PAL fps forced to NTSC fps using TMPGEnc

I'll try and make this as short as possible;

I used Afterdawn's guide to convert an .AVI file to DVD to a "t" yesterday and had one of those forehead slapping moments today after a good 17 hours of analyzing/encoding with TMPGEnc.

In the guide, it states to check the AVI file with AVICodec and note what framerate it is, in my case 25.0 (PAL). I chose the appropriate option in TMPGEnc before converting. Well, when I got things burned off it won't play on my set-top DVD player... that's when it hit me: I encoded it in PAL format.....ahhh!

So, my question before spending 17 hours again is, if the .AVI file I have is PAL (25.0 fps) and I choose NTSC (29.97 fps) instead this time, will it convert properly?

I've already attempted to convert the IFO/VOB files to NTSC using VOBBlanker and IFOedit. Results are green video distortions on the top and bottom of the screen. I have the video in all different flavors of file formats now: AVI, VOB/IFO, ISO. Encode again or try and use these converted files?

Thanks for your time, you guys have a great site here.

-Jason

 

First, using the Wizard (CTRL+W), which loads the standard templates, is a good thing, because you avoid to create a 720x576 (PA) movie with wrong settings.

Second, using the 'DVD PAL template you, at step 1 of the wizers, are asked if you want (CBR or VBR)x(linear PCM or MP2) = 4 options of audio. I think that CBR MP2 audio (Video-CD) is OK, since you often start from an AVI with MP3 128 kbps audio and using something different is usaless (or, if the AVI has AC3 audio, You can Demux it with VirtualDub(Mod) and directly use it during IFOEdit's authoring.
TMPGenc's 'create audio' capability is good only for AVI with MP3 audio.

Third: framerate is NOT the only difference:
NTSC=720x480 29.97 fps;
PAL=720x576 25 fps.

In step 3/5 of the Wizard, you'd better click the [Other settings] buttin and change, in the Video screen, from the default [bold] Rate Control Mode = CBR [/bold] to, at least, 2-pass VBR and, clicing on the [setting] button , setting Average bitrate = [bold]AVE[/bold], Maxium bitrate = 8000 and Minimum bitrate = 2500.
[bold]AVE[/bold], is the answer of a bitrate calculator (I use DVTool 0.53, which is free) to the question "if you encode a movie L minutes long, with this audio format (224 kbps if you use MP2), which average bitrate should I put, to fill a 4489 Mb DVD-R?
Ah, in that screen put the 'Motion Search precision' to HIGHEST QUALITY (VERY SLOW).

On step 4 choose 720x576 and, on step 5, click [OK] to start immediately, ot set 'create another project fo batch encoding' to use the project later (at night).
Remember: TMPGenc is SLOW, when it performs multi-pass VBR encofing. If you want to speed it, leave CBR ancoding. But the result (obviously, only if he input AVI were very good) will be worse.

A last thing:

The answer if obviously NO. If you only change the framerate without changing the resolution, you'll create a 'hybrid' movie (a 720x576 29.97 fps movie is neither PAL nor NTSC).
The 'properly conversion' depends by many parametes which I am not able to set. That's why I stick to the wizard.

[bold]
============================ CAREFUL ==============================
The Wizard sets, by default, the Video Arrange Mothod (Settings____Advanced) to FULL SCREEN.
Put the Video Arrange Mothod to FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO).
============================ CAREFUL ==============================
[/bold]

Make a couple of tests, before finding out how much time you'll need (to convert a 2h movie, into a VBR DVD, you might need more than 12 hours. If the input movie is just 'decent', you might encode CBR. Garbage IN = Garbage OUT. Wasitng hours to conert MPEG-2 VBR an AVI whose bitrate is few hundred kbps is useless; stick to MPEG-2 CBR and you won't notice any difference).

 

Thanks Aldaco for that thorough response. My lack of knowledge was a good contributing factor to encoding this the wrong way. I had Afterdawn's guide opened on one monitor while I was going through the TMPG wizard on another, not really paying attention to what the settings were actually for. I tried going through the forums here and reading up on the subject but all the information was overwhelming. I'll go back and do what you suggested, practice makes perfect I suppose.

Thanks again,
-Jason