Resolution problem while creating NTSC DVD from AVI

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Hello everybody,

I have a DVD backup without a few miniutes of the movie at the end. I am trying to create a NTSC DVD from AVI file (the same movie) in order to add it to the DVD and thus to create the whole DVD.

But once I convert the AVI to NTSC DVD I get a picture with black bars on top & bottom not matching those on the DVD. The picture I get is either narrower (if I add to the script the line: LanczosResize(720,480)) or wider than the DVD picture.

The NTSC DVD has resolution of 720 X 480. The AVI (divX 3) resolution as per GSpot is 640 X 272.

I am ready to provide other information about the files if required. I am not sure what the information should be.

Is it possible to create from the AVI a NTSC DVD that would match the DVD?

Thank you.

[guns1inger]

640 x 272 is approx 2.35:1, or very widescreen. You will get black bars top and bottom. To match the original DVD you have, you need to know the following :

1. If the original from a 2.35:1 source, and encoded as 2.35:1 ?
2. Is the DVD a widescreen enhanced (or anamorphic, or 16:9 enhanced) DVD, or a Matted Letterbox 4:3 DVD ?

If the answer to 1 is yes, the DVD is a 2.35:1, then it should be easy to match up.

If the DVD is anamorphic, use

Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,0.6,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

in your script. If it is letterboxed, use

Lanczos4Resize(720,288,0,0.6,10,0,620,272)
AddBorders(0,96,0,96)

Now these are from FitCD, and may need to be adjusted slightly depending on how accurate the DVD is, and to allow for any rounding error. But the difference will be only a line or two.

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guns1inger,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I put a VOB from the DVD back through GSpot and that's what I've got.



Sorry for the ignorance but I do not know how to determine - "Is the DVD a widescreen enhanced (or anamorphic, or 16:9 enhanced) DVD, or a Matted Letterbox 4:3 DVD ?"

If I open a VOB in IfoEdit, I see the following:

720 x 576 (PAL) (PAL625/50) (16:9) (letterboxed)

Could it be of help?

[guns1inger]

It is 16:9, according to G-spot, but it is also PAL, so you are trying to match an avi taken from NTSC source with a DVD taken from PAL source ? You don't like to do easy things, do you ?

What g-spot cannot tell you is what the original aspect ratio of the actual image is.

So think about that you really need to achieve out of this. Are you converting the DVD to NTSC before matching it to the avi, or the avi to PAL before matching it to the DVD ?

Do forget, you have the whole pulldown/audio sync thing to deal with as well when you try to do this. Not even sure if you can mix 25 fps and 23.976 ->25 fps pulldown footage together.

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"you are trying to match an avi taken from NTSC source with a DVD taken from PAL source " - Yes. I jsut have no choice.

"Are you converting the DVD to NTSC before matching it to the avi," - Yes, I converted the PAL DVD to NTSC DVD as the final product is supposed to be NTSC DVD.

[guns1inger]

Post a g-spot screenshot from the NTSC version of the DVD, if that is what you are matching

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Here it is. I've got it after I put the encoded 25 PAL through DGpulldown (25 > 29.97)

[guns1inger]

It is widescreen enhanced, so use this

Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,0.6,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

to resize in your script, and it should be pretty damned close - if your DVD has a 2.35:1 image.

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guns1inger,

Thank you! I'll give it a try right now.

Would you mind if I ask about another AVI that I need to convert to NTSC DVD? It has 23.97 fps.

Do I understand it right that I can go in Procoder for Generic ISO MPEG Stream 23.976p NTSC (2-3 pulldown) and after that just author it?

[guns1inger]

If it is already 23.976 then it is already NTSC. Just resize for DVD in your script and use the NTSC DVD template

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I tried to add the lines in the script but it gives error message:

Script error: Invalid arguments to function "Lanczos4Resize"
(E:\WORK-LONG\Game\LSFSharp.AVI.avs,line5)

The script looks the following way:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MT_MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\RemoveGrain.dll")
DirectShowSource("E:\WORK-LONG\Game\GameTest.avi")
Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,0.6,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)
dull=last
Sharp=LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.25,ss_y=1.25,Smo de=4,strength=600,soft=30)
Soothe(sharp,dull,25)

[guns1inger]

You are right. Something got screwed in the translation.

try this

Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

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It is not just close. It is just the same! Perfect. Thanks a lot!

I would not dare to ask how you calculate the stuff otherwise it will take another 5 pages for me to understand-)

When you saying resize and DVD template you mean Lanczos4Resize(720,480) and just set it directly to MPEG2 Elementary Stream 29.97?

Can Procoder resize for me or it is better to do it through the script anyway? Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Download FitCD. It's a free tool that will calculate the resizing and create a basic avisynth script for resizing avis to DVD.

Use FitCD to create a script for your NTSC file to resize it. Use these numbers in your cleanup script, as you have done here. Encode using ProCoder's CD/DVD : MPEG2 DVD NTSC template.

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Thanks! I've got Fit2Disc. I believe it is pretty much the same thing, right?

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Hi,

I have redone my project (mentioned above). I used a script generated by FIToDisk to resize the PAL DVD that I was converting to NTSC DVD. The picture quality has imporvied greatly, especially the sharpness.


But now I again have a problem to match the black bars (to and bottom) with a script for the AVI to match the NTSC DVD.

I tried quite a few scripts from FIToDisk but it looks I am doing it wrong as I only get distorted pictues but cannot match the DVD.

The source AVI is PAL. I am not sure should I check PAL in FIToDisk since the final file is going to ne NTSC.

I used the following script to resize the PAL DVD while converting it to NTSC DVD:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MT_MaskTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\RemoveGrain.dll")
MPEG2Source("E:\WORK-LONG\Game\Game.d2v")
LanczosResize(720,480,82,74,556,406)
dull=last
Sharp=LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.25,ss_y=1.25,Smo de=4,strength=600,soft=30)
Soothe(sharp,dull,25)

Kilndly help with a script for the AVI black bars to match the DVD.

Thanks!

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It looks like I have finally created a resizing script that matches the bars:

LanczosResize(720,480,135,0,368,268)

Now the bars on top and at the bottom are matching but the quality of the converted picture has dropped significantly.

Why is that? Is it possible to improve it? The difference between the picture quality of the converted DVD and converted AVI has become striking.

[guns1inger]

but the quality of the converted picture has dropped significantly

At what point ?

I suspect that the difference in the source is the cause of your problem. One comes from 2k masters taken from good quality film stock, the other comes from an over-compressed, relatively low-res avi file.

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It have made a short clip for trial and once I convert it to NTSC DVD (actually it is NTSC, I convert it to NTSC 23,97p (2-3 pulldown) with the script, I get a low quality picture.

It is blured with unclear edges. When I resized it for the first version of NTSC DVD (black bars were wider) with the script you advised, the picture quality was way better.

[guns1inger]

There is something horribly wrong with the script. It looks like you are resizing for 4:3, but encoding 16:9.

You need to tell Fit2Disc that the source is PAL and that the output is Anamorphic.

FitCD gives me these numbers

Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

Which I note haven't changed since last time I posted them. At that stage they matched. What changed ?

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These 2 PAL boxes in FitToDisc are very confusing to me.

I am really sorry for the mistake in the today's initial post that the AVI file is PAL. It is 23,97 NTSC. Actually I corrected the mistake in my previous post.

About the changes: the bars on NTSC DVD has become narrower after I converted it with script that I quoted above (resizing part of the script: LanczosResize(720,480,82,74,556,406)
)

What changes should I make in the case? Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Now I am very confused.

You have two movies. One is an NTSC DVD. One is an avi file. You want to add a section of the avi file onto the end of the DVD.

How am I doing so far ?

If I am right, then only the avi section needs to change, so use this in your script

Lanczos4Resize(720,368,0,1,640,270)
AddBorders(0,56,0,56)

Do not put the NTSC DVD section through the same script, or it will be resized out of shape. Only the avi section needs to be resized.

As for the PAL boxes, what's to be confused about. The first is for PAL source, the second is for PAL output. Set according to what your source material is, and what output you want. If you load the source into FitCD or Fit2Disc, it will fill in the source details for you.

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guns1inger,

As usually you are doing very well -) It is exactly the way you described.

The PAL DVD has been converted to NTSC the second time. This tiem with a script from FitToDisc. The picture quality has improved greatly but the top/bottom black bars has become narrower as a result of the script.

Thank you for the script for the AVI but with this script the bars of the resulting NTSC DVD (from the AVI) are wider than those of the DVD (the one that was converted from PAL DVD).

My script from FitToDisc (mentioned in previous posts) lets the bars to be the same but the picture quality drops. I believe the aspect ratio changes and this results in quality drop. Could it be like that?

I did my best to put it as clearly as possible. If any other information required, please let me know.

As for FitToDVD, I am confused about when to choose anamorphic and when not; if I convert to NTSC, should I always set: Resize to 720 x 480 or other values like 720 x 448 are possible. What do they depend on?

Thank you.

[guns1inger]

DVD is always 720 x 480 for full-D1 NTSC. Wide screen and fullscreen are dealt with by adjusting the aspect ratio of the pixels that make up the image. Display devices know to do this by the AR flag in the video and the DVD structure.

If your output is for 4:3 letterbox, do not tick the anamorphic flag. Encode as 4:3, and it will playback as a letterboxed 4:3 film (big black bars).

If your output is for a widescreen TV, tick the anamorphic box and encode for 16:9.

I suspect that either the avi or DVD as an incorrect aspect ratio (my money would be on the avi, although it appears to 2.35:1). This means you may have to do some cropping to get things exact.

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Thanks.

Can you please advise how can I use FitToDisc to adjust the script for cropping?

FiToDisc shows AVI Real Aspect as 2.3529.

[guns1inger]

The firs thing you need to do is work out what the aspect ratio of the original is. Are you out by 2 lines or 20 ? I don't know what target to shoot at yet.

One way to find out is to open the DVD version in virtualdubmeg2, go Video -> Filters and add a null transform filter. Click on Cropping, and adjust the Y1 and Y2 values until you have no black left. Hopefully they are symmetrical. Once you know how big the bars are, you can work out what image size you are trying to match.

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It's done but I can adjust the Y1 and Y2 values until no black left either just with only Y1 or with both but various settings, for example 235/245 or 190/291 or 240/241.

Am I m issing something? What I did does not tell me how big the bars are.

[guns1inger]

Post a screen grab from the DVD version. None of those numbers make any sense.

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Really sorry but I do not know how to do this. I tried it as a screenshot bit I've got a black screen.

[guns1inger]

Open the DVD (or a VOB file) in Media Player Classic and go File -> Save Image As, or in VLC with Video -> Snapshot.