Vivtar HD AVCHD produces jagged line video

[LarryGB]

A travelling companion and his wife recently shot some video while in Cancun, and asked me to edit it together for them. The video was shot on a Vivitar HD waterproof camera, and when trying to import the PICTXXX.mp4 files, prompted PrE10 to suggest a different project format, Sony EXDCam EX720P 30, than what I usually use to edit similar video's, HD Lite AVCHD 720P Square Pixel 29.97. The camera looks near identical to the Xacti CA9 waterproof that I use. He had picked up a couple of them for $50.00 each at a liquidation center. I was feeling cheated. But once I seen and heard the quality of the videos, I was more than happy with my Sanyo. Now checking back in the project settings for PrE10, I see that it seems to be wanting to use a format related to the Flip Mino HD and Ultra HD 30P settings.
For most of all the editing session I went through it seemed that there was no issue, till it came time to render out to a DVD folder. When I play the render back in VLC or WMP, the sympoms seem to reflect either a field priority issue or a de-interlacing effect. I don't believe there is any switches that relate to this being configurable in production or sharing fpr PrE10.
So my question is, can I some how export this project [1hr35min] with all my editing, transistions, menu creations, etc. so that I can re-import it into my traditional project settings with out having to re-edit it again? I don't want to just burn it to another setting like DV, and loose out on the quality I seem to have with the current files.
I've posted a sample of the original video on the gallery under my album.
http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... CT0080.MP4
Please analyze and let me know. Thanks.
Suggestions welcome.

[Steve Grisetti]

If you'd post a link to your videos, it would be easier to locate them and watch them, Larry.

At least then we could see if the stutter you describe is something we're all seeing or if only you're seeing it and it's related to your system or video player.

These pocket camcorders are a real wild card. With the exception of the Flip (which Adobe makes an effort to support), there's no guarantee the others will work at all or to what degree. The Flip HD 30 settings are probably your best bet for most of this type of .mp4 video -- but, unfortunately, there are no guarantees.

[LarryGB]

Yes, I would post a link, but vimeo is still processing, and gallery seems to be to complicated for my simple brain. Is there a help/FAQ for how to use gallery? I've created two different albums and uploaded twice, "successfuly", but I can't seem to see any result. Help!
Ok, first thing, throw away IE, and use Chrome. Then I was able to see the upload progress [IE just crashed at this point], and then you get to select the Album you created to post too. Too simple for us complicated brains.
Updated first post with link, download and analyze! And note what GSpot said!

Mel's Video Clip.png

And a VLC screenshot of worst case scenerio of the DVD render:

Jitter.png

Thanks.

[Steve Grisetti]

When G Spot shows your codec status as "Undetermined" that usually indicates that the video uses a proprietary codec that Premiere Elements is going to struggle with.

Did the camcorder come with its own editing software? Most do. If so, install that software. At the very least, it may install the necessary codecs so that Premiere Elements can work with it. And, worst case, at least you'll be able to edit with that cam's software.

I'm not sure what else to tell you at this point, without studying your video in the Gallery.

Meantime, what happens if you use the project settings for a Flip HD camcorder (30p) and then use these specs to output your video?

From the Share tab, choose Computer and then QuickTime/MOV. Choose the DV preset and then click the Advanced button.

From the settings window, do the following:

Video Tab
*Video Codec: H.264
*Quality: 100
*Frame Wdith: 1280
*Frame Height: 720
*Frame Rate: 29.97
*Field Type: Progressive
*Pixel Aspect Ratio: square
*Set Bitrate: checked
*Bitrate: 8000 kbps

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

[Bob]

The screenshot you posted is definitely an interlacing issue. The lines you are seeing are called "combing". This can happen, for example, when the clip is interlaced and the field order is reversed, or the clip is progressive and consecutive frames are being treated as interlaced fields. It could possibly be some weird interaction between the project preset, the clip's video codec, and the output codec.

I took a look at the original clip sample you posted in the gallery and it is an odd duck. It's progressive mpeg with only I-frames. Open your project and right click on a clip on the timeline. There should be a "Field Options" entry in the popup menu. Select that -- reverse field order should be unchecked and grayed out and "None" should be the selected option. Is it?

I use Premiere Pro CS5, not Premiere Elements, and, using progressive mpeg sequence settings, I was able to get a clean export to mpeg-2 for dvd without the comb effects. I still have my old copy of Premiere Elements 7 installed so I tried using that too. Premiere Elements 7 does not have the dSLR presets that version 10 does. Knowing that the clip was progressive mpeg, I selected the HDV 720p 30 project preset. I exported to mpeg-2 using share>personal computer>mpeg>ntsc dvd widescreen. The resulting mpeg-2 was also clean with no combing.

Would you try a quick test using the HDV 720p project setting and let us know if you get the same result.

[LarryGB]

Here's the option box:

Fieild Options.png

and yes, I recall now that I had an Aiptek HD that had to have the software/codec installed before anyone else could play, or edit it. Will give that a try.

And will try the option to render the clip in discussion with a different project setting and see how it goes.

Thanks,

[LarryGB]

So, started new project with suggested settings, of course PrE10 said that wasn't what it deemed appropriate, but I ignored it. Put same clip on time line, and shared it out to a DVD NTSC Wide setting, and now looks great:

No Jitter.png

So possible resolutions is not to use the PrE10 suggested settings, and go with what works.

So my issue still exists, how do I take all my edited footage,[94 minutes worth] from the time line on the inappropriate project settings, so I can bring them into a new project with the correct project settings, and so I can share them out to the DVD W/S Mpg2 folder?

I guess the first try would be to DV and then import the rendered DV file. What are the consequences, quality loss, etc?

Thanks for all suggestions, am getting closer to a resolution.....

[Bob]

Premiere Elements usually does a good job identifying the proper project format from the video file. But, it can be tripped up. Some specifications, like AVCHD lite, are very loose and there are a lot of proprietary variations. Some variations can only be processed by the manufacturer's software and need to be converted for use in other editors. Other proprietary variations may be processed incorrectly. The identifying information in the file may also be incorrect. As Chuck said, these pocket camcorders are a wild card. The PRE10 suggestions are just that -- suggestions. If you have something that works, you go with that.

The clips are being correctly identified as progressive. But, there are two common ways progressive frames are stored in a video file. Say your frame rate is 30 frames per second. One progressive format (30p) has 30 individual frames for each second and converting to interlaced format would take half the lines (the first field) from the first frame and the other half (the second field) would come from the second frame. The other progressive format (60p) looks like interlaced video in that it has two fields per frame (60 fields per second), but both fields are the same progressive frame. Converting to interlaced format from that would drop every other "field" -- the lines for the first interlaced field would come from the first frame and the lines from the second interlaced field would come from the third frame. Your clips are 30p. If a 30p clip is processed like a 60p clip, the combing will be greatly increased. I think this may be what's happening in your project. If that's the case, I suspect that you will not have good results with any interlaced output format. Generally, the best solution would be to redo the project with the correct project preset. But, if you want to salvage the current project, I'd suggest sharing to a progressive format. There is mpeg-2 progressive. I don't know whether PRE10 provides a share preset for it. You can use the work area bar to process a short sample for testing purposes. There is also a product called Clipmate, that may allow you to copy the timeline from one project to another. There are threads here that discuss the use and limitations of Clipmate, see this one to start: viewtopic.php?f=81&t=7967

[LarryGB]

Thanks for that info, Bob. I did try the DV export, unfortunately it took about 3 hours for a 94 minute project, and about 6 gigs of storage. And when I try to re-import that into a new project with a more common project settings, there was a greater degree of degradation. So I took a chance and burnt the original project to disk, and previewed it on my LG DVR, it was not all that bad, even with the areas of concern in this post. So it could have been a bit of codec issue, my system on playback through VLC, and who knows what other gremlins are at work. All in all, I should have burned a test disk first, and then evaluated second.
Thanks SteveG for you direction as well. But a lesson learned is a good thing, each day.

Also found this link which might help others in the future to choose, or ignore project settings: http://www.adobepress.com/articles/arti ... 6&seqNum=2