Super Newb with Anime Fansub overscan issues.

[BccLooseCannon]

Hello everyone,

Im sure this type of question has been posted all around the site, but i can never seem to find enough of it to help me fix the problem. So i'll give you the rundown on what im doing here and maybe some kind soul would be willing to help me out here.

I am having that common anime fansub problem of overscan. I have heard of multiple solutions to fix this problem. I have learned that resizing the movie doesn't help, because it resized to fit the screen when play it. So someone gave the clever idea of adding a border to it so that gets cut off. Someone had recommended virtual dub. Here is my problem with that: When i encode with a border i get one of three problems, 1.) the animation gets all choppy and the quality gets completely ruined 2.) The sound gets thrown off with the video track and 3.) the file size is HUGE! like 30 gig huge.

Im also having some encoding issues too. each encoder i use leaves a huge water mark, increases the file size too much, and im apparently too stupid to figure out TMPG encoder. (the free trial is probably done by now anyway.)

Im running a indiDVD x8 dvd burner by TDK. and im using roxio easyDVD creator. (UGGG, i know, but i have no money to get a new one.)

Anyways, i got tons of fansubs to get off this thing, so if anyone is able to help. please let me know.

Cannon out

[Tommyknocker]

I see no reference to cropping. Use the Null Transform in Virtual Dub to chop off the part of the movie that shows overscan. Try Huffyuv as a codec, as it leaves no watermark.

As far as TMPGEnc is concerned, you can also crop with the Settings=>Advanced Tab=>Clip Frame (double click) function.

[andkiich]

Play the Fansub on the PC in a window with a software player. Overscan issue GONE!!!

[BccLooseCannon]

Oh wow. Play it in my PC? I never thought of that! I didn't think computers could do that sort of thing. Thanks for the help! you've been a great asset to me!

Now, to the fella who was nice enough to provide advice. do you have any tips for adding the border without sacrificing too much quality, keeping the audio in synch, and keeping the file size down? Thanks man!

[junkmalle]

Source video frame size? Codec? How much do you want to put on a DVD?

[BccLooseCannon]

I believe standardly its 480 x 640 (or vise versa, i don't totally remember.)

These are divx codec, but i have been converting them to MPEG2's, but the problem there is, stupid Easy DVD creator reconverts them anyways, which is HORRIBLY time consuming.

I can get about 4 episodes if i leave them alone, but if i drop the quality a little, i can probably get 5 or 6 on there.

When i attempt to add a border, i either resize them down both by 30 and then fill that space with the border. or i add 30 to each side without resizing the original. I do this in virtual dub but like i said, i lose quality, audio synch, and the file size gets huge. any other questions you need me to answer? i really appreciate the help

Cannon out

[johndoe]

I can help you. Email me at jonngo2002@yahoo.com or you can AIM me at johnngo503

[junkmalle]

You must mean 640 wide by 480 tall. If that's the case you have no choice but to reduce the image height and add a border (unless you're in a PAL country) becuase DVD players can't play anything over 480 lines tall.

If you convert your files to MPEG 2 with DVD compatible settings, DVD authoring software doesn't have to reencode the files again to burn them to a movie DVD. I seem to recall that the "free" DVD authoring software that comes with Roxio always reencodes though. Even worse, it only encodes at a very high bitrate and you can't change it. So you only get about 1 hour of video on a DVD. You may need to find some other DVD authoring software.

The real problem is that your fansub files are incorrectly subtitled for display on a TV. Properly subtitled files (for TV) avoid having text near the edges of the frame because TV overscans. And the amount that televisions overscan varies from TV to TV. Generally, to be safe, you avoid putting text within the outer 10 percent of the image.

To be compatible with DVD players the frame size has to be 720x480, 704x480, or 352x480. Let's say you're going to use 720x480 to lose as little picture resolution as possible.

Since your video is already 480 lines tall you will need to reduce the image height enough to pad with about 40 lines of black at the bottom and top. So resize vertically to 400. DVD players use 720 pixels across the full screen rather than 640. To maintain aspect ratio on the DVD player you normally would stretch the 640 to 720. But since we're shrinking the image to compensate for overscan you'll want to use about 600 pixels horizontally (720 x 400 / 480). Then you need to pad the top and bottom by 40 pixels each and the sides by 60 pixels each. So what you'll have is a 720x480 frame with a 600x400 image centered in it.

Your subtitles probably don't go all the way to the very edge of the picture and your TV may not overscan by as much as 10 percent. You can probably get away with less "shrinkage", maybe 5 percent on each edge rather than 10. Maybe a 640x426 image padded at the sides with 80 pixels and the top and bottom with 27 pixels each.

If you don't mind losing a little image quality you can create MPEG 2 files at 352x480. Adjust all the values correspingly. You can even put 352x240 video on a DVD but you'll be losing quite a lot of picture quality at that -- especially since you're squashing the frame and padding the edges.

There is no way to avoid at least one reencode of the video because you are resizing and converting from AVI to MPEG 2.

A program like TMPGEnc can convert from AVI to MPEG 2 and shrink at the same time. It has a nice "Center (custom size)" option that lets you resize your image while padding the edges to get the required final frame size -- exactly what you want. It has a free trial if you want to check it out.

If you want to stick with the software you have (VirtualDub and Roxio Easy DVD?) you can use VirtualDub to resize and pad, then Roxio to convert to MPEG 2 and write to DVD. But then you'll have two conversions. You can minimize picture quality losses by saving the intermediate with no compression (or a lossless compression like HUFFYUV) but the file will be huge, as you've discovered. You might try using Xvid (it's free and works well) as an intermediate codec. I recommend using it's Quantization mode at 3 or less. That will keep the image quality high with fairly good compression and only require a single pass. The resulting AVI file should be around 1 GB per hour of video. Then you can use just about any DVD authoring program to encode to MPEG 2 and write to DVD.

[BccLooseCannon]

Ok, Excellent. I'll be sure to give this a try. i'll keep you posted if im still screwing it up. Thanks for you help.

Cannon out

[BccLooseCannon]

Ok.. I guess im just not getting it. Using the advice you had given me, my videos are still hacked to bits. I cannot seem to find a Quantization mode to set the 3. it does not give me the option to convert to Xvid, so i tried Divx, and im getting the same results.

IM me on AIM or Aol at BccLooseCannon to help me through this. if you have the time.

Cannon out

[junkmalle]

[gonzalimator]

Why not frameserve?

You can do as junkmalle has shown with VirtualDub Mpeg-2, but to avoid making an intermediate avi, just frameserve.
You'll most likely have to take the vdr file from Vdub and 'wrap' it with VFAPI converter. This fake avi should open in any encoder or DVD app and you'll avoid any unecessary quality loss.

[junkmalle]

Or do it all in TMPGEnc:

[BccLooseCannon]

....... (feeling horribly inferior)

well then... This certainaly makes it much more cut and dry this time around.. ive GOT to get it this time. I would like to thank you for taking the time to deal with me. One other question. when previewing in Virtual dub, is it supposed to skip as it plays? ive had that problem a bit but i figured it was just cuz i lack the ram speed. i only have 256 and 1.8Ghz

Hopefully will get it this time,
Cannon out

Ps: What would you do if you only have the divx 5.1.1 codec? there is no quantiwhatever on that codec. just the encoding bitrate. which goes from 0kbps to 4Mbps? (im assuming this is what is making my video skip ahead so many fraes at a time.)

[junkmalle]

when previewing in Virtual dub, is it supposed to skip as it plays? ive had that problem a bit but i figured it was just cuz i lack the ram speed. i only have 256 and 1.8Ghz

VirtualDub does skip a bit while previewing. It's nothing to worry about.

Ps: What would you do if you only have the divx 5.1.1 codec? there is no quantiwhatever on that codec.

If you look closely at the Divx Codec Properties image I posted earlier, in the Bitrate section, next to "Variable Bitrate Mode" you'll see the option for "1 pass quality based". When that is selected the slider below lets you set the Quantizer value. Some releases of the Divx codec might have a "Quality" slider instead. If that's the case just select a high value like 95 percent.