Go Back    Forum > Digital Video > Video Project Help > Encode, Convert for discs

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
  #1  
12-19-2015, 04:47 PM
dt126 dt126 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 7
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Hello.

I am capturing from VHS via Virtualdub and saving as Huffyuv lossless (at 720X480). Everything is working fine. The only problem I'm having now is getting AVIDEMUX to convert this to an MPEG2 file that is identified as interlaced. The only MPEG2 option is MPEG2(ff) and the settings under the MPEG2 configuration are correct (Interlaced and bottom first are selected, which I confirmed is correct). However, when the conversion completes, Mediainfo and my MPEG Editor (VideoRedo) both confirm that the file is progressive. It also plays incorrectly on a TV set. Any idea why this is happening?

I have tried this on both V2.6.10 and 2.6.8. I am able to demux the resulting MPG file, run it through re-stream and then re-mux and it then is correct (both on the TV and when checking the file), but this is a lot of work to do for every file. Am I maybe missing something else basic in the Avidemux settings that needs to be done (besides setting interlaced under the video encoder options)? Using the deinterlace filters is obviously one option, but everything I've read on this site says to keep the files as interlaced to not loose any data.

Do any of the other AVIDEMUX encoders output so that the file will be identified as interlaced? I'd be willing to use the MPEG4 X264 as that can also be edited in VideoRedo (although not nearly as quickly). Thanks.

edit: Sorry, Meant Top Field First. Thanks.
Reply With Quote
The following users thank dt126 for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
Someday, 12:01 PM
admin's Avatar
Ads / Sponsors
 
Join Date: ∞
Posts: 42
Thanks: ∞
Thanked 42 Times in 42 Posts
  #2  
12-19-2015, 11:46 PM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Simple issue. You have the wrong version.

Avidemux 2.5 = best for MPEG-2
Avidemux 2.6 = best for H.264

Try it again.

Use the guide: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...idemux-pt1.htm

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #3  
12-20-2015, 12:11 AM
dt126 dt126 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 7
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Thanks, I wouldn't have guessed that I'd need to use an older version. Which of the 2.5 versions? They go from 2.5.0 to 2.5.6 on Sourceforge. I'd be inclined to grab the most recent unless support for this feature was dropped in one of the intermediate revisions.
Reply With Quote
The following users thank dt126 for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #4  
12-20-2015, 12:39 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Use the latest 2.5.x version. I'm not at my main editing system right now, but 2.5.6 sounds right.
I think 2.6.8 is what I use for H.264 for personal encoding.

Avidemux is buggy. That's really the main issue. That's the nature of freeware. So use the version that works.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #5  
09-13-2018, 04:49 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
I am converting VHS interlaced AVI files to DVD, and I know this a very old question. But I would love to know why the latest version of Avidemux is still not able to create MPEG-2 files that are interlaced. Is Avidemux just giving up on interlaced MPEG-2 because all new TVs are digital and progressive? Or is this a really really old bug in Avidemux since ver 2.5.6 that it just does not want to fix for some reason? Or what, please? Anybody know? I looked at Avidemux 2.5.6 and it just does not have all the features of 2.7.1. Why does it only and always encode to progressive MPEG-2? What deinterlacer filter is it using? Thanks.

-paul-
Reply With Quote
  #6  
09-13-2018, 06:47 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Almost all features of 2.6 and 2.7 are for non-MPEG.
And then I see no issue in 2.5.6:

avidemux25-interlacedMPEG.jpg



- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #7  
09-13-2018, 06:55 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
OK. Many thanks, Mr Smurf. I am off using 2.5.6.
But what is the significance of your screenshot? For VHS to DVD, would I not use AC3 audio and MPEG-TS format? Certainly not AVI, right?

And not Progressive. My source is interlaced BFF.

-paul-
Reply With Quote
  #8  
09-13-2018, 06:58 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
DVD is never MPEG-TS (transport stream). It's a program stream.

I didn't alter format or audio in the example, just the video for MPEG, and even then just interlacing option. No other options were touched. The defaults in Avidemux are lousy, and need adjustments.

Audio can technically be MP2, AC3, or PCM.
But yeah, AC3 often best, and then 384kbps best, 256/224 often fine, 192 can be tinny.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #9  
09-13-2018, 07:05 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
You are the best. Thanks again. Hope this helps the millions who are converting VHS.

Like others, I have some old tapes that have lost almost all of the horizontal sync pulses; and therefore are difficult to capture. It appears I need to build a 15khz filter (or phase lock loop) which rebuilds the h-sync, I think. Have you ever heard of such a device? Or a schematic for a design?

Now I will stop bothering you. Ha!!

-paul-
Reply With Quote
  #10  
09-13-2018, 07:13 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Actually, yes, there is a TBC schematic on a site, and has been linked to quite a few times on this forum. That person seems to have lost interest, so it was never build. If you manage to build one, I'd really like to see a sample.

I don't recall the link offhand, so you'll need to do some searching. It's especially posts from within the past 6 months.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #11  
09-14-2018, 05:10 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Well, I have given up using Avidemux for encoding interlaced AVI to MPEG-2 for creating DVDs. It completely refuses to create an interlaced MPEG-PS file set from an interlaced AVI. It ALWAYS makes a progressive MPEG-2. Every version of Avidemux. Even the old 2.5.X. Too bad......

It appears that, even with all the guides that say it works, Avidemux is NOT suitable for converting old VHS tapes to interlaced DVD encoding. Need to find one that is suitable, I guess. Any suggestions for such a (free) tool will be appreciated.
Reply With Quote
The following users thank engr2000 for this useful post: BarryTheCrab (03-07-2021)
  #12  
09-14-2018, 05:41 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
I know it works.
Upload a tiny sample clip (less than 99mb) of an AVI with high action.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #13  
09-14-2018, 06:04 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
OK, here you go. Good luck.
You are very helpful. Have others had this prob? Or am I a simple idiot?


Attached Files
File Type: avi 1986 - Lake Rich and Famous 23sec.avi (82.22 MB, 4 downloads)
Reply With Quote
  #14  
09-14-2018, 06:28 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Something is screwy with the Sony DV codec, seems to interfere. I have issues as well.
Convert to another lossless in VirtualDub, tried again. (Avidemux hates Lagarith on my system, so Huffyuv was used.)
Ran it again, and it's fine.
Gspot was used to verify. VLC used to preview with deinterlaced ON and using Yadifx2 mode, verify correct field order.

Notes:
- BFF for DV
- audio is lousyy 32kHz, so must be upsampled to 48kHz for DVD-compliant MPEG

checked it in:
- Avidemux 2.5 x86
- Avidemux 2.6 x64
- Avidemux 2.7 x64

... but noting 2.5 better than 2.6 or 2.7 for MPEG. More stable, quality appears slightly better.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #15  
09-16-2018, 06:04 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
OK. Still working on this with no success making an MPEG-2 output that is interlaced. I did the same as you show above using Virtualdub and Huffyuv, and tried all three versions of Avidemux (set Avidemux to MPEG-2 video out). Gspot always shows the resulting mpg file as PROGRESSIVE. Is this what you got out of Gspot?

Anyway, could this result occur if Avidemux is creating a PSF (progressive segmented frame) version of the mpg2 output? Where Avidemux first converts the interlaced AVI input to progressive scan, and then creates a PSF wrapper to produce the final MPEG2-PS output? So then Gspot shows PROGRESSIVE when it the mpg out is really INTERLACED?

Do you think this is how Avidemux works? Or what?
Did you truly see Gspot show an INTERLACED mpg2 output from Avidemux?

-paul-
Reply With Quote
  #16  
09-16-2018, 08:22 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Gspot shows I/L on the DV>Huffyuv>MPEG (BFF) file.
It's PROG for the DV>MPEG (BFF) file.

I don't know what "progressive segmented frame" is, or forgot. Wikipedia shows it to be some sort of weird broadcast quasi-pulldown usage of a file. I've never done that. And I don't see how that would factor into your issue.

AVI is not interlaced, period. Nor is it progress. It just is. There's nowhere to flag it as such. When you create interlaced MPEG from AVI, that's one reason why you have to specify the field order, it cannot read a value. Most encoders default to match the field dominance when available.

Something is simply fubar with that Sony codec, and it confuses Avidemux.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
  #17  
09-16-2018, 08:54 AM
hodgey hodgey is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Norway
Posts: 1,680
Thanked 447 Times in 384 Posts
Using ffmpeg directly seems to work fine:

Code:
ffmpeg -i "1986 - Lake Rich and Famous 23sec.avi" -target ntsc-dvd -flags +ildct+ilme -alternate_scan 1 -top 0 -aspect 4:3 -b:v:0 4400000 -maxrate:v:0 8000000 -minrate:v:0 1750000 -b:a 256k output.mpg
It can be a bit daunting if you are not used to command-line applications though.

Code:
-i
means input filename (or other source). As there are spaces in it it's put in quotes.
Code:
-target ntsc-dvd
sets most options that are needed to make the file dvd-compliant
Code:
-flags +ildct+ilme -alternate_scan 1
tells the encoder to create interlaced video.
Code:
-top 0
specifies field order, bottom field first in this case since the source is DV. (-top 1 for top field first)
Code:
-aspect 4:3
specifies that we want normal 4/3 aspect ratio. (DVDs can also be anamorphic 16:9, which means the image is streched out to 16:9 format)
Code:
-b:v:0 4400000 -maxrate:v:0 8000000 -minrate:v:0 1750000
specifies average, maximum, minimum video bitrate respectively.
Code:
 -b:a 256k
specifies audio bitrate.
The last thing is the output filename.
This gave me a bff interlaced mpeg2 file from the clip you posted.

There are some more advanced 2-pass stuff over at doom9, if you really want to get into nitty gritty bitrate/quality optimisation, some of which is borrowed from/implemented in DVDStyler.
Reply With Quote
The following users thank hodgey for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #18  
09-16-2018, 09:03 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by hodgey View Post
It can be a bit daunting if you are not used to command-line applications though.
I wonder how the simple GUIs like WinFF and FFCoder would work for him. I don't have those installed anymore, and don't remember how deep or shallow the options are.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
The following users thank lordsmurf for this useful post: engr2000 (09-16-2018)
  #19  
09-16-2018, 09:59 AM
engr2000 engr2000 is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: NC
Posts: 7
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Thanks, Dr Smurf. I get it about the AVI container, and I'm sure I entered the field order into Avidemux (all versions). Funny none of the millions doing VHS conversions have never complained about this - or else I can't find them. Also, I've done lots of cmd line over the years, no prob. But others may be helped by a GUI.

So, thanks very much, hodgey. I willtry ffmpeg and report back.

-- merged --

YES, YES, YES !! ffmpeg works great. Many, many thank yous must go out to hodgey.

Now, I need to compare interlaced mpg2 to Avidemux yadif deinterlaced. Need to look at quality and amount of interlace lines in the mpg as the camera moves (not much actual moving by the subjects). I still like Avidemux, mostly for all the great filters available.

Is this important enough for the good Dr. S. to post it in some global location for all to see, or something like that?

-paul-
Reply With Quote
  #20  
09-16-2018, 10:27 PM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,510
Thanked 2,449 Times in 2,081 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by engr2000 View Post
Is this important enough for the good Dr. S. to post it in some global location for all to see, or something like that?
Do you mean a simple guide for CLI use of ffmpeg, no GUI?

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
Reply




Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
New Guide: How to Encode MPEG-2 with Avidemux admin General Discussion 25 02-08-2018 08:47 PM
Editing/merging TFF and BFF interlaced MPEG-2 files together? PR_Media_Info Edit Video, Audio 2 02-09-2015 01:17 AM
Capture interlaced, but how to to keep video interlaced when making DVDs? premiumcapture Encode, Convert for discs 11 12-21-2013 03:40 PM
Interlaced vs. non-interlaced artifacts? via Email or PM Capture, Record, Transfer 1 04-16-2009 05:37 PM

Thread Tools



 
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:49 AM