The NTSC Film uses 23.976fps when converted to 25fps(PAL) in TMPGEnc for VCD, your DVD player may get rather jerky on playback. This frame freeze can be seen worse on fast screen pans. This guide shows a method of obtaining the best results using Virtual Dub for the video conversion, and Gold Wave for the audio. I have chosen to use AVI, as you might want to share what you have converted, but once the AVI has been changed, it is then possible to use TMPGEnc to make a great mpeg 1 / 2 out of the AVI.

Luckily not many home made movies have been transferred from NTSC film, if you aware one of those people who are making your home made movies on film, please remember those countries who use PAL :)-

Note, if your DVD/TV will handle NTSC then you don't need to convert to PAL, just load a NTSC template in TMPGEnc to match the source fps. The guide is here for those people who can only play PAL, or may wish to transfer PAL VCD's to a PAL only VHS recorder.

This is just one of many methods used to achieve this, but for beginners who are using vdub a lot, its one of the easiest. Before you start you should consider one thing, the size of the home movie your working with. It is much easier to convert small sections at a time, especially if you have a slow CPU. For this reason I have included splitting the file into 4 chunks, and working with a movie that has VBR audio.

Tools needed Vdub Gold Wave

If you use Vdub MP3 to split your files, because of VBR audio, once you have split them, use the regular Vdub, as Vdub MP3 sometimes has problems saving audio. Don't worry if the regular Vdub fives you a VBR warning, as your going to uncompress the audio anyway.

First check your home movie for bad frames, then split it into 4 chunks, if your happy to work with one large file, just name it part1.avi. I will assume you have split the file into 4 parts and have named them Part1.avi Part2.avi Part3.avi Part3.avi

Load Part1.avi into vdub, select Edit > End

Make a note of the number that Vdub shows, in this example its 31368 (0:21:48.297)

Next Select
Audio > Full processing mode
Audio > Compression > None
SAVE WAV

Name the file Part1.wav

The audio you just saved was also 0:21:48.297 in length (remember that)
Next select
Audio > No Audio
Video > Direct Stream Copy
Video > frame rate > and enter 25 for the frame rate

File > Save AVI

Call this file 25Fps Part1.avi

Now re-load the 25Fps Part1.avi back into vdub
Again select Edit > End to move to the end, and make a note of the time.

In this case it shows Frame 31368 (0:20:54.720) [ ]

Now load Gold Wave, then load in Part1.wav

When you load this sound track into Gold Wave it will show the length of the track

This should be the same length as the original Part1.avi (0:21:48.297) as you can see its 21:48 but in this example the milliseconds is slightly out, you will find that wont be a problem.
If its several minuets out "Start Again"

Recap, The original Part1.avi before we did any work on it was 0:21:48.297 . The frame rate was changed to 25fps and another copy was saved out and re-loaded back to fine the new length which was 0:20:54.720

Original Part1.avi 31368 (0:21:48.297)
Converted 25Fps Part1.avi 31368 (0:20:54.720)

Now in Gold Wave select Effects > Time Warp

Copy and paste that second number in there (20:54.720) and click OK
After a short while Gold Wave will finish applying the time warp, and you now need to save out another copy.

Copy = Control C
Paste = Control V



Save this as 25Fps part1.wav

Finally reload Vdub
Load back in The 25fps part1.avi

Select Audio > WAV and open the 25fps part1.wav

Then
Video > Direct stream copy
Audio > Direct stream copy
SAVE AVI
Call this part 1 final.avi

Vdub problem
Sometimes it displays the last frame with the same number as your last save. Quit Vdub, and reload it before you start to work on part2.avi Make sure the saved part2.wav (Loaded in GoldWave) is the same length in minuets as the 25fps part2.avi If the last few milliseconds is slightly out, this is acceptable.

Do the same for part2.avi,part3.avi,part4.avi (If you have split into 4)

Note:
At this point, you are going to save the AVI with uncompressed audio, so the AVI is going to be larger than the original. If this is not acceptable you can change some settings before you finally save the file. If you intend using this file to convert to Mpeg 1, then you can leave it uncompressed, else compress with an MP3 codec, with a bitrate close to the original.

Vdub
1, load 25fps Part1.avi
2, Audio > WAV Audio > 25fps part1.wav
Video > Direct stream copy
Audio > Full processing mode
Audio > Compression > MP3 codec > Bitrate
SAVE AVI "part1 final.avi"
You have now saved the video the same as the original, with MP3 audio

Some explanation
The difference in the frame rate mathematically is 23.976 / 25 = 0.95.904 * 100 = 95.904% Different

So the Video is a 95.904% different now that we have converted the frames, so we need to edit the audio by that amount. With Gold Wave the track is shown in minuets and seconds, Cool Edit will show a percentage.

We can prove the difference with the example files used here.

Original Part1.avi 21.48.297 = 1308.297 seconds Video and audio
That's 21 minuets X 60 = 1260 + 48 = 1308 Seconds and 297 milliseconds

25Fps Part1.avi 20.54.720 = 1254.720 seconds Frame rate changed in Vdub
That's 20 minuets X 60 = 1200 + 54 = 1254 Seconds and 720 milliseconds

1254.720 / 1308.297 = 0.95904 * 100 = 95.904%

Finally both the 25fps Video is combined with our edited audio.

This work is fairly fast as saving out the audio in full processing mode if quite quick, while streaming the video only takes a few seconds. Once the AVI has been converted to 25fps you might want to share it with others who live in a country that uses PAL, at the same time, it would now be very easy to convert it to Mpeg 1 for VCD with TMPGEnc, Just load a PAL VCD template and GO, no more jerky NTSC home made movies.

AC3 Audio
Well here we have a problem, if your AVI has AC3 audio, you wont be able to use vdub to save it out in full processing mode. So this is what you do instead

Vdub
Audio > Direct Stream Copy
SAVE WAV

Name the file ac3-part1.wav

Now rename that file from "ac3-part1.wav" to "ac3-part1.ac3"

Load "Headac" (See guide on AVI audio, if you get stuck)

Click the source file button, select "ac3-part1.ac3"
Click the destination file button and type "part1.wav"

You now have the part1.wav uncompressed and can now pickup from where the guide says to load part1.wav into GoldWave

Update, Missing Audio
There have been a few AVI's with missing audio at the end, reports are about 6 seconds, Those 6 seconds of "Blank" do not have a silent audio stream, so the audio is missing.
Any attempt to save video and audio, would then give a big difference in length (In this case 6 seconds). If you see a big difference when loading the stream, then you will know you have the missing audio stream.
Vdub MP3
Go to the end of the AVI, and come back a few minutes then press play, press stop as soon as the audio is not heard, then click the keyframe back once and mark that as start. Then move to the end of the movie and mark that as end. Delete those frames and save out another copy using video/audio direct stream copy. You have now removed the frames that have no audio, and can reload that back to work on as normal.