Solved Cropped clips look jagged

Hi Derek.
I'm using Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 for a Wedding video, and imported clips from two camcorders.
They are: MOV files 1920 x 1088 46850kbps 23 fps,
AVI 720 x 576 29824kbps 25 fps.
The project Template is HD 1080-60i (1920x1080, 29.970 fps).


Editing has been fine, until I decided to use playing, cropped clips (MOV) as an intro (height of each in the crop position window is 3,807), fading in one after another across the screen against a black background.
There are eleven on two tracks.

The detail in each looks very jagged and indistinct, even with preview quality on Best (Full).
I tried reducing interlace flicker and different resample settings.
Also , just in case the PC playback was confusing things, I used the Make Movie button on to a rewritable DVD, but the clips looked the same.
Thank you.

I pasted the (full size) clips in to a test project using a Template of Custom (720x480, 23.976 fps) to match the fps, but still no good.
When made bigger or full size, they look fine, so am I expecting too much from the format, or is there something to smooth them out?

Hi Jingo

This sounds like a big bag of mixed candy !!! :silly:
In your message you have listed 4 different formats, which is bound to create problems. It would not mater which program you used, you are going to have some problems by doing this.

Your biggest problem is being caused by mixing all those different Frame Rates.
You should try to avoid mixing different frame rates and only use the same for both cameras.

Which country do you live in ?
Do you normally use the PAL (25 fps) video system or NTSC (29.97 fps) video system ?

Are the .MOV 1920x1080 videos Interlaced or Progressive ?
If you go to the Project Media tab and press on top of one of the .mov videos, you will get a read out of it's true properties.
Does the Field Order = Upper Field First or Progressive ?
Also, what does the actual Frame Rate say ? 23 fps is not a normal frame rate. Normally it would actually be 23.976 fps

When mixing different Frame Rates in the same project, it is best to use the frame rate that the majority of your videos is using.
So if most of the video is 24 fps (23.976), use that set your Project Properties.
If most of the video is 25 fps, use that set your Project Properties.

The one thing you definitely should not be doing is using 29.97 fps. By setting the Project Properties to this, all your videos are being forced to create extra "fake" frames to bring it up to 29.97 fps. Doing this can make video look extremely blurry and pixelated.

What is the final destination for your project ?
Are you going to make a DVD, Blu-ray, upload to YouTube or just stream to your TV ?

I will wait to hear back from you before saying any more.

Regards
Derek.

Hi Derek.
Thanks for your reply.

I realise it's a bit of a hotch potch, but there was a guy employed to film the wedding in Canada, who generated the MOV videos.
Most of the video in the project is MOV.
I just added stuff I filmed which he missed. Mine are the AVI videos.

I live in the UK, normally using PAL 25fps, but decided to use NTSC for the people in Canada.
The MOV videos are 23.976fps and are progressive.

The final destination will be DVD.

Don't worry about making NTSC 29.97 fps versions for Canada.
All modern DVD Players and TVs, can play 23.976 fps, 25 fps and 29.97 fps video.
So you don't need to convert frame rates.

The main problem people have with playing DVDs from different countries, is not the Frame Rates but Region Encoding.
DVD Architect Studio by default, makes all discs region free.

If most of the video was shot in 24fps (23.976) and you want to make DVDs for everyone,
use this template to render all your videos:
MPEG2 DVD Architect 24p NTSC Widescreen Video Stream

Remember to also render the Audio track separately to Dolby Digital AC-3

Thank you Derek.
I changed the Project properties and it plays great now!
I've just bought Movie Studio Platinum 12, as I have Windows 7 64bit.
Can I install it without affecting the existing installation (11) and open this project in it (for faster render) or will that screw things up?

Excellent news about changing the Project Properties - I had a feeling that would help quite a bit.

It is OK to have different versions of Movie Studio installed on the same computer - you don't have to un-install the older version.

However you have now entered a major transition with the program, because from version 12 onwards it now comes as a 64 bit and 32 bit version program.
Version 11 and older was only a 32 bit program.

If your computer is 64 bit, make sure to install the 64 bit version - this is what gives you better processing power.

You may have some problems opening saved 32 bit projects in the 64 bit version of the program, because some of the Video FX you have used will need to be converted from the 32 bit versions to 64 bit versions. So if you have any problems opening projects saved with V11, it will be because of Video FX plugins. If you do experience problems, you need to delete old Video FX and re-apply 64 bit versions, then re-save your project with a different version name so you don't get it mixed up with older versions.

Hi Derek.
Thanks so much for all your help on this.
I can't wait to install 12 now!

Your tutorials and comments are making such a difference to using this amazing software!
Loads of us would be stuck without it.
Cheers!