[Paul Goelz]

The way to fix this is to right-click on all of your events and go to the Properties… and check Disable Resample. This will stop the ghost frames when rendering to 29.97. The reason you can’t render to 30fps is because it’s illegal. Not supported. The standard is 29.97. You just need to conform for 30fps footage without resampling the video (which is what’s causing the ghosting).

THAT was the solution. Thanks! I looked but could not find a way to turn off resampling by default…. is there one? And would turning off resampling globally have a down side? Most of my video is 60i but I will be working with this 30p camera as well.

And can I assume that my 30fps asset in a 29.97 project will run slightly slower when I disallow resampling?

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Well, it has been an interesting evening! I downloaded the trial version of Vegas 11 and it renders my 30fps asset to Sony AVC perfectly at 30fps. Interestingly, there wasn’t a preset for 720-30p but when I customized one, it worked great.

Time for bed. We’ll see what Sony says when I call them.

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Well, after trying all the permutations I can think of, I have come to the same conclusion…. 30fps and Sony AVC is a no-go. No idea why. I’ll give Sony a call and see what they say.

I can render to MPEG2 (which has a 30fps preset), but the files are about 5X the size. Uploaded to YouTube they seem to look OK but I seem to recall that a yer or so ago I did some testing and the MP4s from Sony AVC looked even better.

Or I could resurrect Adobe Premiere Elements and see how it deals with it. But I swore on a stack of RAM sticks I would never touch that piece of junk again 😉 I almost swore off video editing after trying that program.

In the end, I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out why I can’t set the project to 29.97 for 30fps assets. It should just play a tad slower, right? It is as if something is serving the 30fps asset at 30fps regardless of what the project is set to and when the next frame isn’t ready in time, Vegas superimposes part of the previous frame.

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Wait, hold the phone. We’re on the right track but we aren’t there quite yet.

I reset the project to 30fps progressive and Vegas now correctly displays my footage without ghosting. Every frame is displayed individually and cleanly. So far, so good. But when I render to Sony AVC, the problems start.

If I render to the stock “Internet 1280 X 720-30p” Sony AVC template (preset to 29.97 fps) with “allow source to adjust frame rate” NOT checked, the motion is smooth but the ghosts are back. I think I expected that because render frame rate does not match the source?

If I render to the stock “Internet 1280 X 720-30p” Sony AVC template (preset to 29.97 fps) with “allow source to adjust frame rate” checked, the motion is VERY jerky. If I examine the rendered output, there are some ghosts and it looks like every 2-3 frames it duplicates one. I think I also expected this since the render frame rate does not match the source?

But….. if I render to the stock “Internet 1280 X 720-30p” Sony AVC template (custom set to 30 fps to match the source), I get:

“an error occurred while trying to create the output file. ”
“The reason for the error could not be determined.”

This IS the correct render setting for a 30fps source file, right?

If I render to the stock “HDV 720-30p” MPEG2 template (preset to 30 fps), the output looks smooth and correct with no ghosting.

So what am I missing? Why can’t I render to Sony AVC at 30fps?

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Duh! That was it. I was stuck thinking in 29.97 FPS mode. The file is 30FPS. I’m assuming (now that I think about it rationally) that Vegas was interpolating frames to match the 29.97FPS project setting. As soon as I set the project to 30FPS, all was well.

Pretty amazing what a little $40 camera the size and shape of a keyfob can do with a lens that is about 1.5mm in diameter (3mm f/l, f2.8).

Thanks again. This one had me stumped, but it shouldn’t have 😉

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

If the camera you are using is really imagin in the near I/R, look closely at the images to make sure that they look OK. People and clothing can look odd when imaged in near I/R. For clothing, “odd” can range anywhere from the wrong grey shade to semi-transparent…. probably not a good thing for your application? 😉

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Don’t forget a noise reduction program such as NeatVideo to clean up the noise that comes along with boosting a dark video. Properly configured, it can almost perform miracles. The SD version is not too expensive and a lot cheaper than a better camera.

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

[Stephen Mann] “If you are going to be using the drive for editing, stay away from the green drives. They slow down and even shut down to save energy. Not something you want to happen when editing.”

Are you sure they do that while actually in use? I have been using nothing but green drives and have not noticed any issues that I am aware of so far. They do spin down when idle but they seem to work fine during an edit or render session.

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

Interesting. My 3GHz dual core machine can play two AVCHD tracks (from a Canon HF100) with one video FX per track (color corrector) plus an additional video track for titles and credits. Preview is fine although as I said above, the CPU hits 100% at the transitions.

Rendering, on the other hand, is a disappointment. With GPU acceleration enabled, the CPU hovers around 50% and a Sony AVC render takes substantially longer than it did in Vegas 9. With GPU acceleration turned off, the CPU stays at 100%. Not sure if it is as fast as Vegas 9 but it is at least close. Note that I have a low end graphics card, the nVidia GT210. I’d consider upgrading it but I HATE noisy PCs and the 210 (this is the version with the fan) is about as noisy as I want.

So while upgrading Vegas cost a bunch, it was cheaper than upgrading my PC. To upgrade my PC (the MD doesn’t do quad core) would mean a new MB/CPU/RAM at a minimum.

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com

[Paul Goelz]

OK, downloaded Vegas Pro 10 and tried it on a typical “two video track with text items on a third track” project that Vegas 9 could not play smoothly. Vegas 10 plays it perfectly. There isn’t much margin…. it runs between 70% and 85% CPU utilization (which spikes to 100% when processing transitions). But it is definitely better than Vegas 9 so I’m sold. Now to see if I qualify for any upgrade discounts. For some reason I can’t log into my account and it asks questions I don’t think I supplied when I try a password reset. So I’ll have to call customer service…. but they are currently “closed for a company wide meeting”. Hope that isn’t a bad thing 😉

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com