Choppy Video

ragman wrote on 9/5/2001, 8:11 AM

Any video that I render MPEG format using Video Factory comes out "Choppy." For a few seconds, the video appears perfect. Suddenly the video will become blury or somewhat distorted. The video that I capture from my Sony DCR-PC5 through the Firewire port looks great in AVI format. I have tried rendering small video files with no additional effects (voice, music, transitions etc) and have had no luck. Video Factory is running on a brand-new Dell Desktop with 128MB RAM and a Pentium 933MHZ. Any ideas?

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 9/5/2001, 8:58 AM

Some questions so we can help you out:

Are you rendering to MPEG and then putting it back on the timeline?

Is the choppy playback in Media Player?

What MPEG render settings were used?

What is your eventual target playback device for this file?

seanybear wrote on 9/6/2001, 2:01 PM

I am very interested in this answer as I have been recently getting "choppy" output, especially on panned video shots. My input is from a Sony DCR-PC9. I have tried almost every variation of both MPEG-1/MPEG-2 rendering options -- videoCD, DVD NTSC - Better, resampling, etc. with bitrates up to 15K. Playback is in either Windows Media (version 7.1), Quicktime or Real Player. Final destination is for "TV" like viewing or a by using a 2200 lumen projector for a large audience. Help!

ragman wrote on 9/6/2001, 8:29 PM

Some answers to Sonic Foundry Tech Support's questions so that they can help us out:

Are you rendering to MPEG and then putting it back on the timeline?
No. I do all of my editing inside Video Factory by "dragging 'n dropping" AVI files and WAV files onto the timeline. Recently I tried simply "dragging 'n dropping" a 10 second AVI file and attempting to render it alone to MPEG.

Is the choppy playback in Media Player?
Yes, and any other MPEG Video Player that I have tried it with. The AVI captured from the camera's firewire port is flawless.

What MPEG render settings were used?
I used the Default Template with "best rendering" selected and motion blur type set to "none." The Default Template Comments tell me that I am recording - Audio: 64 Kbps, 44,100 Hz, Stereo, Video: 1856 Kbps, MPEG-2. I have also tried VideoCD NTSC and had the same results.

What is your eventual target playback device for this file?
I wanted to record the "end-product" to VHS video tape. I want to use the Sonic Foundry Video Capture application's print-to-tape capabilities; however, the Sonic Foundry Video Capture application will not record-to or capture-from my Dazzle Video Creator II (the card is listed under the Video menu, but selecting it does nothing). So, I decided to use the MovieStar software that shipped with the Dazzle Video Card to import the MPEG file rendered and mixed using Video Factory and use Dazzle's MovieStar software to simply record the finished product to VHS tape.

I hope that help is on the way. I am a long-time user of Acid Pro and I really want to stick with your products for video editing as well.

SonyEPM wrote on 9/7/2001, 8:35 AM

Have you rendered the MPEG file using the exact settings the Dazzle print to tape utility requires?

ragman wrote on 9/14/2001, 5:45 AM

I am willing to spend more money to fix this problem. Is their an analogue video card (one that will record to VHS) that works flawlessly with your product? If I spend $150 logging a technical support call, do you think I'll get resolution on the rendering problem? Or, is this technology still a "work in progress." All are acceptable answers to my problem. See my response to your previous question below.

Sonic Foundry Tech Support Asked "Have you rendered the MPEG file using the exact settings the Dazzle print to tape utility requires?"

Yes, I spent a lot of time matching the settings between applications and trying different settings. I came to the conclusion that if I cannot render it to MPG and have it look good in Windows Media Player, it isn't going to ever look good recording it to tape from Dazzle (garbage in = garbage out).

SonyEPM wrote on 9/14/2001, 9:03 AM

I believe you already have a setup that should work flawlessly(Sony DCR-PC5, 1394 card, vhs deck).

Render your project as NTSC DV and print it back to the DV camera, then make VHS dubs from the DV camera. If the camera supports it you might be able to loop right through the camera to VHS without recording to tape. Personally, I'd get a clean copy onto DV tape and dub from that.

Forget using MPEG anywhere in the process- you have DV source, so you might as well keep it DV all the way through and not introduce the transcoding artifacts inherent with MPEG compression.