Interlace problem with captured DV files

[jsnevets]

Awhile back I captured some video from my old DV camcorder. I am finally getting around to it again and noticed some interlace problems with the video. Not sure why it is there in the first place.

The original video was captured using AVI with "DV Video Encoder -- type 1". I tried to re-render the clip using Upper Frame First, Lower Frame First, and Frame-Based with no change. I then tried again with SmartRender turned off. In this case, with SmartRender off and selecting Frame-Based, I was able to eliminate the interlace artifacts. I don't really understand why that worked though?

I was then going to re-render all the clips using Batch Convert, but I don't see an option to disable SmartRender from the Batch Convert dialog. Is there a global setting in preferences to disable SmartRender? I don't want to re-render all clips one-by-one.

[lata]

Hi

Unusual to have problems with DV-Avi, probably the easiest formats to edit

DV-Avi uses Lower Field First............

The default templates used by Video Studio now uses Upper Field to come in line with HD video.
Older versions used Lower Field.

Go to Preferences- tick Show Messages when inserting first video.
Start a new project
Add your DV-Avi, should open a window prompting you to match the project properties
Press "yes"
Cut the clip to reduce the duration, just for this test.

Share create Video File - same as first clip or same as project settings.

Now use Make movie templates manager to create a DVD Mpeg2 template
Make sure you use lower field., similar to :-

MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 16:9
Video data rate: 8000 kbps
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

The data rate of 8000 will allow for 60 minutes of video to a disc.

You don’t say if you are Pal or Ntsc.

Can you tell us what you are going to make, I assumed a DVD, but maybe for youtube

[jsnevets]

Thanks for your reply. I am using NTSC by the way.

I created another AVI as you mentioned. Viewing in VS shows the same interlace artifacts. Viewing in VirtualDub shows the same interlacing. Viewing in VLC shows the same interlacing (maybe worse plus it hates the AVI Type I DV Audio). Viewing in WMP is clean with no interlacing.

Then I created the MPEG2 as you mentioned. Appears clean in VS with no interlacing. Viewing in VLC still shows interlacing. WMP is clean.

Ultimately I want to encode these as H.264 in an MKV file (so I can have chapter marks) and my wife can watch them via the blu-ray player from a NAS drive.

So why when I save the clip as frame-based with SmartRender "on" do I get no change but when I save the clip as frame-based with Smart Render "off" the interlacing goes away?

Is there anywhere that SmartRender can be turned off for BatchConvert jobs? I don't see the option.

[Ken Berry]

I too think it strange that you are getting interlacing problems with DV since as Trevor says, it is usually about the easiest format to edit... But be that as it may...

I also think that SmartRender is irrelevant in your case. It only works when you are rendering one video format to the same format e.g. a video project made up mostly of DV being rendered to a new project will use SmartRender for those parts of the project which are already in DV format. However, it does not work if you are -- as you appear to be -- rendering to a new format. Then everything has to be fully rendered -- apart from any video in the project which might already be in that new format -- in this case, none.

[Kingston]

Ken,

As predicted, if you have a WMV on the timeline, and then share to DV, then no smart render takes place even when "smart render" option is on. But if you share to DV again before closing the project, then that last DV file created is used as the source -- not the WMV clip -- and smart render takes place. You can't prevent that from happening even if you share to the same file name. Temporary files are created for the new DV file while the old DV file is being read in. Then at the end of the render, the old DV file is deleted and the temporary file is renamed to the old DV file name.

You know smart rendering is taking place when you don't see frames being processed in the preview window when rendering to a file.

There have been times when I thought for sure I made a change the would prevent smart rendering from occuring, but lo and behold, it smart rendered.

Either you have to turn off the "smart render" option, or delete or move the last rendered DV file if you want to make sure that the last rendered DV file isn't used. You can't just delete the thumbnail from the media library, you also have to delete the file from the hard drive. You can do both from VS by holding down the SHIFT key as you right-click on the thumbnail in the library and select "Delete" from the menu. After the thumbnail is deleted, VS will ask if you want to permanently delete the file.