Quick PAL/NTSC framerate question

[Jackinbox]

I'm converting video of a wedding that was shot in PAL. The file is 352x576 25fps with a DD 2.0 track. I'm trying to be able to keep the new file the same running time so I don't have to convert the audio. I've read the guides posted here so I think I have everything right but I just wanted to check before I go through hours of encoding only to have made a mistake.

Anyway, here's what my AVISynth script looks like for CCE.

mpeg2source("E:\Projects\India Wedding\VTS_01_1.d2v")
BicubicResize(704,480)
Addborders(8,0,8,0)
AssumeFPS(23.976, True)
ConvertToYUY2()

After encoding I believe I need to use either Pulldown.exe or DGPulldown.

This guide here says I can keep the file the same length and keep the DD 2.0 tracks and leave the framerate at 25fps??

http://www.johnisme.com/avi1.shtml

I've converted numerous AVIs from PAL to NTSC without a problem although the resulting NTSC file is always a longer running time.

So I guess my question is do I leave the framerate at 25fps or do I convert to 23.976?

Thanks for the help!

[Soopafresh]

No, don't change the FPS. Keep it at 25FPS, then run DGPulldown 25-29.97.
Make sure that your Mpeg2 encoder is set to PROGRESSIVE. That is a requirement for DGPulldown to work properly.

[MrMoody]

Doesn't DGPulldown assume the input is progressive? Video camera footage is interlaced. I think the result will be a motion stutter.

Here's what I would do. Get SmoothDeinterlacer from here

And use this script (similar is included in docs):
MPEG2Source("E:\Projects\India Wedding\VTS_01_1.d2v")
ConvertToYUY2()
SmoothDeinterlace(tff=false, doublerate=true)
BilinearResize(352, 480)
ChangeFPS(59.94)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4, 0, 3)
Weave()

Encode as interlaced, which it still is. Note tff may need to be =true if the original source was analog and not DV. 352 is a valid horizontal size for NTSC DVD, no need to upsize.

[Jackinbox]

Thanks so much for the help! I did a quick test using the "TRIM" command and everything seemed to work out. The only question I have is regarding resizing to 352x480 instead of 720x480. When I play it back in PowerDVD it plays back very tall and thin. Is there a setting in CCE I need to change? I went to author the DVD with TMPGENC and it showed as 720x480....so I haven't actually burned the disc yet.

[MrMoody]

I don't think PowerDVD plays DVD material properly unless it sees a DVD. 352x480 will work on all (compliant) set top players. Just author and burn to an RW or make an .iso and mount with Daemon tools to test it. If it doesn't work, it's most likely TMPGEnc DVD Author's fault. I'm not sure if TDA is capable of re-encoding, but don't let it do it if it can.

I use DVDAuthorGUI for things like this because it's quick and simple for simple projects. Creating menus in it is tedious, however.