HD video to MPEG2, poor results

I have a some 1080i PAL material I need to make DVD's from. Gave it the best settings in Compressor and the result is dire, blockiness, jagged edges and banding. Compared to the pristine HD it is awful. The problem is I have seen PAL SD results from HD material that is 10x better quality. What am I doing wrong? Should I be using Squeeze 6 for best results? I did make some changes to 'frame controls' but the encode went out to 80 hours for a 30 minute episode....!!!

Klaus - you are absolutely about locking audio at the playhead - i learned that lesson several years ago and I always do that. It is a must.
I am quite sure that I am not using DRM protected tunes. But, that is a possibility.
My feelings is that the synchronization problem is linked to the number of clip modifications, as well as the number of sound modifictions. I usually discard about 40% of my original video. This means that just about every clip has one or more cut. In addition, I usually import a large number of pictures from Iphoto, and do several clip transitions. My videos are travel reports, and I also add text to many of the clips. I add even more to the system overload by keeping some original sounds. This means that whenever I switch from one sound to another I do a manual sound transition by lowering the volume of both the ending sound and also that of the new starting sound (this causes more splitting and locking at playhead).
I have noticed that Imovies with few changes have few synchronization problems, and that Imovies with many changes start to become unmanageable at around one hour of playtime. I suppose that I should be using FCE and IDVD studio pro. I do have both and have never used them. I only edit movies every few months and found it too hard to understand and remember the intricacies of these advanced program.
The only reason for my original post was share my experience in converting HD to DV. But, thanks for your interest and support.

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Poor result using Compressor

I need help. I use a Sony camera (HDR CX560) bought in US with NTSC as standard. I live in Europe and would like to burn a DVD for my Blue-Ray player showing it on my PAL TV.
The footage is 1080i, 1920x1080, 29,97 fps.
I have tried several different ways of achieving good results, but with no luck:
1. Editing in Final Cut Pro with original specs (1080i, 29,97). The result showing in FCP viewer is not perfect, but quite good. A little bit of stuttering and a bit blury pictures. I have tried "Send to Compressor...", selected MPEG-2 for DVD in Compressor (customized to 16:9 TV format). The process stops after a minute - a file is being created, but only the first 30 seconds of the movie is visible. I also tried Share>Export file using Compressor settings. The file created does not have acceptable quality, mostly bescause of very disturbing stripes. I also tried Share>Master file but the output is not good enough (using codec Apple ProRes422 (HQ) - same stripes.
2. Editing in Final Cut Pro with european standard (1080i, 25i). The result in FCP viewer is good with one exception - a lot of stuttering images while panning. I tried all the output/share alternatives mentioned above, with poor result.
I use OS X 10.8.3, Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8 and Compressor 4.0.7
Can anyone help?

pnils wrote:
. Created a project with the original settings (1080i, 1920x1080, 29,97 fps).
FCP is usually pretty bullet proof in handling formats – and most of the time letting it set the project properties is the best way.
From what you've said about the camera and the footage, you shouldn't encounter any potential problems until after you export and start the standards conversion.
Create another project. When the new project dialogue window appears, make sure the settings are set to automatic (video properties set by first clip). Take one of the 1080i 60 clips and edit it to the timeline to set those properties. Export that clip as a test. If it plays smoothly, and it should, proceed to delete the clip from the project and paste the problem sequence to the new project. Delete all project render files and event render files. Now export (don't bother to re-render).
Post back with results.
Russ

Poor results importing PSE7 slideshows into PRE7

I originally posted this query into the Photoshop Elements forum ('cos I couldn't find this one originally...) and received some very helpful replies from Barb__O - thanks Barb. These have given me some useful leads on things to try, which I've done and did see some improvements, but I'm still not at the point of being happy with the results. The problem appears to be a PRE problem, so reposting here...
I am trying to put together a video presentation for output directly to PC monitor (more specifically, LCD data projector of 1024 x 768 resolution) and then record to DVD, in PAL SD format.
The presentation is to contain slideshows put together in PSE7 (so they already include title slides, transitions, Ken Burns effects and music tracks) and video clips from a couple of different sources - one clip is a scanned Standard 8 film (format is a frame-to-frame AVI at 720 x 576 resolution ie SD PAL) and some clips from a 1440 x 1080 HD (H.264) video camera (Canon HF10). Reading through some of the forums, I'm doubting that PRE7 will be able to handle this variety of input formats...
The still images come from many sources - digital camera, scanned prints (B&W and colour) and scanned transparencies. All images were dropped into the PSE7 slideshow in their respective original sizes/resolutions. There are close to 100 images in the slideshow. Apart from a few scanned B&W print enlargements that were spat out by PSE7 because they were too large (other photo editors had no problem with them - seems PSE is a little precious in this regard...) the process of putting the slide show together went pretty smoothly.
Playing the finished slideshow in the PSE7 preview window, the results were excellent. Exporting the slideshow as a 1024 x 768 WMV file and playing it in any media player yielded the same, excellent results! So far, so good.
I then wanted to put everything together using PRE7 - slideshows, video clips and titles. From PSE7 I clicked the "send slideshow to Premiere Elements" at which point the slideshow was dutifully dropped into my currently opened PRE7 project. As the project already contained the aforementioned scanned Standard 8 clip, the project setting was PAL DV 48kHz. I was feeling exuberant at this stage. I added a couple of title slides and a transition or two and played the result in the PRE7 full screen preview window...
I was absolutely horrified with what I saw when the slideshow started to play. All of the still images were badly pixellated, had jagged edges and any vertical wipe transitions had a horrible, angular ripple effect. In short, unwatchable.
As I had to get the presentation done and was clearly getting nowhere with PRE7, I exported all my slideshows out of PSE7 as WMVs, my video clip out of PRE7 as an AVI and dropped everything into Windows Movie Maker, with excellent results on the PC monitor and the LCD projector. Clearly there was/is a problem with PRE7 or one or more of its esoteric settings.
I now want to add another slideshow and the HD video clips mentioned above to the presentation and then burn to DVD. I would like to use PRE7 to do this, as I can set up menu markers where I want and I want to make finer adjustments to relative positions of stills and video than Movie Maker will allow - but obviously this is all dependent on resolving the quality problems.
After suggestions given by Barb, I played around with the PRE7 project setting and tried various settings here, eg HDV, SVHCD etc. These certainly improved the quality of the still images in the slideshows (to the point where I was happy with them), but the transitions were still ugly and the pan/zoom effects became jerky and distracting, not only that, but the music track that I had synchronised with the slideshow, with a nice fade out at the end, just ended abruptly - again distracting and not at all good.
To be honest I'm confused with that project setting - should this be set to the format I want the finished project output to end up in, or is it set to the format of video input to the project? If the latter, how does it deal with different format video clips?
I've also read about the recommendation to set all still images to 1000 x 750 pixels - this would have been fine if I'd known this *before* I put together the slideshows, I don't want to have to re-do them all again (or can I re-size the images while they are actually *in* the slideshow?)! Besides, PSE7 itself and Windows Movie Maker handle images larger than this, quite happily. Why can't PRE7? Also, how is this resolved for large portrait orientated images? What is the primary dimension (width or height)?
As an aside, I tried re-sizing a single image to 1000 x 750 and dropping straight into PRE7, but I still get poor results (ie grainy, pixellated image)! ("Scale to framesize" is off)
So am I flogging a dead horse here or can I resurrect things so that I can end up with a reasonably professional looking result? I really want to love these two products, they do some things really well, but so far, my overall user experience has been one of complete frustration and disappointment. The user interfaces of these two products have to be about the worst I've come across!
Thanks.

Steve,
FYI - I think that MK had already tried sending directly from PSE 7 to PRE 7 see his mention of
I then wanted to put everything together using PRE7 - slideshows, video
clips and titles. From PSE7 I clicked the "send slideshow to Premiere
Elements" at which point the slideshow was dutifully dropped into my
currently opened PRE7 project. As the project already contained the
aforementioned scanned Standard 8 clip, the project setting was PAL DV
48kHz.
One of my concerns about the specifc scenario is that the PE project setting was PAL SD video and the expected projector resolution was thought to be 1024x768 (and therefore higher resolution). even with Scale to Framesize off, I was not sure if that resolution difference would be a problem.
Your suggestion is making the PAL SD DVD and then using a software DVD player to play that DVD to the 1024x768 projector. That is a different approach that I had not considered -- but it would probably avoid some of the awkwardness of dealing with 2 distinct types and resolutions of output.
MK,
Your earlier post (if I understood it correctly) said that after the presentation using the projector, you would be making DVDs for distribution. Now I suspect that these would be standard definiton DVDs and probably PAL.
I recommend that you confirm in this thread what your current plans are for distributiion and playback.
Once the best fit for a PE project type is resolved, I do think it is worth another try of sending the slideshow from PSE 7 slide show editor to the PE 7 project.
Yes, you may expereince some timing differences between the playback you saw in the PSE slide show editor and what you see in the playback under Premiere Elements (note Steve's point to be sure that you should render in PE before doing playback). Based on what you observe for your specific slide show, these differences can be discussed.
ADDITIONAL comments
played the result in the PRE7 full screen preview window...
I missed this earlier. Because your computer monitor is probably much higher resolution, I question whether this full screen preview is an effective evaluation of the final quality. Steve and Hunt, what are your comments on this?
MK
can I re-size the images while they are actually *in* the slideshow?)!
Besides, PSE7 itself and Windows Movie Maker handle images larger than
this, quite happily.
re-size images while they are actually in the slide show -- maybe but not easy
1 --When in the PSE slide show or from the PE Timeline, you can edit an individual photo and replace the existing photo with the results of that edit. However that is a one at a time operation and most probably not what you want. It is better suited to adjustments to a specific photo when you determine it needs to be differrent for this slide show.
2 --Once your slide show is on the Premiere Elements Timeline, a few people have swapped out a folder of photos and brought in a different folder of downsized same photos. This is tricky but probably can be done: it is probably simpler if all photos are in the same folder. Also portrait photos probably need to be handled separately from landscape photos.
FYI - PSE 7 slide show can sometimes handle larger images and you did not have a problem - but others do have problems and you might in the future. This seems to depend on both the specifics of the photo files and the computer system configuration.

Video quality still poor

i installed grafics https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23889 still video clearity is poor, pls advise. installed all intel grafics drivers but still the same issue.

Photo Scaling for Video http://forums.adobe.com/thread/450798 may help
-HiRes Pictures to DVD http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1187937?tstart=0

Getting poor results with Refine Edge tool

Not sure if anyone else has run into this issue. But after following numerous tutorials on lynda.com as well as tv.adobe.com and youtube, I just can't get good selection results using the Refine Edge tool in Photoshop CC and I'm convinced it's something I'm doing wrong, but I have no idea what.
After downloading this Wikipedia image of Bismarck for a history documentary, I tried isolating the figure from the background using Refine Edge and keep getting poor results. Maybe it's my settings, I'm just not sure. But after painting over my edges, I end up with terrible results. Unfortunately, I'm getting poor results with other images as well. Can anyone venture to guess what I might be doing wrong? Thanks very much in advance.

Hi ninose11,
For this type of project and idea, I would recommend trying some of the magnetic lasso tool. The tool is located as the third tool in the toolbar (you should see a lasso or rope looking icon), hold down the icon and it should expand - then select the magnetic lasso tool. The magnetic lasso tool will allow you to scroll over the edge of his profile and it will automatically detect the outline edges. The slower you roll-over the shape the higher the accuracy will be. If the magnet is not detecting a particular edge or sharp corner (for example, the ear) you can manually drop points by simply right-clicking at any point during the selection. If the edge is too sharp, you can also create a light feather which will blend the edge softly (this should be located at the top).
If this is unsuccessful still, you can try selecting by color, using the Magnetic Wand Tool (forth icon in the toolbar, again hold down for all options). Once you are using the magnetic wand tool, you should be able to select all the black areas of the background to delete. You can increase or decrease the tolerance to change the sensitivity of the selection.
Hope this helps!

Poor Results from Time Stretch

Hi all,
So on a number of occasions, I have tried using the Time Stretch feature in Soundtrack Pro, but nearly every time I use it, I get noticeably poor results. For example, if I take a 31-second soundtrack and squeeze it to 30 seconds, the playback sounds very choppy. The same happens vice versa when I stretch audio by small amounts. I find myself having to do this function in Adobe Soundbooth instead. I really like Soundtrack Pro, but it seems that this feature is inferior. The funny thing is, I've seen tutorials online about this feature, but I've never seen the people giving the tutorials have any issues. Does anyone encounter this same issue? And, does anyone know if there's a fix for this situation?
By the way, I'm using Soundtrack Pro 3.0.1, and I'm running it on a Mac-Pro 12-core with Mac OS X 10.6.6.

I've done this all the time and always had good results... And I've been able to stretch quite a bit... My audio has always been 48K, 16 bit.

HT3775 I have a video with mpeg2 extension, but quicktime not read

I have a videos with mpeg2 extention, but quicktime not reads
I download and I pay!! a codec for it, but It say later that it is a previous version!!
please help me with it, because I lost my money and I have my problem yet

The mpeg2 plugin is not required in Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3961
Is it possible this video is encrypted?

Trying to preserve video quality in end result

Hi, my big question is re the problem of quality reduction in the final product, say a disc image. Even though the video is short, just 1/2 hour (no stills), during "processing" it becomes grainier and loses color saturation. Is there no way to keep the video from being compressed? What if you had 5 minutes of video to put on an 8GB DVD? No way to retain full sharpness and color?
I tried dropping the star icon from iMovie onto iDVD's window -- it looked great in Preview, but after making the disc image it is sadly not the same. I had changed the iDVD settings from Best Quality to Best Performance, per suggestions I found here. When I did that it did seem to somewhat increase the pre-burn size-estimate in iDVD -- but nowhere near enough, apparently.
Oh, and there is 57GB free space on the internal start-up HD.
I also tried following instructions to share the video from iMovie using "Full Quality" QT -- that was REALLY terrible - blurry as heck.
I've been coming up against this problem with footage from camera and also from other sources; same problem.
OK, now for full disclosure, I am using iMovie 5.0.2 -- I also have 6.0.3, but kept forgetting to switch. From what I "hear" around here, it does not seem that switching to 6.0.3 will solve my problem. BUT if there are big advantages I would like to do it. Should I just start up 6.0.3 and open the project in that version, or are there other things I need to do first?
thanks.

Hello, Tassia,
I will give it a go.
First, quality of your final product depends on several things. What is the quality of the video you start with? If you have poor quality video footage, say from an old vhs tape, you cannot expect superior quality results.
(However, most vhs footage looks better after being converted to digital format video).
Second, where are you viewing the footage to determine its quality? You cannot judge by just looking at it in iMovie because iMovie's resolution is very low, not what you will get from viewing an iDVD on a TV. It will look darker and fuzzier than on a burned DVD played on TV. Same for disk image file.
You need to burn the project to DVD and then view it on an interlaced standard TV before making a judgment on quality.
For iMovie 6 and DVD, using video footage in DV format ensures a lossless process.
Sharing your iM6 movie as Full Quality QT is also lossless. It may look less sharp when you view it on your computer or in iMovie, but if you export it back to your camcorder, it is as sharp as the original.
Re: iDVD settings...Best Performance is for projects that are less than 60 minutes total content, including menus. Best Quality can be used for the shorter movies also, but it is for content 60 minutes and over, up to 120 minutes. These are for single-layer DVDs. The time limits double if you are burning to dual layer DVDs.
It probably doesn't matter if you are using iM5 vs 6. You should be able to open an iM5 project with iM6. Yes, I would try that.

Sharing video using MPEG2 comes up with no permission error, what do i do?

When I go to share my video using the MPEG2 setting, and I keeps throwing a permission error. Changing the file output location, running as admin, changing codec settings, making a new project all have not worked.
I also cannot burn to a disc as it throws a transcoding error, but I'm not sure if that's related to the first issue.
I am using Premiere Elements 10.
Thanks

Christopher
Thanks for the reply.
You have 2 known Premiere Elements 10 issues that need clearing out of the way to see what, if anything, is behind them.
1. There is a serious problem with Premiere Elements 10 run on a computer that uses a NVIDIA GeForce card.
ATR Premiere Elements Troubleshooting: PE10: NVIDIA Video Card Driver Roll Back
The answer has been and is to roll back the driver version to about May 2013 (no typing error). In your case, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and the NVIDIA GeForce GT-545
As you see, the oldest driver version is July 1, 2013. That driver version may not be old enough. But worth a try if no where to go.
2. Please install QuickTime latest version on your computer with Premiere Elements.
Once both are ruled out, then back to the present....
1. You say
Every instance of using the MPEG2 codec it has always asked for activation instead of saving the code I put in.
Here is the error message I am getting:
Interesting, since I might expect to see an error message specific to MPEG2 Activation there instead of Error compiling movie.
You report that export to file MPEG2 and burn to DVD disc result in this error. What happens with burn to Folder (4.7 GB)? Same thing?
If none of the above, two possibilities
a. Uninstall, free ccleaner run through, reinstall with antivirus and firewall(s) disabled.
b. Create a new user account with administrative privileges and install and try to run Premiere Elements 10 from there.
Please review and consider.
Thank you.
ATR

FCP to MP4 poor results

I recently cut a highlights video of a rugby match that was then exported as an mp4 (for uploading to youtube) I had done this before with very good results but despite trying a variety of settings the end result was quite poor, I have a feeling that it's probably due to the uniformity of colour in the video, ie green jerseys and a green pitch. can anyone advise me how to maybe get better results (keeping file under 100MB: 7 minute video)
thanks a mill
Brian
G4 dual 867 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1GB RAM

Might try using H.264?
Jerry

Quicktime 7.4.5 HD Video Quality is Poor

Hello, every since I updated to the latest QT version the video playback quality of my HD's movies has been poor. For example when I play a 480p trailer the video appears very jaggy around the outlines of text and objects. The QT preferences are set to High Quality.
I tried completely reinstalling QT and still got the same results. Luckily I did still have the previous QT version so I installed that and now the playback quality is perfect once again. Guess I'll have to stick to this version until another update comes out.
Any one else have this problem?

I just tried using that option in the 7.4.1 version that i installed and doing so actually reduces video quality, don't think that would help in 7.4.5. Funny thing is when i do put it in safe mode the video quality looks exactly the same as in 7.4.5.
It's almost as if the newest version is running in safe mode even though i have it set to directx, strange...

Scrambled Video Playing mpeg2 Files on Sony TV

Hello. I am trying to capture VHS video (no Macrovision) and convert sections of it to mpeg2 for play on my Sony TV (32"/720) via USB drive (and maybe burn to DVD as well). I have done so many times with other sources (mostly ripping DVDs and converting downloaded youtube vids, etc.) and never had a problem until I tried to capture VHS and convert in this way.
I have tried importing the VHS footage using iMovie, Quicktime and Premier Pro CS6 through an old Canon Optura 50 DV camera, then I would export sections of it using an uncompressed codec (DV), then that file is converted to an mpeg2 file via another program (I've used several that work fine for this stage of the process). This is what I am getting when I try to play the resulting mpeg2 file on my tv set:
Finally, I tried the H.264 codec (for the initial export from Premier Pro) and changed the pixels to "square" and it seems to play ok on my TV once converted to mpeg2 (but I have NO idea why). I cannot get it to work when exported using iMovie or Quicktime (they don't offer pixel ratio adjustment as far as I can see). What am I missing here? Anyone know? Is there another codec I can try from within iMovie or Quicktime that may solve this problem? I don't want to use Premier Pro since the method I described above that worked uses a tremendous amount of time and totally maxed processor power and I have over 100 hours of footage. Why can't I simply capture this VHS footage into iMovie, export in sections to lossless/minimal lossy format, then drop into my other converter to get the mpeg2 I need for the USB drive and maybe burn to DVD? It should be so easy but I am missing some little setting that is screwing up the result and I have no idea what it is. I have done this so easily before using Sony Vegas when I was a Windows user. Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

e.g. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006HI4I/104-3410108-6459164?v=glance&n=17228 2

Programmatically playing the "next" video in a playlist results in the old video playing as well

(Using OSMF v1.6)
When a video has finished playing, my player will automatically play the next video in a playlist, after doing the following:
var loadTrait:LoadTrait = myMediaElement.getTrait(MediaTraitType.LOAD) as LoadTrait;
loadTrait.unload();
myMediaContainer.removeMediaElement(myMediaElement);
myMediaPlayer.media = null;
--- proceeds to create the new mediaElement (ex: myNewMediaElement) with appropriate metadata, etc
myMediaContainer.addMediaElement(myNewMediaElement);
myMediaPlayer.media = myNewMediaElement;
Invariably this has resulted in the new video playing normally, but the *old* video also playing, I assume as an element/player/container behind the new one. So you get two simultaneous audio streams.
Executing the same sequence of commands with a user interaction (i.e. clicking a "next" button to play the next video) does not display this behavior.
I have done some searching and I cannot find anything else to try; does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

Hi jethroq,
please report an issue at https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FM providing a replication example code and asset links; it seems that you use also a youtube plugin, so it's hard for us to replicate your sutuation.

Videos .avi with poor quality on iDVD.

I am new user on Mac. I work with soccer match analysis and I have to use the softaware on windows plataform.
I creat videos (.avi) with good quality if I watch on Windows Media Player or TV. When I watch on my Mac, they have a real poor quality (defocused and trembled).
I used to creat my videos on this software (windows) and I burn de DVD on iDVD.
Do I have to convert my .avi videos to any other extension file?
When I converted my .avi files to .ogm files the quality was better, but I couldnt use these files on iDVD.
Are there anything that I could try to get better quality on my video files?

Hi
I would convert the .avi to streamingDV and use this in iDVD.
.avi
You can use MPEG-Streamclip to convert the AVI files so that QuickTime can play them
and to streamingDV for iMovie.
Yours Bengt W

Why do my PS video transitions have poor quality on playback?

I've created a slide show using layers and have created a video group. This turns the layers into clips in the timeline.
I've added a cross-fade transition between each clip in the timeline.
Everything plays back nicely in PS.
When I export to mp4 and play it back in Quicktime, no matter what the magnification, the transitions look horrible. Even if I freeze frame on one it's horribly pixelated. I've tried different export options with the same results. Something appears to be happening during rendering the transitions, as if PS doesn't know how to create them.
I export to:
Adobe Media Encoder
H.264
High Quality
1920 x 1080 (same as my file)
Frame Rate 30 fps
Field Order: Preset (Progressive)
Range = All Frames
My stats are:
PS CS6
iMac 27"
10.6.8
800 gigs free space
12 gigs ram 8 free

I don't use Photoshop for video so am having to guess here, but you say H.264 but not what preset you are using. In PremPro there are something like a 100 prest options for H.264 Try something like Vimeo HD 1080p 29.97, but instead of exporting the entire video, drag the markers under the video preview window, to contain just enough to see if it is working. That will save you a heap of time. Can you select VBR 2 pass from the Citrate settings in media encoder? The Vimeo setting of 5Mbs for the target bitrate should easily give you nice transitions, but you can up that if you like, at the expense of file size.

HD video to MPEG2, poor results

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