Jagged edges in video (all), unwanted sparkling.. ?

[coffeecup-sf]

Recent captures, and even compressions with TMPGEnc 3.0 means ALL lines and edges are jagged. Practically nothing is smooth or sharp or otherwise normal anymore. Again this is inside the .AVI capture file and the .mpg compressed file. This also happens with not one but two different operating systems I have (both WinXP). These OS's previously used to make beautiful sharp and clear movies. The other problem are these little crystalization spots of gold/silver light, blinking, very very small like just a slim line a few pixels wide, and usually seen right around the edge of lines that were supposed to be sharp and clear. Another problem is above most edge-lines is a small block of black pixels, like you usually only get when you use your digital zoom out to 200 or something crazy and the image is badly distorted. Now I get it even on video shot in 1x mode.

Any feedback about what causes it, where it most likely originates (from the camera, or the comp) and the like much appreciated.

[guns1inger]

The jagged lines sound like interlacing. What do you watch them with ? Have you watched them on your TV, or only the PC ?

[coffeecup-sf]

No I only use my PC for viewing, no tv set. Problem is vids used to be great, crisp and clear. This problem is even in the avi files upon capture, and just as well de-interlacing with tmpgenc used to work anything out perfectly. Not now. Therefore I might have to weed out interlacing unless it's at a different point.

Only idea I have to try next is to use some different program to do the first captures, such as Microsoft MovieMaker installed with my OS (don't particularly like that one as I got alot of drops and had to do many restarts), or an earlier version of Vid studio. Adobe Premiere Pro can't get it to work well at all. Thanks.

[edDV]

Your DVD writer should have included DVD player software. Usually you get WinDVD or PowerDVD. Those are deinterlacing players that won't harm the capture.

[coffeecup-sf]

Few things to post. First of all it now appears to be related and isolated to both of my WinXP OSs, but when I fired up an old copy of WinME I have that I forgot about, it appears that both the AVI raw video and the compressed .mpg videos apparently do not have, or have significantly much less of, that jagged edge symptom that looks just awful when played under WinXP.

One other thing I should clarify that I didn't know how to before: that "jaggedness" is NOT the same thing as "interlacing" problem I am familiar with. Interlacing is mostly motion-related and secondly, the jagged lines are very very small. However these lines I'm getting while watching my videos on WinXP are significantly larger than interlace lines. They really look more "blocky" and even when you try you can't help but notice them. Also, these blocky jagged lines are completely unrelated to motion meaning even with still frames (like PS snapshots, or freezeframes) the jaggedness doesn't disappear and actually looks worse than motion, again not like interlacing.

So, the advice I guess I need to ask is how can I repair what appears to be an Operating System problem (on both of my Windows XP installs!) Is is just a codec thing or what? (BTW, this continues inside WinXP even when using other players such as BS Player or VideoLan). Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Unless you can post stills of the problem, it is difficult to know what to do to help you. Shots form both OS's would be handy.

[edDV]

A picture is better than a thousand words.

(BTW, this continues inside WinXP even when using other players such as BS Player or VideoLan). Thanks.

Do you have one of the deinterlace modes turned on in VLC?

Video -> Deinterlace

try, "mean", "Linear", "bob" or "blend"

"discard" will drop one of the fields.