Microsoft DV avi file looks terrible in TMPGEnc.

[Darakis]

I started exporting my animation files in Adobe Premiere to Microsoft DV avi and then I open them up in TMPGEnc. and now the edges of my black outlines in the video look all pixelly. They used to look fine before but all of the sudden they look like crap. Even files that I had exported before in Premiere that looked crystal clear and even looked great in TMPGEnc. now look all pixelly. All the VFAPI plugin settings are where they should be and I have the Mainconcept DV codec installed. Any suggestions?

[BJ_M]

your animation is rendered most likely as progressive, though if going to be used on a ntsc tv , it would be better to render them as interlaced frames @ 30fps ...

i dont know how you imported INTO adobe (frames ?) but dont export as ms dv as that codec is not to good at all .. export as MC DV (there is a work around to do so) or huffyuv or frame serve from adobe to tmpgenc or see below:

progressive animation files are encoded top field first with interlaced setting if they are rendered org. at 30fps , or encoded as progressive @ 24fps if you rendered them out that way, (then apply pulldown) .

but if you rendered them OUT of adobe in a dv codec , they will be now bottom field first interlaced no mater what , i do not suggest that method really - though use the MC codec if you are going to do so - as i mentioned above..

the dv file will look ragged on a pc no mater what, as your pc monitor is progressive .. this is normal ..

best method with animation is to render from animation program as either 24fps progressive frames (targa or jpeg or bmp) seq file .. oR as 30fps interlace ((targa or jpeg or bmp)..>> then encode directly in tmpgenc .. (or VERY common is to render to 30fps progressive and just encode it as interlaced) -> common doesnt mean its the best way always

if you have to bring into adobe (or any other NLE) -- import as above frames - edit - > export as frames -> load into tmpgenc (or other encoder) OR frame serve out of adobe

the main concept mpeg2 in adobe 6.5 (if you have installed the beta 1.3 upgrade) will make your life a lot easier -- just encode directly from with in adobe 6.5 after importing the frames as above and editing ..

[Darakis]

I import all my animation frames which I created with photoshop into premiere so I can add sound to it and change the duration of the frames so they will animate smoothly then I export to Microsoft DV AVI as I said before. I do it this way mainly because I'm used to it and It worked wonderfully for me in the past. As for exporting to MC DV I can't because it isn't there but that's strange considering I installed it. I take my DV AVI and open it up with TMPGEnc. I then encode to DVD Mpeg 2 non-interlace progressive with a frame rate of 29.97. The field order is bottom first. The picture window in TMPGEnc. clearly shows that the black outlines are full of artifacts and I can tell this even when I'm not zoomed in. The strange thing is I have do it this way for a long time and whenever I would look at the video in the picture window it would look beautiful and the outlines clear with no artifacts but now it's crap. Maybe I installed or uninstalled something I shouldn't have but if worst comes to worse I can save my files and dump everything. Thanks for your insight and if you have any other suggestions or ideas you can throw my way by all means please do.

[Darakis]

Ok, I figured it out. I went into premiere project settings video and found MC DV compressor (I did have it) and changed encoder setting back to fastest which was the defult setting and now everything looks great again.

[BJ_M]

just some info regarding the DV codec bug in premiere

To ensure Premiere 6 will actually use the MC DV codec it is necessary to apply a tweak otherwise the useage defaults to Microsoft (MS) DV Type 2 and this results in a lower standard of SVCD or indeed DVD image when avisynth is involved in the process chain for providing a seamless mpeg2 output directly from the timeline to the encoder.

The information on the following WEB SITE by the original designer - has gone missing but does re appear at times or has so in the past. You may also find it in your windows cache if you accessed the site previously.

The site gives details of the tweak and warns of the problems which may occur. Be sure to print off the detailed instructions and follow them completely. I have tested the process on my W98SE system with complete success.

You will note there is a need to move the Qcap.dll for Premiere 6 to effectively see the MC DV "codec" I have written two starting point batch files. It will be an advantage to use these batch files as a basis for making up other files which will load your editing programs with qcap.dll in the correct folder so as to enable capture. The pack includes modified versions for W2000 by Greg Boyer.

As an example my system has batch files to run the following programs to allow DV capturing, a device connection error may otherwise result:

PREM6 -- qcap.dll must not be in the system folder at loading of the premiere program but must be re-introduced to enable capture before selecting "capture".
AVI_IO - qcap.dll required in the system folder.
seLIVE - qcap.dll required in the system folder.

If you accidentally leave qcap.dll in the wrong folder an error relating to the camera not being available for capture will occur.
http://www.geocities.com/aussie01au/Qcap_Pack.zip

much more in depth info found here:

http://home.att.net/~nelders/

[Darakis]

Well, what happened was I had a video clip opened in Premiere and I wanted to export to a more compressed format so I could send it in an email. I was fiddling around with certain settings and so came the problem but it's all cool now, that is until some other problem pops up Thanks for your help though