Loss of Width after converting from AVI to DVD - newbie, go easy...

[the_saint]

Hello guys,

A total newbie here, and firstly, I apologise if the answer to my qustion is to be found some where really obvious, but I have looked for help over and over again, on this site and others, and can't seem to find the particualr help I need.

I recently had around 11 AVI. files to burn to DVD. I decided to split them into 3 DVD's which meant no compression and gave good quality.

They are each around 300/350mb.

I did my usual trick by opening Nero Vision express, dropping the avi's I wanted for each dvd, hit the burn button and sat back to relax while they took around 2 hours per DVD.

The first DVD was good, AVI. file 1 was perfect, great quality, the second AVI. file had slight Audio lag, and the remaining two AVI. files on DVD were perfect again.

Then came DVD 2, all of the 3 AVI files on this DVD had Audio lag, of between a second to 3 seconds. And the same went for DVD3, all 4 AVI files had really bad Audio lag also.

So I searched your site to find a resolve.

It appeared that perhaps Bero Vision was causing this audio lag when converting, and perhaps the best method would be to convert the files using some other programme to VIDEO_TS.

So i read up on this subject, which much confusion, but it seemed like the right choice.

I ended up downloading winAVI Video Converter.

Easy enough. I highlighted my AVI. files in Batch convert, and they converted very quickly, just over an hour. I watched on the preview screen as they converted and the picture quality was perfect and the screen/image size was also perfect.

Now comes the troubling part.

I used winAVI to burn the batch VIDEO_TS files to DVD.

I then played the DVD in my DVD player, and the picture quality was fantastic, the sound was perfect with NO audio lag.

But then I noticed I was missing about 10% of screen size from each side of the video width.

I then re-converted the files, and re-burned the files, but the same thing happened.

I then used Nero Vision to re-bur the files, and again the same thing happened.

After do more reasearch on your site I decided to download VSO DivxtoDVD. I used this programme to convert the files again from AVI to Video_TS, I then used this programme to burn the fils to DVD. I tried setting the screen sizes now, thinking this would solve my problem.

So I burned the files in Automatic setting, 4:3 setting, and then Widescreen setting.

What ever I do the files always come out with 10/13% missing on width from each side of the media.

The thing that really buggs me is that in the preview window when converting from AVI to Video_TS, the screen size is PERFECT.

I am totally lost over this, and would appriciate some help.

So to ramble so much.

Thanks
Sy

[guns1inger]

Look up Overscan in the glossary. It is normal. You don't see it on your PC, only TVs do it. There is only one solution, and WinAVI is not it (actually, WinAVI isn't the solution to anything).

If you search for Overscan in the forums you will find a number of posts regarding it. They will all point you towards a FitCD, avisynth, encoder solution to add borders. To be honest though, unless you are dealing with fan-subbed anime, which never put the subs int he correct place, you shouldn't worry about this. Every DVD you play does exactly the same thing.

I should also add that WinAVI probably would not have fixed your audio sync problems completely either. Search for Audio Sync or VBR MP3 for details on a fix for that.

[mats.hogberg]

See overscan in the glossary.

/Mats
<edit>Damned - guns1inger beat me to it.</edit>

[the_saint]

Thanks guy,

rapid and on the button.

I've have downloaded the programmes you mentioned, and read up a little on the subject. After having a tinker, i'm quite confused.

Before I seriously start to get into this, the scripting part etc I would ask one more thing. Although i'm also aware you took the time to offer my the right, exact advice, which I more than appriciate.

Is there an easier, drop and drag, simple button clicking way of solving this?

I mean, Nero Vision converted the video screen size perfectly, just the audio had lag. DivxTODVD did the audio perfectly, but chopped off 10% either side of the screen, a total loss of around 20%. Niether option is good enough.

But is there something that I can do to get Nero to burn the files to DVD, and not lose Audio?

The files are not fan-subbed anime, just standard TV type stuff.

Sorry to be a pain in the rear end, i just feel a newbiefied by the prospect of the above programmes you mentioned.

Thanks again

[guns1inger]

First - nothing is getting chopped off. It is all there. If nero isn't adding a border, then the outputs are the same. What is hiding the edge is your TV. If it is 20%, then you are also losing 20% of every TV show you watch. I would like to see actual screen shots from both outputs to compare.

Regardless, if you truely think Nero is giving you the right video, you could always demux the video from Nero, the Audio fron DivxtoDVD, and put the two together to get a finished output.

Or, you could use the best programs for the task, and get better quality output that either Nero or DivxtoDVD can produce.

[the_saint]

Thanks again Gunslinger,

Interesting comments, I will try the Demux thing you mentioned, and have a good read up on that now.

Just to mention,

I know my TV is not removing the edges of ANY other TV show, DVD, video etc that I watch. It only happens on this DVD burn, and only after converting to Video_TS through winAVI or DivxtoDVD.

Weird.

Thanks again, really helpful.

[guns1inger]

Sorry, but I need to see screen shots of both outputs before you convince me.

[mats.hogberg]

I know my TV is not removing the edges of ANY other TV show, DVD, video etc that I watch.

How do you know that? With what do you compare? (In fact, you're wrong here. Every TV (except possibly LCD TV, even if I think even these deliberatly removes the outer edges, to avoid displaying "garbage" present in TV broadcasts) "suffers" from overscan. Even yours.)

/Mats

[the_saint]

Right ok,

Well if it helps I'll try and do this.

I presume you use that Gspot thingy to see what the out puts are?

I have downloaded this Gspot thing, and have managed to get an output from the original AVI. file, but it doesn't see to do an output for the converted Video_TS file?

Also, im not sure how to get the output for the avi. file which nero converts and burns to DVD, as it doesn't save the converted file anywhere? I think it just burns straight to DVD and thats it?

Sorry, total newb alert.

[the_saint]

I know my TV is not removing the edges of ANY other TV show, DVD, video etc that I watch.

How do you know that? With what do you compare? (In fact, you're wrong here. Every TV (except possibly LCD TV, even if I think even these deliberatly removes the outer edges, to avoid displaying "garbage" present in TV broadcasts) "suffers" from overscan. Even yours.)

/Mats

How do I know that?

Ok, well based upson some very simple factors, I would safely say that it doesn't remove the edges, or in this case, no where near as much as the converted problem DVD i'm talking about. Granted, if you say every TV does remove a certain amount, thats fine. But this is an extreme case.

When I watch TV lots of different shows have for example water marks on screen. When the cast is being displayed for a TV show, perhaps names etc will appear in either corner of the screen. I can see these water marks, I can read the names etc.

In this particualr case I can safely say it's not the TV removing the edges, i might be wrong, thats why im asking you guys, but i'm fairly sure its not.

When I burned the first DVD with Nero the show I'm buring has a water mark top left, then when the show kicks in the water moves to the bottom right. it's ABC, I think a channel in the states.

When the cast is introduced their names apear left to right, in turn, at the bottom of the screen. With the nero burn, the burn with bad audio, I could read all of the names, with screen to spare either side. I could see all of the water marks, again with screen to spare.

When the show was released on UK TV, the first series, I can see wall water marks, read all the cast names etc.

The same goes for any other TV show with water marks etc.

BUT,

with this converted burn to Video_TS, the water makrs are not on screen. They are missing, by a long way, not just a bit.

The cast names appear left to right, in turn, I can see only the surname when on the left, and only the first name, maybe the first letter of the surname when on the right.

This would tell me my TV 99% is good, and on this particular burn, the edges, 10% EITHER side are not be viewed.

Thanks

[mats.hogberg]

OK, I believe you! Since I've used neither DivX2DVD nor Nero, I have no idea where thiungs go wrong, but a solution for many audio problems arise from the fact that it's VBR audio in the AVI. Solution is to reencode audio only with CBR, and, if the application used to reencode AVI to DVD mpg doesn't handle separate audio and video sources, remux the CBR audio into the AVI.
IMO, it's easier to learn how to use specialized tools for this procedure than to struggle with allinwonder oneclick crap, but the choice is yours.

/Mats

[FulciLives]

If you want a freeware solution I suggest you use QuEnc along with AviSynth and FitCD.

Here is a guide on using QuEnc ---> CLICK HERE

QuEnc is a freeware MPEG-2 DVD spec encoder. There are other freeware encoders but I've been told this is the "best" one.

When you use FitCD you need to select the amount of overscan. The choices go from "0" for none (meaning no change) up to "3" for most (meaning it compensates the most for the overscan). I suggest you use "1" or "2" but not "3" as "3" is too much of a compensation.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[the_saint]

Lovely,

Thanks Matt & Gun & John "FulciLives" Coleman.

That sounds like the way to go then, I've looked up VBR and CBR, so know where were going with this now. And will give the overscan a bash too.

Like you say, better than the all-in-wonder crap. The easy route doesn't seem to have helped thus far.

In to the deep end we dive.

Rgds
Thanks a million
Sy

[mats.hogberg]

That's the spirit!

/Mats

[the_saint]

A quick update,

I wanted to let you know I had now solved the problem. Just incase another Newbie was reading this.

The solution was far more straight forward than I had thought, and I probably made a total newb error, or didn't give you guys enough info for this ultra simple fix.

I had converted incorrectly. And all I needed was a simple change to the options in DivxTODVD.

Settings, TV Format, was selected to PAL. This was wrong.

After reading up on John "FulciLives" Coleman suggestion, "Here is a guide on using QuEnc ---> CLICK HERE"

I spotted this in the guide;
"Until now I've assumed your source had DVD resolution (720x480 for NTSC, 720x576 for PAL). If this is not the case, let's stretch the video to the proper resolution, shall we. If we're dealing with a non DVD resolution DVB stream, it will still have the proper vertical resolution, so all we have to do is stretch it horizontally. You can do this by adding the following line at the end of your AviSynth script:

BicubicResize(720,480,0,0.5)

Replace 480 by 576 if your source is PAL."

This got me thinking about video size.

So I tried a full re-convert and burn in NTCS rather than PAL, although im in the UK and PAL is our standard, the files came from the states.

After converting in NTSC mode I now get all the video size.

What this means i'm not 100% sure on, all I do know is that changing it over to NTSC has made my life a better place! The quality is perfect, the sound shows no lag what so ever and I get full screen size!

I would have only found this out from digging around and reading up on all the tips you guys gave me.

Thanks guys, sorted.

Rgds
Sy