Color Banding while decoding MJPEG

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Zapater] “Does Morgan encodes in interlaced as well?”

Yes, I could not get it to render progressive. M-JPEG is a format that goes way, way back before progressive video cameras existed when everything was SD and interlaced. There is a new Motion-JPEG spec that supports progressive but these codecs do not implement that.

[Carlos Zapater] “Hmm… now that I’m thinking about it maybe I can restore the system to a point before things began to misbehave. Let me try and I’ll tell you.”

That sounds like your only hope. Then go out and buy a good backup program like Acronis TrueImage and set up a daily incremental backup so that you can go back to any day you want. It’s absolutely essential to have daily backups of your Windows computer because they are so fragile that at any point in time things that worked yesterday just stop working today. Good Luck.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlos Zapater]

[John Rofrano] “Yes, I could not get it to render progressive. M-JPEG is a format that goes way, way back before progressive video cameras existed when everything was SD and interlaced. There is a new Motion-JPEG spec that supports progressive but these codecs do not implement that.”

I won’t be able to restore my system until late when I come back from work. I could do it within TeamViewer but that’s not a thing I like to do in the distance. In the meanwhile… what is in your opinion the best intra-frame compression codec to work with Vegas?

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Zapater] “In the meanwhile… what is in your opinion the best intra-frame compression codec to work with Vegas?”

I do all of my screen capture videos with Techsmith Camtasia. They have one of the best intra-frame codecs for this type of thing. You could also look into the free Lagarith but the files will be huge because it’s lossless. Both support progressive video.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlos Zapater]

[John Rofrano] “I do all of my screen capture videos with Techsmith Camtasia. They have one of the best intra-frame codecs for this type of thing. You could also look into the free Lagarith but the files will be huge because it’s lossless. Both support progressive video.”

I tested both of them and discarded them. Camtasia is really good but it takes too may resources in my computer and when I scrubbed the clips in editor the playback was unaccurate and choppy. The only software that manages the clips is Camtasia itself. And Lagarith was very good but it ate a lot of space so I discarded it too. I thought that with an MJPEG codec my problems would solve.

Now for the report of today. Restoration was OK although Morgan didn’t want to work as before. I uninstalled al MJPEG codecs and leave Morgan alone: didn’t work. Uninstalled it, installed the 32bit version, then 64 bit version and… it worked!! Don’t ask me why, but it worked. Let’s go with pictures. I suggest to click on images to view them in full resolution.

This is Morgan in progressive settings as I see it in the preview window with exact output size.

This is with interlaced upper field

As you see the interlaced effect adds to the jagged lines resulting in “double jagging”

I have rendered a little portion of the video several times changing project and render specs, all resulting wrong in terms of picture quality. Deinterlace in project was set to ‘Blend’. When render was set to progressive always had black frames and flickering. All other combinations resulted in typical interlace edges in areas where it was movement.

As additional data, when I tried to play the interlaced renders in VLC with deinterlace option set to auto, the result was the picture with both fields blended but the text and the picture remained with the original jagged edges.

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I edit the post because I’ve just captured my first clip with Morgan codec. It shows jagged picture when played directly but looks beautiful in Vegas. No jagged edges, no color banding. The problem is now the flicker. Picture sometimes and randomly becomes a lot darker for a frame. Strange thing is that when playing directly in VLC it doesn’t flicker (but then it shows jagged). Damn’t…

Seems that there is some incompatibility if you capture with 32 bit version and then you work with 64 bit version of the same codec.

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Zapater] “Seems that there is some incompatibility if you capture with 32 bit version and then you work with 64 bit version of the same codec.”

Have you tried Lower Field first instead of Upper? Have you tried editing in 32-bit? Do you have an older version of Vegas Pro 11.0 or earlier that supports 32-bit? Does the flashing happen during playback or only when rendered? It seems you are getting closer by capturing with Morgan.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlos Zapater]

[John Rofrano] “Have you tried Lower Field first instead of Upper?”

Yes. I tried all combinations in both project settings and render between progressive/upper/lower

[John Rofrano] “Have you tried editing in 32-bit? Do you have an older version of Vegas Pro 11.0 or earlier that supports 32-bit?”

Unfortunately I don’t have that option. I only have Vegas 11 and Premiere. Maybe I could try an older Vegas demo if I find it… but anyway if it works I wouldn’t be able to purchase it.

[John Rofrano] “Does the flashing happen during playback or only when rendered?”

It happens while scrubbing in the timeline, while playing in the timeline and in the final render. It doesn’t happen when you play the raw captured video in software player but then it shows the jagged edges.

[John Rofrano] “It seems you are getting closer by capturing with Morgan.”

I hope so. Both codecs (PicVideo and Morgan) work better when you capture and edit with the same codec but still have problems. Vegas architecture seems waaaay old…

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Zapater] “It happens while scrubbing in the timeline, while playing in the timeline and in the final render. “

Then it’s not a render problem. Try turning GPU acceleration of video processing to OFF in Options | Preferences | Video. That may get rid of the flashing.

[Carlos Zapater] “Both codecs (PicVideo and Morgan) work better when you capture and edit with the same codec but still have problems.”

Since Vegas Pro has it’s own M-JPEG decoder, what if you capture with Morgan and then turn Morgan off in it’s little control panel and let Vegas Pro use it’s own M-JPEG decoder?

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlos Zapater]

[John Rofrano] “Since Vegas Pro has it’s own M-JPEG decoder, what if you capture with Morgan and then turn Morgan off in it’s little control panel and let Vegas Pro use it’s own M-JPEG decoder?”

I tried that before all the mess and Vegas didn’t recognize the clips saying that “there was a problem with the codec”. Maybe because it was encoded with a 32bit version? Anyway I’ll try again as now only have Morgan.

[Carlos Zapater]

[John Rofrano] “Since Vegas Pro has it’s own M-JPEG decoder, what if you capture with Morgan and then turn Morgan off in it’s little control panel and let Vegas Pro use it’s own M-JPEG decoder?”

I tried that before all the mess and Vegas didn’t recognize the clips saying that “there was a problem with the codec”. Maybe because it was encoded with a 32bit version? Anyway I’ll try again as now only have Morgan.

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Finally good news!

The flicker was gone when turning off GPU acceleration. Now it seems that I have a working workflow with Vegas!

Anyway I tried disabling the codec and Vegas didn’t recognize the clip as expected. “problem with codec”.

Now I wonder if the color banding with PicVideo was because of the same… Don’t worry, I won’t touch a thing now 😀

It’s been hard… Thank you again, John!

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome. Codecs can be a nightmare sometimes. I’m glad you got it all sorted out.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com