Camera shake and h264

Chris Burian wrote on 5/26/2013, 1:32 PM
When I rip DV AVIs from my camcorder and then process with AVC encoder to make MP4s, I get really bad camera shake jitter, far more visible than in the original AVI. This happens whether I deinterlace or I process interlaced.

I think it might be a motion estimation and compression problem. Are there h264 settings?

I've seen in my MP4s that it does a good job (too good a job) of freezing the background frame and only encoding things that are strongly moving. For instance stepping forward or backward frame by frame, a kid's arm will move, but the scene doesn't shift a single pixel even though it's a handheld. Even a balloon which has been batted might be frozen for two fields in a row if it's moving slow enough, even though it's clearly moving 'in real life'.

I think this is what is causing the exaggerated jitter due to camera shake. The frame will be frozen for multiple fields and then jump.

Is this fixed by dialing a number in motion estimation, or by lowering max GOP?

Thanks for any insight!

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 5/26/2013, 4:40 PM
You need to start with the basics. AVC does not "exaggerate" camera shake; incorrect project / render settings can, quite definitely.

You are starting with DV-AVI. Is it PAL or NTSC?
Post your complete project settings. Did you Match Media Settings? This is a specific procedure. Don't guess at it.

You are producing AVC / MP4. What are the exact render settings?
Differences in frame rate, deinterlace settings, and a few other things will wreck your continuity.

Also, upload a rendered clip to a file sharing sites (not Youtube!!).
That, along with your DV-AVI properties, should make it easy to see where you've missed something along the way.