SVCD Help

[squiddaddy]

I am trying to rip a DVD to SVCD, and am having trouble setting things up properly. I am using DVD2AVI 1.76 to frameserve to TMPGEnc 2.0 Here are the stats from DVD2AVI when I preview the VOB files:
Aspect Ratio - 16:9
Framerate - 29.970
Video Type - FILM
Frame Type - Progressive

First, which template should I use in TMPGEnc, NTSC or NTSC Film? Second, what settings should I use on the Advanced page for aspect ratio, interlacing, etc, once I select a template?

I hope someone can help.
Thanks.

[poopyhead]

hrm...weird....i thought all FILM (pregressive) movies are 23.976 fps...

[poopyhead]

futhermore (at least for me) dvd2avi showed NTSC movies as having 23.976 fps too

[Vejita-sama]

Ok, two points.

1) 23.976fps vs 29.97fps. TV shows are shot at 29.97fps interlaced. Interlaced means that each frame is actually made of two fields (odd and even). Each has 1/2 the lines to be displayed. So another way to look at it is 60 fields/s. Movies are shot at 23.976fps progressive. Progressive in that each frame is a complete picture and they are shown one after the other.

In order to play a 23.976fps movie on your 29.97fps TV, we need to convert the film to that format. This is down by a process known as teleciding. Do a search on why, but basically if you have a telcided 29.97fps DVD rip, you'll want to convert it back to 23.976fps (a process known as inverse telecine aka IVTC), encode it, then re-telecine it (or add the 3:2 pulldown flag) so it can play on your TV.

IVTC will also generate a progessive source (ie. remove interlacing).

IVTC is very slow. So to save time most people just 'enable force film' in DVD2AVI to generate a 23.976fps output from the telecided source. If you're using TMPGenc then burn w/ the NTSC_film template to add the 3:2 pulldown flag.

2) Aspect ratios. First read :
http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm
for some back ground. There are two seperate factors at work. The resolution of the MPEG and the DAR (display aspect ratio). You can have a DAR at ANY resolution (in theory).
Common DAR are 16:9 (movies) 4:3 (TV) and 1:1 (computer). The VCD standard calls for MPEG1 files at 352x240 and SVCD standard MPEG2 files at 480x480. Once you've 'locked/selected' that resolution you need to have your movie's DAR fit w/in it.

BUT WAIT! TV's are 4:3 ONLY. So you can't play a 1:1 or 16:9 source on them at a standard resolution w/o cutting off part of the screen or squshing the picture.

The answer. Letterbox/wide screen. We take a movie w/ a DAR of 16:9 and make it fit on a 4:3 display by adding black bars to the top and bottom.

With all that said thou, in TMPGenc you should be ok if you choose 425line 16:9 and full screen keep aspect ratio, and encode. Do a short test clip to be safe/sure (use source range)