Re: PAL to NTSC Conversion Issues

Quoting Phil Ehrens <[email protected]>:

> [email protected] wrote:
>>
>> PS I do know that there are US spec DVD players that can play PAL DVDs
>> on an NTSC TV. I have one myself, but I'd like to convert the DVD so
>> that special players are not required.
>

> I'd be surprised if there are ANY U.S. players that CANNOT
> play PAL still being made. Also, the usual path from PAL
> to NTSC is to slow the video and audio down and make it
> 24 fps... Hard telecine is usually considered BAD, and it
> also is really impossible to go from 25 to 30 fps directly
> anyway, the result will always be crap.
>
The Pioneer DVD recorder that I use to record the PAL input is one  
that will not play UK PAL onto an NTSC TV.  It will play NTSC on a PAL  
TV, but not the other way round.

Surely the frame rate conversion issue is the same whether the  
translator is inside the DVD player's hardware or within transcode.   
Even the hardware decoder will have to decide which frame of the 25fps  
interlaced source to play at the 29.997fps rate.  I would have thought  
that the result from a well configured transcode conversion should be  
as good as a hardware conversion.  The only loss would be if  
requantization was required to make it fit on a single-layer DVD.

> That said, if the source is quite poor, the result of the
> commands you are using may look fine in comparison. But
> if you use those commands on a high-quality PAL dvd the
> result will be quite poor, with lots of stuttering and
> jumpiness.

The video result from my transcode command is fairly decent, with no  
noticeable jumpiness.  The only problem is that the audio, though  
playable via dragon player as an MPG, doesn't survive the makedvd  
command
>
> Your transcode command has confused and incorrect audio
> options. Please search the wiki for "ac3" to see examples
> of how to pass through ac3 audio.
>
I'm having trouble finding anything in the transcode wiki on ac3  
conversion.  Can you give me some clues as to which specific command  
options are incorrect, or point me to the specific examples that you  
are citing?

Thanks

Jeff