method to convert 25fps avi to ntsc svcd?

[davexnet]

Hello, I'm in the USA, ntcs tv and dvd player, but the dvd will
convert PAL vcd's and svcd to NTSC (although I'm not sure if the
top and bottom of the picture gets lost because of the 576 > 480
conversion) and play them back on my TV.


What's the best method for converting PAL (25 fps) AVI's to
SVCD that will give the best results?
1) leave it in PAL and let the player deal with it?
2) convert it directly to 29.97 NTSC? (In tmpgenc)
3) something else?

Preliminary test with option 2 looks OK, but the image is
a little jerky as it pans.

Any advice appreciated.

[setarip]

"3) something else?"

As long as your standalone DVD player converts the 25fps to proper output, I'd suggest that you try the following:

Use TMPGEnc with SVCD-PAL settings EXCEPT set the resolution (under BOTH "Video" and "Advanced tabs) to either 480x480 (conventional SVCD-NTSC) or, if you want to really be impressed, set to 352x480 ("Chinese Video Disk").

(Be advised the "Chinese Video Disk" (CVD) format is intended ONLY for standalone DVD to television display - and will NOT display properly, nor indicate proper resolution on your PC).

Let us know of your success ;>}

[davexnet]

Interesting tips...
The original AVI is 720*400. I'm attempting to frame serve
with Virtualdub. I'm not sure what the advantage is, but my
understanding is that the bilinear resize may provide slightly
better quality.
I cropped the image to 704*400, then resized to 352*400.
(in vdub)
Then, in tmpgenc chose the PAL template, set size to
352*480 in both places. The problem is, setting it in advanced
turns the wide scren image into full screen, thus making every
thing tall and thin.

I'm going to try putting the "advanced" back to default and
selecting 352*480 in "video". After that I'll try 480*480.
After that I'll try it without vdub (if that wil make a difference)

Any further refinements?
DAve

[setarip]

"The problem is, setting it in advanced turns the wide scren image into full screen, thus making every thing tall and thin."


I guess you overlooked the following, which was in my previous post:

(Be advised the "Chinese Video Disk" (CVD) format is intended ONLY for standalone DVD to television display - and will NOT display properly, nor indicate proper resolution on your PC).

[davexnet]

I actually burned the disk and it didn't look right on the TV
either! (Fullscreen, tall and thin) Lucky I used a CDRW!

Perhaps it's the DVD player?

What's the advantage of 352*480? Smaller files size?

I'm working with a 5 minute clip of my AVI, takes about 20
minutes in tmpgenc for the 2-pass vbr encode.

I'm currently tring 480*480 PAL. I'll update with the results.

[davexnet]

After converting the 25fps AVI to PAL svcd in tmpgenc
and playing back on my home dvd player, I've seen that the
player doesn't handle that well. It's a little jerky as it pans.
My player is three years old, perhaps the newer one's are better ?

I solved the problem this way. I set the frame rate of the AVI
from 25fps to 23.976 fps using avifrate. I then stretched the
WAV file in Sound Forge by a factor of 104.271 %.

Then used the NTSCfilm tmplate in tmpgenc. The result look great
now.

Cheers,
Dave

[setarip]

Whatever floats your boat ;>}

(In your initial posting, you indicated that your standalone could play PAL format SVCDs - but didn't mention any "jerking" on panning)

Just curious, know that you've "got it nailed" procedurally, have you tried the "Chinese Video Disk" format?

[davexnet]

The machine does play PAL. I have some PAL dvd's that
a rendered just fine. However, the home made svcd
at 25fps, for some reason didn't look that great.
For example, a slow panning over a crowd scene, wasn't smooth.

Come to think of it, even seeing similar on regular (broadcast)
NTSC shows some jerkiness on FILM source; because of the
3:2 pulldown?

Regardless of that, I will experiment with the
"chinese vcd" - it did actually work.

Does it have any benefits?


Dave

[setarip]

"Does it have any benefits?"

At 1/2 DVD resolution, the television output looks much more crisp than "conventional" SVCD of 480x480 (or 480x576)...

[davexnet]

"At 1/2 DVD resolution, the television output looks much more crisp than "conventional" SVCD of 480x480 (or 480x576)..."

OK. Does this depend on the source AVI file?
Does it apply to any AVI with a width of 704?

The way you describe it, it sounds as if this benefit would be
realized only if it's a direct DVD project, in other words;
dvd>d2v projetc > vfavi project - or something similar?

Or is more to do with the way the DVD player decodes it?

[setarip]

"Or is more to do with the way the DVD player decodes it?"

Apparently so...