CrossFade Problems on S4100

[DaleVenvertloh]

Gentlemen:

I have loaded footage from this past year from my Sony DCR VX 2000 into my S4100 to do annual birthday videos for my four grandchildren who all have birthdays in the next several months. I am encountering two problems:

1) The audio and video are sometimes not " in sync"

2) On some of the crossfades the image reverts to what appears to be a 4X3 format for a split second before completing the transition in the 16X9 format.

Any suggestions on how to cure these problems? I will state that I have not used the S4100 much since I purchased it last summer, but for the most part it seems to have a lot of issues that I never encountered on the Prestige I traded in.

Thanks.

Dale Venvertloh

[HansJoachimKoenig]

Hi Dale,

I'm not familiar with the Cam VX2000 but I think it is a SD(Standard Definition)cam.
So you are editing in a SD projekt.
I remember 2 posts in German casa forum dealing of same problem you have concerning
crossfades.
The effect you described is it apparent when rendering or also afterwords when you play
from storyboard?
I'm not sure if it helps but try to make a scene of the storyboard and transfer this scene
via clipboard to another project of same format.
Play the scene in new project.
OK now?
Which Bogart version is installed?

[DaleVenvertloh]

Hans,

Thank you for your response.

To respond to your questions, yes the VX2000 is a standard definition camera and I am using Bogart 3.2c.

I tried your suggestions without success.

The majority of the footage that I have downloaded so far was originally recorded with another Sony standard definition camera (it's my son's and right now I don't have the model number). About 20% of the footage I have downloaded was originally shot with the VX2000. I used the VX 2000 to download all of the footage from both cameras into the S-4100 by firewire.

The Format shown for the project is SD 720x480i 16:9. I have tried several different image settings (Normal, Large, and Full) by downloading portions of the footage from both cameras into different projects to see if that would solve the problem but had no success. The problem seems to arise with the footage that was originally shot on the VX2000. In the scene bin as an individual scene it is shown in the 16X9 aspect but when it is placed in the storyboard with a transition it seems to want to convert back to 4X3 for a split second before completing the transition in 16x9.

As a work around to the problem, I tried to put a special effect on some of the footage originally recorded with the VX2000 to see if that would solve the issue. When I used Twixtor slow motion on the footage, the transition problem appeared to resolve itself. I then tried applying Control Image on some of the footage originally recorded with the VX2000 and was amazed to see that the resulting new scene was converted back into the 4x3 aspect in most instances even though the original scene was shown in the scene bin as 16x9. For one scene, I applied the Control Image effect twice on that individual scene and got two different results . . . one of the new scenes was in 16x9 and the other new scene was in 4x3. How or why that can happen is a mystery to me.

I looked at the settings on my VX2000 and could not see anything that I thought was out of the ordinary that would be causing this problem.

Any help or further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Dale Venvertloh

[CKNewman]

I understand that your editor was set to SD 720x480i 16:9. What was the aspect ratio of the original camera footage from each camera?

[HansJoachimKoenig]

Hi Dale,

I had some contact with the user having had this problem.
It occured in the storyboard adding crossfades.
S-2000 after importing analogue footage in SD project.

The footage was rendered then using the image effect "Sharpen" and
afterwards the desired crossfades were added.
No word about the used "Strenght" calibration in sharpen effect.

Maybe you like to try this for solving your prob?

[DaleVenvertloh]

Craig and Hans,

Thank you for your responses.

Hans I did apply the Sharpen effect (strength level 1) to some of the scenes that were originally recorded with the VX 2000 and (for the few scenes that I have tried it on) it does seem to cure the problem as the transitions are now as they should be. To be on the safe side I guess I will apply the Sharpen effect to all of the VX2000 footage going forward.

Will advise if I encounter any other problems.

Thanks much for all your help on this frustrating problem.

Dale Venvertloh

[HansJoachimKoenig]

Hi Dale,

glad your problem is solved although you have a workaround

[HansJoachimKoenig]

Hi Dale,

here some more news from contacted user for solving your problem.
To avoid long rendering times for image effect "Sharpen" each scene
in scene bin was split at the beginning to the length of later in Storyboard
added crossfade and the middle part and rest of scene.
Rest of the scene again for length of the following crossfade or similar
transition.
Depending upon your scene length you may decide doing it the same way.
The strenghts level used was "1", same as you did in your test.
The initial problem happened when importing analogue footage.

I hope my description was clear enough for you to understand

[Alan]

If I remember correctly the VX2000 is a 4x3 camera. If so its not surprising you are having problems. I think that video files from the camera may contain information about the format. I think the difference between SD 4x3 and 16x9 is the pixel ratio. Both are 576x720, wide screen is obtained by stretching the pixel ratio from nearly square to rectangular. Can others confirm this to check if I am right? The only way to get wide screen out of 4x3 video is to chop the top and bottom of the picture. Stretching it horizontally just makes every one look fat.

Alan

[HansJoachimKoenig]

Hi Alan,
yes, just looked it up VX2000 is a 4:3 SD Cam.
Dale did'nt tell us about that.

You are also correct concerning converting 4:3 to 16:9 format.