[Deirdre O’lavery]

Another option is to see if the client has the original camera BVAP folders with the native .mp4 clips. Those should open up right away in Vegas.

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Joao,

Are the XDCAM clips wrapped as .mov files? I had a similar problem with .mov XDCAM clips that were exported via FCP. In order to view them correctly in Vegas I had to purchase a special codec to view them in Windows correctly.

If updating Quicktime doesn’t work, you may want to try the trial version of the Calibrated Q XD Decode codec:

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QXDDownload.asp

The download is for the full version, but if you don’t pay for a license, it operates in demo mode.

If it works, but the files have difficulty playing on your system, you may have to down convert to edit them, then replace with the original media for final renders.

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Hi Craig – thanks.

My workflow is as follows:

The .mov clip properties are:

XDCAM-EX 1080p30
1920x1080x24
Field: Progressive
Pixel aspect: 1.0000

I have tried starting off with a timeline in Vegas 9 to match the final output, which would be 720×480, NTSC with the following settings:

Field: Progressive
Frame rate: 29.97 fps
Pixel aspect: 0.9091

I have also tried matching the timeline settings to the .mov clip properties, then rendering out to 720×480 progressive, 0.9091 .avi.

Both yield the same results.

I have further tried rendering different fields first, to see if I noticed any change (which I didn’t), as well as adjusting my timeline properties to different deinterlace methods (interpolate, blend, & none). Still, the output looks the same.

When I edited the scene, I had down-converted the clips to 720×480 .avi to edit, since this particular type of .mov doesn’t play nice with my system. Then replaced the down-converted clips with the original media before rendering out the final edited scene.

I haven’t added any effects or re-sized the footage at all.

Also, I have tried converting to 720×480 mpeg2, with still the same results.

I haven’t had any issues with .m2t HDV footage, and it looks like the native XDCAM .mp4 clips for another scene are rendering out just fine, too. It’s just this XDCAM .mov that’s problematic.

I don’t have an HD television, so I am only able to view these on a CRT television, which is where I am noticing the problem. Rendered files look fine when played on my system through Quicktime and WM Player.

Thanks!
Deirdre

[Deirdre O’lavery]

No problem – glad to hear you may have sorted it out!

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Hi Roger,

You’re quite welcome =)

I haven’t worked with Blu-Ray yet, so I may not be much help here. But just a thought, what is your ‘target media size’ set to in your project properties (I’m assuming it’s set to 25GB but just checking)?

And yes, if you can’t resolve the issue, it would be a good idea to start a new post – plus, if people have this issue in the future, it will be easier for them to find.

Cheers,
Deirdre

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Hi Daryl,

You can try reinstalling the drivers for your audio card, but if it’s playing correctly in other media players, I suspect it’s something else. Do you have any codec packs installed? Sometimes those interfere with stuff in Vegas. You could also try reinstalling Vegas (or upgrading if you are able to, to a more current version).

Let us know how it goes =)

Cheers,
Deirdre

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Hi Daryl-

Curious – did the rendered file play all right in your media player?

~Deirdre

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Hi Roger~

I used to use ULEAD years ago. My issues with it was it’s compression engine and that it was limited in navigation options. Even with 2-pass encoding, DVD5s (single layer) still never turned out great for movies that were 90 minutes and up. In fact, single layers made in DVDA look far better (in my humble opinion) than those auhtored in ULEAD.

DVDA is a bit of a learning curve in comparison, but it is a more robust program allowing you to do things and add navigation that ULEAD wouldn’t allow. it also allows full control over your discs, chapter point links and chapter menu footage.

That said, “Stick with what works” is always a good argument, especially if ULEAD worked well for your needs or client needs (if you still have it available).

I believe for dual layer, ULEAD chooses the layer-break automatically. Some DVD Authorers prefer to specify when a layer will switch over (for instance, so it’s not in the middle of a scene in case there is a pause while the player switches from Layer 0 to Layer 1).

Have you recently changed the kind of media you have been using? For DL discs, I find that only Verbatim and Sony are the most reliable (and most expensive). Memorex and the new Kodak DLs are all totally unreliable and tend to end up as coasters — of which I have more than a few =(

Also, you may want to run the DVD through Isobuster (there is a freeware version) to check the disc for surface errors.

Cheers,
Deirdre

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Ok, so I want to explain what I did to remedy this for those who may have the same question:

I spent about 2 days rendering out this XDCAM footage, but every time I viewed it on an external monitor, the flickering/buzzing on ornate patterns and narrow, close lines, was ridiculous (more so than usual).

After doing a lot of research I came to a couple of conclusions. XDCAM contains a lot of information. When an XDCAM clip is rendered to standard definition format, all of that info is compressed, and televisions have a hard time displaying the end product correctly. I am also assuming that this is mostly an issue with CRT monitors and televisions, and that this wouldn’t be as much of an issue with, say, and HD television.

Of course, not everyone has an HD TV yet (including me), so it’s still a good idea to make sure your final product looks as good as possible for older television.

Anyway, after much trial and error, including different blend & field settings, and reduced interlace flicker, I found a solution. It requires a generation loss, but still looks pretty good (better than a lot of native SD footage) with pretty minimal noise/buzzing/flickering.

What I did was render out the problem scene as NTSC DV with lower fields. Then I reimported the scene into my timeline, and rendered the import out as NTSC DV Progressive. And thatwas it. Everything smoothed out significantly. there is still a buit of flicker on certain objects when the camera is in motion, but it is much more acceptable than it had been.

I believe i checked reduce ‘interlace flicker’ on the imported files properties (not the original clips properties) before rendering it out, but I don’t think it made much of a difference, if any, than if I hadn’t slected it. BUt you may want to play around with it a bit.

Not the best option, but it worked and helped me get through a 2-day headache.

Hope this information is useful to someone!

Best,
Deirdre

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey

[Deirdre O’lavery]

Correction: I meant to address the above to ‘Roger’ not ‘Robert’.

Sorry!

“All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people”

~My Man Godfrey