Jitter is a function of field rate: the few the number of fields per second, the more jitter you will see, especially when the camera pans horizontally.

Notice I said fields, not frames. There is nothing that makes interlaced video less prone to jitter, but since the whole purpose of interlacing is to increase the number of "events" per second, and since most interlaced video is either 50 or 60 fields per second, that is WAY more than the 24 or 30 frames per second that you are contemplating using.

So, if you don't like jitter, shoot PAL or NTSC interlaced ("50i" or "60i"), or shoot 60p.

Hi, I read the note posted by Rich and then tried a simple (equivalent?) reproduction of using track motion to slide a jpeg across a background. I'm using 25P and initially, rednering to a MC mp4 (720p) format, got very similar jittering. Then used exactly the same project, but rendered to AVI (Magic YUV codec) and got a WAY smoother result. How so?

try this: watch your vimeo video but stand progressively farther away from your screen.

Did that fix the problem??

Make the video on vimeo downloadable.
That way we can see if they've done something, or if its a delivery / bandwidth issue.

I haven't looked at your video, but there's an old-school film rule (based on 24fps/180 degree shutter) that a maximum panning rate on a non-moving subject is seven seconds to cover the width of the frame. If you're panning a still, you'd need to add some motion blur to make up for the shutter rate. As with most rules there are exceptional circumstances, but it's a good guide for 24p. You can interpolate for other progressive frame rates.

Also make sure the generated media matches the final render resolution.

Thanks to all that replied. I'm sorry I wasn't clear, the checkerboard pattern was intended to simulate photographs, it is not video. I thought this was the best way to show my problem. The checkerboard pattern is a JPEG image representing photos.

I have made the video downloadable but here are some details. These parameters represent what I uploaded to Vimeo.

Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 9 941 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 20.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive

Check out the examples on my last post in this thread:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=896747

You have to look download and install the player to see the magic. That Sony player does a sort of bob deinterlace that is really wonderful is why.

It's pretty simple, you're not using a high enough frame rate to move the graphics that fast. The integration time of the eye is about 40fps, anything lower than that will produce the judder you're seeing. That's part of why television was interlaced to begin with, to get a temporal resolution of 59.94 individual images per second. I never shoot 24p, ever.

Now that I've looked at the files in the post I must echo what John Cline is saying. You can only move an object in a video so fast as compared to the frame rate. The faster the frame rate, the more motion you can use.

Having said that, in your case you could probably keyframe in some blur on the axis of the motion. I have done that quite successfully on quick pans and tilts where the video was shot with too short a shutter speed.