converting ntsc svcd to pal svcd

[ilscuro]

Hello i need to convert ntsc svcd to pal svcd the reason being that i then copy to vcr and ntsc copied films wont play on the majority of vcr,s in the uk.
i have successfuly converted vcd,s but with svcd i always get audio sync problems hope someone can help









You reap what you sew

[z0nk]

well i have the exact same problem
and i cant say ive met anyone who's managed to successfully convert mpeg2 29fps to mpeg2 25fps without any sync problems

[Faceman101]

are you saying playing a NTSC SVCD from your DVD Player and then recording to VHS, you encounter problems? that doesn't sound right. i have played many PAL SVCDs from my DVD Player and recorded them on VHS for friends. does your DVD Player support NTSC playback? did you try recording any of them to VHS as a test?

[Olli]

This is my own guide that I have put together and I have no sync problems when using this to do framerate converison ...

Please note that this is my own guide and there are other applications that can be used in place of the ones I use ....

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NTSC to PAL conversion

1)Decompress the avi 1st using avi2vcd's decompress utility (I found this sometimes aavoids error messages I got when attempting to extract audio from an uncompressed avi using Virtualdub) THIS MAY NOT BE REQUIRED

2) Extract the audio to wav using Virtual Dub
Go to the audio menu and set audio to full processing mode.
Then select File -> Save WAV to save the audio track as an uncompressed WAV file to your harddisk

3) Then find out the 25 fps video length of the decompressed avi using avifrate - change fps to 25 then write down the new length of the film exactly (to 3dp) in seconds .

4) Use "avi frame rate changer" to change the frame rate header of the decompressed avi to 25fps and execute the change.

5) Use "cool edit" to stretch the audio to the exact length of the video file as found in (2)

In the program click file>open and open the wav you created earlier.
Wait for it to finish then click 'Edit' and untick 'enable undo' then click 'select entire wave' next click 'Transform' and choose 'Time/pitch' from the drop down menu then click 'stretch'
In this box tick the following options:

Low precision
Time stretch (preserves pitch)
In the length box enter the exact length of the decompressed avi in seconds as found in (2)
Pitch and time settings - check choose appropriate default

When its finished (it spends a long time on 99% before completing) click 'file' then 'save as' and name and save your file as a wav.
This should give you a Wav file which will be the same length as the decompressed AVI.

6) Then encode to XVCD template in TMPGenc specifying the decompressed avi that was changed to 25fps using avifrate as video source and the stretched wav as audio source - Note this will still use toolame and ssrc if they are specified as external tools in TMPGenc

[banjazzer]

I agree with Faceman101. If your DVD player will play the SVCD I don't see any problem recording directly to a PAL VCR. Have you actually tried it?

Olli
The source material is actually SVCD, not avi. Also, whilst your method is good for conversion between NTSC(film) and PAL, I think the framerate difference is too great between NTSC and PAL to give results that would be acceptable to a lot of people.

[z0nk]

are you saying playing a NTSC SVCD from your DVD Player and then recording to VHS, you encounter problems? that doesn't sound right. i have played many PAL SVCDs from my DVD Player and recorded them on VHS for friends. does your DVD Player support NTSC playback? did you try recording any of them to VHS as a test?

with me, after i record the ntsc svcd to pal vhs it does play, but the recorded vhs has no sound and its in black and white

[banjazzer]

OK. First off, do you have alternative scart input/output sockets to try. Second, are you sure that all the pins in your scart lead are connected? Many UK leads don't have all pins connected, and this can lead to lack of colour with an NTSC source.

[ilscuro]

Faceman101 and banjazzer i will explain my problem again
when i copy ntsc svcd to my vcr i get lots of lines on playback because my vcr does not support ntsc playback all i want is a simple way to convert ntsc to pal, i can do vcd,s easy but svcd,s always result in sync problems
hope thats clearer this time








you reap what you sew

[banjazzer]

OK. The facts. There is no really satisfactory way for you to do this conversion, at least that I know of. You need to recode, which means a drop in quality for starters, although it may not be too noticeable. You also have to run 29.97fps through a PAL template, which means you are going to end up with a jerky video. If you still want to go ahead, then the procedure is similar to the SVCD to VCD conversion guide, except you will be using the SVCD template to recode.

[ilscuro]

ok thanks i had some limited success using canopus procoder but demo only encodes for 6 minutes












you reap what you sew

[ilscuro]

hey ive sorted it
this is what i did
extract yhe mpeg with isobuster then create a avi with dvd2avi(use force film for ntsc source) and vfapi
start up tmpgenc and start a new project load in the avi and the audio created by dvd2avi then the important bit i was missing is change field order to top field first A, and it works pal svcd from ntsc svcd source no sync problems, kin ace ime well chuffed






you reap what you sew

[MicoMan]

In the video setup menu you should have settings of NTSC,PAL,AUTO for your video output.

Set this to PAL and if you still can't record an NTSC SVCD then you DVD player is outputing a PAL 60 picture.

NTSC is 60HTZ and PAL is 50HTZ. A new PAL TV can display a PAL 60 picture but a VCR will not record it.

Most UK DVD players only convert NTSC to PAL 60 but some like the Mico, Dansai, Kiiro convert to PAL 50 so a UK VCR will record it.

May be easyer to get a new DVD player!

[ilscuro]

hey micoman read my previous post ive sorted it now it works 100%













you reap what you sew

[MicoMan]

It was more a reply to Faceman101

Just pointing out to other people as well as yourself you could save a lot of this sort of problem if people made sure they got a DVD player that outputs PAL 50

[Faceman101]

Microman thanks for clearing that up for me. I live in the US, so recording PAL footage onto NTSC VHS players is no problem. Did not know about the PAL 50, 60.