What is Pulldown.exe for? only, references, process, encode

andy

I see a lot of references to this program in guides and posts, but what’s it for and when do I need it?

Normally I use DVD decrypter to process the entire DVD to my HD, and then use IfoEdit to get the movie only. If the movie size is too large I use CCE to encode it, then IfoEdit v.95 to author it and Nero to burn.

I know pulldown is used after the encoding process on the .m2v file, but why? And what does it do? And when should I use it?

copy and paste from a guide Step 5: Pulldown (NTSC only)

If you have an NTSC movie you've most likely encoded it at 23.976 and will find that no authoring program will accept your video stream. This is because the stream has the wrong framerate. Use pulldown.exe on the file as follows:

from the glossary rff/tff flags

RFF means repeat first frame, it's a technique used to make the necessary 29.97 frames per second out of a 24 frames per second source - the movie like it was recorded. Movies that are encoding using the rff flag - the flag tells the player to repeat one field. Tff means top field first and is also used to perform a telecine to make a 24fps movie into 29.97fps. You can read more about film to video transfer in Robshot's article on synch.
and an interesting article on NTCS video: line, encode at 24/23.976fps and still be compatible with the required 29.97fps for NTSC TVs while not actually having to spend your precious bitrate for duplicated fields - instead thanks to pulldown flags your player will duplicated the fields on its own

Another thread moved. How could anyone guess that this fell under quot;Advanced DVD Authoringquot;? It's very much quot;DVD Encodingquot;.  Are we going to have to start handing out strikes just to get our forum tidy?

In a nutshell, if you're in NTSC country (USA, Canada, etc) and you're encoding a movie at 24fps (DVD2AVI with quot;Force FILMquot; enabled) with CCE, you need to run Pulldown on the resulting m2v file.

Like mentioned in a previous email, it tells the DVD player to do a 2:3 pulldown, making 24fps to 29.97fps to play on your TV at playback time (known as quot;telecinequot;).  The other option is to do the telecining when you encode, but that wastes data since you're encoding redudant information.  Just let the DVD player take care of it upon playback.

Now, I don't think you need this if using TMPGenc, since it sets the pulldown flags in the resulting file for you... somebody correct me if I'm wrong here.

I do live in a NTSC country (USA), I do “Force Film” when using DVD2AVI and I do encode with CCE.

But I have never used Pulldown on the resulting m2v file of the (8) or so movies I’ve encoded, they all play fine.

Typical DVD2AVI reports the original Frame Rate as being 29.97 fps before I encode. Then after CCE encoding and authoring, DVD2AVI reports the Frame Rate as being 23.97 fps. But after burning, it plays perfectly.

That’s why after reading that I had to do Pulldown if I lived in a NTCS region, I didn’t believe it. Why should I if it plays fine? Will it look better if I do? Have I just been lucky on the (8) or so movies I’ve encoded?

I guess I will because everyone else is or maybe I’ll try it both ways (Pulldown amp; non-Pulldown) and see if I can tell the difference.

more likely your the lucky owner of a dvd player that can play 23.976 mpeg2 ok... ive burned some like that and although they did play , they stuttered badly on my player. 99% dvd players want full rez mpeg2 (480 lines up and down *in ntsc*) to be interlaced (either really interlacedat 29.97 or telecined *what pulldown does with the flags* at 29.97.  so if it works for you then great.. just know it may not play on other machines. what player do you have?

also.. i think some newer cce's have a 'pulldown' built in.  2.5 doesnt.. what version of cce are you using?.. also when you checked your .m2v was the force film flag on? if it was then dvd2avi should actually report 19.xx if the m2v was 23.976 (it multiplies current fps * 0.8 so if its 29.97 you get 24.976 if its 24fps and force film is on then you get 19.xx) just some thoughts

anyways.. if its truely 24 fps and it plays.. cool.. cherish your dvd player.. hehe

oh.. and of course software dvd players will play anything.... just in case your just testing on the pc

I don’t mean to keep going on about this and I am going you start use Pulldown, because I want my DVD’s to be compliant with as many players as possible.

I have a Samsung M301 (nothing special). I use v 2.5 of CCE.  wOOkiee your right, when the Force Film was on the .m2v file that CCE had produced, reported a Frame Rate of 19.xx fps, then I switched it to None and it was 23.97fps. Never the original 29.97 fps.

If I do the Pulldown should the .m2v go back to 29.97 fps?

Something I forgot to mention is I use VFAPI on the .d2v file before I encode it. Does that make a difference?

And speaking of Pulldown. I downloaded it and with out a GUI I’m a little lost on how to use it. Does anyone know of a good post or guild on how to install and use it? Thanks.

who says luck has to cost $$

vfapi would not change fps so its fine.  a few people still use it

as for pulldown its simple.. for what you want to do just open up a command window . navigate to the directory where the m2v is and type

pulldown.exe source.m2v destination.m2v

so if you put pulldown.exe in the root dir it would be

c:\pulldown.exe my24fpsvideo.m2v mynew30fpsvideo.m2v

(destination name is optional... without it itll just make a file called pulldown.m2v

everyone is mentioning CCE here in reference to pulldown.

I use tmpgenc with the flags set for 3:2 pulldown and 23.97 fps internally 29.97 fps externally on playback.

does TMPGenc need to use pulldown or are the programs own flags enough?

Why does a non-encoded NTSC movie which is progessive and 29.97 play perfect on a DVD player? It does not have the 3:2 pulldown set, right?

Why does a REMPEG2 encoded NTSC movie which is progessive and 29.97 play perfect on a DVD player? It does not have the 3:2 pulldown set, right?

So why when we in encode with CCE, frame served from a DVD2AVI project we need to encode it at 24FPS then run pulldown on it??????
I know if I run DVD2AVI at 29.97FPS the resulting CCE encode is jerky when played back.