Can someone explain the simplest details regarding this "choppy" or "chroma" fault?

[hhobba]

Hi there.

I'm quite new to video encoding, though I'm not anywhere near new to computing itself, however I have trouble comprehending the issue around this "chroma" or chopiness in DV video captures.

I am referring to the choppy effect seen here:
http://img7.echo.cx/my.php?image=test19vo.png

Now, I've skimmed over some threads regarding this, but there doesn't seem to be any explanation of exactly what causes this.

If I was an average home user who didn't know anything about computers, and I was given my camcorder and told to import the video using Windows Movie Maker, my video would come out looking choppy like the image above, and I would be completely clueless about what's causing this.

My question is: what does cause it? And why should the chopiness be there, because DV Camcorders are meant to be user-friendly and all that, but having rubbish quality video like this isn't exactly the best thing.

Is there any simple way to get rid of this choppiness using a simple Capture program such as Windows Movie Maker? I also have Premiere, but it does exactly the same thing.

I used to have a Sony VAIO with "DVGate" software, and that gave excellent video quality with no "scanlines" on it.

Thank you all.

[neuron2]

Read this:

www.100fps.com

[neily]

I of course agree with neuron2. I always do. What you are most likely to be encountering is a field order problem, though your still, or any still of an interlaced image, can always confuse. Even with everything OK, a still of an interlaced image containing movement will always display jaggies.

As you probably know, TV/Video is interlaced. Most video file formats are top field first, whereas DV is bottom field first. There is a chain from your original AVI, through your DV codec to your editing app, and then to your output format. Though DV is defined as bottom field first, I know that at least one DV codec (Matrox) reverses the field order. Some video editing apps are clever (meddling) enough to reverse the field order if they encounter DV. At the output stage it is also usually possible to change the field order. So somwhere along the chain, either something is set to the incorrect field order, or at some place it needs to be changed.

Judging field order on PC's can be a little tricky, and ultimately until the file is played back on a TV, you'll never know, but it is possible in TMPGEnc and AVISynth to try to judge the field order.

If your investigations don't help, then you need to share some more info on how you are capturing, what DV codec you are using, what video editing app you are using, and what the output format is.