AVI to DVD...TMPG...Stuttering, Help?

[illini19]

Took DIVX movie (640 x 272) (AVI PLAYS PERFECTLY ON CPU) and seperated audio and avi and then encoded video only in TMPG with following settings for DVD:

720 x 480
4:3 Display
23.976 fps (internally 29.97 fps)
2-Pass VBR (ABR 8000, MBR 8000, MinBR 3000)
3:2 Pulldown when playback
Bottom Field First B
1:1 VGA
Keep Aspect Ratio

Then took mv2 and audio and used Maestro to author.

Came out perfect, video and audio in sync. Aspect ratio is perfect.

The problem is playback stutters everynow and then. Especially with quick movements on film.

I read somewhere that it could be the bitrate causing this.

Any ideas on what could be done to solve this.

Thanks a bunch!

[Kika]

> Bottom Field First B

Try Top Field First!

> 2-Pass VBR (ABR 8000, MBR 8000, MinBR 3000)

That's crazy! Never set ABR and MBR to the same Bitrate. 2pass needs space to "play" ;)

[ronnylov]

Perhaps you're doing a PAL to NTSC conversion?
What is the framerate of your source file?

[illini19]

Thanks both of you. I appreciate the comments.

<Never set ABR and MBR to the same Bitrate>

Since I'm encoding only video and want to keep the quality as good as it is in AVI (no space problems to DVD-R), what would you recommend I set the settings in VBR to, or should I use CBR?

<Perhaps you're doing a PAL to NTSC conversion? What is the framerate of your source file?>

The video is NTSC and the framrate is 23.976 (640x272) DIVX file.

Like I said it came out pretty good other than the stuttering every now and then and especially when there are fast movements on film.

Any thoughts to get rid of that?

[Kika]

Since I'm encoding only video and want to keep the quality as good as it is in AVI (no space problems to DVD-R), what would you recommend I set the settings in VBR to, or should I use CBR?

2Pass VBR only works correctly, if MBR higher then ABR. That's because the Encoder have to find a way between Max and Min. If you set it equal, the Quality is "only" Max like CBR (in your case CBR 8000) in High Motion Szenes and maybe lower then CBR in Low Motion.
If you are using 8000 CBR, you Videofile may become larger than 2pass-Version. You can use 2pass with the following Settings, if you really want a ABR of 8000:

MBR: 9600
ABR: 8000
MinBR: 6400

That's a medium Setting. Over all it's a good idea to set the Difference ABR -> MBR 30% higher than MinBR -> ABR. But with Bitrates that high, that's not necessary.

The Stuttering: You HAVE to use Top Field First! Bottom Field First is only used in DV-Video from Camcorders. And be sure to set source settings to non interlaced.

[illini19]

Thanks Kika, I really appreciate it.

I will try with the settings you suggest and post results. :)

[illini19]

Kika, well I had all the settings as you suggested and encoding in TMPG. Then I authored using Maestro once again and once again there is stuttering in high motion scenes.

Anything else I could attempt to try to get the dvd to play smoothly?

I have DC Component precision set to 10 as well.

Like I said, very odd considering the AVI plays smoothly.

Thanks for all help.

[ronnylov]

Perhaps you're using a brand of DVD-R discs that your player has problems to playback? I noticed this on some cheap DVD-R that worked perfectly in the beginning of the movie and became worse and worse during playback.

You can also try to lowering the max bitrate a bit. I have problems if I use max bitrate above 8000 in TMPGEnc. TMPGEnc is not very good at keeping the max you set. Looking in bitrateviewer you may get a peak of 9000 when you set max to 8000. Even if you use CBR the real bitrate will not be constant.

[illini19]

Finally got it to work without the stutter in any parts of the DVD.

After going back and check all settings in TMPG, the only one I could think of that would affect was the aspect ratio in Video settings so I changed from 4:3 to 1:1 VGA.

The original AVI is DIVX, 640 x 272 and my initial settings were:

720 x 480
4:3 Display
23.976 fps (internally 29.97 fps)
2-Pass VBR (ABR 8000, MBR 8000, MinBR 3000)
3:2 Pulldown when playback
Bottom Field First B
1:1 VGA
Keep Aspect Ratio

New settings which finally worked perfectly:

720 x 480
1:1 (VGA)
23.976 fps (internally 29.97 fps)
2-Pass VBR (ABR 8000, MBR 9600, MinBR 6400)
3:2 Pulldown when playback
Top Field First A
1:1 VGA
Keep Aspect Ratio

Worked like a champ.

Thanks for all the help! :) :)