Help! HDV Clips that Were Smooth Now Jerky

[George Tyndall]

I'm creating a 1-hour movie in PE4.0, and Ive noticed that, although on initial playback of the PREL file the m2t clips that were acquired with HDVSplit clips then "Got" with 4.0 were very smooth, they have now become "jerky."

I tried opening the clips with Windows Media Viewer, and they are as smooth as before.

I tried starting all over with a new PREL file and re-"getting" the clips, but that did not help.

[Chuck Engels]

A one hour HDV project is kind of long George, have you thought about creating 2 or 3 smaller projects?

[George Tyndall]

A one hour HDV project is kind of long George, have you thought about creating 2 or 3 smaller projects?

Hi Chuck,

My plan was to export 1) as HD WMV 720p for playback from my HDD, 2) to a Blu-ray disk, which I understand will hold 2 hours of HDV, 3) as AVI to burn an SD DVD, which I understand will hold 1 hour 20 minutes.

Also, I noted that the clips were jerky even when i re-started from scratch, in other words, when the PREL file was only a few minutes long--yet they play smoothly in Windows Media Viewer.

[Chuck Engels]

But how much video in total length is on the Timeline George?
It takes a lot of resources just to have 1 hour of video on the timeline.
Best way to create a video that long is to work in small projects of 20 minutes or less and then export all of the projects when they are complete
You take all of the exports and add them to one main project and then create your masters from there.

[George Tyndall]

But how much video in total length is on the Timeline George?

After re-stating from scratch, all I had on the Timeline was my 6-second Motion BG, my 8-second Title with Sound Effect plus 1 3-minute clip of a girl dancing. Whereas the dancing is smooth in Windows Media Viewer, it is jerky in 4.0.

It takes a lot of resources just to have 1 hour of video on the timeline. Best way to create a video that long is to work in small projects of 20 minutes or less and then export all of the projects when they are complete
You take all of the exports and add them to one main project and then create your masters from there.

What format shouid I export to? What do you mean by "create your masters from there"?

[Paul LS]

Is it the preview that is jerky? If you have just imported the clips there should be no red line above them in the timeline unless you have added effects in which case you would need to render thr clips for them to play back smoothly.

[George Tyndall]

Is it the preview that is jerky? If you have just imported the clips there should be no red line above them in the timeline unless you have added effects in which case you would need to render thr clips for them to play back smoothly.

Yes, it is the PREL file that WAS jerky. The only red lines were those above the Motion BG and the Title, and I did render those.

BUT NOW THE PREL FILE PLAYS WELL.

What happened in the interim is that I attempted to export the file as HD WMV 720p but then I cancelled the operation after noting how much time it would take.

Now, when I play the PREL file, there is no defect in the video.

The other problem that is now resolved is that the integrated audio (recorded live when the video was made) no longer breaks up when the movie is played on the Timeline.

I'm mystified.*
____

*Truth be told, I have yet to understand why m2t (1080i 30 interlaced video) plays so well on my LCD (progressive) monitor.

[Chuck Engels]

Wow, that is just too weird George. I don't have a clue as to what was happening or why, there must have been some background process running at the time, maybe a virus scan or something like that.