Jumpy/jerky output

[daz7887]

When I play videos that I have made they are very jerky and jumpy. I have tried rendering several types of video (mov, flash, wmv) and the result is always the same. When I play the video it jumps around and skips bits. Just to make this clear, I am not talking about the preview window, I am talking about the final product after rendering. (It plays fine in the preview window). Is this a common problem? What am I doing wrong?

[ATR]

daz7887

First, what version of Premiere Elements are you using?

Second, what was the source of the media that you put on the Premiere Elements Timeline to create these unacceptable end products?

Please be specific as to brand and model of camcorder if that is the source of the media. Please detail what is on that Timeline prior to export. What did the Timeline look like in the Monitor before you exported? At any time while you were still in the edit mode of the program, did you render the Timeline by pressing the Enter Key of the computer main keyboard? If so, what did the video in the Monitor look like before and after.

Details are important. Many problems can have the same symptoms, but different causes.

ATR

[daz7887]

Hi, thanks for offering your help.

The version is 7.

The source of the media is a webcam, the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000, set to HD (960x720).

The timeline of my video is very simple, it is just four clips from the webcam put together with transitions in between.

It plays smoothly in the monitor before exporting, just like I would want it to play after exporting.

I tried your suggestion of rendering the timeline by pressing the enter key, and now the video in the monitor looks all jumpy, just like when I export it!

Just a few more details which might help:
The project preset is PAL DV Standard.

As for output settings, for Windows Media and Quicktime I used the "Cable Modem, DSL" preset. For Flash, it was "NTSC Flash Video 8 400K". All produce the same jumpy output.

I am only using a laptop, 1 GB memory, 2 GHz processor, 60 MB main hard drive. I realise these specs are quite low but I have never had a problem before doing similar projects.

[ATR]

daz7887

That rendering of the Timeline gives you the best window of opportunity to see what the end product is going to look like. It does not improve end product quality. So, if the before/after rendered Timeline looked the same (jumpy), that means stop and work out problem at the Timeline level.

I am still thinking about this and need to check some details, but I would like you to try right clicking the video on the Timeline, selecting Field Options from the pop up menu, and in Field Options start by selecting Reverse Field Dominance. See if that makes a difference at the rendered Timeline Level.

Was previously successful work that you did with Premiere Elements also from Webcam?

To be continued....

ATR

[ATR]

Quick add on question:

What frame rate did you record at and how did you get video clips from the webcam to the Premiere Elements Timeline?

When I play videos that I have made they are very jerky and jumpy.

What are you using for playback?

Also, have you updated the drivers for the webcam? Also, the following may or may not be of immediate interest, but check it out:
http://forums.logitech.com/logitech/board/message?board.id=quickcam_software&thread.id=59491

ATR

[daz7887]

ATR

First I just want to clarify something: BEFORE rendering the timeline it plays fine, only AFTER rendering it is jumpy.

After applying Reverse Field Dominance, the rendered timeline still plays jumpy.

The project before that was successful used clips from the same webcam. The frame rate it records at is 15 fps. First the webcam software saved the clips to the hard drive and then I imported them into Elements.

I have tried playing the output video on WMP and VLC and it looks the same on both.

And yes, the drivers for the webcam are up to date.

[Chuck Engels]

There is a special project preset for capturing from Webcams, have you tried that?
Also you may want to check the footage with the Interpret Footage feature. My guess is that the frame rate is probably off, you can change it in the Interpret Footage window. Right click on each clip and select the Interpret Footage option.

[daz7887]

There is a special project preset for capturing from Webcams

Really? I can't see that. Where is it? when you choose New Project, then Change Settings, under the list of Available Presets I don't see one for webcams.

In the Interpret Footage window, it's already selected to use the frame rate from the file, which is 15, which is correct. Should I change this?

[ATR]

daz7887

I get back with my own Q&As later if necessary, but just to fill in the gaps....

Premiere Elements 7 allows for a webcam capture....
Open Premiere Elements 7
You will be in the Organizer Section
Click on Get Media Tab
You will see several options for "Get Media"
Included there is "Webcam or WDM Device"

You are still going to have to setup with Project Presets for Premiere Elements...when you open the new project to capture into.

Now for that Interpret Footage business...what have you been setting for the Premiere Elements 7 project preset when you open that program.

In spite of these possible "look ats", it troubles me that you say that this work before:
a. same webcam
b. same videos from webcam
c. same editing in Premiere Elements 7
If I am mistaken in any of the above for what was, please correct me now.

In the absence of your formats on the Timeline, with Interpret Footage, you
a. Go to your media in the Project View Media Area, right click the file, select Interpret Footage, and in the dialog dot the Conform to and deselect the appropriate aspect ratio. Right now I am not factoring that into this equation. Try it. If I am wrong, the main thing would be that it worked.

If you had not said that all this worked before, I would strongly urge you to use the Webcam at 30 fps. From what I have read, it gives you fps options upto 30 fps.

I will be back later.

ATR

[daz7887]

The Interpret Footage didn't work because when I changed the frame rate, it made the clip go a lot faster, and I don't want that.

In the end I used a workaround - I converted the WMV file from the webcam into DV-AVI using converting software, then I made my edited video in Premiere again from scratch, using the AVI as the source instead of the WMV. Now it renders and plays fine. So it must have been the WMV that was causing the problem.

From now on I will use your above method for getting video from the webcam (from inside Premiere). I think that is what I did last time, so that is probably why it worked last time.

[ATR]

Correction:

deselect the appropriate aspect ratio

that should be, select the appropriate aspect ratio.

I realize that you say that your video looks fine on the Timeline BEFORE rendering and your end product looks bad. But, in spite of what looks good before rendering the Timeline, the important thing is that the program is telling you what it will mostly likely look like after exporting.

To be continued....

ATR

[daz7887]

In the end I just got fed up with it so I did it a different way (see my previous post). I think I know what the problem was now, though.

[ATR]

daz7887

I am very glad that you sorted out all the details to get a workflow that led to success. Good job on that.

The native format of the Premiere Elements Timeline is DV AVI and often there can be problems with non-DV AVI formats including webcam media (15 fps) sources. If you have the time, I would be interested to learn more about the details of how the webcam software saved your recordings to the computer hard drive (maybe a how to link).

PAL DV AVI imported to the Premiere Elements Timeline would have 25 fps. When you went to export, what was the fps for the export type(s)?

Special thanks for reporting the outcome which will be a big help to others in a similar situation.

ATR