DVD PAL to NTSC Using CCE 2.5

[Nostradumbass]

These are all very well documented problems with this type of transfer, and incidentally, almost all NTSC DVDs are encoded at 23.976fps, and PAL is NEVER converted to NTSC in this manner.

If you have a 25fps source then the proper way to convert it to NTSC is to first slow it down to 23.976fps. From there you can simply let the dvd player convert to 29.97fps as it plays. This is the easiest and highest quality way to convert PAL to NTSC, and it is really the only way to properly do it short of doing an actual hard telecine to 29.97fps, which is lower quality anyway and really only necessary for analog output.

jbenj01, you save the TMPGenc project as a tpr, its just a project file. From there VFAPI converter converts this to basically a fake avi file. It loads just like an avi, but you are really frameserving through both TMPGenc and VFAPI, and needless to say, you take a major encoding speed hit as a result. I strongly recommend you stick to avisynth if you are comfortable with it. If you do want to frameserve through TMPGenc for this type of conversion, than you MUST set the output framerate to 23.976fps and not 29.97fps. You must also check the "do not framerate conversion" filter on the advanced tab.

Can you provide a .avs file, like what's found at http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/, to clarify your PAL (film) to NTSC (film) conversion steps?

[adam]

There's really not much to it. All you have to do is load your source, resize to NTSC resolution, and insert the command, AssumeFPS(23.976) to slow down the video to NTSCfilm. The scripts in that guide you posted are incorrect. You must use assumefps, not changeFPS or convertFPS. The first simply slows down the playback speed, effectively reversing what was done when the film was converted to PAL. This is the correct way to convert PAL to NTSCfilm. The latter two commands add or decimate frames to make up the difference in framerate, which yields the same jerky effect that you will get in TMPGenc if you don't use the "don't framerate conversion" filter.

If you want some sample scripts just look here, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78178

The resize line just depends on what your source and output resolutions are, everything else is the same.

You will also have to slow your audio down to match the speed change you have applied to your video. BeSweet has built in functions for this.

That's all that is necessary to do a proper PAL to NTSC conversion. If encoding to mpeg1, just encode at 23.976fps and your done. If encoding to mpeg2 just run your video stream through pulldown.exe before multiplexing. If you do this, than in both cases your hardware dvd player will do the hard part of performing a telecine from ntscfilm to NTSC, and it will most certainly be higher quality than if you did it yourself.

[Nostradumbass]

I used the following script for testing:
crop(0,0,720,576)
BilinearResize(688,416,21,0,678,480)
AddBorders(16,32,16,32)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)
ResampleAudio(44100)
Trim(0,3000)

The sample looked OK except that the top border was larger than the bottom. I tried removing the crop() line but there was no apparent change.

So, then I used FitCD to generate the Avisynth commands, but TMPGEnc doesn't like it: I get a divide by zero error. Here's the script output by FitCD:
BicubicResize(688,448,0,0.6,0,0,720,576)
AddBorders(16,16,16,16)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)
#Trim(0,190445).FadeOut(150)
ConvertToRGB24() # For TMPGEnc or VFAPI

Here's a snapshot of the screen. (or would be if I could get it to post. I've tried both .jpg and .gif, both under 50KB, but neither works,. sigh...)



The PAL source is shown by PowerDVD's info window to be:
Video compression mode : MPEG-2
TV system : 625/50 (PAL)
Aspect Ratio : 4:3
Display Mode : reserved
Source picture resolution : 720x576 (625/50)
Frame Rate : 25.00
Source picture letterboxed : Not letterboxed
Bitrate : 9.80Mbps

What I am doing wrong?

[Anonymous65]

It's strange that nobody has written a filter for Vdub that does the normal conversion between PAL and NTSC video. It's a simple matter of putting 2 or 4 frames in a buffer, and then reading the frame data out at the new frame/line rate. You can buy DV PAL/NTSC converter software, that does this process in software, but it's a simple process that Vdub should be able to do. With all the PAL/NTSC coversion going on, a filter like this should get a lot of use...

[adam]

But why would you ever want to convert PAL to NTSC when it is much easier and higher quality to convert to NTSCfilm, and let the hardware convert to NTSC instead? This can be done in Vdub by simply using the framerate option.

The only, and I mean ONLY, reason to ever convert PAL to NTSC (29.97fps) is if you need analogue output, but if that were the case then you probably wouldn't be doing the conversion on a computer anyways.

[Anonymous65]

I have lots of video tape that is PAL video, not NTSC film. Also, NTSC video (like from a camcorder) is also true NTSC (29.97 frame rate), where a true conversion between PAL and NTSC is needed. I do not convert ANY video (movies) that have a original frame rate of 24.

[adam]

I still don't understand where you are going with this one skittelsen.

PAL tv's are almost all multiscan, and for the ones that aren't, almost all DVD players sold in PAL regions can convert NTSC to PAL 60Hz. The result is that NTSC plays on probably more than 99% of all tv's in PAL regions. There is really no need to ever convert pure NTSC (29.97fps) to PAL.

As for a PAL source, you can always convert it to NTSCfilm and let the hardware do the telecine to NTSC. It is 25fps, whether it is progressive or pure interlaced makes no difference. Slow it down by ~4% and if its interlaced then set the progressive frames tag in the stream to true. It will function the same as if it has been a progressive source. The only difference between PAL and FILM is the playback speed, something which can always be changed, so PAL can always be properly converted to NTSCfilm regardless of where it originated from.

The only type of film that cannot be converted to NTSCfilm is an NTSC (29.97fps) source which did not originate as film. Like I said, however, this can be played on both PAL and NTSC tv's alike so there would never be a need to convert to PAL.

So, the only reason to ever convert PAL to NTSC is if you need analogue output, and there is never a reason to convert NTSC to PAL because NTSC can be played in PAL regions as is.

[DJRumpy]

Nostradumbass, your crop command did nothing, because you basically told it to do nothing.

crop(0,0,720,576)
BilinearResize(688,416,21,0,678,480)
AddBorders(16,32,16,32)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)
ResampleAudio(44100)
Trim(0,3000)

If your input video was pal (720x576), and you crop 0 from the left, and 0 from the top, then you did nothing except to add the crop command to your script. Since you're effectively cropping with your BilinearResize command, you can remove the CROP command all together.

BilinearResize(688,416,21,12,678,480)

Increasing the value above in red will reduce the size of the upper letterbox, adding size to the lower at the same time. Try changing the number to various different values to get it right, or if you want to be perfect, just drop it into VirtualDub, and use the Cropping tool to see exactly how many pixels to cut off the top, and bottom.

It's strange that nobody has written a filter for Vdub that does the normal conversion between PAL and NTSC video.

That's because VDub already has such a filter that is built in (Video | Framerate | Change To: ). It can be used to slow down your video. Of course you'll still have to slow down your audio somewhere other than VDub (like BeSweet), where AVISynth supports this natively with no need to resample.

Adam, you might confusing them with NTSC, and FILM. They may not know the difference.

[Wilbert]

Of course you'll still have to slow down your audio somewhere other than VDub (like BeSweet), where AVISynth supports this natively with no need to resample.

This is simply false. I advice you to use ssrc.exe and wavefix.exe (download section at doom9.org).

[DJRumpy]

This is simply false. I advice you to use ssrc.exe and wavefix.exe (download section at doom9.org).

How is this simply false? I stated you would have to process the audio seperately if you use VDub, which apparently you agree with. AVISynth will slow down the audio for you using the AssumeFPS command, and the TRUE parameter.

I did say BeSweet. I should have been more specific, and said BeSweet GUI. This has a plugin for SSRC. No need to use WAVFIX.

[Wilbert]

Sorry, you were right. Although I wouldn't convert the audio in AviSynth, because it is still a bit buggy. Try to convert from PAL to FILM, and back. You will notice that you have crappy sound and or vdub crashes.

[DJRumpy]

Sorry, you were right. Although I wouldn't convert the audio in AviSynth, because it is still a bit buggy. Try to convert from PAL to FILM, and back. You will notice that you have crappy sound and or vdub crashes.

You should check your version of AVISynth and/or VirtualDub, if your having crashing issues, and upgrade if a newer version exists. I've never had an issue with the AssumeFPS function, and I've been using AVISynth for well over a year and referred a large number of people on this site to use the command for PAL/NTSC conversions. I have heard no complaints about crashing, or quality on literally hundreds of conversion projects. Yours is the first post I've read of a 'buggy' AssumeFPS issue. You should not generically state a conversion process is going to buggy or give bad output for everyone, when it would seem to affect only you. It will not give you 'crappy' output, as it doesn't decimate or attempt to add any frames. The only change will be a 4% higher, or lower pitch for the audio, depending on which format your converting to. The audio resample is high quality, meanin you can expect the same quality as you would get from SSRC.

[Nostradumbass]

You will have to process your audio separately. Use BeSweet. To ensure that everything works correctly, first decompress your AC3 to wav in BeSweet. Just load the AC3 and set the output to wav. Now reload the wav into BeSweet and set it to encode to AC3 again, but on the bottom right use the regional format conversion presets to convert from PAL to NTSCfilm. Once your done, your video and audio will be NTSC compliant. Depending on your dvd authoring software, either import these streams directly, or first multiplex them into an mpg program stream using something like BBmpeg or TMPGenc.

Thanks for the great help. I was able to use your approach and convert a progressive PAL movie to NTSCFilm using DVD2AVI and TMPGEnc. I still have a problem with the AC3 audio. I used BeSweet with its GUI to do the conversion. The problem is that the audio slowly loses sync with the video until, by the end of the movie, its a 1/2 second or so off. Very annoying. I used DVD-Lab 1.1 for the authoring.

What did I forget to do? Here's the BeSweet GUI command line output:

"D:\Audio Tools\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\CURRENTDVD\Transcoded\mr AC3 T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3" -output "C:\CURRENTDVD\Transcoded\mr AC3 T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY 0ms-New.ac3" -logfilea "D:\Audio Tools\BeSweet\BeSweet.log" ) -azid( -z1 -b1 ) -ota( -r 25000 23976 ) -ac3enc( -b 384 -6ch )

[adam]

Its a bug with BeSweet. You can't go from AC3 to AC3 and do the regional format conversion. You have to first convert the AC3 to wav, then reload this wav into BeSweet and THEN do the regional conversion (PAL->NTSCfilm) while converting to AC3 again. I mentioned this in the text of mine you quoted.

[Nostradumbass]

Its a bug with BeSweet. You can't go from AC3 to AC3 and do the regional format conversion. You have to first convert the AC3 to wav, then reload this wav into BeSweet and THEN do the regional conversion (PAL->NTSCfilm) while converting to AC3 again. I mentioned this in the text of mine you quoted.

Doh! Sorry. I guess I was looking for the easy fix. Will report back results. Thanks.

BTW, is there a recipe for converting Menus on PAL disks to NTSC? Once I'm finished with the feature, I'd like to attempt this.

[adam]

Yeah that's another problem with converting PAL DVDs to NTSC DVDs, and unfortunately I don't think there is any good solution.

You'd have to re-encode and reauthor. There is a program called NuMenu which automates this process, but once you change the resolution of the menu than the subpictures (buttons) won't line up anymore. Unless you're willing to live with this, you are going to have to completely reauthor the DVD and manually adjust all of your subpictures.

[jbenj01]

Would you believe i'm still working on the SAME project (earlier in this thread)?! i just don't get it... ???

after conversion, using tons of different Avisynth scripts, the end result is that the right side of the movie is cut off (approx. 1/4 of the screen). I use various scripts that FitCD gave me.. but no success...

i realize i'm beating this to death, but this has really pi$$ed me off... i'm on a mission now!

please advise

p.s. adam, i did use the script you provided earlier in this thread---like i said, the right portion of screen got cut off..

[DJRumpy]

jbenj01, post the exact script that your using. I would also suggest you simply learn the commands, rather than relying on a GUI to generate them for you. A GUI simply cannot handle every concievable input you may be dealing with. I am suprised it had a problem with standard PAL DVD input though.

[jbenj01]

DJRumpy,

Thanks. I will post scripts when i get home from work tonite... in the interim, i've sent you a PM regarding learning avisynth and resizing (so as not to get off topic in this thread).. hope you can help. thanks.

[Nostradumbass]

Yeah that's another problem with converting PAL DVDs to NTSC DVDs, and unfortunately I don't think there is any good solution.

You'd have to re-encode and reauthor. There is a program called NuMenu which automates this process, but once you change the resolution of the menu than the subpictures (buttons) won't line up anymore. Unless you're willing to live with this, you are going to have to completely reauthor the DVD and manually adjust all of your subpictures.

I willing to give it a go. Can you provide a URL reference for the program? I'm Having trouble locating it with Google.

[adam]

Look for it at www.doom9.net. Check the news section and some forum posts. I haven't used it myself so I can't comment on how well it works or if it will even help you do what you want.

You are basically reauthoring everything on the DVD, so its going to require alot of work however you do it.

[DJRumpy]

I'm posting this here, as I think everyone can benefit. It is also relevant to converting from PAL to NTSC in regards to aspect ratio and resolution:

Respects learning the commands, yes, you are absolutely correct.. i went to Avisynth.org and printed out just about everything, read them, trying to understand how to resize (which seems to be my primary problem).. i think my problem is that i do NOT understand how to interpret sizing..

For example, my source is PAL SVCD 352x576 (heightxwidth). I need to convert/resize to NTSC DVD 352x480 (i understand resizing to 720x480 is unnecessary..). The difference, being 96 for the width... But i get totally confused since my TV is 1.33:1 and i can only watch widescreen in 16:9 .. right??

What i don't understand is exactly what determines the resizing dimensions, i.e., h x w and cropping.. ??? What exactly are the factors involved in determining correct resizing output?? i tried to draw a diagram of my TV (1.33:1 aspect ratio) w/the letterbox of 16:9 in it and used simple mathematics to come up with the resize #'s ... it was a total mess.. and avisynth.org does not have the particulars of how to calculate..

Can you explain or direct me to a site that explains this thoroughly?? it'd be much appreciated! i'm very close to just calling it quits and buying something like ProCoder, which i'm told automates all of the above and more..

Ok..where to start. First a quick correction. The first number in a resolution is always Width, not Height ( W x H ).

(I promise this won't hurt much... )
The basic idea behind an aspect ratio is Width divided by height. That's all these aspect ratio numbers represent (16:9, 4:3, 2.35:1, 1.85:1, 1.77:1, 1.33:1, etc). If you have a 16:9 video, it is 16 parts wide, to 9 parts high. Another way to put it, is 16/9 (16 divided by 9). If you actually divide 16/9, you get 1.77. This is the decimal value of a 16:9 aspect ratio, and as you already know, 16:9 is widescreen. Your television, is 4:3 (4/3=1.333 decimal). It is 4 times as wide, as it is tall.

Now if you take a 4:3 video, and place it a on 4:3 television, you'll see that it fills the whole screen, and looks right (not too short, not too tall). A rough representation would look like this:

XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

You'll notice that the above example is 4 blocks wide, and 3 blocks high. This example has an aspect ratio of 4:3. It is the same on your television, although your television has many more 'block's, they are at the same ratio.

However, if you try to display a 16:9 video onto a 4:3 television 'as is', you'd find everyone looks like they were 10 feet tall, and hadn't eaten in years. This is because a 16:9 video (1.77 decimal), is too wide to fit on the screen properly (it's 1.77 times wide, as it is tall, or almost twice as wide as it is tall). What they do, to get around this, is to shrink the video in on all sides, so the aspect ratio never changes (it doesn't get distorted by the shrinking..everyone 'looks' exactly the same) until it's small enough that the wide sides fit in the display. Try to picture it in your mind, where the video just shrinks on all sides at once, kind of zooming away from you. When the video shrinks enough, that the entired WIDTH of the video (remember it's almost twice as wide as it is tall) can fit on the screen, then of course you have a lot of empty space on top, and bottom. You know this area as letterboxing. This is why a 4:3 television has letterboxing when displaying a widescreen movie.

(this is where it starts to get a bit more confusing)
To understand this a bit better, you need to understand how the math works. Lets assume you've downloaded a movie that is 640x480. If you do the math to find this movies aspect ratio (640/480 = 1.3333), you see that is has a 1.33:1 aspect ratio ( also known as 4:3 ). To get this to fit properly on your television screen, which also has a 4:3 aspect ratio, you would simply resize it to the full resolution of whatever meda you are trying to place it on, with NO letterboxing. That's because our example video has an Aspect ratio of 4:3 and your TV has an aspect ratio of 4:3. No difference between the two. If you converted this movie to SVCD, you would simply resize it to 480x480, and it would display full screen and look right on your television. The same is true when converting between PAL and NTSC. If you have a PAL CVD (352x576), and you want to convert it to NTSC (352x480), you would note that a PAL television also has an aspect ratio of 4:3. Know what we just talked about above (4:3 to 4:3), we would simply resize it to the NTSC full screen resolution of 352x480, and it would look 'right' on your television as well (you may be asking yourself at this point how that is possible - It's because the pixels on a PAL television are not the same height as an NTSC TV). So when moving a video to the same aspect ratio in the new format, simply do a full resize to the new width and height.

(It gets a bit more confusing here..bare with me)
New example. Lets say you've downloaded a video that is 720x306. If we do that math to find the aspect ratio ( 720/306=2.35 ), we find it has a decimal aspect ratio of 2.35:1. This video is an anamorphic widescreen. It's over twice as wide as it is tall (2.35 times wide as it is tall). Lets assume you want to get this to fit into a 4:3 aspect ratio. To figure out what to resize it to, you have to figure out how much you have to 'shrink' it to fit onto your 4:3 television. You do this by basing your resize on the one values that we do know. What do we know?
We know how high your vertical resolution is. Your TV displays about 480 active vertical lines. We also know that your television display has an aspect ratio of 4:3.

Since we have your vertical height, and the aspect ratio of your display, we can figure out the rest. Use your 480 vertical, to find the width of your televisions display. Since your TV is 4:3 (1.333 decimal), and it has a 480 vertical display height, you can figure out it's approximate display width (a standard tv doesn't have a width in pixels per say, but we can generate a number for video being displayed on it to approximate a vertical width). Multiply height (480) times aspect ratio (480x1.333=640). Our televisions approximate horizontal width is 640 pixels. Now we have the width of your video when it is played back on a 4:3 television. With the WIDTH known, we can now find out how tall the video should be. Divide our WIDTH by it's aspect ratio ( 640 / 2.35 ), and that gives us 272.

To resize our 720x306 anamorphic widescreen movie to fit onto a 4:3 display, we would resize the vertical to 272. Now you have to take a small leap. What about the Horizontal resolution? You resize your video to fit the horizontal resolution of your desired format. Say CVD for this example (352 horizontal). We would resize our video to 352x272, and add letterboxing to fill out the vertical to 480 pixels (352x480). When this is played back on a television, the horizontal is stretched to the aspect ratio of our display (4/3, or 640 pixels). This means your horizontal resolution is somewhat irrelevant on playback. Only the vertical is important for proper playback proportions.

Lets try another example. What if your video is 720x390? Lets do the math again.

720/390=1.84 (This is a 1.85:1 aspect ratio movie)
Our 4:3 display has a vertical height of 480.
480 x TV Aspect ratio (1.333) = 640 Display width
640 / Movie Aspect Ratio( 1.85 ) = 360

Our 1.85 movie should be resized to 360 vertical for a 4:3 display, with the remaining 120 pixels as letterboxing.

The same principle can be applied to any display. Take a widescreen television for instance. They come in an aspect ratio of 16:9 (1.77 decimal) instead of 4:3. Lets apply the math for a movie that is 720x306:
720/306=2.35 (This is a 2.35:1 aspect ratio movie)
Our 16:9 display (1.777 decimal) also has a vertical height of 480 like a TV so:
480 x Display Aspect Ratio( 1.777 ) = 854 horizontal (rounded to nearest even)
854 / Movie Aspect Ratio ( 2.35 ) = 364 (rounded again to nearest even)

To get a 2.35 movie to display properly on a 16:9 widescreen television, we would resize the movies vertical to 364, and fill the rest with letterboxing.

What about VCD? It's simple. It's exactly half the vertical height of a standard display (240 instead of 480), so you do the same math based on 480, and divde your final result by 2.

[jbenj01]

DJRumpy,

EXCELLENT post!! Thank you! One question, though...umm...who's on 1st??? No, really, great info, but i still have questions...

In the end, i must come up (calculate) with my new height (based on original source resolution and aspect ratio and my TV's resolution and aspect ratio, which is 480x640 and 1.33:1, resp.), yes??

Once new height is ascertained...then i just "plug in" the defined horizontal (width) resolution of my desired end format, ie., VCD, SVCD, DVD?? For example, for DVD, it would be whatever standard measures there exist for DVD--720, 352(??), etc.. ??

So in your example of 720x306 source (2.35:1 a/r), you ended up with new height of 272.. and added 352 as the new width b/c you wanted to create a... VCD?? (In your post, is "CVD" a typo??). For this example, what if i wanted to create a DVD? Could i just plug in...say..720 as the new width?? Or is that for naught b/c the original source of 720x306 IS a DVD??

still a little confused.. thanks.

[DJRumpy]

In the end, i must come up (calculate) with my new height (based on original source resolution and aspect ratio and my TV's resolution and aspect ratio, which is 480x640 and 1.33:1, resp.), yes??

Correct. Rember though, that you always put WIDTH first, and then height (It should be 640x480, not 480x640)

Once new height is ascertained...then i just "plug in" the defined horizontal (width) resolution of my desired end format, ie., VCD, SVCD, DVD?? For example, for DVD, it would be whatever standard measures there exist for DVD--720, 352(??), etc.. ??

Perfect. You've got it. (480 horz for SVCD, 720 horz for DVD, etc)

So in your example of 720x306 source (2.35:1 a/r), you ended up with new height of 272.. and added 352 as the new width b/c you wanted to create a... VCD?? (In your post, is "CVD" a typo??). For this example, what if i wanted to create a DVD? Could i just plug in...say..720 as the new width?? Or is that for naught b/c the original source of 720x306 IS a DVD??

No Typo. It's CVD, not VCD. CVD is like SVCD, with a different horizontal resolution. Instead of 480x480, it's 352x480. It's the same as SVCD in all other aspects.

Give yourself a very big pat on the back. You've got it exactly. If you were creating a full resolution DVD, then you would plug in 720 as the new width.

720x362 (DVD)
or
480x362 (SVCD)
or
352x362 (CVD)
or
352x180 (VCD...362/2=181 or 180 rounded. Remeber VCD is half vertical height, so your result is divided by 2)

In all of the above, you would simply add letterboxing to the 362 to fill it out the rest of the way to 480.

One last thing I should point out about the letterboxing part, since we didn't really cover it. An odd number of lines in a letterbox isn't a good idea and 362 isn't a good number. It should always be multiples of 4 for the vertical height. The reason for this has to do with the way the letterboxing is added. If we use 362 as in our example here, and we figure out our letterboxing (480 - image area of 362 in height = 118). Our letterboxing would need to be 118 pixels. If we divide that by two to get the upper and lower letterbox height, we have a problem, because the value (59) is an ODD number. You never want to use odd numbers when adding or removing to/from your video. It can change the field order of your video which will cause jerkiness when it's encoded.

If you use a mutiple of 4 (like 360 or 364, instead of 362). That way you will always have an EVEN value to add as letterboxing. To calculate how much letterboxing, you subtract your actaul image area (360 pixels in this example) from the full vertical height (480):

480-360 = 120
120/2=60
60 top letterbox
60 bottom letterbox

[jbenj01]

I think i understand now, although still a little fuzzy (WIDTH first!!! .. But i've printed this out and have bookmarked for reference pruposes.. Again, thanks for taking the time...

Now, respects PAL to NTSC, it sounds straight-forward but just want to make sure.. so regardless the PAL source size, the premise is that for viewing on TV, both PAL and NTSC TV's have an a/r of 4:3, or 1:1 -- the difference being the pixel height (576pal vs. 480ntsc), yes? so 352x576 becomes 352x480 and 720x576 becomes 720x480, yes?

Is 352x480 a standard DVD standard (i think it is)? I ask b/c my NTSC DVD player does not play SVCD's. I even tried the 'header trick' and it still would not play... so i'm trying to convert source PAL 352x576 to NTSC 352x48 or 720x480, BUT approx. 1/4 of the right portion of the screen keeps getting cut off (along with some pixelation on the right vertical edge of the screen).. ??

Here's a basic Avisynth script i used:

LoadPlugin("C:\PATH\MPEG2DEC.dll")
mpeg2source("c:\PATH\filename.d2v")
SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(352,480) #tried (720,480) too
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)

and another from FitCD:

LoadPlugin("C:\PATH\MPEG2DEC.dll")
mpeg2source("c:\PATH\filename.d2v")
SeparateFields()
BilinearResize(320,224,0,0,352,288).Weave()
AddBorders(16,16,16,16)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)
ResampleAudio(44100)

I tried several othe 'combos' to no avail.. all came out with the right side of the movie cut off..

[DJRumpy]

Now, respects PAL to NTSC, it sounds straight-forward but just want to make sure.. so regardless the PAL source size, the premise is that for viewing on TV, both PAL and NTSC TV's have an a/r of 4:3, or 1:1 -- the difference being the pixel height (576pal vs. 480ntsc), yes? so 352x576 becomes 352x480 and 720x576 becomes 720x480, yes?

Correct.

Is 352x480 a standard DVD standard (i think it is)? I ask b/c my NTSC DVD player does not play SVCD's. I even tried the 'header trick' and it still would not play... so i'm trying to convert source PAL 352x576 to NTSC 352x48 or 720x480, BUT approx. 1/4 of the right portion of the screen keeps getting cut off (along with some pixelation on the right vertical edge of the screen).. ??

352x480 is a DVD standard called Half-D1. Your DVD player will play it without issue (as long as you put it on DVD media). It will probably not play on CD-R media, since your player doesn't support SVCD (they are typically a package deal..if it supports SVCD, it supports CVD). Half-D1 on DVD however is a standard for DVD media, and should play on any player. The pixelation on the right is very curious. How much are you talking about? Can you post a screen shot of a frame with a sample?

LoadPlugin("C:\PATH\MPEG2DEC.dll")
mpeg2source("c:\PATH\filename.d2v")
SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(352,480) #tried (720,480) too
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)

In regards to your script, some of the lines are redundant. Although you can seperate your video into fields, it's not necessary for something simple like changing the framerate. You would typically only do that when you need to work at the field level, rather than the frame level. You should also put your MPEG2DEC.DLL file in your PLUGINS directory (usually in Program Files\AVISynth\Plugins ). That way you don't have to use the LoadPlugin line at all. Their loaded automatically when placed there.

mpeg2source("c:\PATH\filename.d2v")
LanczosResize(352,480)
AssumeFPS(23.976, true)

Other than that, there are no problems in this script that would cause yoru video to shift to the right. Does it look shiften when you play your .AVS script in media player? I might suspect that the D2V file you created had the 'Clip & Resize' function enabled. If the AVS file doesn't play correctly in Media Player (still gets clipped on the right), then re-create the D2V file from the VOB's. Ensure that the CLIP function is not enabled under the VIDEO menu (no check in the top right corner of the CLIP popup dialog).

[jbenj01]

I wish i knew how to take a screen shot and post it here.. but i don't.. (besides, i don't think i'd be allowed to in this particular case.. ) . oh, and they are not .vob files, if that makes difference.. Just as background (you may not need), here's my complete process..

--i started with 3 bin/cue files;
--used SVCD2MPEG to create 3 mpeg2 files and 3 audio files (not sure what type??--how can i find out?);
--used TMPGEnc Plus to merge all files together to create .mpg file (don't think this step was necessary..??)
--ran DVD2AVI 1.76 on the .mpg file to create .d2v file and a .mpa audio file (almost positive that i did NOT have 'clip/resize' checked--b/c i never use it. also set audio to track #1 and demux; and video to 'none', scale to TV, and forgot the color scheme)

This is where it all falls to bits.. i created various avs scripts and have used TMPGEnc Plus AND CCE to convert -- both have yielded same result every time --> video shifted to the right, thereby, cutting off the right portion of screen, pixelation along right vertical edge (mostly towards bottom half) of screen AND audio out of sync (which i don't even want to try to fix at this point.. .

I have not tried playing avs script in Media Player, but will do so tonite.. I always use PowerDVD for viewing--is that a problem? ProCoder looks more attractive by the hour..

[DJRumpy]

You are right. You didn't need to join them at all. I would actually avoid doing so, as it's probably whats introducing your sync problem. Just make sure that all there MPEG's are using the same name format (ex: file1.mpg, file2.mpg, file3.mpg )

Select FILE | OPEN in DVD2AVI, pick the first MPG, and it should automatically load the rest (assuming they are named in the same manner..see above). If it does not auto add all of the parts, use the ADD button to ensure all parts of the mpeg are loaded. Set your options, and then save it as a project file. It will automatically give you a 'joined' ouput, and one MPA audio or WAV audio (depending on your audio settings).

At this point, use your .AVS script in Media Player to ensure that the entire length of the video is there, and that it looks ok. You should do this with NO filtering enabled (i.e. Just your MPEG2Source Line ). Check to see if it's shifted, and also check to see if the pixelation is present.

[Panter]

you already tried goldwave with the function time warp?

[Nostradumbass]

Its a bug with BeSweet. You can't go from AC3 to AC3 and do the regional format conversion. You have to first convert the AC3 to wav, then reload this wav into BeSweet and THEN do the regional conversion (PAL->NTSCfilm) while converting to AC3 again. I mentioned this in the text of mine you quoted.

I'm nearly at my wit's end. When trying to convert the DD 5.1 to an intermediate .wav file I get something that only sounds like fast clicks on playback. I've tried quite a few BeSweet setting combos. Here's a sample command line:

"D:\Audio Tools\BeSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\CURRENTDVD\Transcoded\mr AC3 T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3" -output "C:\CURRENTDVD\Transcoded\mr AC3 T01 3_2ch 448Kbps DELAY 0ms-New.wav" -ddwav -logfilea "D:\Audio Tools\BeSweet\BeSweet.log" ) -azid( -z1 -b1 )

What's up?