Interlaced & progressive

doboyd wrote on 3/18/2002, 5:42 AM
I have searched the forum but have not found anything to help me. I have a JVC DV camera (PAL)GR-DVL9600 that records in normal (interlaced) or progressive mode, at full frame rates (25 & 25 for interlaced, 50 for progressive). I have several clips that are a mixture of interlaced and progressive. My problem is in rendering to MPEG 2 for SVCD. Progressive events are fine, but interlaced ones show horizontal banding/lagging in motion scenes. The template is the SVCD PAL default, interlaced, lower field 1st. No matter what I do I cannot get smooth play back thru my DVD player on the interlaced parts. I have tried changing the project settings, using match media and selecting the DV clip as its source, changing field order. It would seem that its ignoring the interlaced clip and seeing only the progressive.

Using TMPGEnc I do not have any problems, the setting is left at interlaced (lower 1st) and the progressive parts are unaffected (as I would have thought) and the interlaced parts are normal when played thru the DVD player to my 16"TV. Using BitRate Viewer, the MPEG clip shows as interlaced, lower field 1st, so I don't know what is going on.

Any help is appreciated, what effect does the project settings have on rendering to MPEG?? or is it only the MPEG sewttings that have an effect on the MPEG output?

Also, it would appear that the templates cannot be customised, i.e. if I want an XSVCD template, 720x576, 4MBs, it shuts down after about 20 seconds with " an error occurred...."

Sorry for the ramblings....

Thanks

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 3/18/2002, 9:11 AM
Have you tried rendering the file as progressive?

If you are hanging on render, try this:


Go to:

ftp://porker.sonicfoundry.com/

username: dude
password: sweet


-----------------------


copy the file

"mpgmux.dll"

and paste it into C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Shared Plug-Ins\File Formats\MCMPEG, overwriting the existing version.

Close and restart Vegas, and re-render.
doboyd wrote on 3/18/2002, 11:48 PM
I tried encoding as progressive, still the same. The file is definetly interlaced, properties say so and it encodes in TMPGEnc, using interlaced input & output. Do the project properties affect the rendering setup? but I have tried setting project properties to PAL DV, interlaced, lower field 1st. I have never had any trouble encoding with my files in TMPGEnc, either progressive or interlaced. Am I missing something obvious?? it would seem that I cannot encode interlaced files. The file is unformatted(straight DV, interlaced) from the camera, no transitions or anything else.

I copied the dll file, but its the same, I eventually encoded a non-standard template of sorts, otherwise the same error message. Are the templates lock in some way, so that I can't modify them past their standards? If I select MPEG2, can I set whatever bitrate,CBR/VBR,resolution etc??

Thanks
doboyd wrote on 3/28/2002, 7:43 AM
I'm still having the same problem as per my previous post. I just would like to know a couple of things:

1. Can the MPEG templates be modified from standard (e.g. XSVCD , different resolutions and bit rate), as it would appear not, the render erroring out after about 15-20 seconds, even after using the patch. I cannot play miniDVD's in my DVD player, but can play SVCD at DVD resolution and bitrates up to 4500Kbps. Until DVD recorders get cheaper this is all I can do.

2. I cannot encode (to MPEG) interlaced (normal) DV camera footage. It plays back with horizontal lagging etc on motion scenes. I have to use the reduce interlace flickering setting, which removes the banding, but makes the footage look like its been encoded progressively, so backgrounds are very blurry in motions scenes. This is not what I would expect after using TMPGEnc, as stated before.

So... can VV3 encode normal interlaced material into MPEG??? I would assume it would as a lot of people use it and not too many would have progressive DV/analogue cameras. If I am missing something obvious then please tell me.

Thanks
SonyEPM wrote on 3/28/2002, 10:40 AM
SonyEPM wrote on 3/28/2002, 10:50 AM
Using interlaced footage for DVD and SVCD MPEG renders is possible- many people do this every day with execellent results.

Before the hoard goes wild over the above statement: We are aware that some of you are not happy with the quality of your SVCD encodes and we are looking into improving renders to that format.

The PAL widescreen issue referred to in an earlier post has been fixed, with help from several members of this forum including elysium. This fix will go out with the next update, but if you need a fix instantly, please contact Drdropout@sonicfoundry.com. PAL DV producers with 16:9 Phillips and Wega TVs might see this bug, but most of you won't need the patch.
doboyd wrote on 3/28/2002, 6:50 PM
SonicEPM, thanks for your reply, I appreciate that you are working on it, but I still have no idea why I can't encode interlaced footage, you have not said anything about my questions on this or the template modifications. I can't tell if the SVCD encode is any good because of the problem with my encoding.

All I would like is some simple things clarified.

If my DV footage is interlaced, I would render to SVCD PAL template, leaving all settings at default (field order, bitrate etc). I should not have to use the deinterlace option when right clicking on the clip in properties??? If I am doing something wrong, then please tell me. Any other PAL users have any ideas?? is what I'm seeing normal? I have tried clips straight from tape, no transistions, tried different field order, all to no avail.

Can I create templates that exceed the defaults (e.g. XSVCD)?

Thanks again