Thanks maddrummer -- that bit about commercial DVDs not being interlaced was particularly interesting. I had often wondered about that... Yet another major point of difference with our home-made varieties (the other major difference being that they are pressed while ours are burned...)
I know the usual film frame rate is 24 fps and that some DVD manufacturers cheat when they convert films to DVD by simply increasing the speed (in the case of PAL DVDs at least) to the required 25 fps regardless of the slight distortion in audio and video this entails. I confess I can't remember what they do with NTSC DVDs.
But I had thought that those manufacturers who do not use this practice applied other technology to bring the frame rate up to DVD speeds, and which otherwise might also include interlacing to make them suitable for playing on analogue TVs... Otherwise, if they are progressive, would they not play badly on analogue TVs???
Yes, maddrummer3301, of course commercial movies shown in a theatre are frame-based and are projected onto the screen a full frame at a time at 24 fps. If I gave the impression in my post that it was otherwise, my apologies.
Regarding how motion looks in a theartre, I guess it depends on your personal tast as to whether you feel they are smooth. I don't feel they are smooth at all but that's a personal opinion. One standard they seem to stick to is to keep the shutter speed in the neighbourhood of 1/30 sec to help blur the motion which gives it a more fluid, less jerky, feel.
They often talk about the 'film look' in video forums. I believe part of that look is the 24 fps.
As with my previous post, some of the points about the new progressive scan TV's technology has sparked my interest so I need to be careful about stating too much about them until I have had a chance to do some research. For example there are some new TV's out now that can handle 1080p.
What I do know, though, is that all standard TV sets, at least up until very recently accept interlace video only. This has been true up until very recently of HD TV's as well. For example, on one of the HD forums it was stated that it makes no sense to de-interlace your HD video if your ultimate use is to show it on your TV because it can only show interlaced video. (Of course, de-interlacing does make sense if your intention is to watch the video on your computer.)
Regarding commercially distributed movies on DVD's. Aren't they the same mpeg2 interlaced format that VS produces when you chose to produce a standard DVD? Correct me if I'm wrong. (I believe I have heard somewhere that they now shoot movies at a much higher frame rate than 24 fps and then generate a 24p version for theatre distribution and an interlaced version specifically for DVD distribution.)
I absolutely agree with you, maddrummer, about how confusing all these video formats are. I just got into video a couple of months ago and am still trying to sort this all out.
Regarding what format commercial DVD movies are in, I had a look at a recent movie using VLC player. I chose VLC player because in it's default mode it shows the video just how it comes off the DVD. You can turn de-interlacing on if you like but in it's default mode, it shows the video 'as-is' (it appears that some DVD players de-interlace by default).
There can be no doubt that the movies I looked at were interlaced right on the DVD. All you have to do is look for a scene with a fair amount of horizontal motion, press pause, and there it is.
I'll see if I can send you an example of a screen shot via email.
I have been reading this posting, and wondered how a simple program like Video Studio 10 for making videos and films is this hard to fathom out. Surely the makers of the program should have put something in it to make it automatically choose the right format. I have bought this program and so far have not made one single film without a lot of jerkiness, enough to make you feel sick watching it. Same can't be said for my other program that makes the same identical film without all this LFF stuff and frame base perfectly smooth and watchable on my 42" plasma screen.
Hello, Im using VS 7 still and I have noticed if I capture video in DV format from a Sony Digital 8 camcorder using firewire, the video skips or hesitates (dropped frames?). But when I capture using the DVD format, I do not have that problem when the video is burned to a DVD. I have selected DMA if available on my transfer mode for both primary and secondary IDE channels but I still get the hesitation. AFter capture I have the VS match project settings to video property settings for smart render. I then check the project properties and for DV it has Field order A. My Ram memory is only 256. I am running Norton Internet security. If I capture in DVD format is this better video quality than DV format? THe final video I always burn to DVD disk. DOnt know what else to tell you. LEt me know if you need any other info. Thanks for the time.
No -- DV format is better than mpeg-2 format (which is what you are capturing). Mpeg-2, though, is the the format used by video DVDs.
As for your problem with capturing DV, I suspect you are trying to capture Type 2 DV and your computer does not appear to be up to the job. In the Capture page of VS7, click on the Options tab about a third the way down the left side of screen. That will tell you if it is set to Type 1 or 2. If it is set to Type 2, then change it to type 1. Symptoms of a computer's inability to capture type 2 include jerky video (with dropped frames) and/or jerky or broken audio. Believe me, unless you are using some professional programs, you don't need to capture Type 2 anyway.
Ken thank you for the reply. I suspected that my computer speed was the problem. I verified that the capture settings were set to Type 1 but I will double check. That leads me to my next question. If my final project will be burned to a DVD, and I capture in DV format, when I render it into an mpeg file, will I lose any video quality due to converting to MPEG-2? Thanks for your time.
