Jerky Motion

JohnAsh wrote on 3/11/2009, 2:13 PM
I have a PAL-DV 16:9 project, around 55 minutes long.

I have used, I think, the correct settings from within Sony Vegas, to make movie to DVD (PAL WS) and the correct settings within DVD Architect too but when I play back on a DVD player the picture quality is not great and horizontal motion (eg pans) leads to jerkiness.

The rendered file, when played in Windows Media Player looks fine.

A different, HDV, project I put to DVD with Architect produced brilliant results.

Any ideas what may be wrong with my DV project, please?

(As a test, I have output the same DV project to an .avi file which I imported into Ulead DVD studio which produced perfect results. I'd prefer to use DVD Architect now I am editing with Vegas, though).

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/11/2009, 2:39 PM
Where is the original source footage from?

What type of camcorder and what program have you output it from?

From your description, it sounds like you have an interlacing issue, something that sometimes happens when you use MPEG video in a regular DV video editor.
JohnAsh wrote on 3/11/2009, 3:31 PM
It´s a long story! It originated as DV video. I edited it in Premiere Pro a while back. I have since got into Vegas as I have now moved up to HDV and could not get PPro1.5 to work properly. (I digress).

I needed a shorter version of my original edit. So exported from PPro as AVI and then inported to Vegas and cut it down there.

Incidentally, I was wrong about the DVD produced by Ulead DVD workshop That's just as jittery.
Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/11/2009, 6:13 PM
So, just to confirm, it came from a miniDV camcorder, was captured over FireWire as a DV-AVI. You exported from Premiere as a DV-AVI and imported into Vegas in a project set up for standard DV footage?

It's important to confirm the workflow here -- because an interlacing issue would creep in if, for instance, your original DV footage was captured over USB as an MPEG instead and thus used a different field order for its interlacing.
JohnAsh wrote on 3/11/2009, 11:40 PM
Steve

That's absolutely right.

Thanks for your help.
John
JohnAsh wrote on 3/12/2009, 3:30 AM
Steve

You gave me much food for thought and I tried rendering with Upper Frame selected rather than Lower and the jerkiness has gone!

I had a zooming title at the beginning of the video which is now jerky and wasn't before (you can't win!). I am changing that to a dissolving title for the moment for my "perfect DVD". I wonder why the title is not smooth now?

Thanks for you help.
Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/12/2009, 7:20 AM
Glad we could find a solution for you, John!
JohnAsh wrote on 3/12/2009, 3:29 PM
Have now watched the DVD more carefully. All the original footage is fine. But where I have added, for example, crawling titles or transitions involving motion, then that motion is very jerky. Am I expecting too much!? I am mystified.....

John
JohnAsh wrote on 3/17/2009, 4:26 AM
In case this helps anyone in the future: I found all the clips I'd imported into Vegas had their field order set as "Upper Field First". I changed this to "Lower Field First" which seems to be the default for DV PAL.

I then exported the project again from Vegas, produced a new DVD in DVD Architect and all was well. Including crawling titles. Hooray!