divx - vcd TMPG/Nero Black & white?!

[stokefan]

hi board hope your all well,

I have a problem. I recently got a DVD player (external) (yay! ) I have converted from divx using TMPGenc and burned with nero to their VCD template (Using the guide) and I get a great quality output, but Black and White!?

Any ideas where im going wrong please?

thanks, stokefan

[biznatch]

Yeah, I had this same problem. My problem was I was encoding my DVDs in PAL format, and I'm in a NTSC region. So when I played my PAL DVDs in my NTSC televion, it outputed the video in black and white. In the settings of my DVD player there is an option to specify what kind of television (PAL or NTSC) I have and it was set for both. If you're in the UK you'll probably want to make sure your DVD player has the TV settings set to PAL, that should correct the problem. Hope this helps!

*biznatch*

[stokefan]

thanks biznatch, now Iv stumbled across a further problem!! I changed DVD region to PAL (R2, my region) and The movie stutters!?!? Any ideas why?

How should I encode a divx file to vcd using tmpgenc? NTSC or PAL? I dont know how many FPS it is you see...

thanks in advnace if you can help!

[biznatch]

Hmmm, I don't know why changing regions would do this. I know if you use the standard PAL template in TMPG, you should get the correct FPS (I think it's 23 something). Also I found if I have the video encoded with CBR (under the advanced video settings, CBR is the default), I get short choppy stutters and pauses when the movie is played back on my set-top dvd player. If I encode the video with 2-pass VBR, the problem disapears. If your encoding with CBR, then I would suggest trying 2-pass VBR. Hope this helps!

*Biznatch*

[KingJohn]

PAL is 25fps, if you convert a 23.976 or 29.976 to PAL then it will stutter. the idea is to convert it to match the source.

If the source is 29.976 then you would use the NTSC VCD template at 29.976, so long as the DVD/TV player plays them.

Now if the source is 23.976 and you want to convert it to 25fps PAL then you can use this guide.
KingJohns Guide AVI 23.976fps to 25fps

[stokefan]

how do i know how many FPS the source is? If I right click on the .avi file in Windows, it says theyre all 23FPS, which i suspect is not accurate?

[asala]

Use VirtualDub, File > File Information

[stokefan]

help! KingJohns guide which he mentions above is a dead link! Can anyone link me to it please?

Thanks in advance, stokefan