Rolling Credits - Interlaced or Not?

[Dirk Mitchell]

When using rolling credits in Vegas 4.0c, I have found that rendering interlaced (lower-field first) provides crisp text when printing to tape and shown on a TV, however when I render to an MPEG-2 (for SVCD NTSC) the results are the same as if I render text with progressive scan, the rolling text looks like it's underwater and stationary text flickers. I have selected interlaced in the MPEG rendering settings, so I can't understand it. The rest of the MPEG render looks good, better than any MPEG-2 I've been able to achieve with TMPGEnc. Even the stationary text is adequate. Any suggestions?

I'm using a Canon GL-2 if that matters.

[Rob Lohman]

Did you try rendering it progressive instead of interlaced (just
the titles) and see how that looks? You are probably experiencing
aliasing due to compression and small text. It might not even
have something to do with the interlacing. What size is your
font? Also make sure the font is rendered at a high quality
and anti-aliased.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

One other thing you might try is rendering those credits that are to be compressed with MPEG in progressive scan but with a very slight motion blur. Graphics with sharp edges, such as are found in credits, contain spatial step functions up the wazoo that flummox the DCT compression in the MPEG codec. Softening the edges of the text using a motion blur may make your results a lot more pleasing.

[Ed Fiebke]

I learn a lot here just by lurking about.

I was experiencing similar problems with rolling credits too. Will try your suggestions.

Thanks . . . from the happy lurker. . . :)

(semi-pun intended)

Ted

[Rob Lohman]

That is what I was trying to say, Robert. You have explained
it much better then I did... Thanks.

[Dirk Mitchell]

Thanks for the replies. It takes so durn long to test (render, copy to laptop that has the CD writer [don't reply about this], burn CD, take downstairs to DVD player, etc.) that it may take me a few days to figure this out.

On the motion blur subject. Do I add a video filter or is there a setting in the render dialog box to do this? I'm using Vegas 4.0c. I've used the 'Allow field-based motion compensation' check box under the advanced video options in render, but I haven't tested the render yet.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

I'm not sure if there's a way to do this in Vegas. When I made my recommendation, I was thinking After Effects.

Barring the use of a motion blur filter, a simple gaussian blur might suffice, and Vegas must surely have one of those. I believe a carefully tuned motion blur would be much more satisfactory.

[Dirk Mitchell]

It seems that setting Reduce Flicker under the properties of the clip and rendering Interlaced will be as good as I can get. I don't quite understand how setting Gaussian blur in the project properties works when rendering to MPEG-2. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Rob Lohman]

It is simple to add a Guassian Blur in Vegas. Go to the Video FX
tab in the bottom and scroll down to Guassian Blur. There are
several there. Simply choose one and drag this on your footage.
A settings screen will popup.

You can disable/enable the effect there or remove it by right-
clicking on the pressed button on the top and selecting remove.

If you have closed the settings screen and want to get back hit
the little icon (lower of the two) that is hovering over your
footage at the end.