logo Sign In

How to change HD to DVD?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hey, all.  Fellow forum member Oso Blanco is trying to figure out how to take an HD file that he’s got, and somehow translate it down to DVD-quality level, so he can burn it.  Can anyone offer any advice?

Here’s what he’s had to say about the source file and the things he’s tried so far:

"It’s a recording from an HDTV broadcast on HBO … I downloaded it.  Resolution is 1920x10880. There seem to be very few free programms that can convert such a thing. I’m giving a free trial version of TMPGEnc a try right now.

"…The program did it’s job, I have a working DVD now and it’s even anamorphic.  But there is one problem:  The picture just doesn’t flow as softly as it should.  I don’t know the exact english word to describe it, but it almost seems as if the picture has trouble keeping up with speed of the movie.

“I found another program that can convert HD to DVD, and it was a lot faster than TMPGEnc.  But the problem remained.  I don’t know why, maybe the source files are like that already, although they look fine on my computer.  Audio and video are in sync, but the picture just doesn’t flow smoothly … it’s more like jumping, especially evident in scenes with slowly moving objects.  Maybe the problem already exists in the HD file, and I just can’t see it.”

So – he turns to the experts.  Any thoughts, advice, programs he’s overlooked?

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Author
Time

Thanks for opening this on my behalf thread, Jeph! If anyone can give me some useful information on how to convert HD to DVD, I'd be very grateful!

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

Your description of the motion problems leads me to believe that the original file is hard-telecined 29.97fps video.

You need to perform IVTC (i.e. remove the pulldown) before encoding.

See this thread.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

Maybe the problem lies in the interlacing. I read that in order to resize an MPEG file you first have to deinterlace it. The program I tried (ConvertXtoDvd) did that automatically, but maybe not good enough.

 

Could that be the problem?

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time
 (Edited)

You should only deinterlace if the source is pure interlaced. If it's 3:2 pulldown telecined, then you should IVTC.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time
Moth3r said:

You should only deinterlace if the source is pure interlaced. If it's 3:2 pulldown telecined, then you should IVTC.

 

The source is a 1080i MPEG2 file. How do I know if it's 3:2 pulldown telecined?

 

As you can see, I know very little about those things ... I had hoped for an easy solution to my problem. But I'm afraid this is gonna be a lot more difficult than I thought ... :-(

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

Was it originally shot on film? If you step through frame-by-frame, do you see a consistent pattern of 3 "good" frames following by 2 "combed" frames? If so, then your source is telecined.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

It's an MPEG2 file from an HDTV broadcast. As far as I can tell, there are no combed frames ...

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

So it's 1080p? What's the framerate?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

It's 1080i, 29.97 fps.

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

I'm confused. If it's 1080i, I would expect to see combed frames. Maybe you should go back to post 7 and check again? Did you load the file into DGIndex to view?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

Another stupid question: Which - preferrably free - program do I use to open the AVISynth script?

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

AvsP

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Okay, I have DGIntex and AVISynth and I have written the script (AVS file) ... but what am I gonna do now? AvsP doesn't seem to anything ... I need an encoder that can read the AVS file, right?

 

Edit: I have downloaded VirtualDub and opened the AVS file. But what now? Save it as an AVI file?

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

So is the source interlaced or telecined?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

I see no combed frames and every program I used (and the discription of the file) says it is interlaced.

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

Laserman used to remind us that all DVD's are 'interlaced' in the sense that top & bottom fields are stored separately on the disc.

Would the same principle apply here?  In other words, your source file is called 1080i because its top & bottom fields are encoded separately.  However if each top and its associated bottom are from the same moment in time (same film frame) then you wouldn't see any combing.  Just a hypothesis....

However, in practice you must take into account the “fuckwit factor”. Just talk to Darth Mallwalker…
-Moth3r

Author
Time

Do you see any duplicated frames?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time
Moth3r said:

Do you see any duplicated frames?

No, I don't see any. At least TMPGEnc doesn't show any.

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

So there are no combed frames, and no duplicate frames - therefore your source is 1080p 29.97fps (unusual, but not unheard of). It was probably broadcast at 1080i.

If you convert to a NTSC DVD with the same framerate, you should not get the motion problems mentioned in the first post.

You can upload a short sample somewhere if you'd like me to take a look.

 

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

I have uploaded a short sample here.

 

I'm starting to think that the problem lies in the original file, but I'm not sure ...

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I was correct at post 3.

When I say "combed frames", this is what I'm talking about:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5898/combedyb6.th.jpg

Objects in motion have a "comb" effect at their edges.

Use telecide + decimate to return it to 23.976fps.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time

I think I finally figured out what you are talking about. I can only thank you for your patience!

 

So, I have demuxed the original file and I have written the script. When I'm watching the file using the script, it seems to work.

 

Now, my next problem is this: How to I apply the script to my video file? AvsP can only convert to MP4 and Virtual Dub only to AVI. How to I get an MPEG file out of it? And how to I get the audio back into the file?

Time is the fire in which we burn

Author
Time

Just use your script as the source for TMPGEnc (or whatever encoder you're using).

The audio is muxed with the video when you author the DVD.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time
 (Edited)

It seems that thanks to your help, I have finally figured it out! I now have a working DVD (23.976 fps) and everything seems to be fine. After taking all the necessary steps one by one, I even found a program that can do the frame conversion, the resizing and the muxing all in one. It needed ten hours on my old computer, but it worked.

But both methods have one last problem in common: The audio is not in sync with the video. I'm ashamed to say that I know next to nothing about dvd authoring ... can you recommend a program that can solve my problem? I know I have to change the delay of the audio file, but how?

 

Edit: It seems that I have found a solution for the problem ...

Time is the fire in which we burn