I have a problem with filming with a friends new Sony HD-SR12 camera. I've tried filming in two settings: > AVC HD 9M (HQ) - High quality > AVC HD 16M (FH) - Higher quality (1920x1080). The footage looks pretty good on the camera however when I bring it onto my laptop (hooked up to an 1980x1020 screen) I have problems. When I play back the 9M footage it gets these horrible horizontal lines and the quality is ridiculously bad. When I play back the 16M footage however the quality is even worse and the footage just jumps - skipping big gaps (every 3 secs or so). I've tried playing them back through VLC, importing them into After Effects and converting them from *.MTS to something else but all of the resulting footage is still very bad quality. >> So guys, what is my problem and what are some possible solutions? I'm attempting to get a screenshot uploaded ASAP but I have work soon so no promises unfortunately. Thanks in advance!
Either a screenshot, or post a few seconds of the actual footage to a file hosting site (mediafire.com for example)
Are you talking about these lines ? If it's those, it's because the footage is interlaced. If you convert to DVD retain the interlacing for best quality. Except for that, I see some slight jerkiness, very common for hand held cameras shooting in HD. I also see some blurring - during quick pans. You would expect some, a possible setting on the camera to mitigate this ? I played it back in MPC-HC with DXVA active to reduce CPU, and it looked pretty good. De-interlaced on the fly, by the looks of it. Finally, I converted it to avi in Virtualdub, de-interlacing and resizing. I created a simple one line script (for Avisynth) that looks like this: DirectShowSource("F:\Documents and Settings\Dave Xnet\My Documents\Downloads\00418.MTS",fps=25,audio=false) and opened that script in Virtualdub. I then used the Virtualdub filters to first De-interlace then resize. If there is something else about this footage you want to elaborate on, please explain further. http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vr2zqi0ldg4 Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Thank you very much davexnet! I will play around with a few of these things and see how I go. I had been suggested about de-interlacing and after playing it back using either "Bob" or "Linear" (through VLC) it removed some of the problems I had been encountering. I have been trying to research how to de-interlace it with VirtualDub however it is a program I have very little experience with. That said, your post will hopefully enlighten me! Thank you very much again and I will hopefully post back here with successful results ^^ EDIT: After looking at the edited footage you have kindly posted, I don't know that it will be a particularly good option to go through these steps to be able to effectively play the footage (no offense what so ever - your effort is very much appreciated). I think that I have another older camera that can film with better quality and without all of the effort (still pretty bad camera though XD. I am really disappointed about this because the footage from this camera that I have been recently using looked pretty damn good when de-interlaced through VLC. Is there a way that I can use VLC to retain this quality of footage (as in export a de-interlaced file through VLC)? Or are VirtualDub and AviSynth my only options? Or, is there a way that I can effectively work with these files in After Effects/Premiere Pro and then just say goodbye to all of this issues when I burn my footage to a DVD?
I merely provided the conversion as an example; didn't mean to suggest you turn your footage into that format - It's just a quick and dirty conversion to show the effect of the de-interlacing . what you do with your original footage depends on what your target is; if you want to produce a DVD you do one thing, if you want it to play back on the PC you do something else. There is no generic answer. I suggested earlier on that if you want to make a DVD feed it into a DVD program (like AVStoDVD) and let it make the DVD. The interlacing will be maintained which is correct. However, if you want to watch it on the PC, use something like Media player classic- Home Cinema (mpc-hc) and allow it to de-interlace on the fly. Just play the original footage as-is. Regarding VLC it's been a while since I used it. It's always had an export/conversion feature, but I think you may have better results with avisynth/virtualdub or perhaps StaxRip (which I've tried and hhad good results in the past). It's flexible and offers many choices. But why do you want to create a de-interlaced version, when the media player will de-interlace it while it's viewed in real time?
Firstly thanks for your advice - I'll have a look at some of those options! Secondly - I am hoping to de-interlace it so that I may effectively work with the file in numerous editing programs such as Premiere Pro and After Effects. I have tried a de-interlacing solution Andrew Kramuer posted a while ago - however it was fairly ineffective and thus I am researching how to permanently de-interlace the files before I bring them into AE/PP. When I import these files into these programs - I still get bad quality that originates from them not being de-interlaced. Ultimately I would like to try and find a quick and easy method to restore my footage to full quality so that I may effectively edit them in AE/PP. So far, de-interlacing appears to be the best method and so I now need to try and find a way to de-interlace the footage permanently (using a method that still hopefully retains as much of the quality as possible).
Have you considered allowing AE to handle the interlacing? This is an alternative option. See this thread: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/923322 You can certainly de-interlace your file and keep the resolution the same. Give it a try and see if you like the result. A deinterlacier like Yadif can produce good quality and is quite fast. I think it's the default in Virtualdub and an option in Staxrip.
Thank you very much davexnet. Your help has been very useful and insightful and I very much appreciate your effort in trying to help me ^^ Best wishes!
