What's causing break-up of video picture into horizontal lines?

[lonesky1]

Hello,

I'm new here & this is my very first post. For the last 3 or 4 days, I have been quite successfully using DVD Flick, in conjunction with ImgBurn to create DVDs (from DVD-R blanks) playable on my stand-alone DVD player. My original source materials are vid. files of the wmv & mp-4 types.

There's only 1 big problem: when I view back some of the videos on my DVD player, there is a problem with images "breaking up" into horizontal lines when the subject moves. For example, if the focus, at any point in time, is a hand, and if that hand moves, the image of this hand breaks-up into perceptible horizontal lines, but not elsewhere in the picture.

SO, what, really, is the cause of this problem? Does this have with the original speed of encoding of the videos? [I've got the speed set at "fast"]. Can this problem be solved by ANY settings in the "Advanced Video Options"?

Thanx in advance for any help - much appreciated.

[lonesky1]

Common, guys, somebody here knows the answer to this problem. I've searched here in the forum on this topic, and some people suggested activating any 'deinterlace' function. Well, in DVD Flick's "Project Settings", there's an "Advanced Video Options" section with 8 boxes for ticking or inserting values, including:
Log PSNR values (I did not tick this because I thought it wasn't important)
Half Horizontal Resolution [did not tick]
Deinterace source [ticked this]
Copy MPEG-2 streams [un-ticked]
Apply 2:3 pulldown [un-ticked. Can someone explain what this fucntion is??]
Apply overscan borders [ticked]
%: 3

That's it. OK, these are the results:

out of 4 video-clips burned onto the DVD-R disk, 2 played-back without any tracking or other problems. 2 of the other vids had this "horizontal lines" problem. SO, activating this "deinterlace" feature did NOT prevent this "horizontal lines" problem. SO, out of curiosity, I 'burned' onto a fresh DVD-R disk the SAME vid files with the "deinterlace" feature OFF. Guess what? NO difference: the SAME 2 files played back 'A-OK' and the same 2 other files STILL had this horizontal lines problem! NOT only that, guys. I think the d/loaded files [d/loaded from a paid-subscription site], mp-4 & wmv, themselves are 'A-OK' too because I played each back on my computer [wmv thro' Wind.Media Player, mp-4 thro' another player], and EACH one payed back PERFECTLY. SO, the "horizontal lines" must have been caused somewhere during the encoding process.

Does anyone have any real clue what the true cause of this problem is, and HOW to solve it?

Thanx again for any help at all!

[MilesAhead]

I think you need a "decomb" filter to get rid of jaggies on lateral movement. See these sites for AviSynth filters:

http://www.neuron2.net/

http://avisynth.org/warpenterprises/

You don't have to learn all of AviSynth. Most video converters use an AviSynth script(usually with .avs extension) or will let you add one. You need to find the correct filter and settings and just add the line to the script. See the example usage for each filter.

I had some .avi videos that were totally unwatchable. When anyone moved horizontally they broke up into jaggies. Using one of those filters I was at least able to bear watching the series. I may be wrong about "decomb" but that sticks in my memory. In any case you should be able to discern which filter you need from the descriptions and screen shots. Search other sites too but those two have good collections.

[lonesky1]

Thanxx for your helpful gesture, MilesAhead. I can see your prolific input here in the Forums, & I'm sure your generosity with your time & spirit is well appreciated by most people, including myself! You come across like a bit of "legend" here!

Firstly, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with avisynth. You see, I'm rather inexperienced with video-IT methods & techniques. I've managed to learn how to encode mp-4 or wmv vid files by DVD Flick, & then 'burn' these vids by ImgBurn onto a blank DVD-R disk. I've gone to both sites that you mentioned. I still don't know what I am looking for. The avisynth.org site seems to be the better site. Can you advise what I'm looking for here? Am I able to correct this problem BEFORE it gets 'burned' onto the blank disk?

As the vid files I deal with are only mp-4 & wmv, how would they go with avisynth?

You mentioned lateral or horizontal movement (in the vid) that causes the "jaggies". Is it really the horizontal component of movement that causes this problem? I thought it was movement in any direction. (It's rather hard for me to tell).

Thanxx again, "legend"!

Lone Sky

[MilesAhead]

You can get AviSynth here:

http://www.videohelp.com/download/Avisynth_258.exe

AviSynth is a bit different in usage. It's not "intuitive" as they say. The trick is, instead of using the input video file to a converter, you use an AviSynth script. There should be samples on those sites I gave.

The simplest usage is to all a converter to open a file type it usually can't handle. Here's an example:

DirectShowSource("c:\MyVideos\MyMovie.mkv")


That's it. One line.
Typically the script has an .avs extension. Some converters require it to have the same base name as the video file. Example... mymovie.avs to load mymovie.mkv


Now to do something other than open the video source you would add filter commands. If it's an AviSynth "built-in" filter, all you add is the command. But if it needs an external filter loades(typically a dll file) you would have to load the filter first before running the command.

For example, to load the decomb filter:
LoadPlugin("decomb.dll")

of course you would put the whole path. But if you search your HD you may find you have AviSynth on already.

I would refer to the sites I gave to details, which filters to try,,, I'm not an AviSynth expert. I've just done a few scripts as I mentioned.

[MilesAhead]

btw thanks for the kind words but the other members on here who have done this much longer than I, are more knowledgeable, and pointed me in the right direction when I started, tend to be mods and admins. In fact the resident hardware expert, a mod, Chewy, has been on sabbatical or otherwise engaged. The forum has been pretty slow lately.

It's a shame because there are a lot of very helpful interesting members. Needs a shot of adrenalin or something.

[lonesky1]

Not able to proceedwith AviSynth (Horizontal lines problem in burnt vids)

Hey 'Legend', I want to apologize to you, sincerely, for not getting back to you earlier. I got very, very busy with work. I didn't even have time to do any video work (which is a hobby). I read your 2 postings here several times, and still didn't have a clue just where to start! You see, where video-editing is concerned, I have 0 experience. So, I didn't understand most of what you said, unfortunately.

I do have AviSynth 2.5 in my PC (Start list of progs.). When I put the 'mouse' to it, it expands to a sub-menu which includes: AviSynthDocumentation, AviSynth Online, Download Plugins, Example Scripts (folder), Plugin Directory (folder). Which one do I start with?

You said I needed to find the correct filter & settings: Just where do I look?? Would it be one of those entities in the expanded sub-menu I mentioned above? Or some other website?

I clicked on the AviSynth Online entity, and under the "What is AviSynth?" paragraph, it says that it is a tool for video post-production. Does this mean it is for application onto a video file that I may have that has the "lines" problem?

Is there a tutorial anywhere in this Forum that instructs on any remedial process step-by-step?

One of your lines said: "The simplest usage is to call a converter to open a file it usually can't handle". This is as cryptic as it gets for me: Which converter would this be? How do you mean it "can't handle" a file?

I'm sorry, Legend, you totally "lost" me there. I'm sure there would be a lot of guys here who have experienced the same problem. Would not there be a lot of posts here that can help? Can anyone provide the links?

Thanxx again, in advance, for any help!