Random flicker in video

[Nigel O’neill]

I, too, am having this problem. I thought I had it sorted by copying the project from SVP12 back into SVP 11, but sadly, the problem persists. Mine’s a multicam shoot using Vasst Ultimate S, so it will be a pain to re-do in SVP11. Unfortunately I could not copy any of the markers across from SVP 12 to SVP 11, so I am unable to regenerate the master video track in SVP 11, so whatever is in the master video track FX persists.

The flickering is happening in my DVDA bluray and DVD PAL templates output from SVP12. It is definitely not in the source, but it is present in the rendered file before I bring it into DVDA.

I did notice my render template in SVP12 was set to render quality = best, so I am re-rendering to render quality = good. The output in my test render was slightly softer, but I did not do enough to see if the flicker had been eliminated.

The FX I am using are Colour Curves, Brightness and Contrast and Colour Corrector.

I have also noticed that the SVP 12 render templates do not allow you to select Include Audio stream and render audio as an elementary stream anymore.

I spent 1 day editing a 2 hour 12 minute multicam shoot and my computer has been running non-stop Monday night with me trying to find a workaround for this flicker issue. It is getting frustrating. I can live with SVP instability issues, but when the output is being affected by a flicker such as this, the only option seems to regress to SVP11 and start all over again.

Roger, my earlier post received zero responses. Hopefully someone will read your post. I don’t know if the problem lies in the Vasst Ultimate S Quadcam or Sony Vegas. I strongly suspect the latter as earlier versions of SVP12 were causing me grief with the Color Curve OFX plugin not being transferred properly to the master track. John Rofrano reported that issue after I raised it with Vasst support.

With this issue, it is not clear cut what the problem may be.

I can’t recall if you used Ultimate S Pro. If not, we can eliminate Ultimate S and focus on SVP12.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 11 (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Nigel O'Neill] “Unfortunately I could not copy any of the markers across from SVP 12 to SVP 11, so I am unable to regenerate the master video track in SVP 11”

Correction. Found the Marker tool in Ultimate S Pro and copied the markers. Re-rendering now. Fingers and toes all crossed that after copying the project tracks, events and now, markers from the SVP12 project, I can regenerate the master video track for flicker free output in SVP11.

If this works, John Rofrano’s tool has just saved my b*tt! Again.

[John Rofrano]

[Nigel O'Neill] “Correction. Found the Marker tool in Ultimate S Pro and copied the markers. Re-rendering now. Fingers and toes all crossed that after copying the project tracks, events and now, markers from the SVP12 project, I can regenerate the master video track for flicker free output in SVP11.

If this works, John Rofrano’s tool has just saved my b*tt! Again.”

I hope that works for you. Let us know.

Just for other forum member’s information we also now have VASST Marker Maker and VASST Marker Editor available separately as FasstApps for only $9.95 USD each. This way editors can buy a solution for just the problem they are having without purchasing all of Ultimate S Pro. 😉

~jr

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

[Nigel O’neill]

John

Do you know if anyone else is observing this flickering issue in SVP12 besides Bob and myself?

[John Rofrano]

[Nigel O'Neill] “Do you know if anyone else is observing this flickering issue in SVP12 besides Bob and myself?”

I haven’t read about it but it sounds like a bug. May a GPU problem? I would report it to Sony if you have a project that reproduces the problem 100%.

~jr

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

[Bob Peterson]

I have now made more progress. I am able to reproduce exactly the same flicker in SVP 10 (build 738 64 bit) with an almost exact set up as in SVP 12. The difference is that a color curve on the video track is a rough approximation. So, I don’t think that the problem is unique to SVP 12 (build 394). I cannot use build 486 because of the bug in split screen.

The video is a lecture which uses two cameras. The slides from the lecture are png files positioned at the proper time in the lecture. The slide layer is duplicated with the top layer of the two using color balance filters (2 of these) and a mask to highlight a point on the slide. Both slide layers also have a broadcast color filter. The video from a Canon GL2 camera is on the layer below the slides, and uses color corrector, color curves, and brightness and contrast. A composite envelope is used to control when this camera’s video is visible. The second camera is a Canon XL1 and it is on a layer below the GL2. The XL1 video uses the same controls as the GL2 although with substantially different settings. The XL1 also has an unsharp mask. Audio is on layers below the video tracks. Camera audio is not used. All video is DV.

The flicker I am examining occurs several seconds after one of the slides, and can be eliminated by muting one or both of the slide layers, or by moving the slide out of the time period I am looking at. It is not necessary to render from the beginning of the video to generate the flicker. I plan to test further to see if turning off the video adjustments have any effect.

This does look like a bug, and has probably been in Vegas for quite a while. I have some tests in mind such as fading the slide to avoid the abrupt transition. I am also wondering if a render to an intermediate format might eliminate the problem. Any suggestions for an appropriate intermediate?

I am not using GPU acceleration.

[Pat Keough]

While I love using Vegas, I do hate the glitches that pop up here and there. If a reboot doesn’t solve the problem, I usually go to intermediates as the next work around.

I may have missed it if you had already mentioned but have you had the flicker when rendering out to non long GOP formats? It’s such an odd issue in that it happens a few seconds after the PNG cuts out.

Anyhow, if it was me, I would try rendering out to Cineform and see if it flickers or maybe even DV since it is an SD project. If it did, I would try jpg instead of PNG just for the heck of it since it’s fast. I know it is unlikely that would help. If all that failed, I would render the actual footage from the cams to something else like good ‘ole cineform and see how it goes even though that is a pain in the rear.

[Bob Peterson]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I am still learning. What are “non long GOP formats”? I have not yet added codecs which are not delivered with SVP. Thus, I do not have Cineform, and I don’t see DV as one of my render options in SVP 12. I am open to suggestions as to how to add codecs. I could obtain DV by creating a tape on the camera, but I have not yet reached the point where I am desperate enough to do that ;-).

[Nigel O’neill]

[John Rofrano] “I hope that works for you. Let us know.

Just for other forum member’s information we also now have VASST Marker Maker and VASST Marker Editor available separately as FasstApps for only $9.95 USD each. This way editors can buy a solution for just the problem they are having without purchasing all of Ultimate S Pro.”

The Vasst marker tool saved the day as I was able to copy the markers from the SVP12 project to SVP11 and rerender.

I did notice my template was using the Best render setting and have set it to Good in SVP11. I don’t have any more time to experiment to see if this resolves the issue. I will try it when I have more time.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 11 (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Pat Keough]

Hey bob. You will probably want to look up long GOP and read up on that but basically it is a compression format where every frame of video is not a whole frame. Mpeg and H.264 are long GOP. DV is actually not, every frame (Besides the interlacing issue) is a whole frame. You will find DV as a render option under “Video for windows (.avi)”

I would recomend installing the free cineform codec from the gopro site for when you start getting more into this if you need an intermediate codec. Google the gorpo cineform thing too. You don’t really need it for DV though.