DVDSP4 corrupting Inverse Telecine .m2v's on import? Rant: long post

Question

hello everyone
my computer set up:
i am on DVDSP 4.03 (latest update) with all pro updates, have not upgraded to QT 7.1.1 and OS X (10.4.6).
my workflow:
most of the tape material i encode from comes from my MPX3000 hardware encoder and is then transfered via network to my mac for authoring.
my problem:
i transfer the compressed files over the network no problem, import them into DVDSP, no problem, i place them into the stream, and the file is corrupt. now, i use that term because the header information of the .m2v is all corrupt, as in the bit-rate is not what it's supposed to be, running time is off and believe it or not the first 20 or so minutes (as example, this varies from project) is in the middle of the stream, the end credits are in the beginning of the stream and so forth. amazingly, the audio is perfect.
at first i did the standard erase prefs, .PAR folders and even optimized my drives (since i have been a bit negligent to run techtool or disk warrior). still continued to have problems.
then i suspected the network, even though we have a gigabit network, i am in a fairly large facility and we are always transferring large files. so i directly connected to the mac from Spruce and made sure no other ethernet was connected, transeferred the .m2v's and same problem.
ok, i thought, maybe DVDSP became corrupt? i removed FCS from my mac, made sure ALL files related to it were also trashed and re-installed. imported the the .m2v, same problem.
ok, ok, i am going crazy, the ENCODED file is corrupt, so opened it up in spruce, file was exactly as it should be!!
then i thought, let me see in QT, VLC and MpegstreamClip...
QT = file had incorrect: bit-rate, duration and frame rate.
VLC = file had correct header info, but playback was half frame rate.
MpegSTreamClip = file had correct header infor, but once again, played and half frame rate.
then i thought: "what if i compile my project and then demux in Mpegstreamclip". compiled in Spruce, demuxed and imported into DVDSP, wayyyyy better, but still had problems! the running time was of, it added about 20 minutes of video (it duplicated some scenes).
i was starting to go crazy, then it hit me!
whenever i flagged for inverse telecine in CBR mode (i do not trust MPX3000 IT flag detection in VBR) the files were corrupt. so i did a test:
CBR with IT on
CBR with IT off
VBR with IT on
VBR with IT off
to my surprise, all files with IT off worked perfectly in DVDSP, QT, VLC and Mpegstreamclip!
my stomached dropped to the floor! i had 2 huge projects due with the features being a 24 fps D5 master, so IT had to be, that meant they had to be completely re-authored in Spruce!
unfortunately, a lot of shortcuts and files that have no problems in DVDSP had a hard time is Spruce.
once again, i LOVE DVDSP, but AGAIN, i lost some respect for her
by the way, i tried importing some menu files (audio and video) that were encoded in Compressor and some had trouble importing in Spruce while others no problems (even though the EXACT same settings were used).
in addition, so dummy 5.1 streams i created were not compatible with the 5.1 streams created from the acx5100 card. of course i checked my sample rate, bit-rate and channels, no good!
i just dont understand all of a sudden how this could happen, oh well, it gives me an excuse to ask for a 10k drive that i have been wanting for some time to be used as my root drive!
let's brainstorm guys, see whats going on?
anyway, thanks for any input
by the way, i will have updates as i upgrade, test and trash prefs and such. i am sure this works! (i still have faith in you DVDSP!)
Mikey M.

Answer 1

Hey Max
yeah that method does sound tedious!
as far as the encode, when i use the hardware encoder, if i am coming from an SD source, then i try to get the HIGHEST quality master/transfer i can get.
if i am capturing from a HD master, then there is not much i can do (since i dont have a pre-processor) except make sure the in-box conversion is set correctly.
if i am capturing SD material for various non DVD encodes, 8-bit is the way i go.
for HD, it depends how they color corrected it. but i generally like to go 8-bit as well.
i have yet to create 24p files using compressor for DVD.
**UPDATE**
so talking to my IT guy at work, come to find out that the NT operating (my Spruce) has a 4 GB file limit. i told him that was hard to believe, since if tha twas the case, i would have trouble with DVD-9's.
anyway, he did say something that made some sense: that since the header information was being corrupted, that no matter what program in OSX was used for playback, it would have problems. so i moved teh said file back to spruce and sure enough, it was corrupted!
he suggested that i .zip the file (since this would act like a shell) and do 2 things: FTP it via our spruce and move the file over again in the .zip.
just to appease him as well, i encoded the said file to be under 3 GB's (i am totally skeptical of this method).
will keep you guys posted
Mike M