I have an MPEG-1 (VCD) at 23.976, how do I convert it!?

[i am x]

I have a very ODD video clip, and can't figure out for the life on me how to convert it! It's an mpeg-1 (VCD) file that was encoded at 23.976 fps. That right there is odd. I'm trying to get it to an mpeg-1 (VCD) file with a framerate of 29.97, which will make it a standard DVD compliant file. Everytime I try to do it with tmpeg plus, it converts, but there's NO SOUND on the converted file. Is there some sort of step(s) that I am missing? ANY help would be appreciated!

[adam]

Its not odd at all. That there is the most common framerate used on NTSC VCDs. 23.976fps VCDs play back at 29.97fps. Its substantially higher quality to store it this way then to encode it at 29.97fps. The same technique is used on DVDs as well. 99% of commercial NTSC DVDs are encoded at 23.976fps and played back at 29.97fps.

But unfortunately, while this framerate is perfectly compliant for mpeg1 in the VCD standard, the DVD standard requires mpeg1 video to be 29.97fps. So the best solution is to not make a DVD at all, but to just burn it as a VCD. If you try to put this on DVD the quality is only going to get worse. Your only options are to re-encode it to 29.97fps mpeg1, or 23.976fps mpeg2.

If you choose to re-encode to DVD compliant mpeg1 than you need to enable the 3:2 pulldown filter on TMPGenc's advanced tab. Also realize that you can use a bitrate as high as 1.856Mbps. You will probably get much better results re-encoding to mpeg2 and keeping it 23.976fps, and of course the best quality will be to just burn this as a compliant VCD instead.

As for your audio problems, if you are only losing audio when playing it on your DVD player then it is because mpeg1 audio layer II audio is not supported in the NTSC standard and not all dvd players support it. If the audio is missing in the converted file than you can probably solve that by increasing the direct show priority in TMPGenc. (Option/Environmental setting/VFAPI Plug-in and right click directshow multimedia file reader and increase priority until its top in your list)

A better option is to decompress the audio to wav first and then re-encode. Loading the mpg program stream and having the encoder use that as the audio source often causes problems. Try demultiplexing the mpg first to get the audio stream then use BeSweet to decompress it to wav. From there encode with either BeSweet or TMPGenc, and for better compatiblity use BeSweet and encode to AC3 which is fully compliant unlike mpeg1 audio layer II.

[i am x]

Its not odd at all. That there is the most common framerate used on NTSC VCDs. 23.976fps VCDs play back at 29.97fps. Its substantially higher quality to store it this way then to encode it at 29.97fps. The same technique is used on DVDs as well. 99% of commercial NTSC DVDs are encoded at 23.976fps and played back at 29.97fps.

But unfortunately, while this framerate is perfectly compliant for mpeg1 in the VCD standard, the DVD standard requires mpeg1 video to be 29.97fps. So the best solution is to not make a DVD at all, but to just burn it as a VCD. If you try to put this on DVD the quality is only going to get worse. Your only options are to re-encode it to 29.97fps mpeg1, or 23.976fps mpeg2.

If you choose to re-encode to DVD compliant mpeg1 than you need to enable the 3:2 pulldown filter on TMPGenc's advanced tab. Also realize that you can use a bitrate as high as 1.856Mbps. You will probably get much better results re-encoding to mpeg2 and keeping it 23.976fps, and of course the best quality will be to just burn this as a compliant VCD instead.

As for your audio problems, if you are only losing audio when playing it on your DVD player then it is because mpeg1 audio layer II audio is not supported in the NTSC standard and not all dvd players support it. If the audio is missing in the converted file than you can probably solve that by increasing the direct show priority in TMPGenc. (Option/Environmental setting/VFAPI Plug-in and right click directshow multimedia file reader and increase priority until its top in your list)

A better option is to decompress the audio to wav first and then re-encode. Loading the mpg program stream and having the encoder use that as the audio source often causes problems. Try demultiplexing the mpg first to get the audio stream then use BeSweet to decompress it to wav. From there encode with either BeSweet or TMPGenc, and for better compatiblity use BeSweet and encode to AC3 which is fully compliant unlike mpeg1 audio layer II.

You're not going to believe this. The entire problem was solved. After reading your above message, I demultiplexed the movie file, then I decoded the audio file from mpa to wav. Then I loaded the video and audio (as a wav file) into tmpgenc and encoded it as a dvd film. It worked PERFECTLY. Audio and video are crystal clear. For some odd reason, the audio refused to work right in it's original form. Decoding it to wav, then using the wav file as the initial audio source worked. Why, I don't know.
Well, now the whole problem was solved, and I was able to convert the video AND audio. Thanks a lot for your help, Adam. Reading your message pointed me in the right direction to getting the damn problem solved once and for all! Now I can watch the video on my dvd player with no problems!

[ZippyP.]

As for your audio problems, if you are only losing audio when playing it on your DVD player then it is because mpeg1 audio layer II audio is not supported in the NTSC standard and not all dvd players support it.

Adam told you what caused your problem. NTSC only officially supports LPCM (wav) and AC3 audio, although many players will play MP2.