Pixelated Video Preview? at DVinfo.net

Dennis Liu · February 10th, 2005, 06:20 PM

Hi,

I've got a project shot on PAL, miniDV.

Why is it when I preview the video footage either when in the Media Pool or on the Timeline, that it looks very pixelated? Is there a way to fix this? (I don't remember my footage being this pixelated on my last project yet I think I have the exact same settings/used the same camera).

Dennis

EDIT: I've just noticed something else too. This is that, in my video preview, there seems to be verticle lines separating my footage up - you can't see the vertical lines, but you just know the footage is divided up vertically somehow.

I'm sure this isn't something with the ORIGINAL footage because I had uplaoded my footage a LONG time ago, and it wasn't like this when I previewed it before.

In fact, I just opened my other project which I had edited for long hours on the same computer and previewed it - it looks pixelated. It's very obvious, so I would've noticed it before if it was there. Is there something I've screwed up in the preview settings in Vegas?

Edward Troxel · February 10th, 2005, 08:40 PM

If you think it may be a Vegas setting, you could try holding down the Shift key when you start Vegas. That will reset all settings back to default.

Rob Lohman · February 11th, 2005, 04:48 AM

Make sure everything is up to date on your system, including the
latest update to Vegas and definitely the latest video driver!

What kind of camera did you shoot this with? Did you change
monitors? Can you put up a frame somewhere? (set the preview
quality to full (best) and then hit the floppy like icon to save the
frame to a PNG)

Dennis Liu · February 11th, 2005, 02:10 PM

Hi,

I'll try to see if I can get a frame grab that show the problem really obviously, but right now I have the settings on Best (Auto).

I shot it on an XL1. The last thing I did was also shot on the same camera. Frame Mode, 16:9 in camera, full manual, same settings on camera for both shoots.

Dennis

EDIT: Ok, this is weird - whenever I save a snapshot to jpeg or png, it looks perfect! But when I preview the edges of circular objects have clear 'pixel' steps... must be something up with my video preview thing, because the snapshots look fine.

So I did 'print screen' with both the image and the preview open and here's the comparison - look at the collar edges. The first one is the preview, second one is the image. This is with the preview window on Best (Full), and I took a snapshot off the same screen.

http://m.1asphost.com/effofilms/compare.PNG

Dennis Liu · February 12th, 2005, 04:08 PM

Has anyone had a problem similar to what is seen in the comparison? It seems to me that if I render the footage and play it out on TV, etc. it'd all be fine, but on the preview it's just pixelated... I'm confused why this is.

Dennis

Jack Smith · February 13th, 2005, 11:09 AM

Are you previewing to a 2nd monitor or the primary?What is the preview resolution ?Under "options"....."preferences"......"video"....... do you have "Display at project size" checked?

Emre Safak · February 13th, 2005, 12:35 PM

You might be viewing in "Draft" mode; try using "Preview".

Dennis Liu · February 13th, 2005, 04:16 PM

Hi,

Yup, I have Display at Project Size checked.

Project: 720x576x32, 25.000i
Preview: 720x576x32, 25.000i

I have a Matrox P650 card, 2 LCD's connected to it, and you're right, I have the preview window docked in the secondary monitor. However, in my previous projects I was also previewing on the secondary monitor, and it wasn't pixelated like it is now.

I just tried moving the preview window to the first monitor, it's still the same.

I mean, this isn't too major a problem (since the output image I assume would still look fine, it's just that it's very annoying when editing to look at a pixelated image).

Thanks for the suggestions, any other possible causes?
Dennis

Jack Smith · February 13th, 2005, 08:47 PM

I think there could be quite a few possibilities .Have you tried a prerender of a small area?Does that fix it?Are the clips loaded with effects to the extent that the processor can't keep up?How much memory and what processor?

Dennis Liu · February 13th, 2005, 10:41 PM

Hi Jack,

I've got a Pentium 4, 3.0E, Hyperthreading, 1 GB of dual-channel DDR RAM. I have all my video files on a separate hard drive, and I've got no effects at all.

Right now I'm just playing the footage as it is on the timeline. I'm sort of stunned because my system runs very smoothly, I run Ad/Spyware detection software very frequently and defrag my hard drives every 2 weeks (and I just defraged right before I started this project).

I just tried playing all those AVI files in Windows Media Player and it looks fine, I'm astounded to why it looks like this in Vegas only.

Dennis

Rob Lohman · February 14th, 2005, 09:02 AM

Did you change display drivers? Or alter some display settings or
anything?

Dennis Liu · February 14th, 2005, 12:48 PM

Hmm, not that I remember, although it HAS been about 4 months since I was editing my last project. I guess I'll just have to check everything that I've installed/changed since last time.

However, the one thing I do remember is that I installed 5.0d AFTER I finished the first project.

What do you guys think if I uninstall then reinstall Vegas again?

Dennis

Rob Lohman · February 16th, 2005, 04:35 AM

That's always a good thing to try Dennis! Go for it!

Mitchell Stookey · February 16th, 2005, 09:44 AM

My preview window also went very pixelated and terrible looking, and it wasn't before so I knew something changed. What had happened was I had accidentally dragged the audio mixer into the same window as the preview, rather than it being seperate. All I had to do was drag that back out and everything was fine. Perhaps you did something similar?

Dennis Liu · February 16th, 2005, 01:45 PM

Hi,

I tried re-installing - still the same.

Then I tried that Mixer thing and moved my window around/swapped monitors/etc. Still the same.

Thanks for all the suggestions though, it's good to know that someone else has had a similar problem... perhaps it can be solved.

I'm just astounded though, I'm looking through my list of things installed in 'Add/Remove Programs', and I can't see any video-related application or driver that could affect Vegas' performance that was installed AFTER I finished my first project.

However I'll keep trying other things, maybe uninstalling some suspect programs in turn to see if it changes anything. Hmm...

February 10th, 2005, 06:20 PM	#1
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Pixelated Video Preview? Hi, I've got a project shot on PAL, miniDV. Why is it when I preview the video footage either when in the Media Pool or on the Timeline, that it looks very pixelated? Is there a way to fix this? (I don't remember my footage being this pixelated on my last project yet I think I have the exact same settings/used the same camera). Dennis EDIT: I've just noticed something else too. This is that, in my video preview, there seems to be verticle lines separating my footage up - you can't see the vertical lines, but you just know the footage is divided up vertically somehow. I'm sure this isn't something with the ORIGINAL footage because I had uplaoded my footage a LONG time ago, and it wasn't like this when I previewed it before. In fact, I just opened my other project which I had edited for long hours on the same computer and previewed it - it looks pixelated. It's very obvious, so I would've noticed it before if it was there. Is there something I've screwed up in the preview settings in Vegas?

February 10th, 2005, 08:40 PM	#2
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	If you think it may be a Vegas setting, you could try holding down the Shift key when you start Vegas. That will reset all settings back to default. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

February 11th, 2005, 04:48 AM	#3
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Make sure everything is up to date on your system, including the latest update to Vegas and definitely the latest video driver! What kind of camera did you shoot this with? Did you change monitors? Can you put up a frame somewhere? (set the preview quality to full (best) and then hit the floppy like icon to save the frame to a PNG) __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 14th, 2005, 09:02 AM	#11
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Did you change display drivers? Or alter some display settings or anything? __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 16th, 2005, 04:35 AM	#13
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	That's always a good thing to try Dennis! Go for it! __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 11th, 2005, 02:10 PM	#4
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Hi, I'll try to see if I can get a frame grab that show the problem really obviously, but right now I have the settings on Best (Auto). I shot it on an XL1. The last thing I did was also shot on the same camera. Frame Mode, 16:9 in camera, full manual, same settings on camera for both shoots. Dennis EDIT: Ok, this is weird - whenever I save a snapshot to jpeg or png, it looks perfect! But when I preview the edges of circular objects have clear 'pixel' steps... must be something up with my video preview thing, because the snapshots look fine. So I did 'print screen' with both the image and the preview open and here's the comparison - look at the collar edges. The first one is the preview, second one is the image. This is with the preview window on Best (Full), and I took a snapshot off the same screen. http://m.1asphost.com/effofilms/compare.PNG

February 12th, 2005, 04:08 PM	#5
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Has anyone had a problem similar to what is seen in the comparison? It seems to me that if I render the footage and play it out on TV, etc. it'd all be fine, but on the preview it's just pixelated... I'm confused why this is. Dennis

February 13th, 2005, 11:09 AM	#6
Jack Smith Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: ontario Posts: 445	Are you previewing to a 2nd monitor or the primary?What is the preview resolution ?Under "options"....."preferences"......"video"....... do you have "Display at project size" checked?

February 13th, 2005, 12:35 PM	#7
Emre Safak Trustee Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brookline, MA Posts: 1,447	You might be viewing in "Draft" mode; try using "Preview".

February 13th, 2005, 04:16 PM	#8
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Hi, Yup, I have Display at Project Size checked. Project: 720x576x32, 25.000i Preview: 720x576x32, 25.000i I have a Matrox P650 card, 2 LCD's connected to it, and you're right, I have the preview window docked in the secondary monitor. However, in my previous projects I was also previewing on the secondary monitor, and it wasn't pixelated like it is now. I just tried moving the preview window to the first monitor, it's still the same. I mean, this isn't too major a problem (since the output image I assume would still look fine, it's just that it's very annoying when editing to look at a pixelated image). Thanks for the suggestions, any other possible causes? Dennis

February 13th, 2005, 08:47 PM	#9
Jack Smith Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: ontario Posts: 445	I think there could be quite a few possibilities .Have you tried a prerender of a small area?Does that fix it?Are the clips loaded with effects to the extent that the processor can't keep up?How much memory and what processor?

February 13th, 2005, 10:41 PM	#10
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Hi Jack, I've got a Pentium 4, 3.0E, Hyperthreading, 1 GB of dual-channel DDR RAM. I have all my video files on a separate hard drive, and I've got no effects at all. Right now I'm just playing the footage as it is on the timeline. I'm sort of stunned because my system runs very smoothly, I run Ad/Spyware detection software very frequently and defrag my hard drives every 2 weeks (and I just defraged right before I started this project). I just tried playing all those AVI files in Windows Media Player and it looks fine, I'm astounded to why it looks like this in Vegas only. Dennis

February 14th, 2005, 12:48 PM	#12
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Hmm, not that I remember, although it HAS been about 4 months since I was editing my last project. I guess I'll just have to check everything that I've installed/changed since last time. However, the one thing I do remember is that I installed 5.0d AFTER I finished the first project. What do you guys think if I uninstall then reinstall Vegas again? Dennis

February 16th, 2005, 09:44 AM	#14
Mitchell Stookey Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 196	Similar thing happened to me My preview window also went very pixelated and terrible looking, and it wasn't before so I knew something changed. What had happened was I had accidentally dragged the audio mixer into the same window as the preview, rather than it being seperate. All I had to do was drag that back out and everything was fine. Perhaps you did something similar?

February 16th, 2005, 01:45 PM	#15
Dennis Liu Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 136	Hi, I tried re-installing - still the same. Then I tried that Mixer thing and moved my window around/swapped monitors/etc. Still the same. Thanks for all the suggestions though, it's good to know that someone else has had a similar problem... perhaps it can be solved. I'm just astounded though, I'm looking through my list of things installed in 'Add/Remove Programs', and I can't see any video-related application or driver that could affect Vegas' performance that was installed AFTER I finished my first project. However I'll keep trying other things, maybe uninstalling some suspect programs in turn to see if it changes anything. Hmm...