How to convert a PAL DVD to a NTSC DVD using TMPGEnc Plus 2.5x

[FulciLives]

I wanted to point out that just now I updated the first post in this guide (the main guide text) to add the following information:

Near the end of the guide I added a step about changing the GOP to 12 as this will ensure NOT getting the dreaded GOP TOO LONG error that you may or may not get when you leave the GOP setting to the default of 15.

I added this graphic to the guide to show how this "screen" should look like after making the change:



Although a GOP of 15 is OK for PAL I think it is better to use 12 ... at least when doing this type of conversion.

Sorry for any confusion this might have caused anyone.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vhelp]

evening fulci,

Q: what tool(s) are causing these "long GOP" errors ??

(I've never had this type of error in my processes, and I use short,
long, and extrenuously-long GOP's, and still never have this problem)

- I would like to test this problem out on my MPEG encodes -- if anything,
than just ta see for myself.

Thanks.

-vhelp 4193

[FulciLives]

evening fulci,

Q: what tool(s) are causing these "long GOP" errors ??

(I've never had this type of error in my processes, and I use short,
long, and extrenuously-long GOP's, and still never have this problem)

- I would like to test this problem out on my MPEG encodes -- if anything,
than just ta see for myself.

Thanks.

-vhelp 4193

Some DVD Authoring programs will complain about the GOP TOO LONG error.

The reason I made this change in the guide ---> CLICK HERE

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[manono]

Some DVD Authoring programs will complain about the GOP TOO LONG error.

And all of them should complain about extrenuously-long GOP's. What kind of an authoring program lets you author non-compliant DVDs, unless it at least warns you first? Heck, Muxman aborts when it comes across them.

[Phate99]

Hi,

I stumbled upon this guide sometime in the summer, and it worked perfectly!
I started to refer people to it whenever they asked me

Now, I am trying to convert something else (PAL->NTSC). It's 3 hours and 17 minutes long, and this seems to be posing a problem...

When I am at the step trying to go from the screen 4/5 in the wizard to screen 5/5 I get hit with this error:

"The movie is too long to output.

The file cannot exceed 3 hours(180 min) if audio format is Linear PCM."

Would you happen to know how I can get around this?

Thanks alot!

[vhelp]

Some DVD Authoring programs will complain about the GOP TOO LONG error.

And all of them should complain about extrenuously-long GOP's. What kind of an authoring program lets you author non-compliant DVDs, unless it at least warns you first? Heck, Muxman aborts when it comes across them.

manono, personally, I don't think that these apps are 100% perfect, after
all, the majority of them are developed by people (or members) like you
and I -- based off things we learned here and there.

Also, at least I know -now- which dvd authoring you use (and gives you more
restrictions than others), hence your avenging attitude

I got curious about this "GOP TOO LONG" business, and began a basic investigation
of it, just to see if I would receive it also. I don't actually encode to MPEG
in this way either, but I do remember doing some long (or extrenuously-long)
GOP's in the past, and authoring to DVD's, and never having those troubles.
And that is why I included that in initial inquiry to fulci !!

As to DVD Authoring tools..

I'm not saying that anyone said they are perfect in the sense of following the
guidelines or standards that seem to be out there. And, I admit, that I too am
not always on par with everything, with respect to guidelines and standards

After all, we're only Human..

But, you know, things change, and that goes with software development. Rules
changes for whatever reasons, sometimes to follow standards -- that weren't being
followed previously -- so, one day, you work with such tools, and they work
flawlessly, and the next day or generation (version) changes all that.

So, in terms of dvd authoring, it now becomes unlawful to author a certain way.
For example, in some dvd autor tools, including mpegs that are 23.976 fps, is
considered a WRONG, but 29.970 fps is, RIGHT. Now, I'm reading here, that long
gops are WRONG (or, warned against) as well, even though you -could- do it in prev
tools.. and still can !!

So fwiw, I did try the following gops, and MuxMan v0.15P did not complain..

** GOP[1,4,2, 1,18]

But when I encoded for this (extrenuously-long gop) here, it gave me a warning
only, even after completing the video_ts process..

** GOP[1,5823,2, 1,24]

(!) 1 oddities detected, resulting DVD is non-standard. Check log for details.

So, Fulci and Manono, I was just curious about all this fuss about
long gops, etc. and did a little research to find out why.

Sorry about drifting a bit from your topic, Fulci!

-vhelp 4194

[manono]

My mistake then, vhelp, saying it aborts when it encounters them. I wind up with too long GOPs rarely, when I mess something up. OK, it only warns. Good enough. If you read the log (in the root of the C drive), it gives more information about the GOPs. I didn't really understand what it was you printed. My logs say things like:

Shortest GOP has 15 fields, longest GOP has 30 fields.

And Muxman is pretty much 100% perfect. Completely compliant. It's the gold standard in authoring.

For example, in some dvd autor tools, including mpegs that are 23.976 fps, is
considered a WRONG, but 29.970 fps is, RIGHT.

NTSC requires 29.97fps. Muxman completely rejects 23.976fps without pulldown. Try it sometime. Those samples you included for the Showgirls laserdisc->DVD were authored as 23.976fps. And they were examples of what? How not to author something for DVD? I think that if you seriously want to discuss making non-compliant DVDs, you'll find a better reception with those KVCD idiots. Around here you shouldn't be promoting non-standard methods. Someone might actually listen to you.

[manono]

Phate99-

Would you happen to know how I can get around this?

Do you have the AC3 plugin for TMPGEnc? Anyway, it seems logical that if it complains about the WAV audio, you shouldn't include the audio (which is over 2 GB in size anyway). Encode the audio separately for AC3 or MP2 audio, and bring it in at the authoring stage.

[Phate99]

Phate99-

Would you happen to know how I can get around this?

Do you have the AC3 plugin for TMPGEnc? Anyway, it seems logical that if it complains about the WAV audio, you shouldn't include the audio (which is over 2 GB in size anyway). Encode the audio separately for AC3 or MP2 audio, and bring it in at the authoring stage.

RE: Plugin: I have no idea, but probably not.

I don't think there is any audio on the track (I could be wrong, I just followed the guide :P ).
I did demux the audio and it says it's an AC3 file (I'm starting to think I must have the plugin...)
I haven't been able to reach the authoring stage because of the error.

I did see a screen in the expert settings where there's something about the audio stream, but all the options are greyed out. (except the audio edit thing, which looks entirely unrelated.)

I tried changing the destination media, but it continues to tell me the video is too long.

[manono]

If there's no WAV (LPCM) file, and it's not converting to WAV for you, then I don't know, and it'll be best to wait for FulciLives to come back.

[FulciLives]

Hi,

I stumbled upon this guide sometime in the summer, and it worked perfectly!
I started to refer people to it whenever they asked me

Now, I am trying to convert something else (PAL->NTSC). It's 3 hours and 17 minutes long, and this seems to be posing a problem...

When I am at the step trying to go from the screen 4/5 in the wizard to screen 5/5 I get hit with this error:

"The movie is too long to output.

The file cannot exceed 3 hours(180 min) if audio format is Linear PCM."

Would you happen to know how I can get around this?

Thanks alot!

Pick MP2 as the audio type in the start of the WIZARD MODE instead of using the LPCM option.

Pick a bitrate that matches that which you will use for the final audio (which when all is said and done is something you do outside of TMPGEnc Plus).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vhelp]

manono, sorry for the delay. I was searching for where I had seen
the dvd spec/format requirements that did in fact include 23.976 fps video
on my HDD but coudln't find it, so I went back on google, and my dial-up
is just too slow, so I took a few deep breaths, held it, and search some
more.. and found it.

--> 1.2 Frame rate and other requirements

In that same paragraph, it does go on about other NTSC DVD requirements.
Actually, its not all that big a deal, 23.976 or 29.970, (with 3:2 pulldown)
when your source is not encoded as straight (telecine) interlace 29.970 fps,
(cause of the risk of artifacts resulting in this process) and I do understand
about about the 60 fields output thing, but DVD players can handle this if
really required.

-vhelp 4195

[FulciLives]

Some DVD Authoring programs will complain about the GOP TOO LONG error.

And all of them should complain about extrenuously-long GOP's. What kind of an authoring program lets you author non-compliant DVDs, unless it at least warns you first? Heck, Muxman aborts when it comes across them.

manono, personally, I don't think that these apps are 100% perfect, after
all, the majority of them are developed by people (or members) like you
and I -- based off things we learned here and there.

Also, at least I know -now- which dvd authoring you use (and gives you more
restrictions than others), hence your avenging attitude

I got curious about this "GOP TOO LONG" business, and began a basic investigation
of it, just to see if I would receive it also. I don't actually encode to MPEG
in this way either, but I do remember doing some long (or extrenuously-long)
GOP's in the past, and authoring to DVD's, and never having those troubles.
And that is why I included that in initial inquiry to fulci !!

As to DVD Authoring tools..

I'm not saying that anyone said they are perfect in the sense of following the
guidelines or standards that seem to be out there. And, I admit, that I too am
not always on par with everything, with respect to guidelines and standards

After all, we're only Human..

But, you know, things change, and that goes with software development. Rules
changes for whatever reasons, sometimes to follow standards -- that weren't being
followed previously -- so, one day, you work with such tools, and they work
flawlessly, and the next day or generation (version) changes all that.

So, in terms of dvd authoring, it now becomes unlawful to author a certain way.
For example, in some dvd autor tools, including mpegs that are 23.976 fps, is
considered a WRONG, but 29.970 fps is, RIGHT. Now, I'm reading here, that long
gops are WRONG (or, warned against) as well, even though you -could- do it in prev
tools.. and still can !!

So fwiw, I did try the following gops, and MuxMan v0.15P did not complain..

** GOP[1,4,2, 1,18]

But when I encoded for this (extrenuously-long gop) here, it gave me a warning
only, even after completing the video_ts process..

** GOP[1,5823,2, 1,24]

(!) 1 oddities detected, resulting DVD is non-standard. Check log for details.

So, Fulci and Manono, I was just curious about all this fuss about
long gops, etc. and did a little research to find out why.

Sorry about drifting a bit from your topic, Fulci!

-vhelp 4194

Well all I know is that there is a GOP "limit" if you will that is a part of the DVD spec and if you want to create a DVD Video that is with-in the spec then you need to do so if you want a 100% compliant DVD Video.

If anything I tend to be somewhat restrictive on the GOP thing myself. For instance I tend to use 12 for PAL event hough other's tell me 15 is OK. I use 12 for 23.976fps which I think is 100% correct no matter how you slice it. For 29.970fps I use 15 although you can supposedly use 18 and be A-OK.

The longer the GOP supposedly the more efficient the MPEG-2 compression can be but the DVD Video format or spec calls for a certain limit and I assume that was done for a reason and even if I or someone else does not agree with the reason we still have to work within the spec to create compliant DVD Videos. We are bound to the hardware afterall (DVD players) and DVD players are made to the DVD spec. Going outside that spec is not a good idea IMHO.

Another example is CLOSED GOP or OPEN GOP. The DVD spec seems to indicate that OPEN GOP is A-OK almost all of the time (other than multi-angle DVD Videos) but I prefer to use CLOSED GOP because based on my understanding ... it just seems more "proper" even though I am told it hurts the compression efficiency to use CLOSED GLOPs instead of OPENED GOPs.

As for the GOP settings in TMPGEnc Plus I must admit that I am a bit unsure of all the various options ... I wrote the guide to make a "simple" guide but I have long ago left TMPGEnc Plus in the "dust" as I prefer to use CCE and lately even the freeware HCenc MPEG-2 encoder. Both CCE and HCenc make the GOP settings seem more "straight forward" with less "options" than what TMPGEnc Plus seems to offer.

To be honest I think the guide was A-OK as it was but someone mentioned getting the GOP TOO LONG error so to be safe I added the "bit" about changing the GOP to 12 which should definitely avoid that issue although TMPGEnc Plus has so many options that I am starting to think that this person (that got the GOP TOO LONG error) perhaps made a mistake following the guide.

The one sample project I made (using my guide) worked and worked well without any GOP TOO LONG issues or any other issues ... and that was before I made the UPDATE to change the GOP from 15 to 12.

But in the case of adhering to the DVD spec ... better safe than sorry. In other words I'd rather NOT push the spec but work within it even if I am "limiting" myself to the "inside" of the spec as opposed to the outer "edge" of the spec.

I hope that makes sense?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

manono, sorry for the delay. I was searching for where I had seen
the dvd spec/format requirements that did in fact include 23.976 fps video
on my HDD but coudln't find it, so I went back on google, and my dial-up
is just too slow, so I took a few deep breaths, held it, and search some
more.. and found it.

--> 1.2 Frame rate and other requirements

In that same paragraph, it does go on about other NTSC DVD requirements.
Actually, its not all that big a deal, 23.976 or 29.970, (with 3:2 pulldown)
when your source is not encoded as straight (telecine) interlace 29.970 fps,
(cause of the risk of artifacts resulting in this process) and I do understand
about about the 60 fields output thing, but DVD players can handle this if
really required.

-vhelp 4195

That link doesn't seem to indicate much ... sure it says 23.976fps is OK for NTSC but we all know that you need to apply the 3:2 pulldown flags. Right?

I mean the whole 3:2 pulldown thing is just that ... it's a flag so the video plays back at 29.970fps ... you aren't actually adding more frames to the video per se.

So why avoid the 3:2 pulldown?

Of course vhelp is suggesting (baseed on that link) that 23.976fps without 3:2 pulldown is supported but that link doesn't really make it clear and I bet that if you we really scratch deeply into the DVD Video spec we will find that 23.976fps is only supported when it has 3:2 pulldown applied ... just as we all seem to do it now (knock on wood).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Phate99]

Pick MP2 as the audio type in the start of the WIZARD MODE instead of using the LPCM option.

Pick a bitrate that matches that which you will use for the final audio (which when all is said and done is something you do outside of TMPGEnc Plus).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

It looks like it's working!

Thank you so much

[vhelp]

Well, I'm glad you at least took the time to click-it and read it

Serious, though.. I ran some more searches (googles and wikipedia) and
I just can't come up with an actual and Official document that states
that you -MUST- process accordingly to 29.970 fps (3:2 pulldown or straight
29.970 fps Interlace or Progressive) for dvd authoring.

I've even searched through dvd demystified and still can't come up with
anything stating otherwise:

--> DVD Demystified

-vhelp 4197

[FulciLives]

Well, I'm glad you at least took the time to click-it and read it

Serious, though.. I ran some more searches (googles and wikipedia) and
I just can't come up with an actual and Official document that states
that you -MUST- process accordingly to 29.970 fps (3:2 pulldown or straight
29.970 fps Interlace or Progressive) for dvd authoring.

I've even searched through dvd demystified and still can't come up with
anything stating otherwise:

--> DVD Demystified

-vhelp 4197

BJ_M would know since he works in the industry with all that high tech gear and what-not.

Maybe shoot him a PM about it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[manono]

That link doesn't seem to indicate much ... sure it says 23.976fps is OK for NTSC but we all know that you need to apply the 3:2 pulldown flags. Right?

Yes, that link isn't specific. Maybe it leaves out the 3:2 pulldown part because it's understood that all NTSC DVDs must output 29.97fps. Maybe this is the DVD Demystified link vhelp was looking for. It's quite specific and 100% accurate:

Coded frame rates of 24 fps progressive from film, 25 fps interlaced from PAL video, and 29.97 fps interlaced from NTSC video are typical. ... In the case of 24 fps source, the encoder embeds MPEG-2 repeat_first_field flags into the video stream to make the decoder either perform 2-3 pulldown for 60Hz NTSC displays (actually 59.94Hz) or 2-2 pulldown (with resulting 4% speedup) for 50Hz PAL/SECAM displays. In other words, the player doesn't "know" what the encoded rate is, it simply follows the MPEG-2 encoder's instructions to produce the predetermined display rate of 25 fps or 29.97 fps.

http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4

[vhelp]

Well, I've read that paragraph over several times, including the one above
it and below it, but I am still not sold on the mandatory requirement of
frame rate setup. Regardless, these encoded (frame rates) mpeg-2 dvd
authored w/ 23.976 fps play smooth and with no hickups in my dvd players.
The last player I've been playing my hdtv -> polaroid of "Lost" play like
smooth butter in my polaroid. In fact, I'm looking at lost right now,
and I can't get over how well I did them, I mean, how they play

I would think if this was a required standard, then at the very least, it
would not play (or play properly) inside my polaroid, which happens to be
a current up-to-date model. So, for the time being, I don't think that
the 29.970 fps is an accurate requirement for dvd authored video.

Once again, sorry Fulci, and good-night

-vhelp 4198

[FulciLives]

Well, I've read that paragraph over several times, including the one above
it and below it, but I am still not sold on the mandatory requirement of
frame rate setup. Regardless, these encoded (frame rates) mpeg-2 dvd
authored w/ 23.976 fps play smooth and with no hickups in my dvd players.
The last player I've been playing my hdtv -> polaroid of "Lost" play like
smooth butter in my polaroid. In fact, I'm looking at lost right now,
and I can't get over how well I did them, I mean, how they play

I would think if this was a required standard, then at the very least, it
would not play (or play properly) inside my polaroid, which happens to be
a current up-to-date model. So, for the time being, I don't think that
the 29.970 fps is an accurate requirement for dvd authored video.

Once again, sorry Fulci, and good-night

-vhelp 4198

One thing that comes to mind ... are you outputting 480p or 480i?

I ask because if you authored as 23.976fps without 3:2 pulldown then I am guessing that if it does play back correctly it probably only does so when you output 480p which means that 480i would output ... well not so well.

Just a thought ...

Also ... again ... since 3:2 pulldown is just adding the flag ... why NOT do it? I can't imagine it takes up more "space" to do it so ...

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[manono]

Is English not your first language? Do you have a problem reading it? Just what part of In the case of 24 fps source, the encoder embeds MPEG-2 repeat_first_field flags into the video stream to make the decoder either perform 2-3 pulldown for 60Hz NTSC displays (actually 59.94Hz)... do you not understand? It doesn't say it may embed. It's not the least bit conditional.

So, for the time being, I don't think that
the 29.970 fps is an accurate requirement for dvd authored video.

All NTSC DVD must output 29.97fps interlaced (actually 59.94 fields per second). Any credibility you may have ever had around here (you never had any with me), you can kiss goodbye. Maybe read the 3-2 Pulldown section of this (about a third of the way down, starting with this):

As we explained above, when film is transferred to video, 24 frames per second of film must be converted to 60 fields per second of video.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html

[vhelp]

Evening Manono,

your last remark was very hurtful and crule. I don't take too kindly
to this sort of talk, specially when you blurt it out publickly and with
strong feeling of hate. That is how I read it.

I don't know what kind of person would even think like this and go out
and do this to someone, and not even think about it, (knowing that it
will hurt the person) only to realize that they were wrong and sorry,
and retrack what was said. I can't tell you enough, how often I do this,
retracking what I write. But I do. Because the last thing I want to
do is hurt the other person, no matter how much you may dislike them.

The fact that you also backed it up.. (in so many words) that "you always
felt that way" about me, says a lot about your charactor, to me, and probably
to others here. It hurts me to read that "hateful" remark -- so sly like, and
demeaning, and cunning, and more -- so much, to the point that I can't
belive it.

I thought we were having an intellegent conversation about GOPs, and some-
how, it turned in another direction, into a "frame rate" -to- DVD Author,
and then into a "frame rate" / MPEG-2 repeat_first_field / 3-2 pulldown /
something-other, contraversy which ultimately ended up into a personal
attack on me, regarding my credability. And then you throw a document at
me, which you know to be dated, and flawed in various parts, and insist
that I read it (which I did ..again) .. ..

So the way you had said those words, it left a sour taste in me regarding
your charactor and what you think of me.

I think that part of the reason why this info (and many others) is so very
dificult to find is because its pricy. At $5000 for several hundred pages
of DVD Specification, plus a -required- Licenses to add, probably is a
no-wonder.

I don't know about you, but I was being genuin in resolving the debate on
the "frame rate", and thought that we could figure this out for sure, and
that we would both come out, smarter, even if it ment that -I- was wrong.
So, I spent the day sifting through the internet, researching this, because
I really wanted to know the answer, but I wanted to find it in an "official"
document or something. Not by someone you know or friend or anything. But
by a reputable source. I'm still researching this, and did find some info,
but probably not what you want to hear. And after your remark, I don't know,
anymore.

So, I don't know why you would say that, I just don't know why. But it sure
does hurt something awlful, and from you !!

-vhelp 4199

[vhelp]

Fulci, I hope you don't mind my responding, once more here, just
to explain what was going on and the confusion in between.

Ok. I just got back from my testing with other dvd players. And as it
turns out, I was wrong. At least my Polaroid knows what to do with the
source when it comes across a 24p frame rate, and acomodates for it,
for a lack of a better word.

But, when I tested my other dvd players.. ie, Apex AD-1500 and Pioneer DVR-220S

I was convinced that I you could encode mpeg with 24p and author to dvd
in this way, and have no problems with playing them. But I was basing
this on several small test scenarios that did play the mpeg dvd authored
videos on the player equipment I had near by. I wasn't paying any
attention to all the details during those tests just so long as I could
see that the video was playing.. and they were.

So what made me realize my error ??

I re-ran those same tests, using the current method I was just using,
and this time, I paid more attention to the video.. not sitting 20 feet
away as I often do while watching tv. Anyway. What I found was that
on my AD-1500, the video would play but very slightely judder or
something. It wasn't bad, but looking closely, you could notice it.

My second clue was with using my DVR-220S recorder. I found that the
video played fine, but at random moments, it would glitch just slightly.
I rand that test several times until I was convinsed of what I saw was
not normal.

My third and final test was with playing the same disc, but this time,
using my Polaroid. For some reason (not important at this time) it
was playing these (non-standard) dvd authored videos perfectly. Fulci
did hint to me earlier, that it might be on account of the 480p side.
By that time, I was already convinced of that idea, but I wanted to
make certain that I was being accurate about this unit's playing rate.
This unit does play 24p pefectly, weather non-standard, or not.

I feel pretty dumb about all this, because first of all, I don't
make 24p dvd's. I always 3-2 pulldown those that require them. But
for some reason, manono got some idea of me that I -regulary- do
these types of dvd's. That's not true. But somehow he got the
idea, from my previous laserdisc encodes, where he noticed that the
frame rate was 24p and not 30i, (3-2 pulldown) and I didn't feel like
going into it with him on this because I didn't feel it was important
at the time. But recently, I had tested the playing ability of these
clips on my Polaroid, and they played successfully. So, I guess my
confusion was the coencidentalness of the Polaroid's surpise ability
with 24p sources. Then, add to that, manono's mindset of the debate,
and how I lead myself into this trap and argued a bit about 24 frame rates
vs. 30 frame frates for dvd authoring, though only because in my initial
research into this (startd a few threads up) I did not find any official
mentioning. So here we are, (or were) arguing past each other, and
over nothing.

So, I regret even posting in this topic, because now I learned something
that I wish had never learned.

Fulci, thank you for your understanding.

-vhelp 4200

[FulciLives]

vhelp my friend I'm just not sure what to say here about all this other than to say it is most unfortunate.

As always your comments are appreciated.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Cornucopia]

I just finished doing a PAL-->NTSC conversion using this guide and the DGPulldown method, and I just have to say IT LOOKS AMAZING!.
My boss brought back a R2PAL DVD from Spain and wanted to see it on his US/NTSC settop (unforgiving one at that).
I tried a few other methods first(was worried about the expected non-interpolated/blended motion judder)--AfterEffects, Vdub/TMPGEnc, Vegas/Mainconcept, Canopus StdsConverter--and wasn't particularly happy with any of those results.
I had been recently reading up on this guide and, having heard all the raves, and knowing that this bunch of guys here seem to know what they're doing, I though I'd give it a try.

The outcome looks as good as I could/would ever expect, given that it wasn't processed through some Pro Hardware, Motion-Estimating device (or with a Morphed+HighFrameRate Intermediate)! Praise indeed.

I did have a few pitfalls along the way that I thought I'd pass along in case it helps out somebody else who might have similar problems...

I started by ripping/demuxing, but I had some color correction and NR processing to do first, but didn't have time to devote solely to frameserving, etc (would have to be done piecemeal because of other higher priority projects), so I just created an intermediate Uncompressed PAL AVI file. This original was Interlaced BTW, so I wanted to make the intermediate a high-quality DeInterlaced version. OK so far.
Ran it through TMPGEnc with the settings from the Guide, ran DGPulldown. However, my 2 authoring apps of choice (Maestro, DVDA) didn't like the resulting file. Checked its properties with Gspot, MpegAnalyzer, etc...

Said resulting file was Interlaced again! Also, Drop-Frame. Also, still considered a PAL segment.

So I went back to TMPGEnc, changed a few of the settings to:
[Video Format]: "NTSC"
[Encode Mode]: "Non-Interlace"
[Video Source type]: "Non-Interlace (progressive)"
[Field Order]: "Bottom Field First (field B)"
[Video Arrange Method]: "Full Screen"
[GOP Length]: "12"
[Output Bitstream for Editing / Closed GOP]: checked

Ran it through authoring again. This time, they accepted the file, but it was still considered Interlaced! (and DropFrame) Checked again. Seemed OK from what I could tell.

But wait...

Opening with ReStream I see that while the PictureCodingExtension says "Frametype-Progressive", the SequenceExtension DID NOT have the "Progressive Sequence" checked on the DGPulldowned version, though it was there on the TMPGEnc encoded version. Aaaahhhh!
Quick fix with ReStream...

Ran it through authoring again. This time, ALL good except the Drop Frame. This is something I figure I have to live with. And for now, I can because the change in stated length is <2sec for this 39min program, and it's just Narration over Silent video so there should be no real Sync problems.
Can't import chapters into Maestro from original PAL #'s because of Drop-frame, but I just changed the numbers from 00:05:00:00 --> 00:05:00;02 etc. Worked like a charm!

Actually, funning thing is that there is some sync sound in the middle, but it seemed to stay in sync after all!

Thanks to Neuron2 (DG) for the app!!, and thanks to FulciLives, et al for the guide!

Scott

[manono]

Hi-

To get rid of Drop Frame, uncheck the 2 boxes in DGPulldown. I always uncheck them. My understanding is that you don't need Progressive Sequence, just the Progressive Frame flag set, which DGPulldown does automatically.

[Cornucopia]

Sorry manono, I did try that. Didn't change anything (at least not how Maestro sees it).

Scott

[warlord716]

Thanks for the guide. It has worked perfectly till I got to authoring the dvd using tmpgenc dvd author. I get an error saying that I cant use the 576x480 resolution for authoring a dvd and that 16:9 doesn't work with 576x480. Do I somehow need to convert it to 352x240 352x480 704x480 720x480 pixels?

Also, does this method include the menus on the PAL disc? I know that you basically are only converting hte vob video files, but can someone point me in the right direction to a guide for converting the menus or simply having the original usable menus on the new NTSC version?

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the guide. It has worked perfectly till I got to authoring the dvd using tmpgenc dvd author. I get an error saying that I cant use the 576x480 resolution for authoring a dvd and that 16:9 doesn't work with 576x480. Do I somehow need to convert it to 352x240 352x480 704x480 720x480 pixels?

Also, does this method include the menus on the PAL disc? I know that you basically are only converting hte vob video files, but can someone point me in the right direction to a guide for converting the menus or simply having the original usable menus on the new NTSC version?

I suggest you re-read the guide again as it clearly tells you what to do and why you are doing it. The final MPEG-2 file should be 720x480 with 25 frames per second ... not 576x480. In fact I have no idea how you even got 576x480 or is that a typo?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[warlord716]

fulci,
i'll definitely go back through the guide again to see what I screwed up. It definitely isn't a typo...and the file was 25fps before i used the pulldown program to make it go to 29.97fps (PAL->NTSC conversion for the framerate).