Question to the DivX 5 guide (regarding DVD2AVI)

[Fontain]

I' am following the guide here on Doom9.org. In the guide it says the following:


Then set the DAR according to what the value you wrote down in the DVD2AVI step. First you select the TV system (PAL or NTSC) according to the video type DVD2AVI was showing, then you select the actual aspect ratio of the input (16:9 or 4:3 in the Input Pixel Aspect Ratio field) according to the Aspect Ratio field in DVD2AVI. If you were to use an AVI input you'd have to set the Input Pixel Aspect Ratio to 1:1.
(...)
If DVD2AVI showed your source as interlaced PAL and the preview was interlaced you enable Separate Fields here or FieldDeinterlace here (the latter is slower but of better quality).

If DVD2AVI showed your source as NTSC FILM below 95% you enable Inverse Telecine here. In all other cases set Field Operations to None.


However, I havn't actually used DVD2AVI myself - robot4rip did that part for me (as stated in the guide), so I don't know these information. Do I have to start up DVD2AVI to get the information I need, or is there another way of doing it?

Sincerely
Fontain

[manono]

Hello, and welcome to the forum-

You can also get it from the Streams Info.txt that DVDDecryptor makes for you when decrypting the vobs. In the off chance that it isn't always correct though, after you have cropped and resized in GKnot, you might click on the View-Resized button above the video picture and scroll around to make sure that everything looks "normal". Or open the .avs in VDubMod before encoding to make sure it looks OK.

[Fontain]

Dear Manono,

Thank you for your answer. The text in the stream-file states the following:

0xE0 - Video - MPEG-2 / 720x480 (NTSC) / 16:9 / Letterboxed / LBA: 2134 / PTS: 00:00:00.347 / Delay: 0ms

Which I think Gordian Knot also used (NTSC and 16:9)- does that mean that Gordian Knot read these information automatically or was it just luck?

The guide has the following questions (which I don't think the stream-file answers):

---

1) "Then set the DAR according to what the value you wrote down in the DVD2AVI step."

I suspect the DAR is the "Display AR", but can I see that information from the above line?


2) "If DVD2AVI showed your source as interlaced PAL and the preview was interlaced you enable Separate Fields here or FieldDeinterlace here (the latter is slower but of better quality)."

If my file had been PAL would the above line had told me if it was interlaced?


3) "If DVD2AVI showed your source as NTSC FILM below 95% you enable Inverse Telecine here. In all other cases set Field Operations to None."

I don't think the above stream-file tells me this ...

---


Should I get the lacking information or does GK get them automatically? If not, should I launch DVD2AVI separately or ...?

The guide is really good (thank you), but an update to the mentioned questions would be great.

Actually I did use the "View-Resized" feature (as stated in the guide - I have followed it to a great extent), but - as being new to all this - the different options did not differ much.

Regards!

[manono]

Hi-

Gordian Knot read these information automatically or was it just luck?

I may be getting in a bit over my head here, but here goes. Open the .d2v that R4R made (use Notepad). You'll see that near the top it says either Frame_Rate=29970 or 23976 if you're NTSC. If you're PAL it'll say Frame_Rate=25000. GKnot gets the information from that. Whether it's 23.976 or 29.97fps is determined by the percentage figure you set for R4R (and of course, how or if it was telecined). I believe the default is 95%. The framerate in the lower left corner of GKnot will be the same as in the .d2v.

The Pixel Aspect Ratio is either 16:9 or 4:3 for DVDs (same as DAR or Display Aspect ratio). The default is 16:9, so you happened to luck out. If it's 4:3, you have to change it yourself. That's why Doom9 said to remember what it says in DVD2AVI. But since you didn't run DVD2AVI yourself, get it either from the Streams Info.txt, or from the back of the DVD case (except they tell you in code), or from Amazon.com, or from IMDB. Or you could open the vobs in DVD2AVI anyway and run a quick preview to find out (probably the surest way).

If my file had been PAL would the above line had told me if it was interlaced?

No, and DVD2AVI lies about this. More often than not, when it says a PAL DVD is interlaced, it's not. Have a look at the frames in Gknot to help you decide. And even then, the chances are that it can be made progressive with a simple Telecide() command, rather than wrecking it with a deinterlacer. Please read the DVD2AVI/IVTC/DeinterlacingTutorial (http://www.doom9.org/ivtc-tut.htm) for more information. Yeah, it's long. But it's chock full of information you'll need to know if you get serious about backing up DVDs.

I don't think the above stream-file tells me this ...

Again, based on what R4R decided, if it's 23.976fps in the lower left corner, DVD2AVI applied Force Film, and you don't IVTC. If it says 29.97fps, then you either IVTC, or it really is interlaced, and you then deinterlace. Do some frame counting to find out which. The tutorial tells you how in 3 different places.

the different options did not differ much.

Open the resized picture and flip back and forth between 16:9 and 4:3, and you should see an obvious difference between the two. Try to find something round in the movie-a sun or moon, a clock or ball or tire, etc. One should be round, and the other an obvious oval. Or if you're looking at faces, one should be normal, the other either obviously stretched or squashed.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask. But lots can be answered by reading at this site. For example, have you seen Doom9's Aspect Ratios Explained (http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm) yet?