Newbie ripping question

[sk]

Well, now I'm totally lost. (Nothing new. I just ripped a DVD using cladDVD with the DVD2AVI built in frameserver option selected. I did not choose the "Force Film" option because elsewhere on this site there was a thread explaining the problems that can come about as a result of checking that option. (i.e. The last 10 seconds of a SVCD disk end up silent, etc.) I ended up with two lovely files: .d2v and .wav, which I then loaded into TMPGEnc Plus, 2.5, along with a 5 GB vob file that I did not load into TMPGEnc, but which I assume the .d2v was pointing to, since that's where the movie is. I used the template from one of the guide sites I'd found, but even the instructions were a bit vague regarding what exactly to do with tweaking TMPGEnc's settings. Here is what I ended up with:

Video Tab: Automatic VBR (CQ_VBR) Motion Search Precison: High Quality (slow) NOTE: Everything else is grayed out on that tab

Now on to the ADVANCED TAB:

Video Source Tab: Non-Interlaced (Progressive)
Field Order: Top Field First (Field A)
Source Aspect Ratio: 16:9 525 line (NTSC)
Video Arrange Method: Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio)

Then in the filters box I have two filters selected:

DeInterlace (Even field)
Clip Frame (The setting for this are: R/L: 4 T/B: 57)

The original guide I was using said to double click on the deinterlace filter. Then find a place on the preview screen that had some action, if possible. Then click on an arrow button to make the scene proceed, although it warned it's not in real time; it's very slow. Initially I think it said to uncheck the filter option, and if any jerky movement/back and forth movement was found, enable the filter and then try either odd or even.

He then suggested going to the clip frame filter, going to a place where it was a bright scene, and choosing multiples of 4 on the l/r (to conform to the SVCD standard, I believe) and multiples of 2 for t/p, to remove black shadowing from the borders. (NOTE: This needs to be done with the box for "Resized image..." unchecked. After you set what you want, you can recheck that box).

He also recommended boosting the volume in TMPGEnc by 200%, which I did.

I used that method to get very good results, except for the 10 seconds of silence at the end. Initially I followed his suggestion to use FORCE FILM in the Frameserve process. This time, I did everything else, but just chose NTSC instead of NTSC FILM. The thing is processing in TMPGEnc while I'm writing this, so I don't know the final results yet. But the prior results were great; as good on the T.V., if not better, than the orignal store bought DVD. The volume was even better. (I used a tweak in TMPGEnc, btw, to substitute too-lame for the internal audio encoder for the MPEG-1 layer II, along with ssrc for the sampling frequency converter. I saw the tweak at the AfterDawn site.) So that's why I'm confused now when people are saying it's wrong to de-interlace an SVCD.

sk

[funkguy4]

What guide were you using? It does Pan & Scan, and that's the wrong way to go about it. You should letterbox the video into a 4:3 frame. Consider doing an XSVCD or a slightly XSVCD, if your player supports it. In the case that it does, you would probably end up making 2 to 3 to 4 XSVCDs depending on how you do your XSVCD. Tell me what you can/wanna do and I'll post back with instructions.

[sk]

The guides I was using were from cladDVD and a site called DVD Rip Guides. With regard to my stand alone DVD player, it's my understanding that it does not play anything other than SVCD format. Thanks anyway.

sk

[funkguy4]

So you're going to SVCD? Ok then all you have to do is reencode to 480 x 480 resolution. You will probabky still have the fuzz in a quick pan, but that's inevitable with the low bitrates.

[sk]

I'm not sure what you mean. Checking the options that I already noted above automatically re-sizes or re-encoded to 480 x 480. At least that's what shows up on the preview screens.

[funkguy4]

I'm not sure what you mean. Checking the options that I already noted above automatically re-sizes or re-encoded to 480 x 480. At least that's what shows up on the preview screens.

When you resize thew frame, it's best to use a good encoder (i.e.: CCE, TMPGEnc). If you let the sofwatre go in auto-mode, you can't tell the software how to handle the source to get best output. I've heard many of the MPEG2 encoders out there are only mediocre.

[sk]

I'm not sure what you mean. Checking the options that I already noted above automatically re-sizes or re-encoded to 480 x 480. At least that's what shows up on the preview screens.

When you resize thew frame, it's best to use a good encoder (i.e.: CCE, TMPGEnc). If you let the sofwatre go in auto-mode, you can't tell the software how to handle the source to get best output. I've heard many of the MPEG2 encoders out there are only mediocre.

Those are the only two encoders I have on my system. As far as I understand, even the software programs that go into auto mode (like EazyVCD, which I love) still use the TMPGEnc mpeg-2 encoder; they don't have their own. DVD2SVCD gives the option of TMPGEnc, CCE, or Canopus.