Virtual Dub 24p compared to FilmMaker
 

Over the summer I shot my third short and posted many questions on DVInfo and am as always very gratefull for everyones support! Real Live people BBS's are the way to go!

Anyways... Got the tapes captured and am trying out the Connect HD codec (I edit in Vegas 7) The Connect HD Codec is wonderfull... of course... need lots of space.

Now, I have studied and come to the conclusion to drop framerate/deinterlace before editing to that is what I am doing before taking to the Vegas Timeline.

A few ways to do this... but I tried the "Free" way = Virtual Dub and the economical yet well deserved "Good" reputation of FilmMaker. In Virtual Dub I Dropped the Frame rate to 24 and used the "Smart DeInterlace" Plugin. In FilmMaker I just did what it said in the Instructions (using 1080i from Sony Z1).

They both look... Almost exactly the same. I can see a slight, very small "jerk" every so often with the Virtual Dub file but have to look VERY closely (I'm sure a "normal" viewer wouldnt see it).

I just want to ask... If I am planning on transfer to film for festivals or even sell on DVD am I looking for problems with Virtual Dub? I only did 2 short 15 second/separate shots for examples (one face close up, one fast action). Should I just get FilmMaker and feel safe that it is a professional program with support? or... is Virtual Dub a pretty solid solution also? Please let me know what you think.

Using the best quality Virtualdub approach, I got jaggies on near-horizontal lines while zooming.