Re-encoding with TMPG amp; authoring with IfoEdit following, indicate, question, settings, display

andy

Not sure if this is a TMPG question or more an IfoEdit question...

I have read a number of posts on this, most indicate that this generally does not work with NTSC Film DVDs.  However, I have been able to do this so long as I use the following settings:

DVD2AVI - force film

TMPG -
Video: 29.97 fps, NTSC, interlace.
Advanced: non-interlace, bottom field first, 16:9 display and the 3:2 pulldown box ticked.
GOP: 1, 5, 2, 1, 18 and detect scene change box ticked.

I have read a few posts about IfoEdit doing something wrong with pulldown, which results in incorrect movie duration.  I ran across that problem if I used TMPG settings of 23.976 fps (29.97 internally) amp; 3:2 pulldown on playback instead of 29.97 and interlace.

For a 120 minute movie, the first settings would result in TMPG outputting about 172,627 frames (for playback at 23.976 fps), while the second setting results in 215,784 frames (for playback at 29.97 fps).  Authoring the first .m2v with IfoEdit 0.95 results in a movie that plays fine (it is not too fast), but the duration is wrong and rewinding is not possible.  Using the second set of parameters results in what appears to be a perfectly operating DVD.

My question is this:  Given the fact that TMPG is putting out more frames for the same duration, am I losing quality because there are more frames being put on the DVD that are really necessary (more frames in a fixed amount of DVD space)?  Or does IfoEdit know to drop the 3rd frame to get back to 172,627 frames?

Thanks,
Kevin