Audio/video synchronization on copied DVDs

[jurassicpc]

I use the same basic settings when I copy DVDs with the exception of the bitrate; my copy software is DVD CopyPlus and I burn CD-R with Nero.

I've noticed that some of my CD-Rs may start out with audio and video synchronized and end up WAY off, or they start out slightly off and get worse. Granted my DVD player is a cheapo, but the CD-Rs are quality. Am I missing something or is this to be expected?.

Regards to Xayd. I remember your mentioning DVD copying difficulties in another thread. I hadn't encountered them at that time but am noticing the end results are not consistently even as far as quality. It's been a real learning curve and it seems to be getting worse the more I copy -- AUGH!

Andrea

[Xayd]

You're converting them to VCD or SVCD?

If it's starting out ok and getting worse my first thought would be framerates not matching up.

[jurassicpc]

Converting to VCD. Most come out fine, but a recent batch are really whoopsy.

DVDx, the software that encodes to mpg and avi files, notes that a warning message will usually come up, but it's ok and 'not a problem': "Warning the output and input frame rate are not equal
Pull down (up) will be performed:"

Thanks. Now I see what causes the problems. Is there a correction? The recommended input settings are:
DeCSS - DeMacrovision; Audio Track - Dolby Surround, 48KHz to 44.1KHz - Normal Quality 48, Volume 3; Subtitle - None, Original colors; Misc - iDCT MMX(intel P2), Overlap (sec) 0, Audio/Video synchronisation is unchecked; Output Frame Rate - 29.97(NTSC), Detect progr. 24Hz and Force 24Hz are both checked.

The tutorial says the above settings are necessary to avoid problems. I haven't tried checking the audio/video synchronisation box yet. Am I right in guessing that might solve my problems. Would I need to adjust anything else?

Andrea

[Xayd]

Yeah, NTSC dvds are primarily all film (23 fps). TVs display at 29.97fps, so the DVD player actually does the pulldown to get to 30 FPS, to match with the audio which is also at 30 FPS and the TV which is 30 FPS. The DVD player will only do it if the IFO file for the movie tells it to, however, so it can't do so with a VCD or SVCD.

I'm not sure what that program actually does with this situation, but in doing them manually, your audio would be extracted at 30fps, your video would be encoded in it's native 23 fps, and after your video is done re-encoding you'd do a pulldown on it to convert the video to 30 FPS to match the audio.

Try checking the synchronization box to see what it does, it's worth a shot.

Try playing the MPEG file in BSPlayer or Bitrate Viewer to see what FPS it shows as? If it's showing 23, that's your problem.

[jurassicpc]

Thanks.

[Xayd]

BTW if you have TMPGENC you should be able to demux the video, run a pulldown on it, and put it back together if that's what the problem turns out to be.

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/do.../pulldown.html

Just throw the file in a directory that's in your path (like c:\windows\system)

And do..

>pulldown c:\blah\movie.ext c:\blah\newmovie.ext

[jurassicpc]

Okay, true confession time -- I don't know what TMPGENC is and am not sure of demux. Will pulldown work on MPEG1 files? That's what I encode for because I'm doing VCDs. The info on pulldown.exe kept citing MPEG2 files. Thanks.

Andrea.

[edit] I found the TMPGENC site and downloaded it. I'm not sure where it would go in the copy cycle. Currently I rip with Smartripper, then use DVDx on the .info file to get the MPEG1 file, then use NERO to burn the VCD. Help?

[Xayd]

Der, nevermind. I just noticed that you said VCD instead of SVCD, I assumed you were working with an MPEG2 file here.

Whoops

Original plan is the best option, try again with sync checked in the program you're using, see if it works.

The above would only apply to an SVCD since the pulldown application only works on MPEG2 files.

[jurassicpc]

Thanks a lot for your help. See you in the forum.

[jurassicpc]

FYI folks: Checking the audio/video synchronization did the job. CD-Rs turning out fine now. DUH!

Thanks Xayd.
Andrea