AVI to DVD MPEG (CCE or TMPGenc encoders)

[prybar]

DJRumpy: Thank you for this awesome guide (you also helped me out quite a bit in the Pal - Mtsc conversion thread from Fulcilives). My question is this, and i think i know the answer but want to make sure as i have 11 AVI's to encode and don't want to re-encode. My sources are all 29.97. Do i use N=3 N/M=5? If what i read is right, then because my source is already 29.97, i can use this GOP seq. and not need pulldown.exe, correct?

Thanks


pry

[DJRumpy]

Correct on both counts.

[prybar]

awesome!

thanks!

pry

[Wizzra]

How do you generally know if a movie is progressive, or interlaced? NTSC=progressive & PAL=interlaced? Or am I completely wrong and is there more to it?

[DJRumpy]

There's a bit more to it. You have to examine the film frame by frame. Interlacing will look like someone dragged a comb through each frame. In addition, there are also telecined sources, which have a combination of interlaced and progressive frames, although those can be converted back to progressive.

Whether or not it's pal or NTSC isn't a factor, as both can be progressive, or interlaced.

Open your video with VirtualDubMod and move through a couple of frames. The combing effects, if they are there, will be most noticable during high motion scenes. It will almost look like a tearing affect. Progressive frames will look 'normal'. A telecined source will typically have a series of interlaced frames, followed by progressive frames, in a repeating 3-2-3-2 pattern (i.e. P, P, P, I, I, P, P, P, I, I).

[Wizzra]

Thank you, great guide!

[TylerJ]

This is, by far, the most well written and informative AVI-DVD conversion guide that I have come across... I'm encoding now, Hopefully it turns out wonderfully.

Thanks alot Master Yoda

BTW anyone seen the 2 CD VCD encode of a movie called Blueberry? It is the BEST encode I have ever seen as far as VCD goes.. It is DVD quality no jerking, no pixelation. I would love to learn from the guy that did that.

[DJRumpy]

High praise. Thanks!

[TylerJ]

One question though... Using TMPGEnc DVD author I get an error at creation of Video_TS folders that the bitrate exceeds normality settings. Like Video is 9800kbps and audio is 224kbps combined is like 10000 or sumthing... It says the max is 9.848Mbps for standard DVD. I went ahead and burned and it gave an error in DVD player (oddly enough it was Disc Dirty... but that wasn't the case.)

ANYWAY, you have any suggestions as to what I should do?

And btw, avg bitrate is set to 6,818, max to 9500, and min to 2000... I dunno if that affects this or not.

Thanks In Advance,
Tyler

[DJRumpy]

Just lower your MAX to something closer to 9000Kbps. TMPGenc has always been a bit flakey when it comes to following bit constraints

[dvd_jr]

ive tried again and again and again, and followed your guide step by step, but im just out of luck i guess. im so confused at the writing avisynth scripts, my video is splited into 2 parts, audio format is ac3, i believe its not necessary to convert it to wav file, so here's the question, for your 3 choices: "If you did not have to extract your audio (AVI Contained error free MP3): Use the #1st Choice below
If your extracted your audio to WAV: Use the #2nd Choice below
If your joined, or single avi has AC3 audio: Use the #3rd Choice below "

i chioce number 3 cuz my avi video has ac3 audio, but for "AVISource("Input.avi",false) " what do i replace Input.avi with? i tried to put both parts of my movie names on it, "AVISource("movie1.avi" "movie2.avi",false) " it dont seems to work, cuz i saved it as movie.avs, when i drag and drop it onto virtualdubmod, error message appears. im so confused, what should i do?

[DJRumpy]

when i drag and drop it onto virtualdubmod, error message appears. im so confused, what should i do?

What error?

[dvd_jr]

avisynth open failure: avisource autodetect: couldn't open file (D:\conversion\movie.avs, line1) when i drag and drop movie.avs onto vitualdubmod.

this is what my avs file look like:

AVISource("C:\Program Files\e\movie.avi C:\Program Files\e\movie.avi",false)
LanczosResize(720,360)
AddBorders(0,60,0,60)
AssumeFPS(23.976, True)
ConvertToYUY2()

[DJRumpy]

Your AVISource line is wrong. It should look something like this:

AVISource("C:\Program Files\e\movie.avi",false)

[dvd_jr]

then how do i combine 2 videos together? do i have to do 2 avs files one is
AVISource("C:\Program Files\e\movie1.avi",false), and the other one is AVISource("C:\Program Files\e\movie2.avi",false)?

[DJRumpy]

If you read the first section of the guide, it explains how to join them together using VirtualDub. Although you can join them using AVISynth, we use VirtualDub to preserve the AC3 audio. Just check the first few sections of the guide. I think it's even titled "Step 1: Getting Started (Joining AVI Files)".

[dvd_jr]

you are talking about "Append Segment" from virtualdubmod? yes i did, i told you i followed step by step, im stuck at step 4 where it says

You are almost ready to go on to the encoding step, but first, we want to preview our work. We can do so using VirtualDubMod. Just drag and drop your "movie.avs" file onto VirtualDubMod. From the FILE menu, select FILE -> FILE INFORMATION

how do i do this part? do i have to make 2 avs files one for movie1, and the other one for movie2? or what?

and also can you tell me how to use the bitrate calculator when i need to calculate both parts of the movie?

[alvin grung]

Can I test the mpv and mpa files I've created or the _pdm2v file before I try to burn the dvd? Is there a player that's good for them? All the ones I've tried like classic media player, the vdubmod, core media and vlc either play just the video or a jerky, speeded up video (mpv) out of sync with the audio file (mpa).

[DJRumpy]

You can play the main IFO file using WinDVD, to see if your dvd image works properly. I couldn't tell you why your video is jerky. Any of those players should be fine for playback, assuming your PC is fast enough.

The M2V file is video only, but you can at least view it using media player, to see if it's to your liking or not.

[sNoWy1998]

dvd_jr, I think maybe at the main window that show the video window, you append stream there (ie add second part of .avi) then save it (F7) with Direct Stream Copy from the pulldown selection chosen. This gave me 1 complete Xvid movie that seemed fine. I have not finished the conversion process yet so hopefully someone can tell me if this is correct.

[sNoWy1998]

secondly i have a Q.

Xvid I am trying to convert is 640 x 288, 25fps PAL, so 288 fits as half 576..but with regards the 640 part how do I go, the aspect at the moment is 2.22:1 I am just a bit confused on this one aspect, pardon the pun do I increase the %age of 640 and match that with an increase in same %age for 288 or double it or what?

thx

[DJRumpy]

dvd_jr, if you still have two avi files, then you have skipped step one. You join your two avi files into one new AVI file in step one, so from that point on, you no longer work with the two original avi parts.

sNoWy1998, sounds like your on the right track. Regarding your aspect question, those resolutions are only important to an AVI file. If your converting to DVD, then you would use the same math found in my other guide (not for the squemish).

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/174200.php

Using the math found there, you would figure your video's aspect based on a widescreen aspect ratio (16:9) like so:

480 * 1.77 = 850 rounded

850 / 2.21 = 384

Your video's vertical, when resized to DVD, would be 384 NTSC. If you are converting this to pal, you would then multiply it times 1.2 like so:

384 * 1.2 = 432

So your vertical for a PAL dvd would be 432. You would fill out the rest of the vertical with letterboxing:

576 PAL - 432 = 144
144 / 2 = 72 letterbox top and 72 letterbox on bottom.

[sNoWy1998]

ok, but what specifically should the output look like? with Tmpgenc set to Centre (keepaspect ratio) the video has borders top and bottom, but also both edges and looks vertically distorted. Is this how it should look (anamorphic i guess?). With it set to just 'Centre' the video looks perfectly proportioned with only borders top and bottom as the encoding process shows it on screen, I am now not sure which way I should select it.. will the distorted one play ok through a dvd using a flag or something that tells it to correct.
thx

[dvd_jr]

dvd_jr, if you still have two avi files, then you have skipped step one. You join your two avi files into one new AVI file in step one, so from that point on, you no longer work with the two original avi parts.

let me get something right, cuz i dont wanan do something wrong to my videos, step1 that tells me to open virtualdubmod and join 2 video together, after i joined both parts of my videos by doing 'FILE -> Append Segment ', and i should do 'FILE -> SAVE AS...' to save both of my videos into one video? sorry i misunderstand things sometimes, but thanks for helping...

[DJRumpy]

dvd_jr: Correct. When you do the FILE -> SAVE AS, you will pick a new file name for your combined single (joined) AVI.

sNoWy1998, TMPGenc may not like a video with an aspect of 2.21, which may be why it's not coping well. Use whichever method gives you letterboxing on top and bottom, with no letterboxing on the sides.

[dvd_jr]

is there a better way to do this? cuz while saving the video, i see it took 12.34GB from my HD already, and its still 2hrs remaining, unfortunately my HD has only 18GB left, i think just that cuz of both of my videos are around 800MB...:-\ so frustrated

[DJRumpy]

You didn't set your video and audio to 'Direct Stream Copy'. Your probably saving uncompressed video. Check the Video and Audio menu's. You'll see the options there.

[dvd_jr]

i chose full procssing mode, haha, nice it works now, i also wanna ask you something, if i want to put subtitle to my movie, which step in your guide i should add subtitle on? or i can add subtitle after the whole video being encoded? thanks

edit:: oh yeah there's one more question i need to ask, for step3 fixing ac3 audio, do i have to put ac3fix.exe and ac3gui with the audio file i just extracted in the same folder in order to fix the audio? cuz when i ONLY run ac3fix.exe, theres nothing happens

[dvd_jr]

argh, ive got error when i drag my avs file onto viutaldub,

avisynth open failure: script error: there is no funtion named "LancozResize" (D:\project\movie.avs,line 2)

and here's how my script look like :

AVISource("movie.avi",false)
LancozResize(720,460)
AddBorders(0,10,0,10 )
ConvertToYUY2()

what should i do? i dont know what ive done wrong :-\

[DJRumpy]

The command is LancZosResize, no LancozResize. You just have a simple typo.

If you want to add subtitles, they need to be included in the same directory as the source file, so when the file is decodec, the subtitles are included. I do not, however, know of a utility that will join subtitle files, as I never mess with them. You might want to post that question in the main forum.

On your AC3 question, it makes it easier if they are all in the same directory. The AC3GUI doesn't work. Just use the ac3fix.exe file. It's a DOS command, so you'll have to open up a dos prompt (START -> RUN -> CMD in your Windows OS to open a DOS box). Then type

AC3FIX {sourcefilename} {fixedfilename}

Where the items in {} brackets above are your AC3 source file name, and the fixed (new) output AC3 filename.