Convert 24p .mov to interlaced 25fps PAL

[Cotswold]

Hi,

I've been trying all manner of things to fix this but I'm not having much luck, so I'm hoping some kind soul can help me out.

I have a Nikon D7000 SLR which I've mostly (until now) been using for stills. I have a Sony HD camcorder which I use for my holiday videos etc., but I've recently started using the video functionality in the Nikon.

Now, the Nikon records in 1080p using 24p .mov as its output file. If you're recording in 1080p there is no other choice of output.

My workflow for my Sony HD camcorder has been to use Sony Vegas 9 for editing - I then render to .m2ts, drop the final rendered .m2ts into DVD Architect 5 and render to Blu-ray. One thing to note is that as I am in the UK, I render at 25fps. This is all good, I've got a nice workflow with a core i7-2600k which renders my final edits nice and quickly, and the finished Blu-rays look superb.

I tried dropping one of the .mov files from the Nikon into a timeline the other day, rendered it using the same settings as I've used for my Sony footage (Sony .AVC template, 1920x1080, interlaced, top field first), got my .m2ts file out, dropped it into DVD Architect in the exact same way as I used for my Sony footage, got my Blu-ray disk out and...the results look awful. Lots of motion blur, really soft pictures...unusable, to put it simply.

I suspect this is because I'm using a progressive scan .mov at 24fps and I'm trying to render it out to 25fps interlaced for my PAL Blu-ray. I've tried different settings for my renders from Sony Vegas but nothing has had any effect - I've tried about 20 renders now, fortunately burning to rewritables as a test, but they all look the same.

I KNOW that the D7000 can produce really nice video output, so something's obviously wrong with my workflow. Can anyone offer any guidance please? I am loathe to drop Vegas/DVD Arch as I really like them both and have invested a lot of time and money in them. I was wondering about using some converter software (TMPGenc Video Mastering?) to convert my 24p .mov files into something that I can drop onto my Vegas timeline and produce high quality 25fps interlaced renders from...anything that will help this flickery, motion blurry craziness.

Thanks in advance for your kind assistance.

[transporterfan]

Not sure if this will help, but there is nothing lost in trying:
download tsMuxer (if you don't have it already) and drag the .mov file into it.
In the 'General track options' try changing the frame rate to 25 fps and render as Blu-ray disk.

If it is an interlace problem this won't change much, if it's frame rate problem it might give you a quick means of conversion.

More on converter information:

http://www.extensoft.com/?post_id=175466&p=forum_post&topicsPage=22&forum_id=1

Windows version here:

http://www.brorsoft.com/mts-converter/index.html

[Cotswold]

Thanks for the advice transporterfan - I tried tsmuxer but as soon as I drop (or add) the .mov into the app, it says "Some tracks not recognised" and it won't output anything. I guess it doesn't like the format of the .mov file, even though it's straight out of my camera, with no processing.

[transporterfan]

The converter above might help though:

Deinterlace 1080p/1080i/720p AVCHD/MTS/M2TS/AVCHD Lite Videos
The deinterlacing option allows you to convert interlaced 1080p/1080i/720p AVCHD/MTS/M2TS/AVCHD Lite video into a non-interlaced form, so that you can enjoy a better and clearer video effect. Apart from that, the program also provides various other special effects, like simple laplacian sharpen, gray, flip color, invert, aged film, etc.

[BRi7X]

I'm having almost the exact same issue at this very moment.

Nikon D7000, 24p.... Sony Vegas, I even have a core i7 also, not that that matters...

My problem is that I need to convert this 1080p24 to 1080i60. I noticed tsMuxer only goes up to 30... Is there any easy way to do this without it compromising quality?

[transporterfan]

OK guys. Let me know if this works for you.

http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/pre-rendering-canon-t2i-files/

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/934225

[Cotswold]

Hi,

Thanks for the help transporterfan - I've been doing some experimenting this weekend with the tutorial/tool that you linked to on your last post. I used mpeg streamclip to convert the video from 24p to 25fps using one of the codecs in that tool (by using the "frame rate" setting when exporting to QuickTime), and loaded it up in Vegas. It still showed as a progressive scan clip in the Vegas timeline but the frame rate showed as 25fps. I rendered out to a 1920x1080 .m2ts interlaced format for my PAL Blu-ray, created a disc in DVD Architect using the rendered clip and...it's still the same. Flickery, with motion blur - it looks nasty.

So, I made a change on the D7000 (the SLR that I'm using to record the video in the first place) and moved from 1920x1080 and 24p to 1280x720 at 25p (i.e. 25fps progressive scan). Unfortunately there is no ability to select 1080p at 25fps.

Anyway, I loaded that 720p clip straight into Vegas and rendered it out using the same template I've been using all along, outputting it to 1920x1080 25fps interlaced PAL, dropped the rendered clip into DVD Arch, created and burned the ISO and...it looks GREAT. No flickering, no motion blur artifacts. It's all good.

Conclusion: the problem is caused by trying to convert 24fps progressive into 25fps interlaced. It seems I can go from 25fps progressive to 25fps interlaced with no issues, so I guess it's frame rate thing, though why this would have such a strange effect on the render is a mystery to me. Even the conversion to 25fps in mpeg streamclip doesn't seem to have been handled well, as if I take the output of that and drop it into Vegas and render with the exact same template, I get the same blurry, messy final output.

I have no idea why this would be such a problem.