Skipped or dropped similar frames

[splitmoon]

Hey Guys,

I've tried searching for this but can't seem to find anything (maybe i'm using the wrong search string.

When I encode using AGK, it seems to be dropping simillar frames, for example a Title screen which is still for say 5 seconds, it is reduced to 1-2 frames. The audio is fine, just the video is affected.

I've looked through the options and advanced options and hidden options - is there something I am missing in the options to stop it from dropping frames?

I'm using the Xvid Codec.

Appreciate any assistance.

[nullstuff]

...do you mean 1-2 I-frames (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-frame#Intra_pictures_.28or_slices_or_I-frames_or_key_frames.29)? if so, it's normal. btw, "title screen" IS displayed for 5 seconds, right?

-- nullstuff

[splitmoon]

no, thats the issue, the 5 second title screen, is not displayed for 5 seconds, its there for a split second only.

[nullstuff]

...bunch o' questions:

1) so the final encoded movie length is VERY shorter than original?
2) are you experiencing that on PC or/and stand-alone player?
3) are you using AutoGK bundled XviD (1.2)?

-- nullstuff

[splitmoon]

1 - yeah, it freezes on the last frame till the audio finished.
2 - both
3 - yeah, part of the install process it installed a whole bunch of things including Xvid. I did have Xvid previously installed to watch xvid videos, but i uninstalled it before installing AGK.

[nullstuff]

...I guess AutoGK should (re)set this value, anyway just to be sure, check in XviD encoder config that "frame drop ratio" is set to 0 (you can look for that using VirtualDub/Mod: Video->Compression->XviD MPEG-4 Codec->more).

-- nullstuff

[celtic_druid]

0, doesn't mean 0 frames dropped, it just means that it only drops 100% identical frames. It doesn't just drop them though, it encodes an N-VOP which when any spec complaint encoder encounters it will simply re-display the last frame. So the length shouldn't change anyway.

On the other hand if you were to select ESS compatibility, then N-VOP's should be disabled no mater the ratio setting.

[splitmoon]

I've done some more digging on this topic - the source video is an export from Premiere Pro - Microsoft DV AVI. I am guessing that Premiere isn't creating keyframes? Hence I assume the lack of keyframes is causing the 5 second still to end up as one frame - does this make sense?

[splitmoon]

Finally I found the issue - in Adobe when creating the DV AVI, there is an option "optimize stills" which after googling I found:

It doesn't optimize stills. Instead it optimizes (minimizes) the disk space used by non-motion parts of exported video by encoding those as a single frame plus an instruction to hold that frame for x seconds.

It may have been a good idea years ago when harddisks were measured in MBs instead of GBs, but at the moment all it does is causing problems in other applications that don't understand Premiere's optimization. Even Adobe's own Encore had problems with it up to and including version 1.5

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc3d869

Ie as I was experiencing, it made a static 5sec image into a single frame!

Argh! Oh well, it is satisfying when we find the solution :)