AVI to DVD aspect ratio always wrong

[Focaldesign]

I have some AVI files (mpeg4, yuv420p) with different screen sizes (632x258; 640x272; 640x352;624x256 etc. etc.) I want to convert to DVD-files with ffmpegX 0.0.9.

In the 'video'-tab I tried Autosize DVD and DVD 16:9 but I always get deformed aspect ratio in the converted DVD-files.

How do I need to set up the options to always get a normal, not deformed, video file that can be played on DVD?
I think I need to set something on that adds black bars if needed to get to a DVD-aspect ratio or something but I'm a total n00b in this video stuff

[Baldrick]

Moving you to our ffmpegx section.

[Case]

For converting widescreen movies to DVD, always use Autosize 'DVD 16:9'.
632x258 has an aspect ratio of 2.45:1 and needs letterboxing for 'DVD 16:9'.
640x272 has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and needs letterboxing for 'DVD 16:9'.
640x352 has an aspect ratio of 1.82:1 and does not need letterboxing for 'DVD 16:9' (no harm done with auto-letterboxing).
624x256 has an aspect ratio of 2.44:1 and needs letterboxing for 'DVD 16:9'.

For the DVD mpeg2enc presets, there is a "Letterbox" checkbox in the Options tab, that will add auto-letterboxing for whatever size it needs.

For the DVD ffmpeg presets, it depends on using 'Decode with Quicktime' or not. 'Decode with Quicktime' has its own auto-letterbox checkbox. Decoding with ffmpeg (Quicktime unchecked) uses the letterbox fields in the Filters tab, where the letterbox size (in pixels) has to be filled in.

[Focaldesign]

Thx case.

I just checked and setting my video-settings to Mpeg2enc, autosize DVD 16:9 changes the video size to 720x480. The options tab already has 'letterbox' checked.
I assume I have to replace it by the native ratio (here 632x258) but then I get error message the width value has to be divisible by 16. If I leave it to the suggested 720x480, I get the deformed output video...

[tomlee59]

Thx case.

I just checked and setting my video-settings to Mpeg2enc, autosize DVD 16:9 changes the video size to 720x480. The options tab already has 'letterbox' checked.
I assume I have to replace it by the native ratio (here 632x258) but then I get error message the width value has to be divisible by 16. If I leave it to the suggested 720x480, I get the deformed output video...

Do not change the target video size -- DVD specifications allow only a small set of sizes (see "What is DVD" in the upper left corner of this page). The selections you made should work properly, so here are some more questions for you:

1) Are you trying to make a PAL or NTSC DVD? These require slightly different target dimensions.
2) What are using to view the result of the conversion?
3) How much distortion in geometry are you seeing? If you could post a screenshot showing this, it might be instructive.

[Focaldesign]

Do not change the target video size -- DVD specifications allow only a small set of sizes (see "What is DVD" in the upper left corner of this page). The selections you made should work properly, so here are some more questions for you:

1) Are you trying to make a PAL or NTSC DVD? These require slightly different target dimensions.
2) What are using to view the result of the conversion?
3) How much distortion in geometry are you seeing? If you could post a screenshot showing this, it might be instructive.

1) Don't know. When I chose DVD 16:9 output it automaticly says PAL or NTSC, I can't find out why it sometimes says the one thing and other times the other one. . Is there a 'better' one? Which one should I use in what case?

2) Mac OS 10.5 DVD player shows distortion (99% of all the output movies freeze during first 10 seconds in the mac dvd player by the way). I've also burned some and played them in my dvd player on the tv and it's the same.

3) I'm at work now, I'll try to upload some screenshots asap.


Thx already for the help!

[Case]

1) Are you trying to make a PAL or NTSC DVD? These require slightly different target dimensions.

1) Don't know. When I chose DVD 16:9 output it automaticly says PAL or NTSC, I can't find out why it sometimes says the one thing and other times the other one. . Is there a 'better' one? Which one should I use in what case?

It depends: Belgium is a PAL country, so PAL may seem the obvious choice. But most modern tv sets in PAL countries have no problem with an NTSC signal going in.

The conversion AVI to DVD keeps most of its quality if you do not change the framerate: try to keep the framerate the same as the source file. With framerate conversions, new frames will have to be inserted (higher framerate), or frames will have to be dropped (lower framerate).

ffmpegX helps you by trying to detect the framerate of the source file and makes that the default for the output file. For DVD presets, it also sets the video size based on the framerate.
So if your source file is 25 fps, then convert to PAL DVD. If your source is 23.976 fps, then convert to NTSC FILM DVD. If your source file is 29.97 fps, then convert to NTSC DVD.

[Focaldesign]

Hmmm,

I've dragged a file into ffmpegX and set the target format to DVD.
I read it has 23.976 fps so it should be NTSC FILM.



I don't touch the video size and set autosize to DVD 16:9. Framerate automaticly says NTSC FILM as it should.



But on the 'options' tab I don't find any letterbox option all of a sudden?

[Case]

Try the 'DVD mpeg2enc' preset instead of 'DVD ffmpeg' preset.
For 23.976 fps DVDs, also check the "Set 3:2" checkbox in the mpeg2enc options.

[Focaldesign]

Ok,

I then have standard checked options: No SVCD scan, Decode with QT, Altivec, Bicubic.

I assume I have to check Letterbox and Set 3:2 also. Any other items?

[tomlee59]

But on the 'options' tab I don't find any letterbox option all of a sudden?

It's actually there. Look very carefully to the right of "decode with QT". You will see a grayed-out option for letterboxing. If you select "decode with QT" that option will "brighten up" and cease to be grayed out.

QT is a suitable choice for decode if you have the ability to play the source file with QT. If QT will not play it, then do not select "decode with QT."

[Focaldesign]

Aha, but I checked and the movies don't play in QT... So that leaves me with the previous question:

Ok,
I then have standard checked options: No SVCD scan, Decode with QT, Altivec, Bicubic.
I assume I have to check Letterbox and Set 3:2 also. Any other items?

[Case]

Altivec is an option to calculate faster in a different part of the CPU chip on PowerPC G4/G5 Macs. Not sure what it does on Intel Macs, if anything. The reason for the checkbox is that G3 owners can uncheck it.

Bicubic is an improvement scaling algorithm. Unchecking it would convert faster, but resize the video with less visual quality. Unchecking it probably means 'bilinear scaling'.

Decoding can have three settings: with QuickTime, with mplayer, or neither (meaning decode with ffmpeg). Most XviD AVIs should convert well with any of those three settings.
If your source file doesn't play in QuickTime Player, then 'Decode with QT' won't work either. Then choose a different decoder.

'Set 3:2' flags the video with a 3:2 pulldown instruction, so that a set top DVD player can smoothly output a 23.976 fps progressive MPEG-2 video to a tv set that requests a 29.97 fps interlaced signal (just like commercial movie DVDs do).

The other items you can leave at default setting.

[Focaldesign]

Strange,I've tried checking of encoding with QT and checking encoding with mplayer. I got an error during converting.
Then I checked them off both so it would encode with ffmpeg and I got that error again. Encoding with QT won't work because my avi doesn't play with QT...
So I'm guessing DVDmpeg2enc doesn't work in any way. But when I want DVDffmpeg I can only choose letterbox when checking encoding with QT, which doesn't work...

Any idea's?

By the way, the error is this: (line 11) of this code snippet

Exiting... (End of file)
wait, encoding to mp2 audio with mp2enc...
   INFO: Opened WAV file, freq = 48000 Hz, channels = 2, bits = 16
   INFO: format = 0x1, audio length = 1201775616 bytes
   INFO: slots/frame = 672
   INFO: frac SpF=0.000, tot bitrate=224 kbps, s freq=48.0 kHz
   INFO: System is big endian
   INFO: Avg slots/frame = inf; b/smp = inf; br = inf kbps
   INFO: Encoding with psychoacoustic model 2 is finished
   INFO: The MPEG encoded output file name is "/Users/stefaanellebaut/Movies/dvd/xfiles-letterbox.mpa"
**ERROR: [mplex] Time offset units if specified must: ms|s|mpt
mjpegtools mplex-2 version 1.9.0 (2.2.7)
Usage: /Applications/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/mplex [params] -o <output filename pattern> <input file>... 
         %d in the output file name is by segment count
  where possible params are:
--verbose|-v num
  Level of verbosity. 0 = quiet, 1 = normal 2 = verbose/debug
--format|-f fmt
  Set defaults for particular MPEG profiles
  [0 = Generic MPEG1, 1 = VCD, 2 = user-rate VCD, 3 = Generic MPEG2,
   4 = SVCD, 5 = user-rate SVCD
   6 = VCD Stills, 7 = SVCD Stills, 8 = DVD with NAV sectors, 9 = DVD]
--mux-bitrate|-r num
  Specify data rate of output stream in kbit/sec
    (default 0=Compute from source streams)
--video-buffer|-b num [, num...] 
  Specifies decoder buffers size in kB.  [ 20...2000]
--lpcm-params | -L samppersec:chan:bits [, samppersec:chan:bits]
--mux-limit|-l num
  Multiplex only num seconds of material (default 0=multiplex all)
--sync-offset|-O num ms|s|mpt
  Specify offset of timestamps (video-audio) in mSec
--sector-size|-s num
  Specify sector size in bytes for generic formats [256..16384]
--vbr|-V
  Force variable bit-rate video multiplexing
--cbr|-C
  Force constant bit-rate video multiplexing
--run-in|-R num
  Force a 'run-in' of exactly num frame intervals
--packets-per-pack|-p num
  Number of packets per pack generic formats [1..100]
--system-headers|-h
  Create System header in every pack in generic formats
--max-segment-size|-S size
  Maximum size of output file(s) in Mbyte (default: 0) (no limit)
--ignore-seqend-markers|-M
  Don't switch to a new output file if a  sequence end marker
  is encountered ithe input video.
--vdr-index|-i <vdr-index-filename>
  Generate a VDR index file with the output stream
--workaround|-W workaround [, workaround ]
--help|-?
  Print this lot out!

[Case]

**ERROR: [mplex] Time offset units if specified must: ms|s|mpt

This appears to be related to the Sync value in the bottom right of the Options window. It has a default value of zero (0). Did you change that? If not, then the error message isn't pointing to the real problem at hand.

[Focaldesign]

I didn't change anything... Too bad.

[Case]

Another way to tackle this problem is to make QuickTime understand the AVI, by installing a third party codec ("component" in QT language).
I thought QuickTime 7.5.5 could handle most MPEG-4 AVIs by itself now, but perhaps the Perian Component can help QT decode your source file.
It might be useful to use MediaInfo Mac to get information on exactly which codecs are used in the AVI, so we won't have to guess about your source file.

[Focaldesign]

Thx! I installed the Perian component and it now plays in QT. I'll have another try!

[Focaldesign]

It works fine, but now I have another (minor) problem. It seems tht QT already includes my subtitles. Now when I activate the Ducth subtitles on the dvd player, it get them twice. Once already embedded in the video file, and another in overlay from the dvd player.

I assume checking off 'load external subtitles' in the Perian settings and keeping the subtitle source in ffmpegX is the best because I can then choose to see subtitles or not?

[Case]

I assume checking off 'load external subtitles' in the Perian settings and keeping the subtitle source in ffmpegX is the best because I can then choose to see subtitles or not?

Exactly right.

[Focaldesign]

Thx Case! Love the quick replies. one of the few messageboards where you get fast en usefull info like this.

[tomlee59]

Thx Case! Love the quick replies. one of the few messageboards where you get fast en usefull info like this.

That's because the other boards don't have Case!

[Case]