Has anyone tried this ? ....AVI sourced from NTSC video and then using TMPGEnc (or better?) encoded to PAL (MPEG-1) and finally make a PAL VCD ? Please suggest optimal settings in TMPGenc for getting good results. Thanks

-- Chetan (elegance@giaspn01.vsnl.net.in), September 10, 2001

Answers

I converted NTSC MPEG-2 video directly to PAL using both TMPGenc and MPEG2VCR (www.womble.com - it's a MPEG-1/2 editor, but you can do a lot of things with it). Your idea of going to AVI has some merit, but the real problem I've found is converting NTSC frame rates to PAL frame rates. Neither TMPGenc nor MPEG2VCR did a very good job. The video was really jerky, but it was valid PAL. I suggest you try to record your AVI at 25 fps in a valid PAL resolution. If you can do that, the conversion to PAL MPEG-1 should be a piece of cake. Just FYI, I tried to convert 24 fps NTSC video to 25 fps PAL video and it still looked crappy. It wasn't like I was trying to go from 29.97 to 25. A more expensive option that would produce better results is to buy the Dazzle DVC II card ($230+ US) and send a video output signal from your NTSC source (VCR or DVD player) to the DVC II and record it as valid PAL. I should warn you that Dazzle does a better job with MPEG-2 than MPEG-1 though, and in case you wondered, it defeats Macrovision, so you can send DVD player output video to it and record it with no problem.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), September 10, 2001.

If you have NTSC for vid input, best is to stay at NTSC frame rate. You can't never convert NTSC to PAL via software. If you are using hardware capture card to do the conversion, then you are chasing the wrong end. If you really have to do PAL from NTSC, then I would suggest you go to get an analog video converter. There are many devices on the market that will take a NTSC analog source and convert it to PAL signal. They are not cheap.

Samsung built a world wide VCR that will play NTSC/PAL tape and output it to either NTSC/PAL/SECAM/PALN/PALM. This deck runs about 500.00. It only have composite vid out.

AWAI built a world wide VCR that do the same thing as the Samsung unit, but it also has inputs for any vid signal and convert it to the format of your choice. This unit runs about 600.00. Again this unit only has composite input/output.

-- (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), September 10, 2001.

If you have valid NTSC sourced AVI (ideally type-1 DV AVI) you can convert them to genuine PAL every bit as smooth and as good as the original through MotionPerfect, which can be had from www.dynapel.com. You can likewise do PAL to NTSC with said program. At just $25, it's good value. TMPGenc is superb in what it does: MPEG- 1/2 encoding, and should be left at that. As I and many others soon find out it produces less-than-optimal output when source and output files have different framerates.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), September 11, 2001.

I have tried the motion perfect software for converting NTSC format mpeg's to PAL and by using AviSynth to make the program accept the mpeg format,as the software wont accept any other video file apart from avi.Motion Perfect produced good results and that was with using the fastest option'MAXIMUM SPEED'in the Quality settings box.It's only 40 odd $,give it a try after all it can help to eliminate that irritating jerky video that occurs after encoding NTSC files straight to a PAL file. www.dynapel.com/products/mp_overview.shtml Check it out!

-- Luke.S (electronicpulse001@ntlworld.com), February 27, 2004.