toast not accepting some movies converted to pal as is

[jboyd]

hi,

i'm using ffmpegx to convert movies for toasting for a normal dvd (using "DVD mpeg2enc").

on some movies which started off as 25fps or very near 25fps i've chosen pal in the framerate pop up under the video tab of ffmpegx when converting. i've done a handful of movies this way and about half of them are fine (toast accepts them as is in its video pane) and about half of them are not fine (toast doesn't accept as is and starts going through its long winded "Preparing..." stage).

here's the details of an mpg file which ffmpegx has output having chosen pal which toast doesn't accept as is:

MPG
video: mpeg-2, 720x480, 4000 kbps, 25 fps
audio: ac3, 48000Hz, 448 kbps

Mpeg 2 program Stream Fle [Video/Audio]
Muxrate: 10.08 Mbps
Estimated Duration: 01:37:53.30s
Aspect ration 4/3 (TV)
Interlaced, chroma format: 4:2:0
Video Format: PAL
Size [720 x 480] 25.00 fps 4.00 Mps
Audio: Mpeg 2 layer 1
128 kbps 22050 Hz
Mono, No emphasis

there's two things which i notice there: the dimensions are 720x480 and pal is 720x576, and in the second batch of info (from ffmpegx's "Info" sheet) the audio is not 48000Hz (which i'm 99.9% sure i made sure was chosen in ffmpegx when converting).

one of the movies which i chose pal for and which toast does accept as is has 48000Hz reported by ffmpegx in both places (Source format info display, and from having pressed the "Info" button), and is 720x576.

which of the two things is the problem -- making toast not accept the movie as is? and what should i choose when converting to pal in future to make sure all to pal conversions are accepted by toast as are? or should i not be choosing pal even though the source movie is 25 fps or close?

thanks.

[Case]

PAL should have a frame height of 576 (not 480). Or else Toast will re-encode.
AC3 or MPEG audio on DVD-Video should be 48 kHz.

[jboyd]

ah yes, setting the Video Size dimensions settings under the Video tab in ffmpegx to 768 x 576 (and the fps to 25) then allows toast to accept the files as are and does it to pal.

thanks.

[Case]

ah yes, setting the Video Size dimensions settings under the Video tab in ffmpegx to 768 x 576 (and the fps to 25) then allows toast to accept the files as are and does it to pal.

According to the DVD specifications, the valid frame sizes for PAL video are:
720x576, 704x576, 352x576, 352x288.
I have no idea where you pulled '768' from...

[jboyd]

no i'm not sure where i got that from now either. i must have actually used 720 otherwise toast wouldn't have accepted it i doubt. thanks.