Vegas to DVD Architect to DVD Flutter

[John L. Miller]

Just thought I would ask if anyone has experienced this issue before. I get everything looking perfect in Vegas on my Widescreen monitor, then render it for Architect. After I send it to DVD, when I replay it, it has some flutter, or jumping in certain places that makes it look like a home movie on a camcorder. I am fairly new at this, so could someone tell me what causes this? Its just a spot or two that will wave back and forth. Any help is appreciated. J

[Mike Kujbida]

John, a few questions for you to answer first please.

Are you watching this on a computer monitor or a TV?
Does it flutter on video clips or still limages or both?
If it's video, where did it originally come from (i.e. camcorder, VHS, etc.)?

[John L. Miller]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

John, a few questions for you to answer first please.

Are you watching this on a computer monitor or a TV?
Does it flutter on video clips or still limages or both?
If it's video, where did it originally come from (i.e. camcorder, VHS, etc.)?

Hi Mike..I shoot with a canon xl2. capture to vegas. Render MPEG-2 video file with a separate AC3 stereo sound file to architect and burn. I use a 26" Sanyo Flatscreen LCD Widescreen TV to monitor the work. I use a 7900GTX Soundcard with HDMI out to my HDMI in on the TV. When I get finished with the project, it looks perfect on my TV straight from VEGAS. After I render it and burn it to DVD, it looks more like a tiny handicam than it did when I finished it. If I could capture the final look in vegas to DVD without gaining the flickering which is usually on a stationairy object, or edge, I would be very happy. I don't lose much, but enough quality to upset me. The flickering normally occurs on a white or bright surface. I am thinking possible over exposure causes this? I have been experimenting with Quick blur effect..it seems to help some, but doesn't fix the problem entirely. Any thoughts? Thanks. J

[Mike Kujbida]

John, certain video cards can help with render times for apps such as Magic Bullet but that's about it.
The bottom line is that your video card will have no affect on your video quality.

As to why your video quality drops, think about the math involved.
A 1 hr. video (in DV format) comes in around 13 GB.
When you convert this to DVD, it drops to a bit over 4 GB.
That's roughly a 3:1 compression form the original footage. Something has to give and picture quality is the first thing that most folks notice.
This quality loss can be limited (especially for any video longer than 70 min.) by using a bitrate calculator to optimize your settings.

As far as the flickering issue, I think you're on the right track with overexposure. Odds are that, if you look on the scope, you'll see a rather large spike. While you can get away with narrow ones, largwer ones are problematic. Either deal with it during shooting by dulling it down (hair spray is great for this) or use the Curves FX in Vegas to drop your white levels down.

[John L. Miller]

I understand the math has to lose some quality to fit to disk, but, consider this: I can render a 1GB file down under 100MB and play it on the computer monitor and it still looks beautiful, it is when it goes to disk that it seems to change the look, when playing it on a DVD player with TV. thanks mike

[Michael Wisniewski]

Might be the HDMI connection that's making the difference. What happens if you connect the computer's video output to the same ports as the DVD player: S-VHS, composite, or component?

[John L. Miller]

Originally Posted by Michael Wisniewski

Might be the HDMI connection that's making the difference. What happens if you connect the computer's video output to the same ports as the DVD player: S-VHS, composite, or component?

I never thought of that since the DVD player is on another widescreen in my house, not my widescreen I use for editing. I think I have managed to get the picture just about right now. I had to use some Guatian blur. The Quick blur was just a tiny bit too little. I turn the blur to ...02 on both vertical and horizontal and it smoothes the flicker into thin air. I also added a bit of film grain. Not too much, but enough to turn away any remaining video look. I also turned the brightness down some then used magic bullet bleach light. I shot the film using saturated colors. So when I use Bleach light it reallys turns it into a nice film look. I think I am happy with it now. I have been playing with different ways to edit it. Tell me this, what is the advantage to adding effects to the Video out or adding them to the individual track itself. I cannot tell a difference except it seems to take longer rendering when adding them to the overall video out. J

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by John L. Miller

Tell me this, what is the advantage to adding effects to the Video out or adding them to the individual track itself. I cannot tell a difference except it seems to take longer rendering when adding them to the overall video out. J

There are 4 places to apply video FX, depending on your wants/needs.
#1 - in the media pool (affects that event no matter where you place it or how you trim it);
#2 - event level (affects that event at that specific occurrence only);
#3 - track level (affects all events on that specific track);
#4 - output level (affects every event on every track).

#4 (and, to a lesser extent #3) is why your render times increase noticeably.