Xvid And Ffmpeg Settings Pal/ntsc

[dazza139]

I am trying to play some xvid files via MVP and although they play OK they get increasingly out of sync. On my PC they playback fine. Could this be due to the original files being in ntsc format and playing via pal on mvp. Is it possible to set ffmpeg to encode to ntsc. I could then change the output of my mvp to ntsc and change my tv to ntsc mode in the hope this will help.

Any other ideas?

Dazza139

[pBS]

ffmpeg's default is ntsc i believe...there must be another setting that is affecting it..is your GBPVR set to Pal? that would be how it treats all video including the output of ffmpeg...so look in the config.xml for the mvp transcode settings....[should be a setting there for pal/ntsc to adjust]
far as i can tell, just set the fps to -r 29.97 and the size to -s 352x480 and it should work...no settings i can find in ffmpeg for explicitly setting format..
i am curious about this as well as i'm tryin to make a program that can do both but can't test it [i only have ntsc sets]

let me know if you get it working and what settings you used for pal..
in config.xml it's the line near the bottom like :
<MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLineNTSC>
<MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL>
it should pick one based on main GBPVR setting [ntsc/pal]
if you mainly use gbpvr in PAL mode, just put the ntsc conversion line iin the <MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL> section..
tho i'm sure the line just needs adjustment..
ouch,i just noticed it has the format set to SVCD and that shouldn't be there... [-f svcd]
try taking that out and see what happens...[rest as is]

[HtV]

The svcd setting isn there in both lines, pal and ntsc.
There must be setting for pal/ntsc somewhere but I haven't found it.

[pBS]

far as i can remember, the only difference between pal and ntsc is the size and framerate...adjust those and you have either pal or ntsc..
pal is 25fps and height of 288or576
ntsc is fps 29.97 and height of 240or480
otherwise the files are exactly the same..

[pBS]

also, i you want to keep the svcd part,make it 'ntsc-svcd' or 'pal-svcd' and leave out the framerate and size and that will automatically adjust for you..

[personally i use the ntsc-dvd one]
i like using the -t ntsc-dvd and a size of -s 352x480 for great looking picture and low bitrates....perfect for mvp..
the -f just forces a format...[mpeg in this case]
-t sets target format and parameters for everything..no other params needed..

[dazza139]

Thanks for your responses. I did try changing settings in config.xml. Changing it to decode to pal 25 fps still resulted in out of sync when play in pal output on the media mvp. Changing it to ntsc 29.97 fps resulted in jerky picture quality when played in pal output on media MVP (as expected). I did try changing my hauppauge mvp to ntsc output by using the gbmvp.bin dongle - this seems to be the only one that currently allows you to set the mvp as ntsc or pal. I'm not sure if this would have played it OK because gbmvp.bin seems to be unstable and it crashed for me fairly quickly. In the meantime my solution has been to use Blaze Media Pro to convert my files to mpeg2 svcd format and pal. A slow process! So far so good. I will keep you posted.

[HtV]

This is kind of what I expected. I think it also is influenced by the "quality" of the avi's you transcode. For me, some work very well when transcoded through ffmpeg, others have timing issues which are very hard to get rid off. I'm now trying out avisynth (a bit). I saw in earlier threads that it worked very good. It has very much capabilities so I think it may be hard to find the right way to use it.

Edit: I think you can change the pal/ntsc setting of your mvp by loading the dongle.bin you want to use, the first time through the hauppauge-sw, it will give you a screen with the options to choose pal or ntsc. I'm not sure this applies to all dongle.bins

[dazza139]

A followup note

Using Blaze Media pro I converted XVID to mpeg2 SVCD quality and chose 25 fps. These play brilliantly through the hauppauge. There is a slight jerking of the camera pan on slow shots but barely noticeable most of the time.

Interestingly I did try converting XVID ntsc to XVID pal using the same software but I ended up with exactly the same AV sync issues when transcoding this with ffmpeg. So maybe this wasn't an ntsc/pal issue after all.

Thanks for your help.

Dazza 139