When in the editing / burning process do frames get dropped?

aka_Gilo · 21-01-2006, 7:53 PM

I have a JVC MG-GZ50 (hard drive cam that writes to MPEG2) which I am very pleased with. I took about an hour of footage of the family when we were down in Cornwall over New Year and recently edited it with Womble then set menus and burnt it to disc with Ulead dvd workshop 2.

I had about 70 seperate clips of footage that I edited down to 40 mins, using a few effects / fades between scenes and adding a couple of music tracks.

I'm really pleased with the end result, being my first attempt at video editing, however on the finshed disc(s) there are a number of dropped frames, mainly just after fading between scenes. I have burnt three discs, the last one with the internet disconnected and my firewall and anti-virus software disabled, but still dropped frames.

When I watch the finished project on my pc (in realplayer) it's perfect, no dropped frames at all, suggesting that the problem is occuring during the burning process. Is this likely to be correct?

I have just (10 mins ago!) added another 512mb of RAM to my pc giving me 1gb which I hope may help (my 80gb HDD is quite full btw, but still have around 10gb free)....any other ideas how to get a finished disc with no dropped frames?

Thanks

MarkE19 · 21-01-2006, 8:03 PM

The most common point for dropped frames is dureing capture, but with a HDD cam this should not be the case as you don't actually 'capture' the video. Judging by what you have said I would think that perhaps the problem is during the burn process. I would therefore suggest you try burning at a slower speed - 1x although slow will give the most reliable results, 2x or 4x etc should be fine depending on the discs used. It is also worth trying different makes of DVD's and perhaps even changing between +R & -R to see if that helps.

Mark.

redsox_mark · 21-01-2006, 10:32 PM

If it is at the edit points, it sounds to me like it is due to the GOP structure, and probably some setting on Womble. As you may know, MPEG is in a group of frames. When you edit on a PC, you can do a cut on a specific frame, but when you create a DVD-video it needs to cut on a GOP boundary. I don't use Womble but look for some settings which makes the edits on the PC at a GOP boundary - then at least what you see on the PC will be the same as the video. Or there may be settings to have Womble re-encode the GOP so your edits are accurate.

Mark B

jomike · 22-01-2006, 12:25 AM

I'm inclined to go with MarkE19 because the file plays OK before burning.
However there is a tool in Womble that lets you scan the mpeg file for GOP errors and repairs them. This might be worth a try.

markdugdale · 22-01-2006, 9:59 AM

It's worth using good qualty disks when burning.
Sony,Maxell and Verbatim are all good

aka_Gilo · 22-01-2006, 12:00 PM

Thanks for all the advice, very useful. I'll try everything suggested and see how I get on.

redsox_mark · 22-01-2006, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomike

I'm inclined to go with MarkE19 because the file plays OK before burning.
However there is a tool in Womble that lets you scan the mpeg file for GOP errors and repairs them. This might be worth a try.

He may be right... but before burning when editing you can be in "VR" mode, and do frame accurate cuts that you can't maintain when you burn a DVD-Video.

If the "dropped frames" are random, then I suspect a DVD burning problem. But if they are always around the edit points then I think it something else.

Mark B