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Text problem with AVI widescreen, interlace problem with mpeg
Hi,
I am a youth worker using sony vegas to edit videos by youth groups, shot on a canon HV40. We currently shoot in the HV40’s widescreen DV mode. What I want to do is enable groups to make a film and then get a dvd of it which they can play on a computer or a tv, but I’ve run into some problems.
1. Presumably, shooting in PAL DV on the HV40, my footage is interlaced 25fps. When I edit and export it using Vegas’ automatic default settings and send it to DVD Architect, I get a DVD that shows interlace lines on PCs AND on LCD TVs. Obviously I don’t want this, and despite reading in various places that DVD players supposedly ‘deinterlace’ interlaced DVDs this evidently isn’t the case. I cannot export the footage as progressive Mpeg footage without buying the professional Mpeg add-on, and I resent the idea of paying more money when all I want is to make normal DVDs that look nice. I have tried exporting as progressive AVI, then burning to DVD using Windows DVD maker, and this gets rid of the interlace lines. However, it introduces another problem:
2. I have shot my footage using the HV40’s widescreen option, so I export it using the PAL AVI widescreen template, as if I don’t it’s the wrong aspect ratio. However, this makes the text go weird – blocky, ghosty artifacts appear all around and inside it. This is something to do with the widescreen template, as if I export as uncompressed AVI it doesn’t happen. Weirdly, it even happens if I create the text as a Jpeg image in paint, import it into the project and then render it. This problem has been raised before on this forum, but the poster didn’t get a solution, and didn’t seem to realise it was specifically the widescreen AVI template causing the problem.
So currently I am faced with a choice of interlace lines all over the film, or horrible looking text. All I want is a nice, normal video and I find it highly annoying that Vegas’ default settings don’t let me achieve that.
As a related point – what’s the point in using interlaced footage at all these days, when LCD TVs, PCs and HD TVs are progressive, and that’s what almost everyone watches DVDs on now!?
Any suggestions for overcoming one of, or both of, these problems would be highly appreciated!
Thanks
Dave
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4 Replies
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1. Presumably, shooting in PAL DV on the HV40, my footage is interlaced 25fps. When I edit and export it using Vegas’ automatic default settings
This might be your problem. Vegas’ automatic default settings are for projects is NTSC! You need to set up your project for PAL. What is happening now if Vegas is converting your PAL footage to NTSC and then back to PAL. That might be what’s causing the problem. Also make sure you render using a PAL template.
As a related point – what’s the point in using interlaced footage at all these days, when LCD TVs, PCs and HD TVs are progressive?
You’re assumptions are not true. Lot’s of early HD TV’s are not progressive because the HD spec specifies that video be interlaced for backward compatibility. So the answer to your question of “Why?” is “Backward compatibility with the last 94 years of TV programming (which started in 1926)”.
…and that’s what almost everyone watches DVDs on now!?
The DVD spec also requires interlaced footage for PAL and NTSC and only 24p film is allowed to be progressive. Don’t forget, DVD’s have been around since 1997. That’s 13 years of legacy that needs to be supported.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks for the response John – however, I am using PAL settings, I should have made clear that when I said ‘default’ I meant the default PAL settings (I select PAL in the box that pops up when opening a new project). I always select a PAL option when exporting.
Dave
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Try setting your project settings to field order, Progressive, de-interlace method, Interpolate. Then right click on your video event, properties, media tab, field order, upper or lower field field first, which ever looks best. this should get rid of your interlace lines. Also render as progressive. Hope this helps, Danny Hays
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You said you were exporting as PAL AVI, try exporting as PAL MPEG2 Widescreen and see if that makes a difference. You will always see interlacing on a PC but you are correct that the DVD player should not be showing this even on an LCD TV. Also make sure that your DVD Architect project is set to PAL and not NTSC.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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