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I upgraded my computer and version of VideoStudio this summer and every since then I have had problems rendering the avi files that I capture from my Canon ZR300 mini DV camcorder. I normally capture avi files from the camcorder using the Firewire interface. I then do some basic editing to get the clips I want and render these to mpg files. I have hundreds of mpg clips using my old setup that worked perfectly. I have read a number of posts on this but nothing has helped.

What I see is a few frames flickering every 15-30 seconds in the mpg. It is very obvious when you first play the original avi file then play the rendered mpg.

I have VideoStudio 11.5.0157.2 Plus

These are the settings for the original file
Microsoft AVI file
24 bits, 720 x 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
DV Video Encoder -- type 1
DV Audio -- NTSC, 48.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo

These are the custom settings I use when rendering
Type MPEG
24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Quality 100%
Peform Smart Render TRUE (i have also tried FALSE)
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

Strange... I'm always telling everybody that DV/AVI files are "foolproof".

Here's something you can try - Render your project to DV/AVI. Then if that video turns-out OK, use SUPER (FREE!!!) to convert your files to MPEG-2.

...If that process works, you may be able to do the same thing using Video Studio for a separate MPEG-2 encoding step. But, I'd be inclined t try a different program first.

If the edited DV/AVI file has the same flicker, I'd guess that there is some slight corruption your original file... Sometimes a "bad" file will play OK, but cause trouble whtn you try to edit or convert it. (Maybe your DV tape was "marginal", or something like that...?)

Note that SUPER won't make an MPEG-2 with LPCM audio, But, if you really want LPCM, you can probably use Video Studio to multiplex the audio from your DV/AVI file into your MPEG-2 file that you created with SUPER.

And, I think SUPER uses a different way to represent variable bitrate. (I think it uses the average, rather than the maximum.) That, combined with the compressed audio, will make the file-size differerent than the files MPEG-2 you got from Video Studio.

If you are making a DVD, you should be able to bring that SUPER-generated MPEG-2 file back into Video Studio for DVD authoring & burning.

rendering dv/avi to dv/avi in VS gives smooth result with no chop dv/avi to mpeg in VS with the same same input file gives slight chop. I reviewed the mpg file frame by frame and you can see the motion freeze for a couple of frames which causes the chop.

I installed Super and rendered the same dv/avi to mpg with it. I did not detect any chop in that file.

am I left with doing my mpg rendering outside of VS?

Just a couple of suggestions as it is pretty unusual for VS to do this.

When you captured the original DV files did you by any chance have the "Dropped Fames" counter on? Did you notice whether VS dropped any? The acceptable number of dropped frames is zero! If there were dropped frames in the original DV files then that would expalin jumps in the MPEG.

Another thought on this is that it could be a resource related problem. Maybe you need to defrag, shut down unnecessary processes etc as VS may be getting interrupted whilst creating the MPEGs.

I did the capture with WinDV and did not have any dropped frames. The interesting thing about this problem is that the location of the choppy frames will move each time I render the same avi which points more toward you second suggestion of something interupting the rendering process. I have two relatively fast SATA drives and use the non system one for the rendering process. Windows defrag utitility says the disk does not need to be defragged. I am not doing anything else on the system when rendering and my current machine has at least 4X the cpu of my old one that never gave me any problems.

Any suggestions on what else to look at for tuning would be appreciated.

Dang!
I have re-read and re-read this thread looking for something else but...nuttin'.
Let's face it this is a straight DV to MPEG conversion which should be a walk in the park for both the system and VS.
The only other thing I can think of is a possible data bottleneck somewhere on the computer and now I am really clutching at straws. Search for a tiny program on the net called memtest and run it to see if VS is accessing damaged areas of your RAM. Don't be fooled by the idea that "it's new so it should be ok." Possibly there may be a bad address that VS keeps hitting at different points.
Also try moving the files around and trying different approaches. As a rule I try to have the DV files on one drive that VS is READING and have it WRITE to another drive.
If you are unimpressed with these suggestions remember I said...I am clutching at straws!

Try running chkdsk on your drives.