AVStoDVD renders jittery Picture

[Djard]

Only on occasion AVStoDVD converts an AVI or MP4 file with a jittery picture (mainly shaking horizontally). The same video file converts propertly using VSO ConvertXtoDVD. But then the picture quality is better with AVStoDVD, so I'd like to be able to fix the problem, which seems to be confined to when I demux, edit the audio with Audacity and remux. Most of the time the latter works nicely but occasionally the picture is jittery.

The demuxed and edited audio files plays fine using MPC. I remux with My Mp4Box or Avidemux, depending on the format. Do I need to configure AVStoDVD every project? Below are the preferences I use, set as the default, which work most of the time.

AviSyth tab
~ AVS Video Source Filter: A2DSource
~ AVS Audio Source Filter: A2DSource
~ AVS UpSize Filter: Lanczos4Resize
~ AVS Downsize Filter: Spline16Resize
~ Adjust Frame Strategy: Crop Top/Bottom
~ Use PAL SpeedUp...: No
~ Use NTSC SlowDown...: No

Video tab
~ DVD Video Standard: MTSC
~ DVD Video Resolution: AUTO
~ Keep MPEG2DVD Compliant Video: Yes
~ Setup Video Profiles: HCenc VBR 1-pass (selected)
~ Higher BitRate Level: 6000 kbps
~ Lower Bitrate Level: 4000 kbps
~ Lower Avg BitRate: 2400
~ Higher Avg Bitrate: 6800

Audio tab
~ DVD Audio Format: AC3
~ DVD Audio BitRate: 192 kbps
~ Keep AC3/DTS/MP2 DVD Compliant Audio: Yes
~ AC3 Audio Encoder: Wavi+Aften
~ Force FFmpeg when temp WAV is > 4GB: Yes
~ Normalize Audio: Yes @ 1.0
~ Auto Adjust Delay: No

[_MrC_]

Hi Djard

the settings you are using should be ok for most cases, but sometimes there are source titles which may require some customizations or even script tweaking.

I suggest you to report here an AVStoDVD log file from a project with jittering. Better if you upload a portion of the source title.



Bye

[Kerry56]

So you are remuxing with AviDemux or MP4box, correct? Have you tried converting to DVD-video with the audio not muxed back in yet? Import the original avi or mp4 into AVStoDVD, then right click on it in the main window of AVStoDVD. This will bring up some options, including adding an audio stream. You can import your edited audio stream from Audacity, then remove the original audio from the mp4/avi file.

I don't know that it will solve the problem, but is worth a shot.

[Djard]

The original movie file converted OK, so the problem I described was caused by demuxing the movie, editing the audio (reducing the absurd amount dynamic range as well as excessive head room) and then remuxing.

The "Night Mode" on my last TV was worthless. So I bought a new TV, a Samsung 55 UHD (120 Hz), which also offers a setting for dynamic range compression. But it too does absolutely nothing, or is no match for BR movies, wherein the audio is almost inaudible for quiet speech and window-shattering when music parts play.

I notice that earlier BR movies are not so problematic. It seems that as the emotional maturity in Hollywood continues to decline, so the insanity of drowning out the speech of actors increases. Maybe they don't want us to hear what they're saying!

Should I look for a new sound system?

[Kerry56]

AVStoDVD has a normalize function in the Audio tab in Preferences. Did you try it?

[Djard]

Yes, I did try the normalize feature and found it worthless. But thanks for responding.

[_MrC_]

@Djard

you can also play with Aften advanced options ('Edit Title'/'Audio'/'Aften Advanced Options') and/or try manolito's plugin Wavi_mod.bat (Alternative Audio Normalizing)

What about video jittering? Have you solved?



Bye

[Djard]

Yes, I did resolve the problem by abandoning the project of demuxing and editing audio streams of HD movies to correct Hollywood's stupidity of imposing an insane amount of dynamic range. Their madness extends to adding an absurd amount of headroom; and I'm not going to buy a 10,000W (RMS) amplifier to compensate for the their childish stupidity. OK, I'm exaggerating...but not very much. The only explanation I can think of for the madness I describe is that Hollywood's audio-engineers might be smoking too much weed. Why else would someone work like a dope in a studio?

Since the built-in dynamic range compression feature (aka "night mode") in home theater systems is abysmally inadequate in even the more expensive systems, the only solution is to avoid BR movies or buy an in-line compressor/limiter/gate. Anyone who recommends Normalization for this (avoidable) problem is not very knowledgeable about audio engineering. Interestingly Netflix movies are free from crappy audio mix-downs.

None of the literally dozens of software tools I have used to process video files are functional enough to resolve the problem I describe. Not that I can complain about free software, but if one app does not cause picture jitter, it will often cause an AV synchrony problem (usually about 250 ms), or some other other problem. But sometimes one can get lucky, so I'm not giving up entirely on editing video.

Now to find a compressor/limiter/gate that accommodates 5.1 SS. Sigh!

[davexnet]

You can force AVStoDVD to re-encode the audio; perhaps drop down to 2-channel and pass the audio through ffdshow
with it's customizable mixer.

[Djard]

Thanks for the suggestion about re-coding the audio. I don't mind losing a little audio quality. The picture is more important to me.