I'm new to video but seasoned in digital still photography. I just recently purchased a Canon HG10 and have been putting several trial editions of video editing software. It's interesting the different results you can get using the same source file and what appears to be similar settings through the paces. Right now S12 plus (trial) seems to have the best output with one exception. Hence the question about terminology. I've been trying to use the search function but can't seem to pinpoint the right term to search for. The one exception I mentioned with S12 plus trial is a moire or jaggies on closely spaced horizontal lines when panning up/down or there is vertical movement within the scene. 

One other term I'm looking for is what I'm calling motion blurring while panning (up/down or left/right). Sort of like a trailing ghost image. S12 plus trial is quite smooth in this regard. Not so much with some other programs. S12 is quite smooth in this area but I'd like to see if I can do something about the moire or jaggies. I can probably live with the jaggies but the motion blur would give me a headache.

I'm outputting to a DVD compliant file  (even tried disc) from the Canon HG10. Viewing it on my TV via DVD player actually looks better than my PC (a low end Dell laptop (the fastest computer I have!)). System is running Windows 7 enterprise (not beta or RC). 

Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 It sounds like you are shooting in interlace scanning and rendering to progressive. Check the progressive box in the 'make file' setup and make sure that it's not checked. The rule is that if you start with interlace, you should continue with interlace.

Don

cuartetto:

Welcome to the forum.

 It sounds like you are shooting in interlace scanning and rendering to progressive. Check the progressive box in the 'make file' setup and make sure that it's not checked. The rule is that if you start with interlace, you should continue with interlace.

Don

Thanks. I do have "progressive" unchecked. The only way to make sure it's unchecked is to go "custom" and then "options". Making a DVD using the canned choices vs. custom choices makes little or no difference. "Always re-encode entire movie" is grayed out and unchecked.

 The Ulead program that came with the camera does not have these jaggies, is a tad sharper than S12, but it has terrible motion/panning smearing/ghosting. Pretty much unwatchable.

 

 

Just to cover the basics, can you provide as much information as you can with regard to the video the HG10 creates. It would be best to match the raw footage with the project profile and output settings as closely as possible. Let's keep things in perspective and start with that.

I have the HG10 set to HXP quality. I do have an old 4:3 Sonyt TV that's also an HD monito (no digital tuner) that does 1080i. The videos look fabulous when I play them via the camcorder using component cables (I don't have an HDMI/DVI cable yet so I can get sound). I want to make the best quality DVD from those files. Space is not an issue. I'd rather have the quality. As I stated in my first post I've been trying several different programs. My main issues with most of them, including S12, is quality. S12 is, I believe, the only one that doesn't introduce motion blur (similar to watching a 24 fps video which the HG10 can produce). The movement is quite fluid. The problem I have with S12 is artifacts in the form of compression and moire. The program that came with the camera, Ulead DVD movie maker 5.6 produces near flawless videos in regards to artifacts but suffers greatly from motion blur/trailing ghosts when a object in the video is moving with a stationary camera or the camera is panning against a background of stationary objects. I'm pretty sure I've tried all possible combinations of settings. 

Here are two sample pictures. Picture one is from the Ulead program and picture two is from S12. You can see that Ulead capture is sharper but once things start moving, it's barely watchable while the S12 conversion is but it would be nice to clean it up some.

 Hmm... I thought I attached pictures.

 Here are the URLs

 http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/Studio12.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/Ulead5dot6.jpg

 

 

 

 

From the images that you have posted it seems that the video is being scaled incorrectly and that introduces the jagged edges. I'd have to dig deeper into this. In the meantime anyone else?

Marc P.:

From the images that you have posted it seems that the video is being scaled incorrectly and that introduces the jagged edges. I'd have to dig deeper into this. In the meantime anyone else?

In regards to the previous screenshots, I believe the issue I'm seeing with S12 is an interlace problem. I just downloaded and tried TMPEGEnc and output one file set to interlaced output and one to progressive. The progressive output does not have those jagged lines. I was under the impression that I should follow "interlace in, interlace out". 

 I've been pulling my hair out (what's left of it that is...) trying to figure this out. I'm not even to the point of trying to learn the rest of the program because I can't get, IMHO, decent output. I really don't understand how converting down from an HD source to a DVD output negatively affects the quality so much. And why one program seems to introduce ghosts while others don't.

Here are three screen shots. I used Windows media player (from Win 7) and played each output file stopping at about the same point. They are named accordingly. As I stated in my OP I'm not to sure what the correct terminology is to describe what I see.  As you can see, the original file in WMP is pretty good while S12 is kind of soft and the output from AVS4YOU has the what I'm calling ghosting or motion blur. I've tried a good number of trial programs, many produce similar or worse output, in an attempt to find one that produces decent output before I even begin to learn the rest of the program's features.

http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/Pinnaclecapture1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/AVS4YOUconverted.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/HG10original.jpg

 

When S12 is set to interlaced output does not exhibit the motion/ghosting/panning blur. Unless the object or panning is quite rapid (too fast for the shutter), the motion is pretty smooth. 

Here's a screenshot of the previous capture but with "progressive" output checked. It's much smoother in the still shot but when the video is played, it exhibits the same ghosting motion trailing "double image" problem when the camera is panning or an object is moving across the scene (such as a moving car). The equipment I'm using is a Samsung DVD player that can upscale to 1080i and the TV (Sony) is a progressive scan (except for 1080 which is interlaced) HD monitor. The connection is through component cables. The DVD player allows me to let it do the interlacing or let the TV do it. The player seems to do a better job so I leave it set that way. I see no difference (maybe subtle) when I change the DVD output from 480p, 720p or 1080i. 

http://home.comcast.net/~eciwtdennab/Pinnaclecapture1progressive.jpg 

I think I'm dealing with three issues. Compression artifacts, interlacing and frame to frame transition "blur" when the camera is moving or the object is moving more than just a little. 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe you can post a short sample of your raw video so we can test that on our machines?