Please Help! What is wrong with my footage?

[roaproductions]

Hi, I'm new to this awesome forum dedicated to video help, and I am a student taking Video Production Classes. I have a Sony HandyCam DCR-HC52 and I was wondering what the heck is wrong with my footage. This always happens when I'm shooting outside some sample footage. Is it the lighting? The camera? The Computer? The Video Card? It just doesn't look right. Here's a link to the original footage that I shot: http://www.mediafire.com/?hgrgmiinyod
Thanks in advance!

[Soopafresh]

This? That is called interlacing. It's normal with DV cameras. If you want you can de-interlace using your editing program. However, deinterlacing makes the picture less sharp and the movement in the video less smooth.



Deinterlaced

[roaproductions]

Umm... I don't know how, but your screenshot of it looks pretty good. This is a screenshot I took. Look at the white areas and the roof of the houses. They look a little bad. Can I fix this?

[Soopafresh]

What editor are you using?

What you're seeing is interlace artifacts and you can pretty much smooth out the jagged edges if you use a good deinterlacer.

[roaproductions]

I use Sony Vegas 9.0 Pro on Windows 7 and it is a 64 bit program running in a 64 bit computer

[Soopafresh]

Make sure your settings are like this

[roaproductions]

Thanks Lucien. But I don't see any difference in the footage.

[Soopafresh]

Um, Soopafresh. No deinterlacer is perfect. Want progressive footage? Get a Flip HD camera for $200 and a preferably a tripod. Voila, no interlacing artifacts. You can make the quality of your camera's footage better if you shoot on a tripod.

[poisondeathray]

Unfortunately vegas' deinterlacer (either in blend or interpolate mode) both suck

You can learn about avisynth deinterlacers, but the learning curve is a bit steep. The high quality ones take a lot of CPU (=slow)

DV is usually meant to stay interlaced, for DVD and broadcast

Better to shoot progressive, if your intended goal is progressive

[jagabo]

Information about interlaced video and some deinterlacing techniques: http://www.100fps.com/ As poisondeathray points out, the best deinterlacers are for AviSynth.

[craigarta]

Well I kinda played with it a bit and got this.
Used XVID4PSp to make the AviSynth file. I hate typing alot

Sample script used
import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\AudioFunctions.avs")
import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\functions\ VideoFunctions.avs")
loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\ya difmod.dll")
loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\nn edi2.dll")
loadplugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\MS U_FRC.dll")

DirectShowSource("C:\Users\Tony\Desktop\Test Video.avi", fps=29.970, convertfps=true)

AutoYV12()
yadifmod(order=-1, field=-1, mode=0, edeint=nnedi2())
Lanczos4Resize(640, 424)

#Load plugins
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\FF T3dGPU.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\Re pairSSE3.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\Ma skTools.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\Wa rpSharp.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\mt _masktools-25.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\Re moveGrainSSE3.dll")
Import("C:\Program Files (x86)\Winnydows\XviD4PSP5\dlls\AviSynth\plugins\Li mitedSharpenFaster Mod.avs")

#Remove noise
FFT3DGPU(bw=16,bh=16,oh=8,ow=8,bt=4,sigma=2.75,sig ma2=2.2,sigma3=1.5,sigma4=0.7,plane=4,interlaced=f alse)

#Enhance sharpness
LSFmod(defaults="slow")

[roaproductions]

How did you do that? That's perfect. Please tell me how you did that. Thanks!

[craigarta]

I just loaded the video file into XVID4PSP. Set the filter to FFT3DGPU.

[roaproductions]

Is that ALL you did? Are you sure?

[edDV]

Can you explain this line? I haven't used yadif in this way. What are the variables?

yadifmod(order=-1, field=-1, mode=0, edeint=nnedi2())

[poisondeathray]

the switches are the same for yadifmod, as "vanilla" yadif

order=-1 means internal avisynth parity (so bff, unless otherwise specified) (order=0 bff, order=1 tff)
field=-1 means use set equal to order (field=0 bff, field=1 tff)
mode=0 means single rate (mode=1 means double)

the only difference is the edimode used for interpolation for spatial predictions, in this case NNEDI2() was specfied. If you don't use edimode, it's the same as vanilla yadif. The values for NNEDI2 have to match yadifmod's mode as well. So if you set yadifmod to bob, bff, you would need to set NNEDI2() to bob, bff as well e.g. Yadifmod(order=0, mode=1, edeint=NNEDI2(field=2)) . Quality is much better than vanilla yadif, the interpolation usually gets rid of most of those "marching ants" residual deinterlacing artifacts, but at the expense of speed (many times slower)

[jagabo]

How did you do that? That's perfect. Please tell me how you did that. Thanks!

Beware that he lost half the temporal resolution (30 different pictures per second vs 60 different (half) pictures per second). Motion will not be as smooth when viewed on TV. As was mentioned earlier, if you are going to make a DVD you should leave the video interlaced and let the DVD player or TV deal with it.

[craigarta]

Is that ALL you did? Are you sure?

As you can see by the script that XVID4PSP made yes that is all.
All of the setting where left alone

I got the snapshot from AvsP

Yes I would listen to jagbo, he has pointed me in the right direction too many times to count. He knows his scripting

[jagabo]

If your computer will play 60 fps xvid files smoothly watch the attached video. The top is a full 60 fps TempGaussMC_beta1mod() conversion, the bottom is a 30 fps conversion. Note how the vertical bars in the railing of the 30 fps portion flicker during the pan -- especially if you watch it full screen.

[roaproductions]

Yes, I do notice that... Okay, so let's say that this was going to be put into a dvd and played in a dvd player at home. What settings would best benefit the video quality of the DVD?

[2Bdecided]

You don't deinterlace for DVD!

[jagabo]

Do not deinterlace. Encode as interlaced MPEG 2, bottom field first. Interlaced video, especially shaky, jerky, noisy, handheld camcorder footage does not compress as well as film so use bitrates in the 8000 to 9000 kpbs range.

[Abas-Avara]

As jagoba says, follow that setting. The DVD player will automatically deinterlace.

[roaproductions]

Oh okay, and one more question, I also have DVD Architect, how should I export from Sony Vegas to DVD Architect and achieve good results? Can you give me the settings I should choose?