Pal DVD to NTSC DVD

[devnulllore]

I have a DVD that I bought that is region 2 and in pal format. I want to rip it to a DVD+R and watch it. There is no copy protection and I can rip out the region encoding just fine but I have tried several different tactics to convert it to NTSC and have had no success. Either the audio is always way off or the file is not true DVD quality.

I just want to mirror image the disc but convert it to NTSC.

Any suggestions?

[FulciLives]

This can be done but is a bit of a trick

Just don't give up ... it's tricky but not THAT difficult

1.) http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/

2.) https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=160433

Link one is the Bible

Link two is a discussion about the processes talked about in link one and provides some more step-by-step instructions.

It's a lot to read and take in but please try before posting more detailed questions.

But by all means if anything is unclear after you read all that feel free to post in this thread again with any specific questions you may have.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Answers to Questions you may already have:

1.) No there is not really an easier way
2.) No you can't keep the original menu design unless you are a DVD guru. Even *I* don't bother with that hehehe

GOOD LUCK !!!

[johns0]

What to do is use vobedit and load the first vob in and then demux the streams,usually m2v and ac3 and then use tmpgenc to encode the m2v,after you input the m2v in tmpgenc then load the dvd ntsc template and then load in the unlock template,you find that in the extra folder,then change in settings/video encode mode to 2:3 pulldown when playback and framerate 23.976 internally 29.97,in settings advance check do not frame rate conversion and if the pic is 16:9 then choose 16:9 for aspect ratio in video and in advanced choose full screen for video arrange method.For the audio use besweet to change the fps from 25 to 23.976 and save as wav,then use ffmpeg to encode the wav back to ac3.

[devnulllore]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

BTW, Zombie is one of my favorite films!!

[kpkilburn]

I basically used the same method with VOBEdit, but used Canopus Procoder instead of converting with TMPGEnc. This can be a costly alternative though and I'd recommend buying TMPGEnc if you're going to buy anything.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=206307&highlight=

As you can see from the thread, I had problems with the subtitles. I never did get them to work properly.

[FulciLives]

I basically used the same method with VOBEdit, but used Canopus Procoder instead of converting with TMPGEnc. This can be a costly alternative though and I'd recommend buying TMPGEnc if you're going to buy anything.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=206307&highlight=

As you can see from the thread, I had problems with the subtitles. I never did get them to work properly.

The easiest way to deal with subs when doing PAL to NTSC is to burn the subs into the image.

I use AviSynth scripting so in the order of scripting you add the subs (while the video is still at 25fps so the subs sync) then you add the script line or lines of code you need to adjust the framerate and resolution. Only problem is if you have a widescreen movie the subs will look "crushed" (short and fat) if you make the new NTSC DVD 16x9 but if you make the NTSC DVD 4:3 widescreen then the subs look normal.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[kpkilburn]

I've never used AVISynth, but I may check it out. I was playing around with the other sub programs, but never could get them ripped into usable formats.

There are probably other programs to do permananet subs -- any recommendations?

I don't mind permanent subs, but for this particular project, I would like to have them switchable (as are the language tracks).

Thanks.

[kpkilburn]

John,

A little off topic, but...

I live in Naples, Italy and as a Fulci fan yourself, you may know that a movie called "Contraband" was filmed here. Not sure what the Italian title was because all I could find was an English-dubbed version.

As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to get pictures of the filming locations (as I have already found for The Phantom Menace and Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon).

[Ducky]

Hello,

Ive used the "bible" site (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/) to do a PAL->NTSC conversion. But I finished with a jerky video. I searched on the message board and I found that this method was created for a interlaced PAL and that most of PAL videos are progressive. Well, I think mine is progressive as I dont see horizontal lines while there is a big movment.

so, as FulciLives mentionned in another thread, I tried the 2nd method (the one for vcd pal->ntsc vcd)

as far as i understood that one, what i only have to do is to load the d2v file from my dvd into TMPGEnc Plus, there is no avisynth script? well i loaded it and changed all settings from PAL to NTSC format (720*780, 29.97FPS and NTSC in the first raw). i converted like 1 min and it looked fine so i let it run.

my question is: do i do it in the right way?
and what about this MP2->AC3 conversion, do i really need all these steps? i previously encoded the .mpa file i had with dvd2avi to WAV with tmpgnc plus and then reencoded to AC3 thanks to ffmpeggui02c and it sounded ok to my hears and it was synch...
tell me if my method is really bad...

Thanks for any helping answers

Etienne

[FulciLives]

John,

A little off topic, but...

I live in Naples, Italy and as a Fulci fan yourself, you may know that a movie called "Contraband" was filmed here. Not sure what the Italian title was because all I could find was an English-dubbed version.

As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to get pictures of the filming locations (as I have already found for The Phantom Menace and Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon).

The original Italian title is "Luca il contrabbandiere" with most English Language dubbed prints using the title "The Smuggler" or "Contraband".

A good 2 years or so ago there was a PAL DVD using the English Dubbed print called THE SMUGGLER and was a Dutch DVD release. Last year there was a USA release called CONTRABAND on the Blue Underground label which is the best version to date quality wise.

Wouldn't mind seeing those picture

As for the subtitles I use VobSub and AviSynth ... Gordiant Knot can help you set that up and create your AviSynth script.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

Hello,

Ive used the "bible" site (http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/) to do a PAL->NTSC conversion. But I finished with a jerky video. I searched on the message board and I found that this method was created for a interlaced PAL and that most of PAL videos are progressive. Well, I think mine is progressive as I dont see horizontal lines while there is a big movment.

so, as FulciLives mentionned in another thread, I tried the 2nd method (the one for vcd pal->ntsc vcd)

as far as i understood that one, what i only have to do is to load the d2v file from my dvd into TMPGEnc Plus, there is no avisynth script? well i loaded it and changed all settings from PAL to NTSC format (720*780, 29.97FPS and NTSC in the first raw). i converted like 1 min and it looked fine so i let it run.

my question is: do i do it in the right way?
and what about this MP2->AC3 conversion, do i really need all these steps? i previously encoded the .mpa file i had with dvd2avi to WAV with tmpgnc plus and then reencoded to AC3 thanks to ffmpeggui02c and it sounded ok to my hears and it was synch...
tell me if my method is really bad...

Thanks for any helping answers

Etienne

Well the proper method when the DVD is PAL PROGRESSIVE is listed in LINK TWO that I have provided so I'm not going to go into detail here since it is all in that other thread but it sounds like you aren't doing it correctly. You need to encode as a progressive 23.976fps NTSC and this can be done with AviSynth or with just TMPGEnc

And when you slow down 25fps PAL to 23.976fps NTSC you also need to adjust the audio by slowing it down as well ... this is what BeSweet is for.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

ok, since there isnt any avisynth script for that vcd conversion, i followed basically what you wrote for ams30gts in that second link.
here are my windows, tell me if im still wrong






what i will change is CBR for VBR, but after that conversion, my mpa (or mp2 file, dunno if it is the same format) won't be synch anymore right?
then i will have to use besweet to slow down the audio source from 25 to 23,976 right? (ill follow your instructions)

ok i let it run anyway, just tell me if im right, that's not even for me, just a trade with an american guy who wants me to convert to ntsc...


cheers (and sorry for double post)

etienne

[FulciLives]

On the MPEG SETTING ... VIDEO TAB

Change VIDEO FORMAT from PAL to NTSC

Then ...

On the MPEG SETTING ... ADVANCED TAB

Change the VIDEO ARRANGE METHOD from CENTER (CUSTOM SIZE) to FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO)

Otherwise everything seems to be in order assuming this is a PROGRESSIVE 16x9 PAL DVD source.

Oh yes one last thing ... I usually use HIGH QUALITY (SLOW) as my setting for the MOTION SEARCH PRECISION on the MPEG SETTING ... VIDEO TAB

As for the audio don't forget you need to change it by slowing it down from 25fps to 23.976fps which can be done with BeSweet and either the BeSweet GUI or AC3Machine as a front end.

What format is the audio in? I'm assuming AC-3 perhaps but is is 2.0 or 5.1 or what? I can give you some tips on doing the audio if you want to give me details on what format it is.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

oh, yes the video format, im dumb

the original audio is MP2 or MPA (depends if i demultiplex using tmpgenc plus or dvd2avi)

and, yes i understood the slowering process (i assume it is a bit like resampling audio so that the audio speed fits the video speed, right?)

im gonna try to do what you said about audio conversion, and ill come here later if you have more advices about the audio format.

thanks anyway for helping so much

[FulciLives]

the original audio is MP2 or MPA (depends if i demultiplex using tmpgenc plus or dvd2avi)

My suggestion is to first convert the MP2/MPA audio to a 16-bit 48k Stereo PCM WAV file.

Then convert from that to a new 16-bit 48k Stereo PCM WAV file doing the FPS conversion.

Now you can use the WAV as is or convert to MP2 or AC-3

I use BeSweet for this but some people do it in a WAV editing program such as GOLDWAVE.

Good Luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

thx again, seems to work fine (but motion search estimate is REALLY slow, it took more than 10hours for a 1h show)

edit:i multiplexed, the final result is synch but damn slow compared to the original source (and this is annoying since it is a gig)

btw, can i convert progressive pal 4:3 to ntsc 16:9 just by changing video source aspect ratio to pal (625 lines) (cropping using the clip frame option) because i have another video to convert but there are black bands on it, so i thought i could convert it to 16:9 nstc. is it actually the same process?
same question for the last video i need to convert: pal progessive 4:3 to ntsc 4:3

cheers

[FulciLives]

btw, can i convert progressive pal 4:3 to ntsc 16:9 just by changing video source aspect ratio to pal (625 lines) (cropping using the clip frame option) because i have another video to convert but there are black bands on it, so i thought i could convert it to 16:9 nstc. is it actually the same process?

For PAL you take the 720x576 image and clip 72 from the top and 72 from the bottom which gives you 720x432 then you resize from 720x432 to 720x576 ... This converts 4:3 PAL to 16x9 PAL

For NTSC you take the 720x480 image and clip 60 from the top and 60 from the bottom which gives you 720x360 then you resize from 720x360 to 720x480 ... This converts 4:3 NTSC to 16x9 NTSC

The only problem is this ... I'm not sure how TMPGEnc handles the clipping. In other words if you have a 4:3 PAL source you enter the source as being 4:3 then do your clipping but TMPGEnc does the resizing for you from PAL to NTSC so when you enter the clip mode in TMPGEnc I am unsure if you are clipping from the input (720x576) or the resized NTSC image (720x480)

However you need to know which you are clipping since it makes a difference.

I would normally do this myself using AviSynth scripting. It's easier to control that way.

So you will have to either try TMPGEnc and do 2 samples ... one where you clip 72 from top and bottom and another where you clip 60 from top and bottom and "eyeball" the output to see which looks proper.

Or if you want to try AviSynth I can post the script you would use in order to do this.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

about the speed problem, can't i convert to 29.97 FPS, because it doesnt sound normal (too slow lyrics), and i believe the final result isn't acceptable...
NTSC is 23.976 or 29.97 no?

I understood the cropping problem... i can try both but the main problem right now is the speed... did i do it wrongly?

[FulciLives]

about the speed problem, can't i convert to 29.97 FPS, because it doesnt sound normal (too slow lyrics), and i believe the final result isn't acceptable...
NTSC is 23.976 or 29.97 no?

I understood the cropping problem... i can try both but the main problem right now is the speed... did i do it wrongly?

You convert PAL which is 25fps to PROGRESSIVE NTSC which is 23.976fps and this is a 4% (give or take) slow down. You MUST also slow down the audio by 4%

This is the proper way. Most people don't notice the slow down but since this is a concert ... pretty much ALL music ... then it might be MORE noticeable than normal.

But this is how it is done by the pros for the most part.

Also don't be confused by PROGRESSIVE NTSC which is 23.976fps and INTERLACED NTSC which is 29.970fps ... both run at the exact same speed audio wise.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

OK well I should point out that there is a method you can use that will convert the PAL video to NTSC but in such a way that the original audio will sync without the need to slow it down or change it at all.

However this method doesn't provide the best quality video conversion but it seems to work.

It requires you use AviSynth version 2.08 ... it can't be done by loading the D2V directly into TMPGEnc as TMPGEnc lacks the parameters that you need to adjust hence the need for AviSynth scripting.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

ok, could you pm me the avisynth script please?

im already happy to have done it properly (and now if i need to convert a movie, ill be able to do it alone thanks to you), but im a total newbie with avisynth, i have both 2.08 and 2.5 versions...
i should be able to get the right filters also from their website, all i need is the script (or maybe could i find that "special" one on their website also?)

actually, my one hour file seems to gain 2 min and a half (from the original mp2 to the 23.976 ac3), so i can notice the slow down very much

etienne

[FulciLives]

ok, could you pm me the avisynth script please?

im already happy to have done it properly (and now if i need to convert a movie, ill be able to do it alone thanks to you), but im a total newbie with avisynth, i have both 2.08 and 2.5 versions...
i should be able to get the right filters also from their website, all i need is the script (or maybe could i find that "special" one on their website also?)

actually, my one hour file seems to gain 2 min and a half (from the original mp2 to the 23.976 ac3), so i can notice the slow down very much

etienne

Check out this website:

http://www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/

Look at the scrip in the section entitled:

VI. PAL (Video) DVD (25i Fps) -> NTSC DVD (29.97i Fps)

According to Xesdeeni this works if the PAL source is INTERLACED or PROGRESSIVE and I tried it with both and can confirm that although according to Xesdeeni when the source is PROGRESSIVE you don't need to use SmoothDeinterlacer (so you can delete line 2 and line 4 from the script). Please note that when I tested this with a PROGRESSIVE PAL source that I was not aware of that and used the SmoothDeinterlacer with, as far as I could tell, no bad effect.

The version of SmoothDeinterlacer that you can download from Xesdeeni's site seems to work best with AviSynth 2.08 and that is what I use when I use this script.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I forget to add a couple of things you might find usefull ...

You might find this other link usefull:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=160433

Also if you use that script from Xesdeeni as is it will convert in this mannor:

If the PAL is 4:3 so will the NTSC
If the PAL is 16x9 so will the NTSC

It can of course be adjusted to go from 4:3 PAL to 16x9 NTSC assuming you have a 4:3 widescreen PAL source.

Also the last line of the script about conversion to RGB should only be used when you are using TMPGEnc as your encoder.

In fact if you choose in DVD2AVI to use RGB with PC SCALE then you don't need that line when using TMPGEnc

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

ok, that was the script i used first

but thanks to you now i understand my source

i deleted the lines concering the deinterlacment process

and in tmpgnc plus, i tried first with progessive as encode mode (video tab), but it looked interlaced once encoded (as 29.97 is ntsc interlaced as far as i understood)
i tried then to encode interlaced and it looked ugly
lastly, i tried progessive with a deinterlace process under tmpgenc plus (animation adapatation 2)
duno which one is the best, but this gives me a good result

just like to know if it still sounds ntsc compliant?

[FulciLives]

ok, that was the script i used first

but thanks to you now i understand my source

i deleted the lines concering the deinterlacment process

and in tmpgnc plus, i tried first with progessive as encode mode (video tab), but it looked interlaced once encoded (as 29.97 is ntsc interlaced as far as i understood)
i tried then to encode interlaced and it looked ugly
lastly, i tried progessive with a deinterlace process under tmpgenc plus (animation adapatation 2)
duno which one is the best, but this gives me a good result

just like to know if it still sounds ntsc compliant?

When you use this script you should encode as interlaced NTSC not progressive NTSC

The resulting NTSC will have an "odd" interlaced pattern. It will not be your standard 3-2 pattern.

So yes it might look "odd" viewing it on the computer (since a computer monitor is progressive) but it looks 100% normal on an interlaced TV ... even on a progressive HDTV it looks fine ... just will look "off" on the computer.

If you have a DVD-RW or DVD+RW burn it and test it out.

Let me know what happens.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier ... I post so much that this one past me by somehow.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Ducky]

yeah, thx FulciLives, in fact while i was waiting for an answer i tried exactly what you said, which sounds logic anyway

it looks a bit more blurry but i dunno if this pb is due to my eyes or the ntsc conversion but well, i wont spend my whole week for something that is not even for myself.

anyway, i really appreciate your help, you are very helpfull to this message board and you dont have to apologize for any late reply, that's already a really nice thing to answer everytime the same questions ( as i saw you in many pal ntsc conversions threads)

etienne

[yepyep]

Why bother convert?

I tried the pal -> ntsc a while back then I realized that since dvd players play either way... why bother?

I *think* it was tmpgenc dvd that I used different formats with once... it complained but let me do it. I think.

Sorry, I didnt read the whole post, came here for some other info :O

[FulciLives]

Why bother convert?

I tried the pal -> ntsc a while back then I realized that since dvd players play either way... why bother?

I *think* it was tmpgenc dvd that I used different formats with once... it complained but let me do it. I think.

Sorry, I didnt read the whole post, came here for some other info :O

Not all DVD players handle both PAL and NTSC and even when they do not all will convert from one format to another.

Remember here in the USA 99.9% of televisions are NTSC only.

The USA is not very friendly to PAL video

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yepyep]

Really.

I guess I got lucky with this TV. It's just a cheap GE. It does have commercial skip, heh. Maybe I should buy some lotto tickets.

Think I'll take a trip to Best Buy and check this out.

[FulciLives]

Really.

I guess I got lucky with this TV. It's just a cheap GE. It does have commercial skip, heh. Maybe I should buy some lotto tickets.

Think I'll take a trip to Best Buy and check this out.

No cheap TV from BESTY BUY is multi-system.

If you can watch PAL DVD discs on your TV it is probably because your DVD player is doing PAL to NTSC conversion.

There are many models that do this but it still is not the norm. Many models that are capable of this require special "hacks" as well.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman