Video captured from mini DV camera is pixellated

[davestephen]

I have been using VS8, 9 and 10+ successfully for 3 years on a Compaq machine with AMD processor. Things are not going so well on my new HP Pavilion Intel Core 2 Duo machine (2x2.13GHz processors) - I would be grateful for some help.
When I capture video from a Sony mini-DV camcorder in DVD or Mpeg mode, the preview is choppy and the resulting clip is pixellated. This happens with both VS9 and 10+ although Windows Moviemaker works OK. The only post I can find suggests that my processor is not powerful enough but I had no problems on my previous machine which had only a 2GHz processor. Capturing in DV mode seems to work but the file sizes are huge.
I have checked that all Preferences and Settings are the same as my old machine. What am I doing wrong?

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums Dave,

This is indicative of Reversed Field Order. Most all Digital Video, is Lower Field First, and Analog video sources are Upper Filed First. I say most because there are exceptions.

Could you post your Project Properties (File>Project Properties, or Alt+Enter), and your Video Properties (Right-click on one of your video clips, and select Properties).

Your machine is more then capable of handling SD video. However have you applied the patch for Dual core processors? VS10 Updates

[davestephen]

Hi, thanks for the fast response!

I have resorted to capturing the tape on my old machine so can't try anything new right now. Project properties are:
PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3

Video Properties are :
File format: PL DVD
Video type: MPEG-2 Video Lower field first
Attributes: 24 bits, 720 x 576, 4:3
Frame rate: 25.000 frames/sec
Data rate: Variable bit rate (max 8000)

Btw I am using Firewire connection (tried both front and rear inputs) and I had closed my internet connection, firewall and virus checker. If i don't VS10 crashes after a few seconds but that's another story!

Thanks
Dave

[davestephen]

Sorry, forgot to say yes, I have applied VS10 SP1 which is supposed to optimise for Dual Core Intel processors.

[Ron P.]

Well ok, throw that one out the window.., not a field order issue..

Is the jerky or choppiness just happening while previewing in VS? If so that is pretty common. It is throwing everything together "on the fly". To get a better, or smoother playback in Preferences, change the playback from Instant to High Quality[/green]. However if your project properties are set to PAL DVD then VS disables High-quality playback. I use this quite a bit, I'll just select a preview range so I don't have to wait long for it render before previewing.

Please complete your System Information in your profile. Clicking on this button --> will take you to a short tutorial, explaining how to find and complete that information. This way it will always be available, and will save you from retyping it in the future.

The reason for the above request, is your statement about capturing DV. DV (13 gig per hour) does have a larger file size, however small compared to uncompressed AVI (65 gig per hour). So far I have managed to do all my editing in DV. I use my Sony Digital 8 camcorder as pass-through to convert analog VCR tapes. I feel it is a much easier, and less troublesome format to work with. If you only have 1 HDD, I would recommend investing in a second (or third, fourth, fifth.... ). I have also fouind that once I started using a 2nd HDD, it seemed to add just a little to speed. Nothing like what your Duo core will show..

EDITED Forget the system info stuff, I pressed your system info button after posting , Thanks for filling that in..

Ok is your 400 gig HDD partitioned? Have you done any maintenance on it, such as defrag, cleaning up Temp Folders, recently?

[davestephen]

Hi Ron

I had already completed my profile and it seems to be there - let me know if I have missed something.

In Capture, I can PLAY the DV tape OK, but when I click Capture Video, the preview window shows a jerky picture. When I play the captured clip, it is not jerky but is 10% pixellated and unusable. I know what you mean about Instant Playback in Edit as my preview was always jerky on my old box, but it is fine on this one. The only reason I bought a new m/c was for video editing and I was really looking forward my next project!

This time I have to merge footage taken at a concert on 4 different camcorders. Each tape is at least 50 minutes long. I do have a second HDD with 250GB but that would soon get eaten up with DV files. I have always used DVD mode before to avoid conversion when making the final DVD.

Is there any point in trying a fixed, lower capture bit rate or am I on the wrong track? I noticed Moviemaker used a rate of 1920 bits.

Thanks,
Dave

[davestephen]

Sorry, I missed the last part of your reply.

Primary HDD is partitioned, there is an 8Gb partition for system recovery factory installed by HP. Second HDD is not partitioned. I am capturing to the second drive as I did on my old m/c. I agree with you, second drive does improve performance slightly.
Haven't done any maintenance or created temp files that I know of as I've only had the box a week.

I'm wondering if SP1 really does optimise for dual core. Have you heard from anyone who has found it to work?

[Ron P.]

There has been some posts concerning the duo or dual core processors and if Ulead actually takes advantage of it. I don't have one so know nothing about them.

Are you getting any dropped frames? In your capture settngs they are 720 x 576? I just went through having to reinstall several of my programs, and noticed that for some reason VS had the frame size set to 320 x 240 or something like that.

The only other thing that comes to mind, is try checking to see if your video card, Direct-X drivers are all up to date. Generally when a machine is purchased it may not have the most current drivers.

[davestephen]

I've checked Direct X and graphics card drivers, all OK.
If you use a resolution less than 720 x 576, you get a picture that doesn't fill the TV screen don't you? And once you capture at that, you can't make it bigger without loss of detail. At least that's how it would work with jpeg files of photos.

I've checked again that my Preferences, project settings and clip settings are the same as my old machine. I've tried capturing at a fixed rate of 1900 bits instead of variable, and tried a few other things but problem persists. In the meantime, I have captured the tape on my old system and am now ready to edit (which seems to work OK so far).

I want to keep using VS10 to edit because I like it. I hate workarounds but it seems my main choices are - 1) capture in DV where files sizes are about 3.5 times the size of mpeg (about 6 GB for 1 hour video), or 2) capture in Win Moviemaker which can only produce wmv files (wmv files are about one third the size of mpeg but don't seem to lose any quality). In either case, I can use VS10 to convert to mpeg and I'm back where I want to be. Or I could buy something else if only I had any money left after buying this HP box!

If there are no other suggestions, I'll keep checking the forum and Ulead updates. I might even try reporting it to them...

I am very grateful for your help Ron. The forum has been invaluable to me over the last 3 years, especially the workflow whch should be included with the product and new users forced to read it! Thanks for your time.

Dave

[Ken Berry]

All very puzzling.

As you know, a lot of us on this Forum suggest that it is better to capture in DV when you can -- and in this, I wholeheartedly endorse Ron's comments. This is not only because of quality considerations, but also because a lot of people have trouble capturing direct to mpeg-2 from a DV camera.

Your computer, though, should be more than well up to the job of capturing the mpeg-2.

I am assuming that when you select mpeg-2 as the capture format, you check to see that VS has automatically changed the capture plug-in to the mpeg one? As I say, normally this changes automatically, but some people have reported this does not necessarily always work.

You also report problems with your captured DV when you have tried that. That is even stranger because in effect it is merely transferring the contents of a DV tape to the computer in exactly the same format, so no stress on computer resources at all.

It is worth checking to see, though, when you do capture to DV format, what Encoder is being used -- Type 1 or 2. VS seems to install Type 2 as the default, yet a lot of people get jerky video and/or audio and terrible quality with Type 2. Changing to Type 1 usually solves the problem for these people.

Your computer again, though, should be more than up to the job of capturing with Type 2. But it could be worth checking capture with Type 1. (In the Capture page and with DV selected, click on the Options cogwheel icon, and it will allow you to toggle between the two Types.)

[Ken Berry]

Dave -- I posted my last msg while you were posting your last one. Just be aware that if you resort to Move Maker and its WMV format, just about everyone who comes on this board using WMV reports either problems and/or extremely long rendering times when trying to convert it to mpeg-2 format.

And of course, WMV is a much more compressed format than mpeg-2, and you won't gain any quality by up-converting it. Possibly the reverse.

[davestephen]

Thanks Ken. Must be a misnderstanding - I CAN capture in DV Type 1 and the result is fine, it's just going to take a lot of disk space and an extra conversion step to get to mpeg. Better than resorting to my old machine though. Did I mention that the same happens in VS9 which I installed in desperation?

Not sure how to check the mpeg plug-in, will investigate that. I've tried a number of things since my last post but to no avail. Have sent a Q to Tech Support - will post if I get any kind of reply.

I will use MovieMaker as a lat resort! Surprisingly there didn't seem to be much loss of quality on wmv file. I have stayed with VS because it never let me down until now unlike a competing product (beginning with "Pin" and ending with "acle") that was awful.

Thanks again
Dave

[davestephen]

Great idea to check the capture plug-in! Yes, VS does switch automatically to the mpeg plug-in OK, but when I switch it to the MP4 plug-in it works!!

Can you think of any disadvantages to capturing to mp4? I have only captured a small clip but it seems fine and renders OK to DVD format including Dolby 5.1 audio.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry about the confusion over the DV captures, but you did say

n Capture, I can PLAY the DV tape OK, but when I click Capture Video, the preview window shows a jerky picture. When I play the captured clip, it is not jerky but is 10% pixellated and unusable.

This indicated to me that you had slightly corrupted video once it was captured.

There is nothing wrong with mpeg-4 per se. The quality is often excellent. And if your conversion to DVD-compliant mpeg-2 produces results which make you happy, then go for it.

But I would have to make the same comment as I did about WMV. Mpeg-4 is a highly compressed format. And converting up to less compressed mpeg-2 cannot restore any of the data lost in the original compression. But if you captured it in high quality and keep the high quality settings in the conversion to mpeg-2 (especially a high bitrate), then at least you won't be losing any observable quality...

[jchunter]

Can you think of any disadvantages to capturing to mp4? I have only captured a small clip but it seems fine and renders OK to DVD format including Dolby 5.1 audio.

Yes. That procedure would be wrong because it would introduce unneccessary transcodings and not save you much, if any, disk space because in the end, you have to have Mpeg2 for your DVD. Moreover, I doubt that your computer could handle capturing to either Mpeg4 or WMF in real time, without rapidly filling the transcode buffer.

If you want to save space, capture DVD-compliant Mpeg2. It is the best you can do for disk space. If you use the right codec there will be no pixelation.