I'm currently working on a big project and after burning a demo of it to DVD, I noticed the quality was terrible. This is mostly HI8 footage and some VHS. I went back into "capture options" and found that I was on MPEG 1. I put it on the highest quality of DVD capture MPEG 2 and recaptured/edited all my clips with it. Now I have the clearest clips ever, however they all tend to skip and lag!
My question is this: Is this a system inadaquacy or a program problem? I have a 64 meg card so it's somewhat weak. But 1.5 gigs of ram in a 2700. I've tried capturing a few clips with lower quality and they still skip.
Thanks for any help - I'm a noobie to this forum. I've seen a few threads in here that are saying that turning off everything in the background can help, so i"ll try that as well. It just sucks that I have to keep recapturing. Word to the wise - don't capture without reviewing your clips! Make sure they look good before continuing, you could waste days of your life at a time. Don't lie to yourself and say that when you burn it to DVD it will be ok - what you see is what you get.
-Matt
Capturing Quality Problems
Moderator: Ken Berry
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THoff
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matlander
Sorry I knew I was rushing my post! I'm on Uvid Studio 9.0 with the new patch. It's funny some clips are fine at 75% DVD quality capture and others hickup and skip at random on lower capture settings. I think my system needs some more memory or a new capture card.THoff wrote:What version of UVS are you using? Are you noticing the lag and skip during capture, or when playing back the captured file using a separate program such as Windows Media Player?
-Matt
You shouldn't be capturing directly in MPEG. Capture to AVI format. (Edit in AVI format too.)
MPEG encoding is CPU-intensive. So, if your CPU can't keep-up with the real-time playback, or if it gets interrupted, you'll get glitches, corruption, or dropped frames.
When you're all done editing, Video Studio will perform the MPEG-2 conversion when you burn a DVD.
Now that you're working with digital video stored on your hard drive, Video Studio can perform the MPEG conversion at it's own pace. It won't matter if the CPU gets interrupted. And, it can use 2-pass MPEG encoding, which analyzes the video first for better quality encoding/compression.
If you're working with AVI, you will loose some quality with the MPEG encoding. And, if you're working with MPEG, and it needs to be re-coded, you'll loose quality... And your TV probably has worse quality than your computer...
MPEG encoding is CPU-intensive. So, if your CPU can't keep-up with the real-time playback, or if it gets interrupted, you'll get glitches, corruption, or dropped frames.
When you're all done editing, Video Studio will perform the MPEG-2 conversion when you burn a DVD.
Now that you're working with digital video stored on your hard drive, Video Studio can perform the MPEG conversion at it's own pace. It won't matter if the CPU gets interrupted. And, it can use 2-pass MPEG encoding, which analyzes the video first for better quality encoding/compression.
Or worse!...what you see is what you get.
If you're working with AVI, you will loose some quality with the MPEG encoding. And, if you're working with MPEG, and it needs to be re-coded, you'll loose quality... And your TV probably has worse quality than your computer...-
THoff
Before you run out and buy a new video card, try playing the file using Windows Media Player.
The Preview in UVS is not the best way to judge the final output, since it takes shortcuts in order to try to play back the video in realtime. That means it will occasionally skip a few frames, especially while applying effects or during transitions from one clip to another.
UVS 9 does have a new Preview selection under the Share tab, which provides a high-quality preview of what the final output will look like. Unfortunately, this will require rendering of the project, which can be very time-consuming.
Finally, background processes can interfere with smooth playback as well. But that's a whole different story -- please try an external media player first.
The Preview in UVS is not the best way to judge the final output, since it takes shortcuts in order to try to play back the video in realtime. That means it will occasionally skip a few frames, especially while applying effects or during transitions from one clip to another.
UVS 9 does have a new Preview selection under the Share tab, which provides a high-quality preview of what the final output will look like. Unfortunately, this will require rendering of the project, which can be very time-consuming.
Finally, background processes can interfere with smooth playback as well. But that's a whole different story -- please try an external media player first.
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THoff
Doh! I missed that entirely!DVDDoug wrote:You shouldn't be capturing directly in MPEG. Capture to AVI format. (Edit in AVI format too.)
MPEG encoding is CPU-intensive. So, if your CPU can't keep-up with the real-time playback, or if it gets interrupted, you'll get glitches, corruption, or dropped frames.
Yes, DVDDoug is absolutely right. Do not capture directly to MPEG format unless you have a capture device with hardware-assisted MPEG encoding.
Your current processor simply doesn't have the horsepower to keep up. If you try to capture from a DV device, UVS will stop capturing and process the backlog of captured video before resuming. If you have an analog capture device like your AIW card, there is no way to stop capturing, and the capture will have dropped frames.
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matlander
Thank you!
I must say first off thanks a ton to all of you for your helpful advise. I have put more time into this video than anything previously and it is my hope to be able to burn it to DVD and have it play perfectly.
Originally I captured everything in an AVI format. I rendered the video MPEGII and burned it to disk using another program. It came out terrible. Really pixalated and not clear at all.
After playing around with different capture settings, I noticed that if I captured in DVD format that the clips were crystal clear after it was rendered and burned to disk, however some of them were jumpy and had a few hick-ups.
How can I get this crystal clear look on a burned DVD? Did I do something wrong? When I did the the project with AVI's it was pixalated and flashy in the background of the video. I got another gig of ram last night, so I'm hoping that willl help.
-Matt
Originally I captured everything in an AVI format. I rendered the video MPEGII and burned it to disk using another program. It came out terrible. Really pixalated and not clear at all.
After playing around with different capture settings, I noticed that if I captured in DVD format that the clips were crystal clear after it was rendered and burned to disk, however some of them were jumpy and had a few hick-ups.
How can I get this crystal clear look on a burned DVD? Did I do something wrong? When I did the the project with AVI's it was pixalated and flashy in the background of the video. I got another gig of ram last night, so I'm hoping that willl help.
-Matt
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THoff
Download and install the Huffyuv codec. This is a lossless codec that will save you disk space without throwing away any image detail. Then capture in AVI format, and select Huffyuv as the codec in the Compression tab. This will capture with the highest possible quality that your ATI card is capable of.
Edit your project as needed, and when you are done, use Share -> Create Video File -> Custom, select MPEG as the file format, click Options, set the Quality to 100% and customize the bitrate as desired (if you have a video that's one hour long or less, select CBR encoding at 8000Kbps).
Let UVS create the MPEG file, and when that is done, create a new, empty project. Don't add anything to the timeline; instead, go directly to Share -> Create Disk, then click Add Video and add the MPEG file you just produced.
Edit your project as needed, and when you are done, use Share -> Create Video File -> Custom, select MPEG as the file format, click Options, set the Quality to 100% and customize the bitrate as desired (if you have a video that's one hour long or less, select CBR encoding at 8000Kbps).
Let UVS create the MPEG file, and when that is done, create a new, empty project. Don't add anything to the timeline; instead, go directly to Share -> Create Disk, then click Add Video and add the MPEG file you just produced.
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matlander
sonic
I"m using a prog called sonic to create the DVD, not Ulead so hopefully that isn't the problem! I have to say that re-capturing everything i've done so far is the equivlent to about 40 hours of work, so I"m going to try a few other things first to see if I can get this to fly.
Almost everything in editing has been captured now as DVD 60% quality, which I believe is still MPEG II? If I can turn up the CPU whether it's by ram, processor or video card I think that I just might be the cure for these little hick-ups that now plague my project. I did download the huffy codec though and will check that out. I'll let you all know how it turns out!
Thanks again for all your help.
-Matt
Almost everything in editing has been captured now as DVD 60% quality, which I believe is still MPEG II? If I can turn up the CPU whether it's by ram, processor or video card I think that I just might be the cure for these little hick-ups that now plague my project. I did download the huffy codec though and will check that out. I'll let you all know how it turns out!
Thanks again for all your help.
-Matt
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matlander
fantastic
I ended up getting a all in wonder 9800 128 and wow...what a difference. I was able to capture in MPEG2 720 X 480 which comes out unbelievable on DVD - crystal clear and able to edit without skipping.
I have so many sections that i've completed that a few of them I edited in AVI 720 X 480 DVtype 1 and then rendered them mpeg2 720X480 and got very good results as well. I'm doing an entirely different post for the rest of my findings in regard to project sizes! But I just thought i'd give a good report! Thanks for all of your help -
-Matt
I have so many sections that i've completed that a few of them I edited in AVI 720 X 480 DVtype 1 and then rendered them mpeg2 720X480 and got very good results as well. I'm doing an entirely different post for the rest of my findings in regard to project sizes! But I just thought i'd give a good report! Thanks for all of your help -
-Matt