Which software should I use to properly convert PAL to NTSC

[cthane]

I have a region 2 pal dvd that I would like to make a copy of for a friend. Since he only has a region 1 player, I am planning on converting it to an NTSC DVD for him. However, with every program I use (DVDFab, DVDstyler), it seems to create video with a very jerky kind of quality. What is the best program to lossessly convert PAL to NTSC without the issue of extra frames or high-pitch audio. Thanks in advance.

[davexnet]

I have a region 2 pal dvd that I would like to make a copy of for a friend. Since he only has a region 1 player, I am planning on converting it to an NTSC DVD for him. However, with every program I use (DVDFab, DVDstyler), it seems to create video with a very jerky kind of quality. What is the best program to lossessly convert PAL to NTSC without the issue of extra frames or high-pitch audio. Thanks in advance.

Try AvstoDVD, one of the settings in the preferences is to slow/speed up the video and audio for the FPS change, give it a try

[hech54]

If he has a modern TV, try an MKV file on a USB stick. My TV has a built in player.

[davexnet]

If he has a modern TV, try an MKV file on a USB stick. My TV has a built in player.

Yeah this is probably better. A2d conversion for a whole dvd is a bit of a kludge

[johns0]

Just use makemkv to extract the file and play the mkv on a usb as hech54 said.No encoded needed.

[cthane]

He is very old school. His dvd player is ancient, which is why he insisted on me burning a dvd for him

[Sharc]

For legacy DVD players the procedure would be
- slowdown the 25fps video+audio to 23.976 fps
- then Telecine the video to 29.97 fps
- remux video and audio and author it as NTSC disc.

One can do it in Avisynth + some dvd authoring SW for example. It's not so straightforward.

[cthane]

How do I do this in AVISynth?

[cthane]

Without reencoding, of course.

[johns0]

Can't do that without reencoding.

[dellsam34]

Just get him a cheap universal DVD player that has region free coding.

[cthane]

So there is no way of removing duplicate frames with degrading the quality?

[cthane]

Or compressing the file?

[Sharc]

The duplicates are introduced when you change the framerate from 25fps PAL to 30fps NTSC. If you remove the duplicates you are back to 25fps (PAL).
Also, for NTSC DVD you have to change the frame size from 720x576 to 720x480, means vertical resizing. Before vertical resizing you need to deinterlace your interlaced PAL video.
Beware of standards conversion unless you understand exactly what you are doing. Much can go wrong.

[jagabo]

There is no single "best" method of converting PAL to NTSC. There are many different issues that may have to be addressed. The best methods will often require software like AviSynth or VapourSynth. Those have steep learning curves and aren't worth it unless a video is very important to you, you plan on converting lots of videos, or you just like learning new stuff.

If you want detailed help you will need to upload a short sample of the video you want to convert. Take the sample from the body of the video, not the intro (which often is different than the body). Do not re-encode the sample.

[cthane]

The duplicates are introduced when you change the framerate from 25fps PAL to 30fps NTSC. If you remove the duplicates you are back to 25fps (PAL).
Also, for NTSC DVD you have to change the frame size from 720x576 to 720x480, means vertical resizing. Before vertical resizing you need to deinterlace your interlaced PAL video.
Beware of standards conversion unless you understand exactly what you are doing. Much can go wrong.

What is the best program for deinterlacing with compression?

[davexnet]

Avstodvd can do 25 to 23.976 using slowdown, then telecine 23.976 to 29.97, For ntsc film.
This is the typical scenario for progressive 25 fps source (eg. speeded up movie shot at 24 fps)

It actually works well if you want to give it a try. I've found in the scenario with consecutive VOB's
It's best to use DGindex manually, then use the d2v project as the source to A2D

[Alwyn]

DVDStyler. Click click bang, out pops a NTSC ISO; I didn't actually burn it (I ripped the PAL DVD first).

I took a VOB from the PAL DVD, dropped it into an NTSC project in DVDStyler, it asked if I wanted to change the project to PAL, I said No.

Here's the result from a commercial PAL DVD. Might not be the best quality attainable but it was quick and easy.

[Alwyn]

I've transferred the whole Pig DVD from PAL to NTSC. DVDStyler (which I'm not an expert on) did it remarkably quickly, in less than 10 minutes, so there was some super-speed encoding going on. I then made the NTSC VOBs into an MPEG and streamed it to my PAL telly: it's quite acceptable but with occasional small stutters. So you get what you pay for; if you want a pristine copy, you'll probably need to proceed down a more complex route.

[Sharc]

I've transferred the whole Pig DVD from PAL to NTSC. DVDStyler (which I'm not an expert on) did it remarkably quickly, in less than 10 minutes, so there was some super-speed encoding going on. I then made the NTSC VOBs into an MPEG and streamed it to my PAL telly: it's quite acceptable but with occasional small stutters. So you get what you pay for; if you want a pristine copy, you'll probably need to proceed down a more complex route.

What you got are frame duplications, even with pattern hickups due to 25->29.97 conversion, which causes extra jerkyness (stutters). It made a reencode (using ffmpeg) which is fast as it is mpeg2 for DVD. You call it "watchable" on your PAL TV player, well then. But see the OP's post #1 where he already tried DVD Styler and complained about jerkiness.
Don't know whether Avs2DVD or any other GUI would do any better e.g. by applying (soft- or hard) telecine or frame motion interpolation with acceptable quality (whatever "acceptable" means).

[hech54]

He is very old school. His dvd player is ancient, which is why he insisted on me burning a dvd for him

I doubt his TV is too old to play files via a USB port on the TV somewhere.

[Alwyn]

@Sharc oh master, does this one tickle your fancy?

[Sharc]

@Sharc oh master, does this one tickle your fancy?

Sorry Alwyn. I only explained to you what DVDStyler does (based on you samples), as you seemed to believe in some "fast conversion magic" going on under its hood. I didn't critizise anything. Apparently just wasting my time.

Edit: The .vob sample looks better, as opposed to the VTS_01_1_snip.mpg with the jerky frame repetitions.

[Alwyn]

You're not sorry. I have accepted your criticism of DVDStyler and tried something else to address your comments and perhaps offer a solution to the OP. I posted that VOB in post #22 with the hope that you might comment on it, but hey, don't let me waste your time.

[Sharc]

Correct, I am not sorry. I did not critizise DVDStyler, I explained what it does and commented your "some super-speed encoding" surprise.
And I commented the .vob (different scene btw.) while you were typing.

[Sharc]

He is very old school. His dvd player is ancient, which is why he insisted on me burning a dvd for him

I doubt his TV is too old to play files via a USB port on the TV somewhere.

Maybe, maybe not. However, (elderly) people may have their DVD player and TV set and they know how to operate it. They may not be familiar with USB ports and sticks or streaming because this is nowhere in their focus. And they may easily misplace or loose the small sticks and/or can't label these properly. (Older) TV players often react differently on various videomaterial and formats on sticks, more or less 'universal', as opposed to DVD which have to follow a very strict standard. It's my experience with distributing home videos to people who have little focus on the subject beyond using standard commercial gear they have like DVD/Blu-ray player + TV set.

[cthane]

Avstodvd can do 25 to 23.976 using slowdown, then telecine 23.976 to 29.97, For ntsc film.
This is the typical scenario for progressive 25 fps source (eg. speeded up movie shot at 24 fps)

It actually works well if you want to give it a try. I've found in the scenario with consecutive VOB's
It's best to use DGindex manually, then use the d2v project as the source to A2D

Does DGIndex or AVS2DCD compress the video? I'm trying to avoid that.

[davexnet]

Avstodvd can do 25 to 23.976 using slowdown, then telecine 23.976 to 29.97, For ntsc film.
This is the typical scenario for progressive 25 fps source (eg. speeded up movie shot at 24 fps)

It actually works well if you want to give it a try. I've found in the scenario with consecutive VOB's
It's best to use DGindex manually, then use the d2v project as the source to A2D

Does DGIndex or AVS2DCD compress the video? I'm trying to avoid that.

Dgindex just creates an index and writes out the ac3 audio.
A2D uses mpeg2source to access the index.
A2D creates a standard dvd, playable in any player,
SD, 720X480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

[Sharc]

Avstodvd can do 25 to 23.976 using slowdown, then telecine 23.976 to 29.97, For ntsc film.
This is the typical scenario for progressive 25 fps source (eg. speeded up movie shot at 24 fps)

It actually works well if you want to give it a try. I've found in the scenario with consecutive VOB's
It's best to use DGindex manually, then use the d2v project as the source to A2D

Does DGIndex or AVS2DCD compress the video? I'm trying to avoid that.

Dgindex just creates an index and writes out the ac3 audio.
A2D uses mpeg2source to access the index.
A2D creates a standard dvd, playable in any player,
SD, 720X480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

I gave it a try. AVS2DVD (aka A2D) delivers a soft-telecined NTSC output, applying pulldown flags. Don't know how smooth it plays on NTSC devices though as the pulldown pattern deviated from the standard 3-2 pulldown it seems ..... maybe it was a source issue so I can't tell for sure.

[davexnet]

Avstodvd can do 25 to 23.976 using slowdown, then telecine 23.976 to 29.97, For ntsc film.
This is the typical scenario for progressive 25 fps source (eg. speeded up movie shot at 24 fps)

It actually works well if you want to give it a try. I've found in the scenario with consecutive VOB's
It's best to use DGindex manually, then use the d2v project as the source to A2D

Does DGIndex or AVS2DCD compress the video? I'm trying to avoid that.

Dgindex just creates an index and writes out the ac3 audio.
A2D uses mpeg2source to access the index.
A2D creates a standard dvd, playable in any player,
SD, 720X480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

I gave it a try. AVS2DVD (aka A2D) delivers a soft-telecined NTSC output, applying pulldown flags. Don't know how smooth it plays on NTSC devices though as the pulldown pattern deviated from the standard 3-2 pulldown it seems ..... maybe it was a source issue so I can't tell for sure.

For 23.976 source, if it's set to use HCenc, a2d adds the pulldown setting for the encoder.
Otherwise ( when FFmpeg does the encoding), a2d uses DGpulldown. Program creates
a very good log, all steps and details are there