Virtualdub and exporting to mpg2

Hey guys,

im stook! im using womble to do my edits (PAL format, 25fps) - then i want to transfer the video to virtualdub to do some editing there, adding grain, old film effects......im trying to simulate the super 8 look!

The problem is virtualdub doesnt export to mpg2 - and I want to import the video file back into womble for further editing or converting to DVD or mpg audio and video combined file.

Im still new to all this software as well, I've heard womble isnt great for dvd authoring, but at the moment - its fine for my purposes - unless of course, there is a quicker method to get it from virtual dub to DVD...

hope you can help me - I can go no further at this point...... :(

You need an MEPG-2 encoder. HC Encoder is a good free one.

You have two options for encoding MPEG-2 from VirtualDub. You could save your processed video out as an AVI, preferably using a lossless codec, then use that as your source for the encoder. This will need a fair bit of space of your hard drive. The other option is to have VDub frameserve on-the-fly directly to your encoder, without using an intermediate AVI file.

You will also need software to author the encoded files to a DVD structure. The free version of MuxMan is great for producing a bare-bones disc wih no menus.

Thanks Moth3r,

I figured it out in the end and i did use HC Encoder, couldnt get the frameserver to work, so exported it to avi instead.

The issue now is that i want to crop the movie to 16:9 fullscreen, im using the PAL 2004 Return of the jedi (not the gout)....but......

In womble the footage which is 720x580 is stretched vertically - however when i make my edits, save and then convert back to DVD it looks fine on the tv.

Its when i want to use virtualdub that the stretching becomes an issue, when i save an m2v file in womble.... the exported video is stretched the way it looked in womble and seems to apply the black bars to the top and bottom automatically, so when applying effects in virtualdub it applies them to the black borders also...

As i wanted to change the aspect ratio to true 16:9 I tried cropping the footage in virtualdub, but I can only get it to resize the frame - it doesnt actually crop the image - so cant get rid of that stretched issue. i figured i just need to change the 720 (width) to somthing else and keep the height as 580?....probably not as easy as that.......

It just ocurred to me that maybe I need to change the aspect ratio when i export the m2v from womble......but to what im not sure, what would be the correct values for 16:9 PAL format?....and would this screw up the aspect ratio when authoring the DVD?

hmmm, this would probably be better explained with screen shots but ill have to wait untill i finish work for that.

but then im sure some of you guys have already gone thru these problems!

geez, its just really frustrating lol!