Bilestyle DVD --> SVCD process #2 ALMOST worked!

[rockinsage]

Bilestyle,

Got a question for you. I gave your #2 process a try since I've been having trouble with other simpler methods. This is the process where you use QT to export a DV stream. I'm trying to convert an NTSC 16:9 29.97 fps DVD to an SVCD. Good news is that I ended up with two awesome-quality mpg2 movies that fit on two CD's, and they were in sync! The problem is that the aspec ratio is off -- i.e. the people all look tall and skinny. I'm not sure at what point this occurred, but I think it was during the mediapipe step. To use your mediapipe arguements/parameters, these were the settings I had to use:

ppmtoy4m: -v 0 -S 420_mpeg2 -L -l t -F 600:20 -A 4:3
mpeg2enc: -v 0 -f 4 -F 4 -n n -a 2 -b 2500 -l 1 -r 16 -s -M 2

This corresonds to these settings:

Stream Type = SVCD, Frame Rate = NTSC VIDEO, Aspect Ratio = 4:3, BitRate = 2500, Interlace Mode = Interlaced Top, H/Quality Filter = OFF, Use vbr = OFF, Motion radius = 16, Min Gop Size = 12, Max Gop Size = 12, Reduction Factor 2x2 = 3, 4x4 = 2, Enable 3:2 Pulldown = OFF, Header At Every GOP = ON, Force BBP = OFF, Dual CPU = ON, No Dummy SVCD Scan Data = OFF, Force SVCD Horizontal 480 = OFF


Do I need to choose 16:9 as an aspect ratio instead of 4:3, and is that legal for an SVCD?

Why do you suggest to use Interlaced Top instead of Progressive for the Interlace Mode?

Also, I had one other problem, I think because the DVD is so large (over 4GB), that when I started doing the QuickTime steps it would get stuck on a certain frame. This came out in the final mpg's and seems to have been introduced during step 8 where you ADD the aiff to the muxed mpeg. Will ripping groups of chapters at a time help this, and will everything still be in sync?

Thanks...
rockinsage

[bilestyle]

you want to modify your process slightly to adjust for 16:9 aspect ratio input.. you want to choose 4:3 as your ratio, when scaling you want to scale to 480x360 instead of 480x480, and after the scale pipe add a black borders pipe and put 60 on top and 60 on bottom... that should solve your problem

[rockinsage]

Bilestyle,

Thanks, that seems to work very well. However, I've noticed that the resulting mpv is very dark. Anyone have any ideas on dark/bright correction when converting in mediapipe (or elsewhere)?

Thanks!
rockinsage

[bilestyle]

that question might be better suited at the mediapipe forums:

http://mediapipe.sourceforge.net/Forum/

maybe they can give u better help there.. my best GUESS would be the color LUT pipe, (thats just naming a pipeline off the top of my head) but i've never actually used it before so i couldn't be certain