NTSC 23.97 AVI --> PAL DVD Guide
version 1.0 | 03-29-2004

by Sephiroth | webmaster@ultimateweapon.net
===============================================

I am writing this simple guide because I still see a lot
of people having trouble with this type of conversion/
authoring.

This guide will deal with the full process of creating
a COMPLIANT 25fps PAL DVD out of a 23.97fps AVI file,
with subtitles and WITHOUT the jerkiness when doing
a standard TMPEGEnc conversion.

+ I will NOT deal with advanced conversion settings in
this guide, there are enough howto's for that present.
+ I will assume that your AVI is not erroneous, look
for other guides to check on freeze-frames etcetera.

+ Tools used are: TMPEGEnc Plus, BeSweet GUI, AVIFrate\
GUI, SubRip, VirtualDubMOD, IFOEdit, Nero Burning ROM -
all the latest versions ATM.


--== STEP 1 ==--

a. Make sure that your set of subtitles is in synch with
the video.
b. If your subtitle format is NOT .srt, use Subtitle
Workshop or SubRip to convert to .srt.


--== STEP 2 ==--

a. Open up your AVI in VirtualDubMOD (or the original
VirtualDub if you prefer. I will however assume you are
using MOD).
b. Goto 'Streams|Stream list'.
c. Select the present audio stream, right-click and select
'Direct stream copy'.
d. Click the 'Demux' button and select an output location.
Wait for the program to finish extracting.
e. Close V-Dub.


--== STEP 3 ==--

a. Open up AVIFrate, and change the framerate from 23976
to 25000.
b. Close AVIFrate.


--== STEP 4 ==--

a. Open up TMPEGEnc Plus, and load your AVI.
b. Select 'ES (Video only)' under 'Stream type'.
c. In Settings, set Size to 720x576, Framerate to 25, and
Video Format to PAL.
d. Adjust all other setting as you prefer. If you need more
info on this, read some other guides on this subject.
e. Hit Start, and grab a cold one. Wait for the program to
finish.
f. Close the program.


--== NOTE ==--

Now you will probably want to open the .m2v in your favorite
media player to check if it turned out correctly.

Here comes the tricky part if you're dealing with subtitles:
You will probably notice that the duration of your .m2v is
waaaaaay shorter than the original AVI. At least, this has
ALWAYS been the case for me, and I know many people suffer
from this. This makes it impossible to adjust the subs to
25fps.

Note that the duration SHOULD actually be shorter than the
original AVI, because of the changed framerate. Going from
23.976fps to 25fps shortens the duration with approximately
4%. But you'll notice that it's way beyond 4%.

We'll come back to this issue later on. At this point we
will want to create proper audio.


--== STEP 5 ==--

a. Open up BeSweet GUI. Load your audio track that we
previously demuxed with V-Dub.
b. Select your output format and adjust other settings to
your liking. Consult some other guides on this subject if
needed.
c. Finally, MAKE SURE that, under 'OTA (Overall Track
Adjustements)', you check Framerate conversion, from 23.976
to 25.000 obviously (or select the template underneath).
d. Start the transcoding process, and grab another cold one
e. When finished, close BeSweet.


--== NOTE ==--

When you open the created audio track, you'll notice that
the duration is shorter than your original AVI's duration,
about 4% as mentioned earlier. This is what it should be,
and especially what the video stream SHOULD HAVE been .
But don't worry about that. Let's continue, shall we?


--== STEP 6 ==--

a. Open up VirtualDubMOD once again. Load your original
AVI.
b. Go to 'Streams|Stream list' and disable the audio track
once again.
c. Click the 'Add' button, and select your NEW audio stream
that we just created using BeSweet. Wait for the program to
finish rendering, and, just to be sure, check if the audio
track is still set to 'Direct stream copy'. Close the dialog
window.
d. Go to 'Video|Framerate...' and select
'[x] Change to (...) frames per second'. Enter 25 in the
textfield. Clese the dialog window.
e. Finally, select 'Video|Direct stream copy'.
f. Now go and save your AVI under a different name, ofcourse
(File|Save as...). Wait until this is done.
g. Close V-Dub.


--== NOTE ==--

What we have just done, is creating a PAL version of your
original NTSC Film AVI. We need this only to properly create
a synched subtitle track, as explained earlier.

You will probably wonder if there isn't an easier way to just
convert your .srt of whatever to 25fps. The answer is yes, but
(in my experience at least) this almost never works correctly.
That's why were doing it this way. STEP 6 shouldn't have taken
more than a couple of minutes on a slow PC, and what we're
about to do now will only take a couple of minutes too.


--== STEP 7 ==--

a. Open up your favorite media player capable of displaying
.srt subtitle tracks, and open your PAL AVI that we just
created. Load the subs.
b. Jot down the time where the FIRST subtitle should appear,
hours:minuteseconds. Something like 0:00:47 or whatever...
c. Jot down the time where the LAST subtitle should appear.
d. Open up SubRip, click on the blue-ish notepad-like button.
Another window will pop up. Open your .srt.
e. If you get an error like "Subtitles overlapping x times",
ignore this for now. It shouldn't be a big problem and we'll
get a chance to correct this later on.
f. Scroll down to the bottom, and note the time at which the
last subtitle is set to appear. Calculate the difference with
the time you just jotted down. It should be a couple of
minutes.
g. Click on the button that looks like a white clock. A menu
will pop up. Enter the time difference in the SECOND section.
Check the 'minus' checkbox to the left, and click the 'Correct'
button. We're almost done.
h. Now look at the time at whick the first subtitle is set to
appear. It will have changed a bit. Adjust this to the correct
value using the same menu as before, only now using the FIRST
section. Click the 'Correct' button once again.
i. One last time, you will have to go into the same menu, and,
in the SECOND section again, enter the value that you have
just used to correct the first subtitle's on-time, with the
checkbox still checked.
j. Now we're done, we have synched the subtitle file to 25fps.
Re-load the subtitle file in your media player and check it.
If not entirely correct yet, play some more with SubRip
(shouldn't be necessary though).
k. Close both programs.


--== STEP 8 ==--

a. Open up SRT2SUP, and generate a .sup file for your
subtitles. .sup is the graphical subtitle format used
by IFOEdit. Consult a guide on SRT2SUP on how to do this.
Take in mind that there's a small memory leak in this
program, causing the process of generating the .sup file
to go slower and slower towards the end. Just a little
bit slower though...
b. Exit SRT2SUP, but be sure to jot down the hex values for the
colors first.


--== STEP 9 ==--

a. Open up IFOEdit. Click 'DVD Author|Author new DVD'.
b. Select the three streams (.m2v, .whatever for audio and .sup).
Selct an output folder.
c. Start the process and wait for it to finish (be sure to grab
another cold one in the mean time :P).
d. When it's done, you'll have a set of .IFO .BUP and .VOB files
in the specified folder. The two .IFO's will be listed in the
main window of IFOEdit. select the second one (VTS_01_0.IFO).
e. click on VTS_PGCITI, and expand. Select the first (and only
in this case) VTS_PGC_x.
f. Browse to this line in the bottom field: '[000000a5]
Color ...' Double-click this line. A window will pop up. Deselect
all but 'hex' to the right. Set your cursor to the first of 6
zero's and enter the first hex value from SRT2SUP. Click OK.
g. Repeat this for the next three lines. Don't worry about the
other 11 colors, leave them as is.
h. Save. When asked to also save the .BUP, click YES.
i. Open up Nero, choose DVD-Movie, and
drag'n'drop the files in the red VIDEO_TS folder.
j. Burn and enjoy your jerkiness-free PAL movie!


--== SOME FINAL NOTES ON AUTHORING THE DVD ==--

If you want to create menu's instead of burning only the movie
to DVD, skip STEP 8+9, and use your favorite authoring software.
Find out how to use subtitles for that program yourselves.

If that software happens to be DVD-lab, DO NOT skip these last
2 steps . DVD-lab has no subtitle support, but does have .VOB
support. Simply import your first .VOB, choose the third and
last option from the dialog window (merge VOB's) and use this
new, large, .VOB as your video+audio track. Subs will be
preserved!


--== That's All Folks! ==--