How can I get TMPGEnc to ignore Pulldown flags in source??

[LisaB]

I'm trying to letterbox a Film SVCD using TMPGEnc.

In this case, both source and output are Film SVCD.

However, when I load the source, TMPGEnc identifies it as an interlaced 29.97 source! And, since I want to convert to a Film SVCD, it turns on the IVTC filter...yuck! It's true that I can manually set the source type to progressive, and I can just deactivate the IVTC -- but then I bet TMPGEnc would do a frame rate conversion on the telecined (via pulldown flags) frames of the source...that would be an unnecessary loss of quality. I can also leave the settings as is, but then TMPGEnc would waste a lot of time doing an unnecessary IVTC, when the film frames it is trying to get back are right there in the source file....and what if the IVTC wasn't perfect...then I'd have quality loss too.

How can I get TMPGEnc to see the source for what it is? Do I have to use an external program to first strip the 3:2 Pulldown flags from the source? If so, what program do you suggest?

[adam]

Treat an ntscfilm encoded SVCDs just like an NTSC DVD, which is also encoded in ntscfilm with pulldown flags.

Use DVD2AVI and turn on forced film. Then use the resulting d2v file as your video source in TMPGenc. This will bypass the pulldown flags and give you the 23.976fps progressive source as it is stored on the disk.

You should always frameserve mpeg2 sources to TMPGenc via dvd2avi, even if you do not need its forced film option. Loading it directly accesses the file through direct show filters, which can cause lots of problems.

[LisaB]

Thanks Adam. I have not been using DVD2AVI for anything. I know how to frameserve with VDub and with AVISynth, but I don't have a clue about DVD2AVI. Is there a guide which will give me the basics?

Also, I was concerned about the filters...which you mention. I had read in other threads about how some MPEG2 codecs (like the PowerDVD one) will automatically deinterlace, etc...Does that mean the DVD2AVI won't use my installed MPEG2 codec?? Just as a note, I am using the InterVideo WinDVD codec for MPEG2. Is there somewhere I can configure my MPEG2 codec?

It seems to me that it would be safest to just strip the Pulldown flags...then I wouldn't have to worry about a codec/filter deinterlacing the interlaced frames.

[adam]

Dvd2avi frameserves through VFAPI. It will not be affected by any mpeg2 decoder you have installed. Its main purpose is to frameserve mpeg2 files and allow you to bypass the pulldown flags. If you wanted to strip the pulldown flags from the stream you could just use pulldown.exe, but this is unnecessary since you need to use dvd2avi to frameserve anyway.

Like I said, treat your svcd just like a DVD. Follow any one of the dvd to SVCD conversion guides to your left. The process will be identical. This will show you how to use dvd2avi.

[LisaB]

I'm using DVD2AVI now. I can't believe I used to just load the MPEG2's right into TMPGEnc...dumb, dumb, dumb! Okay, but a few questions:

1. as an alternative to using DVD2AVI, could I also use the mpeg2dec.dll plugin for AVISynth and the Mpeg2Source (or MpegSource) command? (I'm talking about cases where I don't have to force film) I tried to do this, using a script like:

LoadPlugin("mpeg2dec.dll")
MpegSource("clip.mpg)

and then load the AVS into TMPGenc.....but it didn't work. I'm using AVISynth 2.51 and TMPGEnc Plus 2.59.47.155.

I would think this would be a good choice for those clips where I need to do processing in AVISynth. I could avoid the step of making a d2v in DVD2AVI. Well, I don't know what mpeg2dec does, but it seems it isn't a decoder at all, since it only accepts d2v's as a parameter for MpegSource, in which case it is DVD2AVI that does the decoding...right?

2. Is there something like DVD2AVI for MPEG1? I would also like to process MPEG1 without using DirectShow filters. I realize there is no need to force film with MPEG1, but as in the case with MPEG2, I worry that if I just use the DirectShowSource command in AVISynth, that the filter will mess around with my frames (e.g., deinterlace).