Erin Brockovich PAL (Z2) in CCE = gray bars!!

[Areku]

Hi!

Tried the RobShot method with Erin Brockovich just to find out that any bitrate generates a LOT, and I mean, A LOT of gray bars in multipass process.

While previewing such frames on CCE, they look fine, and quality in video does not seem too bad at all, they look fine as much as the movies I've made with RobShot's.

Any workaround to this? Shall I just ignore them all?

Please!


Thanks!

[mikeathome]

Hi,

good question. I would see only one alternative:
- rip the movie
- read the .lst with VStrip
- demux with VStrip Splitting at Vob ID (chapter points)
- do individual projects of the .m2v (video) using DVD2AVI
- encode with CCESP individual chapters using RobShots methode
- merge the individual parts on the timeline of Maestro
- the audio should stay the same, means, demux using DVD2AVI on the original VOBs

Honestly it works that way. I had to do this with 2010 (Space Odyssey Part II), because of the fact, that in this INTERLACED bastard the field order changes between chapters !
Reencode with CCESP (DVD2AVI + VFAPI method), authoring and burning with Maestro lead to terrible field jumping later on the standalone in certain chapters only.
So I had to patch individual chapter videos to the right field order (so that it matches with original interlaced recording).

Went very well btw.

mike

[Areku]

I see this method a total headache!

What can happen if I leave the gray bars in there?

So far, I've made other movies in which I've ignored 3 or 4 gray bars and both Maestro can import them and standalone read the whole movie with no problems...


Also, when you mention "field jumping on standalone" what do you mean exactly?

[mikeathome]

Originally posted by Areku
I see this method a total headache!
What can happen if I leave the gray bars in there?
So far, I've made other movies in which I've ignored 3 or 4 gray bars and both Maestro can import them and standalone read the whole movie with no problems...
Also, when you mention "field jumping on standalone" what do you mean exactly?

Hi,

first, you wanted an answer and I got you one.

You need to decide for yourself whether you want to put in same effort as the professional DVD Authoring companies do and achieve almost same quality, or if you can live with reduced quality. That's what will happen if you ignore the grey bitches.
I almost stopped multipass completely now (as stated before). Only in rare cases I really do.

If you never watched an Interlaced recorded video played back in wrong field order, than it's hard to explain what you'll end up seeing.
Basically on all horizontal movements on the screen, the picture is unstable, it jumps, because the wrong field is played first in a sequence of every two fields (per frame).
This can been seen ONLY on a TV because only on the TV the video is played back field-wise (not progressive).

Means, if you have progressive material on a DVD (from Film 24fps) every field (you have 2 of them, even and odd OR upper and lower) in a frame is of SAME CONTENT. In an interlaced video the two fields don't need to have same content (video was already recorded interlaced). This means, you have to play them in the same order (even after encoding) otherwise it jumps back and forth, terrible !

2010 is one of the rare movies which obviously was shot interlaced and encoded chapter by chapter (because the field order changes randomly with the chapters!).
On top of that, the maker of the movie did not pay attention to even harmonize the interlaced material, means, the must have used different cameras and/or capturing device. Really strange, never have seen such a cheap made movie. To correct that later on during DVD authoring they must have patched the video chapter by chapter either way upper/lower field first to match the original (recorded) field order.

Again this issue does not persist for the Cinema Version, because playback is frame operated in a cinema, but again on a TV it's a nightmare.

Get a copy of 2010 and try to reencode (you have to it's to big for a single DVD-R (5)) than burn it onto a DVD-RW (you better do a DVD-RW).

Have phun !

mike

[tyee]

Hi mikeathome

Are you still using onepassVBR? I just read on the http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/70438 SVCD site a post from Ross McL comparing VBR vs. CBR and he has on his website a detailed comparison. He states somewhere that the 1passVBR is essentially a CBR. His final choice is for CBR (for DVD). Here's the page comparison -

http://www.geocities.com/qaussie01au/DVD.html

Take a read, it's very interesting. Maybe we should change to CBR?

tyee

[mikeathome]

Hi,

very interesting, thx. for the info.

1passVBR with CCESP is NOT CBR. You see this very easy watching the average bitrate statement while encoding. It changes all over the time.

mike

Something to add:
Be careful with posts from this guy, he has no clue when it comes to DVD, they are fighting about SVCD and XSVCD (quite a different story):
(...)
I do not have a DVD-writer so I do not have any experience of the quality of home made DVD-encodings att full bitrates. I only make SVCD or XSVCD from my Panasonic NV-DS28 mini-DV source and from TV capture with my All-In-Wonder Radeon. I am a newbie to this since I have only this as one of my hobbies for 2 years and don't have that much time to do it, but I want to share my experiencies also.
(...)
Reference :
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=70438&messageid=1015648567&lp=1015901361

More to add:
(...)
For similar reasons I actually use the OP settings in CCE, although reported as VBR, OP is actually CBR technology and I see very little difference in quality, if any, when using true multipass VBR.
[...)

Apart from the statement that 'OP is CBR technology' I agree with him.
And about the quality, that reflects my findings.

So, nothing to change

[Areku]

Well guys,

After seeing some posts towards 1 multipass, some towards 3 multipass and some towards mike@home method, I'm still lost.

Although I don't want to meet Hollywood EXTREME quality, it's funny to see that a cartoon movie like Alice in Wonderland is A TOTAL BIG GRAY BAR with the CCE/RobShot method.

I'm still using it though, because I think it DOES not say the truth: the quality is NOT horrible at all...

Otherwise, which method would u use with such movies (old Diseny stuff I mean).

Thanks!

[tyee]

I'm tending towards mikeathome's method of 1passVBR or the 1passMulti VBR. The 1passVBR has the unknown quantity of average bitrate, whereas the 1passMulti you can set average bitrate, even though encoding time will be twice as long. As long as it's done in the morning when I get up, that's all that matters to me. I'll probably alternate between the two for DVD, but for DV the consensus seems to be a 2-3pass MultiVBR at an average bitrate around 5000-5500kbps. That's what I have to try next with my home videos.

Tyee