PAL -> NTSC: I need the general idea explained

[mojo2185]

I've read the guides, and I'm still left with some questions.

My source AVI is in PAL but I need to encode it to a XVCD that is NTSC. What template should I select to do this? I would like to encode the whole movie at once (and do the framerate change at the same time) rather than encode it once, then encode it again to convert to NTSC.

Can someone please tell me what settings I should use for this? I don't need bitrate settings because I'm using the calculator for that.

Thanks

[jamesbond1960]

Hi I asked and had this question answered and since then I have become somewhat of an experts so here goes and it works great.

Launch VirtualDub load the avi and then click on the audio tab you need to extract the audio 1st and convert it. Use full processing mode click on compression and use the top choice then click on file save wave as. Name the wave file and let the program do its job......When its done you have a large wav file on your hard disk which you will soon convert.

Next click on audio again and check off the no audio tab. Then click on video and check direct stream copy Then click on edit and find convert here you convert the original avi from Pal 25fps to NTSC 23.976fps
the click on file and save as avi. This will make an exact copy of your avi with no sound but in 23.976fps

Now we have to convert the audio. So you'll need BeSweet GUI. There are presets in besweet to help do this easily Select the wave file and the output file and make sure you select wave to wave the Pal to NTSC. BeSweet will do the rest. Now you have a converted sound file and a converted avi file to load into Your Mpeg decoder that are almost perfectly insync....... Need more help e-mail me

Archie (doctorag2003@yahoo.com)

[mojo2185]

Thanks for your reply. Your method seems very straight-forward, and I should be able to figure this out.

Thanks!

[bambamrl]

I have a PAL dvd which I converted to NTSC with IfoEdit. When I played the movie in PAL version I was able to use my mouse to click on menu buttons to go to Chapters, Audio, etc... Now after converting to NTSC with IfoEdit I can see the menu when I click on VIDEO_TS file and movie starts but I can't click on any menu button besides the play button on WinDVD. Any suggestion on how to fix this with IfoEdit or any other programs?
Thanks...

[mojo2185]

No offense or anything, but I'd recommend you start a new post. Your question kinda strays from what I asked, and I pretty much closed the topic by saying "thanks for the help". So this topic might not get as many views.

You'd probably get a lot more replies if you start a new topic.
But, keep the post here if you like.

Take care and good luck with your problem.

[Skynet107]

jamesbond1960 you wrote a nice tutorial but I am still confused. Is NTSC not 23.976 fps, but 29.97 frames per second? I thought 23.976 is the frame rate of film.

Also won't the above method change the speed (total time) of the video?

[adam]

NTSC is 29.97fps but digital formats support what is called NTSCfilm which is 23.976fps. If encoding in mpeg2, you include RFF/TFF flags(pulldown flags) into the stream which isntrust the DVD player to telecine the movie in real time to 29.97fps. Its incredibly more more efficient to store NTSC material this way because its progressive, which encodes much better, and because there are less frames every second and thus the same amount of bitrate gets spread over fewer frames.

As for the speed change, there is none between NTSC and NTSCfilm. The fps is increased by creating entirely new frames from existing fields rather than by actually speeding up the video playback, ala PAL. For more information on this do a web search for 2:3 telecine.

As for the speed change when you convert PAL to NTSC, yes it will be slowed down by about %4 but this will actually be returning the speed back to the way it originated as it was filmed. As long as you slow both the video and audio down, then you should be fine.

[adam]

bambamrl I assume you just changed the PAL references to NTSC in the VIDEO_TS.ifo. First off, you didn't convert anything you simply changed how the disk will be read. Whether or not you get PAL, NTSC, or playback at all depends entirely on how the decoder responds to this very strange request to decode one thing as another.

With that said, did you remember to click get VTS sectors after making your changes? Often when you go around editing ifo's you have to update the links or they are lost. My suggestion is to copy the original ifos off the DVD and try it one more time.

Another remote possibility is that your subpictures are not matching up with your buttons drawn on the menu. PAL has a larger resolution than NTSC, and if your decoder is decoding it as NTSC than its possible the screen is shifted in a certain direction. So your ch1 button may be off in space somewhere, not matching what is drawn on your menu.

[DJRumpy]

mojo2185, as another alternative, I'd suggest you use AVISynth 2.5 for this. It requries only three lines. The resulting script is dropped onto your encoder, with no other steps required.

AVISource("c:\folder\aviname.avi")
LanczosResize(480,480) #put what output resolution you want here
AssumeFPS(23.976,True)

That's it. Save the above text in NOTEPAD, placing your actual AVI filename in the first line and whatever resolution you want in the second (I just put 480,480 there since I don't know what resolution you want). Save the file in NOTEPAD in with any filename, but with a .AVS extension (example: SCRIPT.AVS ), and place it in the same directory as your AVI. If you want to preview the conversion, realtime, then just double click the .AVS script. When you double click the .AVS file, it may prompt you, asking what program to use to open it with. Select Windows Media Player.

That .AVS script can then be dropped onto your encoder, and encoded as NTSC Film. No need to resample the audio, as it's done in the script.

You can find AVISynth here: http://www.avisynth.org

[mojo2185]

Hey adam, I'm pretty sure that bambamrl took my advice and created his own topic. I'm sure your info would help, so maybe you could repost it there.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=174871

mojo2185, as another alternative, I'd suggest you use AVISynth 2.5 for this. It requries only three lines. The resulting script is dropped onto your encoder, with no other steps required.

Thanks DJRumpy, I've already finished my conversion for this movie, but I'll definately keep AVISynth in mind for next time. I've heard its a little hard at first (with the scripting and stuff), but I'm sure once I learn it, it'll be a great tool.