Framerates, NTSC -> PAL, MPEGs and VOBs

[Neale]

Here's an oddity. Not a problem as it all works out but unusual.

My Sony DSC shoots NTSC (I use 1440x1080 mode) and I use the HDV 1080i @ 29.97fps project setting in Premiere Elements 10. This is a perfect match for my clips (no red lines).

Although being in PAL land all my equipment is multi-region so I usually burn NTSC disks. However this particular project is a surprise gift for friends and so I want PAL as they may not have multi-region equipment.

Now PRE produces an excellent frame rate conversion when I Share to MPEG using the "PALDVD Widescreen" preset and view it in VLC and other software players. In fact, having read various horror stories of frame rate conversions, I was expecting something much worse and wonder if PRE10 has received a boost in its frame rate conversions over previous versions.

I load the MPEG into a PAL Widescreen DVDAS5 project and preview looks good. So, burn to disc and .... absolute rubbish. Jerky and masses of vertical banding. OK (I thought nonchalantly) lets export to DV-AVI and see if the DVDAS5 rendering engine does it better. No such luck - just as bad as the original MPEG. Finally (frustration creeping in and not so nonchalantly) I burn it to DVD (to Folder)in PRE and drag the VOB into DVDAS5. And it was excellent. To my eyes absolutely perfect. I looked at both the MPG and VOB files in GSpot and couldn't see any differences (after all the VOB is essentially an MPEG file itself).

So I'm confused as to why one worked and the other didn't.

I've had a similar situation with a slideshow but I'll put that in a separate topic.

[Chuck Engels]

That is very interesting Neale, I wonder what might be going on there.
Good to know that burning to a folder solves the problem though.
Do you ever burn the DVDs with Premiere Elements or ImageBurn?

[Neale]

I occasionally burn from PRE to a rewritable if it's a short clip and I just want to see what it looks like on a real DVD player/TV - that's how I tested the down-rez and frame rate adjustments in my story above. For final work I nearly always use ImgBurn (although oddly when I double-clicked my ISO output from DVDAS5 today it burnt with Nero - I must have changed my default at some time, now back to ImbBurn).