Video slows/pixelates while audio plays fine

[Vanessa Goh]

Hi everyone,

 

I have version 2.41 of videopad video editor and have continuosly had problems with playing video in the program. Whenever I play video that has been laid on the tracks it seems to play in slow-mo while the audio plays at normal speed. The video will randomly glitch and pixelate sometimes while playing, but usually not in the same spot. Some clips have continual glitches at the very start where the video will pixelate for a split second right before it plays. The video plays fine outside of the program.

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

I am going to assume you are using large format MPEG4 clips. There are many comments on the web re. synch problems; visuals lagging behind the sound etc. NCH say this is a PC performance related problem and this seems logical as the program has to unpack the MPEG4 container and display a reduced image for each frame of the film as well as get the sound in. The sound is relatively simple but bigger image sizes take longer to process. The visuals will naturally tend to lag behind the sound. Whatever...you do need a pretty robust system to edit video.

 

This lag problem is the same for me, and my system is not THAT slow. On testing in VP I found that a 10 second MPEG4 clip 1280 x 720 HD (Not the biggest format from my camera) dropped 3 seconds between the image and the sound and this lag got corresponding worse with longer clips. Other players had a similar problem.

 

Although VP will edit MPEG4 clips OK I get round this particular difficulty by converting all my MPEG4 clips to MPEG2 clips of the same size. definition looks still looks OK. The colours look better and the sound seems clearer and the clips play and edit and render just fine in VP with no lagging at all.

 

Try converting your files using "Any video converter". It should solve your problem and its free.

It should make a difference

 

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

 

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

mistake

[gbrewer2614]

I am having a problem with video pixelation also, with VideoPad Video Editor Professional v 2.41 (Unlicensed Basic Free Version).

 

At it's simplest, I am converting HD MOV files from my Canon T3i with VideoPad. It doesn't seem to matter what output format I use. I've tried HD 1080P mp4, mov, avi with the same results. Oddly, it occurs most frequently at about 16 sec into my video segments, although it does occur at other times occasionally, and sometimes does not occur at all.

 

Other than this, the application seems to work reasonably well for me, as far as I've seen so far. I have received some hardware equipment that I am messing with at the moment, and when I am done with that, I am going to download the trial version of CyberLink PowerDirector 9 to see how that compares to this application. If you can tell me how to fix this problem it might make the difference in whether I buy or not.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

MPEG4 and MOV are just containers for almost identically compressed video files so playing and rendering difficulties if there are going to be any, might, I would think, be similar, particularly with a less powerful PC. In the rendered film compression artifacts seem to occur most often when (and where) the video has less detail so your 16 seconds in might correspond to such a film section.(???) I would still suggest converting the MOV files to MPEG2 format and having another go. I am not sure if the converter I mentioned above will convert MOV files but its free so give it a try.

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

Hi

 

MPEG4 and MOV are just containers for almost identically compressed video files so playing and rendering difficulties if there are going to be any, might, I would think, be similar, particularly with a less powerful PC. In the rendered film compression artifacts seem to occur most often when (and where) the video has less detail so your 16 seconds in might correspond to such a film section.(???) I would still suggest converting the MOV files to MPEG2 format and having another go. I am not sure if the converter I mentioned above will convert MOV files but its free so give it a try.

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

Nationalsolo

 

Thank you for your response. I tried "Any video converter" as you suggested. It produced video noise also. Although the noise wasn't as prominant in spots like VideoPad, it was more pervasive, producing mild pixlation that resembled some kind of artistic canvasing or posterization effect. I was converting the 1080P MOV files from my Canon T3i to mpeg2 as you suggested, and used the following parameters:

Video Options: Codec: mpeg2video, Frame: 1920x1080, Aspect: Auto, Bitrate: 1800, Framerate: 29.97

 

Test 1: With Encode Pass = 1, it produced the output with almost constant pixilization, Overall worse results than VideoPad.

Test 2: With Encode Pass = 2 it repeatedly produced an error message and failed to produce output. I restarted it and retried with same results.

"Convert failed: Could not open codec....FATAL: Cannot initalize video driver."

 

I wish I could've resolved my problem with VideoPad, but my 2 week trial period has expired, and I can't see spending money on something the produced ugly output intermittantly. I wish I could try the software on a more powerful PC with the same MOV files but do not have any way to do that.

gb

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

There is another possibility for your pixellated output from VP. It's just a thought....

Once you have edited your film, save the project and then create a copy on your PC by clicking the "Save Movie" tab on the tool bar.

Now click the Computer/Data tab, followed by selecting the Preset choice "HD 720". (This is the size of my movies in this case)

Now click the "Encoder Options" bar followed by the "Video compression" button.

Slide the "Quality (Ratefactor) to the left to show the value 1.0. followed by OK and OK.

 

Create your film onto the desktop. (Or wherever you like) This will take quite a while to render depending on its size..perhaps several hours.

Sliding the tab to the left will decrease the compression in the output film. Sliding it to the right will produce a film that is nothing but mush. :-) (Interesting to try this)

 

Using this procedure, the output is an avi H264 native file (quite large)and the result should play OK in Media player or Irfanview. From this you should see if it is any better than what you have been getting.

 

Now...Although the VP output to DVD is excellent, there are no menus on the disc which I find a drawback. In the past I have suggested that your DVD might be created with the Microsoft DVD maker which has menus but after using this for some time I think the output is not always that good.

 

However recently I tried another DVD maker (freeware with the option to upgrade) called "Sothink Movie DVD Maker"

This has a number of nice menu BGs that are easy to set up and the output IMHO seems better than the Microsoft program. It may be worth having a look at it. (It puts up a short duration info screen between your films but this is no great drawback.

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

Hi

 

There is another possibility for your pixellated output from VP. It's just a thought....

Once you have edited your film, save the project and then create a copy on your PC by clicking the "Save Movie" tab on the tool bar.

Now click the Computer/Data tab, followed by selecting the Preset choice "HD 720". (This is the size of my movies in this case)

Now click the "Encoder Options" bar followed by the "Video compression" button.

Slide the "Quality (Ratefactor) to the left to show the value 1.0. followed by OK and OK.

 

Create your film onto the desktop. (Or wherever you like) This will take quite a while to render depending on its size..perhaps several hours.

Sliding the tab to the left will decrease the compression in the output film. Sliding it to the right will produce a film that is nothing but mush. :-) (Interesting to try this)

 

Using this procedure, the output is an avi H264 native file (quite large)and the result should play OK in Media player or Irfanview. From this you should see if it is any better than what you have been getting.

 

Now...Although the VP output to DVD is excellent, there are no menus on the disc which I find a drawback. In the past I have suggested that your DVD might be created with the Microsoft DVD maker which has menus but after using this for some time I think the output is not always that good.

 

However recently I tried another DVD maker (freeware with the option to upgrade) called "Sothink Movie DVD Maker"

This has a number of nice menu BGs that are easy to set up and the output IMHO seems better than the Microsoft program. It may be worth having a look at it. (It puts up a short duration info screen between your films but this is no great drawback.

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

Nationalsolo

Thanks for trying. I tried your suggestion. The avi file produced was 222MB, large as you suggested. The video froze very quickly after starting to play, although the audio continued. The video resumed after a bit and was far more pixelated than my original problem. The freezing and pixelated played continued until the end.

 

On your recommended settings, when I select "HD 720", it insists on setting the Frame rate to 25 PAL. I can't select "HD 720" and a frame rate of 29.97 NTSC or 30. I went ahead and used the 25 PAL it insisted on. BTW, I didn't even do any editing, I just loaded one of my HD MOV files and tried to output it as you suggested.

 

FYI: The MOV file I'm using is from my Canon T3i. It is a 23 second segment in 1920 HD. It plays flawlessly with QuickTime Player v 7.7 and VLC 1.1.11.

gb

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

Sorry that didn't work.

 

"..... when I select "HD 720", it insists on setting the Frame rate to 25 PAL. I can't select "HD 720" and a frame rate of 29.97 NTSC or 30..."

 

You are correct it does this but you can select HD720 as well as 29.97 NTSC; it's just that the Preset HD720 box changes to read "Custom" but the resolution box stays as 1280 x 720-HD 720p. However as your frame is 1920 HD I can only say that that format (H.246/MPEG-4 AVC 1920 x 1080 file)just doesn't play on my PC without slowing down and getting terribly out of synch. It's the main reason (after a lot of tests) that I shoot HD at 1280 x 720 and convert) I can only think that MOV files must be similar.

 

Hope you find something that works.

Perhaps NCH could comment on this???

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

Hi

Sorry that didn't work.

 

"..... when I select "HD 720", it insists on setting the Frame rate to 25 PAL. I can't select "HD 720" and a frame rate of 29.97 NTSC or 30..."

 

You are correct it does this but you can select HD720 as well as 29.97 NTSC; it's just that the Preset HD720 box changes to read "Custom" but the resolution box stays as 1280 x 720-HD 720p. However as your frame is 1920 HD I can only say that that format (H.246/MPEG-4 AVC 1920 x 1080 file)just doesn't play on my PC without slowing down and getting terribly out of synch. It's the main reason (after a lot of tests) that I shoot HD at 1280 x 720 and convert) I can only think that MOV files must be similar.

 

Hope you find something that works.

Perhaps NCH could comment on this???

 

Nat

[gbrewer2614]

The only support I can see NCH provides, other than this forum, is this comment at http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopadhttp://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/support.html/support.html

 

"Because of the large number of users world-wide we cannot provide personal technical support for all users of the free version of this program. If you need technical support, please consider buying the premium version of the program or purchase a technical support plan. After you have purchased then use the Contact Technical Support link above to receive prompt assistance from our technical support team."

 

Sort of 'Chicken and Egg' or 'Catch-22' huh? I'm evaluating a trial version to see if I want to buy their software, but the trial version has a major problem. Their canned web page suggestion is to buy the premium version of the software and maybe then they will answer my question. Reminds me of Nancy Pelosi telling us we have to pass ObamaCare in order to find out what's in it. LOL

[PageGirl]

Hi,

 

Um, I'm not very good with technology. I had the video playing slow problem with my new camera, and have followed your advice. However, could you please verify this: my files are just to big? Is that it?

 

Also, I wish to downlode the video converter, but I don't want any virus that harms my computer. Is video converter trustworthy?

 

Thank you for your help!

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

Not an expert in the finer points of how MPEG4 is packed or how MPEG2 is packed but it's not the size of the files as such its just that on my PC and particularly with 1920 x 1080 MPEG4 files (full HD)) it seems the amount of processing that it and the graphics card has to do to get this size of image into an editing state in VP and at the same time keep up with the playback of the sound which can be done almost straight away means that the image quickly lags behind the sound and gets progressively more out of step the longer the clip is.

 

By using a smaller format (1280x720) packed as an MPEG2 my PC (it seems) can do the required unpacking and playing without slowing down. The image doesn't seem to suffer in the process.

 

The Any video Converter program is excellent for converting MPEG4 to MPEG2 (+others)and I use it without any problems. So you shouldn't worry about it.

 

Nat