Flicker Problem driving me nuts!

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:25 am

Hi all

I have a tricky problem..hope someone can help.

I have produced a DVD using DVD Movie Factory 4. On two DVD players I have tested it on it looks fine, but on my new DVD recorder (Panasonic DMREH50) it flickers badly. Previous DVDs I have produced play fine on the new machine.

It looks like some kind of field order problem so I did a few tests:

- exported the AVIs from Premiere Pro 1.5 again as small test files - using different field setting options (Lower, Upper, None and De-interlace).
Imported into DMF4 and burned another DVD. They ALL played OK on the new machine!

- Tried exporting the full AVI files again and burning again, incase the orignal AVIs were at fault - still flickery.

Could it be because they are large files - the main AVI is 18gigs.

Thanks in advance

Paul

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:14 am

Sorry but you are going to have to give us more information with respect to the files and the settings you have adopted.

How big are the files, What bitrates and compression have you employed.
What was the original source of the files eg TV card, Camcorder, Internet Download etc. In the case of a camcorder How did you get the files into the computer, USB lead, IEEE1394 (Firewire/i-Link) lead etc.

What field order have you set. Frame rate, Frame size, format (NTSC/PAL)
What sound settings have you used MPEG, Dolby, LCPM. Plus bit rate.

You need to tell us as much as you can.
Regards
Steve J

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:02 am

Thanks Steve

Here goes:

How big are the files:
intro is 51 megs, then main file is 18.5 gigs

What bitrates and compression have you employed:

DMF4 settinga are...
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 4000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

What was the original source of the files eg TV card, Camcorder, Internet Download etc. In the case of a camcorder How did you get the files into the computer, USB lead, IEEE1394 (Firewire/i-Link) lead etc:

Origianl is camcorder - from camera DV tape to PC via firewire. Then imported as AVI into Adobe Preminere Pro 1.5. The two files exported from there as AVIs.

What field order have you set:

In Premiere - LOWER FIELD FIRST is the default - so left it at that. Can't see any Field settings in DMF4??

Frame rate, Frame size, format (NTSC/PAL):
Premiere setings are DV PAL, 25 FPS, 720 x 576

What sound settings have you used MPEG, Dolby, LCPM. Plus bit rate:
as above

That it?

Paul

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:13 am

Let me get this straight:
1. you captured from the camcorder via firewire to DV AVI
2. edited AVI's in Premiere
3. produced DVD's in MF 4 which play on some machines but not on your new one.

What was the problem again with MF 4? Don't get it, sorry.

I'd rather think your new player has an issue with this particular media. Especially since some other disks produced the same way seem to play on it ok

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:29 am

Thanks Heinz

Your 1.2. and 3. are correct.

I too thought it must be the new DVD recorder - until I played an old DVD I produced and that was fine. Then I did the test files (smaller files - but from the same source files and then burned with MF4) and they played okay.

So - my main project flickers badly, but some smaller test files play fine.

P

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:42 am

Which media did you use for the tests? Same batch as the one behaving badly? Could also just be a very bad disk with a lot more manufacturing faults than usual. BTW, all recordable disk media has faults. Mostly they are insignificant enough not to influence the reproduction of content. I have music CD'd that play in one player but not the other. All my home movies on DVD I can play, but not all on each of the 3 players I have.

It's just the nature of the beast. If you still have the source files for this DVD, try to burn to a different batch of disks or, if that is not possible, copy the disk to another blank and see what happens.

In all honesty, I do not think that this is a problem of MF 4 though.

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:09 am

I have been using DVD+R media - two brands - and all the DVDs have the flicker on my new Machine. I will try again though just to make sure - thanks.

I would have just given up and assumed it was a problem with the new DVD Recorder machine if I had not produced the test DVD that worked perfectly well on it.

I will try a few more tests - like exporting the main AVI from Premiere direct to a DVD and see how that plays.

BTW, the old DVD I had produced was done with Premiere 6 and MF 3. This problem seems to have started with the new software.

Paul

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:18 am

I think that may be just a coincidence. Have you tried DVD-R? The -R disks seem to be lees prone to this kind of problem.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:33 am

Heinz has beaten me to it again!
All of your settings appear correct and Heinz appears to have covered everything but there is one last thing you can try.

What burning speed are you using?

I found that when I upgraded my DVD writer to one of these 16x high speed one's that many of my DVD's would play OK in some standalone DVD players yet refuse to play altogether in others. When I changed to a lower speed 4X I found that the DVD's would now play in all of the standalone players I have at my disposal.

Steve J

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:46 am

hmmm, I would expect a DVD Recorder to be more tolerant/forgiving than regular DVD Players -- but media could be a problem (as suggested)...

Is the player set in Progressive Playback mode, or something like that

When you use the new Player/Recorder to record, does it playback its own recordings fine

Regards,
George

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:53 am

GeorgeW
Interestingly, I bought a Standalone DVD Recorder for one of my sons for Christmas. He has told me that it has minor problems with some of the DVD's I've made but there has never been a problem with a standalone DVD player.

It is possible the reverse may be true, or it may be a peculiarity with defferent makes and models of DVD recorder.

Steve J

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:10 pm

sjj1805 wrote:GeorgeW
Interestingly, I bought a Standalone DVD Recorder for one of my sons for Christmas. He has told me that it has minor problems with some of the DVD's I've made but there has never been a problem with a standalone DVD player.

It is possible the reverse may be true, or it may be a peculiarity with defferent makes and models of DVD recorder.

Steve J

Absolutely

There are so many different combinations of hardware/software/media/burners/burn speeds/etc...

Regards,
George

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:36 pm

I have been writing the DVDs on the PC at 4 speed - using 8 speed disks...just to be sure.

The new DVD recorder has all sorts of options/ setting for progressive playback etc and I have tried changing all of those one by one - still the flicker is the same. It records and plays all other DVDs just fine. I have been digitizing a lot of old VHS tapes.

I will buy some DVD-R disks today and run try that. Not sure if I can just use the same DM4 project and burn to the -R disk?

Appreciate you guy's help!

Paul

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:54 am

I just did a new test..exported the main 18 gig AVI direct from Premiere to a DVD. Plays fine on the new machine.

Paulm · Post by **Paulm** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:14 am

Just did a test on DVD-R media - same result - still flickers.

In summary, only twice I manged to get non-flickery results:

1. Direct export to DVD from Premiere
2. 4 small test AVIs exported from Premiere then imported to MF4 and burned to DVD

Also just discoverd it also flickers on another DVD player - a JVC.

Don't know what is going on??

Maybe I should try creating the MF4 project from scratch?