ProCoder settings to fix issue (pics included). help please

[msimon7]

hello,
have been using ProCoder to re-encode some mpegs and not sure how to fix the problem i'm having with the results.
converting PAL SVCD 4:3 clips to make an NTSC DVD 16:9.
settings i used were 1 pass VBR on mastering quality (tried highest quality first, both produced the same issue), 8000 max/6000 avg/3000 min. also cropped 64 lines from top & bottom to make letterbox input to 16:9 output (remove most of the horizontal black bars)

hopefully you can see from the picture here that the edges are jagged where in the original they are relatively smooth. is there something i'm doing wrong with my settings or is there another setting i should use that may correct this. didn't want to apply filters because the source we good and thought it shouldn't need it. any advice would be appreciated! thanks

Encoded output


Original input


(Update after some more tests)....
the source (according to procoder) is Non-Interlaced and the target was set to Lower/Bottom field first for interlacing, there is no choice for non-interlace on the target.
this might be my real question...
encoded a piece again, this time not cropping any lines and it seems the jagged edges went away. but the output is a like a small picture in a large black box. i understand this is because of the 4:3 to 16:9 and source is letterboxed, but how can i cleaningly remove the bars when re-encoding? really would appreciate help here, seems that this is my issue. thanks again!

[erratic]

I mentioned this problem before. ProCoder is a bad upscaler.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=236014

What you should do is crop and resize the video first with VirtualDubMod or VirtualDub-MPEG2 and then frameserve to Procoder. There are frameserving guides available here at videohelp.

Normally you should crop 72 lines from the top and bottom of a PAL SVCD source to make it 16:9. Then resize the cropped video to 720x480 to get anamorphic 16:9 NTSC (use the Lanczos3 resizing method in VDub).

Then frameserve with VDub to ProCoder. Use an .avs extension instead of VDub's default .vdr extension when frameserving. Open this .avs file with ProCoder and set the Interlacing to Non-Interlaced, and the Source Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1 NTSC 16:9.

In the Target settings you can change the Stream Format to Generic ISO MPEG stream. Then you can select Non-Interlaced as well.

If your source is 25 fps PAL you should output to 23.976p -> NTSC (3-2pulldown). Unfortunately ProCoder 2 often crashes if you do this. It's a bug. But try it, because if it works the result will be better. In this case you can't select Non-Interlaced, you should select Upper/Top field first.

[msimon7]

thanks so much for the detailed reply! i have some new things to learn, but the final result will be worth it! off to figure out the frameserve world now....
thanks again!

[msimon7]

having a problem using served file in ProCoder... here is what i did...
ran the latest VirtualDub MPEG2 version
opened the PAL SVCD mpeg file
under filters, chose cropping and cropped 72 lines from top and bottom (thanks for that number by the way!)
added Lanczos3 resizing filter, set it to 720x480
did file/start framserver...
clicked start and saved file as test.avs
clicked source in ProCoder and added the .avs file and get this error...
AVI Reader: Cannot play back this file. The format is not supported.

what do i need to do differently to get the avs file to open in proCoder?

searched these forums before asking, and seems that you can serve to procoder, but haven't seen this problem asked about yet. in one of the framserve guides it show how to load the vdr handler, so i did that also, but still get the same error in proCoder.
my guess is that i'm missing something, like a codec or reader or something. but don't know what
do i need the VFAPI wrapper? read about that a few times in various posts, but didn't seem to completely match what i was doing. didn't want to load anything unneccessarily on my PC if i don't need it.
thanks for any help! feel like i'm almost there....just need a push

started a new thread since the topic changed, thought that would be more appropriate...
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1079729

[erratic]

I just tried frameserving from VirtualDubMod to ProCoder 2, using test.avs as the filename and ProCoder opened the file. It works for BJ_M too: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240038

I also tried it with the regular VDub and an AVI file, frameserving again as test.avs. Worked fine with ProCoder 2. I'm sure VirtualDub-MPEG2 should work also, but I don't know what's wrong in your case.

[erratic]

Just an idea: maybe you have to install Avisynth. It's installed on my system and it works with .avs scripts. Try it. You can uninstall it if it doesn't help and you don't want to keep it.

[msimon7]

hello. thanks again for the replies. lost cable connection for the past few days, so i haven't been able to get back with follow up questions.

after installing avisynth, i am able to pull in the avs files just fine in procoder. thanks for that tip. couple of questions...

1) when opening the avs file in procoder, the source now shows the file as interlaced with lower/bottom first. when i pulled the mpeg file in directly it showed it as non-interlaced. should i be concerned about this? don't want to run a long conversion to only see that my settings aren't correct

2) in regards to the 23.976p -> NTSC (3-2pulldown) setting on the target, just as you had mentioned i can no longer choose non-interlaced on the target if i use this. if the avs file is now being detected as lower/bottom, should i not match that on the target as well if i choose 23.976p? if i end up having to use 29.976, should i go for non-interlaced or choose lower/bottom or still try and use upper/top

3) a little off this topic, but can i frame serve multiple files? seems like from virtualdub you can only serve the one file you are working with. i have a handful that i'd like to run overnight and was just wondering if that is possible? maybe open multiple copies of virtualdub?

thanks again for the help!!

[BJ_M]

open multiple copies of virtualdub <--- yes