I'm exporting a 23.976p NTSC project as a QuickTime Reference file for encoding to DVD.  I noticed that the final output (via Cinema Craft Encoder Basic) has a strange "stutter" to the motion.  It isn't particularly visible if there is a lot of action or inconsistent motion, but as soon as there is any "smooth," consistent movement, the stuttering is really obvious.  I played the actual QTRef file, and it does the exact same thing, so the problem appears to be from the QTRef file and not the encoding.

I then output an h.264 movie from Avid, and it did NOT have this "stuttering" issue -- the movement of this movie was smooth.  I also confirmed that the playback from within Avid does NOT have this issue.  Again, this would appear to indicate that the problem is specific to the QTRef output from Avid, or at least to the way QT interprets it.

When I step frame by frame through the QTRef, everything checks out fine -- there are no repeated or missing frames.  The issue therefore appears to be with the playback of the QTRef.

In searching the web, I found a few other references to issues similar to this, but no solutions that helped me.

Note that this output has no need for deinterlacing or inverse telecine -- it started as 23.976p footage, which is what the project is.

At this point, what I'm seeing boils down to this:  QTRef output from a 23.976p project in Avid has a "stuttering" problem with that shows up with smooth on-screen movement.  This issue does not happen with other QT output from Avid (NON QTRef), nor does it happen with any 30i content.

Has anyone here dealt with this issue?

I'm using MC 3.1.2 at this time (already have 5, but can't change until after this project is finished.)

Thanks for any help in resolving this,

Larry

When you open the quicktime ref in Quicktime what does the movie inspector say the framerate is?

on pc ctrl I will give you this info?