Horizontal line shimmers on tmpgenc encode SVCD

[diveboy]

Hi all.

I'm getting horizontal line shimmers on fast moving objects in my svcd encodes with tmpgenc.

the source is a avi capture from a dc30 plus, capture at 720xwhat ever and a data rate of 7mb a second.

it's only when there is fast motion that I get this affect.

Can anyone tell me the way to fix it ?

Thanks in advance.

I'm restricted to tmpgenc as it's the only encoder that supports avi files over 2gb.

[Peter van der Burgh]

I presume you have the problem when you view the movie on a TV using a DVD player. If you see the problem on your monitor, that’s normal for an interlaced MPeg file, try viewing it on a TV instead.

It would help if you can let us know your TMpgEnc settings used for encoding.

I think the problem is with the source settings (don’t worry, the source itself is ok).

First you should determine if your source file (AVI) is interlaced or not and if interlaced, if it is Top or Bottom field first.
Your source is a camcorder and most likely it will be interlaced.
A ‘frame’ of an interlaced video file consists of two ‘fields’, the top field containing all the odd lines and the bottom field containing all even lines of the frame.
On a TV you are actually looking at 50 (PAL/SECAM) / 60 (NTSC) half pictures per second. That’s why videofiles are 25 frames / (almost) 30 frames per second (each containing two half pictures called fields).

If you want to watch the movie on a TV, you should create with TMpgEnc an interlaced MPeg file using the right settings for the source.
Unfortunately TMpgEnc does not always determine the right field order (Top or Bottom first) resulting in a bad quality movie when there is (high) motion.

I suggest you read also my post in this forum ‘TMpgEnc Field order judgement’ and follow the suggested link (http://www.lukesvideo.com/).
Read at least the sections ‘Interlacing’ and ‘Avisinth’ for more detail.

Peter

[diveboy]

thanks for your repsonse, I'll get all the details and read up on what you advise before I post again, might take a day or 2.

Thanks again.

[Peter van der Burgh]

I'm most likely as inexperienced as you are when it comes to (home)video conversion to (S)VCD, but I can tell you that it requires a lot of reading, testing and thus time and patience.
That is, if you want the best, either quality or minutes per CD or whatever.

People can suggest many things, but for your situation there is only one ‘best’ and it depends very much on how critical you are on various aspects of the end product.

Start converting not more than a few seconds each of various types (lots of motion/colour/contrast etc) of (parts of) movies.

But always:
Make sure your source is as good as possible: captures with a loss-less converter (I use Huffyuv) using the correct resolution (too low, don’t expect good results, but too high might be a waste of disk space and time).
Make sure that, during capturing, you are not loosing too many frames (I loose 1/2500 max.) and that you processor load is not getting near 100% (I use VirtualDub with 90% max. and 80% average CPU load on 704x576). Stop (almost) all background programs and don't touch the computer during capture!

Now convert the earlier mentioned small (near and perfect) sample files a number of times using various settings and burn them all on a CD using the SVCD standard (I use Nero).

Look at the results and decide what is the best for you.

One more tip:
Today I came across the CVD ‘standard’. In short: more video on a CD with SVCD quality.
I’m going to give it a try, you also might want to look into this in the forum ‘User guides’: ‘CVD: What is it, how to test it & what to expect!’ (http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=98177)

Peter

PS1 you might want to fill-in the computer specs in your profile.
PS2 are you a scuba diver? - I am.

[diveboy]

Peter,

Thanks for the advice, fixed my problem just perfectly.

It was a matter of interlacing and changing the field order.

Now for the next matter of converting ntsc to pal.

and yes, I'm a follow scuba diver. done about 170 dives in the last 5 years and have been down to 51 meters...

any time you plan to come to australia and want to do some diving, give me a call/ PM. I'll take you to some nice dive sites.

[Peter van der Burgh]

DiveBoy,
I live in The Netherlands (or Holland), so real far away from you. But if I ever go to your beautiful country, I will most certainly let you know – thanks for the invitation. I’m not that an experienced diver (1 year) and since my wife has some medical problems with increased pressure (actually decreasing pressure) and the plan was to dive together, I don’t dive that often. I’ve been in the Red See – Egypt last year and 30 meter was the max. depth. Nice depth, but 5 – 10 meters was amazingly beautiful. Dived some 12 times now.

I don’t know how to convert from NTSC to PAL, but I’m sure you can find enough information on this site. Do you need to convert? I would not be surprised if the DVD-player will do it for you while playing. A lot of (newer) video recorders can handle NTSC tapes on a PAL TV system, why would DVD-players be any different? Check it!

I’m glad your problem is solved, I can’t say mine are!

If you want to know my problems: I have posted a new topic: http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=106944

Peter