Altering Playback Speed - Choppy Results

hisownshadow · Post by **hisownshadow** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:57 am

Hello, I'm currently using VideoStudio 11 Plus and have run into a minor yet nagging problem that I also faced in VideoStudio 9.

First, I record video with my digital camcorder (DV5300 SE) at 352x288 at 30FPS all the time, and rarely change those settings. My camera saves the video I record in a *.asf format, which of course is editable in VideoStudio.

However, I noticed that whenever I change the Playback speed to 50% (or any other percentage lower than 100), the results are rather choppy and not very "fluid" or "smooth" when I play the video back in the preview window. I realize this would normally be an FPS issue, but whenever I import the exact same video file into Windows Movie Maker 2.1 and use their "slow down half" effect, the playback in the preview window is as smooth as microwaved butter.

I don't know if VideoStudio uses a different strategy for slowing down clips or what the cause of the problem is, but I was just wondering if anyone knew of a solution for smoother playback at slower speeds.

Thank you for your time and any help you may be able to give =)

GuyL · Post by **GuyL** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:50 am

That seems to be an odd setting for a digital camcorder. That seems to be a windows media format. Can you have it record in DV?

Post by **Ron P.** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:54 am

Welcome to the forums,

You must understand that what you see in the preview window, is just an idea of what your project is going to look like. VS has not rendered anything, and is throwing it together on the fly. Do you try to set your Project Properties to match that of your video files?

Try rendering a short clip and see if it looks better. The preview window in VS is not a video player, like WMP, Power DVD, or WinAmp.

Looking at your video properties, I hope that you're not intending on creating a DVD. They do not meet DVD specs.

Post by **lancecarr** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:11 am

I just checked the cam online.
It is a flash memory video/still/mp3 player hybrid.
It records in asf format that (they say) is MPEG4 compatible.
Although I am not certain I thought asf was a type of WMV file that is tweaked for streaimng on the net.
Anyway it would explain the difficulty in playback for VS and not so for Windows Movie Maker.
As for a solution, possibly converting to a more friendly format might help. I am also not sure what format as the files are very compressed as it is.

Guy, Ron, suggestions?

hisownshadow · Post by **hisownshadow** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:42 am

Thanks for the feedback =)

GuyL,
Unfortunately there is not a specific "DV" setting on the camera, as it's quite cut and dry when it comes to video options (resolution is about the only thing that can be altered)

vidoman,
I understand that the preview window is in fact not an actual media player. However, even when I save the video clip with the project settings as close to the original as I can manage, the playback is still exceptionally choppy (I've tried saving in numerous formats with numerous codecs, and even in an uncompressed format, but to no avail)

lancecarr,
Thanks for taking the time to research the camera =) That's very interesting that the video is "more compatible" in WMM than in VideoStudio (I didn't know video clips held grudges, but evidently I was wrong)

haha

Below I have posted a link to a video I made just a minute ago in VideoStudio. The first clip is a video rendered in VideoStudio 11 Plus at "50%" playback speed. The second clip is the exact same video, except with the "Slow Down Half" effect from WMM. The difference is quite obvious between the two. Thanks again for the help, I sincerely appreciate your time

http://hisownshadow.tripod.com/comparison.wmv

Post by **lancecarr** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:08 am

No-one is going to doubt you are getting the strange effect. What you need to understand is that WMV and ASF are proprietary Microsoft codecs and are designed to do specific things. The key is that they are distribution formats and are in no way designed to be edited. Having said that you have also found that you can edit them. It is not surprising that the Microsoft software handles them better than VS, it's all "in house."
The only solution I can think of is to continue using Movie Maker if you are getting good results OR convert the vids to a more editing friendly format to editing in VS.
Problem is that they are very highly compressed so the question remains as to what to convert them to that will allow eding in VS and not lose quality.
That's why I was hoping Ron or Guy might step in with a conversion suggestion.

Post by **Ron P.** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:28 am

I'm guessing that you probably have already tried MPEG-1. If that failed then I'm at a loss as to what you can convert it to.

As Lance pointed out the ASF is a proprietary format. It is designed to play in Windows Media Player, and/or to be streamed from the internet. When you open an ASF file from a webpage, odds are it will be WMP that gets opened. Read the following from Microsoft on ASF..

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... fspec.aspx

More info on the ASF format:

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/form ... 0067.shtml

hisownshadow · Post by **hisownshadow** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:51 am

Ahhh I see. Looks like .asf is proving to be a rather tricky format to work with

haha

I will probably just continue using Windows Movie Maker for all of the slow motion clips and just import them into VideoStudio 11 later on (a major inconvenience, but the only workaround I can imagine at the time)

On a side note, I opened up both Ulead and Movie Maker and inserted the same clip onto both timelines. In Ulead I changed the playback speed to 50%, and in Movie Maker I applied the "Slow Down Half" effect.

When I went through the clip frame-by-frame in VideoStudio, I noticed that each frame was simply duplicated to give a slow motion effect
(the order was Frame1-Frame1-Frame2-Frame2-Frame3-Frame3, etc.)

However, when I went through the clip frame-by-frame in Windows Movie Maker, I noticed a slightly different order. Instead of simply duplicating each frame, Movie Maker "skips" every other frame's duplication. For example, the order would be:
Frame1-Frame2-Frame2-Frame3-Frame4-Frame4-Frame5-Frame6-Frame6, and so on.

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but is there a way to somehow edit the way in which VideoStudio changes the playback speed of a clip in order to mimick the effect found in Movie Maker? It would certainly save me a ton of time in the long run if possible.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it =)

hisownshadow · Post by **hisownshadow** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:08 am

Update: Just found a clip online that utilizes frame interpolation for super-smooth slow motion (link below). This clip seriously blew my mind, and, as far as I understand, this effect is attainable from standard 30FPS video clips (with no need for a high fps camcorder).

http://sfx.realviz.com/gallery/objects/ ... keflip.mov

This would be a huge leap for me as an unprofessional video editor, but does anyone know of a stand-alone frame interpolation program that I could use to simply apply super smooth slow motion to a certain clip, and then import that edited clip into VideoStudio? I know there are numerous plugins available that advertise the same effect, but unfortunately I don't own/am not familiar with any of the applications that the plugins refer to.

Thanks =)

GuyL · Post by **GuyL** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:24 pm

My suggestion would be to continue to use Windows Movie Maker. I think it is the only software that can edit that file format well enough. As Ron suggested, MPEG1 may be an option.

hisownshadow · Post by **hisownshadow** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:27 am

More than likely I will continue to use WMM. And yes, I have tried mpeg1, but the results were still choppy. However, my discovery of frame interpolation has sparked a new interest, and thus another question.

I found a program online called MotionPerfect that can change the framerate of any given clip (such as my 30fps video clips) into a higher framerate (such as 60 or 120fps) by inserting new "calculated" frames into the clip, thus creating a higher fps.

I did a test and converted one of my 30fps video files into a 120fps .avi and opened it in VideoStudio 11 Plus. Theoretically speaking, since the clip is at such a higher fps than the original, I assumed that I should be able to slow the clip down significantly with little or no jerkiness whatsoever.

However, I discovered when I dropped the playback speed to any percentage lower than 50%, the playback was exceptionally choppy, which I didn't really understand, since, for example, at 25% playback speed, a 120fps clip should still be playing at a smooth 30fps. Can anyone explain why this would still be choppy? I also found it to be choppy in WMM as well, so I don't know what the problem could be. Thanks for the help