[HELP] Old AVI seems to have an unworkable frame rate, don't know what to do

[Selur]

Looking at that file wit MediaInfo, it shows:

Video
Count                                    : 390
Count of stream of this kind             : 1
Kind of stream                           : Video
Kind of stream                           : Video
Stream identifier                        : 0
StreamOrder                              : 0
ID                                       : 0
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Commercial name                          : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP                    : No
Format settings, BVOP                    : No
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : 0
Format settings, GMC                     : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default (H.263)
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default (H.263)
Internet media type                      : video/MP4V-ES
Codec ID                                 : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                            : XviD
Codec ID/Url                             : http://mediaarea.net/XVID
Duration                                 : 1356820
Duration                                 : 22 min 36 s
Duration                                 : 22 min 36 s 820 ms
Duration                                 : 22 min 36 s
Duration                                 : 00:22:36.820
Duration                                 : 00:22:31:10
Duration                                 : 00:22:36.820 (00:22:31:10)
Bit rate                                 : 1829096
Bit rate                                 : 1 829 kb/s
Width                                    : 604
Width                                    : 604 pixels
Height                                   : 478
Height                                   : 478 pixels
Sampled_Width                            : 604
Sampled_Height                           : 478
Pixel aspect ratio                       : 1.000
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.264
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate                               : 59.750
Frame rate                               : 59.750 FPS
Frame count                              : 81070
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.106
Delay                                    : 0
Delay                                    : 00:00:00.000
Delay                                    : 00:00:00:00
Delay                                    : 00:00:00.000 (00:00:00:00)
Stream size                              : 310219316
Stream size                              : 296 MiB (90%)
Stream size                              : 296 MiB
Stream size                              : 296 MiB
Stream size                              : 296 MiB
Stream size                              : 295.8 MiB
Stream size                              : 296 MiB (90%)
Proportion of this stream                : 0.89641
Writing library                          : Lavc52.66.0
Writing library                          : Lavc52.66.0

ffmpeg reports:

Input #0, avi, from 'c:\Users\Selur\Desktop\strangeparadise.avi':
  Metadata:
    software        : Lavf52.61.0
  Duration: 00:22:37.35, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2039 kb/s
  Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 604x478 [SAR 1:1 DAR 302:239], 1829 kb/s, 59.75 fps, 29.88 tbr, 59.75 tbn
  Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s

Looking at the video shows that someone encoded and interlaced input as progressive without deinterlacing.
XviD does not support interlaced content and is highly compressed, so whoever created this messed up. (at least the source seemingly wasn't cropped or resized during the progressive re-encoding step.)

Since the file itself has no frame count info, most tools fill calculate the frame rate through the playtime and the frame rate. So depending on the assumed frame rate and play time, the reported frame count will differ.

If I don't select any of these options and just have Hybrid encode it to x264 or something, the file "says" it has a run time of 22:37, but plays as double speed and cuts out halfway through.

Naturally, since the source isn't properly flagged and should have a frame rate that is near 29.97 fps.

With the "Scale Speed" and "Scale Output to Duration" options on Hybrid, it outputs as a proper 29.97 FPS file with a constant frame rate and good audio and video sync. Except Hybrid and ffmpeg reports it as having 40561 frames, while my media player and Topaz Video AI report 40660.

Since remuxing the .avi to .mkv using mkvmerge returns a file reporting 40561 frames, this seems correct to me. If audio and video is sync, I see no issue with using this way.

Cu Selur

Ps.: additionally, the source is vfr not cfr.