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BAD Render Quality – Not Down Scaling
I have read about the problems Premiere has with down scaling and the solutions by Dan Isaac and Jon Geddes but I am wondering if those solutions are applicable to my situation, because I am not down scaling.
I have a project for a client who will be playing their video on an LCD TV from a DVD player so they want 720×480 NTSC 16:9 video. The videographer shot all of the footage in SD 4:3.
I did all of my After Effects comps in 720×480 NTSC DV Widescreen. My premiere project is D1/DV Widescreen 16:9.
I imported the SD 4:3 footage and conformed it to the 16:9 Premiere project. Brought in all of my After Effects comps and started editing.
In the Preimere Preview screen, all of the video including the conformed footage and the AE comps appeared a bit blurred, but I wrote it off to computer screen resolution.
Once finished editing, I used the “Make Movie” command and created an .avi file. It looks great on my computer.
However, I can not get a decent looking MP2 for DVD. I have tried exporting the MP2 from Premiere, Sony Vegas and have tried letting DVD Architect and Encore render the files and I always get the same result whether viewed on the computer or TV from DVD, graphics and text have rough edges, dull, noisy files with lots of motion aliasing like those described by the down scaling problems.
I did manage to have some minor success converting the .avi file using a program called OJOSoft Total Video Converter, the result came out clearere and most of the artifacts were gone, but OJOSoft has a Max bitrate of 5000k.
I am at my wits end, on a deadline and a bit paniced. I have had better results fot other clients using SD 4:3 and using the widescreen setting on the TV.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice. I hope there is a solution without having to start completely over ont ehis project.
Thanks,
David Tunnell
TunnellVision Productions -
12 Replies
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Bringing a 4:3 project into a 16:9 project will give you qualityloss.
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How do you explain the global loss even on the 16:9 After effects elements?
Thanks,
David Tunnell
TunnellVision Productions -
If indeed the Premiere AVI export is good quality, it’s just a matter of encoding it to mpeg2 right… TMPEGEnc, Mainconcept Reference, and CCE are good options. HC Enc is also a high quality option and is freeware, but you’ll need AviSynth for it, and to encode audio seperately.
Obviously the extra re-encoding step After Effects->Premiere->DV->Mpeg2 will reduce quality, regardless of the 4:3 to 16:9 issues, so the debugmode option is worth a shot. Or you can export as AVI uncompressed/Lagarith Lossless codec instead of AVI DV. -
Have you checked for mis-interpreted fields?
-Jeff
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No I haven’t and I am not sure how to do that.
Thanks,
David Tunnell
TunnellVision Productions -
Here is another clue. If I open my AE files in the preview window, the one where you can view and select shots, it is clear and vivid and pristine. However, as soon as I drag it on to the timeline, it gets dull and loses clarity in the editing window.
I tried a test where I created a new sequence in Premiere just for the AE file with no other video on the timeline. Sure enough, in the preview it is crystal clear, bring it in the timeline and boom, instant loss of quality. You can have the two preview windows open and see the difference.
What happens to the video after you drag it to the timeline?
I am not a Premiere expert by any means. I do most of my work in After Effects. This makes no sense to me. The AE project settings and the Premiere project setting are identical.
Thanks,
David Tunnell
TunnellVision Productions -
Upon Render or Export Media, you should be getting a clean export. Without seeing your project it’s hard to tell what’s going on.
Are you sure the MPEG-2 export is using the same field dominance? AE files may be Upper, MPEG-2 export by default is set to Lower. DV seq is default Lower. If there is a conflict with field dominance then you’ll get some horrible results. You can check the field dominance by right clicking the icon for the clips in the project panel and select the interpret footage option, the field dominance will be selected based on the clips metadata. You can change it and do a short export test.
I usually make sure my AE work is progressive, set in the Render Queue’s Export list of a comp select Best Settings, go into it change fields to off.
Premiere Pro has a Quality setting for the source and program monitors if set to Draft or Automatic the quality will get a hit only as you work, High Quality should look as good as the original. Exporting will override the Quality Settings as its only for working playback performance not a true quality hit to the project/media.
Post a screen capture or two might help us see what’s going on with your settings for sequence/media and export settings.
– Jon BarrieJon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net -
Thanks for the reply.
1 – Field render was/is off in my AE renders
2 – In Premiere, when I right click a clip in the project list and choose Interpret footage, I see nothing about Fields. I get frame rate – Pixel Aspect Ratioand Alpha Channel info.
3 – The source and preview monitor settings are identical.I will try o do some screen caps this afternoon
Now, when I render out the final vid and set the output to “Progressive” I get dramatically better results.
Thanks,
David Tunnell
TunnellVision Productions -
Progressive output is solving an interlacing issue. You have material running opposing field dominance than either the sequence and or the export output.
Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net -
Progressive output is solving an interlacing issue. You have material running opposing field dominance than either the sequence and or the export output.
Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net
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