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Compression choice in sequence settings
I’m working on a project for a medical CME DVD. The video portion features a Dr. giving a presentation along with his Powerpoint slides, both on a Tiff background. The slides are also Tiff.
The question I have is about the compression setting for the sequence. Currently, that is set at DVCPro. Would this be my best choice? I’ll be outputting the video to MPEG2 for DVD, and I want the slide graphics to look there best. Any suggestions?
Finally, how much of an affect does the sequence compressor setting have when exporting via Compressor? When I use Photo-JPEG, the slides look pretty good. Should I stick with DVCpro, or go to another codec? This project is over 4 hours long, and rendering times are getting pretty lenghty. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. -
12 Replies
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Stick with the native codec of whatever you shot with. Did you shoot DVCPro 25? Use a DVCPro 25 preset. DV-NTSC? Use a DV-NTSC preset. Hopefully that makes sense to you.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Over 4 hours long! Split your project into multiple sequences. Depending on your system, if your still cache is set up correctly and if you don’t have any filters applied to your slides, you should not have to render if using RT Extreme. You may need to render your final project for output.
Are your putting this project on one Dual Layer DVD or multiple DVD’s?
What format is the video? DV, DVCPro, Betacam.
The graphics will look only as good as the originals. Make sure they are title safe and also readable. Any font lower than 25pt will be very hard to read. Make sure you are monitoring on an NTSC/PAL monitor.
Give us more details about your computer system.
G5 Dual 2.5 160GB System 400GB Media Drive ATI 9800 256MB 6 GB RAM
Dual Gig Quicksilver 1GB RAM 80 GB System drive (3) 250 GB internal media storage
15″ Al Powerbook 1.25 1GB RAM
OS 10.3.8 FCP 4.5, DVDSP 2, QT 6.5, Boris Red 3GL 1.65 TB External Stor -
Yes, i’ve already split the project into 2 sequences. So far things are going well with this project. Unfortunately, the client was completely clueless as to the difference between DVD and CD Rom. They insisted they wanted a DVD, but in the end they realized their confusion, and started to refer to the project as a CD Rom. At this point, the nearly 5 hour running length made that impossible, and I convinced them to stick with DVD.
I plan on burning the final project to dual layer DVD, provided I can fit it all on there.
As for my system, I have a dual 2 gig G5 OS 10.3.9, with 1.5 gig of Ram. FCP 4 HD, DVD Studio Pro 3. I also have a G-Raid for storage (which I highly recommend) -
When using a bunch of lossless RGB 4:4:4 images in a sequence with DV25 video, you have several options when going to MPEG-2 for DVD.
The easiest and most straight-forward way with the smallest amount of grief is as Kevin mentioned; stick with your native DV25 codec for the timeline. In more cases than not, this is the best answer.
An alternative way that will give you the best quality (which wont allow you to view this on your NTSC video monitor in real-time), is to make the sequence Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 at 720×480. Yes, I said 480 and not 486. Bring your native DV25 footage and TGA stills into the timeline. Everything, including the video will have to be rendered (or rather, transcoded to 10-bit).
Some (NTSC) tech notes…
DV25 is 4:1:1 Y’CrCb
UC 10-bit is 4:2:2 Y’CrCb
TGA is 4:4:4 RGB
MPEG-2 is 4:2:0 Y’CrCbGoing from DV25 is 4:1:1 to 4:2:0 resulting in 4:1:0 (!!!)
Going from TGA is 4:4:4 to 4:2:0 resulting in 4:2:0 (slightly better maintained color)So here’s the big advantage. Your DV25 footage will not really lose too much quality going to UC 10-bit 4:2:2 (nor gain any). So by working in a 4:2:2 timeline, your DV25 footage and your TGA stills will all be in 4:2:2 space (although your DV footage will still technically be in 4:1:1… it cannot “gain” color space, just not lose any, which is also our goal for the TGA stills). Then when you go to MPEG-2 at 4:2:0, your stills will end up at 4:2:0 instead of 4:1:0 like the DV25 stuff will (and will continue to be in the end… again, the advantage is for the stills).
So this is best when (A) you have a ton of stills and (B) your timelines are somewhat small <30 minutes or you have enough HDD space and time to render all this out.
So if this is the way you want to go, the best solution is to first work in native DV25 format so you get real-time everything. Then when you're happy with the *completed* edit, change (or copy) the sequence as UC 10-bit at 720x480, again 480! The reason for staying in 480 is because MPEG-2 for DVD is 480 and we don't want to screw up frame sizing and mess things up (especially relative positions on stills). Note that this is NOT a standard production or delivery format (that is, 10-bit UC at 480) but that you're using it as a transcoding tool of sorts for maximum quality. Again, you'll need to render *everything* and encode out to MPEG-2 but you'll get a slight quality bump than if you had just outputted straight from DV25 to MPEG-2.
In the end, your MPEG-2 file for DVD will have slightly better color information for those stills and with MPEG-2 running only at 4:2:0 (that's low), we need all the extra color space we can use and this technique gives us that. If you are NOT running any stills or only a small handfull of stills in a long TRT, then I would strongly discourage this technique and stick with the straight DV25 to MPEG-2 route.
Hmmm, maybe I should turn this into a small how-to article here on the Cow. I guess it can get a little complicated if this is something new to anyone. Hopefully it makes some sense though! Let me know if there's any interest in an article or if there's any questions from the above.
Cheers,
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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That workflow works well, Marco, but I always also upsample the DV chroma, as putting into a 4:2:2 timeline by itself does not do that.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Marco,
Welcome back. Where have you been? I thought you had found a after effects girlfriend and she took you away from the cow.
Tony Salgado
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Well unless that DV media isn’t getting processed with something else (like chroma-keying), then I wouldn’t see a benefit to upsampling the media with a 4:2:2 upsampler plugin. The main purpose (in the outline I’ve given) is to benefit the TGA images. I want to “harm” the DV media as little a possible since it’s being taken out of its native timeline spec and thus losing a generation loss (although the Apple DV25 codec in particular deals well with regeneration). If however the DV media did need additional processing, I’d see the benefit of applying a 4:2:2 upsampler plugin to it.
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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My quest for the perfect AE girls still persists. And I’m glad you remember! See any hanging aroud lately? =)
But really, I’ve been mad-busy the last, oh, year now. 18-hour days, no weekends, yeah, I’m fried. I’ve got some more extra hands over here now so I’ll be able to have somewhat more of a real life again, like being on the Cow!
I’m lining up a very important article exclusive for the Cow (not the topic of this thread). So it’ll be nice to be more active again like the old days! 😉
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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Because if the DV doesn’t get upsampled, it’s just 4:1:1 sitting embedded in a 4:2:2 piece of video, which will get converted to 4:2:0 and hence look like 4:1:0.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Yes, but if there’s nothing additional to process (like chroma-keying), then there’s nothing “new” for it to process in 4:2:2. IOW, yes, it’s just a 4:1:1 video in a 4:2:2 shell, but that’s what it is and there’s nothing it can “add” to make it 4:2:2, i.e., there’s no data to add that extra color information from 4:1:1 to 4:2:2. Now if there’s rendering of something (again, like chroma-keying), then that added processing (i.e., new color information) can and will benefit in 4:2:2 space since new color data *is* being created. Otherwise leaving it alone and untouched is my personal preference so as to lessen the amount of degradation as possible when transcoding.
I’ve never seen a plugin or software convert 4:1:1 DV to 4:2:2 and actually add real chroma data that didn’t exist to begin with. I guess interpolative methods could work though, much like faking an over-cranked film effect for slow-motion. Adam Wilt created an early FTP plugin that added chroma filter smoothing to 4:1:1 so it would work better with things like chroma-keyers, but it didn’t add chroma data to make it true 4:2:2.
Do you have a secret weapon you’re hiding from me?!! =)
Marco Solorio | OneRiver Media
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