Double Checking For Contest Entry

[AngelOfTheDark]

I want to make absolutely sure I'm doing this right, so I'm just looking for a quick confirmation from someone who knows. I finally finished my video and I want to send it in to Metrocon's contest today (I won't have a chance after that). So, here's the thing. Looking at the guide, I have this situation:

???x480, 16:9 (Resized from Anamorphic)
The situation: your source was encoded on the DVD for anamorphic playback, and you resized it horizontally to 848x480 and exported at that resolution.
Add the following lines to your script:
LanczosResize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)

---------------------------------

Upon following this advice, my footage looks a bit squished vertically, compared to the source footage. Is this what I want (and it will get fixed somewhere in the process) or do I need to keep fiddling with it? If it helps, I'm using footage from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

[AngelOfTheDark]

Sorry for the double post, but while I was awaiting a reply, I ran some test videos, and I noticed I can't get to Lame ACM on virtualdub. I downloaded the new AMVApp, unpacked/installed the LameACM.exe (or whatever the file is) - twice - rebooted my computer, and it's still not showing up in the options list under Audio-> Compression. Is there another name it might go by that I might be missing? How can I get it to show up? Or, if not that, what's the next best thing to do with my audio?

[mirkosp]

When you encode mpeg2 for conventions, you'll be applying an anamorphic flag so that the 720x480 video you encoded will get sctretched like it happens on DVDs. Assuming that when you ripped your dvd you had cropped 8 from the left and 8 from the right, then the resize and borders should actually be like so, though:

Code: Select all

spline36resize(704,360)
addborders(8,60,8,60)

When you encode in TMPGEnc, you'll select the 4:3 aspect ratio flag, and during playback this 720x480 video will be stretched to 640x480.
As for the audio question, LameACM.exe installs Lame MP3. Should be available under that name. The thing is, for a convention you don't want to use mp3 audio, but mp2. You should know since you're following scintilla's guide, though.

[AngelOfTheDark]

Thanks. Well, the con prefers Xvid, so I'm doing my best to blend the two guides and figure out how to do it that way. Any suggestions for how to get the best Xvid video for a con?

[mirkosp]

That's very odd for a con to prefer xvid. If that is the case, then you should probably just

Code: Select all

spline36resize(640,360)
addborders(0,60,0,60)

and encode it like that in xvid. But I wouldn't trust a con that prefers xvid much... they generally either prefer mpeg2 (if they have a somewhat dated hardware setup for playback) or allow mostly anything with an H.264+AAC preference.

[AngelOfTheDark]

Okay, so how do I make sure I have the correct aspect ratio and great audio for this when encoding in Xvid through virtualdub?

[mirkosp]

Well, for xvid it should look correct as-is. I'm assuming the contest requires 4:3, so that why i told you to letterbox, but it should still look fine shape-wise.
As for the great audio, Lame MP3 192kbps or higher is what you should be aiming for. Possibly the max, 320kbps. Do it CBR, no ABR of VBR, those tend to break compatibility in some players/hardwares.
For video settings on xvid, refer to the proper section in the avtech3.

[AngelOfTheDark]

Thanks for all your help. I'm reading 4-5 guides at once and it gets a little tricky for me to put it all together at some points.

So, I've got most of that, but the problem is that even though I must have installed and re-installed it 6 times by now, Lame MP3 still is not appearing as an option at all. I figured out another way to get good audio, but I'd like to know how to get it to show up for future reference.

[mirkosp]

Mmmh that's very odd... if you're using the lame acm installer it should just show up. If it still doesn't show you can always resort to compressing to mp3 with another program and in vdub you can tell it to direct stream copy instead of compress and just point it to the compressed audio.

[AngelOfTheDark]

That's pretty much what I did. Thanks for letting me know I was on the right track. I appreciate it.