VMS11 & combining frame rates

LR2003 wrote on 10/11/2011, 6:27 AM

I am trying to combine footage from my digital camera, which is 640x480 @ 30p with footage from my video camera which is AVCHD @ 29.97i. Project properties are set to match the avchd camera. I have successfully created many videos in the past from both cameras. This is my first time trying to combine them.

The problem is that in the rendered video the footage from the still camera has ghosting. Kinda looks like interlaced video when using blend deinterlacing. The AVCHD footage looks fine.

I suspect that this is caused by the resembling and interlacing that is going on. Is there any way around this? Or should I just go back to creating separate movies from each camera?

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 10/11/2011, 7:13 AM

Well, ideally you shouldn't mix formats in a project. (I'm surprised you aren't seeing an even bigger issue when you're using standard def video in a hi-def project!)

One thing that I recommend in my books is that you go to your Project Properties (under the Project menu) and, on the Video tab, set the Deinterlace Method to Blend Fields and check the option to Adjust Source Media to Better Match Project or Render Settings. That should minimize the very minor differences in frame rates.

Chienworks wrote on 10/11/2011, 11:31 AM

Right-mouse-button click on the 30fps clip on the timeline and from the popup menu choose Switches / Disable resample. This will completely eliminate the ghosting, at the expense of dropping one frame out of every 999. Chances are you'll never notice the dropped frame.

Another technique you can use is to slow down the clip just enough to match the frame rate. This is quite tricky, but you can usually come close enough to be workable. It won't drop frames, but the clip will run slower, though probably not enough to be noticeable. It works best of you change the timeline time format to frames. Double-click the 30fps clip to highlight it as a loop region and find out how many frames long it is. Divide this by 29.97002997 and multiply by 30 (or just multiply by 1.001). The difference between this new number and the original number is how many frames it needs to be stretched by. Place the cursor at the end of the clip, then Alt-right-arrow to move it forward that many frames. Hold the Ctrl-key down and drag the end of the clip to the cursor position. Note that due to rounding errors you might not get it exact so disabling resampling is still a good idea.

LR2003 wrote on 10/11/2011, 3:09 PM

Chienworks,

Thank You for replying.

Disabling resampling worked great, that is just what was needed.

-LR2030

rdandrea wrote on 10/12/2011, 10:56 AM

I wish Sony would put that switch in the Preferences so that it stays "sticky."

Chienworks wrote on 10/12/2011, 10:58 AM

I also wish there was a switch somewhere that would say "interpret this file at the project frame rate, ignoring whatever value is stored in the file." It would be nice to be able to drag the 30fps file to the timeline and have Vegas use it as if the frames were actually 29.97002997.