severe pixelation of mp4 in preview

[laserr]

I have this problem in X4 and also in X5. When I load MP4 files from my HD camcorder I can preview the clips fine. When I drop them into the timeline, and play the project, the clips are mostly pixelated. When I open other projects that I created in X4 last year using the same type type of mp4 files, I see no pixelation in the project preview. All of these mp4 files are using smart proxy.

Help!

[lata]

Hi

Can you give more details regarding the video files.
Right click the clip in the timeline and select properties.
Do this for both types to compare settings, are they the same?

Can you post the details, you can copy the properties window to create an image which can be attached to your post.

Are you able to play the video the pc using another media player, does it play ok

If you were to render the problem clip, does it convert and play ok.?

[teknisyan]

There are a lot of factors why this happens and it can be a problem with the smartproxy settings, file format of your video and like what lata said posting the properties of the video will help us determine where the problem is.

Anyway for starters, you may want to update the codecs that are installed on your computer. Here are some of the codecs that you may want to install.
RealPlayer: http://www.real.com/
DivX: http://www.divx.com/en/software/divx-plus/codec-pack
XviD: http://downloads.xvid.org/downloads/xvidcore-1.3.2.zip
Windows Media Player: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... dia-player or just download the Windows Encoder at http://www.microsoft.com/expression/pro ... rview.aspx
QuickTime: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Direct X: http://on-msn.com/aLrk0j (WinXP)
Direct X: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/window ... tx-11.aspx

[laserr]

OK.I see now that it is related to the smart proxy. If I disable it the pixelation goes away. With the Smart Proxy enabled the 'old' clips that do not pixelate have these properties shown in 'old' jpeg. The new one clips have the properties shown in 'new' jpeg. So it appears that the new ones have 'upper field first' and the old ones do not. Is this a setting in the Sanyo xacti camcorder? Both clips come from the same camcorder. Maybe I accidentally changed the setting?

[lata]

Hi

Yes you seem to have changed the settings.

The first is using 59.94 frames per second and would use Frame Based

The second is using 29.97 fps and indeed is interlaced using Upper Field first.

What you set the camera to depends on what you intend to create.

If you are intending burning a standard DVD then use 29 fps

If you are gonna burn a bluray disc, to play on your bluray player then use 59fps.

If you have to convert the files, Downscaling the 59 fps to 29 fps will cause some quality issues, so using 59 may not be the right option.

Video studio X4 does not fully support 59fps editing, although X5 does, change the settings to60/50 editing from the Settings menu when using the 59.
However there are ways to modify the X4 timeline to view as 60 fps

As i say it depends on what you wish to make.

[laserr]

The only videos I make are DVD not Blueray. Some clips I shoot are at 60fps to help in slow motion effects.

The problem I am having has nothing to do the 60fps, because I see problems at 30pfs also. I am reaching the conclusion that it has to do with motion. A few clips from a children party where the subjects are moving the break up occurs. If the subjects move more slowly or not all, there is no break up. All pixelation occurs in timeline preview not clip preview which shows all clips normal. By the way the 60/50m setting has no effect. Only disabling smart proxy stops the pixelation but the video playback cannot keep up as expected. I have attached a snapshot of the clip during pixelation/breakup. It is of an outdoor advertising balloon figure that moves rapidly. I cannot attach the clip as it is a very large mp4 file, even as a small segment.

I have noticed that if I place the clip on the timeline and play it as a clip, it does not break up. However, if I play it as a project it breaks up. Also, if I play it as a clip on the time line, and pause it at the time where the 'project break up' occurs. The frozen image is also broken up.

All these problems occur during project preview, and not if I save the clip as an mp4 file and play it back. It looks normal. But X5 is no of use as an editor with these problems during project preview.

All hardware acceleration choices are selected in settings.

If I work with same clip using Cyberlink Power Director I see no pixelation problems at all in clip or project views. So it is not my system.

I hope I can solve this as I am accustomed to using VideoStudio for video editing and woud like to stay with it.

Thanks for your help