AVI to DVD MPEG (CCE or TMPGenc encoders)

[Krypton]

I have a Avi which im trying to convert with cce.I want a 23fps frame rate but all i seem to get is 29 or 25.select 25 in cce i get 25,but 23 gives me 29.I have used a script to force 23 but it still churns it out at 29.Any ideas?

[manono]

Hi-

If your ultimate goal is an NTSC DVD, then you have to have it output 29.97fps anyway. It sounds to me like CCE is applying 2:3 Pulldown. If you don't want it to do that, keep it 23.976fps and apply pulldown yourself later on, then up at the top of the main screen, uncheck the "for DVD" box.

It could still be encoding 23.976 progressive frames per second, but the pulldown has it output 29.97fps.

[Krypton]

Thanx for the reply and my own stupidity keeping it at 23fps produces an out of standard dvd so thats not the problem.
The small issue is the the audio sync which is out by a bit.As the output file was 29fps it was ahead of the audio.it has a 5.1 soundtrack that i want to keep but its the matching up bit i can't seem to get.I can happily encode at 25fps or 29 just this audio is a bit annoying.I tried to rencode the audio to 29fps with besweet but on playback it sounds as though they been breathing in helium and talk 4 times as fast,lol

[manono]

If the audio fits with the original 23.976fps AVI, then you don't want to stretch it for 29.97fps, as the length of the movie is the same whether it's a 23.976fps AVI or a 29.97fps with pulldown MPEG-2. So, leave the audio alone. The only thing you have to do is to figure out the delay so you can enter it in your authoring program to get it back in synch.

I'm assuming that the original AVI is 23.976fps. If it's 25fps, and you're encoding for NTSC, then yes, you'll have to do things differently. Your best bet in that case is to encode with a resolution of 720x480, and a framerate of 25fps. Then you run DGPulldown afterwards with the 25->29.97 box ticked. That way you can keep the original AC3 audio without reencoding it. You're a little bit unclear about what you're up to, so I'm doing some guessing.

[Krypton]

hi, yes the original is 23.976 fps.I can encode to 25fps of 29.97 it makes no difference as the dvd will play either.It was a split avi and running the script through virtualdub it plays perfect.not though when it has finished in cce.So really im just after the easiest way to match up video/audio ac3 with whatever framerate just so long as it works,lol.
The authoring prog i am using is TMPGenc dvd author.

Thanks for the replys and help

[manono]

Hi-

So the only problem is the out-of-synch audio? And it's a constant asynch? That is, it's off by the same amount at the beginning as it is at the end? Then you can figure the delay like this:

Open the out-of-synch video in Media Player Classic. Right-click the screen and go Options->Audio Switcher->Check the "Audio time shift" box. Now, if the dialog comes before the lips move, then you want to set a positive delay. If the words trail the movement of the lips, you set a negative delay. This delay is in .ms, and 1000 .ms= 1 second. Set a test delay and test it out. Adjust until you get it right. Remember or write down that delay, and then use it when making the delay permanent in your authoring app. If the authoring app doesn't have a way to set a delay, then set the delay in AC3 Delay Corrector and use the "fixed" AC3 when authoring.

And this assumes a good AC3 track in the first place. I have no idea how you extracted it from the AVI. It's usually a good idea to run it through AC3Fix. There may be software that tells you the delay. I don't know, as I don't get out-of-synch audio.

[Krypton]

Thanx Manono.The AC3 Delay Corrector did the trick with Media Player Classic.It was a bit trial and error as the value media gave me which i put in delay corrector still had it out of sync when authoring.No probs though as it had me on the right track and a bit more of a play about sorted it.


Thanx a lot

[manono]

Hi-

Thanks for reporting back. Yeah, I've used that MPC method a few times on AVI and it worked well. I've never had to use it with VOBs, and you seem to be saying that it doesn't work as well on them. That's good to know. So you still had to do some trial and error to get it right. I don't use TDA, and didn't know that it doesn't allow for the insertion of a delay, as many authoring apps do, so I'm glad you found AC3 Delay Corrector useful. Good going!

[Krypton]

Back for more advice.I see blockys in dark scenes and have read its to do with the luminace scale.Is there a way i can soften the darker scenes using cce or am i syuck with what i have?

Thanx

[superba]

Hi,

Best guide I've found. I have a couple of problems which I've tried to work through with no success. I've worked with 2 different clips with different settings. I've used both CCE and TMPGenc and each time I wind up with a DVD that looks like it was made for 16:9, wide with black bars at the top and bottom when played on my DVD recorder > TV. This is not a hit or miss number of tries; I did one of the clips almost every day for at least 6 weeks obviously being sure that I got the settings right and experimenting with different settings in the *.avs file.

The other problem is probably simple; the last 3 encodes I've done with CCE have wound up being non standard DVD's due to bitrate being too high. I get a warning from TMPGenc Author as it starts up and, if I go ahead and author, several times my DVD player calls it invalid.

Edit 4/6/06: When I added the *.mpv and *.wav files to TMPFEnc Author, the *.mpv file was at a bitrate of 9800 bps and the *.wav at 1586, obviously over the limit. Is that because I processed the *.wav with CCE? Or? I didn't extract the *.wav in VDUBMod but let it stay within the *.avi/avs file.

The *.avi I'm working on now is 640X480, 24fps,(41667us), 150,972 frames, (1:44:42:91), FourCC, etc with MP3 sound. I've used only the source and sampling statements in my *.avs file. I get a slightly longer file when I load the *.avs file. Clip is 1:44:50 with a calc bitrate of 5589.

Can you help me get a DVD output that will play and fill the 4:3 TV screen?

TIA.

Cheers!

[DJRumpy]

Sorry guys. I didn't mean to leave you hanging. I dont' always get notices when someone posts a question. If you don't hear anything back, just PM me for a quick response. That always seems to send me a notice.

Edit 6/6/06: When I added the *.mpv and *.wav files to TMPFEnc Author, the *.mpv file was at a bitrate of 9800 bps and the *.wav at 1586, obviously over the limit. Is that because I processed the *.wav with CCE? Or? I didn't extract the *.wav in VDUBMod but let it stay within the *.avi/avs file.

Just set your max bitrate in CCE to 8500 if your using PCM/Wav audio for your DVD. That should leave you sufficient space for audio. I have to ask though, why are you leaving your audio in WAV format? It's extremely large in PCM/Wav format. You should compress it to AC3 instead. If your audio is compressed to AC3, then set your max bitrate to 9800.

Your letterboxing problem may not be a problem. Even Widescreen tv's have letterboxing on movies with an aspect wider than 1.78. It would vary by both the movie aspect that you are encoding, and the script that you use to encode it. You'd have to give some specific examples in order to get an idea of what's wrong there. Specifically the original resolution of your video and the script you used to encode it.

Since your video is 4:3 (640/480 = 1.3333) then your script should reflect the 4:3 option in the guide (this isn't the one your seeing letterboxing on is it?). The discrepency in the length isn't completely unusual. To verify your video's exact length, load it in VirtualDub and select FILE -> Information.

Krypton:
Your luminance scale sounds like it's definately off. You can adjust the luminance of your clip with AVISynth using the Levels command. It should look something like this:

Levels(16,1,235,0,255)

That command will take your luminance scale and expand it from 16 to 0 and from 235 to 255. It should make your blacks blacker and your whites whiter. If someone messed up your luminance at some point, that should help decompress it back to normal.

Trigger_Ace:
There are a few different ways to tell, but an easy one is to use the AssumeTFF and AssumeBFF commands in AVISynth like so (where TTF and BBF coorespond to Top field and bottom field first):

AviSource("test.avi")
AssumeTFF
SeparateFields

You would of course substitute "test.avi" with the name of your source avi. If your working with a an MPEG file/D2V file then you would use MPEG2Source instead of AVISource. The above script will always display the top field first. If you drop that script into virtualdub and step through the video frame by frame, it should become obvious on any scene with alot of motion if the video truely is top field first or not (panning scenes work very well for this type of test). If the video is very jumpy and seems to lurch forward than back a bit each frame then your video is not top field first. Then try this script:

AviSource("test.avi")
AssumeBFF
SeparateFields

Repeat the play bit in VirtualDub again and see if it plays smoothly. Whichever one looks smother will be the field order of your video.

mec97:
The letterbox command simply covers up part of your clip with the color black. It does not resize it in any way. Letterbox(2,2,2,2) would just color each edge of your video with the color black for 2 pixels on all 4 sides. It's normally used to cover up noisy edges of video or to ensure the color is truely black

Krypton:
With VBR MPEG video, the MAX value you used to encode is always what is reported as the bitrate. It isn't the AVG value that you encoded with. That said, the AVG value is the only setting that effects your final output size. MIN and MAX won't affect final size of your MPEG at all. Make sure you have the framerate set properly, the duration correct, and that you also select the proper bitrate for your audio as that also adds to your MPEG's final size.

[superba]

Edit 6/6/06: When I added the *.mpv and *.wav files to TMPFEnc Author, the *.mpv file was at a bitrate of 9800 bps and the *.wav at 1586, obviously over the limit. Is that because I processed the *.wav with CCE? Or? I didn't extract the *.wav in VDUBMod but let it stay within the *.avi/avs file.

Just set your max bitrate in CCE to 8500 if your using PCM/Wav audio for your DVD. That should leave you sufficient space for audio. I have to ask though, why are you leaving your audio in WAV format? It's extremely large in PCM/Wav format. You should compress it to AC3 instead. If your audio is compressed to AC3, then set your max bitrate to 9800.

When I did that (3 times) using BeLight/BeSweet because I couldn't find AC3Machine anywhere, I got an *.mpv file from CCE with 9800bps. I used TMPGEnc Author to create the DVD files, but it wouldn't convert because the video was 9800bps and the audio.ac3 was 448bps exceeding the max of 9800 that's in the DVD specs.

Your letterboxing problem may not be a problem. Even Widescreen tv's have letterboxing on movies with an aspect wider than 1.78. It would vary by both the movie aspect that you are encoding, and the script that you use to encode it. You'd have to give some specific examples in order to get an idea of what's wrong there. Specifically the original resolution of your video and the script you used to encode it.

Since your video is 4:3 (640/480 = 1.3333) then your script should reflect the 4:3 option in the guide (this isn't the one your seeing letterboxing on is it?). The discrepency in the length isn't completely unusual. To verify your video's exact length, load it in VirtualDub and select FILE -> Information.

See the script below; the only entry I saw was the LanczosResize(720,480).

AVI input params for my last pass:
Video
Frame Size, fps, (us per frame) : 640X480, 24.000fps (41667us)
Length : 150,790 frames (1.44.42.91)
FourCC Code: : FourCC : [DIV3], DIVX3 - Low Motion
Decompressor : DIVX 5.2.1 Codec

Audio
Sampling Rate : 48,000Hz
Channels : 2 (Stereo)
Audio Tag : Tag : 0x0055, ACM Decoble
: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3)
: Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec
Length : 75383417 samples (1:44:41:95)

movie.avs
AVISource("movie.avi")
ReSampleAudio(48000)
LanczosResize(720,480)
Levels(16,1,235,0,255)

The params above were used for my last pass

My version of CCE, v2.7xxx Trial Version, sets the max bitrate of the video output, *.mpv, to 9800 no matter what setting I used. I repeated it several times over and got the same results.

Then I left the audio with the video because it was MP3 with no error loading into VDubMod. In this case I set the bitrate for the audio to 224 once or twice with video at 9500, 9000, 8500 with the result being the same. I didn't burn those to RW. The last pass gave me audio 224bps and video 9800bps. I burned it to RW, played it, and the audio was out of sync with the video. AND, no matter what I do, the size on my TV is still the same as a 16:9. I used 4:3 in CCE, and I tried setting my DVD recorder(playback) to 16:9, 4:3pan, 4:3 with no effect.

Right now, I'm going back to TMPGEnc and see what that will do. I've done about a 100 passes so far.

Do you know if CCE v2.7xxx Trial Version is configured to output at 9800bps no matter what? Is that my problem?

Thanks for your patience.

Sorry for the long post....

Cheers!

[DJRumpy]

The max for a DVD is 9.8 Mbps, not 9800kbps. There is a difference. It comes out to a wee bit over 10000kbps. Just use an online converson tool if you want to see the exact figure. If TMPDVDAuthor doesn't like 9800kbps, then it's broken

Your version of CCE is setting that max bitrate because your probably checking the "For DVD" option. It sets the CBR value to 9.8mbps per the dvd spec. This is normal. It does not indicate the AVG bitrate of your video. To see that, you'd have to scan the entire file. It does not mean your DVD's AVG bitrate is 9.8Mbps. Again that is only the value reported back, not the real value.

When you save you encoded "with the result being the same", exactly what problems are you experiencing? Your post is a bit all over the place. I saw that you have an audio sync problem. Is the sync problem constant (doesn't get worse as the movie progresses), or is it off by quite a bit by the end? I did see that your input video is 24fps, not 23.976 fps. Important that you note that properly in the CCE settings for Frame Rate. That could affect your audio sync.

On your aspect ratio problem, exactly what is it that your seeing and what is it that your expecting to see?

[superba]

Edit 4.10.06: Removed content; it was posted by mistake.

[manono]

My version of CCE, v2.7xxx Trial Version, sets the max bitrate of the video output, *.mpv, to 9800 no matter what setting I used. I repeated it several times over and got the same results.

That's because you have that "For DVD" box checked. It'll do that, no matter the true max bitrate. It's just a number in the header, and has no relation at all to your actual max bitrate or anything else. Your actual max bitrate and ave bitrate is what you set in the bitrate boxes. Uncheck "For DVD" and any program what checks that figure (ReStream, Bit Rate Viewer, etc.) will then show the actual max bitrate you set. Any authoring tool that complains about it is worthless, in my opinion. But it should still let you author. If it doesn't, get another authoring program. This assumes that the video+audio+subs+overhead don't really go over the max.

You should change your timecode setting to 0.

[DJRumpy]

You might try posting the first image again. I'm guessing you referenced the name wrong.

[Krypton]

I always use TMPDVDAuthor and it gives me the 9800kbps error.I ignore it.

if u load the mpv file u created into dvdlab you will see the correct kbps(it will be different than tmpdvdauthor)

So just ignore it and create the dvd.All mine i have done worked perfectly with no trouble at all.

[superba]

My version of CCE, v2.7xxx Trial Version, sets the max bitrate of the video output, *.mpv, to 9800 no matter what setting I used. I repeated it several times over and got the same results.

That's because you have that "For DVD" box checked. It'll do that, no matter the true max bitrate. It's just a number in the header, and has no relation at all to your actual max bitrate or anything else. Your actual max bitrate and ave bitrate is what you set in the bitrate boxes. Uncheck "For DVD" and any program what checks that figure (ReStream, Bit Rate Viewer, etc.) will then show the actual max bitrate you set. Any authoring tool that complains about it is worthless, in my opinion. But it should still let you author. If it doesn't, get another authoring program. This assumes that the video+audio+subs+overhead don't really go over the max.

You should change your timecode setting to 0.

Thanks for the input. I ran the project again last night and some screen shots are below.
Where is "timecode setting to 0" done?

I consider the bitrate setting discrepancy solved by unchecking "For DVD".

I checked the "For DVD" box because the procedure had it checked. My last run came out exactly as before. I use TMPGEnc Author to author the *.mpv and *.mpa(if one) to writeable DVD files. And, just like before TG Author gave me an error message saying that the video bitrate, 9800kbps combined with the audio bitrate of 224kbps, exceeded the limit of 9800kbps for a DVD. However, it let me ignore that error message and author to the DVD files. I did, burned the RW DVD, and reviewed it. It looked okay; however, the audio is out of sync with the video. And, I still have black bars at the top and bottom of the TV screen. I used 4:3 in CCE, but no matter what I do, I wind up with DVD's that, when played, have the black bars at the top and bottom; there is no left or right margins if you wondered.

The original *.avi file information is


The *.avs file is just below; notice that the script file which is after the *.avs file information changes the audio stream from MP3 to PCM. Is this okay? Desirable? Or should it be avoided by another line in the script?



The Script file is:

AVISource("movie.avi")
ReSampleAudio(48000)
LanczosResize(720,480)
Levels(16, 1, 235, 0, 255)

Right now, I still have audio and video out of sync and black bars at the top and bottom on my 4:3 TV. Should I have changed the frame rate to 23.976 in the script file?

Thanks for the help.

[DJRumpy]

Your script is fine. I would guess that TMPGenc DVDAuthor is to blame for your letterboxing. Your .AVS input into CCE is correct for D1 video. Even if you selected the wrong aspect ratio at that point, you would still get fullscreen video.

You did play your .AVS script and your source AVI in VirtualDub to verify it has no letterboxing right?

For your framerate, VirtualDub is reporting 24fps, so your setting in CCE should match that.

You still haven't described your audio sync problem. Is it the same throughout the video, or does it get worse as the video nears the end? Also, how much is it off by the end of the video?

Do not change the timecode. Is is not necessary.

[superba]

Your script is fine. I would guess that TMPGenc DVDAuthor is to blame for your letterboxing. Your .AVS input into CCE is correct for D1 video. Even if you selected the wrong aspect ratio at that point, you would still get fullscreen video.

You did play your .AVS script and your source AVI in VirtualDub to verify it has no letterboxing right?

I'm doing another encode on the machine I use for encoding and will go back and look at them in VDUBMod when it finishes. I've played it a few days ago but will repeat just to be sure.

For your framerate, VirtualDub is reporting 24fps, so your setting in CCE should match that.

I changed that in the script file by adding:

AssumeFPS(23.976, True)

just this last time. I know you said it's for PAL to NTSC conversion but I wondered if it would help. I assume that you mean that leaving it at 24fps going into CCE is okay. Right?

You still haven't described your audio sync problem. Is it the same throughout the video, or does it get worse as the video nears the end? Also, how much is it off by the end of the video?

I just finished looking at the DVD that I burned as a result of the posted screen shots. Obviously, this is guess work on my part, but it looks like the sync is very close, almost okay, at the beginning and gets worse and worse as the DVD progresses. Nearer to the end, it seems that the people will move their mouths completely before the sound comes. Does that sound like the problem to a solution you know?

Do not change the timecode. Is is not necessary.

I didn't change it, for when I did, I got a warning that I couldn't have Pulldown 2:3 if I did.

Thanks for your help.

[DJRumpy]

just this last time. I know you said it's for PAL to NTSC conversion but I wondered if it would help. I assume that you mean that leaving it at 24fps going into CCE is okay. Right?

Either will work, although I would suggest leaving the assumefps statement in.

Can you guess how many seconds off the audio is? I would suggest you take the audio, extract it from the AVI to WAV, and look at the duration of your WAV file, and look at the duration of the audio file in VirtualDub to make sure they match. If they do not, then you probably have a bad audio file. It can be fixed, but it takes a bit of patience if you don't have the software to change the length of your audio file, like GoldWave.

[superba]

Your script is fine. I would guess that TMPGenc DVDAuthor is to blame for your letterboxing. Your .AVS input into CCE is correct for D1 video. Even if you selected the wrong aspect ratio at that point, you would still get fullscreen video.

You did play your .AVS script and your source AVI in VirtualDub to verify it has no letterboxing right?

I just played my *.avi and *.avs file in VDUBMod and both have the black bars at the bottom and top. What now? The AVI is 640X480 to begin with. Is that what the "Letterbox()" script command is for?

TIA.

[DJRumpy]

The Letterbox command ADDS letterboxing Definately not what your looking for. You can use the CROP command, or an extended version of the LanczozResize command, or use the AutoCrop plugin for AVISynth (see below). Your AVI simply has the letterboxing hard coded. It doesn't make sense to encode letterboxing as it takes up bitrate for black screen, but someone probably didn't know how to remove them. You'll need to crop them out with your avisynth script.

Download the Autocrop plugin from this site. It makes cropping very easy.

http://www.avisynth.org/warpenterprises/files/autocrop_25_dll_20050103.zip

You only need the .DLL file from the zip file you download. Put it in your plugin folder, or if you put it somewhere else, then use the LoadPlugin line in your avisynth script to load the dll.

Just put the AutoCrop command in after your AVISource line.

AVISource("movie.avi")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AVISynth\PlugIns\autocrop.dll")
#only put in the above LoadPlugin line if you
# DON'T put the .DLL in your AVISYnth Plugins folder
# You would also need to correct the Path if your AVISynth
# is installed in another directory.
AssumeFPS(23.976,true)
AutoCrop()
ReSampleAudio(48000)
LanczosResize(720,480)
Levels(16, 1, 235, 0, 255)

You can also leave the For DVD checked. Apparently TMPGenc DVDAuthor is broken. The max KB per second for a dvd is 10,080 Kbps. PCM Audio is 1536 kbps. If you leave your audio in PCM format, then set your max bitrate for 8544 (10080 - 1536 for pcm audio = 8544). I would still suggest you convert your PCM WAV to AC3. You can download AC3Machine here:
http://dspguru.doom9.net/
or get BeLight which is a bit easier to use here:
http://corecodec.org/frs/?group_id=45

The Belight plugins are at the bottom of the page. Just unpack them all in the BeLight directory.

[superba]

Hi,

Edit 04/11/06: Add video and audio durations at bottom.

First, the good news. AutoCrop works wonderfully. It provides a crop statement or simply crops the video itself. Once encoded, authored, and burned, the video filled the screen on my old fashioned 4:3 TV just as I wanted.

Now the bad news. I converted the sound from *.avi > *.wav >*.ac3 using BeLight/Sweet. I also finally found AC3Machine but didn't use it because I already had BL/S configured. I encoded using CCE; first time I didn't recheck VBR avg and got a file too big for a 4.7 DVD. After correcting the avg BR, I got a good burn.

1) Removing the letterbox by cropping apparently causes the video to be overstretched vertically and some scenes begin to show rectangular shaped "pixels?". This is mostly prevalent where there is a background like clouds and blue sky. Sometimes it's plainly visible, others it's just sort of a grainy picuture. Can this be filtered out or must I go back to the letterbox?

2) Sound is still out of sync. At the beginning of the clip, the audio leads the video by ~100ms, but at the end it's leading it by ~2 seconds. Is there a quick and dirty way to resync?

Can you guess how many seconds off the audio is? I would suggest you take the audio, extract it from the AVI to WAV, and look at the duration of your WAV file, and look at the duration of the audio file in VirtualDub to make sure they match. If they do not, then you probably have a bad audio file. It can be fixed, but it takes a bit of patience if you don't have the software to change the length of your audio file, like GoldWave.

Here are the video and audio durations:

VDUBMod
movie.avi - V=01:44:41:951 - A=01:44:41:951
GSpot
movie.avi - V=01:44:43 - A=not avail
AVICodec
movie.ac3 - V=not avail - A=01:44:41
movie.avi - V=01:44:42 - A=01:44:42
movie.wav - V=not avail - A=01:44:41

As you can see, GSpot reports a 1 second differential after rounding up from VDM, AVICodec is the same (after rounding) and reports that *.wav and *.ac3 are both 1 second shorter but equal to each other.

Now what, coach?

Thanks for the help.

[DJRumpy]

Lets start with the cropped video. Apparently yours has more letterboxing that I thought if it looks stretched. You'll need to find out exactly what you have left once you remove letterboxing. To do so, just create an AVISynth script, but do not resize after using the AutoCrop command like so:

AVISource("movie.avi")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AVISynth\PlugIns\autocrop.dll")
AssumeFPS(23.976,true)
AutoCrop()
ReSampleAudio(48000)

Drop that .AVS file into VirtualDub and select FILE -> INFORMATION to see what resolution your video is Without letterboxing. That way we can determine what aspect ratio it is. From there, just divide the width by the height to get it's aspect ratio. For example, your original avi WITH letterboxing is 640x480 so you would divide 640 / 480 to get 1.333 (that's equal to a 4:3 aspect ratio). Once you have removed your letterboxing, you may get something closer to 640 x 360 or 640 x 272 being reported. Those are both widescreen aspect ratio's, which should be encoded as widescreen or you will end up chopping off the edges of the video to get it to fill the screen.

Let me know what resolution your video is without letterboxing.

Your audio seems to be pretty spot on, with less than a second variance. You are giving me the audio duration after you extracted it to WAV right? Not while it's in still the AVI?

[superba]

Hi,

Here's the new File Information for the quoted script:

AVISource("movie.avi")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AVISynth\PlugIns\autocrop.dll")
AssumeFPS(23.976,true)
AutoCrop()
ReSampleAudio(48000)

Frame Size, fps - 628X360, 23.976 frames
Length - 150790 frames (01:44:49.20)

Looks like an AR of 1.74. I already had the "LanczosResize(720X480)" statement in my script but disabled it to get the above file info.

Your audio seems to be pretty spot on, with less than a second variance. You are giving me the audio duration after you extracted it to WAV right? Not while it's in still the AVI?

I gave you both and later confirmed them in GoldWave. I found that BeLight/Sweet converts with a default sampling rate of 44100 instead of 48000Hz. I changed it and reconverted it.

Is there a way to keep the video from "getting too thin"?

Thanks for your help.

[DJRumpy]

A 1.74 aspect is close enough to 1.78. I would assume that is the proper aspect for your video and go from there. For your script, oddly enough, without the letterboxing, it's fullscreen on a widescreen television. Just use the same script you did before but encode with a 16:9 aspect tag instead of a 4:3.

AVISource("movie.avi")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AVISynth\PlugIns\autocrop.dll")
AssumeFPS(23.976,true)
AutoCrop()
ReSampleAudio(48000)
LanczosResize(720,480)

What do you mean by 'too thin'? Assuming the person who encoded your avi at least kept the aspect relatively unchanged, your output should look fine. If you view the raw MPEG it will look tall, but will appear normal when played by as a dvd.

[superba]

Hi,

What do you mean by 'too thin'?

A file whose aspect ratio e.g. 628X360 will look like it's stretched thin when expanded to 720X480.

I'm going to start another run now.

Thanks for your help.

[DJRumpy]

Assuming your source file is good, you won't even notice. That amount is small change. Most AVI's posted on the web are between 640 and 600 pixels wide. It should look fine if the source material is of good quality.

[superba]

Hi,

I did another encode, author, burn overnight. Video was good but audio is still leading video by an amount that progresses from a little at the beginning to a lot near the end. I'm doing another encode now, leaving the audio embedded, using the settings for CCE shown in your guide above. If that doesn't sync, I'll have to adjust the start of the audio and its rate.

Thanks for your help.