Blocky video

I have been using Premiere Elements 4 for a while now, but as I start to try and do more (i.e. - capturing old VHS tapes for archiving on DVD) I keep running into the same problem.
Some, NOT ALL, clips that I put on the timeline turn "blocky." Frequently, they start out on the timeline just fine, but after some edits, the whole clip goes blocky on me. Looking at a still frame, it looks fine, but when played, the blocks show up.
I am capturing the video using a Hauppage PVR on a different computer than the one I edit on. It seems to happen no matter the resolution I record the tapes at.
What could be causing this, and how can I avoid or correct it?
I edit on Dell XPS420, running Vista. Thanks in advance for any advice.

That device is probably not the best for capturing VHS video because it does not capture your video as DV-AVI files.
The FAQs at the right of this forum explain more and make recommendations.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/431853?tstart=0
When non-DV-AVI files are loaded into Premiere Elements, the program must assimilate them on the fly -- indicated by a red line along the top of your timeline. The longer your project and the more of these files you add, the more stress it puts on your system. And the more likely you'll see lower quality previews of your video.
You can alleviate some of this by hard rendering the files as you work. Press the Enter key and the red lines will turn green.
But you'll be much more ahead of the game -- and much less likely to run into unpredictable problems later in the process -- if you use the right file format as your source as in the first place. The ADS Pyro AV Link, as recommended in our FAQs, produces files that require no rendering at all and flow very efficiently through the program.

Similar Messages

Blocky video on dvd playback.

Hi, sorry if this has been dealt with before but I'm not too wise just yet with final cut studio and have been having some trouble with blocky video on dvd.
I shot some video using hd pal and captured that in fcp. I used the corresponding timeline. I was then advised to export the project using self-contained-file with encoder ProRes 422, and to then put this through compressor using dvd90minute and changing dialogue normalisation to -31, compression preset to 'none' and the average bit rate from 6.8 to 8.0. I then imported this into dvd studio and burnt the dvd. When this plays back some of the shots, not all of them, randomly appear blocky, some more than others. I am obviously doing something wrong when exporting and/or compressing, but I think the problem lays in the compression.
The blockiness appears on playback on both the mac and dvd players. It occurs at moments of static camera. One particular part, it is just someone sitting down talking and the video doesn't look right as it plays. It then becomes blocky and as it plays the entire picture sort of jumps to and fro blocky to normal in quick succession. This doesn't occur throughout, only in some parts, and the parts that it does not happen aren't any different in content than the ones that do jump.
Since the quicktime file I exported appears to look ok in quicktime, perhaps the problem lay in either the compression or the burning?
If someone could give some advice, it would be really great!
Thanks.

JMorris12 wrote:
put this through compressor using dvd90minute and changing dialogue normalisation to -31, compression preset to 'none' and the average bit rate from 6.8 to 8.0.
Well, first of all, dialogue normilization and compression preset are audio settings and have no bearing on how your video turns out. But why are you mucking with the preset to begin with? Especially if you're new to FCS? It's possible that cranking up the average bit rate of the MPEG is causing trouble for your DVD player.
My advice is to just trust the preset and only make changes IF you are seeing poor results. Remember, you are going from HD to SD by making a DVD so there is going to be unavoidable quality loss. Don't expect as clean and clear of an image from the DVD as you have from your exported QT. The basic DVD presets work wonderfully for a variety of situations so start there before making changes.
Andy

Blocky video on burnt dvd.

Hi, sorry if this has been dealt with before but I'm not too wise just yet with final cut studio and have been having some trouble with blocky video on dvd.
I shot some video using hd pal and captured that in fcp. I used the corresponding timeline. I was then advised to export the project using self-contained-file with encoder ProRes 422, and to then put this through compressor using dvd90minute and changing dialogue normalisation to -31, compression preset to 'none' and the average bit rate from 6.8 to 8.0. I then imported this into dvd studio and burnt the dvd. When this plays back some of the shots, not all of them, randomly appear blocky, some more than others. I am obviously doing something wrong when exporting and/or compressing.
If someone could give some advice, it would be really great!
Thanks.

Hi, this does occur on playback on all dvd players.
It occurs at moments of static camera. One particular part, it is just someone sitting down talking and the video doesn't look right as it plays. It then becomes blocky and as it plays the entire picture sort of jumps to and fro blocky to normal in quick succession. This doesn't occur throughout, only in some parts, and the parts that it does not happen aren't any different in content than the ones that do jump.
If you need any more information in what I've done let me know. Hope you can help. Thanks.

Adobe Media Encoder making blocky videos

The backstory: I have two Mac laptops: an old Powerbook G4/Panther running Imovie 4 and a brand new Macbook Pro/Snow Leopard running Imovie 9.
I've now made several FLVs that play beautifully on the internet: I imported old clips *that had been extracted using the Powerbook/Imovie 4* into my Macbook Pro/Imovie 9, edited the videos in Imovie 9, exported them as standard m4vs, then encoded them into FLVs using Adobe Media Encoder CS4 4.2+. They look terrific.
The problem:
For the first time yesterday, I used my Macbook/Imovie 9 combo to import clips shot with the same exact camera, then did everything exactly the same. The exported m4vs look fine. However, the resulting re-encoded FLVs are badly blocky, as though a mosaic filter was laid on. This is mostly happening when there is any increased motion in the footage.
I tried exporting into .mov then encoding for Flash in the same way, and no difference. The adjustment I'm currently trying is to bypass the presets on AME to enable a 2-pass scan rather than 1. There does not appear to be a keyframe-interval selection option in AME CS4 4.2, or I would adjust that as well. This custom encoding is taking 5 times as long to complete as the preset encoding: over an hour versus 15-16 minutes. It may or may not work, but regardless, I don't have that kind of time - I have a bunch of videos to make.
I'm really sick about this, because my beloved Powerbook has a dying harddrive, which is why I bought the new laptop. I don't want to believe that it was Imovie 4 that was responsible for those lovely videos. Later Macs no longer support Imovie.
Is there something I'm missing that will make AME work with Imovie 9 to eliminate the problem? I know Imovie 9 is a turkey, but it did make those lovely videos with the old clips from version 4. There's gotta be a way.
Thanks in advance.

After playing Youtube go to your temp internet
files and copy the file to HDD which is a mp4.
Add this to the Media Encoder and see if it will work now.
If it still does not work, your ME is prob. not working right.
I sometimes use AME as a converter and it handles mp4 just fine.

Blocky video after encoding AVI

Hi there, I encoded an AVI of pretty good almost DVD quality, after encoding the AVI to a DVD using IDVD 6, the video is blocky around the edges....
Why is this? IDVD does not have any advanced features allowing you to play with the encoder settings so i don't what to do...
If I were to convert the AVI to MPEG2 using another application and then re-burn my DVD, would IDVD automatically skip the encoding process as I would be using a DVD MPEG2 format???
Anyone know of any other decent apps for making DVD's?
Thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it.

GIGO does not apply in this case
I bet it does...
the AVI was only 1hr 45min so it's not too long
...and what was the file size in MB? Note that if it were in DV video format, the file size would have been about 21 GB - I'll bet your AVI file was very highly compressed and no where near this file size.
What was the on-screen image size? Many AVI files I've seen use the old MPG-1 size of 320x240 pixels - just 1/4 the size of the image iDVD expects to see.
Maybe DVD studio pro is the answer i'm looking for!!
iDVD uses the same Compressor application that DVD SP does.

Blocky video importing from a Sony HDR-HC3

I have been using my Son HDR-HC3 with my PC, Windows XP, and Sony Vegas Movie Studio for over a year without any problems. Recently I upgraded my mac to a new 20" iMac.
Upon importing either video off tape or live video from my camcorder I get periodic errors in the video, macroblocking. This only happens with HDV, not DV.
This happens in iMovie 7.1 but Apple also had be install iMovie 6 HD - same issues in both.
Since I know the camcorder and 1394 cable are good and iMovie can import DV without any issues I strongly suspect that iMovie (or the QuickTime CODECs that it is using) are not too happy with the format of the compressed HDV coming from the HDR-HC3.
A call to Apple has them telling me to take my camcorder to an Apple Store (an hour drive for me) to see if the same issue exists on one of their macs. If so, it's a software issue and they'll make a note and, at some point, maybe fix it. If I don't see the problem on one of the store macs then it's a hardware problem with my mac.
Either way, I'm not a happy camper since HDV editing is the primary reason for upgrading from my stable, yet slow G4 to this new iMac.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Have you found a software/configuration work-around?

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.
With all due respect the offer from  to test your equipment is the best you can hope for, you are unlikely to get the same level of help through forum messages as you are from physical testing.

Corrupt Video On External Drive

Hi
When importing video from my Cam Corder to the main drive on my iMac the video imports perfectly every time. But when I import to my external drive there is sometimes fractions of the clips that look corrupted. Its just for maybe half a second of blocky video then it goes back to normal. I've imported the same footage a few times now with different results. The corrupted parts are different each time and its only for less than a second.
To be hones the external drive is 500 GB in an Xcraft case and is quite old. I'm using to see if my machine is fast enough and see if its worth buying a new drive.
Could this be bad sectors on my drive? Or just the machine failing to import correctly due to transfer speeds of external drives? Could I maybe import to the main drive and then copy over would this help?
Is there an app to check for bad sectors? I've Used Disk Utility bit al it says is the disk is fine but the check only took a few seconds so that obviously did not check all the sectors.
Any help appreciated.

Modern camcorders generate a new file for each clip you shoot. You can load the clips into iMovie either directly from the camera, from the SDHC card or from a copy of the SDHC card on a hard disk.
Which OS version and iMovie version do you have?
There are some constraints on the video formats that can be imported that depend on this.
Geoff.

Inserting Video into Powerpoint Slide

I need to place digital video into a powerpoint slide, what would be the quicktime settings, should it be interlaced or progressive?

In addition to those things already suggested I would add the following:
If the presentation is being run from a windows platform (likely if you are preparing for powerpoint), they usually handle mpeg or wmv files better than quicktime.
When making the mpeg or wmv, don't set the resolution or bit rates too high. There are usually fairly high overheads of memory and processor usage in running a video within the presentation and if the resolution or bit rate is too high the system won't keep up. This results in poor quality video, dropped frames etc. For the same reason it is a good idea not to resize the video in the presentation. Audiences usually accept slightly soft or blocky video better than stuttering ones.
Make sure the files are copied to the system's hard drive and not run from a CD. Laptop drives often have trouble keeping up with higher data rates and they are usually set to spin down when not in use for a while.
Test the result on the target system!!! If you can't access the target system find a slow one to test it on unless you know the performance of the one it will be run on.
Our company does live event work as well as post-production and we often see bad results, usually accompanied by comments like "it ran all right at home (on son/daughter's gaming machine), but it isn't working very well on my (5 year old) laptop".
In summing up, I would suggest being conservative rather than trying to impress with dazzling effects and huge high resolution pictures.

Port forwarding for the rest of us?

Hi all,
I've been reading this forum for a couple of weeks now trying to find a way to get two Macs to do iChat video.
1st setup is a G5 MP2.0, 10.4.7, iChat 3.1.5, iSight, Belkin 8230-4 router.
2nd setup is iMac intel 20", 10.4.7, iChat 3.1.X, builtin camera, Airport Extreme router.
Both are on 1.5+ broadband, Belkin has a static IP coming into the router, with the G5 connected using DHCP with manual address. Airport has cable modem DHCP in, with DHCP/NAT turned on. Apple firewall is OFF on both.
Initial tries yielded the dreaded -8 error. I reset Quicktime streaming, iChat bandwidth prefs as suggested and tried forwarding ports on both setups, per the portforward.com recs for iChat.
The Intel iMac is now able to see/hear the ads on the auto chat test from appleu3test01 just fine, but we're still getting -8 when trying to connect to the G5/Belkin.
Besides the six initial ports for iChat (portforward.com) have now tried a shotgun approach by adding ports suggested from various sites/forums. This setup has achieved at least an error free connection with the auto testers, however the intermittent blocky video and choppy sound is not much better. Screen grab of blocky video with the 20 forwards currently set on the Belkin.
http://www.hamishthewelshie.com/ports.jpg
I'm looking for help sorting this mess out. What am I doing wrong here?
Thanks in advance for any help.
PMcK
P.S. I was going to post my first ever anti-apple rant... if only just to feel better but, what's that? oh okay...
<rant> Dear Steve, Even tho I have been using Macs since the 512, I am one of those artsy fartsy Mac users who doesn't really want to know what is under the hood. Admittedly, I am newbie at all this router port stuff, but the fact that lots of people seem to be having this same problem is ridiculous IMHO. Even the Yahoo and Skype Beta video ran the first time we tried it, not great quality, but it was a no brainer setup and it just works... exactly what we've come to expect from Apple. If these johnny come latelys can do it this simply, why can't my fruitbox company of choice get their own ***** sorted out? </rant> Sorry Steve.
G5-2.0MP Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi PMck,
This device can do Port Triggering even if it can not do UPnP.
At present the Port Forward site list their own PC app to help.
The method though is here
Ignor the pics and info on the brown and orange pics.
Set the first trigger as port 5678 on UDP.
Set these ports in the next text field
5060,5678,16384-16403 (no spaces and only commas and dashes inbetween) Set the protocol for these as UDP as well
Set a new line for trigger 5190 on TCP
Set the next text field as just 5190 and TCP again
Repeat the line above but for UDP at both points
If using Jabber at all:
Set a trigger of 5222 on TCP and ports 5220,5222 on TCP
(if using GoogleTalk make that 5223 on TCP and list 5220,5222,5223 on TCP)
Bonjour needs four single lines (trigger and just one port in the list field)
5297 on UDP 5297 on UDP
5298 on UDP 5298 on UDP
Repeat for TCP for 5298
5353 on UDP 5353 on UDP
As this is a NAT method of opening the ports the Airport will need "Distributing Addressing" turned Off in the Aipor Admin Utlity > Network tab This will make the Airport just an access point and the Belkin will address the whole Lan then.
Thios will allow multiple copmuters to access the same ports for iChat at the same time. The Belkin can be left doing DHCP. (Or be set to Static to the LAN)
Turning Off DHCP in the Airport (Distributing Addresses) will avoid any Double NAT and Double DHCP that seems to be going on at the moment.
10:12 PM Tuesday; August 1, 2006

Buying the right camcorder

So...continuing a discussion I posted a couple weeks ago, I've been diligently reading and looking into buying a new camcorder. I'm currently using a nice Sony Mini-DVD Handycam, but my problem is when I bring content into Premiere Elements I'm having some quality issues. The DVD's play fine on their own, and content that is taken from a tripod without a lot of movement is okay, but when I'm moving the camera around panning across a scene I'm gettng jittery and blocky video effects. It sounds like this is a result of me trying to decompress and recompress the video from the mini-dvd VOB files, so I'm looking at Mini-DV tape based camcorders. All of my searches seem to end up with the Canon VIXIA HV40. It's a little pricer then I had hoped for, but I like the fact that is has 24p and 30p modes, and what sounds like decent all around performance. I have read some reviews suggesting it isn't the best in low light though.
Are any of you using this platform, and if so would you mind giving me your thoughts on it? Any other ones I should seriousley consider? I'm hoping to do this upgrade just once, or my wife may kill me! I would LOVE to find a camera that doesn't require me to use tape (This seems like a horrible step backwards away from the simplicity of flash or HDD memory) but I guess I'm resigned to the fact that if I want to use premiere there isn't a current camera that will work well for me unless it's mini-dv.
Also, if it matters, my computer is a dual-quad core Intel box...new processor, 1gb video card, and 8gb of ram. I'm hoping thats enough horsepower to handle premiere HD movies.
Thanks again for all your help...I'm really enjoying trying to read all I can and catch up on this.
Thanks.

General, Language may be challenging, but deduction may overcome that:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/avchd-format-discussion/73357-avchd-samples.html
http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20080206/zooma344.htm
Panasonic LumixDMC-GH1
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicdmcgh1/page19.asp
Hunt,
I went to post the links for the AVCHD and HDV video samples that I use for some troubleshooting and could not put my hands on those links at this time.
But, in the searching for them, I came across the above links that might be helpful for future use for someone.
ATR

Pro Applications Update 2008-01 Good or Bad experiences ?

Hi Guys,
Who's up dated to the - Pro Applications Update 2008-01
and have their been benefits or issues ?
Cheers
Tom K

Everything is up to day via software update:
LiveType 2.1.3
FCP 6.0.3
QT 7.4.5
OS X 10.4.11 (Can't run Leopard on either of my Mac Pros (G5 Quad and Intel 2.66 2x core-duo) because I run ProTools on both (TDM on the Intel, LE on the G5)
I mostly use the second internal drive for video stuff, but I have three FW-800 drives for backing up older projects, DVD images, etc.
My test was pretty simple: in Livetype, I typed in some text which took three lines, applied various textures to a separate track and to the matte; put in some "live fonts," do some fade effects. I did this on both a regular NTSC SD project and a HD (ProRes 422) 1920x1080 project. It all works, rendered OK, exported, etc. I put the resulting video files through compressor to create SD MPEG2 files and they worked, too.
I've been using 6.0.3 pretty extensively for a project (two hour movie of a play), and again, it all seems to work just fine. The long standing problem with some HDV not "conforming" correctly (exceedingly blocky video in places) has NOT been resolved with the update; the same time line rendered and exported as ProRes 422 is just fine, so it is an HDV issue.
Eddie O

Can't convert MOV to AVI - turns black

hi all,
i've converted thousands of files to AVI from MOV's....suddenly, when i convert them, they turn black
i ususally convert from Uncompressed MOV to Uncompressed (using NONE codec) AVI and no problems.
but now, the file just turns black
help/????
i also have Perian, and have enabled/disabled, but no luck

Use MPEG Streamclip. It is free. 3GP format is usually for phones so you may want to try that, admittedly pretty tiny blocky video. MPEG Streamclip does export to AVI though you need to know what codec the Treo supports. The is because AVI is not a codec it is a container like MOV and can have any combo of video and audio in it. You can have an AVI with a clip with WMV video and MP3 audio or H264 video and AAC audio and the possibilities are endless.

Can't Convert Mov to AVI in QTPro

Does anyone know if Apple has some kind of code in their movies that would not allow you to convert a .mov file of the new iPhone features movie found on the Apple homepage to another format? My Treo software doesn't play .mov files (yeah yeah... I know... get an iPhone, can't get out of my Verizon contract:) Thanks.

Use MPEG Streamclip. It is free. 3GP format is usually for phones so you may want to try that, admittedly pretty tiny blocky video. MPEG Streamclip does export to AVI though you need to know what codec the Treo supports. The is because AVI is not a codec it is a container like MOV and can have any combo of video and audio in it. You can have an AVI with a clip with WMV video and MP3 audio or H264 video and AAC audio and the possibilities are endless.

Newbie FMS Output Quality

Hi there.
Just installed FMS3.5 and obtain very low output quality. On
a side-by-side comparison of the capture and output ( FMS start
page ) the stream on the output size is big time choppy and
pixelized.
I read that FMS is doing automatic bandwith detection but
even that, I'm testing on localhost. Is there some specific setup
on server side ?
Thanks for help.

Since you're using the flashplayer as the publishing client,
you can expect crappy, blocky video at any bitrate under about
500kbps. Sorenson spark (the encoder that the flashplayer uses)
produces very low quality images at low bitrates.
Your publishing bitrate is determined by the
camera.setQuality method on the client side. If you are not
explicitly setting the bitrate, video will be encoded at the
default 128kbps... very low quality
The reason the preview image looks better than the final
image is likely because your are looking at the uncompressed camera
image in your preview (i.e attaching the camera directly to the
video object).
Also, make sure the camera supports 320x240 natively (most
do, but one never knows). If it doesn't, the flashplayer will
capture the camera at the camera's closest native resolution, in
which case the image has to be scaled to fit in a 320x240 area. Any
such scaling has a negative impact on image quality.
On the note of automatic bandwidth detection... the included
server side methods do nothing more than determine a client's
server-to-client bandwidth. It's up to the programmer to take the
results of that bandwidth test and apply it to client side
actionscript (for example, choose a specific version of a video to
play when bandwidth is limited). FMS doesn't do any sort of
recompression of streams, so you would need to publish multiple
streams at varied bitrates to take advantage of bandwidth targeted
content delivery.

Optimizing iChat

I had iChat working really well under Leopard 10.5.8 - perfectly, in fact. I hadn't used iChat since upgrading to a new iMac and Snow Leopard 10.6.3 until yesterday and I noticed that the incoming video was really breaking up and pixelated - very jumpy and jerky (the person I was chatting with had no such problem on their end - I was coming in perfectly for them). I have my iChat version 5.0.3 bandwidth limit set to 500 and previously had streaming set to 1.5 in QuickTime settings but there are no QT settings in Mac OS X 10.6.3. Any idea what may be causing this? I've read that some people recommend setting the bandwidth limit to 200 but that's where I get confused. Shouldn't a higher bandwidth work better - or perhaps, automatic?

Hi Gerard,
Yes, the lack of the Quicktime Setting can cause some people issues.
Since iChat 2 iChat read the Quicktime Streaming speed.
However it could not read the Automatic setting as an open setting. It interpreted it as a figure which was sometimes written to the com.apple.ichat.plist as a zero.
In iChat 4 this was set to be read as 384kbps which meant in theory anyone could host a 4 way Video chat.
In OS 10.3.x and 10.4.x (for iChat 2 and 3) the Streaming Intranet/LAN setting also returned an unreadable figure to iChat and so the 1.5Mbps T1/Intranet/LAN setting became the de facto setting to use.
This made sure iChat could use as much of your Internet speed as it could see.
During this time most cable and DSL connection speeds have seen a leap from about 128kbps Upload speeds to an average of closer to a 1Mbps uploads with downloads being much faster as well.
This in turn meant that although the 1.5Mbps may have exceeded your Upload Speed it also capped everyone to a similar speed if they were faster than that.
iChat 5 can see your whole Internet Connection speed (Upload being the limiting factor)
This means that between two buddies at any one time you may have a much greater speed difference.
ichat is supposed to negotiate between the two Buddies on a common speed and the Buffering in iChat is supposed to take care of the variances in that speed.
The issue with that is that a 5% difference in a 20Mbps service is vastly greater than anything iChat was trying to buffer before, hence blocky Video, Audio Drop outs and strange pixelisation.
The only way to control this now is to limit iChat in the Bandwidth setting as you have read.
It is best done on both ends to aim to be as close as possible.
We are currently recommending using the 500kbps as the first choice and if you still have problems try 200kbps.
AS the other poster has said it pays to check with several Buddies so that you get the "best for all your Buddies" setting that you can (with the occasional tweak for some "Special Cases").
Summary.
The previous methods of setting up iChat kept the Bandwidth (portion of Internet speed) to a closer average for everyone.
In iChat 5 to enable the Buffering to cope with speed Variances, use the Bandwidth Limit setting, starting with 500kbps.
7:20 PM Thursday; June 10, 2010
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Blocky video

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