Ripping Anime episodes from DVD

[k1nomoto]

I'm trying to rip/encode this anime called Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, from the official DVDs, using DGIndex, VirtualDub2 x64 and Avisynth+ x64 (20210111 3.7.0).
I've successfully encoded Episode 1 without any issues (used Avisynth TFM plugin), but after that episode, I noticed that the framerate started varying from 29.97 to 23.976 telecine.
Opening, Ending and Transformation Sequences are fully in 29.97 fps. Then some episodes themselves are in 23.976 fps.

Is there any workaround for this? Someone told me to reduce every episode to 23.976 fps (TDecimate) but then the 29.97 fps episodes would look awful.
(attached samples of both episodes)

[jagabo]

One way to handle this is to encode at 59.94 fps. That's essentially what you would get with the DVD playing on an analog CRT TV. 30p will display as two 60p frames, 24p with the usual 2:3 duplicates.

[k1nomoto]

One way to handle this is to encode at 59.94 fps. That's essentially what you would get with the DVD playing on an analog CRT TV. 30p will display as two 60p frames, 24p with the usual 2:3 duplicates.

if I put it to 59.94 fps, it will still look like it's 29.97 (same weird frame times) and MediaInfo will show it as Variable and just playback at 29.97, even being a 59.94 file.

[jagabo]

Of course it will look like 30p, it IS 30p. And the 24p sections will look like 24p. But they'll both play smoothly (well, as smooth as 30p and 24p ever play on an NTSC TV).

[k1nomoto]

Of course it will look like 30p, it IS 30p. And the 24p sections will look like 24p. But they'll both play smoothly (well, as smooth as 30p and 24p ever play on an NTSC TV).

Sorry, I didn't explain myself properly. - I meant that, by encoding it to 59.94fps, it still looked weird.


Also, what you did looks great! What did you use?

[jagabo]

I used AviSynth and the x264 CLI encoder.

function TFMBob(clip v, int "pp")
{
    pp = default(pp, 6)
    v.GetParity() ? Interleave(TFM(v, field=1, pp=pp), TFM(v, field=0, pp=pp)) : Interleave(TFM(v, field=0, pp=pp), TFM(v, field=1, pp=pp))
}

v1 = Mpeg2Source("sample.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) 
v2 = Mpeg2Source(".demuxed.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) 
v1+v2 # append the two source
TFMBob() # some alternatives are Yadif(mode=1) or QTGMC()

[k1nomoto]

I used AviSynth and the x264 CLI encoder.

function TFMBob(clip v, int "pp")
{
    pp = default(pp, 6)
    v.GetParity() ? Interleave(TFM(v, field=1, pp=pp), TFM(v, field=0, pp=pp)) : Interleave(TFM(v, field=0, pp=pp), TFM(v, field=1, pp=pp))
}

v1 = Mpeg2Source("sample.demuxed.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) 
v2 = Mpeg2Source(".demuxed.d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) 
v1+v2 # append the two source
TFMBob() # some alternatives are Yadif(mode=1) or QTGMC()

That did it! Thank you so much for your help!!!

[krykmoon]

The first episode is completely different from second.

The second one is for sure telecined (it has a 3p/2i fields pattern) : that means it was originally shot at 23.976 fps.. then converted to 29.97 for the publishing in the NTSC DVDs (it's what I learned from my Avisynth brief experience with animes)

So doing inverse telecine and then decimating duplicated frames (returning to the original 23.976fps frame rate) should be the right way to go with this kind of telecined material: you shouldn't lose any "smoothness", since the original video itself was shot at 23.976 fps (before the telecine processing), you only return to the original frame rate.

Anyway.. doubling the framerate, if file size and encoding times are not an issue for you, is surely a good thing: you don't gain any smoothness.. but at least you avoid the many inconveniences and issues related to the the damned IVTC process.