1080p50/60 to DVD, correct method?

[Killer3737]

I have some footage from a modern HD camcorder that records in 1080p50, AVCHD format. As well as keeping an HD version, a DVD version is also required. What is the correct method of encoding this? Obviously I use whichever downscale filter but to get to 25fps is a simple SelectEven() all that I need?

When encoding with HCEnc for the interlacing options I choose progressive but TFF/BFF must be chosen, does it matter though since it is progressive? I went ahead and encoded the resulting file looked ok but Mediainfo said

Scan type                                : Progressive
Scan order                               : Top Field First

Which struck me as wrong. Is it?

[Skiller]

Not wrong, but SelectEven() for a 25p result is most likely undesireable for your 50p source footage. Unless maybe the camcorder was on a tripod filming a talking head you will find that dropping every other frame will make the video look stuttery and unpleasant to watch. Especially if you didn't pay attention to the shutter speed during filming.


So what I recommend is make a 25i DVD (50 fields per second, interlaced in 25 fps). Motion will be silk smooth, just like the source.

You will also need a vertical low-pass to avoid interline-twitter and jaggies.
Put this after your resize.

Blur(0, 0.7, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false)

AssumeTFF()
SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4,0,3).Weave()

(Better yet, post your entire script.)


In HCenc choose interlaced and TFF.

[LMotlow]

I have some footage from a modern HD camcorder that records in 1080p50, AVCHD format. As well as keeping an HD version, a DVD version is also required. What is the correct method of encoding this? Obviously I use whichever downscale filter but to get to 25fps is a simple SelectEven() all that I need?

When encoding with HCEnc for the interlacing options I choose progressive but TFF/BFF must be chosen, does it matter though since it is progressive? I went ahead and encoded the resulting file looked ok but Mediainfo said

Scan type                                : Progressive
Scan order                               : Top Field First

Which struck me as wrong. Is it?

Yes. Standard spec for PAL DVD is 720x576 interlaced. Dropping alternate frames can give poor motion handling. Also, 25p for PAL is OK for some systems, but many external players won't handle it correctly.

You can keep the HD version as-is for PC or external media/storage playback, but if you want authored BluRay or AVCHD disc 1080p @50fps is not valid. Many players will choke on 1080p/50. If you want per-spec HD standard authored BD/AVCHD disk, you can resize 1080p/50 to 1280x720p @ 50fps. https://www.videohelp.com/hd#tech

[Killer3737]

Not wrong, but SelectEven() for a 25p result is most likely undesireable for your 50p source footage. Unless maybe the camcorder was on a tripod filming a talking head you will find that dropping every other frame will make the video look stuttery and unpleasant to watch. Especially if you didn't pay attention to the shutter speed during filming.


So what I recommend is make a 25i DVD (50 fields per second, interlaced in 25 fps). Motion will be silk smooth, just like the source.

You will also need a vertical low-pass to avoid interline-twitter and jaggies.
Put this after your resize.

Blur(0, 0.7, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false)

AssumeTFF()
SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4,0,3).Weave()

(Better yet, post your entire script.)


In HCenc choose interlaced and TFF.

Ok thanks a lot. Well my original script was just:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\ffms2.dll")
FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv")
Spline36Resize(720,576)
SelectEven()

So I just tried:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth\plugins\ffms2.dll")
FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv")
Spline36Resize(720,576)
Blur(0, 0.7, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false)
AssumeTFF()
SeparateFields().SelectEvery(4,0,3).Weave()

..and the resulting file was full of combing artifacts.

[Skiller]

Yes. Standard spec for PAL DVD is 720x576 interlaced. Also, 25p for PAL is OK for some systems, but many external players won't handle it correctly.

For DVD 25p is perfectly fine and fully compliant with Zig-Zag scan type and both progressive flags set (while TFF flag must be false, otherwise it's not compliant).

It's just that I wouldn't recommend a progressive DVD in this case because of the motion.

and the resulting file was full of combing artifacts.

Well, of course, it's interlaced and must be deinterlaced upon playback. No problem at all if you burn it to DVD and play it on a hardware player.

[Killer3737]

Yes. Standard spec for PAL DVD is 720x576 interlaced. Also, 25p for PAL is OK for some systems, but many external players won't handle it correctly.

For DVD 25p is perfectly fine and fully compliant with Zig-Zag scan type and both progressive flags set (while TFF flag must be false, otherwise it's not compliant).

It's just that I wouldn't recommend a progressive DVD in this case because of the motion.

and the resulting file was full of combing artifacts.

Well, of course, it's interlaced and must be deinterlaced upon playback. No problem at all if you burn it to DVD and play it on a hardware player.

No I meant visible after de-interlacing but no worries, I did it again and they're gone. Must've not saved the right script file the first time.

[Killer3737]

I got around to doing the full encode today and whilst visually it's good there is a problem that I noticed when I muxed the original audio and encoded video and they gradually fell out of sync. Checked the original file and it is 411,346 frames long. The output M2V should obviously be half, which would be 205,673, but it is actually 205,640. So 33/66 short.

Any idea what may have caused the dropped frames? Errors in the file, or the way I loaded the clip? I could probably just adjust the length of the audio and not notice since it'll only be around 1.3 seconds on the 2hr20 video but I'd like to know if the conversion could've been more accurate.

[Skiller]

What does the info print on the video when you load your video with the following short script?

FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv")
info()

[Killer3737]

It says this:



I tried it with DSS2, got this:



So yeah, I guess ffms2 is the problem?

[Skiller]

Yeah, ffms2 is the problem. It doesn't get the frame rate right and misses some frames. I've had problems like this before with it. Actually ffms2 hardly ever gets the frame rate right in my experience.

[Killer3737]

Yeah I've certainly had varying success with it. To be honest I never know the best way to load a lot of clips, especially H.264 variations. I mean will DSS2 be ok here? What about original directshowsource? Some H.264 streams are ok run through DGAVCIndex and loaded that way, a lot aren't as it's not updated any more.

Is there a recommendation list, what is preferred to load various different formats? Interlaced H.264, Prog H.264, MBAFF H.264? MPEG2 is usually simpler, most can be run through DGIndex, but not all.

[Cornucopia]

Changing

FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv")

to

FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv")
AssumeFPS("pal_double")

Might fix it & lock it in to what you need.

Scott

[jagabo]

Try

FFMPEGSource2("Master2015-06-14.mkv", fpsnum=50 fpsden=1)