720p H264 TS recording convert to DVD

[boulder]

I have a movie I recorded from Arte HD, and I want to put it on a standard PAL DVD.
The movie is in 720p (1280x720x50fps).
Now, I tried with ConvertXtoDVD, which does indeed produce a nice PAL DVD, however, playback is very jerky.
I suppose this is due to the fact that PAL DVD's are only 25fps (25 full frames or 50 interlaced frames), while the original is 50fps progressive.
How do you solve this issue (apart from always recording from Arte and Arte HD simultaneously, in case the movie is so great you want to burn it to DVD later on) ?
I assume ConvertXtodvd simply drops one frame every other frame to get to the 25fps for PAL ?

[guns1inger]

You could try AVStoDVD instead. This uses avisynth and HCEnc is a little more sophisticated than ConvertXtoDVD.

[netmask56]

What version of ConvertXToDVD are you using? I've used it for HDTV files in Australia - we are PAL but not H264.
The frame rate is the same but we use MPEG2 with AC3 audio. Anyway I think ConvertXToDVD is a great all rounder and haven't experienced any jerkyness except for the very early free version. Maybe a program to convert the file to MPEG2 plus MPA or AC3 audio first might help. I haven't used avisynth but it sounds like the way to go as well.

[boulder]

I am using ConvertXtoDVD version 3.5.3.139

[boulder]

With this script, it seems to be OK on my CRT TV, though it looks horrible (mice teeth) when looked at on my computer screen.
It remains quite fluid, but it is now interlaced of course.
I suppose there is no way to keep it fluid, and at the same time go to 25fps (half the framerate of the original) ?

DirectShowSource("e:\record~1\01-06_~2.ts")
LanczosResize(720,576)
AssumeTFF.SeparateFields().SelectEvery(2,0).Weave( )
ConvertToYV12()

I am not sure if this is the ideal way to reinterlace, but it does seem to work on TV.
I got the inspiration from another example I found here on the forums (https://forum.videohelp.com/topic333774.html).
In that post there is a SelectEvery(4,0,1) line there, which I don't understand at all.

[jagabo]

DirectShowSource("e:\record~1\01-06_~2.ts")
LanczosResize(720,576)
AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4,0,3).We ave()
ConvertToYV12()

[boulder]

AssumeTFF().SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4,0,3).We ave()

What does that line do exactly ?
I assume it means : take every 4 frames, but then what ?
I 'm just trying to understand.
I tried several methods to get the best result, and finally I discovered that the problem I was facing with the jerky movie playback is due to ConvertXtoDVD and not to the method I was using.
So I get the best result with simply dropping every other frame, and keeping the movie progressive.
I did this with HCGUI in combination with Avisynth.

Here is a sample from the same passage of the film Eden (2006) over and over again (about 20 Mbytes/example) :

ConvertXtoDVD result (jerky playback) : http://rapidshare.com/files/247523039/sample-convertxtodvd.mpg
Best PAL result (dropping every other frame (25fps), but staying progressive) : http://rapidshare.com/files/247536000/sample-progressive_with_half_framerate.m2v
Going to 50fps interlaced (notice the interlacing miceteeth) : http://rapidshare.com/files/247525464/sample-every_two_frames.m2v
Going to 50fps interlaced with 4-0-3 parameter (again with miceteeth) : [ URL]http://rapidshare.com/files/247519778/sample-4-0-3_frames.m2v[/URL]

So the script I finally used is simply this one :

DirectShowSource("e:\record~1\01-06_~2.ts")
LanczosResize(720,576)
SelectOdd()
ConvertToYV12()

[jagabo]

Since your script used SeparateFields().SelectEvery().Weave() I assume you had a true 50p source (50 different progressive frames per second) like a live sporting event.

SelectEvery(4,0,3) means: for every four frames (which are fields in the context of the script) take the first one (0) and the fourth one (3). The first one is the top field of one of the 50 fps frames, the fourth one ins the bottom field of the next 50 fps frame. You now have created a 25 fps interlaced frame from two 50 fps progressive frames. This is essentially what a video camera does, it takes the top field then 1/50 second later takes a bottom field. This should be encoded as 25 fps TFF interlaced MPEG 2 for DVD. If the source video was true 720p50 (like a live sporting event) you will end up with very smooth playback.

50 fps frames: 0 1
AssumeTFF()
SeparateFields(): 0t 0b 1t 1b
SelectEvery(4,0,3): 0t 1b
Weave(): 0t+1b

If the source is film broadcast at 720p50 by speeding up the frame rate from 24 fps to 25 fps then duplicating each frame you should just throw out half the frames (the duplicates) with SelectEven() or SelectOdd(). Then encode as 25 fps progressive MPEG 2. Which is what you did in the end.

Actually, with your film source both methods would produce exactly the same thing if the the 50 fps video started with a duplicate pair. Because in the SelectEvery(4,0,3) frames 0 and 1 are both the same film frame so taking the top field of frame 0 and the bottom field of frame 1 is the same thing as taking both fields from the same video frame.

[boulder]

Ah, thanks for the explanation, jagabo.
Of course I should have first thought about the source of the recording (24fps progressive) and then never thought about going to interlaced.
I did this because ConvertXtoDVD did not correctly go to 25 fps progressive, which gave me the impression that the reduction from 50fps to 25fps was just too much.
I wonder what went wrong in that conversion process.

[boulder]

I went through the ConvertXtoDVD converted one with Videoredo TV Suite, and found that frames go like this :

1 2 3 4 5 5 5 6 7 8 9 9 9 10 11 12 13 13 13 14 15 16 17 17 17

So this means, that the first 4 frames are different, and then I get three times the same frame, and from that moment on it changes to a pattern of 3 different frames and then one frame that gets repeated 3 times.
Of course this gives you very jerky movements.
I wonder why the program converst 50fps to 25fps like that.

[noemi7]

Canopus Pro Coder 3 does excellent job but it's not free. I made several conversions to SD from Arte HD, Einsfestival HD, and Astra HD broadcasts: I used to demux .ts in TSMuxer, and convert video only. Original MP2 or AC3 audio when muxed to DVD is in sync.

I tried also TMPGEnc Xpress 4 but is terribly slow and often fails with conversion.

[jagabo]

I went through the ConvertXtoDVD converted one with Videoredo TV Suite, and found that frames go like this :

1 2 3 4 5 5 5 6 7 8 9 9 9 10 11 12 13 13 13 14 15 16 17 17 17

I noticed that in the converted file. I have no idea how they came up with it!

[boulder]

I noticed that the version of ConvertXtoDVD I was using was already quite old, so I tried it with the latest version.
This time the video was fluent, but audio and video were out of sync.