Converting PAL to NTSC in X3

[maxfrost01]

Jeff,

You haven't met my mother-in-law.
Any amount of X3 inflicted pain is a small price to pay to keep her on the other side of the Atlantic.
Please don't tell her I said this.
She has a gun.

[Black Lab]

[maxfrost01]

I'm getting close to giving up.
I've spent the last couple of hours trying to render a PAL video file that does not have any stuttering.
I've tried:
HDV
Blue Ray
AVCHD
H284
WMV

With the exception of WMV all of them reproduce the stutter in exactly the same way at exactly the same point in the video. The stutter does not appear with the WMV version (but a fat black border does appear so I'm not sure how useful these settings are).

I have re-checked the original video files in the original project and they are stutter free.

I am now heading for my bed in the hope that when I log on in the morning one of you VS wizards will have the answer for me!

[Ken Berry]

Forget totally about "Same as Project Properties" or "Same as first video" -- they simply don't work with HD video, whether it is HDV or AVCHD.

Your original video is HDV, and I am puzzled why you should be getting stuttering with it. HDV is comparatively easy to edit and author, and is not particularly demanding of computer resources. Your computer, moreover, has more than enough resources to be able to handle it with ease. (It can even be edited and play back smoothly on mid-range Pentium IVs...) So in theory at least you should be able to choose Share > Create Video File > HDV.

You say that all those various formats you tried (bar WMV) produce stuttering at exactly the same point in the video. If that is the case, then that tends to suggest there is something at that precise point in your project that VS does not seem to like... Have you looked closely at that point with your project still in the timeline? Is there a transition or something else at that point? Does, say, deleting or changing the transition (if it is one) improve the situation???

[Trevor Andrew]

Max

Are you trying to create a standard DVD?

If yes read on……..

You have to create a standard DVD Mpeg2 file in order to burn a DVD

You say you have created a good high def-Pal video which plays as ok on your Western Digital WDTV media player

Using this file in Video Studio render to Pal DVD.

Make sure you match the new Mpeg2 field order to the original video files field order.

This should create a DVD compliant video file.

Play this on your media player

If ok burn this file to disc.

[maxfrost01]

Hi, Ken

I have looked very closely at the original clips in the project timeline. Specifically at the point at which the stutter appears in the rendered video file,
There is nothing, zero, nada.
There is no stutter, no glitch, no transition, no special effects - just a straightforward clip of video which when rendered has this inexplicable stutter.

I've taken some more time to look closely at the stutter by working through sections of the rendered file frame by frame.
'Stutter' may not be the best description. Maybe 'glitch'.

The problem usually occurs in just two frames. In the first 'glitch' frame the bottom quarter of the image shifts fractionally to the right. In the next frame the middle 50% shifts to the right leaving just the top 25% in the correct position. In the next frame the bottom and the middle jump back to the correct position. The effect when running the video file at normal speed is of a quick jump in the image.

In the next glitch I looked at it is exactly the same but this time the bottom 25% drops a fraction (moves down rather than to the right), then the middle 50% drops, then they both jump back up to the correct position.

I'm wondering if there is some corruption in the original files but the project is a collection of video shots taken over the course of 12 months and on different tapes - admittedly on the same camera - and they were captured to my hard drive at different times throughout the year.

[maxfrost01]

Hi, Trevor

You say you have created a good high def-Pal video which plays as ok on your Western Digital WDTV media player

I have done this in the PAST using X2. It is what I am trying to do right now in X3 but keep getting these glitches (see last post).
If I can get a high quality video file I can then play it on my WDTV media player (for my own family) and move on to Stage 2 which will be preparing the NTSC DVD for my father-in-law. For this stage I would use the high-def video file as the start point.

Hope this clarifies the problem.
Now if you can just give me the solution...........

[Clevo]

I'm not sure if this will work as I don;t work with High Def video files but If I was converting from SD PAL to SD NTSC I would add a step in the middle by creating a frame based video file.

Like I would go from High def, to SD 720X480 frame based 30fps mpeg2 9000bs and keep the same field order....then go to SD NTSC 720x480 etc. Might work and shouldn't suffer too much quality wise using VSx2 or X3.

Use VSX2 for authoring the DVD

[maxfrost01]

Guys,

It might be that this thread needs to be retitled!
It all began with me wanting to create an NTSC DVD but I have not yet got to that stage because of the stuttering or glitches I'm finding in the high def rendered video file I've created (see my recent posts) prior to attempting to burn the NTSC DVD.

More information on this:
It seems that when the two 'glitch' frames appear, they are being 'stolen' in part or in full from later frames.
I am currently working my way through my rendered file cutting out the 'glitches' and it seems that the frame before the glitch and the frame after the glitch sync up perfectly when next to each other.
In some cases, where the glitch appears immediately before a new video clip (i.e. a different scene but with no transition effect) it actually lifts a whole frame from the next scene and drops it into the video file a couple of frames early. The effect is this: Frames from first clip - single frame from second clip - single frame from first clip - frames from second clip.

This is increasingly bizarre.

[Black Lab]

Sounds like the dreaded AVCHD "blip" problem. Never heard of it affecting HDV files before.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Max

Got it, I was confused as you were able to play the video on your media player as ok.
I now understand that was older hd clips created with X2.

So why not use X2 to complete your video project.

You would then have time to sort the problem with X3.

[maxfrost01]

Jeff,

That there is a dreaded AVCHD blip problem is news to me. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
A good thing if the dreaded AVCHD blip problem has a solution!

I'm still investigating what exactly is happening. I have now found several examples where the glitch is two frames stolen from later in the same clip. For example, a hand is moving down towards the table then it suddenly reverses for two frames then jumps forward again!

I have also noticed that often, but not always, the blip (as I shall now call it) occurs just before a fade transition. But other times it is in the middle of a clip!
It's occuring at random intervals of usually around 8 to 20 seconds.

[maxfrost01]

Trevor,

I'd love to finish the job in X2 but didn't think it was possible to import my X3 project files into X2. If that can be done then I am back in business.
I have spent weeks working on the project in X3 and I cannot begin all over again in X2.
Is there a way?

Yours in hope and desperation,

[erdna]

I just did a conversion with batch convert in VSX3, from AVCHD 1929x1080 50i ("Pal") to MOV 1280x720 30p ("NTSC"). No problems found during conversion and playback as well.[img]

[BrianCee]

Max - nobody is suggesting that you take your project files into X2 - You said right back at the beginning that you had already made an NTSC video file that you were happy with - what we are suggesting now is that you open the 'Create Disc' module in X2 and import that already made NTSC file into it and burn a DVD.

If you can't do that in X2 then there are dozens of other programmes around - many of them free - that will burn an mpg file to a standard playable DVD whether it is PAL or NTSC.

If all else fails why not just COPY the NTSC file to a DVD - straight copy so that the mpg file is on the disc as an mpg - then it will play in any computer anywhere (may also play in some DVD players depending on their specification.)