rapid"flicker"but ONLY on the bottom black border?

[defense]

Hi, i'm wondering if anyone can tell me why on a couple of movies I am noticing a rapid "flicker" by the bottom black border of a widescreen movie. For example, my backup of Dick Tracy I was watching the other day and I noticed that the movie itself is perfect, and the top black border connecting with the picture is perfect, but the BOTTOM black border just connecting with the bottom line of the video is flickering or jittering back and forth. It isn't all that noticeable because it's such a small portion, but I noticed it WITHOUT looking for it. Can anyone tell me why that is or what it may be from? From what i've read, you can apparently have a similar problem if the field order is reversed when encoding, (and I did reencode that movie with CCE), but I thought that would be the entire movie itself flickering or jittering, not the black border at the bottom. It does this throughout the entire movie.

Everytime I have noticed ANYTHING I suspected may be different from the original, I just tested the original and saw the original had the same. But I can't test the original of Dick Tracy, because that DVD is damaged. If anyone can tell me if they have DICK TRACY and can notice what i'm talking about on their originals, or can tell me why I may be experiencing this on my backup, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance

[HillJack]

Hi defense,

Are you doing any resizing of the video from the original?

Your problem is most likely not caused by incorrect field-order... If the field-order were wrong, you'd notice it throughout the whole picture, not just at the borders.

I have seen something similar to what you are refering too -- except mine was on the top border of the widescreen video. The problem was my own fault, and it was caused by my resizing the video by a NON multiple of 16 pixels.

ie: I resized from 480x480 to 456x456 (which is not an even multiple of 16; 16x1.5) intsead of 448x448 (which is a multiple of 16; 16x2).

If you resize, make sure its by an even multiple of 16.

Hope that helps, its about the only time i've ever seen what you refer to

[MOVIEGEEK]

defense,
It sounds like the problem is your DVD player.I say this because you said the original has artifacts and a damaged disk would cause artifacts at random points on screen.Have you tried other DVD's to see if you get the same artifacts?

[defense]

@HillJack, thanks for the info, but as I mentioned above, I didn't think it was the field order because the entire picture would jitter, not just a border. I didn't resize either. I have no need to resize. Thanks though for your time.


@MovieGeek, thank you for the response, and just to clear up the original disk problem, it was not that my original had artifacts, but rather, during moving, it got cracked. I'm not even sure why I still have it. Anyway, as far as my standalone player goes, I did seven or eight hours of research on this site before buying a multiformat standalone player, and if my Philips 724 AT31 isn't the best on the market, I don't know what is. It plays EVERY format discussed on this site, and others. It plays every disk I've ever put in, and I can honestly say that this thing hasn't SKIPPED ONCE for even a split second. It would probably play a pankcake! I'm sure I help the skipping problem by keeping several cans of "canned air" on hand to spray off any hair/dust, etc.

Anyway, I have always been able to rule out any problem with my standalone player, "fortunately." This case is no exception. To answer your question, I have "not" seen this problem ON ANY other movie I have backed up, and this problem stood out. I have noticed other small things, but that was when I was looking for them and ended up seeing the same on the original. This problem was bothering me so much I just rented a copy of Dick Tracy and to my surprise this flickering/jittering problem is NOT on the original! I've played the original in my DVD ROM and my Philips, and the picture quality and picture look IDENTICAL, just as all other movies i've backed up, but DICK TRACY has the bottom border flickering on my backup BUT NOT the original. This is really odd now. I have ruled out the field order issue completely, because just as most other NTSC progressive films, it is TOP first, which I had reencoded on my backup.

The only thing I can think of is that with my order of ACCU disks which have ALL burned flawlessly at 2x on my SONY DRU-500a, with the exception of the last five or so in the spindle. I'm not sure why the last few had a problem, but I read other posters with the same. The problem was with movies that were over 4 GB's and usually needed reencoding. The last few chapters would freeze. So I used the rest of those disks in that spindle for movies under 3.5 GB's, and WHOALA, NO PROBLEM. However, I did DICK TRACY TWICE. The first one I burned had the last few chapters freezing, and the second one I burned at the bottom of the spindle played ALL chapters. I figured that problem was resolved, but now I'm wondering if this issue isn't directly related to those last few ACCU's.

This movie is letterbox, and when I author in Maestro I don't choose LETTER BOX, I choose 16:9 LB/PS, which I thought was good for both. I doubt that's the problem though, because I do that on all movies that are 16:9 and I have not had a problem with any of them. If you or anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. This is a very odd problem. I guess I will know soon enough, because I will reencode and burn to test. This movie barely needs reencoding, and I could probably get away with transcoding, however, a quick 1 pass VBR will be more then sufficient for this movie. I would appreciate hearing what may of caused this though so I can know for the future. Thanks in advance

[defense]

Oh Boy, I've just tested some other disks that I have, and a few others ALSO appear to have this rapid flicking. To name a few, U571, Scent of a Woman, and Spiderman. Spiderman has some flickering on the "top" border, not the bottom. All of these movies have been REENCODED, so i'm wondering if this is an issue with DVD2DVDR or CCE. I doubt it is with DVD2DVDR, because the majority of movies I've just tested seem to be fine. Although i'm now thinking it is an option in CCE that I should of changed.

Actually, i'm confused and don't know what the problem could be. I've also ruled out bad disks, and aspect ratio in Maestro, because i've changed .IFO files in IFOEdit and burned the change onto a DVD+RW and I still have the RAPID JITTER with Dick Tracy. I guess the only thing left to do is use BITRATEVIEWER to determine what the original has, and use DVD2DVDR and CCE with those same EXACT options, author with Maestro and test it out. This really sucks. I hope I don't have too many more movies with this issue, and if ANYONE can help me figure out what this problem COULD possibly be, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

[defense]

UPDATE: Well it looks like I've figured out the culprit of this damn problem. I just tested the original vobs in BitRateviewer for Dick Tracy and the scan type is "ALTERNATE." Most Progressive NTSC films scan type is zig zag, but of course I didn't run bitrateviewer on the vobs prior to encoding. I'll be damn.

And I thought I read the entire picture would jitter if you reversed that...maybe I didn't. Anyway, I have to reencode that movie as well as others. I just don't know how many others. I hope not too many. I've got about four or five already. Good thing for inexpensive media, but the time issue is a factor too. Damn, this does suck! Good thing I don't make many backups or I really would be stuck. This is a problem that is virtually undetectible unless you sit there and watch the movie closely. I have to analzye the rest of my backups and see which ones are improperly reencoded with a zig zag scan type through CCE as opposed to Alternate.

Update: I guess I was wrong on all of the potential solutions because I still have the problem after changing the scan type to progressive. Something that I can say is very odd is the ONLY time I have seen an "Alternate" scan type has been solely on Pure Interlaced film, not a movie like Dick Tracy. Even though DVD2AVI is saying the film of Dick Tracy and others is Progressive, maybe I should NOT run pulldown and just reencode the movie as one that is pure Interlace. Any suggestions, comments, help? Thanks