TMPGEnc causes vertical lines in my output - any ideas why?

[Ronaldus]

After encoding the same short captured AVI (using Pinnacle's DV Video Encoder Codec) trying various bitrate settings in Pinnacle Studio 8 and TMPGEnc (Plus), I found a strange video encoding effect that I need help solving. The quality and sharpness of the video is noticeably better with TMPGEnc compared to Pinnacle, but I found that TMPGEnc causes what I call vertical shadow lines. You could describe it as looking through an almost completely transparent fishnet or like projecting an image onto a sack cloth which has very fine vertical lines on it. From a distance greater than 10 feet it's hard to see on a 36" TV, but if I look closely as the background changes these vertical lines remain still which I find distracting at times depending on the background color.

The fact the same clip encoded in Pinnacle at CBR between 6000 and 8800 kbps does not show any of these vertical shadow lines, but everything encoded in TMPGEnc with VBR averaging 6000, 7000, and 8800 kbps tells me the problem is not in my source AVI and has something to do with TMPGEnc.

Below are the TMPGEnc settings I'm using from http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html. Most of these are the defaults for DVD/NTSC, except for the GOP structure and bit rates.

VIDEO: Stream type = MPEG-2 Video, size = 720x480, aspect ratio = 4:3 display, frame rate = 29.97 fps, rate control mode = 2-pass VBR, rate control settings: average = anywhere between 6000 and 8800, maximum = 8800, minimum = 4000, padding = enabled, P spoilage = 0, B spoilage = 20, VBV buffer size = 224, profile and level = MP@ML, video format = NTSC, encode mode = interlace, YUV format = 4:2:0, DC component precision = 10 bits, motion search precision = highest quality.

ADVANCED: Video source type = interlace, field order = bottom, source aspect ratio = 4:3 display, video arrange method = any, filters = none.

GOP STRUCTURE: IBPBPBPBPB (I pictures = 1, P pictures = 4, B pictures = 1), max frames in GOP = 18, output interval header = 1, output closed GOP = disabled, detect scene change = enabled, force picture type = disabled.

QUANTIZE MATRIX: Default, Output basic YCbCr = enabled, floating point DCT = enabled, no half-pixel motion = disabled, soften block noise = disabled.

Has anyone else experienced this vertical lines problem? If yes, are there some settings I can change or a filter I can apply to get rid of them? Or must I investigate another MPEG-2 encoder such as Cinemacraft because Pinnacle Studio is not good enough and TMPGEnc produces these vertical lines?

Other than this one problem I've been extremely happy with the quality of all my captures and conversions to DVD.

[Megahurts]

Ronaldus

I have been using TMPGEnc for 2 years and haven't seen that problem.

Since the TMPGEnc file is sharper than the Pinnacle file, I would first eliminate the TV set. Some of the newer large screen TVs use digital video processing for analog video to make it more "pleasing" as in DNR (Digital Noise Reduction). Some sets, this can be turned off and others not.

Anyhow to check this, frame step through the transistion and see if the phantom lines exist. If not I, would suspect the TV.

Also, are the lines visible when playing the camcorder DV file directly to the TV?

Regards,

Chas