3:2 Pulldown for 23.976fps

[rbautch]

I've been encoding DivX movies to DVD+R at 23.97fps. I have been reading about the 3:2 pulldown ever since DVD-Lab prompted me to add these flags when I imported a 23.97 video asset. I have also read it's better to encode at the same fps as the source to maintain the audio synch. If I use the 3:2 pulldown, do I have to do anything to the audio as well - such as using the OTA conversion in BeSweet? Also, is it better to add the pulldown flags in TMPGenc during encoding or let DVD-Lab do it?

[adam]

No, you don't have to touch the audio. Yes keeping it 23.976fps is definitely the best thing to do. Most NTSC DVDs are in fact encoded at 23.976fps and "pulled down" to 29.97fps, its the preferred way to store NTSC film digitally.

I've never used DVD-Lab so I have no idea how well its 3:2 pulldown function works. I've used TMPGenc's and it seems to work fine though some people have complained that some authoring programs gave them errors. All I can say is that using pulldown.exe is probably your safest bet, though DVD-Lab and TMPGenc will probably work just as well too.

[rbautch]

Thanks Adam, that helps. In TMPGenc, there appears to be 2 places to set the pulldown...there's the checkbox under advanced settings, and there's the "encode mode" in video settings. Which one do I check, or do I check both?

[adam]

Only check the one on the Video tab under encode mode. The 3:2 pulldown filter is for hard telecining 23.976fps to 29.97fps. Basically, it actually creates the additional frames and encodes them into the picture, rather than simply inserting the flags to tell the DVD decoder to do it on the fly.

[rbautch]

Got it, thanks again. I also downloaded pulldown.exe, which looks pretty easy. I'll give that a try too.

[Roderz]

Most NTSC DVDs are in fact encoded at 23.976fps and "pulled down" to 29.97fps, its the preferred way to store NTSC film digitally

I've been wondering about this
23.976fps was never an issue before (doing vcd's)
But since burning to dvd need to be 29.97fps or Pal, I was getting confused, so (by trial & error) I put the file through TMPGenc's wizard and chose NTSC 29.97fps even though my file states 23.976fps (AVIcodec) and the file played perfect - not what I was expecting!

Cheers adam At least thats cleared up my confusion

or has it?

[adam]

Its really no different between DVDs and VCDs, because ultimately its the regional format that you are locked into that decides what fps you can use. NTSC tv's run at 29.97fps...period. Whether you are making a VCD or DVD its going to have to play back at that speed on an NTSC tv. VCDs don't support pulldown flags, but dvd players are supposed to autotelecine them if they are 23.976fps. DVDs do support pulldown flags, so whenever you encode at 23.976fps you have to apply them in order to be compliant and in order for the DVD player to do the telecine.

I assume TMPGenc's DVD wizard will encode a 23.976fps source in ntscfilm with pulldown flags if encoding to DVD. If so, your method is fine. The problem with wizards though is that you don't always know what is going on. A good test to see whether your footage was encoded correctly would be to preview it in dvdavi. If it says %100 film then its correct, if it says NTSC then TMPGenc just telecined the movie instead of applying pulldown flags.

[rbautch]

Pulldown.exe worked and my movies played great. Many thanks!