What is VCD Film?

[tik-tak]

Could someone explain to me what is the deal with "VCD Film" templates, please. If I try to burn a clip encoded with 23.976 fps, I cannot play disc in my DVD player (it is Sony's ). VCD with 29.97 fps plays ok.

Thank you.

[banjazzer]

I think you have 2 choices:

1. Use 3:2 pulldown when you encode to VCD.

2. Convert to PAL, then encode with a PAL template.

Personally I prefer the latter as I live in a PAL area.

[Big_Jit]

I would probably go with the 3:2 pulldown method if I were you because converting from NTSC(film) to PAL can be difficult and give you jittery playback.

there are alot more steps involved in converting to PAL also. I think you'll find the 3:2 pulldown method works out easier for you.

on the contrary all of my Starwars VCD's are PAL and they play PERFECT...

[tik-tak]

thanks.

[snowmoon]

Um....

3:2 pulldown is only applicable to mpeg-2 or full frame XVCD. The only thing that you can do for stnadrd VCD is encode at VCD 29.97 template. This is the reason that all VCD player are required to support 23.976 internally.

[banjazzer]

The only thing that you can do for stnadrd VCD is encode at VCD 29.97 template.

So, you are saying that with a 23.976fps source that you want to encode to VCD, you should use a 29.97fps template? This will surely look awful.

[snowmoon]

No I'm saying that's HIS only option because HIS dvd player does not support 23.976 and VCD does not support 3:2 pulldown "filter" and mpeg-1 does not support pulldown on playback since it's not field based.

Yes, it would look crappy on motion, but if that's his only option.

[banjazzer]

No I'm saying that's HIS only option

What about my option #2?

2. Convert to PAL, then encode with a PAL template, (which is what i do.) 8)

[snowmoon]

If he lives in the US, that's a big no. If his player does not even support the standards why would it support a format converion?

[LeeBear]

snowmoon is correct about 3:2 pulldown only applying to MPEG2. But in TMPG you can actually apply a 3:2 pulldown for your VCD sorta. It doesn't just add the flags like a true 3:2 pulldown would, it'll actually take a 23.976 fps source apply the 3:2 pulldown to it and then encode at the full 29.97 fps. The difference is the 6 frames are physically created and encoded unlike a real 3:2 pulldown where the player recreates these frames during playback. Of course using this you lose the benefits of a true 3:2 pulldown like less frames to encode, which equals more bits per frame and thus higher quality. But it's still better then doing a normal framerate conversion by repeating or decimating frames. You can find this "3:2 pulldown" option in the "Advance" tab of TMPG. So my suggestion would be to use the 29.97 fps template and check "3:2 pulldown" in the "Advance" tab.

-LeeBear

[banjazzer]

If he lives in the US, that's a big no. If his player does not even support the standards why would it support a format converion?

I don't live in the States, but here in the UK most players will play PAL and NTSC. If that is not the case in the US, the best option is to move here.

[snowmoon]

LeeBear:

Since VCD is only 352x240 the "3:2 pulldown" filter under advanced will attempt to interlace a 240 line video, it just doesn't work. With VCD you don't really have many choices if 23.976 doesn't work.

The only way to make it work is to go XVCD at 352x480 and then add the "3:2 pulldown" filter, but you will need up up the bitrate since mpeg-1 does not have an interlaced blocking option.

[snowmoon]

I don't live in the States, but here in the UK most players will play PAL and NTSC. If that is not the case in the US, the best option is to move here.

I always look for DVD players that do the format converion internally since I'm fairly tied to the states at this point. My latest purchase is a nice JVC 7 disk player that fully support SVCD and does format ( PAL -> NTSC ) conversion. Now if it were only region free ( another big hedache here in the states ).

[LeeBear]

snowmoon: The "3:2 pulldown" filter is applied before the resizing filter in TMPGEnc so you will not be trying to interlace a 240 line video it'll be 480 (assuming the source is DVD). I'm not saying the results will be great but it'll surely be better then not being able to play on his player or doing a straight 29.97 fps framerate conversion.

-LeeBear

[snowmoon]

That would result in massive blurring of any movement, so I think it's a tossup and personal prefrence. It's also assuming that his source is 480 lines.