Grainy MPEG Reproduction

[WestbrookNH]

This isn't necessarily a MovieFactory question, but here goes....

I have an MPEG "slide show movie" that I made almost a year ago, comprised of photos of our many children that I share with friends and family alike.

I composed the "slide show movie", integrating sound and photos, using VisualStudio, and I use MovieFactory to burn the disk.

I have burned well over 100 DVDs using this same MPEG source file.

Today I burned a DVD with MovieFactory, as usual, but the playback was hideously grainy. All the fine resolution was GONE!

I can't for the life of me figure what happened.

When I play the raw MPEG file in PowerDVD or Windows Media Player, I get the same lousy resolution!

This same MPEG file used to play sharp and clear.

The only thing that's new in my system is Windows Media Player updated itself from V10 to V11.

Is it possible that the Windows Media Player V11 has screwed up the codecs for my system?

Athlon K8 3200+
nVidia Chipset
1G Memory
Benq 1620 DL DVD burner

Software is OEM VideoStudio 7 and OEM MovieFactory that came with my Benq DVD 1620.

.

[heinz-oz]

How did you burn the last copy? Did it re-render the files? I'm not saying you did not but I would always make an Iso file or create the DVD folders to create more copies. You can burn these files to disk with any burning program.

I don't think MediaPlayer has anything to do with it, even if it did screw up some codec, because, if you do it right, no codec is needed.

[snoops]

This same MPEG file used to play sharp and clear.

I have a funny feeling it is not the same file you used previously.

First check the path and the modification time of that file.

After a year it's also possible you're choosing a file you created for other purposes (CD, Mail, Homepage), and the good one is elsewhere.

Do other files play ok? Load a commercial DVD and play it with PowerDVD and MediaPlayer. If the playback is also poor (I doubt it) then maybe your graphic driver or desktop has some unusually bad settings. Look for things like color depth and video overlay quality settings.

I'm not saying WMP11 is broken, but my advice is to not let anything update itself. It's better to decide yourself when changes will be least disruptive, not to mention security loopholes. You could try a restore point if it really looks like an update broke something.

[htchien]

I would suggest you to update your display card driver and the DirectX component to the latest version.

ATi display card driver (since you are using ATi Radeon 9550 like I do):
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Microsoft DirectX:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx

There are something changed in the DirectShow Video Mixing Renderer engine of Windows Media Player 11 so you might have quality issues if your display card driver does not support some new DirectGraphics features.

If it does not fix the quality issue after you update the display card driver and DirectX, you might need to disable the video acceleration feature of WMP11 as the WMP FAQ described.

Microsoft Windows Media Player FAQ - Playing music and video files:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... files.mspx

About PowerDVD, it also use the same DirectShow Video Mixing Rendering engine of WMP 11 to render your files so the quality issue might also occurs.

Hope this helps.

H.T.

[WestbrookNH]

Thank you, all.

First, I KNOW it's the same file because of the Create and Modified dates.

Second, I am getting lousy resolution from store-bought DVDs that used to look great.

Here are the steps I have taken with NO success.

. Cleaned up all the errors in my event logger so that I do not see errors in my event loger anymore.

. Went to the ATI website and downloaded the latest catalyst suite for my Radeon 9550, 6-12_xp_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_38463.exe

. Un-installed ALL my ATI software, drivers, control panel, everything.

. Installed the catalyst 6-12_xp_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_38463.exe suite, which installed the new ATI Radeon 9550 driver is V 8.321.0.0 dated 11/21/2006

. Downloaded and installed the latest DirectX, 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

All image reproduction has excellent resolution, EXCEPT the video! All video, whether I run it in Windows Media Player or PowerDVD, appears very low resolution, grainy, with aliasing and with lines when objects move. I have tried many interlace settings.

The Catalyst 3d test looks GREAT!

How can this be?

Another very curious thing is that, if I insert a DVD and select Window Media Player as the playback program, I can hear the sound, but the WMP screen is black!!

What is going on?

In any event, MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and ALL!


.

[snoops]

How can this be?

OK, so you updated the ATI drivers and it sounds like you checked its video overlay settings.

But you stated yourself that WMP10 was working, it was updated to 11, and now you have trouble. The tip from H.T. about the WMP11 render engine was very good (I don't know if you bothered changing the mentioned settings).
Anyway, if I had known about a new render engine then I wouldn't have bothered asking about the file modification times of your clips.

So roll back to WMP10 that was working with your hardware.

[WestbrookNH]

Merry Christmas, one and all!!!

H.T.

I just inserted a store-bought DVD movie into the DVD drive, and WMP came up with the black screen, but I could hear the sound.

Here is what the WMP File->Properties says:

• Length: 00.00
  Bit rate: -
  Media type: Audio
  Video size -
  Aspect Ratio: -
  Audio Codec -
  Video Codec -
  Location wmpdvd://D/1?contentdir=d:\video_ts

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

Now, here is what PowerDVD says

• Player Information:
  Player Region Code: 1
  Current Drive: D:
  Title Region Code: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, All
  
  Display Information:
  Video Mode: Interlaced
  Display Mode: DirectDraw
  FourCC Code: YUY2
  Surface Type: Overlay
  
  Video Attributes:
  Video compression mode: MPEG-2
  TV system: 525/60 (NTSC)
  Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  Display Mode: Both Pan&scan and Letterbox
  Source picture resolution: 720x480 (525/60)
  Frame Rate: 30.00
  Source picture letterboxed: Not letterboxed
  Bitrate: 4.40Mbps
  
  Audio Attributes:
  Audio Coding mode: Dolby Digital
  Sampling Rate: 48kHz
  Audio application mode: Not specified
  Number of Audio channels: 2
  Bitrate: 192 Kbps
  Number of Audio streams: 1
  
  Subpicture Attribute:
  Number of Subtitles: 0
  
  Hardware Information:
  Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+ running at 2162 MHz
  3DNow! Technology: In Use
  Enhanced 3DNow! Technology: In Use
  3DNow! Professional Technology: In Use
  IA MMX Technology: In Use
  IA Streaming SIMD Extensions: In Use
  IA SSE 2: Not Detected
  Video Accelerator: Not Detected
  Multispeaker Audio Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio (not in use)
  SPDIF Output Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio (not in use)

Notice that in the Hardware Information, it says that a Video Accelerator is not detected, but my Catalyst Control Center says that Windows Media Acceleration is on. I don't know if those are the same thing ...

In my Add/Delete programs, I see the following WMP entries.

Windows Media Format 11 runtime
Windows Media Player 11

I am going to uninstall both of these and restart. I'll let you know what happens.

.

[WestbrookNH]

I rolled back Windows Media and its rendering engine to version 10.

It made no difference.

However, about a week ago, I installed VNC, which provides a remote network service for me to be able to manage the other computers in the house without having to go from desk to desk.

I un-installed VNC and my video problem went away!!

I will move back up to WMP 11 and see if things remain good.

I suspect that they will.

Now I will go and haunt the VNC support forum to see if they know about this and if there is any cure for it.

But first, I want to watch my 9 children open their Christmas gifts.


Thank you all for your patience, and a very Merry Christmas to you all.

.

[sjj1805]

Please do not double post.
This issue was raised by yourself and is being answered
Here