Hi all,

I am trying to render a few projects using my usual 1080 (50i) .MTS clips from my camera, to PAL DVD format.

So I have set my project up as DV/DVD PAL and am rendering to AVI DV 4:3 PAL, which I think is as it should be.

When the files have been rendered, I am left with just a grey output and sound, so no proper image. The grey video output is not solid, but a bit "corrupt" round the edges, so seems to be something there?! This previews fine in Kdenlive

There are some other files of various formats mixed in and they appear fine in the rendered output.

To make it stranger, some of the projects using the exact same source files render fine.

I am inclined to thing it is nothing to do with project settings, but more like the source MTS files causing the issue. I have had problems in the past when MTS files which have been split by the camcorder (when reaching a set file size/duration) are a bit dodgey. But they do render fine when I usually output to mp4 for YouTube.

If anyone has any ideas, that would be great, worst case I could transcode all of the MTS files and re-add everything, but that would take as long as me just starting again....

I suppose I could also just output to HD mp4 and let my DVD creation software do the conversion.

Cheers

OK, a few tests:

Removed all effects - same result
Removed transitions - same result
Rendered using proxy clips - worked

I also tried removing the offending MTS file from the project and then re-adding it, but that made no difference. It does seem to be two of the MTS files causing the problem

I have also tried changing the project to be HD 1080i 25FPS, which I maybe should have done in the first place, then rendering to DV/AVI, but this makes no difference

I have included some sample files at the link below:

http://db.tt/g6ycKYle

Both files are encoded correctly, so your problems are probably comming from a problem with the decoding of the sources.

BTW: Neither of those files are AVI/DV files of the type you are trying to render to. I don't know if that was intentional, but both are MP4-h264-aac.

@moorsey: I don't remember whether or not it was your mail, but problems with camcorder cut clips has cropped up before. So, I have steered clear of ever using them and not experienced any problems.

When you say "when reaching a set file size/duration" do you mean the full clip size or what you have set?

My clips are 1080 (50i) .MTS and I always use HD 1080i 25FPS for my Project settings.For dvd rendering I always use DVD from the Destinations drop down menu which creates a .vob file.

Now for a stupid question of the day to anyone, what is AVI/DV actually used for?
(really, it's not a stupid question if you don't know the answer)

@FishB8

Yes, I made a mistake in setting up the project as AVI, rather than the usual I select as 1080I 25FPS, as normcross suggests. I confused myself into thinking I needed to set this because I wanted to output to AVI/DV. But project settings should be equal to source clips, as I will now remember!

@normcross

My camcorder, when recording for longer than about 15 minutes, starts a new .MTS file on my SD card, so for an hour of recording, I would not have 1 .MTS file, but several. They all link back seamlessly, but kdenlive does not seem to like the consequtive clips so much, they often appear with a grey preview, like there is some header information missing or something. This is what I meant, I wasn't very clear in my original post!

Normally, when just using proxy clips, and rendering to MP4 for Youtube, I have no problems. I think if I re-created the projects from scratch and used the correct project settings, then this problem may go away, so could be my own doing really.

I have fixed the issue by using WinFF to convert the offending .MTS files to .MP4, then opening the .kdenlive project file in a text editor, find/replace the .MTS filename for the .MP4 one, then opening and re-rendering the project, this worked fine.

I use AVI/DV output, to get files that are the correct resolution etc to be rendered to DVD, I stick the AVIs in some Windows software I use called ConvertXToDVD, mess with the menus etc. I could put any source file in really, VOB, MP4 etc, but have always used that output

Thanks for the replies both of you