When I create an AVI file (DV format) from my project containing of standard DV footage, the areas that Pinnacle Studio applied effects (e.g. transitions, titling, speed, etc.) are rendered with a flickering either at the top or the bottom of the video. In some cases, the flickering is absent, but the top or bottom field is slightly lighter than the rest (which shows up very clear especially with widescreen video clips with black in it). However the areas that Pinnacle did not "touch" have no flickering. It seems as though the flickering effect is only applied to the auxiliry files of Pinnacle Studio (I use version 12.0).

At first i thought it was an interlaced/progressive issue.

Note: The flickering effect is only present in the AVI DV export and not in the other: uncompressed, MJPEG, DIVX, MPEG-2 (DVD) exports.

Can anyone tell me: What kind of codec is the internal DV condec of Pinnacle Studio? Are there ways to modify the properties?

There doesn't appear to be any way to change the DV codec that Studio uses.

Curious:  Since this only appears to affect video frames that are rerendered, this does appear to be a rendering issue.  Makes me wonder 1)  what your computer's video specs are (the video card has a *big* effect on how stuff is rendered), and 2) what your project settings are (e.g. interlaced, progressive, whatever)

Also, note that the current S12 version is 12.1 -- but I don't think that this has an effect on your issue.

BittMann

Standing by for the OP's responses to Bitt's post above.

PC Spec: Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Win XP Home (SP2)
Video card: GeForce 7600 (on the one PC) and 8600GT (another PC)
Project settings: Standard interlaced DV footage as captured from my Sony VX2100. When I force the project to be progressive, all the interlaced footage are re-rendered when converted to progressive, causing complete video to flicker at the top.

Funny thing is, when I use Sony Vegas to render the same footage (with transitions and fx), there are not flickering and not top/bottom "border".

I assume the flickering is caused by the way Pinnacle renders the interlaced fields in each frame. The first field starts on line number 1 and the second field on line 2 - causing a swithch on line 1 between black and the second field. It seems that Pinnacle also blends the top line with white - creating a slightly lighter top/bottom line.

I see that I have basically the same issue as user SThompson in his thread: http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/178167.aspx

Another thing I noticed is that the preview in Studio does not show the flickering - only when it is rendered to AVI DV

When I force the project to be progressive, all the interlaced footage are re-rendered when converted to progressive, causing complete video to flicker at the top.

Yah, I agree.  The fix is (apparently) "don't render to progressive".  

One thing I do wonder -- if you apply a Studio "deinterlace" filter to the video (if your version of Studio includes that filter!), does the flickering go away?  It might.

Do note that the deinterlace filter does seem to throw away a field of info (it isn't "deinterlace", apparently, so much as "drop one field and interpolate").

BittMann

I did install the Alparysoft Deinterlaced filter and tested the video clips - nothing has changed. Since the complete clip is nou rendered by Pinnacle, the complete clip has been affected - flickering at the top.

Why is it that when I preview the clip in Pinnacle (I have a second monitor for that), I don't see the flickering effect at all? I even went and played the auxiliry files in a video player (both the M2V and DIF versions) and I could not see the flickering. But as soon as I export it as and AVI (DV) file, the flickering appears. Somehow it appears that the Pinncacle DV codec is responsible for this flickering. As I said previously - when I export it as AVI MJPEG or MPEG-2 the flickering is gone.

My question is: how can I get rid of this irritating flickering which is quite obvious in 16:9 productions?

This is how I dealt with it in the past: I create the AVI (DV) file, use Sony Vegas to resize it slightly and the export it again to AVI (DV). I stay with AVI (DV) to keep the hires details. Once that is done, I create a new Pinnacle project and use the "resized" AVI file for the final production with the DVD menus, etc. The trick then is NOT to do any changes to the AVI file otherwise Pinncacle will add the flicker again. This is quite cumbersome. Alternatively I could create a black border at the top/bottom - to make the flickering not so obvious. But I don't like to remove content - I want to maximize the final product - if you catch my drift.

After more investigations, I made the following discovery: DV footage from my Sony VX2100 has a fine border at the top and the bottom, but footage recorded by my Panasonic GS500 does not any highlighted borders. So the highlighted border might be a camcorder issue and not an sofware issue. See a sample image here

But still the issue regarding the flickering stays unresolved...

Maybe you could provide us a short clip that produces this flicker and a short recipe how to reproduce it. In the meantime, I'll see what I can find about this.

Here is the sample files:

http://www.bennette.co.za/samples/Sample1.avi  (14.5 MB - 4 sec)
http://www.bennette.co.za/samples/Sample2.avi  (8.22 MB - 2 sec)
http://www.bennette.co.za/samples/Sample3.avi  (8.37 MB - 2 sec)

Files are rendered in Pinnacle Studio 12 as AVI DV.

Sample1.avi is two scenes with no transition. Not flickering. Footage 16:9 taken with a Canon XH A1.
Sample2.avi is the same two scenes with a transition. See the flickering at the top.
Sample3.avi is another two scenes with a transition (in 4:3). See the flickering at the top. Footage taken with Sony VX2100. You can see the top line is slightly lighter (before and after transition). I guess this is a camera issue.

 

It may be triggered by the camera, agreed.  Still, makes me wonder why the flickering becomes more pronounced only during "re-rendered" sequences.  Almost as if the antialiasing that Studio seems to do whenever applying an effect (that "softening" of the image that many people have noted) is interpolating in all-black values every other scanline at the top of the image.  At least, that's what it looks like it COULD be doing to me...