ntsc to pal

[Fozzee]

The issue is definately with TMPGEnc.
I don't have this problem with MC.
Something is going wrong during the NTSC to PAL conversion.

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

If you want to extract the audio first, then you simply tell AVISyth that no audio is present. You do this on your AVISource line like so:

AVISource("c:\folder\movie.avi",false)

The false parameter tells it to ignore the audio stream.

If you want to try it, you can also feed the WAV file directly into AVISynth as well. You do that with the WAVSource command. you then put the audio and video together using the AudioDub command like so.

video=AVISource("c:\folder\movie.avi",false)
audio=WAVSource("c:\folder\audio.wav")
AudioDub(video,audio)

The rest of the script would look like the first examples, going foward from the AVISource line like so:

video=AVISource("c:\folder\movie.avi",false)
audio=WAVSource("c:\folder\audio.wav")
AudioDub(video,audio)
AssumeFPS(25,True)
BicubicResize(720,576)

To answer your aspect ratio question, to be 'proper', a 1.85:1 video would be resized to 552 vertical, with 24 pixels of letterboxing (12 top and 12 bottom). A 1.77:1 video would just be resized to 576 vertical with no letterboxing. Most people just ignore the 24 pixels and resize both aspects to 576 (480 ntsc). Your call.

[Fozzee]

Great help so far thanks.
But do you know of a way of frameserving this to Procoder??

I don't have an upgradable version and only 1.5 fully supports avisynth.

Cheers

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

I can't help you there. I'm not familiar with Procoder at all. You could always simply save your .AVS as a new AVI file in VirtualDub, but that kind of takes away the need to frameserve in the first place.

[Fozzee]

Well I haven't solved the TMPGenc situation.
So it looks like i'll have to use Mainconcept from now on.
But at least my DVDs are the right aspect ratio and play smoothly now. Even if they aren't quite as good looking as with Procoder.

Thanks for your help DJ Rumpy.
Can I ask another bit of advice if you were wanting to crop a movie (e.g. take away a little from the top or bottom) how would you adjust the script??

Cheers

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

I'm going to assume you mean something like converting a 4:3 fullscreen movie to 16:9 widescreen. If not, just let me know.

The change to the script is simple. You only have to crop your video, before resizing. You would use the Crop( left,top,right,bottom) command. The values you place in the left,top,right,bottom affect how much is cropped from the corresponding side.

If you wanted to crop 60 from the top, and 60 from the bottom, your crop command would look like this:

Crop(0,60,0,-60)

For this example, since your converting an NTSC source to pal, you might want to convert a 4:3 movie to 16:9, by cropping a total of 120 pixels from the top and bottom combined. That would convert an NTSC fullscreen 4:3 video to a widescreen 1.77:1 (16:9) video.

video=AVISource("c:\folder\movie.avi",false)
audio=WAVSource("c:\folder\audio.wav")
AudioDub(video,audio)
AssumeFPS(25,True)
Crop(0,60,0,-60)
BicubicResize(720,576)

Just change the crop values to whatever you need. The right and bottom can use negative numbers, except when the value is zero, just like in our example.

[Fozzee]

Hey DJ
I've been doing some reading reference mpg ntsc 29.976 to mpg pal 25.000.
Is it as easy to write a script to achieve this?
If so could you give me some pointers.
I know many people will say why do I need to do it in the UK.
Well its because my friend's playstation will only play Pal DVDs.

Cheers

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

Converting directly from 29.97 fps to 25 fps just looks plain ugly/jerky/choppy. Only convert NTSC to PAL if your video source is telecined. If it's telecined, you can revert the video back to it's true 23.976 fps, and from there, simply speed it up by 1 frame per second. I do these all the time with television captures. I use the DGraft's DECOMB.DLL to perform inverse telecine (convert from 29.97 to 23.976) on my captures. You can find it on google, as DGraft's site no longer appears to be at http://shelob.mordor.net/dgraft
If you can't find it, let me know. You can also look for at at http://www.avisynth.org.

Telecide(guide=1,chroma=true,mm=2)
Decimate(cycle=5)
AssumeFPS(23.976,True)
ResampleAudio(48000)

For your purposes, if the above doesn't work, remove the mm=2 parameter. The rest should give you an inverse telecined output. Since you want to convert it to PAL, the ASsumeFPS would be changed to 25 instead of 23.976

[Fozzee]

If your source AVI has no letterboxing, then your script would look like this (anything after the pound sign '#' is optional):

AVISource("C:\folder\yourmovie.avi")
AssumeFPS(25,True) # converts your output to 25fps
BicubicResize(720,432) # resizes to 720x432
AddBorders(0,72,0,72) # Adds letterboxing - 72 top & 72 bottom

This should give you a widescreen 16:9 PAL compatible output.

If your source AVI already has the letterboxing, your script would look like this:

AVISource("C:\folder\yourmovie.avi")
AssumeFPS(25,True)
BicubicResize(720,576)

So for 2.35:1 and 1.85:1 I need to use the 16:9 setting in my encoder??

Cheers

Fozzee

[Fozzee]

Heres a funny one for you.
I have a 1.85:1 aspect ratio avi.
But it has 40 pixels top and bottom of black bars!!
Should I crop these and add 72 top and bottom??
Or widescreen it leaving the bars there??

Cheers

Fozzee

[Fozzee]

AVISource("C:\folder\yourmovie.avi")
AssumeFPS(25,True) # converts your output to 25fps
BicubicResize(720,432) # resizes to 720x432
AddBorders(0,72,0,72) # Adds letterboxing - 72 top & 72 bottom

This should give you a widescreen 16:9 PAL compatible output.

What about NTSC 2.35:1 what borders do you add then please.

Cheers

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

I always have to do the math in NTSC, and then just convert to PAL.

A 2.35:1 NTSC video is 360 pixels high, with 120 pixels of letterboxing: 60 to and 60 bottom or 360 + 60 + 60 = 480.

To convert NTSC to PAL, just multiply your vertical by 1.2.

360 * 1.2 = 432

You PAL vertical for 2.35 video would be 432.

576 - 432 = 144 for letterboxing

144 / 2 = 72 Top and 72 Bottom

[Fozzee]

Thanks DJ you've been a great help. This frameserving has changed my finshed article to something I'm happy with now
Especially the assume fps part of it.

Once again thanks for your input.

Fozzee