How to convert 16:9 AVC to anamorphic MPEG-2 for DVD

[Xoanon]

Hey guys, what is the best way to take a 16:9 AVC file from a website and convert it to a 16:9 enhanced MPEG-2 file for DVD authoring? Naturally, the AVC file is 16:9 in dimensions, its not stretched 16:9 like an anamorphic DVD would be. So surely manipulating the file by stretching it or whatever before encoding to DVD is going to destroy the quality somewhat? If there's no other way to do it, that's OK, but I'd be interested to hear the best way to do it.

I have VirtualDub, Premiere Pro 3, TMPGEnc Plus 2, DVD Lab Pro 2 and am comfortable with them.

Thanks!

[manono]

Hey guys, what is the best way to take a 16:9 AVC file from a website and convert it to a 16:9 enhanced MPEG-2 file for DVD authoring?

Assuming it's 1920x1080 or 1280x720 or some other 1.78:1 ratio, and progressive, just do a straight resize to 720x480 and encode it as 16:9. Nothing difficult about that. If the source Hi-Def, you should also change the colorimetry.

So surely manipulating the file by stretching it or whatever before encoding to DVD is going to destroy the quality somewhat?

If the source is Hi-Def, then of course the quality is going to degrade because DVD is Standard-Def.

[Xoanon]

I cannot open the file in VirtualDub, do I need a filter? The file is 1280x720.

Assuming I work out how to do that, I then export as a new AVI and encode that to DVD? Whats the best resize filter?

[FulciLives]

I open the MKV in XVID4PSP and this creates an AviSynth script that you can copy and save and then use that to load it into TMPGEnc Plus

It's a simple easy way of making a script that works without having to think about it. Of course you'll have to install XVID4PSP but it installs AviSynth etc. so XVID4PSP is all you need to install.

There are various versions so make sure you get the "right one" and the right one is the one listed as: XviD4PSP 5.037 full official version

You will find this on the XVID4PSP website under DOWNLOADS ---> XVID4PSP

Again once it is installed simply fire up the program and under FORMAT pick: MPEG2 NTSC
Then click on OPEN and select the MKV file.
After it loads you then click on "AviSynth" at the top and under that click on: save script

That's it. You can exit the program. Now simply open the script into TMPGEnc Plus and there you go.

Please note that XVID4PSP can be used to re-encode the audio if you need to do that to make it a DVD compliant audio stream. For instance many 720p videos that you download have AC-3 at 640kbps which isn't DVD compatible (or it will have DTS audio which may or may not be compatible).

So to re-encode the audio ... once you save your script ... go back to FORMAT and select: Audio

It will now ignore the video and do an audio out format. Of course you have to specify what format (such as AC-3) and what bitrate etc.
It has the ability to go from 5.1 DTS to 5.1 AC-3 and you can even downmix to 2.0 AC-3 if you want.

XVID4PSP is a simple-to-use program that makes otherwise difficult tasks easy. And yes you can use it to convert the video but it doesn't do a very good job making MPEG-2 DVD compliant video. Best to just use it for the AviSynth script creation and then use another encoder. I normally use HCenc but TMPGEnc Plus works great as well.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I don't think you ever said what format exactly the file is in so I just assumed MKV but XVID4PSP should be able to open it regardless of what it is (knock on wood). Please note that once-in-a-while I find a MKV that gives me problems loading into XVID4PSP and when that happens I'll use tsMuxeR to go from MKV to M2TS and then load the M2TS into XVID4PSP and the MKV loading-into-the-program problem goes away.

[manono]

I cannot open the file in VirtualDub, do I need a filter?

Why would you want to open it in VDub? It isn't an MPEG-2 encoder. I thought you had the use of all these programs that could open it for editing and encoding. Me, I use FFMPEGSource in an AviSynth script and open it directly in CCE. Or use FulciLives' workaround. Or get the proper plugin for VDub (found at the VDub page on this site) if you want to open it in there to do the resize and whatever else you want before saving it out as some sort of a lossless AVI. Which is a lot of extra effort, if you ask me.

Or just use some all-in-one program to do all the work for you, one such as Avs2DVD.

[Xoanon]

Thanks for all your help regarding video, guys. I loaded the MP4 into XVID4PSP and extracted the audio to WAV (to encode it to AC3 later). However, every second or so is a micro gap in the audio, anyone know why this would happen?

[FulciLives]

Is the frame rate of the original MP4 at 23.976fps or something else? You can check the MP4 using MediaInfo

If it is 23.976fps then there shouldn't be an issue. If the frame rate is something else like 24fps or 25fps then yes we have issues.

Also please note that you can can output AC-3 from XVID4PSP (I believe it uses Aften for AC-3 encoding). So maybe try this and see how it sounds.

The only other problem I can think of is if the audio of the MP4 is 5.1 AAC
As I recall it's a bitch converting that to something else but I have thankfully not had to do a 5.1 AAC conversion (to another format) in ages. Basically 5.1 AAC isn't very popular it seems.

[Xoanon]

The framerate according to MediaInfo is 30fps. In VirtualDub (I managed to open it) its something like 29.988fps, and the audio is stereo AAC @96kbps. I wanted to extract the audio to WAV so I could do any mastering I may have needed to do.

[FulciLives]

Well 29.970fps is a standard frame rate for NTSC DVD as is 23.976fps

I haven't had to deal with an HD video file with a non standard frame rate in like ... ever ... or a very long time.

You might want to post the AviSynth script that XVID4PSP made (maybe change the name of the file in it). You can open the AviSynth AVS script with Windows Notepad and just copy 'n paste it here.

[Xoanon]

Here it is, guys:

import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\AudioFunctions.avs")
import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\VideoFunctions.avs")

DirectShowSource("H:\Backups\gervais.mp4", fps=30.000, convertfps=true)

SSRC(48000)
AutoYV12()
Lanczos4Resize(720, 480)
ChangeFPS(29.970)

[yoda313]

Basically 5.1 AAC isn't very popular it seems.

It is for part of the internet it seems. Wont' say what part if you catch my drift.

Anyway converting with eac3to is simple enough once you've done it once or twice.

Its hardware playback that isn't popular with aac (5.1 aac that is) unless your unit has an apple logo on it. Though I don't know if apple has ever licensed 5.1 aac to surround amplifiers. Hence the need to convert to ac3.

Personally you could skip a step or two from fulci's guide and just use avstodvd. Load your original file and go. I don't think you even have to convert the audio separately if I remember right. Though you might have to if it is indeed aac 5.1.

[Xoanon]

Personally you could skip a step or two from fulci's guide and just use avstodvd. Load your original file and go. I don't think you even have to convert the audio separately if I remember right. Though you might have to if it is indeed aac 5.1.

Its stereo AAC, as MediaInfo states. I only wanted to convert it to WAV so I can check levels, do some mastering, then encode to AC3 separately.

Would AVStoDVD support 16:9 anamorphic encoding like TMPGEnc Plus does? And is the MPEG-2 encoder any good?

I need to create an elementary stream separate from the audio so I can encode in DVD Lab with menus, etc.

[yoda313]

Would AVStoDVD support 16:9 anamorphic encoding like TMPGEnc Plus does? And is the MPEG-2 encoder any good?

Yes avstodvd does do widescreen. It uses hcenc or quenc which are recommended here on the website. THey are integrated into the suite but can be customized prior to encoding.

[Xoanon]

That sounds great. So that seems to be the video sorted, what about the audio? Extracting it to WAV in XVID4PSP and VirtualDub shows those small gaps in the audio.

[FulciLives]

The problem with the audio is that the video is 30fps when it needs to be 29.970fps

So XviD4PSP is trying to change the video to 29.970fps and in so doing is also changing the audio but for whatever reason it isn't working correctly and that is what is causing the audio to have issues.

Maybe manono has a thought?

If it were me I would say ... maybe try AssumeFPS(29.970fps) instead of ChangeFPS(29.970fps) but I'm not really sure.

[manono]

Maybe manono has a thought?

He does. I get the audio as WAV from (the free version of) AoA Audio Extractor. And I'm not convinced the framerate of the video is really 30fps. Just what kind of video is this? All I see is the name 'gervais'. Is it the Ricky Gervais Show, by chance? If it's something that was broadcast in the US, it has to be 29.97fps.

And is the MPEG-2 encoder any good?

HCEnc as available in Avs2DVD is better than TMPGEnc

[Xoanon]

The problem with the audio is that the video is 30fps when it needs to be 29.970fps

So XviD4PSP is trying to change the video to 29.970fps and in so doing is also changing the audio but for whatever reason it isn't working correctly and that is what is causing the audio to have issues.

But I was simply saving the audio from the video in XVID4PSP, so I would think the frame rate of the video would not affect it. And the audio isnt cutting out on streaming.

The series I am working with is Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

[FulciLives]

XviD4PSP is trying to change the FPS of the video and in doing so is changing the audio so the audio IS being changed as you try to demux it. That isn't a bad thing if what XviD4PSP is doing is correct but it may not be and even if it is correct then it clearly isn't working correctly (since the audio is getting messed up).

Either the video has an odd frame rate or is somehow confusing XviD4PSP but I've never had issues with it myself but I mostly work with 'clean' video that has standard frame rates.

[Xoanon]

So maybe I can force the framerate to NTSC standards as you suggested?

[manono]

So maybe I can force the framerate to NTSC standards as you suggested?

Maybe it's already at NTSC standard and just an AssumeFPS(29.97) ) or naming that as the framerate in DirectShowSource will set it straight.

I don't know, it's not my video, but if it were mine I'd certainly try for 29.97fps long before I'd ever try and make it 30fps.

I'm working with a video now I downloaded from YouTube. Both VDub and MediaInfo say the framerate is 24.997fps but I'd bet dollars to donuts it's really 25fps.

[FulciLives]

Well I grabbed the same video from the same source that the OP did and in testing it ... well ... I've had no issues LOL

MediaInfo does report the video as 30fps and I get the same AviSynth script when loading it into XVID4PSP however I got a clean audio file when I extracted it to a PCM WAV audio file.

So why didn't it work for the GavSalkeld (the OP of the thread)?

I have a theory ...

In XVID4PSP it defaults to normalizing the audio in a really stupid way. I turned that off when I extracted the WAV file. So here is how you do that ...

Following my directions above, after switching the FORMAT to AUDIO ...

You have to set the AUDIO ENCODING to what type of output you want. In this case I would just go with AC-3 but the OP wants PCM WAV so you select that from the drop down list on the left where it says AUDIO ENCODING (the option is called "PCM 16bit" to be exact).

After you do that you have to go to the top where it says AUDIO and under that select PROCESSING OPTIONS. This brings up a new menu. Here you can select several things like the sample rate and number of channels (for instance if the original was 5.1 AC-3 you could downmix it to 2.0 Stereo or 2.0 Dolby Surround Pro Logic etc.). In this case the original audio is 2 channel and already 44.1kHz so we don't need to adjust any of that stuff. However you do have to adjust the VOLUME stuff.

There are two options under VOLUME:

1.) Amplifiying: 0.0db
2.) Accurate

I believe the default for Amplifying is 100% which basically normalizes the volume to 0.0db
The really stupid part is that the Accurte is set to 3%

So here's the deal. You can select "Disabled" for Amplifying and if you do that you are done. However if you do decided to do Amplifying then you first need to decide what amount. Personally I wouldn't do 100% but maybe 98% or 96% etc. but that's up to you. The most important thing is to then change "Accurate" to 100% or it won't do it properly.

In my case I set Amplifying to "disabled" and like I said I got a clean audio file with no dropouts or any other weirdness.

BTW here is what that screen looks like:



Again you get to this after selecting the type of AUDIO ENCODING you want by selecting that first (on the left hand side) and then you click on AUDIO at the top and under that you click on PROCESSING OPTIONS. Then that dialog window (seen above) opens.

I ended up converting the extracted PCM WAV to AC-3 using another program and converted the video with HCenc then multiplexed it together into a MPG file and it plays perfect!

Please note that you will need to change the AviSynth AVS scrip to remove reference to the audio.

Here's what XVID4PSP gave me (same as what the OP got)

import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\AudioFunctions.avs")
import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\VideoFunctions.avs")
loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\bass\bassAudio.dll")

video = DirectShowSource("J:\FreeDownloadManager\episode-673185.mp4", audio=false, fps=30.000, convertfps=true)
audio = bassAudioSource("C:\Temp\0000_0.aac")
AudioDub(video, audio)

SSRC(48000)
AutoYV12()
Lanczos4Resize(720, 480)
ChangeFPS(29.970)

Here is what I changed it to:

import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\AudioFunctions.avs")
import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\VideoFunctions.avs")
loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\bass\bassAudio.dll")
DirectShowSource("J:\FreeDownloadManager\episode-673185.mp4", audio=false, fps=30.000, convertfps=true)
AutoYV12()
Lanczos4Resize(720, 480)
ChangeFPS(29.970)

All I did was get rid of the "VIDEO =" part before the DirectShow line. Then I removed all the stuff under it refering to the AUDIO and muxing the AUDIO with the VIDEO (the AudioDub part) and then the SSRC part. Very simple and all done with Windows Notepad. I did that because the original "as is" AviSynth AVS script was giving me errors in HCenc regarding the audio and since HCenc doesn't even do audio ... well ... I just removed that stuff from the script.

So there you go.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

Because I would have normally encoded this straight out of XVID4PSP as an AC-3 file I went ahead and did the process again, doing just that (instead of outputting it as a PCM WAV audio file).

I normalized it to 90% and saved it as a 320kbps AC-3 audio file.

Below is a view of that file from Adobe Audition:



And now (below) is a view of the original PCM WAV file that I first extracted (no normalization)



As you can see the original, extracted without normalization, is a bit low in volume. So I decided to use my method which normalizes and extracts directly to AC-3 (since this is intended for a DVD Video).

Actually this whole series seems kinda neat so I'm downloading them all but most likely I'll just leave them as MP4 files since they should play back fine that way on my PS3 but this was more me helping a friend (I know the OP from another site) as well as giving me something to do (yes my life is that boring).

*** EDIT ***
Right click with your mouse on the images and select "Open image in new tab" to see the original (larger) resolution.

[Xoanon]

OK I managed to find the audio settings but then the program crashed before it could encode anything

[FulciLives]

Have you rebooted the computer since you installed XVID4PSP ... if not try that. And even if you did do that already, since it just crashed, I would reboot the computer again and then try again (to do the conversion).

I always reboot my computer to "clean it out" when a major program like that crashes or fails and by "reboot" I mean a hard shut down and then turning it back on.

It is amazing how easily a computer can get mucked up and how a hard reboot fixes that LOL

[Xoanon]

OK. One thing though, I was at this window:



and an encoding window appeared (with a Pause and Cancel button). Nothing happened for a minute or so, then nhe program then crashed.

[FulciLives]

Next time try clicking on APPLY after you make the changes (and you did it right as far as I can tell from your screen shot) but anyway click on APPLY first and yes, something will happen that should take only a few moments and once that is done then click on OK. You are now ready to hit ENCODE on the main menu (which will then save out your PCM WAV audio file).

Hopefully it was just a fluke and won't crash again. Like I said I didn't have that issue on my end.

- JC

[Xoanon]

Well I'll come back to this later, once the series has ended as that is when I will start the compile. But I'll keep in touch until then, if I decide to save time later by doing some encoding now. But thank you, everyone, for your help. I trust it will be of much use later. And I recommend the series, too

Thanks everyone!