Export To DVD Jitters--Too High A Bitrate?
 

Hi All
I recently was under a deadline, and used the Export to DVD function of PPro for a single project. I burned it, and when I checked it out on my TV, there were sections (mostly wjhen the main character was walking through the landscape, or against a background) where there was a jittery, flickering effect. Like seeing multiple images, sligfht;ly out of sync. The background, and all non-moving obkjects, looked great.

I'm guessing that it was caused by my choosing to Maximize Bitrate--it pushed it up to 9.00. Someone once told me that this could be the result of having a too high bitrate. Any corroboration on that? Is that a likely suspect here?

I ended up exporting it to DV tape, and it was fine that way.

Thanks
Chris

Thanks for the reply
 

I honestly appreciate the reply but i already have it figured out. When i would try to export using de-interlace, it would shrink the image a little bit. This would disable the movie from being veiwed in fullscreen. (This is what i was talking about with the black bars)

The solution was to export using progressive scan. I also chose the scale clips to project size option when making a new project.

It seemed to help. I didn't think anyone was going to help me so i messed around for hours and figured it out.

Glad you managed to work it out for yourself :)

Thanks for posting your findings.

All the best,

I have the same problem. This is probably because I dont know how to do it properly...

Can anyone give me the optimal settings so that I can produce flicker free maximum quality copies?

I am a complete novice at this. I also experimented with maximising bit rate and I don't really know what I'm effecting.

This sounds like interlacing problems.

If you captured progressive, make sure your project settings and
MPEG2 encode / DVD output are BOTH set to PROGRESSIVE (or
NONE on interlacing).

If you did capture interlaced your project should be set to lower
field first. DVD / mpeg2 encoding should be set to upper first.

Play around with interlace settings.

Otherwise it may sound like a resolution change, but I'm not
sure how that would happen unless your source footage was
not in the DV format.

High bit rate problems are normally associated when the DVD player can not keep up, and thus starts to jerk or judder. Its very rare that high bit rate would cause the problems you are seeing.

However to be save 7Mbits/ sec should be pretty good.

As already mentioned you probably have a field reversal problem...

Thanks for the replies. I wondered about the interlaced/deinterlaced possibilities, but since I got a decent dupe onto the tape and had no time to do an in-depth investigation, I didn't take the time to check them out fully.

I did try one short section (transcoded and burned) after changing a setting to "deinterlaced", but it was actually worse.

Like so many things I've run into in the world of DV, there seems to be an awful lot of trial and error required. Just the simple (and correct!) advice to "Play around with interlace settings" means hours of detective work for me...just wish it would do what I want, without giving me fits.

There. I feel better now.

Rob--so the footage I shot (regular old interlaced DV) should be transcoded at the opposite field setting. Didn't know that..is that just for my situation/problem, or always?

That's always for MPEG2/DVD output. I am no user of PPro, that's
why I suggest to look into that. The other reason I encourage
people to look into it is that usually you learn more and better if
you find something yourself then if you just follow a guide that
somebody else made.

I tried finding this in my PPro 1.5 demo I have on my machine
here (I don't use Premiere) but could not find any way to export
to DVD/mpeg2 in there. So either this isn't included in my demo
or I'm not looking good. So I can't really check to see where those
export settings might be.

The only thing I can think of is export to an AVI. Start a new
project and load that up and export then. Perhaps it has troubles
with some complicated stuff you put in the project. Also make
sure you have enough space available on your output drive and
the drive that houses your temporary files.

Otherwise contact customer support from Adobe?

Hi Rob

The Export feature must be disabled in your demo--if not, you would find it under

File>Export> (either)Export to DVD or Adobe Media Encoder. Many, many settings in there.

Thanks! I'll mess about in there when I get the time.

Exporting flattened to avi then beginning a fresh sequence would be a good move. I agree with Rob. Since you are not authoring in Encore or other, Premiere is being summoned to load up the resources for your burning hardware. Has this functionality ever worked from premiere to your burner?

Does your burner have it's own authoring utility to accept your mpg to dvd output from Premiere? Will it accept the flattened avi?
This might serve as a temporary workaround until your authoring software arrives.

I don't have any of those options. Only Export -> Movie and Frame.
So can't help you there, sorry.

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Long : Rob--so the footage I shot (regular old interlaced DV) should be transcoded at the opposite field setting. Didn't know that..is that just for my situation/problem, or always? -->>>

i don't believe that is true... speaking off the top of my head, i seem to remember that you should always set the dvd/mpeg2 encoding to match the field setting of your source footage... isn't mini-dv lower field first?

mis-matched field settings will give you the exact problem that you have described here.

Let me explain a bit futher. Per default DVD's are UPPER FIELD
(even) first (like analog video [at least in the NTSC world] is as
well). However, there is a switch in an MPEG2/VOB file to indicate
which frame comes first.

*Most* standalone MPEG2 encoders have a field order select
box, this is almost ALWAYS for the SOURCE and NOT destination
(ie, the encoded file). Most encoders choose the field order for you.

So yes, this means a lower field first (odd) DV file will be usually
encoded as upper field first (even) MPEG2/VOB file. The encoder
will simply swap the fields. Therefore this will NOT be a problem.

However, in more complex systems like an NLE you can usually
set the field order in three places:

1) project settings
2) footage settings
3) output encoder settings

As said before, normally DVD uses upper field first and I would
advice to try that first. If the encoder and the NLE work good
together it will know your footage is in lower field and will change
the footage as needed. Then again, this might also be a source
setting (instead of output) and it might need to be set to lower.

In the end with interlaced DV footage you want to make sure your
project and footage settings are set to interlaced, lower field (odd)
first. Then play with the encoder interlacing and authoring settings
to see what does what.

Canopus Procoder Express - Simple to use and not so expensive.
Canopus Procoder 2 - The works! - More expensive.

Used both to convert from PAL to NTSC with very good results.
Would expect to be as good to convert NTSC to PAL.

Good luck,
Arnaldo