Transcoding Problem?

[PJ_Major]

My final videos all have out of synch audio except in one case.

I've been giving Crunchie a workout over the past week and have run into an issue that I can't resolve to my liking. I'm hoping somebody else may have a clue on this.

My recorded tv programs are undergoing a strange c-grade movie chinese-ification process when I run them through Crunchie. After a fair amount of trial and error, I've realized that the problem crops up whenever I convert PAL source material to a final format of NTSC. Not sure of the whys or where-fores.

Conversion from PAL MSDVR to PAL AVI works without a problem. Don't know if it makes a difference or not as both videos should play on a computer equally well. Not sure about writing the files to DVD. I would like to eventually archive my favorite episodes to DVDs that will play in my set-top box, which is only NTSC.

System Specs:
3.2ghz proc
Win XP MCE
1 Gb RAM
200 Gb SATA HD

Video Codecs
------------
Cinepak Codec by Radius 1.10.0.11
Conexant 2388x Video Capture 5.3.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
DV Splitter 6.05.2600.2180
DV Video Decoder 6.05.2600.2180
DV Video Encoder 6.05.2600.2180
ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 1.0.2.2330
ffdshow video encoder 1.0.2.2330
Indeo® video 3.2, 4.4, 4.5 & 5.10
InterVideo Video Decoder 5.0.11.681/Encoder 3.0.86.0
LEAD MCMP/MJPEG Codec 1.0.0.021
MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder 1, 0, 0, 63
Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Decompressor 8.00.00.4487
Microsoft Screen Video Decompressor 8.00.00.4487
MJPEG Compressor/Decompressor 6.05.2600.2749
MPEG Video Decoder
Mpeg4/43/4s Decoder DMO
MSScreen 9 encoder DMO
Pinnacle MPEG 2 Encoder
Pinnacle PCTV 110i BDA Analog Capture
VOB MPEG2 Video Codec
WMVideo Advanced Encoder/Decoder DMO
WMVideo Decoder DMO
WMVideo9 Encoder DMO

Audio Codecs
------------
ffdshow Audio Decoder 1.0.2.2330
InterVideo Audio Decoder 5.0.11.681
InterVideo Audio Encoder 3.0.86.0
MainConcept MPEG Audio Decoder 1, 0, 0, 63
MPEG Audio Decoder 6.05.2600.2749
MPEG Layer-3 1, 9, 0, 0305
MPEG Layer-3 Decoder 1, 5, 0, 50
Pinnacle AC3 Decoder 1.0.49.00
Pinnacle Audio Codec 1.0.44.00 Beta
Pinnacle MPEG Layer-2 Audio Encoder 4.0.96.00
Pinnacle PCTV 110i BDA Analog A 6.05.2600.2180
Windows Media Audio Decoder 8.00.00.4487
Windows Media Audio V1 8.00.00.4487
Windows Media Audio V2 8.00.00.4487
WMAPro over S/PDIF DMO 10.00.00.4332
WMAudio Decoder DMO 10.00.00.4332
WMAudio Encoder DMO 10.00.00.4332

Broken Codecs
-------------
Bicubic Video Resizer
Morgan Stream Switcher
Nero Audio Encoder
Nero Digital Video Encoder
Subtitle Mixer

Any help in resolving this is appreciated.

PJ

[arkay]

Can I ask why you'd even want to convert PAL to NTSC?

Either way. Crunchie is not designed to do format conversions. There is a lot to getting PAL to NTC conversions to work properly.

The ability to pick in the gui between to two simply allows you to set which region your in and thus what format your recording will be in. It uses this information to supply the framerate for the double rate deinterlacing.
I've never tried select NTSC for my PAL recording nor would I want to.

I'd suggest if your recordings are PAL, select PAL

Cheers,
Arkay.

[PJ_Major]

You are quite right, of course, PAL should be recorded as PAL and NTSC as NTSC. My reasoning is that I'm recording PAL material but once recorded and edited, it will play on NTSC equipment. Just trying to get the material into a format that will remain usable once it's on DVD.

[arkay]

So you're recording PAL material which you then wish to convert with Crunchie and then convert to DVD in NTSC format?

Ouch!!

Don't use crunchie if all you want to do is put it onto DVD. Teh double conversion is unnecessary.

Get yourself over to www.doom9.org and have a look about for PAL to NTSC conversion.

Use DVRMSToolbox to get the mpeg2 file you need. You can then use a number of tools and/or avisynth to do a proper conversion to NTSC.

Be warned though that there most likely will not be a 1 click application that does it.

The frame rate change for the video is pretty simple (it's called telecine if you want to search on it), but you also need to change the resolution to 720x480 to make it DVD compliant. On top of that you need to go from 25 fps to 29.9 frames per second so the audio has to be re-done in order to keep it in sync with the video. All this generally results in poor motion and looks pretty crap.

It's no fun... Trust me. Better off buying a DVD player that can play PAL and NTSC

Cheers,
Arkay.

[PJ_Major]

Thanks for the quick reply Arkay. The only one-click solution I've ever found for a Microsoft product is the on/off switch..... You're quite right, there is no one step solution that I've found yet and I've been looking for some time now. Additionally, the downconversion from PAL to NTSC always seems to introduce visual artifacts that I can't seem to get away from.

Seeing the NTSC/PAL option in Crunchie, I presumed it was to do the transcoding, never thinking that it was there for other purposes. *sigh* Presumptions always get me in the end.

It seems you're suggesting that I spend more money to prolong the shelf-life of the videos I put to DVD..... Mind if I print that out and use it on my wife as a blanket recommendation to buy a new home theater? *evil grin* j/k

Thanks for the assist and have a great day!

[arkay]

Originally Posted by PJ_Major

It seems you're suggesting that I spend more money to prolong the shelf-life of the videos I put to DVD..... Mind if I print that out and use it on my wife as a blanket recommendation to buy a new home theater? *evil grin* j/k

Hehe. You go right ahead

Just a question though, out of interest sake. If you're not putting shows onto DVD for friends or relatives then why burn them to DVD at all?

All my media (apart from original DVD's) is in xvid format. Still stored on DVD's as I don't really want to run 2 TB of disk all the time. If I want to watch something I either copy it to my file server or just chuck in the DVD and play it though My Videos?

With a HTPC there really is no reason to burn standalone compatible disks anymore?

Cheers,
Arkay.

[PJ_Major]

Why copy to DVD format when I have hd space (or even DVDs) to store the video? Hmmm. Fine question you've asked and to be honest, I hadn't really contemplated that particular aspect of my case. For some reason I had it in mind to put everything to DVD for playback on a stand alone DVD player. The reality of the situation is that the DVDs would end up being played on my laptop or desktop computer. Really, no need at all to put the videos into DVD format when they're already in a perfectly usable and storable format.



I guess this is a case in point where the power of the forum brings to light one's inability to fully think through a thought process.... If I only had another synapse I might have gotten there.

Next question then: How do I ensure that the software is actually encoding using the XVID codec as opposed to another video codec that is installed on the computer? Of course, I can check the resulting video but is there some means of specifying a "prefered encoding codec"?

[arkay]

Hehe. You're not the first and won't be the last to think the way you have. The whole MCE thing really changes the experience of how you watch and store your media. It can take a while to come to grips with the change and the concepts involved.

People often want to know why they can't pause recording of a live stream in order to remove the ads (as you would with an old VCR). Truth is that functionality is no longer necessary as ads can be removed after the event (in minutes).. It's just a shift in thinking.

As for the codec there's no need to worry. Mencoder that Crunchie uses for xvid conversion has the xvid "code" built in. No installed codecs can affect the output of Crunchie.

Playback is a different story but I recommend and use ffdshow as a playback codec.

Cheers,
Arkay.