Using cce....flickering output on TV.

[nathan118]

I'm converting home movies to dvd, but I'm having a small problem. I have two questions actually, but I'll start with this:

1) Capture AVI using scenalyzer and ADVC-100.

2) Edit with VEGAS, and for test purposes output uncompressed avi. (more on this in questions 2)

3) Convert with CCE.

The outputted file looks good, but as soon as I put it on dvd it looks flickery on TV. I unchecked "upperfield first" because it's DV, but that doesn't seem to change anything. I convert the same video with TMPEG and it looks much more solid. Any ideas?

Now my second question.....

Saving the .avi out of Vegas as uncompressed is obviously not an option for large films. When I save it to huffy, and then try to convert with CCE, I get a horrible picture with a rainbow of colors. I know it's not huffy, because I saved an avi in virtualdub using huffy and it worked fine, so it must be something in vegas. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

[nathan118]

One more note on the problem....

It's not so much that it "flickers," but the picture drags when the camera pans. That's the best i can describe it.

[Anonymous65]

You have encoded the video with the wrong field order.

[nathan118]

Thank you for your in-depth analysis, but as I already said, i tried unchecking "upper field first" but that didn't change anything.

I think what I need to do is take the footage I capped in scenalyzer, open up in vdub, resize and crop, and then frame serve to cce. This sound like a good idea?

I've seen one guide that used vfapiconv, but i couldn't find it download. Any help?

[Anonymous65]

That means that that "button" doesn't work. You still have the wrong field order. There are many things that will control the field order, your capture hardware, your capture driver, your editor, your authoring (and burning) software, and finally your DVD player.

Try to deinterlace your video before encoding to mpeg. The artifacts should be gone. If not, there is something wrong with your authoring software or DVD player.

Some encoders, like Ulead Videostudio 5 and lower, the field order option doesn't work. If the video is captured with the wrong field order, it cannot be corrected by the mpeg encoder. I do not know CCE and how it handles wrong field order.

[nathan118]

I was unaware there was a "wrong" field order. Isn't DV bottom first, while most other stuff is top first? Do I need to convert the field order? As far as I know there is only one way to capture the field order of DV.

[King Dick]

Skittelsen is absolutely correct in his replies, and you most likely have a field order problem.

In order to get an "in-depth analysis", as you call it, some information is needed, for example :

1. What version of CCE are you using ? There are 9 full versions of CCE SP and they are all slightly different - and that number excludes revisions!
Or may be you are using CCE-Lite ?

2. Is your source material NTSC or PAL ? As you have not seen fit to fill in your profile, it is not even possible to make an educated guess based upon where you are living.

3. What operating system are you using and on what computer ? With no computer details filled in, are others supposed to guess this as well ?

[nathan118]

1. CCE 2.5, not cce-lite

2. ntsc

3. win xp, athlon xp 1800

I've checked my "wrong" field order, and like I said, it is bottom first, FIELD B.

[Anonymous65]

Do you capture DV video from a camcorder? A BT8x8 analog capture card? Have you tried another mpeg encoder?

The effect of flickering during camera pans is typical of having the wrong field order, and I know of no other issues that will create that effect during playback. Otherwise, you must have a very strange effect or error not documented before.

[King Dick]

Now we are starting to get somewhere.

If you are capturing in NTSC, the capturing device needs to be set for upper field first. If the camera or recorder you are capturing from is a VHS model you will almost certainly require a time base corrector in order to keep the DV capture always upper field first. The alternative to this is to copy to a DV camera tape, or to your capture device with a DV camera with pass through. There has been much on using DV cameras in this way on the forum in the last few weeks - a search on your part should quickly turn up the information. Another search for ifoedit will soon tell you how you can use this programme to check the avi for the correct field order.

The fact that your captured avi looks O.K. on your computer monitor, and especially with the Windows Media Player integral to XP, means nothing as monitors are not interlaced and without a special software viewer you will be unaware of whether the field order is right or wrong.

The correct field order for DVD is lower field first, and the box in CCE 2.50 should be unchecked if memory serves me correctly, whilst versions from 2.64 on require this box to be checked.

Good luck.

[nathan118]

If you read my original question, I'm using a canopus ADVC-100, so I can only capture bottom field first.

Unchecking the "upper field first" in CCE 2.5 seems to do nothing. I'm going to try this for my process:

1) Capture to type 2 avi using scenalyzer

2) Filter/Frameserve using Virtualdub

3) Encode using CCE.

I'm about to try a few things, but could using the "swap fields" filter in virtualdub help, so when it is frameserved to cce it is upper first? My other option is to de-interlace, but I'd rather not.

So I think that's what it comes down to: sending CCE a NON-bottom first field order. Thanks so much for all your guys help. If you think of anything else, or another way to send the video to CCE, please let me know.

Nathan

[jtor]

...all throughout the thread, you've mentioned that you've unchecked the 'upper field first' box. But have you tried encoding a short clip from this AVI with upper field first 'checked'? I'd suggest you try that.

I know that you're using DV, and that DV is claimed to be lower field first, but after all the posts, I would say anything is worth a try.

I've seen something like that just recently, on CCE SP 2.50. Whatever I do, I just can't get rid of the flickering effect. I just thought of trying a short clip with the upper field box checked, and that did the trick..

my 2cents.