Movie timing is off for files converted to DVD

[wildgeese]

Hello,

I'm happy to be redirected to an existing thread- it may be I'm just not using the right language to call this problem up in a search!

Basically when I convert certain file types to DVD using ffmpegx, everything is great- except the timing is off. I don't mean the audio or video timing. I mean the timing of the movie itself. For example if the movie is an hour and a half long, the timer will show something like 48 minutes total time at the end of the movie. Each second seems to play for about two seconds or a little more. This makes it hard to seek specific scenes in the resulting DVD.

I have tried playing the converted movies in VLC, Quicktime, and iDVD with the same results. The file types that have had this problem so far are mkv and mp4. The problem remains after I convert the video TS folders to disc images. I have tried converting to avi beforehand, but video quality is greatly reduced. The original video and audio quality of the movies is excellent, as is the A/V quality with the out-of-sync results. The only problem is the timing.

I would rather have the timing be off than poor-quality movies. But, is there a simple way to fix this?

Thanks very much!
wildgeese

[Case]

Does this happen with the DVD ffmpeg preset or the DVD mpeg2enc preset, or both? Which decoder was used in the Options tab? This would give you five possible ways of converting to DVD, which may not behave the same with regard to the timing.

• DVD mpeg2enc preset with QuickTime decoding;
• DVD mpeg2enc preset with mplayer decoding;
• DVD mpeg2enc preset with ffmpeg decoding (both de- selected);
• DVD ffmpeg preset with QuickTime decoding;
• DVD ffmpeg preset with ffmpeg decoding (QT de-selected).

The file types that have had this problem so far are mkv and mp4.

I've seen ffmpegX read the wrong framerate for MKV input files sometimes, so check the target framerate in ffmpegX (Video tab) before converting, and compare that to the framerate that other tools (e.g. VLC or VideoSpec) find for the MKV, and adjust as needed.

[wildgeese]

Hello Case,

Thanks! So, it is hard to go back to every case that has occurred but I will try.

I believe that in every case I used ffmpeg, not mpeg2enc. In one attempt, I believe the mkv, mpeg2enc could not process the encoding at all, it failed. In the case of the last mp4 I did, the quality was simply abysmal whatever I did. (Yep, I did update Perian again.)

Because QT failed/had poor quality on some attempts, I opted for ffmpeg in both attempts that gave me successful conversions with good quality, but I haven't actually tried ffmpeg with QT.

Do you think QT would make a difference? (I can't split a segment to test it on in these formats, I have to convert the whole file- takes forever.)

Also, do you think manually adjusting the framerate any time this happens should do the trick? Thanks so much!

~w

[Case]

Do you think QT would make a difference?

Have to try to know.

I can't split a segment to test it on in these formats, I have to convert the whole file- takes forever.

I wish I knew a splitter tool to recommend, it seems rather useful for this.

do you think manually adjusting the framerate any time this happens should do the trick?

If it gets the framerate wrong, then it seems plausible that this could be a reason for wrong output duration.

[wildgeese]

Ok, I will try adjusting framerate on my next run, then if that does not work, I will try QT. It will take a while, however, for me to get and post results!

Thanks for the help,

~w

[wildgeese]

Took over 2 days altogether, but I decided to try the ffmpeg preset with QT decoding. As it turns out, this created lovely video with extremely slowed-down (and tinny) audio. On to the next attempt!

So... what do you adjust the framerate to when it seems to be correct?

~w

[wildgeese]

Ok, so after several days and a few unrelated computer mishaps, attempt 2 finally completed… and failed.

I tried mpeg2enc with Quicktime and it produced no DVD folder at all, only a m2v file with no audio, that's it.

Moving on…. Gad I hope someone finds this dialogue useful some day because this is a tiresome process!

~w