Problems converting a PAL dvd using a guide from this site

[presideo]

hey...I am converting a dvd using this guide:

http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/index.html#Tools

I am doing the PAL (Video) DVD (25i fps)to NTSC DVD (29.97i fps) conversion.

I have done these steps:

Create and open a new text file with an AVS extension (to be used with AVISynth), using your favorite text editor (like Notepad).
Add the following lines, filling in the location and filename of the file you created above:
LoadPlugin("MPEG2DEC.dll")
LoadPlugin("SmoothDeinterlacer.dll")
MPEG2Source("DRIVE:\PATH\VTS_xx_x.d2v")
SmoothDeinterlace(doublerate=true)
LanczosResize(720,480)
ChangeFPS(59.94) # or ConvertFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4,1,2)
Weave()
ConvertToRGB()
Save the AVS file.

I am at this step now:

Load the AVS file into TMPGEnc as the "Video Source."

Only problem is when I load the .avs file it told me to create into TMPGnc as the "Video Source" it tells me that it can't read the file. Am I mising something? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!


presideo

[Tommyknocker]

I found that AVSGEN has taken most of the guesswork out of AviSynth scripting. Click here if you want it.

[FulciLives]

You need to install AviSynth version 2.08
You can get it from the DOWNLOADS section of the doom9 website.

Also make sure you put both MPEG2DEC.DLL and SMOOTHDEINTERLACER.DLL in your WINDOWS SYSTEM directory.

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\

My guess is you are having trouble because you don't have the correct version of AviSynth correctly installed.

I have used this AviSynth AVS script myself and it works great. I do have a few things that I do differently though.

1.) I use RGB color space in DVD2AVI and set YUV -> RGB to TV SCALE
2.) If you do step 1 then you don't need the final line in the AVS script
3.) Change the line about the FPS to simply read THIS way:
ChangeFPS(59.94)

So now your new AviSynth AVS script should look like this:

LoadPlugin("MPEG2DEC.dll") 
LoadPlugin("SmoothDeinterlacer.dll") 
MPEG2Source("DRIVE:\PATH\VTS_xx_x.d2v") 
SmoothDeinterlace(doublerate=true)
LanczosResize(720,480)
ChangeFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4,1,2)
Weave()

Please note that you need to enter the proper DIR PATH of your D2V project file. Otherwise you do not need to adjust anything else in the AviSynth AVS script as shown above.

About the audio. Please note that when you use this method the new NTSC MPEG-2 file you create will match (synch) with the original audio file. So you can use the AC-3 audio track that DVD2AVI demuxed for you. However, if the original AC-3 audio track has a delay value otherthan "0" (ZERO) then you need to adjust it to be "0". This can be done very easily using a program called AC3DELAY. I think I downloaded AC3DELAY from the doom9 website but it might also be here on this website under the TOOLS section.

You are now ready to author with your new M2V video file and your AC-3 audio file. If you are using an authoring program that does NOT accept ELEMENTRY streams then you can use the MPEG TOOLS section in TMPGEnc to MULTIPLEX the M2V and AC-3 into a single MPEG file such as MYMOVIE.MPG

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
You posted this question twice in two different forum groups (in this website). Please don't do that again. It is called cross-posting and it could get you in trouble.

[Neishaverse]

I have been doing this very same conversion for the past 2 weeks.
I don't know if it's my computer, or the what, but I feel TMPGEnc doesn’t do a very good job going from PAL to NTSC.
I encoded the same clip with and without 3:2 Pulldown, do not frame rate change.
And the video is always jerky & jumpy during scene changes or fast motion.
I feel like I have epilepsy when I watch it.

The only 100% flawless way I have been able to convert PAL to NTSC (And vice versa) where the video is always smooth and the Audio is always perfectly lined up is with Vegas. Vegas takes a long time, but the results are perfect! Everything is in perfect synch and the final duration time is exactly the same as the original.

Yes it took 5 hours on my fastest computer to convert a 30minute TV show.

However the Audio & video were perfectly lined up, and the video was as smooth and clear as the original.

The only bad part is that Vegas won’t open an AC3 file. If you’re only working with LPCM or MPEG audio, then Vegas does everything great.
If your video is a *.m2v file Vegas won’t open it until you use TMPGEnc to multiplex it as a *.mpg file. I tried to just change the filename from m2v to mpg, but Vegas still wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Vegas will also accept VOBs, but is very touchy about them. I was able to just drag & Drop a few VOB files right to the Vegas timeline with no problems at all. Some VOB files didn’t fully open in Vegas (only the first chapter of the VOB) in those situations, I use TMPGEnc to multiplex the VOB into a new *.mpg file. Because Vegas can’t work with Dolby Audio you will only open the video from the VOB. I wish Vegas could open Dolby files; it has the ability to save audio in Dolby.
My original PAL DVD had ac3 sound, and because Vegas converts the video while keeping the same duration, I didn’t need to alter the originally ac3 file at all.
Just as an extra safety step I rendered a new NTSC AVI before I encoded it for DVD.

Barney.

[FulciLives]

The AviSynth version 2.08 AVS script I provided works extremely well. I have had no problems using this. The video is always smooth without any stuttering. It works like a charm

Kudos to Xeesdeeni for figuring this out

Some pointers in using this script:

When you load it into TMPGEnc it will correctly set the video as INTERLACED and don't worry about the FIELD ORDER. In fact everything should be set up correctly about the VIDEO SOURCE except for some reason TMPGEnc will say it is NTSC 525 Lines (704x480)
I simply change it to the NSTC 525 Lines 4:3 setting (or the 16x9 setting).

Otherthan that you just need to make the "normal" changes in TMPGEnc (such as selecting your settings for MOTION SEARCH PRECISION, DC COMPONENT PRECISION, BITRATE, etc.).

Again, as I said before, the new NTSC video will perfectly match (synch up) to the original AC-3 audio file from the PAL source. You simply need to adjust the DELAY VALUE to "0" (as in ZERO) if the AC-3 has a DELAY VALUE different from "0"

Please note that this method will work with both INTERLACED and PROGRESSIVE 25fps PAL sources. Either way you will end up with a high quality INTERLACED 29.97fps NTSC video. It will be INTERLACED so it may look ugly on your computer montior (since computer monitors are PROGRESSIVE) but it will look fine on any normal INTERLACTED NTSC TELEVISION.

However, there is another method that will produce a 23.976fps PROGRESSIVE NTSC video. This method will ONLY work correctly with a PROGRESSIVE 25fps PAL source.

In this case use the following AviSynth AVS script:

LoadPlugin("mpeg2dec.dll")
mpeg2source("D:\MOVIE\VIDEO_TS\movie.d2v")
LanczosResize(720,480)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)

Again the only change you need to make is to change the DIR PATH to your DVD2AVI D2V project file. Also adjust the DIR PATH to your MPEG2DEC.DLL file but you can leave it as is if you put the MPEG2DEC.DLL file in your windows system directory.

Now when you load this into TMPGEnc it will set everything about the source correctly including setting it as NON-INTERLACED with 3:2 PULLDOWN but as in my other example you will need to change the NTSC 525 Lines (704x480) setting to NTSC 525 Lines 4:3 (or 16:9 depending on the source).

Last but not least you WILL NEED to change the original PAL audio. You can use BeSweet to do this. Make sure you use the newest BETA versions of BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI as the current STABLE versions don't work correctly when using the built-in PRE-SET template for PAL (25fps) to NTSC (23.976fps) setting.

Now you can convert a 5.1 AC-3 to a new 5.1 AC-3 and you can convert a 2.0 AC-3 to a new 2.0 AC-3 but some DVD players will have trouble playing back the new 2.0 AC-3 file (no problems for some reason if you are going from 5.1 AC-3 to 5.1 AC-3). The 2.0 AC-3 "problem" will be stuttering playback that may even "hang up" the DVD player. Thankfully this "bug" seems to only be with mostly PIONEER players. In other words very few model/makes of DVD players (other than PIONEER) will have problems. The work around is to use BeSweet to create a new WAV file to match the video file (using the PAL to NTSC frame rate PRE-SET setting). You can then convert the new WAV file with TMPGEnc to either MP2 sound or LPCM WAV format for the DVD. If you have access to another AC-3 encoder (not BeSweet) then you can convert the WAV back into AC-3 using that other AC-3 encoder. However BeSweet is the ONLY freeware AC-3 encoder so most people with PIONEER players usually end up doing the 2.0 AC-3 to STEREO WAV to STEREO MP2 conversion. I have a couple PIONEER players so I use BeSweet to create a new WAV from the 2.0 AC-3 then re-encode the WAV into AC-3 with another AC-3 encoder that I am lucky enough to have

Good Luck

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

*** EDIT ***
Please note that when I load these AviSynth version 2.08 AVS scripts into TMPGEnc I use the PROJECT WIZARD. That seems to be the best way to get the VIDEO SOURCE settings to be (mostly) correct. If you don't want to process the audio you can always STOP the encoding once it begins and SELECT "ES VIDEO ONLY" then restart the ENCODING. This will keep all of your settings from the PROJECT WIZARD but start a new M2V video only encoding session (it will start from the very beginning of the video file). Don't forget to delete the audio file it started to create the first time around!

[presideo]

Thanks for all the suggestions!!! And sorry for the Double posting I will be more aware of that in the future.

I think I got it all sorted. I had placed the .dll files in my system32 directory. I copied them to my system directory and all was good. I am encoding now, taking forever though...gonna have to play with the settings a bit.

Only one wierd thing is happening. The source is 16:9...and when I put 16:9 in TMGEnc it clips the video on the sides and squashes the video. I set it to 4:3 and the video looks right but it has a small black border around the entire perimeter. Is this normal?

presideo

[presideo]

how long should a conversion take? I am doing a 1:40 min movie(PAL to NTSC thing in TMPGEnc with an AVISynth script) and it says 10 hours!!! is that normal?

[FulciLives]

Thanks for all the suggestions!!! And sorry for the Double posting I will be more aware of that in the future.

I think I got it all sorted. I had placed the .dll files in my system32 directory. I copied them to my system directory and all was good. I am encoding now, taking forever though...gonna have to play with the settings a bit.

Only one wierd thing is happening. The source is 16:9...and when I put 16:9 in TMGEnc it clips the video on the sides and squashes the video. I set it to 4:3 and the video looks right but it has a small black border around the entire perimeter. Is this normal?

presideo

Try using FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO) or FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO 2). Please note that a 16:9 video will look stretched on a 4:3 monitor ... but the DVD will resize it correctly when you do your authoring. TMPGEnc should not clip the sides and or the top/bottom but often times you may get a bit of a black borner (especially on the sides). That border is normal ... you won't see it on a TV because all TVs have OVERSCAN which clips off a bit from all 4 sides of the image. That is normal.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

how long should a conversion take? I am doing a 1:40 min movie(PAL to NTSC thing in TMPGEnc with an AVISynth script) and it says 10 hours!!! is that normal?

MPEG-2 encoding with TMPGEnc is slow. Some other MPEG-2 encoders are a bit faster but it really isn't so much TMPGEnc's fault. That's just the nature of the beast.

Granted I have a SLOW system by today's standards but it's not uncommon for a TMPGEnc 2-Pass VBR encoding to take 20 or 30 hours plus on my system.

Consider yourself lucky that it is only going to take 10 hours!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[rockstar70]

In following the conversions process and AVS Script listed in this thread, I've run in to a small issue. SmoothDeinterlacer.dll doesn't appear to work with AVISynth 2.5. Is there a version of SmoothDeinterlacer.dll that works with AVISynth 2.5? Or do I need to install AVISynth 2.08?

When I run my AVS Script in TMPEGEnc I get the following error:

"Plugin SmoothDeinterlacer.dll is not an AVISynth 2.5 plugin."

Here's my Script:

LoadPlugin("SmoothDeinterlacer.dll") 
MPEG2Source("C:\OASIS_SONGBIRD\VIDEO_TS\SONGBIRD.d2v")
SmoothDeinterlace(doublerate=true) 
LanczosResize(720,480) 
ChangeFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields() 
SelectEvery(4,1,2) 
Weave() 
ConvertToRGB()

Thanks,

JJ

[FulciLives]

In following the conversions process and AVS Script listed in this thread, I've run in to a small issue. SmoothDeinterlacer.dll doesn't appear to work with AVISynth 2.5. Is there a version of SmoothDeinterlacer.dll that works with AVISynth 2.5? Or do I need to install AVISynth 2.08?

When I run my AVS Script in TMPEGEnc I get the following error:

"Plugin SmoothDeinterlacer.dll is not an AVISynth 2.5 plugin."

Here's my Script:

LoadPlugin("SmoothDeinterlacer.dll") 
MPEG2Source("C:\OASIS_SONGBIRD\VIDEO_TS\SONGBIRD.d2v")
SmoothDeinterlace(doublerate=true) 
LanczosResize(720,480) 
ChangeFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields() 
SelectEvery(4,1,2) 
Weave() 
ConvertToRGB()

Thanks,

JJ

Rockstar70 ...

SmoothDeinterlacer will only work with AviSynth Version 2.08 (which can be downloaded from the doom9 website). I've heard that there is a version of SmoothDeinterlacer that works with the newer 2.5x versions of AviSynth but I've never used that version of SmoothDeinterlacer nor do I know where to get it.

Also your script is missing the LoadPlugin for MPEG2DEC.DLL
Also please note that you don't need the convert to RGB thing if you use the RGB mode in DVD2AVI while creating your project (d2v) file.

Good Luck

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

*** EDIT ***
Made some edits as a few things might have been unclear. First wrote this when I was half asleep hehehe