Software PAL/NTSC converter

[Anonymous65]

I have found one software converter for PAL/NTSC conversion, but it's expensive and have some limits. Does anybody know of any cheaper frame/line rate converters? (Also, TMPGEnc or Virtualdub does not do a good job at converting between formats, you get lots of motion artifacts) You need to use special software like the one in this link:
http://www.dvdirect.com/shop/product.asp?sku=CNP2002

[Anonymous65]

I found another converter for just under $100. Any lower?

http://www.dvunlimited.com/

[Anonymous65]

Anybody out there who can write a filter for Virtualdub that will convert between 720x480 @ 29.97 frames interlaced to/from 720x576 @25 frames interlaced (with a 2 or 4 frame buffer for rendering the new frames, and perhaps even with motion estimation)?

[DJRumpy]

AVISynth comes with three converters for this.

AssumeFPS
This one will simply speed up, or slow down your video. The best solution for 25fps to 23.976 and vice versa

ChangeFPS
This one duplicates frames, or drops frames to achieve the desired frame rate. Very primitive, but it works.

ConvertFPS
This one can use either a 'blend' mode, extrapolating additional frames, or collapsing frames, based on adjacent frame. The 'switch' mode blends frames halfway through the frame to achieve simular results. Both have pro's and cons. They are fully documented in the AVISynth docs.

[Xesdeeni]

Anybody out there who can write a filter for Virtualdub that will convert between 720x480 @ 29.97 frames interlaced to/from 720x576 @25...

Nope. You can't modify frame rate in VirtualDub filters. However, as mentioned above, you CAN modify framerate in AVISynth scripts. Check out the ConvertFPS()/ChangeFPS() documentation for a simple standards conversion script.

Add a smart deinterlacer plugin (like Smooth Deinterlacer: http://home.bip.net/gunnart/video/AVSPorts/SmoothDeinterlacer/) and you can get remarkable quality.

Conversion scripts are at the bottom of that page (although remove "InputVideo =" in the last two, and you can leave out the "tff=true/false" since SmoothDeinterlacer now auto-detects field polarity).

A more comment-filled, all-in-one conversion script is at http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=118120.

And step-by-step instructions for some formats (more coming) at http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/index.html.

Xesdeeni

[DJRumpy]

Actually, you can modify the frame rate with VirtualDub. I often use it to do a dirty 3:2 pulldown removal, but it has other options to decimate frame rate, or just change the frame rate to X value, which I'm assuming is timestretch function.

[Anonymous65]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check out the AVISynth filters.

[DEmberton]

I do PAL->NTSC all the time in TMPEng, using the slow down method. As long as you don't ask TMPEng to remove or duplicate frames it works fine.

Dave

[yg1968]

How do you do a slow down with TMPGEnc. Can you explain more?

[gcutler]

neoDVDPlus v4 (around $50 retail) will take a PAL VOB file and Author NTSC DVDs (not a very fancy authorer) but will do the job. It isn't perfect as sometimes the voice goes out of sync (but if you burn to RW to test and keep the project you can go in and delete and recreate the messed up chapter/vob)

[DEmberton]

How do you do a slow down with TMPGEnc. Can you explain more?

Check the "Do not frame rate conversion" option. The problem then is that the audio will be wrong, so you have to convert the audio in a different program, for which I use Goldwave. There's some instructions in the help section somewhere on this site.

Basically when film source material is converted to PAL, it's sped up by about 4%. To convert it back to NTSC Film, you just undo the speed up. If your source is recorded on video in PAL, it's a bit more tricky.

Dave

[Xesdeeni]

@DJRumpy

Actually, you can modify the frame rate with VirtualDub.

Actually, what I said was:

You can't modify frame rate in VirtualDub filters.

To do standards conversion of interlaced video, you need to process the video (using filters), adjust the framerate, and then process the video some more (using filters). You can't do this in VirtualDub, at least not in one pass. AVISynth doesn't have this problem.

...or just change the frame rate to X value, which I'm assuming is timestretch function.

I can't see any way to add frames, only decimate. The "Source rate adjustment" section just changes what the stream reports as its frame rate. So you could change (for example) 25 progressive Fps to 23.976 progressive Fps. The resulting video would have the same number of frames, but play slower. That's why this section has the "Note: Changing the framerate will cause audio/video desynchronization."

Of course, if you are using TMPGEnc as your encoder, as mentioned above, you can do the same thing without using VirtualDub.

@yg1968

How do you do a slow down with TMPGEnc. Can you explain more?

Check out http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/index.html for a step-by-step guide for some conversions. More are coming, so if you want a specific combination, work with me.

Xesdeeni

[DJRumpy]

A very fine point, but technically correct. Misleading to the newbs though, which is why I commented on it.

or just change the frame rate to X value, which I'm assuming is timestretch function.

By timestretching, I mean you simply speed up, or slow down your video source by X amount. The same method that AssumeFPS uses in AVISynth. You don't add or delete any frames using this method. It simply changes the playback speed. The preferred method for going from PAL to FILM, and vice versa.[/quote]

[Xesdeeni]

Having been the victim of nitpickers on this site before, I'm certainly not trying to contribute to the practice. My appologies if I've done so above.

Xesdeeni

[DJRumpy]

Not to worry. I try not to take anything too seriously on this site, including myself. I've put my foot in my mouth countless times, and I'm sure I'll do so again.