flickering around face/movement - bad video file

[TJo]

Please help... I created a 55 minute video with pictures & video clips. Only problem is my video file (xxx.mpg) shows a sort of flickering around faces and movement. When I play the original video in my project file (xxx.VSP), the video appears fine (much clearer). How can I create a better quality video without the flickering going on? I really appreciate anyone's help!

I have been following the notes in the sticky... here are my settings:
VideoStudio 8.0

Patches:
Version 8.01 Update
16X DVD Burning Pack
Daylight Savings Time Patch

Free hard drive space:
11.8 GB

Captured Video:
This may be strange, but captured video from digital Sony camera using a Dazzle capture device (Digital Video Creator 80) for the video. Yellow video plug for video... sound captured through red or white plug directly through PC's microphone plugin.
Captured to MPEG format.

Saved project as:
NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

I created the video file using "Same as Project Settings."

This is where I am having problems... when I watch the XXXX.mpg file back through Windows Media Player, I notice bad quality (the flickering around movement) on the video clips.

Any suggestions??? Video is due next weekend.

[THoff]

You likely have a field order problem, where the field order used during capture and rendering don't match.

When you go to Capture, you'll find a "Change Field Order" item in the Options menu, with the ability to auto-detect the field order from a source video. Use the suggested field order for both the capture and output.

Generally, analog captures are upper field first, but that's not always the case.

[TJo]

Thank you THoff for your reply. Any other suggestions? I have tried changing the field order and converting the video again with no luck. I think I have tried every combination of configurations but am not seeing any differences.

Thank you for any other suggestions you may have!

[THoff]

Can you explain exactly what you did when you tried it again?

What I would do is take the file you already have, and change the field order of the DVD project by customizing the settings and using the other field order (or even frame based output, though that won't be as smooth-looking during fast movement).

[russtv]

Here's something that worked for me as I had the same problems when starting out:
Capture the video as a FRAMEBASED mpg not field based, then run the captured mpg thru Virtualdubmod (freeware) and apply the deinterlace filter using blend option, you can also crop out the annoying black noise from around the edges with the null transform filter and use resize filter set to your PAL or NTSC image size, Vdubmod only saves to avi so use Divx codec with settings set to slowest for best quality, convert back to mpg (framebased) in your Ulead product, the DVD will render as a progressive DVD which will play fine on your PC and all modern home DVD players...
I mentioned a non Ulead product, woops, but Ulead is not the Holy Grail of DVD production as you all will know...

[THoff]

I would not capture directly to MPEG, it requires alot of computing resources. You're better off capturing to AVI and using that procedure, though I would not resize the image after cropping -- since the area you are cropping isn't visible on a TV anyway, why introduce resizing artifacts by filling an area of the image that can't be seen?

[Winifred]

Can you tell me which link I should follow on the Virtualdubmod website to obtain the freeware to prevent "flickering". There are a few links listed. I am new to the support forum - can you also tell me what is a "stickie"? Regards.

[TJo]

Winifred, I can't answer your first question... but as far as the second about the stickie... I was just referring to the "Announcement" at the beginning of all of the topics (in bold). You should read this first; it's very helpful.

THoff & russtv,
Thank you both for your help. I ended up having to transfer all of my files to my work laptop. I converted the files on there and used Framed Based output. This finally created a decent video file. Sorry for the late response and appreciation to both of you!