[Ti] PAL to NTSC Conversion (made simple)

[~flipper]

Someone had asked off-list for advice on 2 things: PAL<-->NTSC (using 
Cleaner) and combining avi files (I think). At any rate I 
accidentally trashed the Inbox here, so there we go:

Cleaner involves a two-stage process that is lengthy, to say the 
least (and have a huge clean firewire drive while you're at it, too, 
it'll turn a PAL-based avi of 650MBs into 4.5 Gigs before you know 
it)).

There are a couple of alternatives (several): ffmpegX, Main Concept 
Encoder, and MPEG2 Works version 4.

ffmpegX is a terrific app, but the PAL/NTSC conversion is not its 
strong suit. (there are audio/video sync probs there)

Main Concept is great. it's also $250 US. And it does batch conversions.

MPEG2Works does amazing PAL/NTSC (both ways) conversions, and is 
nearly perfect where synced audio/video is concerned. It is 30% 
slower (on average) than Main Concept (not a bad tradeoff for the 
sync quality) and it is ten times cheaper: $25.  <--the winner

All of these will join avi files (I think it's on the Tools tab in 
ffmpegX) but there's another 20 dollar shareware app that is the 
great joiner, and that is JFUSE ( http://jfuse.com ) and it'll join 
multiple files as opposed to ffmpegX's max of two at a time.

There are other unix-based joiners out there, but they rarely work in 
terms that QuickTime (for example) can process properly (for 
playback) . You'll see a huge MB-sized file, a QT icon, but the 
playback halts after what would have been the first 'segment'.... a 
no go. With JFUSE it's just select, join, showtime. Period.

So, JFUSE to join, MPEG2Works4 to process the conversion. MPEG2Works 
still supports several previous versions, so no matter how old the 
Titanium, or which OS, there's one out there. My advice: get the 
latest, unless you work in OS 9.

brian s