How to Author 23fps to DVD

[gsteruk]

Just thought id pass on the procedure ive found works great for creating dvds with 23fps movies/episodes, and in the process, force DVD Workshop to create multi-vts vobs.

Normally downloaded material is 23fps - dvd standards demand 25fps for PAL, and 29fps for NTSC. Changing from 23fps to either 25 or 29 always leads to playback problems - some people can live with the occassional stutter - me, well i cant.

Assuming ive got a 23fps avi, i transcode this to a 23fps NTSC 16:9 (depending on aspect) using Cucusoft AVi to DVD 6.15. For later versions of this program id stick to level 3 quality, anything better seems to cause some issues for some files.

If its an episodic set of files, or more than one movie - do them all the same.

I create the menu structure using Ulead DVD Workshop. Before importing the mpegs youve created:

Use DVDPatcher to make each file different from the other, i.e set one vertical res to 320, one to 740, then if youve got more than 2 files to import change one to 320, then aspect to 4:3, then one to 740 with a 16:9 aspect. Doing this means that when DVD Workshop imports them, they are valid NTSC files, but the differences forces it to create a different tile set for each movie.

When thats done import the movies into DVD Workshop and link to menus as needed, then burn to hard disk folder. As they are already compliant, no further encoding is needed, it shouldnt take long.

When thats done reopen each mpeg in DVD Patcher, and restore each to the same original values.

Then one at a time use Cucusofts free DVD Author to create the vobs for each file. Simply replace these created VOBs with the ones created by DVD Workshop. For example for 2 episodes, the first will be VTS_1_1, the other VTS_1_2, so rename the Cucusoft outputted vobs as required.

Then open the VIDEO_TS.ifo and VTS_x_x.ifo files in IFO edit and change the aspect back to the original correct values - back to 4: normally.

Hope thats clear and helps someone - its the only way ive found to be able to get 23fps movies onto a dvd with a menu - plays great - no stuttering

[Soopafresh]

Are you sure you're not making more work than necessary for yourself ?

Just for a test, have you experimented with DGPulldown 23.976->29.97 ? Try it out and see if makes the process a bit easier.

[gsteruk]

Yup tried pulldown - results just arent good enuff i dont think, theres usually a glitch, or very noticable staggering as the camera pans, tried all the usual suspects encoder wise

[gsteruk]

as an additional this isnt meant as a replacement for pulldown - just an alternative - and very quick - looks like a lot of steps - but takes less than 30 mins once uve got ure compliant mpeg, whereas pulldown takes longer, and results are often poor on tv