PAL to NTSC Conversion Help

[Rod]

I am using DVD2SVCD to convert a PAL Region 2 Movie to something I can play on my DVD player. I am using QUENC as an encoder. I chose Smartdeinterlacer. I chose edit AVisynth as part of video encoding and added
LanczosResize(720,480)
ChangeFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4,0,3)
Weave()
ConvertToYV12()

Encode went fine but DVDAuthor insisted that this was a PAL format:
Message in DVDAuthor.txt "WARN: attempt to update tv format from pal to ntsc; skipping."
Burnt final ISO OK.
DGindex read the burn as video type NTSC, 29.970 fps, 720x480, Progressive frame type, Bottom field order

However the VOB will play on my computer with Windvd but not in my DVD player. (message - Check TV System)

Any suggestions how to fix DVDAuthor and to get the burn to play on my dvd machine?

[Nick]

Ah. Yeah, PAL/NTSC is stored in the DVD Author XML.

Open the dvdauthor in Notepad and update the Video Format to read NTSC in the quotes, and resave.

Now do a "Run.." from the Windows Start menu and copy the DVDAuthoe commandline from your DVD2SVCD logfile into the box.

This should correctly reauthor the DVD.
If you need an ISO, once DVDAuthor has finished, do the same trick with the MkIsoFs commandline from the log.

[Rod]

I was able to run DVDAuthor and MKIFSO successfully however the burnt DVD would still not play on my standalone NTSC dvd player. (Message on tv said check TV system).
I noticed that when I ran DGIndex, it said the DVD was progressive yet my AVISynth script said Weave(). Should that not create an interlaced encoding and could that be my problem?
NERO infotool shows as NTSC 720x480 Regions all.

[Boulder]

1) Is your original source really interlaced? If so, how did you check it?

2) If you deinterlace, you do not need any other lines in your script except

LanczosResize(720,480)
AssumeFPS(23.976)
ConverttoYV12()


You must run pulldown on the resulting mpv files unless D2S already does that. You must also process the audio track unless it's also done already.

[Rod]

I checked a rip with DGIndex (from details window).
Is there a web site that publishes the film's technical details (Monster AG - German version of Monsters Inc.) in case DGIndex is wrong?

[Boulder]

The DGIndex window will show it correctly. However, it could be field shifted - I've seen such cases with PAL Disney stuff.

Try with a script with only

MPEG2Source("path\clip.d2v")
Telecide(order=1)

in it. Open in VDub, or make a test encode. Is motion smooth or jerky? You'll need the Decomb plugin for Telecide().

If you end up deinterlacing, I strongly suggest you don't let DVD2SVCD do it but use TDeint or LeakKernelDeint in your script to do the deinterlacing and encode then as progressive.

[Rod]

I will give it a try this weekend. What is the link for Decomb?

[Guest]

http://neuron2.net/decomb/decombnew.html

[Rod]

Order=1 does not seem to be a valid parameter. Guide=0/1/2/or 3 might be what you mean. From decombhelp.html -

"guide (0-3, default 0) can be used to greatly improve field matching when the source clip is known to be PAL or NTSC telecined material. To disable this option (blind field matching), set guide=0. For NTSC 24fps->30fps telecine guidance, set guide=1. For simple PAL guidance (tries to maintain lock to the field phase), set guide=2. For NTSC 25fps->30fps telecine guidance, set guide=3."

I am not sure whether to use 2 or 3.

Assuming I use TDeint or LeakKernelDeint, what should the full script be? eg.

MPEG2Source("clip.D2V")
Telecide(guide=2) or TDeint or LeakKernalDeint?
LanczosResize(720,480)
ChangeFPS(59.94)
Separatefields()
Selectevery(4,0,3)
Weave()
ConvertToYv12()

Please forgive my ignorance

PS. I tried my first burn from first post in another dvd player and it played like the vertical hold was missing and no color

[Boulder]

If you have the latest version of decomb.dll as you should, you'll need to specify the field order. DVDs are most likely TFF so the order needs to be 1.

Try the script I posted. Open it in VirtualDub and see if motion is smooth or not.

[Rod]

Virtual Dub is giving me an error message "no Video Frames Found in MPEG File" when trying to open the encoded .mpv file or the muxed mpg files from DVD2DVD.
I ran auxsetup.exe.

[Boulder]

Open the script itself, that's what you should test. It will tell you instantly whether Telecide will get proper output for you. If it does, you do not need to deinterlace anywhere.

You could try VirtualDubMod for opening MPEG2 files.

[Rod]

The version of Decomb plugin that loaded with DVD2DVD was older - so I replaced it with the latest version and Order =1 then worked.

I was able to open the script with VirtualDub. Moving picture and frame by frame with the arrow keys went smoothly.

I then ran the Telecide(Order=1) and LancosResize(720,480).
Renamed the resultant MPV file to M2V Put that through DGPulldown103 to convert from 25 to 29.97 fps.

Used the script from the DVD2SVCD.txt file to mux with MPLEX two AC3 audio streams extracted earlier. This I authored with DVDAUTHOR and made an ISO with MKIOSFS modifying scripts again from DVD2SVCD.txt. I skipped the subtitles step for fixing after I get this running.

The burnt VOB played on my standalone player but the audio was out of sync with the pictures.

DGIndex told me the Film type is NTSC 21%, Frame Bottom, Progressive.

How do I fix the audio and is 21% on the NTSC anything to worry about?

Thanks for all your help
:confused:

[Boulder]

You must do a conversion to the audio track as well. Currently it runs as if the framerate was 25fps. You'll have to slowdown to 23.976fps, there's plenty of programs to help you with this.

[Rod]

The video and audio conversion have worked. I actually did not need to run a separate program to change the audio, it worked as is.
However the subtitles are not displaying properly. I used spumux.exe using the command line from DVD2DVD however on the computer monitor only one line of the subtitles appears at the bottom of the screen. I believe the second line is cut off and when I play the movie on a TV, the subtitles appear as random blocks of pixels near the top of the screen as if they are trying to form letters.
How do I correct for this?
The subtitles are in a PNG format
Do I need to change the timing as well? If so, what is the tool?