DV (avi) - Mpeg 1 Problems

[Adam69]

Hello,
I have just tried unsuccessfully to convert an avi captured from my panasonic DV camera into a Mpeg1 Pal

The resulting file ended up with the audio out of sync and a very lossy picture.

After reading the forums I have just tried to reconfigure TMPGENC to correct the problem, but I'm not too sure what the correct settings should be ?

Its running at the moment, telling me that its going to take 3.5 hours to encode a 20min movie (is that about right) ?

[fragmental]

First part of the process, using VirtualDub:

1> Load the AVI into VirtualDub.
2> Under "Audio" select "Full processing mode..."
3> Under "Audio" select "Conversion...", select 44100Hz.
4> Under "File" select "Save WAV..."

Notes: The audio may already be 44100Hz. Make sure you save the WAV file on a drive with enough space (at the minimum you should have 1G free). Also, make sure you remember where you saved the file, you need it for the next step.


Second part of the process, using TMPGEnc 2.57:

1> Start the wizard.
2> On the first page select "Video-CD -> NTSC"
3> Click "Next >"
4> For "Video File" select the AVI created by your camera.
5> For "Audio File" select the WAV created by the process described above.
6> Click "Next >"
7> Click "Next >"
8> Click "Next >"

If you get a warning about it not fitting on your CD, ignore it, you can cut the resulting file later using TMPGEnc's "Merge and Cut" feature.

The result of this process is a VCD compliant MPEG1 video stream. The audio should now be in sync (assuming it was in sync in your original AVI).

[Adam69]

Hi fragmental,
Thanks for the advice

Are those instructions for making a Mpeg1 file suitable for playing in a Pal region ?

I checked the avi information in Virtual Dub :
Frame size - 720x576, 25fps
Audio - 32000

Which special settings, if any in TMPGEnc do I change to get a high quality picture ?

[Thorn]

Good call on the audio, fragmental.

I'd actually suggest going a step further to experiment with video quality. Assuming you have a type-2 dv avi that Virtualdub can read (else convert it), load the avi into VD.

Have it do the audio conversion to 44.1KHz, but also set up some video filters to try to clean it up (I prefer VD to tmpgenc for video filters). After you have it all set up, frameserve (file/start frameserver) to tmpgenc.

I don't really filter much when going to DVD, but VCD is so hard to get to look good with DV source because it's usually very noisy and jerky compared to professional video. Many people get satisfactory results, but I was never happy with my home videos on VCD. Note that you could also try SVCD or xVCD if you have the time to experiment.

I think only the video size and framerate change for PAL, so the audio instructions are ok, just use PAL in TMPGenc.

Also, fyi - getting a different DV codec (canopus and whoever have free decoders) may improve quality slightly.