stuttery playback - time sensitive - pls help!

[sherrist Profile Private message]

Hey All,
I just got this program and am loving it. except for one thing. When I preview it before publishing it, the motions look smooth - perfect! After publishing it, it becomes jittery, and even pauses or stutters a bit (almost as if the top and bottom field rendering is set wrong, if that is any help).

I need a wide format SD format.

I have created 3 different video format types from the ProShow menu:
AVI -MPEG 4 SP 1080p
MPEG 2 - DVD NTSC 16X9
and even tried VIDEO FOR ARCHIVING OR EDITING - H.264 1080p - thinking I'll bring it into my system and re-render

All the formats look jittery when played back ALTHOUGH I will say that the one for video editing looks BETTER but not perfect in my editing system - Grass Valley Edius 6.0.

I made 2 slideshows that I need to put onto ONE DVD with menu. I use exclusively Encore to author my DVD discs - I use Photoshop to make menus. I have made 3 DVD's with the 3 different files thinking that perhaps the Encore Encoding will help - but it did nothing (neither better or worse).

ANYONE have ANY help??? I have to make 20 discs of this to bring to my aunt's memorial service next weekend and I'm kinda lost as to what to do!

THANKS!!!!
Sherri

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

I have to make 20 discs of this to bring to my aunt's memorial service next weekend and I'm kinda lost as to what to do!

What you see in any of those formats may be no indication at all of what you'll see off a DVD made with ProShow. Write an ISO image file (it's a choice just like your DVD write capable drive) and then burn a DVD or Blu-ray disc using other software. Play that and see what happens.

If that works, then there's something happening with the authoring software and not ProShow. Use ProShow's functions to put the two shows on the DVD and create the menu. You won't have all the flexibility but you'll eliminate the step that may be creating the issue.

Dick

[sherrist Profile Private message]

I need that flexibility, but I'll try the ISO to see what is up.

quick question.... Can i author on ProShow? I HAVE NOT LOOKED YET - I'm not at home on my system. Can I bring in a photoshop file with all the buttons enabled into ProShow?

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

No you can't.

You can create a fully-functional DVD in ProShow and a menu that works fine to select the shows but you won't have all the functionality of the authoring software. I'd start with a pure PSG output and make sure that works--a basic something that works is better than a fancy something that doesn't.

Some authoring software will let you edit and enhance the ISO file that PSG will create, so you could try that once you've proven the basic output works and what it lets you do or doesn't let you do.

Dick

[sherrist Profile Private message]

First, Thank You very much, Dick. The info was great.
Second, the problem was fixed with the suggestion of making the DVD thru ProShow. NO issues at all.

AND most importantly, with some time and some ingenuity, I was able to make the ProShow DVD menu look great! I used my custom Photoshop menu without the buttons and then went into "customize menu" within ProShow to add buttons and menu items (like play all or loop all). It was SO simple! I am really impressed with this software. It was almost too simple, so that I was struggling a bit the OTHER way! LOL Everything you need to make pretty cool DVD menus is there.

HOWEVER, there is one catch. I'm still stumped as to how to make an AVI for editing that is not stuttery. Eventually, I'll need to import a show into a video project and I'm still unclear as to the right codec or setting to use. ANY more ideas?

At least this time-sensitive issue was cleared up - so thanks!

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glad it worked out. AVI output isn't an option for PSG by the way. Several other formats are options that could be converted to that if you really want that file type.
Dick

[sherrist Profile Private message]

I made a very newbie forum mistake and typed in here instead of the Producer category. I have Producer. I can make AVI's as I had mentioned in my original posting.

That being the case - do you have any advice for me regarding Producer capabilities of making a correct playing AVI or really any editing software format? is there a way to really get into the specific settings of an AVI - like frame rate or field order?

[SquashPro Profile Private message]

I have experienced this issue and have figured out what is causing the problem (and a solution/workaround).

When Encore tries to use an interlaced mpg file created by Producer, it mistakenly determines that the file has been encoded as upper field first. The file is actually lower field first. When Encore authors a DVD using the Producer file directly, the fields are out of order and you get a stuttery playback. This is particularly noticeable during any of the effects like page curl or with any video that you may have included in the Producer show.

The workaround is to bring the Producer mpg file into an appropriate project in Premiere (480i or 1080i, depending upon whether you are doing a regular DVD or a Blu-ray DVD). Then:
-import the Producer file
-right click on the Producer file in the bin
-Click “modify”
-Click “interpret footage”
-Go down to the field order area and you will notice that Premiere is using the file order from the file (upper field first). Click on the lower radio button and force Premiere to interpret the file as lower field first
-Re-export the file using Premiere and the appropriate interlaced preset for the type of DVD you are making

This new file exported from Premiere can be brought into Encore and will work properly. The downside is that an additional transcoding has been introduced into the workflow and the final DVD won’t be quite as sharp and noise-free as it would have been if you would have been able to use the Producer file directly.

You can actually get around this “additional transcoding” problem with standard DVD’s with a bit more work. You export DVD folders from Producer instead of an mpg file. You then use a program to extract the original .mpg file from the VOB’s in the DVD (there are shareware programs that do this without transcoding). Encore will recognize the extracted file as lower field first so you can use it directly when authoring a DVD. This results in the highest quality video. I have only tried this with standard DVD's as I haven't found a program that will easily extract the original mpg files from a Blu-ray DVD.

Hope this helps,

Alan

PS: Embedded video files in Producer shows won’t be nearly as nice as the originals because Producer basically converts them to progressive when it processes them. This halves the effective vertical resolution and halves the field rate of interlaced video that is brought into Producer.