Spirited Away PAL DVD -> DivX = Help please!!!

[JamesTKirby]

OK, I've done lots of DivX encodings, but I'm a newbie with interlaced PAL DVD sources, understandably, as most PAL stuff is not interlaced.

So, please bear with me, I'm new to this... and be gentle ;)

I'm now trying to rip the PAL version of the Spirited Away DVD to DivX *before* the kids get their hands on the original.

Using AVISynth v2.5.3 and Nandub (encoding with SBC still).

DVD2AVI v1.76 says the video source is:
* 16:9
* 25 fps
* PAL
* Interlaced
and all of those appear to be true.

I ripped the vobs with SmartRipper v2.41.

Now, I have tried this AVS script:

LoadPlugin("C:\utils\GORDIA~1\latest\mpeg2dec3.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\utils\decomb\v5.10\decomb510.dll")
mpeg2source("C:\DVD\SpiritedAway\vts_01.d2v")
FieldDeinterlace(blend=false)
crop(42,32,-40,-32)
LanczosResize(640,352)

The deinterlacing is *mostly* gone but I get choppy video, some frames in the output are strange, and they appear every second (25 frames).

For example frames:
16312
16314
16317
16319 are "bad", I would describe them as "blended two frames together".
then some good frames (a bit blendy but ok)
then again after a second:
16337
16339
16340
16342
16344 are bad, similarly.

It's a loop, every second some bad frames. The playback is jerky*ish*.

I *guessed* (from the 1 second crappiness interval) that maybe it's a 24 fps thingy with one duped frame. So, I tried Decimate(25) (and many options with Telecide, too), to no avail.

I know this can be done right. I can live with the blends but *not* with the jerkiness.

I did a forum search and found some threads but only a few pertaining to PAL and got no help there...

Anyone who has done Spirited Away PAL version... ?

Someone please help me, please... thanks in advance :)

JTK

[scharfis_brain]

hehe, this is probably a FILM -> NTSC -> PAL conversion


the easy way would be using fielddeinterlace(blend=true)
this introduces much more blending, but the movement remains mostly fluent

or you can try the hard way by trying to deblend this movie.
just do a search for restore24 or unblendpattern

[JamesTKirby]

@ scharfis_brain:

Thanks, I tried with blend=true ... you were right in that the blending really gets worse.

There's still the 1-second interval jerkiness present, though. And that's the main problem.

---

I'm sure most if not all people who have backed this movie up have had problems to some extent... I hope someone who actually has managed to rip it properly will answer... :rolleyes: ...other input very welcome, too, of course !

JTK

[mf]

I had that dvd in my hands, and it sucks. What did look ~kinda~ nice was:
MPEG2Source("spirited_away.d2v")
Telecide(order=1)
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)
SSTomsMoComp("tff")
LanczosResize(640, 360)
But that still doesn't fix any of the fieldblends.

[JamesTKirby]

@ mf:

FieldDeinterlace got rid of most of the blending, what you suggested looked horrible ... I even tried with bottom field first, same thing.

I assume that you dug that piece of script from your head, and it's not what you actually used when encoding... I tried it and things looked even more horrible. Did you use this script for the PAL version ? Mine is PAL.

Thanks anyway... I only wish someone has a tried-and-tested script lying somewhere... I'm losing my hair with this PAL interlace stuff :rolleyes:

[mf]

Well, as I said, I had my hands on the PAL DVD (and I still have a small sample saved for a "worst case scenario" to test things on). Of course I didn't encode the thing, I find something as screwed up as that PAL DVD to be something not worth encoding. But I did actually look at how that script looked. Let me check again.

http://mf.creations.nl/avs/spirited_away.png

Not that bad, is it? The only thing I see wrong is that there's huge black borders, but that's because I was too lazy to crop them out (remember, this was just a small test - I never encoded the entire thing).

[JamesTKirby]

Yep, mf...

Sorry if I sounded like I doubted you or your expertise, if I did I apologize. Didn't mean to be harsh.

Yes, I got the same result, the picture looks ok, but I wonder if you still have a clip to test the script on... you *do* have the same jerkiness in playback as I do, I assume ?

Thanks for your efforts in helping this interlace-newbie :)

[mf]

Well yes. The jerkiness is inherent to this source. You either blend all fields and get something that's remotely smooth but with alot of blends, or you deinterlace and get less blends (there are still blends from the DVD itself), but a lot more jerking. You could even try something like Unblend to get rid of all blends but then you'll get even more blending. That's also basically why I didn't want to encode the thing :). It's just another DVD that's been shat on, thrown in the tumbler for 20 minutes and put in a box. If you sit back a far enough distance you won't smell much dung :rolleyes:.

[Mug Funky]

which region is this?

the R4 PAL as far as i know is a good one... but i only saw it on my TV so i couldn't say. my friend tells me it was done progressive (he kept bitching that the distributors sent them a crap digibeta with scratches all over it though.)

cute movie though. it's still being played in some cinemas here (the cooler ones).

i know that if it's remotely possible, madman (the guys that release most of the R4 PAL stuff) will make good progressive discs... but sometimes they are given utter crap to work with, and other times they get good sources that unfortunately are natively 30p + 24p or similar. for realtime encoding the only (practical) solution is to run the whole shebang through an NTSC > PAL box and hope it looks okay. if you're on an interlaced TV you'll be fine, but god help anyone who wants to back up on divx.

once i nail the blend problem in a script that works above 1fps on my humble machine, i will post it up here.

i'm getting (very) close, but there's still some glitchies.

[JamesTKirby]

OK... guess it's time to wave good bye to trying to rip it then :/

I think I'll have a look what happens if I just crudely VerticalReduceBy2 it and encode at 352x288 or something. If it doesn't look much good, I'll try the deltree filter with it.

Thanks for the input guys, you've been helpful in a beyond-help situation ;)

[mf]

Originally posted by JamesTKirby
I think I'll have a look what happens if I just crudely VerticalReduceBy2 it and encode at 352x288 or something.
You'll get just as much blends as with my script above, just lower resolution ;).