One second flicker on ipad mp4

[Rickl]

Igor,

Not sure if this is a bug, or something is wrong with my computer here...

I created a 6 minute slide show with Beta 7.15 and published it to my ipad. I noticed there was a flicker in the slide show on the iPad, about every second. I thought perhaps it was finger trouble on my part, but the mp4 played on my windows 7 exhibits the same behaviour.

I created a short 10 second slide show of a single image, and it does the same thing. I then created a slide show with the same image in version 6.5.8, and the flicker is gone...

I've attached a zip file with both versions of this slide show.

715test.zip

I wonder if you could have a look and see if you see the problem I am having?

Image is 1024x768... In both cases, I used the high quality option of the Create for iPad option...

Interestingly enough, Windows reports different bitrates for each...

test658 reports 1394kbps data rate and 29 fps

test715 reports 3257kbps data rate and 29 fps

Did the default datarate settings change from version 6 to 7?

Dick

[cjdnzl]

Igor,

Not sure if this is a bug, or something is wrong with my computer here...

I created a 6 minute slide show with Beta 7.15 and published it to my ipad. I noticed there was a flicker in the slide show on the iPad, about every second. I thought perhaps it was finger trouble on my part, but the mp4 played on my windows 7 exhibits the same behaviour.

I created a short 10 second slide show of a single image, and it does the same thing. I then created a slide show with the same image in version 6.5.8, and the flicker is gone...

I've attached a zip file with both versions of this slide show.

715test.zip

I wonder if you could have a look and see if you see the problem I am having?

Image is 1024x768... In both cases, I used the high quality option of the Create for iPad option...

Interestingly enough, Windows reports different bitrates for each...

test658 reports 1394kbps data rate and 29 fps

test715 reports 3257kbps data rate and 29 fps

Did the default datarate settings change from version 6 to 7?

Dick

Hello Dick,

I ran your two examples on my Dell laptop - duo core 1.8 MHz 3MB ram and Windows XP SP3. Not a flicker on either sample, they faded into the pic and were rock steady for the duration of each clip. Hope this helps narrow down your problem. This sounds like an OS incompatibility to me.

Colin

[Barry Beckham]

I ran both too and found that test715 was unacceptable.

It had a slight shimmy every second or so just as you described.

I am running a W7 64 bit machine, quad core 8 Gig of ram and a NVidia graphics card

[fh1805]

Dick,

I confirm Barry's findings (715 a rhythmic flicker every second or so; 658 steady as a rock). I ran the tests on Win7 64bit, nVidia GeForce 210, quad core Intel i3 @3.1GHz, 4GB RAM.

regards,

Peter

[paulziets]

Dick,

Same as Barry and Peter on a Windows 7, 64bit, Service Pack 1, Core 2, 2.20GHz, 6GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS.

Regards,

Paul

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Dick,

I confirm Barry's findings (715 a rhythmic flicker every second or so; 658 steady as a rock). I ran the tests on Win7 64bit, nVidia GeForce 210, quad core Intel i3 @3.1GHz, 4GB RAM.

regards,

Peter

You kept that quiet

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[Rickl]

Thank so much for confirming my results folks!

At first I thought it might have been resizing issues as I was pushing HD (1920x1080) formatted images to 4:3 format iPad size in the publish process. But I created a single properly formatted 1024x768 image to use for the test, and I'm glad you were able to confirm what I am seeing.

The PTE 6.5.8 version does not suffer the problem as you have confirmed. Looking the properties of the two mp4 files show different parameters were used to create the lPod/iPad versions. In both cases, I used the 'High Quality' settings in both PTE6 and PTE7beta programs. The bitrates in the PTE6 version were about half of the PTE7 mp4. I tried using the One pass bitrate set to 4000bps, but I still got the flicker.

Thanks so much for testing my files... If I may impose on your patience a little longer...

Do you get the same result when publishing an iPad version of one of your images?

Dick

[nobeefstu]

Dick,

The test715 file does display/exhibit a rhythmic artifact where the test658 file does not. However, when played in MP Home Cinema ... if I use the skip back function and replay the artifact is gone and all appears normal. Something appears amiss in the framerate timing.

It appears that the test715 file is looping because of the displayed rhythmic artifact.

See attached image for artifact.

[Rickl]

Just ran a new test in PTE7 that might point to a solution...

The 'Video for iPad and iPhone' publish option has a custom setting that allows you to see the parameters used for the conversion. By default, it appears to use 1024x768 resolution, one pass coding and 86% quality to do the conversion.

I selected the 'HD video for PC and Mac' option instead, chose the custom settings, and plugged the same parameters in. The flicker disappeared!

I wonder what the difference between the conversion parameters are between the 'HD Video for PC and Mac' and the 'Video for iPad and iPhone' options...

Dick

[Ken Cox]

hey Dick

must be a "SOUR APPLE"

KEN

[Rickl]

Dick,

The test715 file does display/exhibit a rhythmic artifact where the test658 file does not. However, when played in MP Home Cinema ... if I use the skip back function and replay the artifact is gone and all appears normal. Something appears amiss in the framerate timing.

It appears that the test715 file is looping because of the displayed rhythmic artifact.

See attached image for artifact.

Thanks for the reply!

I did notice that artifact... I have no idea what it is!

But what led me to investigate this further was a complete 6 minute slideshow that had a repetitive flicker. The artifact did not show as clearly as it does in test715, but the images had a strange behaviour. It looked as though some of the frames in the mp4 were out of focus and would come into focus at the repetitive rate...

Dick

[Igor]

I confirm this problem with iPad and iPhone output. I hope that we successfully solved it in future Beta 16. Please try it when it's published.

[Rickl]

I confirm this problem with iPad and iPhone output. I hope that we successfully solved it in future Beta 16. Please try it when it's published.

Thanks Igor,

Dick

[Rickl]

hey Dick

must be a "SOUR APPLE"

KEN

Sho nuff Ken! My favorite slide show program is busted. And it all started when the iPad came in the door... Sheesh!

[Ken Cox]

Dick

be thankful you didn't get washed out with the flooding

[Rickl]

Igor!

All fixed with beta 16! Thanks!

One thing.

Beta 15 apparently took my aspect ratio 16:9 images intended for viewing on my HD tv, and cropped them somehow to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad. As a result the images were cropped left and right to show full screen all around on the iPad.

Beta 16 did not crop, and filled the iPad screen left and right, leaving black bars above and below the image.

I kind of expected that to happen, because I deliberately cropped the original images to fill an HD screen...

Not an issue... Beta 16 does a grand job on the mp4 file for the iPad. Thanks for solving the problem!

Edit: My mistake. I misinterpreted the Aspect ratio in Project Options to be the desired output format rather than the format of the input images. Once I set the correct aspect ratio of my images, PTE7b16 correctly formatted (cropped) my 16:9 images to fit the 4:3 size of the iPad.

Dick