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Ripped videos are weird in FCP
I use MPEG streamclip to rip videos to put into a FCP SD timeline with some other stuff. When I burned a DVD and watched it on the TV, everything was fine until I got to the ripped videos (all of them). They were very “jumpy” and just unpleasant to watch, so I went back to my FCP timeline and got up close and personal with the Canvas to see what was going on. (I don’t have an external monitor or TV connected here, so have a heart)
What I found on the Canvas while stepping through the timeline frame by frame was that every 4th and 5th frame of ripped video had that interlaced, horizontally “sliced” look. It’s obviously quite noticeable when there’s a great deal of motion in the video. At first, I started thinking this had something to do with 3:2 pulldown, but since it was happening on every 4th and 5th frame I chucked that theory.
Anyway, I played around with MPEG Streamclip and selected “deinterlace video” during the rip. I imported that version into my timeline, and what I noticed was that the jaggies were gone, but now every 4th and 5th frame were duplicated. (Mostly, I should say. There were a few pixels that were different, but nothing noticeable while watching)
I must say that the duped frame version was muuuuch easier on the eyes, but it still makes me wonder. Is there a more proper way to rip these videos?
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15 Replies
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[Paul Campbell] “(I don’t have an external monitor or TV connected here, so have a heart) “
Well, you should, so you can catch these problems before you output.
It is as simple and inexpensive as connecting a monitor to any DV camcorder (even a home video type will work great) with the camera connected to the Mac via FireWire.
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Ok, I was hoping we could just skip the usual admonition here…
Assuming that I’m simply too poor to afford all that for the time being, and recognizing that I at least found an oddity in the Canvas after outputting merely one DVD, can someone explain how to possibly get around this ripped video problem? I’ll never mention my lack of an external monitor again, I swear. Like I said, I can see the problem in my Canvas. Now I just need to get rid of it. Thanks,
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Addendum to my initial post…
I just discovered that this 4th-and-5th-frame thing happens before FCP even joins the party. I just stepped through a video in Streamclip frame by frame and found the same thing happening…the “same thing” being every 4th and 5th frame having the interlacey squigglies.
Ok, suddenly this is no longer an FCP-worthy question, but rather an MPEG Streamclip question. However, there isn’t a Streamclip forum on the Cow, so can anyone help?
Ever grateful,
Paul
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Actually, what you encountered was indeed the 3:2 pulldown. I’ll take the risk of making myself look like an egghead and try to explain it:
We start with four individual frames shot at 24 fps… frame A, frame B, frame C and frame D. Now, we need to make those frames stretch across five video frames (10 fields). So… the sequence goes like this:
FRAME 1: AA
FRAME 2: BB
FRAME 3: BC
FRAME 4: CD
FRAME 5: DDEach letter representing the original frame as it relates to the 30 fps field.
Make sense? To be honest, I just reread it and I think I even confused myself.
Whatever the case, if you deinterlace the original material, you will wind up with a duplicated frame because you’re still trying to fit four 24 fps frames into five 30 fps frames.
Cheers!
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Thanks, Simon. I get what you’re saying, but just for the purposes of understanding this fully, would your explanation to my particular problem be more accurately described as:
FRAME 1: AA
FRAME 2: BB
FRAME 3: CC
FRAME 4: CD
FRAME 5: DC ?I’m not trying to poo-poo your breakdown here, but rather just trying to correlate my scenario with
your math. (Since my 4th and 5th frames are the ones that seem all diced up)Regardless of math, how can I best get around this? As I mentioned before, the duplicate-frame method from within Streamclip is much more pleasing to the eye, but is this the best way to rip a video from a DVD? And since I’m on the subject, why is this happening inside Streamclip? (See previous post) All I’m doing is stepping through a video frame by frame in Streamclip…why is every 4th and 5th frame sliced up?
Cheers, indeed. Thanks, again.
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Well, with regards to your first question, it all depends on which frame you start counting from, that’s all.
Now, on to the issue at hand… As long as the video on the DVD comes from a 24 fps source that was transfered to 30 fps with a 3:2 pulldown, then that’s what Streamclip will see, I’m afraid.
I’ve used Streamclip quite a bit and I’ve found that it works pretty well, but I also use a program called Cinematize to rip DVDs. Cinematize is a little more sophisticated, but it’s not free.
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Hi Paul,
I don’t belong to the NTSC world, so this may be a dumb question, but why don’t you try to export from MPGStreamclip at 29.98?
rafael -
Sorry for the late reply…had to get some sleep. So Streamclip will show the pulldown artifacts, but I can watch the DVD on my tv just fine. Is that just because tv’s are interlaced, so the artifacts don’t show? (Sorry for asking such simple questions here…trying to learn)
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Hi, Rafa! Is it 2009 in Laos yet??? Happy New Year.
I haven’t used Streamclip enough to answer that one off the top of my head. I need to be sitting in front of it to answer your question, which I’ll do later.
Paul
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[Paul Campbell] “So Streamclip will show the pulldown artifacts, but I can watch the DVD on my tv just fine. Is that just because tv’s are interlaced, so the artifacts don’t show?”
Although your DVD is 23’98, the Video signal that feeds your NTSC TV must be 29’98.
This is what the Pull-down is for.
In your TV you can not see it because each frame with pull-down have been converted in two frames on playing. This is the way you get the 29’98 from the 23’98.
This is the idea I have just from reading posts during a couple of years in the COW.
My personal experience with Pull-down (thanks God) is nil.
Cheers,
rafael
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