interlacing artifacts, and importing .mov files

cmroberson wrote on 9/25/2011, 3:21 PM

I am in production on a no-budget horror movie, and I just lost my second editor. So I bought a new PC to edit the movie myself.

I had put together a rough cut of the film as a blueprint on my laptop, using low-res transfers of the footage in MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14. I purchased MAGIX MEP17 for my new PC, and have been inserting HD clips into the old MEP14 files and overwriting as MEP17 files.

I have the bulk of my footage in .m2t format, transferred from miniDV tapes by my original editor/photographer. I am now trying to insert new footage I took myself, also on miniDV but a different camera, that I have been capturing using iMovie using my wife’s iMac.

Anyway, I have two technical editing problems.

One, interlacing artifacts (I assume; they are like horizontal comb-teeth) appear when I export footage from iMovie; could this be a result of a discrepancy between 30 and 29.97 fps, or is something else creating them? Two, my PC doesn’t want to read these files (which are in high-res .mov format) and I need to know either a way to get my PC to recognize them, or iMovie export settings that will allow me to create usable files in MEP17.

I am pretty uneducated on the technical side of things; I came into this project from the theatre world and have been learning as I go. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 9/26/2011, 5:09 AM

What you are experiencing is 'combing' due to changing from one format to another.

This article they may help you understand the problem and effect a cure.

To read the MOV files you must have Quicktime installed.

John

cmroberson wrote on 9/27/2011, 11:25 AM

Thanks for the link; very useful information. I also noticed a de-interlace filter in one of the MAGIX MEP17 pull-down menus, which I don't recognize from 14... I'll have to check it out.

I do have the latest version of Quicktime, and even Quicktime won't open the .mov files in question. It plays the audio but the video viewer shows a blank screen (same with MEP17). Quicktime says that I need additional software, and takes me to a list of downloadable third-party plug-ins (DivX and the like), but I don't see anything there that refers to the problem I'm having.

I saw a post about what sounded like a similar issue, that said to try an earlier version of Quicktime... I tried that but was unsuccessful.

johnebaker wrote on 9/27/2011, 4:35 PM

I should have thought of it earlier - MOV is a container file format that can contain other formats inside - the fact that Qucktime wants extra plug-ins means you do not have the correct codec.

Use GSpot or MediaInfo (both freeware) to analyse a clip to find out which codec it needs. Once you have identified the correct codec you can download it and install - my bet would be it is DivX or XVid.

John

cmroberson wrote on 9/28/2011, 2:21 PM

Thanks for the links. I ran one of the .mov files through MediaInfo and came up with Apple's Intermediate Codec, which looks like it has caused headaches for Windows users before.

I've Googled around a bit, seen some advice for users of programs like Premiere and Vegas, and a recommendation for a program called SUPER from eRightsoft. But then it talks about the possibility of it crashing, so I figured I'd check in again here before diving into a lengthy download and re-encoding.

Does this sound like what I should be doing? Or would I be better off trying to re-export from iMovie with different settings?

johnebaker wrote on 9/28/2011, 3:07 PM

Super got a lot of thumbs up on the old forum - you can get it here.

Good job I did not put money on it being Divx or XVid

You could try exporting from IMovie and set the interlacing to the opposite of what you did in the first export.

John

cmroberson wrote on 10/4/2011, 2:04 PM

Well I didn't have any luck with Super, but I did go back to iMovie and re-export and took care of the interlacing issue. Still having trouble with getting usable files--for some reason when exporting to wmv it gives me only 30-second clips, and they don't run well in MAGIX at all. I will keep tinkering.

I do have a fresh MAGIX question, and figured I should ask in the same topic rather than creating a new one. Is there a way to merge projects? For example, I have one file where I am editing scene 8, and a separate file where I am editing scene 9. Can I combine the two into a new file with 8 and 9? I tried opening them simultaneously and copy/pasting (which of course didn't work) and then I tried some other commands, like "attach," which I thought was what I was looking for but it just overwrote one file with the other. Any suggestions?

Oh, ha, as long as I'm at it, that interlacing-101 link was so informative... is there a crash course on color correction that is as good? I've got a specific effect that I want to achieve (and my previous editor did it marvelously) but I don't know my way around the terminology/controls.

johnebaker wrote on 10/4/2011, 3:48 PM

Can I combine the two into a new file with 8 and 9? I tried opening them simultaneously and copy/pasting (which of course didn't work) and then I tried some other commands, like "attach," which I thought was what I was looking for but it just overwrote one file with the other.

Yes you can.

Ccopy/paste does not work but your second method 'Attach' is the correct one - you need to click the button arrowed as shown in the image below to switch between movies,

You can then copy/paste between them by switching between them. Once you have all the bits from one in to the other then you can detach the movie you do not require.

John

It is better to start a new question where the topic differs from your original.

cmroberson wrote on 10/21/2011, 1:07 PM

Alright. Back for more! Tackling the same conversion problem, but this time I have raw data to share.

---

I have M2T files from my photographer. They are working like a dream in MEP17. They play smoothly, and respond well to precision editing (giving me real-time results when I scroll my playback marker over them).

M2T:
25.0 Mbps, 1440*1080 (16:9), at 29.970 fps, MPEG Video (Component) (Version 2) (Main@High 1440) (CustomMatrix / BVOP) (HDV 1080i)
384 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 2)

----

I have had to upload all new footage to my wife's iMac, which produced raw files I am unable to read on my PC. I have managed to export them as working MOV files.

These files play smoothly in Quicktime/Windows Media Player on my PC. But they perform poorly in MEP17, both in playback (which stutters) and precision editing (which takes up to a second to refresh the preview image). These files are in the following configuration:

MOV:
42.9 Mbps, 1416*1062 (16:9), at 29.970 fps, MPEG-4 Visual (Advanced Simple@L3) (BVOP)
English, 1 536Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 16 bits, 2 channels, PCM (Little / Signed)

---

After having little success with SUPER, I used the free trial of a program called Prism Video File Converter from NCH Software to convert them into MP4 files.

These files run smoothly in Windows Media Player, and in MEP17, although they are not quite as smooth as the M2T files. The difference in performance is slight, with the exception of a rare (but reproducable) stutter in playback.

I also believed the quality of the video suffered a bit; for example, I notice artifacts around shadows on smooth surfaces.

MP4 (PRISM):
8 429 Kbps (although this varies from file to file), 1440*1080 (16:9), at 29.970 fps, AVC (High@L4.0) (CABAC / 3 Ref Frames)
128 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

---

The trial expired and I gave SUPER another shot, as well as several other freeware programs, but I have not been able to create a file that works well in MEP17. The playback is passable but they are nearly impossible to edit; I am waiting up to four seconds for my preview image to refresh.

My first attempts were of a very poor quality (loss of color, major artifacting) but they performed just as poorly as the ones I rendered later, which looked fine.

MP4 (OTHER):
15.4 Mbps, 1440x1080, 29.970, MPEG-4 Visual (Simple Scalable@L1)
64.0 Kbps, 44.1 KHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

---

Before I decide whether to drop a wad of cash on a video converter, I'd love to understand what exactly is happening on the technical side, and if there is something going on that I'm just not educated about. I had thought Kbps was the issue, both in terms of quality and playback, but the M2T files have the highest rate and they perform excellently. So obviously I have no idea what's going on! :) Any insight?

johnebaker wrote on 10/21/2011, 3:42 PM

Foregive me for being dense, but why are you uploading to an IMac? It sounds like you are capturing from the camera to the IMac and then converting for use in MEP on a PC - is this correct?.

What is the source of the video files ie are they from a video camera if so what make/model, is it a DV camera ie tape, or is the video recorded to a memory card or hard drive in the camera?

John

cmroberson wrote on 10/21/2011, 4:11 PM

Hi

Foregive me for being dense, but why are you uploading to an IMac? It sounds like you are capturing from the camera to the IMac and then converting for use in MEP on a PC - is this correct?.

What is the source of the video files ie are they from a video camera if so what make/model, is it a DV camera ie tape, or is the video recorded to a memory card or hard drive in the camera?

John

That's correct; it's a complicated situation, and the result of the editing duties changing hands several times.

First a PC user (my original photographer/editor) rendered the footage he took, but he ran out of volunteer time and had to resign. Then I took extra footage with my own camera, and the only computer I had that could handle the upload was my wife's iMac. A Mac user took over as my second editor, but ended up bailing because she was having trouble with the m2t files (the exact inverse of my situation). When she quit I bought a new PC to do the editing myself, so now I have the footage in two formats and it's up to me to reconcile them.

The footage was recorded on miniDV tapes using a Canon HV30. Some of it has been overwritten, though, so re-uploading onto the PC from scratch is not an option.

The Prism software gave me usable files and seemed to be a solution to my problem; it's now a question of whether I can achieve the same results for free or if I need to drop $50-70 on the converter.

johnebaker wrote on 10/22/2011, 3:13 PM

Now I understand the problem

Have you tried the AVS Video Converter, I was very impressed with it (and their audio editor, I used to use Cool Edit Pro 2 but it does not work with Windows 7), that I bought the software.

John