Pinnacle Studio 7--Jerky,Jittery DVD playback - You too?

[Ermalinda]

Just began using Pinnacle Studio 7 capture/editing software because of the great writeup in PC magazine (editor's choice) ...also have a whole collection of others (Ulead, Cyberlink, Sonic...etc), none of which I am terribly satified with.

Question: I capture DV using the DVD template in the Studio 7 product...edit it, produce the mpeg, and it all looks reasonably good on the computer during simulated playback. But when played back on either my Pioneer 434 or my Apex 1000 players, the playback degrades into jitttery, jerky video whenever there is even a moderate speed pan of scenery, or a rapidly moving object is in the scene. The original DV tape does not have this artifact.... I am burning DVD+RW using a Philips DVDRW208.

Any other users either experience this, or better yet, have a way to cure it?

[Shannafey]

I have the old versions of Studio DV and DC10+, so I don't know for sure, but let me tell you what I found, since I had the same problems when making an SVCD, which is mpeg2. First of all, I hated the quality out of studio, so I'd do 2 steps, render as a dv codec avi, then put the avi into tmpgenc and make the file. I found out, through this great forum, that the card reverses the fields, and in tmpgenc, you can swap the order. I don't know if studio 7 software gives you that option, but start from there. Hope this helps you some.

[Shannafey]

I have the old versions of Studio DV and DC10+, so I don't know for sure, but let me tell you what I found, since I had the same problems when making an SVCD, which is mpeg2. First of all, I hated the quality out of studio, so I'd do 2 steps, render as a dv codec avi, then put the avi into tmpgenc and make the file. I found out, through this great forum, that the card reverses the fields, and in tmpgenc, you can swap the order. I don't know if studio 7 software gives you that option, but start from there. Hope this helps you some.

[FranckV]

I do not have a DVD burner so I can't make DVDs (still too expensive for my wallet).

I use Studio to capture my DV out of my DV camcorder, I edit the movie in Studio, cut scenes, add special transitions,... then save as AVI with full DV resolution (720 x 480).

Then I use either TMPGEnc or CCE to create the Mpg2 file.

This gives great results.


A DV camcorder always (to my knowledge) creates interlaced movie with bottom field first so if you use TMPGEnc, you need to select bottom field first, if you use CCE, you need to check the upper filed first option to swap the field order.

[Ermalinda]

Thanks for the tips, folks. I don't see many extra options that I can try in the studio 7 software, so I will try some of the multi-step processes you suggest.

In the meantime, let me report that I went to the new Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro 2.0 software, captured using a customization of the DV template there where I upped the Bitrate to 6000000, and then also used their deinterlacing and noise reduction filters and the jitters and jumps in the video seem very substantially less, although not entirely gone. Trouble is that editing possibilities in PowerDirector ain't that good....

Thanks again...I will give your ideas a try!

[Anonymous65]

The reason why you get this is because the video is deinterlaced when capturing (or the field order is incorrect). If your mpeg-2 video looks good on a PC monitor, that is a "bad" sign. (unless you use a software DVD player with a deinterlacing filter for playback) When viewing a mpeg-2 file on a PC I look for the typical interlacing artifacts. If I see them, I know I have a 50% chance it will look good on a TV set. If however the file looks fine on a PC, it will look bad on a TV (I use Windows Media player to check mpeg-2 files). As for the wrong field order, look in your capture software, or mpeg encoder for the A or B field order. Only the correct filed order will give normal looking video on a TV set. Having wrong field order will give a strange shivering effect when the camera moves, but the image will look just fine on static images.

[stimpleton]

i use studio 7 to capture and do all the editing stuff and then re-record the final version back to the camcorder, this gives no loss of quality and is also a usefull backup if some disaster strikes. i then recapture back to the computer and use TMPGenc to encode for mpeg2 SVCD, you will have the option in settings - video to select de-interlace and to choose the correct field order etc, click file and preview and watch the movie first, there is a button to disable the filter so you can see the difference, use nero to burn and Voila

[Ermalinda]

Thanks for the continuing feedback!!

The plot thickens vis-a-vis the Pinnacle Software, and actually parallels what was reported in the last posts. YESTERDAY late I went out to the Pinnacle Web site and noted that a very recent software update, to version 7.13, was posted there. Of the LONG list of bug fixes and feature updates, there was comment relating to fixing a "field order" problem.

I downloaded the update, installed it, and then recaptured,edited, and rendered the DVD, burned it to disk with my Philips burner...and, Carumba! The video was clear, and completely free of the jittery/shimmering effect that I reported previously. I will test some more, but I guess the current punchline for Pinnacle Studio 7 users is to watch the web site for updates....and install them.

Thanks again for the continued feedback!!

[flange]

I'll try the upgrade. I have a question. What hardware are you using for video capture?

I'm using ATI all in wonder radeon and can't get Studio 7 to recognize it correctly. Like you, I'm slowly building a library of software that is not working. I'm using a Phillips DVDRW208 recorder, the ATI card, ATI's TV capture capability and the Sonic software that came w/ the drive w/ less than successful results. [/b]

[Ermalinda]

Indeed....I too have quite a pile of purchased software that can be hauled out to the dump as far as I am concerned. I wonder how many others like us are out there overspending in our search to find reasonable software/hardware solutions.

Regarding my system, I am using a STOCK HP 978 model (the essentials of which are 2 ghz pentium iv, 512 mb memory, 32 mb video card (don't know the brand...but I think it is a GeForce card) and a Smart 1394 card to link up to my Panasonic DV 700 camera. I am capturing using the Pinnacle Studio 7 software, editing the video there, and then burning it to my Philips drive using Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro 2.0's Disk burning wizard. It actually all seems to work reasonably well together now after I installed the Pinnacle update..... in my unused pile sits Video Studio 6, Videostudio Movie Factory, MyDvd, DVDit, Videowave....I don't even want to add up what that comes to.....

[flange]

Thanks for the reply. I did download the upgrade and saw a couple of different things, but the end result was worse than what I was getting before the download. You appear to be copying digital- I'm still back at analog. The capture I got w/ Studio 7 was about the worse I've seen thusfar. Plus, I'm still not getting any audio through. When the Studio 7 wizard first opens, I hear about 1 sec of audio, but it goes silent.

I'm now looking at some software I downloaded from honestech. The wizard pops up ok, I get a brilliant picture and all the audio I can stand, but when I capture a scene, the playback looks like you're looking at it through a greenish grid pattern. I've got an email into them for help.

You indicate that your pile of discard also includes Sonic's DVDIt- that didn't work for you? I was hoping that maybe an upgrade from MyDVD would be a solution- oh well :(

[Ermalinda]

Ahhh --- you said ANALOG in your last post. Most of what I have been doing is digital, but I have converted some older VHS camcorder tapes to DVD .... I tried a couple of solutions there too, but the one that BY FAR was the most satisfactory was ADSTECH's new USB INSTANT DVD. This is a combination of a HARDWARE and SOFTWARE solution. There is a hardware MPEG encoder chip that sits external (with all the analog and SuperVideo inputs/outputs) to the computer in a box....plug in your VHS recorder/player or analog camcorder to the box, plug the box, via a USB port, into your computer, and you can capture up to 5mbs, producing very good looking video and very good sounding audio....and that's OLD USB, no need for USB 2.0. The mpeg's that get produced look pretty darn good.

The only demerit (there are always demerits it seems) is that the editing software ain't all that great -- you get VideoStudio 5.0 customized for capturing from the box, and you get a capture wizard to capture directly with no frills (no editing features).

It all depends on what you want to spend....it will probably cost you in the neighborhood of $175-200...but it works....I just wish I would have bought it FIRST before trying other analog solutions.

If you want to take a look, go to www.adstech.com.

Cheers!

[q1aqza]

skittelsen,

You mention in one of your posts that if MPEG2 looks good on PC then that is a bad sign. This is the exact problem I am having. My MPEG2s look great on PC (standing about 2M away) but motion scenes are very jerky when cut to SVCD and played on my DVD player. I tried changing the field order to top field first and that was much worse. The closest I have came to removing all the jerkiness in motion scenes is by using higest quality motion search and 100% CQ with max bitrate of 2520 (PAL).

I am capturing/editing using Studio 7 and encoding with TMPGenc. I have not yet tried selecting non-interlace and there seems to be two places where this option is selected; in the Video tab [Encode mode] and the Advanced tab [Video source type] - which of these should be changed to reduce the jerkiness?

Thanks,
Mark.

[Steve_w]

Thanks everyone - this article has finally sorted my jittery video problems out.

I have the Pinnacle Studio DV card and software, plus a DV camcorder, and had problems when playing on a Pioneer DV333 player.

I now do the following and get perfect results every time:

1. Edit the video in Studio
2. Create a "DV Encoder Video" file (AVI).
3. Use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG. I use CBR 2520kbps, standard settings (no need to change field order as Studio seems to get this right at least).
4. Use NERO to burn the SVCD with menus.

Thanks again for your help with this!!