Wow! First success! (Newbie AVI to DVD)

[trimicada]

I just rececived my burner (NEC 2500) last weekend, and first burned a bunch of data files (system backups and such) to free up space on my server. With that out of the way, I was ready to try burning some DVD's. I had 2 AVI files that I wanted to convert so that I could play them on my standalone player (a Toshiba SD-1600). My player cannot play VCD or SVCD, but according to comments here, will play DVD-R (am considering getting a new player soon). Each clip was less than an hour, so I wanted to put them together on the same disc. So, the following is what I did: (And yes, I do have a question or 2 at the end...)

1. Loaded each AVI in Gspot to check for CODEC, aspect ratio (1.81:1=16:9), runtime, and FPS.
2. Loaded each AVI in TMPGENC. Extracted .m2v video. (I used 2 pass VBR on one clip and CBR on the other. Both are around 6000, and I could not tell much of a difference. I will probably stick with CBR at 6000 in the future for these types of sources. Very acceptable quality.)
3. Used VirtualDub to extract audio to WAV
4. Used FFMPGGUI to convert WAV to AC3
5. Used TMPGENC DVD Author to select both files and make menu allowing me to select either track to play.
6. Played from folder using WinDVD to check files.
7. Burned with Nero 6.3.0.3 at 4x (on TDK -R media which is actually reported to be Ritek G04 -R media)
8. Moved disc from burner (NEC 2500) to combo drive (LiteOn 48161H) to test.
9. Played disc on Toshiba SD-1600.

Played perfectly! Or near enough for me! The audio was very, very slightly out of sync on the first track, but I think that is related to what I did with FPS. Both AVI's were 23.976fps source. I had not read enough to know about pulldown, so the first track I set to 29.97 in TMPGENC. The second track, I left at 23.976 at selected 3:2 pulldown on the video tab. I've only watched a little bit of my second track so far, but cannot detect any sync problems. So, is leaving it at 23.976 the "normal" way to go using 3:2 pulldown? Could my very slight audio sync be due to the way I handled FPS? Or was it due to the conversion of audio to wav to ac3?

Also, re: the audio: I converted to WAV to AC3 due to the age of my player. I thought I remembered reading that if a player does support VCD and SVCD, then it would probably support MP2 audio even though it is not a standard. Since my player does not support VCD, I went ahead and converted audio. Was this right?

Thanks,

Trina

[vcdforme]

Your a fast learner!
It took me alot more than 2 weeks to make
a decent DVD. I went thru software hell, until I found
TMPG Author.

Anyway, from my experience, AC3 is always desirable since it
is one of the required standards. The other being wav.
I doubt that the conversion to AC3 resulted in your sync
problem. It has never been an issue for me. BUT, I've also read
that FMPGGUI does not make a proper spec AC3 file.
I use Sonic Foundry Soft encode.

My guess, is it happened during your change in FPS.

(Yes, to the last paragraph)

[trimicada]

Well, as for learning fast...I spent multiple hours here even before my burner arrived :>

I will re-encode the first clip like I did the second staying at 23.97 with 3:2 pulldown selected. Hopefully that will work. I finished watching the second clip and it was fine.

Thanks.

[dafreak]

yes, the audio sync problem is caused by changing the frame rate.

when you load your avi into gspot, it should tell you what the frame rate is. avi's will usually be 23.97 fps. with 23.97 fps source, you want to always use 3:2 pulldown, unless you want to keep the avi at 23.97 fps.

[Ronaldus]

trimicade, the steps you use are amazingly similar to what I ended up doing, except I haven't had to use Gspot and I have a different drive.

I also used 2-pass VBR to encode something averaging 6950 Kbps and then I tried CBR on it at 6950 Kbps. The file sizes were virtually the same and I couldn't tell any difference in quality in the video parts I sampled, but CBR was immensely faster to encode. It makes me wonder under what circumstances I should use VBR. Is VBR only going to make a difference when there is "fast motion"? I thought my video had fast motion, but maybe I'm not looking at the right parts to see a difference.

I wish there were a simple rule to follow, such as whenever your bit rate is above 6500 then use CBR, otherwise use 2-pass VBR, but I guess it depends on the source material. Another thing that drives me crazy is all this talk about using different GOP structures. I use I=1, P=4, B=1 from the compression document on dvd-hq.info. Is that the best all-around GOP structure for a newbie like me to use on a wide variety of video?

I also tried Ffmpeggui and found its AC-3 output locked up my old Pioneer player and a new Toshiba player. I'm told BeSweet has the same problem, so it appears TMPGEnc's AC-3 plug-in is my only option when I have time to buy it. TMPGEnc does something weird to my MP2 audio (it seems to make it louder and distorted), so I see AC-3 as my only choice.

Finally, I use Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture to AVI and edit out unwanted segments which I resave to AVI using the same Codec (I believe). TMPGEnc has a "Source Range" filter under "Settings -> Advanced" to remove an unwanted segment from the source AVI. Is there any advantage to using the Source Range filter instead of editing in Pinnacle Studio and resaving as an AVI? My instinct is there is no advantage because Pinnacle does not appear to be re-encoding, but just because I don't notice any quality difference doesn't mean there isn't a subtle loss. Theoretically, which of these options is the best way to edit?