DVDx and audio sync problems

[Bstansbury]

From all the posts I've read on this forum, not very many people think that much of DVDx. I guess it must be the MPEG encoder used in it, other than that the software seem to function good enough. I had one problem with it and a SVCD I made for a DVD movie ripped with DVDdecrypter. The SVCD plays in my APEX 1500 but the audio is "Chopped" up and drops out here and there. The guide that came with the DVDx package did not make of point of selecting "Audio Sync..." so I left it off. So much for that 3 1/2 hours. The sVCD plays just fine in POwerDVD, good video, good audio, Almost as good as the VOB's. The other thing is,.... this is a standard movie,... and has to be 23.97 fps so I selected 23.97 NTSC. However, when I dumped it into Nero, it flagged it as "Non-compliant SVCD", because it was at 23.97 fps.

Can anyone tell me if one of these settings is what caused the chopped up audio,... and why would it play fine in PowerDVD?

Also, if you don't like DVDx, what would you recommmed. I've tried TMPGen and the encode time estimated was 19 hours. I don't have that much time to waste.

Thanks in advance.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I had the same problem with DVDx,here's how I corrected it:
1.select "Audio/Video synch."
2.select the correct iDCT and Resize settings for your CPU(i.e MMX,SSE/3D Now,SSE2).
3.In "Output Frame rate" select 29.97(NTSC)that way it does a 3:2 pulldown on 23.97HZ film.
4.let DVDx rip the DVD instead of DVD Decryter(I would get "MPEG-2 sample" error).
PowerDVD auto. selects the correct settings for proper playback.

[Bstansbury]

Thanks a million, Wiseguy,... Can you tell me if you like the output Quality of DVDx. Also, if I step down the audio rate I can use more video bit rate, but doing that creates a non-compliant SVCD. Both DVDx and Nero will complain about it.

I've also seen a few post on the forum where people are saying that SVCD don't work in that many DVD players. What is your experience.

[MOVIEGEEK]

A few people complain about DVDx 2.0 and prefer ver.1.7 but I encountered similar problems with both until I found what worked best with my system.The only problem is using some DVD's the picture is flattened,even though I select no Zoom or 16:9.
I like the output quality of DVDx,when I choose 352x240,MPEG-1 and 3000kbps I swear none of my friends or family can tell the differance from the original(I can though).DVDx will set a VCD flag on all bitrates which Nero accepts,not sure about SVCD.
I don't use DVD Decrypter anymore to make a DVD I use DVDx(SVCD)and output to 720x480 and 3000kbps,384kbps audio,drop it in Sonic MyDVD,select medium quality(only PCM audio).
One other thing DVDx encodes 720x480 very slowly:4fps
352x240:17fps

[Bstansbury]

Moviegeek,.. So far I've had the same experience with DVDx. My picture is also "Flattened". My selection for output Zoom, was None, but it is really "None(4:3 letterbox). So maybe this selection is wrong. You mentioned that you also tried 16:9 and did that come out compressed.

I'm confused,.. The input movie is clearly 16:9, and since it's source is clealy Movie, that means it was 23.97 fps. So I continued to set the output as 23.97 NTSC since it is going to play in a DVD player. Just to check on what the difference was, I selected 29.97 NTSC, and immediately got an error saying the "Input frame rate and the output frame rate are different, there will do 3:2 pull down. Well I thought the DVD player would do the pull down and left the output to 23.07 NTSC. When I load it into Nero and it does the analysis, it again told me the .mpg was non-conpliant because the frame was was 23.97, not 29.97.

I know that pull down has to be done, but it seems like there would be a lot of encoding errors in MPG if this is done before encoding. My question is, when and where is the right time to select 29.97 fps.

Also, in DVDx there are 5 options in the picture "Zoom" window. What is the correct one for standard 16:9 output. Just for information, I tried "None", and I've just tried "Medium 4/3", and I like the look but things are still out of proportion. If you take a Zoom, there must be a way to hold the aspect ratio the same so people stay the same height and width.

My next goal is to try DVD2SVCD.

[Bstansbury]

Moviegeek,.

In looking through some other post, I found a link that I believe helps clear up the problem we've had with "Flattened" video. It has to do with the resolution of SVCD which is 480x480. It won't match the aspect ration of either 16:9 movie or the need for 4:3 of TV. Some DVD players that "Support" SVCD have the ability to detect sVCD and fix this problem before display. Here is the link,... and if you read anything more out of this, please let me know. While my DVD player will play VCD's and the spec on it says it will support them,... It doesn't know anything about SVCD, put will play them,... and of course the picture size is "Flattened" . This is a APEX1500.

I also have a Mintek 1600, and the spec on it doesnt' say anything about VCD's or SVCD,... just DVD , CD, CD-RW, and Kodac pictures. It says it only supports CD and CD-RW for audio. I just got it because the other web sites give it a good rating playing all kinds of DVD media, and that is what I was looking for,... but I also need it to play VCD and SVCD so I will have to do some testing tonight.

Hope this helps

[Bstansbury]

Well I got my audio sync problems fixed but I still can't get the settings correct in DVDx such that I get the correct aspect ratio out. There is really no way to tell what you have until you actually burn it and play it in a DVD player. It always seems to come out "Flattened". I'm using a movie called Blue Planet for IMAX, which is clearly 16:9. , but when it comes out the planets look like eggs.

Anyone know what the correct settings are for a 16:9 inside of DVDx.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Bstansbury,
In the Zoom box some DVD's I use None(Letterbox) and others I have to use Full(16:9/4:3)and the ones that use Full come out perfect,I think it has to do with the 3:2 pulldown.
I guess for a free program I can't complain and it beats using DVD Decrypter,ifoedit,Besweet,etc.

[Timster]

I think the reason some DVDs look flattened is because they are anamorphic. On these DVDS, try custom zoom settings, right click on the screen and enable 4.3 display and you'll see what you're actually getting. On these DVDs I usually set the zoom to medium and though they make look wierd on DVDx's screen, they actually look right when encoding. Try it.
Tim

[Bstansbury]

Thanks for the information. I will try these tips on the next convert.

MovieGeek,... Have you ever used DVD2AVI just to open your VOB files and preview them. It tells you all kinds of info about the STream and this may be a clue as to which ones need "Full", and which ones might work with 16:9/4:3. Just a thought.

I've seen allkinds of films in the preview and I did not feel I could trust the image size. It seems a lot of waste of time to have to record a small image and burn it and then play it through a DVD to find out if the image is correct. I'm going to try to find a way to sent a note to the DVDx web site and see if I can get some resonse.

[Sienna Lai]

Well I got my audio sync problems fixed but I still can't get the settings correct in DVDx such that I get the correct aspect ratio out. There is really no way to tell what you have until you actually burn it and play it in a DVD player. It always seems to come out "Flattened". I'm using a movie called Blue Planet for IMAX, which is clearly 16:9. , but when it comes out the planets look like eggs.

Anyone know what the correct settings are for a 16:9 inside of DVDx.

How did you get the audio sync corrected?

thx