Transcode from WMV to MOV = Jerky Playback

[Jeff Mottle]

I'm transcoding a film encoded as a WMV to an MOV and the resulting video is ending up quite jerky. I'm using Sony Vegas. I've tried experimenting with the streaming options, keyframes and overall encoding quality, but nothing seems to change it. Has anyone else run into this?

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[Spacelord]

Are you outputing to the the same frame rate ? PAL 25 FPS or NTSC 30 FPS ?

Could have something to do with it, but I though Vegas interpolated that stuff pretty well.

 

cheers

[Jeff Mottle]

Yeah I've tried several different frame rates, including the one that the original video reports (25fps PAL) and it still renders jerky. In fact the problem is worst when rendered at the frame rate it's supposed to be.

 

Any other suggestions?

[STRAT]

thats strange, i quite often go from wmv to mov or viccy verka with no special settings and no problems in vegas.

 

but, these days any video conversion i need i use xilisoft. cheap as chips and a wonderfull bit of software.

 

http://www.xilisoft.com/

 

mybe look into it Jeff. i dont use anything else these days.

[brianzajac]

Jeff,

 

I too use a conversion program instead of using video editing systems when converting movies. I use a program called "Color7 Video Converter". The options are easier to control and the conversion goes much faster than After Effects.

[Jeff Mottle]

This was for a VM project, so we used Sorenson Squeeze in the end, but man that has got to be the most unstable application I have ever used. The same animation on the same or different machines seems to want to crash 9 times out of 10. The results are definetly better than using free codecs and reasonably fast when it works.

 

What other commercial apps are people using for doing thier compression and/or transcoding? I've looked at the apps that Brian and Stephen are using, but I find they are more geared towards the home user market, for my purposes at least, and do not offer the same advanced features as Squeeze, or a Linear editor.

 

I was looking at Autodesk Cleaner, but it only works on the Mac.

[brianzajac]

I was looking at Autodesk Cleaner, but it only works on the Mac.

 

The problem is that I find most post-production people are using Final Cut Pro - a Mac program. So, their ancillary applications tend to be Mac-based too. For me, I just find Color7 to be more stable (it's never crashed for me) and offers me the options I need. True, production-based software gives you more options - but I really don't need them for our animations.

[Nils Norgren]

Hi Jeff and all, another compression and transcoding software for the PC is Pro Coder:

 

http://www.canopus.com/products/ProCoderSW/index.php

 

I have never used it, and don't know anything about it (or it's reputation), but it is out there and claims to do all you would need.

 

-Nils

[Jeff Mottle]

Hi Jeff and all, another compression and transcoding software for the PC is Pro Coder:

 

http://www.canopus.com/products/ProCoderSW/index.php

 

I have never used it, and don't know anything about it (or it's reputation), but it is out there and claims to do all you would need.

 

-Nils

 

Just downloaded the demo and while it says it will accept Windows media as an input, it has no option to load that file format. Odd.

[Chasteen]

Whatever codec the wmv is using is causing your problem. If Sorenson Squeeze created the wmv using their proprietary codec you will likely need to use Squeeze to convert it back to a lossless codec like QT's Animation or choose no codec. Can Squeeze do that? If so you should have no problem converting a lossless source file with whatever program you choose.

 

BTW my version of Cleaner runs on XP, but even so it won't solve your problem. Cleaner's design strength is converting a single source file (preferably lossless) to multiple containers(i.e. wmv, mov, etc.), codecs, data rates, etc. with as few clicks as possible. For a one off job it doesn't really hold any special abilities.