with NTSC 3:2 pulldown, but if there's a way to modify the speed of the film to a more proper sound...

[PhillipWyllie]

Several audio editing/encoding programs have a time-stretch feature, one being Sony Vegas. When changing from film to NTSC slowdown is always applied to the audio(that's the only way to keep it in sync). Using the time-stretch feature, the pitch is increased to compensate for the slowdown. There should be much distortion in the pitch as a PAL to NTSC conversion only incurs a %5 slowdown (1- (23.976/25) ). Does you original play fine?

[Butcher Wing]

I don't know what all the confusion is here. Its simple as far as i have been concerned for years and by hearing it myself. PAL dvds play at 25fps which is is faster than NTSC dvds which play at 29.796 fps making the music/voices sound slower and deeper i pitch. As far as im concerned NTSC dvds sound like the correct pitch and speed , where as PAL speed dvds sound high pitch and fast, like chipmunks. It really annoys me when i have to listen to a film with lots of music and singing in it and they all sound high pitch and not like their real life voices. There for you need to buy NTSC region 1 dvds of your favorite films IMO. It's a shame i know.

I often make custom Hong Kong movie dvds and I have to take original mono audio tracks from a PAL dvd or Laserdisc and then slow down/stretch the track by exactly (104.271 %) using Adobe Audition Stretch tool. The quality comes out exactly the same as the original but now its the correct pitch and speed! Then i can go ahead and sync it up with the NTSC dvd picture I'm using.

Why can't PAL dvds have their audio pitch corrected whe they are made and sold? Its so annoying. I'm not sure if some PAL dvds are pitch corrected. I'm not that clued up on it. And i know it depends on how the film is transfered from 35mm.

A good example of how PAL speed up is annoying is when you hear JAckie Chan singing the theme songs to his chinese movies during the end credits. He sounds like a chipmunk. Thats why i always go for NTSC dvds mostly.

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anyway, i have another question i need answered on a similar subject, so im gonna make a thread. :D