Home movie remastering...

[DLogic]

I have access to a home theater based DVD-Recorder as well as my own PC based DVD-Recorder. What I am trying to do is rather than reconfigure my PC to capture video optimally, I wanted to use DVD-R/-RW's to record the VHS tapes and then move them over to my PC to edit them properly, clean & raise/lower the audio, re-encode, then make a menu for the clips.

I started by recording the VHS tape to a DVD+R. I then took it over to my PC and used SmartRipper to rip the VOB's, then used DVD2AVI to get a d2v & wav file (used "Decode to WAV" and Dolby Surround Downmix). Edited the audio carefully in Sound Forge 7.0a to remove some audio pops and clicks that came with the VHS tape. Then used TMPEGENC Plus wizard (NTSC) to re-encode the video asking for a m2v&audio file. When it was done, I took the audio file and re-encoded it to AC3 using BeSweet. After that I took the m2v&ac3 to TMPEGENC DVD Author and created a menu & chapters and then burned it.

I noticed quite a few things from the finished product:
1. I got weird dark horizontal lines (interlacing?) on the playback.
2. As the time went on, the audio became out of sync.
3. The video seems to be a little "zoomed in".
4. I would like the menu to pop up 1st rather than going straight to the film for easier track access.

Can anyone help me with some of the problems here? I'd greatly appreciate it. I tried looking at some of the guides here and i didn't find what I was looking for. I'd be happy to give any info that's necessary for helping me out. I just don't want to have to wait 4 hrs. and waste discs to find out more problems but if that's what it takes I'll do it.

[akbor75]

i don't know tmpeg dvd author, i use dvd lab.
with that app, you can make almost any menu you want.

but i have some questions for you:
- why do you reencode the video? do you want to fit more on the dvd than you already had. if not, i suggest not to reencode the video. this way, if it was good it stays good.
- why do you convert the mp2 file to ac3 in stead of the original wav file?
- why do you use ac3 in stead of mp2 audio?

[pyrohydra]

DLogic:

1. Not entirely sure about this - try flipping the Interlace field order in TMPGEnc.

2. Did you edit the audio seperately from the video? Did you change the length of the audio? If so this would cause sync issues.

3. Not sure...did you resize?

4. TMPGEnc DVD Author should setup the menu to be the first play. It's possible there's some setting on your player causing it to skip directly to the video.

akbor75:

MP2 audio is not an officially supported audio format for DVDs here in the US (don't ask me why!). Although most players will play MP2 just fine anyway.

Some won't, however, and I'm guessing DLogic is aiming for maximum compatibility.

[DLogic]

but i have some questions for you:
- why do you reencode the video? do you want to fit more on the dvd than you already had. if not, i suggest not to reencode the video. this way, if it was good it stays good.

I don't really know how to do that. I always thought that if the video had to be edited or reworked a little, I had to reencode with TMPEGENC. If there's another way, please let me know!

- why do you convert the mp2 file to ac3 in stead of the original wav file?

I did actually use the original WAV file that was outputted by DVD2AVI and ignored the one given by TMPEGENC. The WAV file was then encoded by BeSweet and AC3fixed as well.

- why do you use ac3 in stead of mp2 audio?

It's to my assumption that AC3 automatically converts the audio to Dolby Digital 2.0. I tried converting a DivX file with WAV and got Dolby Surround and with AC3 I got DD 2.0. If that's what I got with the home recorder I would like to keep it that way.

1. Not entirely sure about this - try flipping the Interlace field order in TMPGEnc.

I'll try that.

2. Did you edit the audio seperately from the video? Did you change the length of the audio? If so this would cause sync issues.

I did that with Sound Forge 7.0a and I tried to make sure that I did a "replace" on the audio w/o changing the time. But that is what I'm suspecting at this time. I'm gonna try it again.

3. Not sure...did you resize?

Not too sure about this one. I just used the Project Wizard. And I was sure to check off the "Full Screen (Keep Aspect ratio)" selection on Other Settings.

Some won't, however, and I'm guessing DLogic is aiming for maximum compatibility.

I'm just trying to retain the quality that's already given to me w/o getting pixelized with the video and getting the best audio out of what's there.

Thanks for the tips and I hope I answered enough for you two.

[DLogic]

Well I think I may have gotten the resizing problem gone and probably my audio problem done. However my interlacing is still around. Something tells me that it might be DVD2AVI because I'm getting somewhat the similar problems there in the preview window. Here's two screenshots from moderately the same spot...

1st one from the original VOB from the home unit
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0atko/RawShotFromVOB.jpg

and the 2nd from the re-encoded VOB.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0atko/ShotFromReEncodedVOB.jpg

What's the problem here?