pixelated playback of mpeg4 when played in a timeline.

[justinS]

I've got VS 9. The playback quality of mpeg4 is very shakey and pixelated. When I play the individual mpeg4 clips they play very smoothly, but as soon as I play a project with two or more clips in the playback is shakey and pixelated. I thought maybe my computer wasn't fast enough, and that as soon as it is burned to DVD, the film would be smooth, not so. ANY IDEAS ANYONE???? cheers

Justin

[sjj1805]

MPEG4 is a very highly compressed format.
I tend to "decompress them" first using this software
http://www.vso-software.fr/download.htm

Which creates a simple DVD with VOB files. I then rename the VOB files to have MPG extensions and work with those.

MPEG4 is a good medium for placing Videos on the internet due to its highly compressed format and is very good quality. However upon playback the computer is de-compressing them as it plays (on the fly) and I find the pictures slightly jerky. After decompressing them they play very smoothly.

Having said this bear in mind that the preview on the timeline is just a preview and will never be as sharp etc as a rendered file.

[justinS]

Thanks for response. Is it the divxTODVD program that I want to download? If you don't mind me asking (I'm not brilliant with computers) but what is a plug in for mpeg4, that it says on the back of VS9 that you need? Does downloading this free from Ulead do the job?? Anyway, I'll let you know in two weeks what happens as my laptop backlight has gone, and I'm using my old PC from the loft!!

Cheers Justin Sneddon

[sjj1805]

Justin

Yes that is the program.
I double checked with VS8 for which I do not have the MPEG4 plug in.
Video Studio will open a MPEG4 / Divx / xVid file.
However to render a file (create) to that format you need the plug in.

I must get round to uninstalling VS8 one of these days!!