frustrating sync problems :(

[ghetto pornstar]

hello all,

i've only made 5 dvd-r's from dvd-9's and this latest one i'm doing is causing some serious problems.

it's a gordon lightfoot concert dvd and i only need to cce 1 pgc in vts_02 (the main movie).

first i rip that pgc with dvddecrypter (i also demux the 3 audio streams)

so i'm left with VTS_02_01.VOB -> VTS_02_06.VOB and an .ifo
the movie is 4:3 NTSC upfield first.

also i have
0x80 - 6ch.ac3
0x81 - 2ch.ac3
0x8A - 5ch.dts

all have a delay of -33 ms.

next i make a dvd2avi project (latest stable version, no .d2f file).

next i feed that into vfapi-converter.

next i load that in cce in and do a first pass with these options:
ES, no audio, mpeg-2, Q60, min 0, max 9400 | add seq end code, upfiled first, linear quantizer, drop frame, luminescence 16 to 235, intra DC auto, DAR 4:3, timecode 00:00 | M=3, N/M=4 | mpeg standard...

then i do 3 more passes with nearly the same options (change the avg bitrate to 4000) after i tweak the advanced settings (global bitrate, etc.)

then i run pulldown movie.m2v movie-pd.m2v

so as far as i can tell, i have a 2.42gb NTSC m2v main movie file, ready to go.

i also have 3 untouched (-33ms delay intact) audio streams demuxed directly from the dvd, also ready to go. time to reauthor.

i load scenarist and create a new project with all the appropriate options.

i drag my assets into the data window.
i add the movie file first, then the 0x80 6c ac3 file, then a 0x81 2ch.ac3 _dummy_ file (created with headac3he).

i make sure to set drop frame on all my assets (hey now that i think about it, maybe i should try only setting that on my video stream, and leave the audio alone?)
then i add the movie to the track editor and export a script.

then i load the script in scenchap 1.25 and add the original IFO to it. then i take the scenarist chapter file generated by dvd decrypter and paste it into scenchap. i make a new script with those chapters.

i new from script in scenarist and then add the 1 AC3 audio track and the one AC3 dummy track. i select english on both.

then in the scenario editor i drag my track onto Title 1 (since it's only the main movie i'm re-authoring and it's a 1pgc movie, that's all i need to worry about, right?)

then i goto layout editor, check 2048, and re-author. done.

when i test this newly authored VTS set, the movie is severely out of sync the whole way through. (the audio is ahead of the video - ie there is much clapping at the beginning, gordon thanks the audience and then starts to play...seconds later i see him 'mouth' thank you and then pick up his guitar to play)

i have tried everything.

ac3delay corrector, headac3he, besplit, beslice...

nothing seems to work! this is killing me. it seems i always have sync and/or audio problems. i also have trouble creating dummy files with besliced or headac3he, neither works :(

any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ghetto pornstar]

...bumping this in a ludicrous hope, borne of utter desperation.

<grin>

[auenf]

instead of encoding from the video_ts set, use dvddecrypter to extract the m2v and go from there, see what happens.

just an idea...

Enf...

[ghetto pornstar]

thanks for the ideas auenf...

unfortunately, i gave up on the gordon lightfoot, and went to do a juice newton concert dvd.

it is a similar movie (4:3 ntsc) followed the same procedure, and _again_ i got sync issues. i don't understand. sigh.

i wish i could get the hang of this.

[ghetto pornstar]

just to clarify somewhat...

my problems with audio seem to stem from the fact that after a fresh rip, my video stream is

1:16:41:13 long and my audio stream is
1:16:41:13 long.

when i run dvd2avi, everything seems fine.

when i run vfapi, everything seems fine. (i don't think these programs change the length of my video)

when i run cce, and play my video in zoom player or windows media player, it reports that the m2v file is 28:54 seconds long. and it is that long.

i run pulldown (ntsc source), and test in the media players again. same thing, 28min, but the beginning intro and the end credits and everything in between is there.

i import the video into scenarist and now all of a sudden, my video is...

1:35:57:10 long and my audio is still
1:16:41:13 long.

that's almost an extra 20 minutes of video, and that is why my sound which is still the original length is out of sync. because my video is stretched out some how.

if i rip straight from dvd to .m2v, the resulting video is 1:16:41:13, which is good. so somewhere in the transcoding or reauthoring it gets stretched...?

does cce do this? does pulldown? how can i fix it? i know i originally posted this as an audio problem, perhaps i should start a new thread in the hopes that the video expert people can help me?

any help appreciated... :)

[TRILIGHT]

Originally posted by ghetto pornstar
...drop frame on all my assets (hey now that i think about it, maybe i should try only setting that on my video stream, and leave the audio alone?)

Defintely do not do this. Actually, Scenarist won't let you do it anyway. The drop frame type must match on your assets. You mentioned in your first post that the audio was out of sync the whole time. This lets you know it's not a drop frame problem or it would progressively get out of sync.

In your second post, you're getting closer to the answer. Being off by a second or so is not that big of a deal. The timecodes will make sure it is lined up. However, being off as far as you are is indicative of a major problem somewhere. I'm not sure I understand however, what you meant when you said "my video stream is 1:16:41:13 long" but then shortly after you said "it reports that the m2v file is 28:54 seconds long." I'm a bit confused on this point.

Anyway, from all that you've said so far, it seems to me that you are having an issue with flags that pulldown is setting. Especially if you're finding that your transcoded video (before pulldown) is the correct length.

[ghetto pornstar]

trilight! you are right! i've re-authored and re-encoded at least 15 times, and i finally figured it out.

the 1:16 / 28:84 issue is this.

cce produces an m2v file. if i load this in any player (so far) the player 'reports' the length of the video as 28min. but it is a full length 1:16min long dvd video stream rip that has been re-encoded. there doesn't appear to be any noticeable video data missing. so i can only assume that although the players race through this m2v file in under half an hour, it is still the 1:16min video i want.

so i import the m2v mentioned above into scenarist, and scenarist tells me that it is indeed 1:16min of playtime, as i thought.

if i import the m2v after pulldown.exe, then sure enough, the video is now 1:35min of playtime. crazy.

the answer to it all was pulldown -nopulldown (i believe).



sigh! finally, it feels if my entire life is back on track. that was really frustrating! thanks to all who helped, and i definitely hope someone else can be helped by this thread!

[H-O-V-E-R]

This reply is a little late, but possibly some useful info.

Running pulldown with the -nopulldown parameter, in effect, does nothing to your video file and is the same as not using pulldown at all.

If you are encoding at 23.976 FPS (Force FILM in DVD2AVI enabled) then you need to use pulldown.

If you are encoding at 29.970 FPS (no Force FILm in DVD2AVI) then you do NOT need to use pulldown at all.

I am assuming you encoded at 29.976 FPS cuz when you ran pulldown with the -nopulldown option everything worked.

[ghetto pornstar]

so i don't have to do that step? sa - weeeet. ah, enlightment and knowledge. thank you my friend :)