Ripping NTSC Movies

[Christheminecraft47]

How do I properly IVTC a film to retrieve 23.976fps from a 29.97fps NTSC DVD source that is encoded with Progressive Frames, and all progressive frames are present rather than the 3:2 interlaced pull-down method where it would be encoded as interlaced and some frames would be interlaced?

I use Avidemux and VirtualDub2 primarily.

[jagabo]

If the video has simple duplicate frames you just need a smart decimation (discard the one duplicate out of every five frames). If it has blended frames you need to unblend them (subtract the previous and/or next frame from the blended frames).

Upload a short sample with motion. Don't re-render the sample (eg, use AviDemux in Video -> Copy mode).

[Christheminecraft47]

Here is a 1-minute sample of the movie "Cars" from the Final Test of the THX Optimizer on my (Region 1) NTSC DVD.

VTS_19_1.mkv

[jagabo]

The video is encoded at 23.976 fps with soft pulldown flags. If you just open it in AviDemux and recompress it you will get a progressive variable frame rate file that's marked as 29.97 fps but only has 23.976 frames per second. When you play the video it will be displayed at 23.976 fps. If you prefer a file that's marked 23.976 fps use the Interlacing -> Remove IVTC Dup filter.

[Christheminecraft47]

I made the video using the filter you told me to, however there seems to be a lot of stuttering during playback... Take a look and see what happens on your end.

VTS_19_1_edit.mkv

[Columbo]

I don't see any stuttering with that edited MKV. How are you playing it?

Here's an alternative approach if you have an nVidia card:

loadplugin("d:\don\Programming\C++\dgdecnv\DGDecodeNV\x64\Release\dgdecodenv.dll")
dgsource("D:\Downloads\VTS_19_1.dgi",fieldop=1)

[Christheminecraft47]

I don't see any stuttering with that edited MKV. How are you playing it?

I used Windows Media Player, Avidemux itself, and VLC Media Player to no avail. NOTE: I never get any stutters with my production unless I have to do anything like this, because I usually work with either PAL DVD sources or HD sources such as Blu-Ray for my movies whereas they are easier to work with compared to NTSC DVDs which is why I came here.

[cholla]

I played the VTS_19_1_edit.mkv with VLC & no stuttering on my computer.
I do not use WMP & I have it disabled.
AviDemux would not play the 6 channel audio track but played the 2 channel audio track fine.
Tried MPC-BE also & it played with no stuttering.

[jagabo]

The time codes in the video in post #5 are somewhat irregular. Here's a CRF version I made using ffmpeg to remux the video back to VOB, DgIndex to index the video (honor pulldown mode), AviSynth with DgMpegDec as the source filter, x264 CLI to encode, then muxing the resulting video and the audio back to MKV. This is the most foolproof method of working with VOB sources. Does it play smoothly for you?

[Christheminecraft47]

The time codes in the video in post #5 are somewhat irregular. Here's a CRF version I made using ffmpeg to remux the video back to VOB, DgIndex to index the video (honor pulldown mode), AviSynth with DgMpegDec as the source filter, x264 CLI to encode, then muxing the resulting video and the audio back to MKV. This is the most foolproof method of working with VOB sources. Does it play smoothly for you?

It does indeed play smoothly for me. I figured it would be the timestamps being invalid though. Probably because of how Avidemux handles NTSC VOBs when it comes to 24p Movies. Outside of that, I never have a problem with timestamps or stuttering when I use NTSC VOBs that are interlaced encoded or PAL VOBs for that matter. I can upload examples if you wish, but... Before I look into doing what you did, do you have any idea what I could try in VirtualDub2, perhaps to get smooth results with what I'm doing right here? I would rather use what I've got before I go out and learn new software and such.

[Sharc]

In case you are in Avisynth you can also try

v=LWLibavVideoSource("VTS_19_1.mkv")
a=LWLibavAudioSource("VTS_19_1.mkv")
audiodub(v,a)
tfm().tdecimate()  #returns 23.976fps progressive frames

Save above as a text file 'script.avs' and encode it using ffmpeg like

ffmpeg -i "script.avs" -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -aspect 16:9 "out_.mkv"

[jagabo]

For VirutualDub2:

First remux the MKV to VOB. Then open the VOB in VirtualDub2 using the MPEG 2 source filter. Apply the IVTC filter in Reduce Frame Rate mode. Select your codecs and save. That should give a 23.96 fps constant frame rate file.

[Christheminecraft47]

For VirutualDub2:

Then open the VOB in VirtualDub2 using the MPEG 2 source filter. Apply the IVTC filter in Reduce Frame Rate mode. Select your codecs and save. That should give a 23.96 fps constant frame rate file.

1) I cannot select anything that will let me save my output as a VOB in Avidemux.
2) Where do I find the MPEG2 source filter in VirtualDub2?
3) What settings should I set other then Reduce Frame Rate mode in VirtualDub2? (e.g. Field Mode, Pattern Phase, etc.)

[jagabo]

1) I cannot select anything that will let me save my output as a VOB in Avidemux.

I used ffmpeg for that:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c copy output.VOB

MPG from AviDemux should be ok too.

2) Where do I find the MPEG2 source filter in VirtualDub2?

In the File -> Open dialog use the "files of type" pulldown to select the source filter. Then select and open the VOB/MPG file.

3) What settings should I set other then Reduce Frame Rate mode in VirtualDub2? (e.g. Field Mode, Pattern Phase, etc.)

The other default settings should be fine since VirtualDub2 is using a native source filter.

[Christheminecraft47]

I just used the default settings for the .mpg conversion and did copy on A/V. I simply set the output format to "Mpeg-PS Muxer ( ff)" which saves the file as a .MPG, with these settings: Muxing Format: DVD, Allow non compliant stream: Unchecked

Avidemux reports the file as 29.970fps with all progressive frames. MediaInfo tells me it is 23.976fps with 2:3 pulldown flags and progressive frames.
This gets REALLY interesting... VirtualDub2 shows me interlacing artifacts in the preview, even when setting everything up correctly. Check this out here:
VTS_19_1.mpg

[jagabo]

VirtualDub2 shows me interlacing artifacts in the preview, even when setting everything up correctly.

Yes, the MPEG2 source filter performs the pulldown to 30i. Then the IVTC filter field matches and decimates to 24i. That way it can handle mixed hard and soft pulldown (very common).

[Christheminecraft47]

Here's the result using VirtualDub2. However, if you seek through frame by frame, you'll find some blending going on, even with the correct setup. I knew something was up when VirtualDub2 incorrectly flagged the MPG...

VTS_19_1 (2).mkv

[Sharc]

Here's the result using VirtualDub2. However, if you seek through frame by frame, you'll find some blending going on, even with the correct setup. I knew something was up when VirtualDub2 incorrectly flagged the MPG...


[Attachment 93467 - Click to enlarge]

Unless you are more specific what you see as "blending" it is probably the usual/intended "motion blur" (or motion blur imitation for this anime) at fast action scenes.

[Christheminecraft47]

Unless you are more specific what you see as "blending" it is probably the usual/intended "motion blur" at fast action scenes.

Compare the .MPG I created in Avidemux with no changes to the encoding (only the container) to the .MKV I created in VirtualDub2 with the IVTC processing at timestamp 00:00:07.716

The .MKV will have the next scene (frame) bleeding into what is going on in the current frame, unlike the .MPG which will show the frame correctly.

VTS_19_1.mpg
VTS_19_1 (2).mkv

[Sharc]

Yep, I see it. Same at 00:00:31.573 and 00:00:37.412, etc. It doesn't happen with the Avisynth version of post #11 btw.
Can't help you with Vdub, long time since I have been using it for IVTC. Maybe you can change some settings ....

[jagabo]

The MPG file is ok. The MKV file has chroma blending. That's an indication that interlaced YV12 was treated as progressive YV12 -- a very common problem with VirtualDub(2). I double checked and my VirtualDub2 (64 bit) doesn't have that problem with this video.

Check Video -> Decode Format. On my vdub2 it's set to 4:2:2 YCbCr (YUYV, YUY2). That's likely to be your problem.

Did you do any other filtering in VirtualDub2?

[Christheminecraft47]

I have not done any other filtering besides the IVTC filter you have mentioned. My Decode Format was set to Autoselect by default, and after changing it to the aforementioned setting, the output preview looked correct, and so does my result here.

You can see for yourself here: VTS_19_1 (3).mkv

NOTE: I'll probably be addressing more scenarios based on NTSC Movies here and some more videos showcasing this work, assuming all goes well here. So, I may be editing this message or creating new ones as time goes on. But as for now, hope you enjoy!