Quote: I am using PowerDirector 12.
I wanted to create a video using clips from different sources, i.e. from different cameras and with different framerates.
I have clips from a JVC video camera with 25fps PAL.
And I have clips from a Samsung cell phone with 60.03fps and 30.02fps.

After editing and putting the finished movie on a Blu-Ray the result is just bad:
I have set the PowerDirector project's general framerate to 25fps PAL, and the resulting video, with clips from the above mentioned sources makes the video seem 'bouncing' and not 'smooth' especially in the clips where I pan.

What it your advice on this? Can I create a better video, a more smooth video, still using clips from the before mentioned different sources with different framerates?

Carsten.

Try Producing the project with the various frame rates and see what you get on Playback in an external player.

You did not say what the resolution of the clips is.

I would try producing a 1280x720P/25fps to see what you get.

The bad news is there is always a consequence with mismatched frame rates.

Option 1: As you have seen, by just adding the two frame rate clips to a timeline then outputting at one frame rate, you will always get a non smooth output on any scenes with movement or panning. If you set your output to 50i/50p then PD has to remove 10 frames per second from the 60i/60p to and if outputting to 60i/60p then add 10 to the 50i/50p footage

Option 2: The other option is you can adjust the "speed" of the 60i/60p or 50i/50p footage but a 20% change will be very noticeable not only in the video but will result in a shift in audio pitch (which you would then need to adjust).

There are other techniques but they are not practicable for general use like:
Option 3: Produce at a very high frame rate that is divisible by both (like 150 or 300fps).
Option 4: Interpolation, but you then end up with odd artefacts.

The only real solution is to shoot in the same FPS, but I too am in a PAL country and shoot in 50i/50p on my Camcorders but my "smartphone" only does 60i/60p. I tend to just live with the "smartphone" output being jerky if I use it as..... it is the poorest quality anyway.

Thanks
Nathan PD 64 Bit-Win10 64 Bit-32GB RAM-80TB HDD
Sony FX6 - 500Mbps 4k/50p AVC-I HLG
Canon XF400 - 150Mbps 4k/50p AVC
GoPro Hero6 Black
Pana HS700-28Mbps 1080/50p AVC (High@L4.2)
Canon HV20-HDV 25Mbps 16:9 1440x1080/25p MPEG

Guys, the irony is that since H.264 it is purely optional to use a certain frame rate. The display time stamps (which were present in older codecs as well, but with a fixed delta) dictate how long a frame shows on the display device. That means you can mix and match any FPS without conversion and jumpy playback.
Now in practice the Blu-Ray still demands constant frame rates and video editors are also slow to adapt. It is likely that the upper price segment already offers solutions there, but not PD12.

I think there is still a working solution if you are fine with playing the video from a laptop connected to the TV instead of a Blu-Ray player...
Render each section that contains clips in a different frame rate separately. This way you can chose or create a matching profile for 25/30/60 FPS and possibly even utilize SVRT on each as a bonus. These parts can then be concatenated (lossless) with a variety of command-line and GUI tools, many of which are free (ffmpeg, AviDemux, VirtualDub, ...).
For fixed frame rates though, you can just stick with what PD offers. It was working a lot better for me (23.97 FPS material in 50 FPS timeline) than the demo version of VideoStudio, which targets a similar price segment.
(Hint: Since I haven't tried this, I don't know how PD handles any overhang resulting from selections on the timeline being 25 FPS and then rendering them in 30/60 FPS. So better make sure the 30/60 FPS segments' durations can be expressed in 30/60 FPS without rounding. That's easy if you measure them in whole seconds. In cases where that's not possible, select a multiple of 5 frames (resulting in 6 or 12 frames for 30 and 60 FPS respectively). You can verify the duration below the preview on the production tab: If it ends in a 5 or a 0 you are good to go!)

mleise is correct in that it is technically possible to mix and match frame rates for H.264 content but it I know of know practical way of creating a BD with such content with consumer tools (that includes all the stuff like menus, transitions between the clips, audio / titles etc crosses over the transitions etc). The other issue will then be the compatibility with the playback devices.

I did a quick test of just concatenating my 50i/60i test clips (in a M2TS container) together. With playback on a PC I not surprisingly found some issues (using a couple of renderers) with seeking and duration past the join, though the playback was correct and smooth. I'll try remuxing these later and see if the results are better (should be). If that is the case you could convert this file into a BD structure for testing but as mentioned in the parra above it will be pretty basic. PD 64 Bit-Win10 64 Bit-32GB RAM-80TB HDD
Sony FX6 - 500Mbps 4k/50p AVC-I HLG
Canon XF400 - 150Mbps 4k/50p AVC
GoPro Hero6 Black
Pana HS700-28Mbps 1080/50p AVC (High@L4.2)
Canon HV20-HDV 25Mbps 16:9 1440x1080/25p MPEG

Quote: mleise is correct in that it is technically possible to mix and match frame rates for H.264 content but it I know of know practical way of creating a BD with such content with consumer tools (that includes all the stuff like menus, transitions between the clips, audio / titles etc crosses over the transitions etc). The other issue will then be the compatibility with the playback devices

Ironically PD has been doing this for a long time, since like PD9, just not exposed to the end user. Since they do it now, maybe not much of a request to expose to the user. For many menus created in PD, PD creates a 23.976fps menu and a 29.97fps main video in a NTSC project. Yes, this has caused certain players to have issues during playback, documented in many posts in the forums.

one example: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15/20975.page

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

There are two different potential use cases (neither of which can be done with PD at present):
- Different FPS for Different Playlists: As you have seen PD does this now for the Menu Vs Content. This is also fine with BD spec as each clip has it's own "clip info" detailing the expected FPS of the clip. You see this in commercial BD's as well, eg the main movie may be 23.976 then the "extras" may be 60i etc. I'd checked to see how "Create Disk --> Content --> Import Additional Videos/Projects" works but PD still reencoded all the clips using the Settings selected under the main "Video and Audio Settings". It would be trivial for PD to add another option "don't re-encode clips" that would provide this.
- Variable FPS in One File: H.264/AVC stores how long each frame should be displayed, so in theory you "could" have one file with different FPS. This is what I think the OP was after, add multiple video sources on the timeline the output a single file with variable FPS. It would be a great feature but.... I think it would be more difficult to implement PD 64 Bit-Win10 64 Bit-32GB RAM-80TB HDD
Sony FX6 - 500Mbps 4k/50p AVC-I HLG
Canon XF400 - 150Mbps 4k/50p AVC
GoPro Hero6 Black
Pana HS700-28Mbps 1080/50p AVC (High@L4.2)
Canon HV20-HDV 25Mbps 16:9 1440x1080/25p MPEG