Is this from capture/authoring/or encoding?

[hyper7780]

I am a noob to capturing. Not completely a noob to the world of video though
My problem is a jittery video in the final DVD product. It gets noticeably worse when there is fast movement on the screen. I have looked through the forums and have found similar problems with various solutions, but my problem seems to be a little different than the others.
I am capturing with VirtualDub. My Avi capture files turn out looking awesome with no jitter, then I use Intervideo WinDVD to author/encode/and burn the video. The final product is where the jitter problem comes in---it occurs when viewing on both the TV and computer.
Now here's where the real wierdness comes in. The problem does not occur when I capture in 352x240. It only occurs in 352x480, 640x480, and 720x480. I am very frustrated by this because I would like to get slightly better quality than 352x240. It doesn't seem to matter what compression I used to make the file, just the size of the video. Any suggestions on what I can do to help with this problem? Please take pity on this poor noob.

[MOVIEGEEK]

It sounds like interlace is causing the problem,what kind of capturecard are you using?
It's possible you are capturing progressive and WinDVD is making it interlaced,as a general rule you should use Field B(even) when capturing and authoring.Progressive is fine if you are watching on a PC or HDTV.

[hyper7780]

Wow!! Thank you for the fast reply!! I am using a Plextor Px100u. It isn't really a card....it plugs into the USB
I do not know how to set VDUB to use Field B first, but I did try the swap fields command....made the problem much worse. I also tried to deinterlace which did nothing to improve or worsen the result.

[MOVIEGEEK]

USB devices are not great for capturing especially higher than 352x240.
Since the AVI looks good I would use another authoring program such as TDA.

[guns1inger]

Have you tried transferring with a firewire cable instead ? Not many DV cameras transfer full resolution DV over USB. They mainly use it for low resolution transfers for emailing etc. This may be why you get a goo dlow res transfer, and everything else suffers.

[hyper7780]

I have tried DVDtoAVI with decent result however the capture I used for that experiment was already a 352x240. I haven't tried running different screen capture experiments through it yet because of the mass time factor involved in that program.
As for high quality...I am converting VHS not from a DV cam. I am not expecting perfection. I just would like to do a little better than 352x240 making the final product play correctly. Also The Avi's I'm capturing with Vdub are way better than the captures I got with the capture software that came with my device. They just don't seem to get to DVD correctly in any size larger than 352x240.

[hyper7780]

I just ran a test where I captured 1 min at various screen sizes. Then I took the several test files and used WinDVD again to encode them for DVD. I just finished viewing the test DVD and it appears that in addition to 352x240 I will also be able to capture at 360x480 without the jitter problem. So I will do a complete capture at that rate and I will let you all know if that solved the problem. I had not previously tried 360x480 since it wasn't one of the recommended sizes that others were mentioning.

[guns1inger]

It has not been recommended because it is not a DVD compliant resolution. You will have to resize as part of your encoding. Half-D1 is closest.

[hyper7780]

Alright...Just to let you know what my testing has done since my last post....
I captured a VHs into 360x480 format, with Xvid Mpeg4 compression. I then imported the file into WinDVD, and set everything up and told it to burn to DVD. However I set it up to burn to a file on my hard drive instead of burning to disc. (Out of RW's and I don't need anymore coasters.) I opened it up in Divx player and checked the resulting file....jitter again...that was not in the original avi file. I located the temp folder were WinDVd creater was saving the temporary files it needed to make the DVD. Apparently it reencodes the AVI file to a 720x480 MPEG2 file before it reencodes to the Dvd Files. being a Noob I'm not sure just exactly what that means..but I'm sure that it has everything to do with the jitter I am getting on files larger than 352x240. Does it have more to do with MPEG4--->MPEG2 or various sizes to 720x480???
Strangely I did have the problem when I captured at 720x480 too.
Please advise.

[MOVIEGEEK]

1.Don't use Xvid to capture,use YUV or another another AVI codec and capture 352x480.
2.Use an authoring program such as TDA that doesn't reencode.
I highly recommend trying Ulead Videostudio to capture and author.

[Cornucopia]

Here's what PLEXTOR says about the specs:

HARDWARE
Video NTSC (720 x 480, 352 x 480, 352 x 240, 176 x 144)
Resolution PAL/SECAM (720 x 576, 352 x 576, 352 x 288, 176 x 144)
Video MPEG-2: DVD: (720 x 480, 8.2 Mbit/s video bitrate)
Quality MPEG-1: VCD (352 x 240, 1.15 Mbit/s video bitrate)
DivX®: DivX Home Theater (640 x 480, 1.1 Mbit/s video bitrate)
DivX Portable (352 x 240, 768 Kbit/s video bitrate)
Inputs Composite Video, Composite Audio, S-Video, RF/Coaxial
TV Tuner NTSC Only
PC Interface Hi-Speed USB 2.0
SOFTWARE
PVR Software SageTV Lite PVR software
Editing Software Ulead VideoStudio SE DVD
Import Video Video: MPEG-1/2/4, DivX®, WMV and AVI
Audio: MP2 and PCM
Image: BMP, JPEG and GIF
Video Output MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX®, WMV and AVI
Format Support VCD, S-VCD, DVD, DVD-VR and DVD+VR

I don't understand why you aren't using their software package AS INDICATED.

Capture to 720x480 in high bitrate (~8Mbps) MPEG2 and Mp2 audio (via the "SageTV PVR" software), edit and author with the Ulead app, and burn to disc. Check via TV (not computer). Should be any jitteriness to it.

***BTW, You are using USB v2 aren't you?

Scott

[dphirschler]

Shouldn't USBv1 be able to handle hardware mpeg2 video?


Darryl

[MOVIEGEEK]

Shouldn't USBv1 be able to handle hardware mpeg2 video?


Darryl

Theorectically it can handle 10Mbps(1.5MB/s) but in reality it looks awful.

[hyper7780]

My software that came with the converter was Intervideo WinDVD creator. That is all that came with it. I started trying to use Vdub because I was not happy with the capture options in the Intervideo WinDVD creator software. I was not able to change capture size or bitrate. Also the action would get blocky and blurred at times. After reading on the forums I determined that I would be better off using another program to capture with and continue to use the WinDVD creater software for the authoring and encoding. I chose Vdub because a lot of people seemed to be using it and it was free. The quality of my captures were much improved through VDUB but whenever I use WinDVD to burn one of my capture files larger than 352x240 the resulting DVD has jitter.
Today When I was checking out those files with Gspot...I also discovered that WinDVD Creater was also deinterlacing my files and making them progressive. This is an option that I cannot undo...The deinterlacing is automatic. Perhaps this is the reason for my trouble. I am checking out Ulead right now...and see if it's the answer to my troubles.

***BTW, You are using USB v2 aren't you?

Yes I am

[hyper7780]

Just checked out my first 352x480 capture burned to DVD with Ulead. It's beautiful!! Exactly the kind of results I'd been hoping for all along. No jitter, and decent quality!! I would like to thank everyone who took time out from their day to try to help me with my problem. I'm pretty sure at this point that the only problem was the software I was using to author. Guess I'll have to save my pennies for when my free trial expires. Ulead is gonna be a keeper. 8)

[jagabo]

Your jitter problems were probably caused by the wrong field order. Ulead happened to guess the field order correctly whereas other programs didn't. Most conversion programs will let you override the field order if necessary.

[guns1inger]

Bad resizing of interlaced material can also produce unforseen results like this. As you worked out for yourself, WinDVD was resizing your captures to full D1 for you anyway, which could also account for much of what you were seeing.