I love framserving...now

[Totta]

I just recently discovered the powers of frameserving and frankly, I couldn't have done my latest project without it. Let me tell you about it:

Source: DVD with the movie Stripes in NTSC reg 1, no swedish subs.
Target: SVCD in PAL with permanent swedish subs.

Preparations:
* Rip the DVD including the english subtitles
* Translate the subtitles into swedish (easier than I thought)

And here comes the frameserving:
* DVD2AVI and VFAPI to create a pseudo-AVI from the VOB-files
* Load that AVI into an AVISynth-script which converts from NTSC to PAL, resizes, deinterlaces and adds the subtitles using VOBSUB.
* Load that AVS-file into VirtualDub and cut the movie in halfs (first half and second half)
* Start VirtualDub's frameserver and create the VDR-file
* Use the program Link2 to wrap the VDR-file into an AVI
* Encode to SVCD using Procoder and the wrapped AVI.

The reason for using virtualdub is that I wanted to encode the second half of the film only since the first half was already done. VirtualDub is good on marking which part to encode.

The reason for using Link2 is that procoder can't read AVS or VDR-files.

I know that I probably could have done this in less steps instead of three frameservers but since I didn't loose any speed going through the frameserving process I might as well have fun too

So the complete sequence of steps is:
VOB->D2V->AVI->AVS->VDR->AVI->MPG

No temporary files where used and the pseudo-files only took up about 1 MB of space on the HD. The complete movie took about 29 hours to encode on a 2GHz-machine. The conversion from NTSC to PAL was the main reason for the slow process. Without it, the movie was encoded in about 8 hours.

And the programs used is:
* DVDDecrypter (To rip the DVD and english subs)
* Subtitle Workshop (To translate and sync the subs)
* VobSub (To merge and position the subs)
* DVD2AVI (To create the D2V-file)
* VFAPI (To wrap D2V into an AVI)
* AVISynth (To convert NTSC->PAL and add the subs)
* VirtualDub (To determine what parts of the movie to encode)
* Link2 (To wrap virtualdub's frameserverfile to an AVI)
* Procoder (To encode into SVCD)
* VCDEasy to create the chapters on the SVCD
* Nero (To burn the CD)

Have fun yourselves. I know I had
/Totta

[Ejoc]

Now that you got that down, give AVISynth a try. It cut my encoding down ALOT.

VOB->DVD2AVI->VOBSUB->AVISYNTH->TMPGENC->VCDEASY

on my 1.6gHz I can encode a 2 hour movie w/ subtitles in 4 Hours w/ CBR or 7-8Hours w/ 2Pass VBR

But yea Frameserving rocks

[Totta]

But I did.

AVISynth was maybe the most important part of my encoding process. It was responsible for the conversion from NTSC to PAL which was a nessessity since my TV doesn't display NTSC well.

Weather using TMPGEnc or Procoder to create the SVCD-MPG... well, I've paid for Procoder so I kind of like to use it Besides, I like it's results.

/Totta

[Ejoc]

doh! I missed that part. Seemed like a really long encode time, but if it works and you're happy I guess thats all that matters

[Totta]

Well, I am very happy with the results but the real slowdown was the AVISynth-script. Especially ConvertFPS but I needed that one so I had to live with the slow process.

--------------------
LoadPlugin("c:\program\dvd\avisynth 2.5\plugins\SmoothDeinterlacer.dll")
AviFileSource("c:\film\stripes\stripes_lb3.avi")
Crop(10, 8, -8, -8)
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)
ConvertFPS(25)
SmoothDeinterlace(doublerate=false)
LanczosResize(720,576)
Weave()
ConvertToRGB()
LoadPlugin("c:\program\dvd\avisynth 2.5\loadpluginex.dll")
LoadPlugin("c:\program\dvd\vobsub\textsub.vdf")
TextSub("c:\film\stripes\stripes_new.srt")
----------------------

[wway]

...
And here comes the frameserving:
* DVD2AVI and VFAPI to create a pseudo-AVI from the VOB-files
* Load that AVI into an AVISynth-script which converts from NTSC to PAL, resizes, deinterlaces and adds the subtitles using VOBSUB.
* Load that AVS-file into VirtualDub and cut the movie in halfs (first half and second half)
* Start VirtualDub's frameserver and create the VDR-file
* Use the program Link2 to wrap the VDR-file into an AVI
* Encode to SVCD using Procoder and the wrapped AVI.
...
/Totta

I always save the VirtualDub VDR file with an AVI extension (ie. Movie.AVI not Movie.VDR). This works with TMPGEnc. If it works with Procoder, you can eliminate a step.

wway

[Totta]

Nope. It didn't. That's why the wrapper Link2.exe were used.
Procoder 1.01 can't read AVS or VDR-files, regardless of the extension used.

Newer versions of Procoder can do that though.

[binks120]

ok fellas i got lost in there a bit i too use procoder because its faultless on ntsc to pal convertions but for dvd rips i still use tmpge cos i cant frameserve
so please tell me what i need to do to frameserve procoder cos i anit paying again for a new version its a bit exspensive for that

[Mrsash]

Hi guys can you give me a link to the guide for this process coz i am trying to make dvd-vcds with a source ntsc and i want make it pal

thanks

[SLK001]

You probably didn't need to use any of the deinterlacing commands. Just use the FORCE FILM option in DVD2AVI.

[poopyhead]

for DVD rips...just use dvd2avi to frameserve into tmpgenc

dvd2avi is free and easy to use.

----------

good reason to NOT load the vobs directly into tmpgenc...

by loading vobs directly, you will not be able to encode your output video as 23.976 fps + 3:2 pulldown. your output video will have to be 29.97 fps.

this is not good if your source is FILM, progressive. with dvd2avi, you can enable FORCED FILM option with progressive sources that allows you to encode in tmpgenc as 23.976 fps.

stating the obvious: given same bitrate, with less frames to encode, each frame gets more bitrate and, thus, higher video quality. with 3:2 pulldown, 23.976 fps will be played back as 29.97 fps...so no jerkiness.

[Mrsash]

Well my source is 29FPS ntsc and interlaced as dvd2avi tells me. I did the usual settings which i normaly use for 25fps in tmpeg for a film, progressive movie i had and used the pal vcd template in tmpeg and it turned out fine. while the earlier one had interlacing artifacts when the action started so my question is what setings i should use coz the guide at doom for converting from all ntsc to pal is non exsistant i think not sure. and the one which is to convert dvd to avi is a bit confusing because it has a lot of "if's". You know what i am saying like if this is not your video type we will look at it later etc