Screen flickering issues

[RobertdeHoop]

Hi,


I am quite new to video editing and cannot fix a flickering problem that occurs when playing my videos on my TV set at home.

I am looking into this for a couple of weeks now and hope anyone can help me.


How to reproduce:
- record video using a GoPro Hero 3 (1080p 25/30/50/60fps, Protune off, Whitebalance auto)
- Environment: Trees and bushes
- Sunny weather conditions


I have used several different editing softwares (GoPro studio, Premiere Pro, Handbrake, FFMPEG, x264, etc.) to generate the final mp4.


When playing the MP4 on my laptop, everything seems fine. I do not see any flickering.


Now I move the MP4 to my media player (tried: Philips and PopcornHour connected by HDMI) connected to my full HD Sony Bravia TV set.


Screen flickers on bushes and area’s with trees.


I am out of options, so any help is welcome.


additional info: when playing the video from USB stick on the same TV set, I do not see the flickering.


thanks in advance,


Robert

[jagabo]

What properties are your converted video? 50p ro 60p? Or did you decimate to 25p/30p? 24p/25p/30p are inherently flickery when there's lots of motion in high contrast areas. See the 24v30v60 video in this post:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/307004-Best-framerate-conversion-%28eg-23-97-to-30-...=1#post1888926

[RobertdeHoop]

What properties are your converted video? 50p ro 60p? Or did you decimate to 25p/30p? 24p/25p/30p are inherently flickery when there's lots of motion in high contrast areas. See the 24v30v60 video in this post:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/307004-Best-framerate-conversion-%28eg-23-97-to-30-...=1#post1888926

Thanks for the reply, here is what I did, I tried multiple cases:


1: filmed at 50p, Edit, convert to 25p = flickering
2: filmed at 50p, Edit, convert to 50p = flickering
3: filmed at 50p, Edit, convert to 25i = flickering


Also tried filming 60p and saving as 60p and 30p.


All seems to flicker over HDMI and not when using my USB stick directly into the TV. Also no flicker when watching at a computer monitor.

[jagabo]

The 25i and 50p videos shouldn't have flickered. It's possible your player doesn't like 50p. Upload a sample of one of the 50p encodes.

[RobertdeHoop]

The 25i and 50p videos shouldn't have flickered. It's possible your player doesn't like 50p. Upload a sample of one of the 50p encodes.

Hi Jagabo,

File uploaded in next reply


Thanks.

[jagabo]

You can upload files to this site using the "Upload files/Manage attachments" button below the Quick Reply box below.

[RobertdeHoop]

I Hope this works:

[jagabo]

The videohelp upload came through fine. The file itself looks to be ok. It's 50 fps progressive and every frame is unique. Some of the settings might be a problem for some players. For example, 8 b-frames. I'd try a quick test with Handbrake (since you have it) and its Normal preset and constant frame rate mode. That will give you more conservative settings that will play on a wider variety of players. See if that works any better.

Other possibilities: your player is set to output 1080i and the TV is deinterlacing badly. Or the TV's motion interpolation isn't working well (if you have a "100 Hz" or "200 Hz" TV). Try turning off the motion interpolation. A lot of players can't handle 1080p50 or 1080p60. Try reducing the resolution to 720p50. Also, try MKV instead of MP4.

Attached is a 720p50 encoding made with x264 at the veryfast preset with bluray-compat enabled.

[RobertdeHoop]

I tried these suggestions and do not see any improvement. I think my media players is having trouble with some images.

I see the same thing when someone is wearing a shirt with a lot of stripes or a matrix print on it.


For now I switch over to use the USB connection.


Thanks for the help.

[jagabo]

I added a few more things to try, and a video, to my last post.

[RobertdeHoop]

I added a few more things to try, and a video, to my last post.

Wow Jagabo, this is a lot better. Almost no flickering at all.


Can you tell me exactly how you managed that?


Rob.

[jagabo]

I assume you mean my sample video didn't flicker. All I did was downsize to 1280x720, encode with x264 at the veryfast preset, and added "--bluray-compat" to the command line options. Now the question is which of those changes (or combination of them) fixed your problem. You should be able to apply those changes in Handbrake. On the Picture tab you can set the frame size. On the Video tab you can set the veryfast preset. To apply Blu-ray compatibility enter "bluray-compat" in the Extra Options field.

[RobertdeHoop]

I assume you mean my sample video didn't flicker. All I did was downsize to 1280x720, encode with x264 at the veryfast preset, and added "--bluray-compat" to the command line options. Now the question is which of those changes (or combination of them) fixed your problem. You should be able to apply those changes in Handbrake. On the Picture tab you can set the frame size. On the Video tab you can set the veryfast preset. To apply Blu-ray compatibility enter "bluray-compat" in the Extra Options field.

Hi Jagabo,


Still no luck with Handbrake. Analyzing the file shows some minor differences with your file.
I downloaded x264.exe and tried recreating your file, but cannot find the constant bitrate you used.


can you give me your exact command line options?


thanks in advance


Rob

[jagabo]

I used:

x264 --preset=veryfast --bluray-compat --crf=18 --sar=1:1 --output filename.mkv filename.avs

I used a simple AviSynth script to open and resize you source file:

ffVideoSource("filename.mp4")
BicubicResize(1280,720)

You'll need the ffmpeg source plugin to use ffVideoSource. Don't be surprised if it takes a while to open a long source video -- it builds an index the first time its called for a particular file. A two hour HD movie might take 5 minutes to index.

Oh, another thing to check, mux your original audio with the video I uploaded. Sometimes the audio causes problems with video playback.

[RobertdeHoop]

I used:

x264 --preset=veryfast --bluray-compat --crf=18 --sar=1:1 --output filename.mkv filename.avs

I used a simple AviSynth script to open and resize you source file:

ffVideoSource("filename.mp4")
BicubicResize(1280,720)

You'll need the ffmpeg source plugin to use ffVideoSource. Don't be surprised if it takes a while to open a long source video -- it builds an index the first time its called for a particular file. A two hour HD movie might take 5 minutes to index.

Oh, another thing to check, mux your original audio with the video I uploaded. Sometimes the audio causes problems with video playback.

Thanks a lot for all the help. I will try muxing in my audio and see if this causes the issues. If not, I will try your settings.

[RobertdeHoop]

I finally managed to reproduce your file. Thanks a lot. Now I will start playing with the options to see what causes the flickering.

[jagabo]

Good luck. Be sure to report what you find. It may help someone else in the future.

[RobertdeHoop]

I have dome some testing, here are my results with the same video:
- All settings changed as proposed: flickering gone.
- Setting veryslow: flickering is back
- Setting 1080p: Flickering is gone


Now I used another video:
- All settings changed as proposed: flickering still visible
- Lowering bitrate: flickering gone, but quality not acceptable


It seems that when the details are very high and sunlight is involved through leaves, fences or other things my combination has some difficulties.


I moved back to using USB or connecting my laptop to the TV as a monitor. With these two options, I never see any flickering.

[RobertdeHoop]

Today I have been playing around with the settings of my GoPro and found the cause of the flickering.

When using the Protune (RAW) settings, no contrast, sharpness and saturation is added.When using this setting the flickering is gone.

When adding saturation and contrast, the flickering is still gone, but when adding sharpness the flickering starts. The higher the level, the more flickering.

In the future I will be using Protune, so I can manage the sharpness myself and select a balanced level of sharpness.

Thanks again for all the help.