First seconds of video repeats

[wbonetti]

I 'm new at this and a bit frustrated. I have a new Sony digital camcorder (DCR-DVD403) that records directly to mini-DVDs. I took some video with the camera, transfered it to the PC using software that came with the camera and then attempted to put several of the smaller videos (MPEG files) into one movie with transitions between each video file. I used VideoWave (EMC8) to combine the smaller videos into one larger MPEG2 file. Everything previewed without errors in VideoWave but when I generated the new MPEG2 file I noticed that the first few seconds of each smaller video repeats. I thought I was seeing things but then I noticed after trying this a few more times and after removing the transitions that the Render window starts out by showing the first 2 - 3 seconds of a video and then switches to the gray MPEG preview. I know from reading this forum that when it shows the video it's rendering and when it shows the gray MPEG preview that it's accepting the file without rendering. So it looks like it's rendering the first few seconds and it then adds on the entire video file, causing the repeat. Why would it do this and how can I stop it from doing it in the future?

 

I used the File - Output As... menu option and the following options:

 

Destination: Video File

Purpose: All, NTSC

Video file quality: MPEG-2 for DVD, best quality

Normalize Audio: Off

 

 

Thanks,

Bill Bonetti

 

System Info

Dell Dimension 8250, P4 2.4GHz, 512M RAM, 60G HD, 160G HD

XP Pro SP2

Memorex DVD16 drive

128 DDR ATI Radeon 9700 TX

Creative Sound Blaster Live!

[ggrussell]

So it looks like it's rendering the first few seconds and it then adds on the entire video file, causing the repeat.

Not sure what is causing it. I haven't seen this happen although I haven't ever placed a transition so close to the beginning. I would be curious to know if the original file bitrate matches what you set the file output.

 

Do you have something like GSpot to determine the original files bitrate? You may have to set the output manually to match the original file.

[wbonetti]

Not sure what is causing it. I haven't seen this happen although I haven't ever placed a transition so close to the beginning. I would be curious to know if the original file bitrate matches what you set the file output.

 

Do you have something like GSpot to determine the original files bitrate? You may have to set the output manually to match the original file.

 

Thanks for the very quick response, Gary. There is no transition at the beginning of the first video, so that shouldn't be the problem plus I removed all transitions and still had the problem.

 

How do I get GSpot and once I have that how do I set the bitrate for the output?

 

The original videos have surround sound. Would that be a problem with EMC8?

 

Thanks again,

Bill Bonetti

[ggrussell]

OHyeah.... EMC8 does NOT support surround sound at all. If the project was to finish, Videowave and MyDVD would transcode it to 2 channel audio.

 

Gspot is free and you should be able to find it with any search engine.

 

In Videowave, click output to file. In teh Make Movie dialog box, click on NEW under Video Quality. Here you can define your own MPEG output template. You can change the bitrate, but still not as much control as I would like sometime.

[wbonetti]

Thanks, I'll look for GSPOT and give your suggestion a try.

 

The software that copies the video off the mini DVDs to my hard drive has an option to convert the audio from AC3 to MPEG audio. Would you recommend doing that before working with it in EMC8?

 

Bill Bonetti

[ggrussell]

May work better. Can the software convert the audio to AC3 2channel? Have you tried Media Import with you miniDVDs?

[wbonetti]

May work better. Can the software convert the audio to AC3 2channel? Have you tried Media Import with you miniDVDs?

 

Gary,

 

I tried the Media import and that seems to help a little. All of the chapters came in as one long video so I no longer have to create a video that adds them together but I still had two major videos, each about 1 GB and when I linked them together in MyDVD and then built an ISO image it again messed up the beginning of each by repeating the first few seconds. What a pain. I'm going to try leaving them as separate videos to see if that helps.

 

I got GSPOT and it said the Sony videos were 10080 and I was outputting them as 9K, so I moved it all the way up to 10K (10480 or something like that) and tried outputting them again and got the same results.

 

Any other ideas?

 

Bill Bonetti

[ggrussell]

I was outputting them as 9K, so I moved it all the way up to 10K (10480 or something like that)

MyDVD only goes to 9Mbps. Try transferring the files using 8000kbps with AC3 2 channel audio.

[wbonetti]

MyDVD only goes to 9Mbps. Try transferring the files using 8000kbps with AC3 2 channel audio.

When you say transferring the files, do you mean with the Media Import option or or something else and should I be transferring from the minidvd or from the camera?

 

Given that the video recorded is at a higher bit rate, if I transfer at 8000kbps am I going to lose some quality?

 

Thanks gain for the advice.

 

Bill Bonetti

[ggrussell]

In an earlier post, you stated:

The software that copies the video off the mini DVDs to my hard drive has an option to convert the audio from AC3 to MPEG audio.

That's what I meant. if that software can change the audio, I was hoping it should change the bitrate. Yes, the quality would be affected some, but I don't think it would be that noticeable. At this point, we're just trying to figure out what is causing the problem. You don't need to transfer the entire disc. Just test out one chapter.

[wbonetti]

In an earlier post, you stated:

 

That's what I meant. if that software can change the audio, I was hoping it should change the bitrate. Yes, the quality would be affected some, but I don't think it would be that noticeable. At this point, we're just trying to figure out what is causing the problem. You don't need to transfer the entire disc. Just test out one chapter.

Unfortunately the Sony software is very simplistic. No menu options to change anything. I can load the video from minidvd to hard disk and convert the audio from AC3 to MPEG but I can't change any settings.

 

If I can't figure out how to fix this problem I'm going to have to use some other softwre to create compilation DVDs.

 

Bill Bonetti

[ggrussell]

Unfortunately, this isn't the only software that has trouble with minDVD files. I read several forums and on another forum, a lady was having trouble with Canon miniDVD files. The software would only see the first 7 seconds although there was more. Hope you find something that works for you.