Interlacing, or framerates, or possibly the devil

[some-stars.livejournal.com]

I really have NO IDEA at this point. So I am going to throw out as many details as might possibly be relevant, because I'm so confused right now I don't even know where to start. The basic problem, as far as I can tell/describe, is that when I export a movie from Premiere Pro 2, into an .avi, the resulting file has glitchy little horizontal lines in playback, especially when speed is altered or when there's a lot of movement. These lines are NOT there when I render and preview inside Premiere; they are still there when I use VirtualDubMod to encode the enormous outputted file with XVid.

EDIT: They are NOT there when I view it in Windows Media Player instead of my usual VLC Player. I...have no idea what this means. It might be an artifact of VLC, but I'm not exactly inclined to trust Media Player more, and I certainly don't want people who use VLC seeing it like that, so...*still clueless*

I started with source that was either .VOB files ripped from a DVD, or downloaded .avi files. They both seem to have framerates of 23.976(or...possibly 23.97, not sure--I loaded them into GSpot and it gives me one number for "images per second, as stored" and another for "images displayed per second"). --Actually, okay, the .VOB files have 23.97 "images displayed per second" and the .avi files have 23.976; they both have 23.976 "images per second, as stored".

So my standard procedure is to load these into VirtualDubMod, use the Panasonic DV compressor, and do a resize+letterbox to get the aspect ratios of the .VOB files right while keeping the actual frame size 720x480(and then the same resize/letterbox on the .avi files even though their aspect ratio is okay, just to make everything uniform). This seems to work fine initially. The resulting clips have a framerate of 23.976(for both of those confusing categories mentioned).

I start a project in Premiere, using the pre-set settings for NTSC 4:3. This is one place (of SEVERAL) where I might be going wrong, because those settings are for a framerate of 29.97. I didn't notice this when I started, but a.) there are about eight thousand other things that might be causing my problems, and b.) Premiere seems to be really...weird about any other framerate, when I did some hesitant experimenting--MORE ON THAT IN A MOMENT.

So in the original file that I noticed the problem in, it was these clips, in this project, and the default export settings. I have since tried:

1. Making clips in VDub using the HuffyUV compressor instead of Panasonic DV and trying them with my usual Premiere settings
2. Starting a new project with the "DV 24P" setting instead of "DV NTSC"--tried with both the old clips and the new clips from attempt 1
3. Changing the Export settings to "lower field first", "upper field first", "progressive"
4. Using the Deinterlace filter on VDub on the original problematic file
5. Exporting the original project but telling Premiere to deinterlace in the Export settings

And possibly one or two other things that I don't remember, because there are SO MANY angles from which this could be going wrong I can't manage any kind of organized trial-and-error experimentation. This is the kind of thing about which I know just barely enough to sort of vaguely comprehend tech guides--like the AMV A/V Guide page, which I think I read for like three hours tonight before giving up--I've made my way so far by poking around and experimenting but I am COMPLETELY in over my head right now.

The basic thing I want to do is:

1. Take .VOB files and resize them so the aspect ratio looks right
2. Take .avi files and resize them so they look the same as the DVD footage
3. Get both of these cut into individual clips, and compressed into some format that I can put into a Premiere Pro 2 project--in DV format or not, but if not I also need to figure out how to make Premiere cope with that
4. Export that project in some way that it doesn't have ugly flashing horizontal lines, or do something to it afterwards to fix this
(5. Reencode the exported file so it's only about 50 MB, and continues to not have horizontal lines--I'm pretty sure this step isn't involved, since the problem seems to happen during exporting.)


I have unlimited free time, ridiculously overpowered software, and the entire internet available to me. There has GOT to be some way to make this work. (If necessary I will even make myself figure out the mysterious and terrifying AviSynth, but I want to at least know first that I'll be able to use the results, because that's about a thousand times more complex than my current method.)

Comments

[chasarumba.livejournal.com]

Before I started using Avisynth, I used VDubMod to prep footage for editing in Premiere -- so I can walk you through what I used to do in chat, if that's helpful :) Pressed for time and can't write it up in a comment right now, sorry! Drop me an email or private message thingie (see my profile) if you're interested.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

I don't do MUCH with avisynth yet, but I think I could help get you started if you want. I think if you try it you'll like it.

Unfortunately my internet access is spotty (sob) over the holiday, but I could chat after the 27th.