VHS to DVD help please

[Springbok]

Please help a new guy. I am trying to convert from vhs tapes to dvd, but it is driving me mad. I have a Wifast 2000 XP capture card and have been able to capture to avi on my hard drive. (I tried capturing to mpeg but it was a bit jerky and the quality was poor.) I have read ChickenMan's tutorial on converting to DVD and have followed it to the letter but I keep getting the same problems:
1 The resulting DVD has the frames all mixed up. The basic order is correct but lots of frames appear in places the do not belong - this shows up clearly if you step through frame by frame. I also get odd frames which are pure green.
2. There is no sound.
3 The format has gone from normal 4:3 to a tall thin picture, almost like 3:4 if you see what I mean.

I have played the extracted wave file and the sound is perfect on that but the mp2 file does not seem to have any sound.

The encoded mpeg file has the same video problems.

I have used the forum search and found lots of info but nothing to answer this problem.

A couple of bits of info which may help someone to help me:
1. When installing avi2dvd at the ds2roba install it asks if I want to use the rejig.exe transcoder or the requant - I chose requant as I do not have the other one - is this correct?
2. It the says could not find dvddecryptor.exe.

Also, when loading avi avi2dvd says frame rate of 25.006 is not supported and frame rate will be adjusted. When I captured the avi, I told the winfast pvr software to use frame rate 25.000
The vhs tape is in PAL and that is my required output.
Computer spec is
AMD 1.2GHz
256 Mb DDR memory
Win XP pro SP1

Please, please please help

Springbok

 

[ChickenMan]

Frames out of order and going green is a sign of Codec problems. Its been encoded using one codec and then another (not 100% compatable) is being used for the avi to mpeg2 re-encoding. So what AVI codecs do you have installed and what one have you used in the capturing?

As for the picture comming out with incorrect aspect ratio, unfortunately the current DVD2SVCD is setup for avi's with square pixels, captures do not produce square pixel avi's. This problem has been fixed in the soon to be released next version of DVD2SVCD. In the meantine, you need to tick "Edit as part of Video encoding" and when the avisynth box pops up diring enciding, edit the LanczosResize line to:

LanczosResize(720,576)

Please post what GSPOT says about the avi, post a screen capture would be best.

Many capturing programs will capture slightly off frame (Ulead Video Studio 7 does at times ), hence your 25.006 fps. DVD2SVCD can compensate for this during its reencoding of the video, but BeSweet has obviously had problem compensating for this during its WAV to MP2 conversion. Use BeSweet manually to convert the WAV making a 25006 to 25000 in the Change Frame Rate section.

The issues about D2SRoba installing are normal and are nothing to do with your current problems.

 

[ponzan]

in my modest opinion the better, safest and easiest way to get through the analog to digital conversion of video, which can be a nightmare, is to use a digital video camera to do the conversion to DV (Digital Video Format). Capturing to a Hard drive, an from there do all the editing or authoring

 

[Springbok]

Thanks

ChickenMan,
Thanks for the reply and the information. Sorry to take so long to reply but I've been trying lots of things and it all takes so long. Anyway, I'm most of the way there now. By capturing using U-Lead video studio 8 and then using avi2dvd to encode I get no frames out of order and sound OK. The only problem I still have is the aspect ratio. I tried altering the lanczosResizing line to 720,576 but it then says size 900,576 not supported. I have tried different sizes and as soon as I enter above 720 I get an error. Incidentally, if I use video studio 8 to produce the dvd files, the aspect ratio is correct and the quality is not too bad, especially considering the source was from a vhs in the first place. I woul prefer to use avi2dvd if I can and then use tmpgenc dvd author as it semms best to do the chapters in but if this is not going to work then I'm stuck with video studio 8 I guess.
Thanks again for your help and if you have any thoughts on the aspect problem I would be grateful.
I have attempted to attach the screen capture from gspot but I don't know if I've done it correctly so appologies if it's not there.
Thanks again
Springbok

 

[ChickenMan]

With your aspect ratio prob, when you edited the LanczosResize line, I assume you deleted any AddBorders line ? If not, that would explain the 900x576.

As for the capturing, the pic size is very small at 320x240. I'd increase that to 720x576 if you can, if not try for at least 640x480. The final dvd quality will be better.

Also, I'd suggest you get the GSPOT 2.5 Beta version, it works well and has a bit more info available, especially when working with MPEG/VOB files.

 

[Springbok]

More help please

Hi ChickenMan,
Thanks for the reply. You're right, I didn't remove the line regarding borders. I've done that now and the aspect ratio is OK BUT I've now got another two problems
1. When BeSweet runs to encode the audio it runs OK for a while and then just repeats the message "not scaled correctly" followed by some numbers. The only way out of ths is to close BeSweet and let avi2dvd continue.
2. I then use ffmpeggui to convert the extracted audio.wav file to ac3 (the bbmpeg_muxed_file.mpg file has no audio, probably because of the BeSweet problem) and TMPGEnc to author the dvd files. However, when I try to output the dvd files, TMPGEnc says that the combined bitrate is more than that allowed for a standard dvd. It shows the video bitrate to be 9800 but I set it at 9000 max in avi2dvd (checked the setting several times). No matter what setting I use in avi2dvd, TMPGEnc still says video bitrate is 9800.
I hate to keep asking for help but this is driving me mad!!
Cheers
Springbok

 

[ChickenMan]

1. BeSweet has probs with some audio formats. Just manually convert like you have already.

2. Having answered about the TDA bitrate problem about 1000 times already I'll be brief - Read the Tutorial again, in particular Step 3 Part 14 - "DVD Compliant" (untick if you use TMPGEnc DVD Author for any later authoring). Or just ignore the error

 

[Springbok]

Thanks again

ChickenMan,
Thanks for the reply. You're right, I didn't read the tutorial properly, my humble apologies. I'm nearly there now, I just have a sync problem. The avi file is OK but the final files have an audio / video sync problem whether I use the encoded video.mpv and the ac3 from ffmpeg or the bbmpeg_muxed_file.mpg file in tmpgenc. The sync starts out OK but by the end (90 minutes long) the video is ahead of the audio.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Springbok

 

[ChickenMan]

If the audio stream has 44.1khz sampling and you used ffMPEG to create the AC3 file, then it tends to stretch the audio giving a/v sync probs. Also, divx's made using DivX 3 tend to give a/v sync problems occassinally. I have one right now Read the Tute on how to fix these sync problems.

 

[Springbok]

Got it !!!

Thanks ChickenMan. I finally did it, DVD produced and the audio / video sync spot on. For anyone reading this with similar problems this is how I did it, based on ChickenMan's tutorial.
1. Demux using tnpgenc.
2. Change the audio frequency with Goldstar. As the mp2 I got from 1 above was 48kHz I used 48000 in the calculations instead of 44100. Save as .wav
3. Covert wav to AC3 using ffmpeg (I didn't need to but you could use AC3 delay at this point if required)
4. Make the dvd files with tmpgenc dvd author using the m2v file from 1 and the AC3 file from 3
Worked great for me. All credit to ChickenMan though, it was his help and tutorial that set me on the right path.
Thanks again ChickenMan for your help and patience.
Cheers
Springbok

 

[ChickenMan]

Glad to hear you finally made it