Xvid (NTSC) to DVD (PAL) using CCE

[Pringles]

Hi! I'm going mad by trying this conversion http://www.multimania.com/kornikovax/smileys/crazy.gif

I'm actually converting a Xvid NTSC video to a PAL DVD. To do this, I followed this doom9 guide: http://www.doom9.org/mpg/avi2dvdr.htm

Everything went fine until I read the authored video on my DVD player: the image was jerky. So I looked for some similar threads browsing different forums and saw I had to do a pulldown on the video encoded by CCE. (the AC3 audio was demuxed).

But, even in trying the different options of PullDownBatchFE 1.0 , I still always get a jerky image. I also checked the framerate (fps) to set it to 25 but when I play the pulldowned m2v, I have an average framerate of 20 http://www.multimania.com/kornikovax/smileys/crazy.gif

I'm completely lost! I don't understand how to make a proper pulldown on this m2v file. Your help will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[Boulder]

PAL doesn't need any pulldown!

You need to speed up the video by using AssumeFPS(25) in your script and the vertical resolution needs to be 576. The audio also has to be sped up accordingly, you can demux the audio track with VDubMod and then use BeSweet + BeLight to do the framerate conversion for the audio.

FitCD can also help you in creating the script.

[Pringles]

Thanks for your answer :)

This means there aren't any solutions but reencoding the whole video ?

There's still something I don't understand: without touching the frame rate of the video or applying any pulldown it should remain the same (ie 23.976), right ?

My dvd player can handle zone 1 dvds (so the ntsc signal I guess), but when I played the NTSC DVD the image was jerky !? I'm sure I missed something, but I don't see what.

Thanks! ;)

[Boulder]

If you want to do a NTSC->PAL -conversion, you must re-encode both video and audio. PAL is 25fps so the framerate needs to be adjusted if it's originally 23.976fps. AssumeFPS will do that.

There's a commandline tool for pulldown, try it. It's called simply pulldown.exe and probably available at the doom9 software page. If your standalone and TV support NTSC, there's no need to do the conversion to PAL.

[Pringles]

Thanks!

I just saw that at the very beginning of the file, there is a kind of error message that seems to come from virtualdubmod or nandub (I don't remember what I used).

It says:

WARNING : NOTHING TO OUTPUT
B FRAME DECODER LAG

Perhaps it is the real reason why the picture is jerky ?
I don't know the meaning of it. :confused:

[Matthew]

The b-frame decoder lag does no harm except add an annoying message at the start. It's just related to the xvid encoding settings.

FreezeFrame(0,1,1)

in avisynth will replace frame 0 with frame 1 and hence get rid of it.

Anyway your options are either:
-Encode at 23.976 fps and then use pulldown.exe on the video; or
-Encode at 25 fps, don't use pulldown, and speed up the audio using a besweet framerate conversion (23.976->25 fps). For best results it's probably advisable to use besweet only for AC3->WAVs (time adjusted), then a commercial encoder for WAV->AC3. I think DIKO (don't use it myself) may support this, if you have soft encode.

Also, something to remember is that just because your player supports NTSC doesn't mean it handles it especially well. e.g. I get rather annoying audio distortion at times (voices going oddly deep). So I always convert my 23.976 avis to PAL.

[Pringles]

Thanks for your tip ;)

I bought lots of z1 DVDs in the US, and they were perfectly played by my DVD player. That's why I don't understand why this DVD can't be read normally (without a jerky image).

You say : Encode at 23.976 fps and then use pulldown.exe on the video

but I tried lots of options and I always get a bad result. As I said,even in trying the different options of PullDownBatchFE 1.0 , I still always get a jerky image. I also checked the framerate (fps) to set it to 25 but when I play the pulldowned m2v, I have an average framerate of 20 http://www.multimania.com/kornikovax/smileys/crazy.gif

Now, I would like to make a NTSC DVD (no PAL convertion) and play it on my DVD player. My AVI source is NTSC. Do I have to do a pulldown on the m2v file encoded by CCE ? If I have to, what options should I check ?

I'm still lost :( Thanks in advance!

[Matthew]

First up, an avs script something like this will do the trick for CCE. Q62 of the DVD2SVCD FAQ is a good source for resize calculation info (or you could try that app for converting :)):

AVISource("H:\test\test.avi",audio=false)
FreezeFrame(0,1,1)
BicubicResize(720,460,0.0,0.6)
AddBorders(0,10,0,10)
ConvertToYUY2()

Now, your avi will be either 23.976 or 29.97. This will not be changed by CCE. If it's 29.97, then no pulldown. If it's 23.976 then this (in a dos box) will do the trick:

pulldown.exe input.m2v output.m2v -drop_frame true

Where input.m2v is what CCE produced (usually mpv extension, but that makes no difference).

[Pringles]

Thanks again!

Yep, my avs script looked like this. My avi file is 23.976 fps so if I read well, I have to do the pulldown thing. I use PullDownBatchFE 1.0 so what should I check for the "-drop_frame true" command line ?

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/korni/pulldownbatch.gif

I already did that pulldown without checking anything, then I checked framerate and set it to 25 but the final file was 20fps... there is something I don't get.

Thanks for your help! :)

[Nyq]

Originally posted by Pringles

I already did that pulldown without checking anything, then I checked framerate and set it to 25 but the final file was 20fps... there is something I don't get.

Thanks for your help! :)

if you want to make a NTSC DVD, don't set framerate to 25
just pulldown.

and I use PullDownBatchFE 1.1, it has drop-frame option

[Pringles]

Well, originally, I wanted to create a PAL DVD ;)

What is this "drop-frame option" ? :confused:


I'm now reencoding everything with CCE. Here is my AVS script:


LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\GordianKnot\VirtualDubMod\plugins\textsub.vdf")
AVIsource("D:\test\hey.avi",false)
BicubicResize(720,432)
AddBorders(0,72,0,72)
AssumeFPS(25,True)
ConvertToYUY2()
Textsub("D:\test\hey.srt")


I'm now converting NTSC to PAL and resized the video to fit a PAL hardware. Does it look right to you ?

With this new M2v produced by CCE, will I have to do finally a pulldown on it ? http://www.multimania.com/kornikovax/smileys/crazy.gif

Thanks :p

[Nyq]

Originally posted by Pringles

With this new M2v produced by CCE, will I have to do finally a pulldown on it ? http://www.multimania.com/kornikovax/smileys/crazy.gif

Thanks :p

no, pulldown is only for NTSC

[Pringles]

Alright then ;)
Thanks!

[Matthew]

The drop frame flag is useful for syncing subs in Maestro (and perhaps DVDlab too). It only applies to NTSC. If you don't have (non-permanent) subs then it serves little purpose.