Hi,

To add to John's post, I cannot even tell from the information provided if you are talking about how the video performs on export or if you are talking about how it performs in the time line during playback.  You have also not provided any computer specs such as ram, processor, etc.  You only provided the OS (Windows 8).  Have you tried burning the footage to DVD? If so what was the result.  All of this type of information is both relevant and important to getting a more specific answer to your question.  If this only happens during playback in the time line mode, the your computer specs will determine how well the video is rendered during playback.  If this only happens during playback, try downloading the MEP 2014 trial and see how that works out.  MEP 2014 uses some very different algorithms to create very fast rendering and export without having to "preview render" the project.  The more information you provide, the better the answer you are likely to get.  So if you provide all of the specs of the imported video, and even better yet a analysis of the codecs you are using, the more we can help you sort out this problem. 

Have you tried this same video in your previous version of MEP? And if so, how did that work out for you?  What was the previous version that you were using when all was well?

Sorry,  we can help you, but we need more information than just the fact that you are running windows 8 and is it windows 8 or windows 8.1?

George

Hi all,

thanks for your speedy replies. I'll endeavor to be as detailed as possible in the hope that you may be able to provide a solution for me!

System used is Windows 8. Lenovo G780

Memory Ram 7.6

Processor subscore 6.1

1TB Hard Drive

The blurry footage occurs when I am trying to edit AVCHD Sony Camcorder stuff down. The footage is 1920 x 1080. I have tried both burning to AVCHD disc and exporting to MP4 file, both have the same effect, the footage looks like a bad reverse standards NTSC copy! I had to stop using my previous version of Magix as my laptop was stolen and my replacement laptop would no longer recognise my DVD burner with my old Magix software, hence my reason for updating, so I have not been able to test the same stuff on the old system. When I did this same type of editing on the old system and burnt to AVCHD disc, the results were flawless and smooth. 

Like I say the one time I managed to get the new system to show better results were when I selected the 'smart render' option. At this stage though my project was quite small (about 2-3 mins) and the system did this fine and then burnt to AVCHD disc. Now that there is roughly 18 mins of footage the smart render seems to get stuck and nothing happens. I am using the highest possible settings in order to get best results so am choosing high definition when setting project up, 25fps 1920 x 1080i. The disc is then being played back on a Sony Bluray player, and also a Panasonic Bluray player/burner and the blurred footage is evident on both.

Hope that this gives you more to go on, please let me know if you need anything further.

Kind regards,

Martin

Hi

Looking at the Lenovo site there are many options available got this model.  What is the full specification of the laptop?

Include processor type and model, amount of RAM, graphics option ie Intel HD or NVidia and model.

When you say smart render gets stuck do you mean the MEP crashes, the exporting stops or hangs,  or the smart render indicator stays on for a long while?

John

Hi Martin

Thanks for the info.

My original suspicion was you had a NVidia graphics option which I have found can (not always) produce softer / blurry sections when using the graphics chipset to offload rendering from the CPU.

Do you have the option Hardware acceleration for mp4/AVCHD in the program settings checked and / or the option Calculate video effects on GPU checked in the export dialog?

Try exporting with these options turned off.

According to Intel - QuickSync  (hardware acceleration) is not supported on the graphics chip of this processor. 

HTH

John

Hi Martin

This sounds like the encoder settings are not matching the parameters of the original footage. Can you analyse the created file and the original camcorder file with the "Media Info" app and copy and paste the Text view of both, into your post.

Also a screen shot of the "advanced encoder settings" you used to create the export file might help.

Ss

Hi Martin

You still have not come back with the export settings / options you are using - until you do we are working in the dark and cannot help you further.

MediaInfo is a program for analysing audio and video and is available here.

John

Hi

You have a conflicting of settings  and statements here

You say you are exporting to AVCHD and using a Sony BD player to view the video - are you using some other software to Burn an AVCHD or BD disc or are you using MEP to create the AVCHD or BD disc.?

The max bitrate for AVCHD disc is shown in the image below

. . . . When I export to AVCHD I am choosing maximum bitrate, . . . .

The standard bitrate for AVCHD export is 18000 kbps - MediaInfo is reporting your exported file is 5758 kbps - check the Advanced settings for the video codec in the export dialog as shown below

I have tried the setting reported by MediaInfo for your exported file and there is some loss of sharpness,

Also under Effects, Effect settings movies ( Ctrl+Shift+H ), try increasing the sharpness setting from its default value of 50  to  70.

HTH

John

Hi Martin

Thanks for the Media Info data about your files. As I suspected - Whatever Export profile you used to create those files is chalk and cheese compared to your original cameras AVCHD profile which appears to be 1080 50P from perhaps either a Sony or Panasonic camera. This would explain the failure of the Smart Render as I explained earlier and the fact that the resulting export looked so inferior. There is a vertical resolution loss (theoretically half), from just going from your recorded 50P to the 50i(interlaced fields) required by Bluray Disc. This is not so noticeable due to the still hi resolution 1080i format, but the large reduction in bitrate from 26Mbps to 6Mbps will create significant compression losses and artifacts in the re encoded file. 

I am not sure how you managed to get the profile you encoded to but I did have some problems with MEP2013 where my MPEG4 export profiles got corrupted to show lower quality encode settings - have you applied all the patches available for this version?

If you go via the burn screen and choose Bluray disc (H264 option checked) then click on the Encoder settings > Advanced button then you should see a sequence of windows that are identical to the ones John has posted below except instead of "User defined" the preset should say "Bluray 1920x1080i PAL (Default)". If it does not then you have probably altered a parameter in one of the windows, which MEP remembers, so it would be safest to reset your program settings to default via File > settings > reset program settings to default. Be aware that just clicking into the advanced windows and back to the first export window will change the Preset to User defined even if you do not change any parameter. As long as you click cancel instead of OK you can exit back to the burn screen without changing the preset heading (or its settings). I would not select the "Hardware Encoding" option as John has, as this can lead to subtle loss of detail in darker areas.

 You can create a disc image in your Disc Image folder without burning if you start the burn but do not place a disc in the burner.

Once you can get a sucessful encode at the default settings then you can experiment with the bitrate if you want to decrease the file size in order to fit more on the disc.

Sorry for the late reply but I have been out in the styx on holiday.

Peter

Thanks Martin, good that you are sorted although it would be interesting to know which settings changes you feel  made the difference. Also a click on the "thanks" box is appreciated.

I am late responding late because of the way you have been replying to our suggestions by editing your original post. It is best to click on the Answer box each time you wish to reply and in that way we can see from the Questions screen that there has been a new reply. This also generates a notification at the top of the page against "My overview" that shows there have been responses to the topic.

Cheers

Peter