.MOV to DVD Jerky Video Playback

[Pikeman]

Hi, first of all I'm not sure this is a problem that's being caused or can be fixed by ffmpegX, but I just wanted to make sure. I have some .mov files that I've been converting to DVD to watch on my DVD player. Here are my settings:



and...



Using mpeg2enc to encode to MPEG2 DVD with the bitrate it gave me when I pushed the 'best' button on the bitrate calculator, and NTSC FILM framerate. My problem is that when I burn the movie.DVD folder in Toast, like this:



...on playback in my DVD player the video seems like it halts every second or so. It isn't incredibly choppy, but the video just isn't smooth. You can especially see it during fast-paced scenes where the camera is panning quickly. It halts as if the DVD player is trying to keep up. The audio is perfectly smooth, and the halting video isn't extremely bad (you almost don't notice it after a while), but it is annoying. The thing is, before I burn a DVD, when I'm just watching the VIDEO_TS folder through DVD Player on my iMac, everything is fine. The video is completely smooth. So, I'm wondering if this is a problem with the way I'm encoding the video in ffmpegX, or with Toast in the process of burning the video to DVD.

Some questions:
*Would it help if I used the NTSC framerate instead of NTSC FILM?
*Would it help if I used ffmpeg to encode to MPEG2 DVD instead of mpeg2enc?
*Would burning with the 'DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS' option under the 'Video' tab in Toast be better than using 'DVD-ROM (UDF)' under the 'Data' tab?

Aside from these things that I can think of, is there anything else that could be causing this? I know it isn't my DVD player, since I've played the DVDs I've burnt on 3 different DVD players, and they all have the same result.

Thanks in advance.

[Case]

Would it help if I used the NTSC framerate instead of NTSC FILM?

a. The framerate should be the same as the source, whenever possible. Rarely do you have to change the automatic setting.
b. If the target framerate is NTSC FILM (23.976 fps), then tick "Set 3:2" pulldown in options.

Would it help if I used ffmpeg to encode to MPEG2 DVD instead of mpeg2enc?

I don't think so, mpeg2enc is the more compatible one, bitrate-wise.

Would burning with the 'DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS' option under the 'Video' tab in Toast be better than using 'DVD-ROM (UDF)' under the 'Data' tab?

Should give same result, except for 'DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS' adding an empty AUDIO_TS folder automatically for compatibility reasons.

[Pikeman]

Alright, I'll try that. What does 'Set 3:2' do, exactly? Would not having it selected have contributed to the jerky video I'm getting?

[Case]

"3:2 pulldown" tells your DVD player how to feed 23.976 fps progressive material to a 29.97 fps interlaced tv. Dan Ramer wrote a feature story about it.
Let us know if it solved your issue.

[dylanb2cm]

I'm fairly new to this but I just recently just did the exact same thing as you did for the first time and it worked. I used the the MPEG2 DVD in ffmpeg to encode cause I just thought it was the right thing to do and I also used I also used the Video tab instead of the Data tab.

[Pikeman]

Alright, I tried the Set 3:2 thing and it worked perfectly! The jerkiness is completely gone and the video is smooth on playback in my DVD player. Thanks a bunch!