Ripping digital 8 film: frame rate issues

Factual Questions
1

I have an old digital 8 camera that records 720x480 NTSC 29.97fps standard DV format. Whenever I encode it, I try to preserve those exact settings, but for some reason - no matter what codec I use, and I’ve also used several video editors, the motion seems off. It’s sort of like the difference between video and film - video has a faster look to it that just seems different. The original ripped file from the camera is like video, but any encoded version of it is like film. It’s alright, but it lacks the smoothness and pop of the original video. No idea if it’s related, but the encoded videos also seem darker.

But according to the video viewer, both videos are 720x480 29.97 fps. Although for some reason in MPC the original video is listed as “720 x 480 (AR 4:3)”, whereas the new video reads “720 x 480 (AR 109:80)”. No idea what’s going on there - is it some sort of NTSC 720x480/640x480 square pixel issue?

It’s not a bitrate issue because I’ve been jacking up the bitrates very high for testing purposes. I think I’m somehow improperly setting some sort of render setting… maybe something to do with interpolation or something? I’m kind of clueless on this issue, does anyone know what it is I might be experiencing, and how I can get my encoded videos to have the same smooth frame rates as the original video?

I want to encode all the tapes preserving the original look of the videos as much as possible, just without the several gigs per hour file size.
The MediaInfo readouts from media player classic for both videos

Original
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format_Commercial_IfAny : DVCPRO
File size : 33.8 MiB
Duration : 9s 276ms
Overall bit rate : 30.6 Mbps
Recorded date : 2009-05-23 16:21:17

Video
ID : 0
Format : DV
Format_Commercial_IfAny : DVCPRO
Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony
Duration : 9s 276ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 24.4 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:1:1
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.357
Stream size : 31.8 MiB (94%)
Encoding settings : ae mode=full automatic / wb mode=automatic / white balance= / fcm=manual focus

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 9s 276ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.70 MiB (5%)
Interleave, duration : 33 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 33 ms
Encoded as sony AVC/mp4

ormat : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 61.0 MiB
Duration : 41s 841ms
Overall bit rate : 12.2 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00
Tagged date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=2, N=15
Muxing mode : Container profile=Main@3.2
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 41s 841ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 12.1 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 16.0 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.169
Stream size : 60.4 MiB (99%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00
Tagged date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 41s 813ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 654 KiB (1%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00
Tagged date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:45:00

2

I notice the second video is progressive. When I tell Sony Vegas to use upper field first (interlaced) rather than progressive, it changes to this:

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Muxing mode : Container profile=Main@3.2
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 41s 841ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 14.7 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 22.0 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Original frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.711
Stream size : 73.4 MiB (99%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:57:14
Tagged date : UTC 2011-08-04 13:57:14

However, the video doesn’t look any more smooth, and in fact I can actually see the interpolation lines in the video, which is ugly. But it’s rendering interpolated frames at 60 fps instead of 30, is that right? Like I said, I don’t know what I’m doing here.

Windows Movie Maker doesn’t allow you to choose progressive/interpolated. Using the “for computer” preset, the media data says:

Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive

The WMM version looks rather crappy (same animation problems, darker, generally blurrier) even at crazy high birates.

3

Finally a Straight Dope question I am qualified to answer!

Okay so I’m not exactly sure what the original field settings are of your digital 8, but let’s assume it’s interlaced since that’s the default for DV. It looks as if you are capturing it and rendering it interlaced as well. I use Sony Vegas Pro and occasionally run into this as well. The first thing I suggest you try is render it lower-field first, and then try blended fields. Sometimes it really can become a hit or miss issue. There should be several settings for blending, smoothing, etc . Bottom-line is that I can confirm it is in fact most likely a fields issue and probably not related to bit rate or anything like that. It also probably isn’t a square pixel issue, unless the image looks compressed or stretched?

I don’t think you mentioned how you are capturing it. You should double check the settings of your capture device, usually in the Windows Control Panel, and make sure that the settings match there as well.

Chuck