How to render at 1280x720 and avoid motion artifacts?

[rrwwis]

I have been editing my HV30 footage in PE4 for over a year and rendering and saving the video using the HD 1080i 30 preset getting a high quality result with no significant motion artifacts. Now I want to upload some video to YouTube and since YouTube recommends a 1280 x 720 resolution, I tried using the PE4 HD 720p 30 preset. With this preset, I get very severe motion artifacts. How can I render at 1280 x 720 resolution and avoid the motion artifacts?

[RJ Johnston]

You need to deinterlace your video. Right-click on the video on the timeline, select "Field Options > Always Deinterlace."

[rrwwis]

I tried the "Always Deinterlace" option with no improvement. Still get unacceptable motion artifacts.

[RJ Johnston]

Did you try exporting via Share to a 1280 x 720 format from a HD 1080i 30 project? The project preset you select for your project should match your source video as closely as possible. Then you can export to the format you need for Youtube.

You can still try "Always Deinterlace." You may or may not like the results.

[rrwwis]

I have been trying all along to export via Share to a 1280x720 format from my HD 1080i 30 project. This gives me the unacceptable motion artifacts. If I export via Share to a 1440x1080 format using the PE4 default HD 1080i 30 preset, I get an excellent result with no motion problem. But I need the 1280x720 format for YouTube. How do I get it w/o motion artifacts.

[Steve Grisetti]

Have you tried John Cloudman's hi-def YouTube solution?

From the Share tab, choose Personal Computer and then QuickTime. Choose the Cable Modem, DSL preset and then click the Advanced button.

From the settings window, do the following:

b Video Tab
*Video Codec: H.264
*Quality: 100
*Frame Width: 1280
*Frame Height: 720
*Frame Rate: 29.97
*Field Order: None
*Pixel Aspect Ratio: square
*Set Bitrate: checked
*Bitrate: 8000 kbps

b Audio Tab
*Audio Code: AAC
*Output Channels: Stereo
*Frequency: 44kHz

That should generate a .mov file that Youtube will handle correctly. You can modulate that Bitrate to reduce the amount of data size, and you can modulate the Quality number to reduce the encoding time. I wouldn't go lower than 3000 kbps for a bitrate or below 50 on Quality. Hope this helps everyone!

[rrwwis]

Yes, I have tried the Share/Personal Computer/Quicktime option with exactly the same settings that you have listed and I see no improvement.

[Steve Grisetti]

Can you post this output MOV to our Gallery so we can see how pronounced this issue is?

Maybe, once we see it, it will be clearer what's going on.

[rrwwis]

I have uploaded a test video in MOV format to a public album (rrwwis/bob w) on your site. This test video was created using John Cloudman's Quicktime settings. The first clip had the Field Order set at "None" and the second clip was set at "Always deinterlace".

Thanks

[Chuck Engels]

Here is the link to the video
http://muvipix.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-2973
Give it time to load the file is pretty big.

[RJ Johnston]

One thing is for certain, on my machine, the video plays back a lot better in VLC Media Player than it does in Quicktime Player. It seems a lot smoother in VLC. Another thing is the gamma is wrong when played in the Quicktime Player. That's Adobe's error.

[Paul LS]

I dont see any motion artifacts associated with the motion in the frame or the panning of the camera. Are you refering to the slight tearing of the frame at some places... I think it is more a playback issue. As Robert says try some different Media Players... when I download the file and play it in Windows Media Player I see no issues. With Media Player classic I see some tearing issues.

[Steve Grisetti]

I agree with Paul and Robert. I'm not seeing any jumpiness that would be related to interlacing issues.

The jiggliness I am seeing are due to some very fast camera movements.

This would likely be a lot less of a problem if this video were displayed at a more efficient online frame size -- maybe 640x360. (This would also make for a much quicker load time.) You rarely see video this huge streaming over the internet!