Womble-edited HDV files produces inconsistent results

[benoitm]

Hello VLCyers

I'm using the low-cost combination CapDVHS - Womble MPEG Video Wizard - VLC 8.5 to capture, edit and playback my HDV (1080i) films in full-res. The first small tests were OK, playing back full-res HDV smoothly without dropped frames.

I now have this strange problem and wonder if someone has experienced the same problem, or if someone has a fix....

When I play back the .mpg (MPEG2 PS) produced by Womble (a 15 min. movie that was simply cut-edited), after a specific point in the file (a simple cut transition near the 10th minute), playback becomes suddenly choppy, and frame rate drops dramatically: about 1 frame per sec is played, while sound goes on normally. The CPU usage also drops from about 80% to 20% ! Manual seek in the file past that point seems also more difficult.
There is no indication of file corruption or other problems in the file or the computer. (I tried the export from Womble a couple of times, changing the cut point a little bit, and checking the output file for incorrect GOPs)

Also, when converting the same .mpg file to .wmv using WM Encoder 9, I have no trouble at all.

Any idea ?

[DJ]

You could try another player to see if the problem is the editor or VLC. Editors are supposed to cut and join on key frames and some allow you to cut anywhere causing problems in playback.

[benoitm]

Any suggestion for another player that would play native HDV 1080i on a 2 Ghz Centrino, for testing as you suggest ?
WMP10 can't keep up with the 25 Mbps and skips frames awfully (maybe the PowerDVD 5 codec is the culprit ?), while VLC plays beautifuly at ~80% CPU usage

[DJ]

What do you mean by native? Or what's the extension of the file?

I know there are problems finding a player that will play raw h264 or 264 files for example.

In general I have had good luck with MPlayer specially for diagnosing problems with encodes. VLC also helps allot in this regard with Messages.

Another good player is Gabest's Media Player Classic. But for MPEG, I use WinDVD's filters rather than the built in filters supplied by MPC. I find more compatibilities with these than PowerDVD's filters and they seem a bit smoother for me. I have not been having problems with HD files but my machine is a bit faster than yours. For H264 CoreAVC works very well with Haali's splitter. Just wish he would finish the MPEG front ends.