I just did the test and can confirm Kasper's findings. You do need to load each file in Virtualdub in order to notice the issue. Then just step through the frames. In my case there were duplicate frames for both files in the beginning, but after frame 20 or so, only city1.avi had duplicate frames.

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Thanks for the feedback. So far I have not been able to reproduce the problems you are experiencing but I will forward your findings to the iClone Development Team so they can check it.

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

@colour & @rampa:
The differences may be subtile for some videos, but when there's smooth motion they become quite noticable IMO. I'd recommend to use a tool like Virtualdub by which you can inspect the clips frame by frame. Or export the clip as an image sequence. Then you'll see the duplicate frames, too. Which implies that the problem is not related to the properties of the output clip.

The problem seems also unrelated to compression of the input clip. Ie. it also exists when I convert the input clip to raw uncompressed avi.
In my tests the input videos have a frame rate of 30, and I also render with a frame rate of 30.

Interestingly though, clips with a framerate of 29.97 run smoother. Eg. when using the clips "Rockstar", "iClone", "Famous Movie" (that come with iClone) as input and have a framerate of 29.97 instead of 30, the exported video appears to be smoother. Only few or no frames duplicated.

Could it be that your imported video is a different frame rate from your iClone movie export frame rate? Causing interpolation?

"Verklagekasper (9/1/2013)

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Choppy rendering of clips

If you have a video clip in your scene, eg. as an image layer or if you dragged the clip into the scene, and export as video, the resulting video may be choppy.
In particular, this happens when the rendering starts at an uneven frame number, and both the input clip and the exported clip have a frame rate of 30.
The choppyness occurs since in the exported video every third frame is the same as the previous frame.

System: iClone 5.5.3207.1, Windows 7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M, latest driver

How to reproduce:
1. Open a new scene.
2. Goto Stage, Image Layer
3. Double click the "0_New" template to add an image layer.
4. Select the Opacity icon and hit the trash bin icon to delete it.
5. Double click the Diffuse icon to select the video clip to display.
6. Choose the clip TV02_City_Block.avi (in the content folder, it comes with iClone).
7. Goto Export, Video.
8. Choose format AVI, quality "Final Render", Range From 1 to 180, Frame rate 30.
9. Press the Export button, choose "city1.avi" as filename, and export with any codec or uncompressed.
10. Go back to the export page and set the Range to "From 2 to 180".
11. Export again under the name city2.avi
12. Replay the clip city2.avi: It's smooth.
13. Replay the clip city1.avi: It's choppy.

I'll apply your test here, to see what happens, with the PC setup in my Signature.

BTW - Mobile GPUs with shared Memory are less than ideal for Video Editing per se.

And - 32 or 64 Bit W7 OS? And - what CPU?

ADDED - Test completed.

Very difficult to notice any marked difference between the 2, since the Video quality is dreadful. Although 2nd test Video appears to be marginally smoother.

iClone doesn't handle Imported AVI nicely. You're better-off with WMV.

IMO, the Source Video.avi File is a Container File & it depends upon the CODEC of the "contained" Video in the first place.

Uncompressed RAW AVI can appear jerky until Rendered to a Compressed Format eg; Microsoft AVI 1 or Pinnacle AVI 2, anyway.

Anyone-else?

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Video card is GeForce GT 555M, latest driver. The only third party codec installed is Xvid. Anyway, I reported this so technical support / development can check whether there is an issue to be fixed. For that purpose, I gave a detailed description on how to reproduce the problem.
I am not going to follow advice to install certain codec packages like K-Lite unless that is an official recommendation from Reallusion support. Also, as I mentioned, I found a workaround myself, ie. changing the first frame to an even number. Anyway, if Reallusion devs find a problem, fine, if they don't, fine with me, too. Bye.

this is not a common problem, in fact, first I ever hear of it - so my first guess is it's local.. .... hence you have to follow a trouble shooting path of anything that can possibly cause that.

next point of potential error is your video card drivers and having the latest drivers - this sounds like something that a Radeon card would do.... You also made no mention of the codecs in your system, have you installed any 3rd party codecs that aren't default from windows ?

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This has nothing to do with the CPU. I inspected the results not only on realtime but also frame by frame with Virtualdub. There are duplicate frames, ie. every third frame is the same as the previous one. It also doesn't matter whether I export avi or wmv or mp4, same choppiness.

@Verklagekasper - that usually has to do with the speed of your processor - and it's ability to encode the video fast enough - you may have a codec other than the microsoft codecs that's making your cpu work harder than it has to. Iclone uses codecs installed in your system, so any choppiness in a render is a result exterior of iclones process.

you may want to try K-lite codecs - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_codec_pack.htm to fix this, use the custom install, - then default all codecs ( where possible ) to microsoft default settings. As even K-lite has some codecs that add extra stress to the cpu and cause playback to be choppy.

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Choppy rendering of clips

If you have a video clip in your scene, eg. as an image layer or if you dragged the clip into the scene, and export as video, the resulting video may be choppy.
In particular, this happens when the rendering starts at an uneven frame number, and both the input clip and the exported clip have a frame rate of 30.
The choppyness occurs since in the exported video every third frame is the same as the previous frame.
[edit] That frame duplication and the resulting choppiness also occurs when exporting as an image sequence.

System: iClone 5.5.3207.1, Windows 7
[edit] NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M, latest driver

How to reproduce:
1. Open a new scene.
2. Goto Stage, Image Layer
3. Double click the "0_New" template to add an image layer.
4. Select the Opacity icon and hit the trash bin icon to delete it.
5. Double click the Diffuse icon to select the video clip to display.
6. Choose the clip TV02_City_Block.avi (in the content folder, it comes with iClone).
7. Goto Export, Video.
8. Choose format AVI, quality "Final Render", Range From 1 to 180, Frame rate 30.
9. Press the Export button, choose "city1.avi" as filename, and export with any codec or uncompressed.
10. Go back to the export page and set the Range to "From 2 to 180".
11. Export again under the name city2.avi
12. Replay the clip city2.avi: It's smooth.
13. Replay the clip city1.avi: It's choppy.