Cropping & resizing NTSC interlaced material in 6.5 & 7.0 rendering nasty lines/jerks

[808state]

Cropping & resizing NTSC interlaced material in 6.5 & 7.0 rendering nasty lines/jerks

I have been battling to figure out why cropping doesn’t seem to work in Premiere for months. I first thought it was a problem with CinemaCraft but recently narrowed the problem down to Premiere because after doing countless clips with Craft, Pro coder and TMPG I get the same lousy results.

Here’s my project, I capture with a Canopus ADVC-100 then do my commercial editing and such with Premiere, I then export timeline and under “special processing” I pick better resize crop off 8 pixels off sides and crop off 6 pixels for top and bottom, I also choose “scale to” option. Next I change the reso from 720x480 to 352x480 and finally save the clip as a Microsoft uncompressed AVI. After doing the procedure I encode the same clip with 3 different encoders, Craft, Pro Coder and TMPEG author to DVD and get the same crappy results on all clips.

The final test DVD produces choppy horizontal lines, makes moving characters look very blurry and I see jumping line artifacts during most motion and scene changes.

I don’t understand if I am missing something and what hoops I need to jump through to get this to work properly, I am getting ready to pull my hair out and give up entirely on Premiere. If someone could kindly tell me what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciate it, or even recommend a program that will handle interlaced video properly.

Thanks mucho

[Zarxrax]

It sounds like interlacing.
I would recommend you do all of your postprocessing like resizing and cropping with avisynth. It works much better than Premiere's.

[808state]

shite I wish I could understand avisynth...everytime I try I either get errors or just plain can't get it to work, the command line thing really throws me all those settings with just numbers and spaces.

Thanks

[hendrix]

ok...youre getting the "studder" effect because your source is a bottom field first interlaced DV source you need to encode them as upper field first and instead of saving your timeline to an uncompressed .avi file which wastes both time and space try frameserving (http://www.debugmode.com/pluginpac/frameserver.php)... when exporting from Premiere Pro, select file type as PluginPac FrameServer...dont close premiere

dont resize in premiere use avisynth 2.5.4.0,


for full D-1 resolution type in notepad
------------------------------
AVISource("???.avi")
DoubleWeave().SelectOdd()
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)
------------------------------

for half D-1 type
------------------------------------------
AVISource("???.avi")
DoubleWeave().SelectOdd().SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(352,240,0,0,720,240).Weave()
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)
------------------------------------------

save as ???.avs

the DoubleWeave().SelectOdd() script changes bottom first to upper field first

import the .avs file into CCE and encode away

btw i use the ADVC-300

[808state]

Hendrix

Thanks so much for the response, I will have another go at AVIsynth, I am ready to cry I have tried so many different things with about 20-25 test clips, I have yet to actually archive any clips with my ADVC-100 after owning it for 6 months. This blows because I am not new to the video world I have been playing around for 3 years plus with DVD rips and other fun stuff.

I will try your much needed scripts and cross me fingers.


Thanks

[hendrix]

try fitcd (http://www.sysh.net/) it's good for making avisynth scripts

[violao]

Originally posted by 808state
...I pick better resize crop off 8 pixels off sides and crop off 6 pixels for top and bottom, I also choose “scale to” option...
As for croping/resizing, if your capture is interlaced and you want to keep it interlaced, you should NEVER* resize. Use letterbox instead, after cropping. Only if you want progressive result you may resize, but ALWAYS AFTER de-interlacing.

*(EDIT) - There is a special case, where you resize separate fields and then weave them back together. I don't like the idea since I believe it can mess up the interlacing.

[808state]

Hendrix

Ok so far everything is going smoothly or should I say slowly (I’m getting about 20 fps frame serving).

I have a couple quick questions for you, first and most important “what field do I set in Craft” I am doing a frame serve now with lower fields in craft. I hope this is correct, I see you said AVIsynth will swap the fields to upper first, is this due to the Craft field bug or just a requirement?

Thanks a million for the fitcd URL, this program rocks. I noticed the input time didn’t match with what Craft was reporting after loading up the AVIsynth file, is this normal? Is there a way to set the bitrate calculator to be compatible with DVDR or is it strictly for use with VCD/SVCD?

Again thanks so much bro!

[hendrix]

since CCE's gui is a pain in the a$$....i use BatchCCEWS (http://www.woofsoft.com/Downloads/68.aspx) to control it...when you first start you'll recieve an error message..this is normal, goto C:\Program Files\WoofSoft\BatchCCEWS click on EclCCE.exe and point it to CCE, now start BatchCCEWS, leave the Top Field First bullet clicked and choose your bitrate...it's pretty easy man

i only use FitCD for avs scripting...
if you want a good bitrate calculator then download DoItFast4U (http://www.doitfast4u.com) it has an accurate bitrate calculator..thats what i use, goto Utilities -> DVDCalc

good luck bro

[hendrix]

Originally posted by 808state
I see you said AVIsynth will swap the fields to upper first, is this due to the Craft field bug or just a requirement?
it's not a CCE bug...interlaced NTSC DVDs are upper field first thats why you have to switch fields

[808state]

I finally got a clip worth archiving…thanks to your help. You are the man!


HUGE thanks!

[hendrix]

:D