Handbrake settings for PAL to NTSC?

[kpic]

I have a lot of old PAL DVD titles that I want to eventually put on Blu-ray discs.

So they are in 25fps (interlaced), whats the best quality I can get (I know I'll be losing some) but as far as I am aware I cannot do 25fps interlaced on Blu-ray playable in US - I think deinterlace and then to 23.976? Or should I keep it interlaced and go to 29.97?

I'm using Handbrake at the moment but I'm not real sure of the settings under the "filter" tab for what I would need to do?

Preset: General\SuperHQ 480p30 (for best quality?)
Filters: Default settings?? Deinterlace for this preset is set to "decomb"?
Video: Set to desired FP needed (23.976 or 29.97?)

Thanks!

[jagabo]

Handbrake is not a good tool for the frame rate change required by PAL to NTSC conversions. There is no single "best method" for PAL/NTSC conversion. You will need to learn several methods for different types of content.

If I was you, I'd try remuxing your DVD VOBs to MPG files (VOB2MPG) and burning those on data discs. You're Blu-ray player will probably play them. If it works you won't have to waste your time converting frame rates.

[sneaker]

Yeah, I would also try to avoid any such conversions. If I absolutely needed to target "US Blu-Ray" I would choose 720p59.94 to get the most quality. Not sure about the right tool. Maybe AviSynth QTGMC + a decent resizer + FrameRateConverter? But you have to be sure the original source is "true" 25i interlaced, not some conversion.

[kpic]

Thanks for the replies - I tried doing this in Premiere but it looked worse than Handbrake thats why I was wondering the settings.

I was planning on mixing content on some Blu-ray discs creating my own menus in Encore.

So I'll have some US spec (23.376 etc) on there as well. So I thought you cannot mix FPS like that (25 & 23\60i) all together on the same project and still be Blu-ray compliant?

Might be easier\better to just to keep it 25fps and (I have Instant 4k plugin for Premiere) upscale a bit to 720\25 then? I think Premiere should deinterlace it on it's own.

I don't think I ever saw a 720p 59.94? I assume in premiere thats 720p/30?

Think I'm just confusing myself, I thought you cannot play 25\50 content at all without a player that will convert it to 60 for our HD TVs?

[hech54]

Get an external HDD and MakeMKV.

[kpic]

Ok, tried a few more things. What sneaker said above seems to work best.

I used Handbrake to convert using the "SuperHQ 720p30" preset then put that into Premiere using a HDV 720p sequence and using my Instant4k plugin to 1280x720.

Exporting in Premiere to 1280x720 59.94 FPS gives pretty good results, or at least as good as it will probably get by converting rather than just leaving it all alone as PAL.

[jagabo]

Ok, tried a few more things. What sneaker said above seems to work best.

I used Handbrake to convert using the "SuperHQ 720p30" preset then put that into Premiere using a HDV 720p sequence and using my Instant4k plugin to 1280x720.

Exporting in Premiere to 1280x720 59.94 FPS gives pretty good results, or at least as good as it will probably get by converting rather than just leaving it all alone as PAL.

Not even close.

I thought you cannot play 25\50 content at all without a player that will convert it to 60 for our HD TVs?

Most modern Blu-ray players and TVs have built in media players that can handle a variety of containers and codecs. If you burn a bunch of AVI, MPG, MP4 and/or MKV files to a data disc (or a USB storage device) the player will give you a simple menu (usually just a list of folder and file names) through which you can navigate and pick what you want to play. The built in media player can usually handle PAL/NTSC frame rate conversion and upscaling.

This is by far the fastest and easiest way to deal with mixed content. And it will deliver better quality too -- unless you really know how to deal with the variety of variations in PAL and NTSC video. I recommend you try it and see it it works for you. MakeMKV will decrypt DVDs and remux titles to MKV files. Or you can use DVDFab to decrypt your DVDs and VOB2MPG to remux to MPG files. Copy the files to a USB thumbdrive or disc and see if they play.

[sneaker]

I was planning on mixing content on some Blu-ray discs creating my own menus in Encore.

So I'll have some US spec (23.376 etc) on there as well. So I thought you cannot mix FPS like that (25 & 23\60i) all together on the same project and still be Blu-ray compliant?

AFAIK you can mix however you want. Only restrictions:
1. each title on one Blu-Ray must have exactly one constant frame rate. But you can have multiple titles that differ from each other no problem.
2. 25/50 Hz formats aren't supported globally

I don't think I ever saw a 720p 59.94? I assume in premiere thats 720p/30?

It's a normal format. Every Blu-Ray player must support it.

Think I'm just confusing myself, I thought you cannot play 25\50 content at all without a player that will convert it to 60 for our HD TVs?

Some US equipment doesn't support 25/50 Hz formats. So it may or may not work. (Then again this is true about all the "Blu-Rays" people create at home. A spec compliant Blu-Ray is encrypted and pressed in a factory. People wrongfully think they can burn them at home and have guaranteed playback on all Blu-Ray players.)

[kpic]

Good stuff, thank you so much sneaker!

[victoriabears]

Discs are going the way of VHS, streaming hard drives is the way to go, then pal or ntsc doesn't matter.

[azmoth]

I have a lot of old PAL DVD titles that I want to eventually put on Blu-ray discs.

So they are in 25fps (interlaced), whats the best quality I can get (I know I'll be losing some) but as far as I am aware I cannot do 25fps interlaced on Blu-ray playable in US - I think deinterlace and then to 23.976? Or should I keep it interlaced and go to 29.97?

I'm using Handbrake at the moment but I'm not real sure of the settings under the "filter" tab for what I would need to do?

Preset: General\SuperHQ 480p30 (for best quality?)
Filters: Default settings?? Deinterlace for this preset is set to "decomb"?
Video: Set to desired FP needed (23.976 or 29.97?)

Thanks!

Very unusual for you to say that you have a lot of interlaced PAL DVD's when most commercial ones are progressive. I've only ever owned 1 DVD in my time that was a weird hybrid and not progressive and that was R2 Event Horizon. Most strange!

[Sharc]

DVD files are flagged as interlaced (by the DVD standard) even for progressive video e.g. from movies.

[azmoth]

Yeah they have flags for the hardware playback and OP is assuming interlaced sources from that?, but converting pure progressive to ntsc, isnt it a bit destructive on the actual video quality and not advisable?

[kpic]

For all the replies concerning to just make mkv, use hard-drive etc. - yes I know that is by far easier and better, I do that myself - all of my stuff is on PCs\drives etc and just simply streamed per my Oppo, I agree thats the easiest and best way to do any of this.

Unfortunately these are for my parents who have a bunch of PAL DVDs from Germany & Italy (not available on BR), I figured it would be easier to do it this way then to teach them the hard-drive\stream it way. Since I have some experience and software tools (Adobe) to do this I just wanted to get a few DVDs at a time on 1 Blu-ray to decrease the catalog size.

Yes, I assumed the interlaced by what Mediainfo gave me and what Premiere indicated however when viewed in stop-motion I don't quite see the interlaced lines so maybe (likely?) they are all progressive but still at 25fps.

That could be why sneaker's idea of 720p\59.94 has given the by far best results of anything I tried.

[Sharc]

From what you describe I assume it is progressive video. Post a sample with motion so someone can have a look.
If your source is 25 fps progressive you could slowdown to 23.976 and then telecine the video to 29.97. I don't know whether Handbrake does it like this. You could do it in Avisynth instead.
But first I would make sure that your parent's player does really not accept 25fps material.

[manono]

DVD files are flagged as interlaced (by the DVD standard) even for progressive video e.g. from movies.

Most PAL DVDs, yes, but not properly prepared NTSC DVDs.

[manono]

Yeah they have flags for the hardware playback and OP is assuming interlaced sources from that?

He seems to be, yes. He seems to be confusing how they're encoded with what the actual content is like. Most progressive sources are encoded as interlaced in PAL land.

but converting pure progressive to ntsc, isnt it a bit destructive on the actual video quality and not advisable?

In what sense? Because you'll be converting a progressive source to interlaced? No, because that source is encoded as progressive. It's the pulldown flags that instruct the player to output interlaced 29.97fps (really 59.94 fields per second). But the actual frames are encoded and then stored on the DVD as progressive. If done correctly, not always the case.

If you're using 'destructive' to mean the act of reencoding and lowering the resolution then, yes, but there seems to be no alternative, given kpic's requirements.

As Sharc mentions, a sample might prove useful.