MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 to SD-DVD?

[Killer3737]

Hi guys, need some help again. Someone has sent me their master files from a Sanyo HD1000 which are Full HD, MPEG-4 AVC with AAC audio at 1080i resolution. He wants me to author them down to a standard def DVD, but i am at a loss as to which tool will do this best. I can't even play the files myself, i don't think my PC is fast enough.

Here is the MediaInfo log:

General #0
Complete name : F:\SANY0130.MP4
Format : MPEG-4
Format/Info : ISO 14496-1 version 2
Format/Family : MPEG-4
File size : 4.00 GiB
PlayTime : 47mn 11s
Bit rate : 12 Mbps
StreamSize : 1.44 MiB
Movie name/More : SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA HD1000
Encoded date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50
Tagged date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50
Origin : Digital Camera

Video #0
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : MPEG-4 AVC
Codec profile : Main@L4.0
Codec settings, CABAC : No
PlayTime : 47mn 11s
Bit rate : 12 Mbps
Width : 1920 pixels
Height : 1080 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.097
StreamSize : 3.95 GiB
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50
Tagged date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50

Audio #0
Codec : AAC LC
Codec/Family : AAC
Codec/Info : AAC Low Complexity
PlayTime : 47mn 10s
Bit rate mode : VBR
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
StreamSize : 43.0 MiB
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50
Tagged date : UTC 2007-11-17 21:45:50

If someone could let me know what i need to convert this to SD-DVD at the best quality possible i'd be very grateful. My usual method for MPEG-2 conversion is Avisynth scripts into CCE SP2, so if that is possible here that would be great.[/quote]

[poisondeathray]

You can use DGAVCdec (analogous to DGMPGDec for MPEG2 sources), frameserve using avisynth. You can resize using your regular filters (e.g. LanczosResize or whatever)

One option is to use ffdshow to decode the aac audio in the avisynth script
DirectShowSource("PATH\audio.aac", video=false)

[Killer3737]

You can use DGAVCdec (analogous to DGMPGDec for MPEG2 sources), frameserve using avisynth.

One option is to use ffdshow to decode the aac audio in the avisynth script
DirectShowSource("PATH\audio.aac", video=false)

Thanks for the quick response. I tried using DGAVCDec but it crashed whenever i attempted to open one of my videos. I have the latest release of ffdshow installed.

[poisondeathray]

What was the crash dialog / error message?

Can you upload a small sample to a free hosting site (e.g. mediafire, megaupload, rapidshare)?

Latest DGAVCdec installed?

Is this model the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 ?

[Killer3737]

What was the crash dialog / error message?

Can you upload a small sample to a free hosting site (e.g. mediafire, megaupload, rapidshare)?

Latest DGAVCdec installed?

Is this model the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 ?

Yes, latest version. I get several error messages:

Found NALU type 13, lens 46 undefined, ignoring NALU, moving on
Found NALU type 0, lens 0 undefined, ignoring NALU, moving on
Found NALU type 0, lens 62 undefined, ignoring NALU, moving on
Found NALU w/ Forbidden_bit set, bit error? Lets try...
found data partition B without matching DP A, discarding
Found NALU type 0, lens 8 undefined, ignoring NALU, moving on
Found NALU type 0, lens 42 undefined, ignoring NALU, moving on

And many similar more.

I would upload a sample but i don't have/know of any program that i can use to cut a small portion of the file out. Yes, as far as i know it is that model.

[poisondeathray]

Try this for the video .avs, try opening in MPC (with h264 enabled in the ffdshow video configuration)

DirectShowSource("F:\SANY0130.MP4", fps=59.94, audio=false)

You can try using YAMB to split a segment of the .mp4, or mpegstreamclip

[Soopafresh]

Are you going to have to go from 59.94fps to 25fps for PAL ?

[Killer3737]

Try this for the video .avs, try opening in MPC (with h264 enabled in the ffdshow video configuration)

DirectShowSource("F:\SANY0130.MP4", fps=59.94, audio=false)

You can try using YAMB to split a segment of the .mp4, or mpegstreamclip

I'm not quite sure what you're asking me to do there? I've tried playing the files in MPC with ffdshow enabled and it just stutters, i assumed that was because my PC is not powerful enough. Would it help me at all if i demuxed the MP4 to raw .h264 and .aac?

Anyway, here is a sample cut out with YAMB:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1clmwtmbjtz

Are you going to have to go from 59.94fps to 25fps for PAL ?

No, i was under the impression that i should just be decimating or using selecteven() to 29.97fps, so i was planning a resize to NTSC, not PAL. Playing back NTSC isn't a problem.

[poisondeathray]

Yes, you can use YAMB to generate raw .h264, and DGAVCdec should work on it. EDIT: I get 1 error when opening it, but ignoring it seems to index fine

The DirectShowSource script is just an .avs script, that also works on your test file, just providing an alternative method to DGAVCdec - I just tested it encoding to XviD and it worked fine. It should frameserve fine using CCE or any MPEG2 encoder as well

[Soopafresh]

No, i was under the impression that i should just be decimating or using selecteven() to 29.97fps, so i was planning a resize to NTSC, not PAL. Playing back NTSC isn't a problem.

You lucky ducky In that case, don't forget ConvertXtoDVD. The 59.94 1280x720p material I fed it from the Sanyo looked quite acceptable to my eyes.

sanyo.mpg

[PuzZLeR]

If someone could let me know what i need to convert this to SD-DVD at the best quality possible i'd be very grateful. My usual method for MPEG-2 conversion is Avisynth scripts into CCE SP2, so if that is possible here that would be great.

I don't see why this wouldn't work. I do this all the time for CCE. Did you try it and it failed?

And if you want the "best possible quality", you will not find much better than CCE. I just bought it a couple of months ago myself and find it to be the best MPEG encoder IMO.

For resizing, I agree that going with a Lanczos filter works for very good results.

For any fps changes you can try ChangeFPS(29.97) in the script. It's not the best, but can give decent results for most sources.

As for ConvertXtoDvD, it's, IMO, the all-in-one best for a good balance of simplicity, quality and speed. And it always seems to work when everything else fails with stubborn files. I know there's some free version somewhere if you look around.

[Killer3737]

I have it working with CCE now, thanks. One problem though, i tried using this as my script and the output was double speed video:

Loadplugin("C:\Documents and Settings\Simon\My Documents\Random\FDecimate.dll")
DirectShowSource("F:\SANY0132.MP4")
FDecimate(rate=29.97,threshold=1.0)
LanczosResize(720,480)
ConvertToYUY2()

What do i need to use instead of the Decimate line? I tried selecteven() like someone else suggested to me but that had the same results.

Thanks

[poisondeathray]

Not sure why SelectEven() didn't work. I think you have to specify original fps in the DirectShowSource() which you seem to be missing. This worked for me, converting to XviD on your video just feeding it into vdub (23.976). You may have to do audio=false and feed audio through separately, because CCE is buggy with that from what I recall. (You may have to load the Decomb.dll package for Decimate, if you want to keep 29.97, just remove the Decimate(5))

DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94 ,convertfps=true,audio=true)
SelectEven().Decimate(5)
LanczosResize(720,480)


Alternative suggestion that does the same thing (You may have to load the TIVTC.dll package for TDecimate). If you wanted to keep 29.97 instead of 23.976, just leave the TDecimate() out

DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94 ,audio=true)
ChangeFPS(29.97)
TDecimate()
LanczosResize(720,480)

[Killer3737]

The first time i did it i did leave the fps=59.94 part in but it came out double speed aswell. I'm not wanting to encode the audio with CCE, i deselect that in the output options so that isn't a problem, all i want out of it is the video at 29.97fps.

I'll test those later and see what happens, cheers.

EDIT: Nevermind i see what my problem was, i forgot to select the "Rate Conv" box in CCE.

[Killer3737]

Hey guys, i know it's been a long time, but i've been busy and only just got around to encoding something other than just the sample.

I used the script mentioned above:

DirectShowSource("F:\SANY0130.MP4",fps=59.94,conve rtfps=true)
SelectEven()
LanczosResize(720,480)
ConvertToYUY2()

and it worked fine, came out at normal speed 29.97fps as i wanted, but i'm not happy with the video quality. When i play back the encoded video i'm seeing horizontal lines at some points, like the field blending/unblending hasn't been done properly?

Anyone know what i mean and what i could use in my script to get rid of this problem? The link to the original HD sample is still active:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1clmwtmbjtz

I'll upload a sample of my output with the problem tomorrow if it's needed.


Thanks
Simon

[poisondeathray]

Perhaps you encoded as interlaced or some other setting? I turned off deinterlacing in my media player and stepped thru it with vdub and I don't see any horizontal lines on the output file from that script

I encoded a while back, and it looked fine in xvid/avi, but I redid it in DVD compliant MPEG2 using HCEnc just to make sure, with the same script except the colorspace conversion

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A2PIC2GH



EDIT: Sorry, it appears the original is interlaced; you can see this on full frame examination before resizing to 720x480. I just assumed mediainfo was correct, which it was not and I should have checked it manually. You can see minor artifacts doing it the previous way.

I redid it using YAMB to extract the raw .h264 file, then used DGAVCdec to index it, created .avs script. You can ignore the errors when DGAVCdec indexes it. You can also use the DirectShowSource() method as before, and just use yadif to deinterlace, but I found 1 frame difference. DGAVCdec is more reliable.

LoadPlugin("PATH\DGAVCDecode.dll")
Load_Stdcall_Plugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\yadif.dll")

AVCSource("SANY0132_001_track1.dga") 
Yadif(order=1) #TFF
LanczosResize(720,480)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VY4IH4KF

[Killer3737]

I'm back again. :P I don't get a lot of time to work on these kinda things, but thanks for that above, i'll give it a go.

However, i have another problem, which that won't solve. It's not really on the same level as the original question, but i thought it would be better than making a new thread.

What i posted above was just one file. The video is actually split across four files. I was just encoding them seperately with the same settings before, but there is a problem. I tried to join the resulting files with various programs, but the result is a file that isn't compatible with Adobe Encore DVD 2, and if i run the file in mediainfo it's not right at all, thinks the video is half an hour shorter than it is. Also when i made a DVD in DVD LAB PRo 2 that did accept it, the output DVD froze where the last join was.

Seems i'll need to encode the videos again, i thought i'd merge the files before the encode, but i've got a problem. YAMB is saying two of the files have different audio/video lengths:

http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yambqy5.jpg
(i'm aware they aren't in the right order)

Now i worry that if i join them all as is, it's going to go out of sync after the first file. The problem is i can't check that on the outputted MP4, as my PC isn't fast enough to play the video. I muxed the outputted MPG and WAV files and there didn't seem to be any problems there, so maybe YAMB is just getting it wrong, but i don't want to spend a lot of hours encoding the video and the result being useless.

So, what is my solution? I assume YAMB is rounding the times up/down, and there isn't really a whole seconds difference, what program could i use to see the real differences? MediaInfo also rounds to the second. How could i then join the files so they're guaranteed to be in sync throughout?

Thanks

[poisondeathray]

There's some step or information missing. Did you use CCE? which script?

How did you do the audio? If you use the same script (with DirectShowSource() and audio=true) to do the audio, it should be in sync. You can feed it into an encoder that accepts .avs scripts such as behappy, or MeGUI. The potential problem is if you didn't do it with the same script, the frames might not match up with the audio

If you used the DGAVCdec to index, the demuxed audio should match (with the delay in the name) to the video with the corresponding .avs script

You might be able to salvage what you have. Try avidemux to append the clips that you already have, or mpg2cut2.

You could also join them before encoding. It might look something like this (If I was using this method, I would use the same script to encode the audio AAC=>AC3)

Load_Stdcall_Plugin("C:\PATH\yadif.dll") 

a=DirectShowSource("PATH\file1.mp4",fps=59.94).SelectEven().Yadif(order=1).LanczosResize(720,480)
b=DirectShowSource("PATH\file2.mp4",fps=59.94).SelectEven().Yadif(order=1).LanczosResize(720,480)
c=DirectShowSource("PATH\file3.mp4",fps=59.94).SelectEven().Yadif(order=1).LanczosResize(720,480)
d=DirectShowSource("PATH\file4.mp4",fps=59.94).SelectEven().Yadif(order=1).LanczosResize(720,480)

a+b+c+d

Another option would be to use DGAVCdec to index, and use a+b+c+d to join the video.

[whatsmyname]

I use avisynth to frameserve the avc videos into Adobe Premier, however, I use CoreAVC codec (which avisynth calls up) to decode the movie.

I get good results without having to use dgavcdec and indexing. Basically, serves the movie straight into Adobe Premier for editing and re-encoding into mpeg2-dvd.

I've tried CCE2, but that encoder only supports dual-core, so it takes forever to encode.

Adobe's Mainconcept mpeg2 encoder uses all four cores and as much memory bandwidth as you have available, so the encodig processing is much faster.

edit: avisynth don't seem to handle aac or ac3 audio all that well, so I demux the audio aac/ac3 stream, converts it into a WAV and imports into Premier, syncing up with the video being frameserved from avisynth.

[Killer3737]

Thanks for the responses. What i was doing previously was using this script:

DirectShowSource("F:\SANY0130.MP4",fps=59.94,conve rtfps=true)
SelectEven()
LanczosResize(720,480)
ConvertToYUY2()

With all four files, encoding only the video in CCE SP2. Therefore the result was four mpv video files without sound.I demuxed the .aac audio with YAMB, encoded to LPCM, then joined those with WAVMerge. I joined/appended the mpv files with DGIndex. So then i had one mpv file and one wav file, that i then imported into DVD authoring programs, which is where the problems occured. The audio seemed to be in sync throughout, but like i say there were other problems, which i mention above.

Thanks

EDIT:

I redid it using YAMB to extract the raw .h264 file, then used DGAVCdec to index it, created .avs script. You can ignore the errors when DGAVCdec indexes it. You can also use the DirectShowSource() method as before, and just use yadif to deinterlace, but I found 1 frame difference. DGAVCdec is more reliable.

LoadPlugin("PATH\DGAVCDecode.dll")
Load_Stdcall_Plugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\yadif.dll")

AVCSource("SANY0132_001_track1.dga") 
Yadif(order=1) #TFF
LanczosResize(720,480)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VY4IH4KF

I just tried doing this myself, and CCE SP2 crashes (usual generic windows 'this program has crashed') when i try to load the .AVS file. I recently re-installed XP so my system is 'fresh' of video codecs, the only thing i have installed is ffdshow. Are there any other codecs i need to install?

[poisondeathray]

Haali media splitter, and make sure h264 is set to "libavcodec" in the ffdshow video configuration, and aac is set to "libfaad2" in the ffdshow audio configuration

You also have to index it with DGAVCIndex. Download DGAVCdec package and use DGAVCIndex. It will demux the audio for you. There is a short 1 page quick start help file you should read in that package

[Killer3737]

Ok i installed Haali and restarted my system, but it still isn't loading it, and crashing. I tried to load one of the older directshowsource scripts above and that loaded ok, the ffdshow icons appeared in my system tray like usual, but this new one isn't working. I'm using the exact one you posted above, but obviously with the file paths for the .dlls filled in. Does it matter where DGAVCdecode.dll is located? I moved a copy to the Avisynth plugin folder.

[poisondeathray]

Actually DGAVCdec uses a different version of libavcodec (ffdshow), so the absense of icons in the system tray is normal. DirectShowSource() will rely on the system installed ffdshow (or other directshow filter)

Do you have yadif.dll in a directory (with proper path)?

Did you index the file, and did it generate a .dga file?

It doesn't matter where DGAVCdecode.dll is located, just make sure the path matches up

Are you getting any error messages to hint as to what the problem is?

In your screenshot of the YAMB, are those the original Sanyo files? Sometimes it's normal to have the audio off a bit in duration - unfortunately you can't test playback (computer too slow)?

[Killer3737]

Actually DGAVCdec uses a different version of libavcodec (ffdshow), so the absense of icons in the system tray is normal.

Do you have yadif.dll in a directory (with proper path)?

Did you index the file, and did it generate a .dga file?

It doesn't matter where DGAVCdecode.dll is located, just make sure the path matches up

Yes to all of those questions. yadif.dll is also in the AVISynth plugin directory. screenshot to demonstrate:
http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=31716039tt4.jpg

The settings in ffshow are as you mentioned earlier aswell. Could i try to load the .avs in another program to see if it's CCE that is the problem?

In your screenshot of the YAMB, are those the original Sanyo files? Sometimes it's normal to have the audio off a bit in duration - unfortunately you can't test playback (computer too slow)?

Yes, they are the original files. No, can't test playback on this PC, as you can see in my specs it's only a 2.8ghz Pentium D, pretty old now. Only the audio plays.

I don't get any error messages as such from CCE, just the standard windows box pops up saying this program has experienced an error, do you want to send an error report blah blah...

[poisondeathray]

You could load the .avs into Virtualdub to test it, or a directshow player like MPC

So you are uncertain if the original files are in sync?

[Killer3737]

Loaded the script with VirtualDub and it opened fine, no errors, so i guess it's a problem with CCE. But what? It opens the full MP4 file by Directshowsource, so why not like this?

I can't be certain the file is in sync no, but the MPEG-2 files i outputted before were in sync, so i assume they're ok really.

[poisondeathray]

Are your avisynth and CCE versions recent?

I joined 4 of your sample clips and it was in sync with this script. Of course these were only 30sec clips so I don't know if it will keep sync over 4 different clips. I did the audio with the same script, instead of demuxing, and used AlignedSplice i.e "++" instead of UnlignedSplice "+"

Load_Stdcall_Plugin("PATH\yadif.dll")

a=DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94,convertfps=true,audio=true)
b=DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94,convertfps=true,audio=true)
c=DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94,convertfps=true,audio=true)
d=DirectShowSource("PATH\SANY0132_001.MP4",fps=59.94,convertfps=true,audio=true)

a++b++c++d

Yadif(order=1)
SelectEven()
LanczosResize(720,480)

Another alternative to CCE is to use HCenc which uses .avs input. Quality is comparable, and it's free

[Killer3737]

Anisynth is 2.5 and as far as i know CCE is the latest version. I guess i'll just go ahead and use the directshowsource method then. If i waste hours encoding, so be it.

Thanks for all of your help by the way, it's greatly appreciated.

[Killer3737]

Realised my problem, needed to add the ConvertToYUY2() line for CCE.

[Killer3737]

Ok i just did a test encode, and there is still problems. It seems CCE is either ignoring or overiding some parts in the script, in this case the deinterlacing setting. I was comparing my output to the one you posted, and it still had those odd horizontal 'lines'. So i open them both up in mediainfo, and as suspected, it reads exactly the same until these lines:

Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First

CCE has so many options and settings i just tend to leave the majority alone, but i'm guess something i should be doing, i'm not or vice versa. Your video output looks just as good as mine and doesn't have the problems, so i think i'll just switch to HCenc.