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Compressor settings for HD to SD
To All,
I posted this the other day but was buried under a flurry of many many posts. So I thought I’d try again.
Doing a show that’s aprox. 40 min. TRT. It’s a 1080i ProRes422 project.
The final product will be a SD DVD. Can someone please advise me as to the very best settings in Compressor for optimum quality.(especially the GOP settings)
I’m running FCP studio 2. The show will ultimately be projected on a large screen, so I would like to deliver the sharpest image possible.
Thanks in advance.Paul Colin
Cezanne Studio, NYCMac Pro/2.6 Ghz/ 8 core/ 7GB ram/ Kona 3 card
Cal Digit 4 TB media drive -
15 Replies
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Paul,
This question have been answered here tree millions times.
Important is that you set “Frame Control: ON” and the resizing filter BETTER or BEST.
About the GOPs an that, if your program is 40 minutes and have only one audio channel, you may set Sort/Open GOPs and rise the Average data rate to 7,5 (7,7) and Max data rate 8,5 or so.
Rise the data rate of the AC3 over 300 Kbps. Great soung.
You may try to push more those values. I haven’t tried for me works great for short programs.
Best,
rafael -
[paul colin] “The final product will be a SD DVD”
Then just take your HD show into compressor.
#42 – Quick and dirty way to author a DVD
Shane’s Stock Answer #42 – David Roth Weiss’ Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:
The absolute simplest way to make a DVD using FCP and DVDSP is as follows:
1. Export a QT movie, either a reference file or self contained using current settings.
2. Open DVDSP, select the “graphical” tab and you will see two little monitors, one blue, one green.
3. Select the left blue one and hit delete.
4. Now, select the green one, right click on it amd select the top option “first play”.
5. Now drag your QT from the broswer and drop it on top of the green monitor.
6. Now, for a DVD from an HD source, look to the right side and select the “general tab” in the track editor, and see the Display Mode, and select “16:9 pan-scan.”
7. Hit the little black and yellow burn icon at the top of the page and put a a DVD in when prompted. DVDSP will encode and burn your new DVD.
THATS ALL!!!
NOW…if you want a GOOD LOOKING DVD, instead of taking your REF movie into DVD SP, instead take it into Compressor and choose the BEST QUALITY ENCODE (2 pass VBR) that matches your show timing. Then take THAT result into DVD SP and follow the rest of the steps. Except you can choose “16:9 LETTERBOX” instead of PAN & SCAN if you want to see the entire image.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
“Sort/Open GOPs and rise the Average data rate to 7,5 (7,7) and Max data rate 8,5 or so”
Thanks Rafael,
I am familiar with the quality settings. But I was asking about the GOP settings: GOP structure/GOP size/OPEN or CLOSED found under the GOP tab.
I don’t know whether changing GOP will affect image quality.
That was the essence of my question.Thanks again for your help!
Best,
Paul -
Shane,
Thanks for your speedy reply.
I was asking whether there is a trick to choosing something special in the GOP settings in Compressor under the GOP settings tab.
Is there?
Best,
Paul -
[paul colin] ” was asking whether there is a trick to choosing something special in the GOP settings in Compressor under the GOP settings tab. “
NO clue…what GOP settings?
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
In my experience I have gotten the best results with these settings.
IBBP
Closed GOP
size 15MPG files for DVD need to be closed. Stand alone MPGs(muxed with sound) should be open.
IBBP is the best setting for compression.
Brad
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Thank you Brad.
That’s the info I was looking for. And in your experience will this be the best setting for files originating as HD?Thanks again and best,
Paul -
Hi Shane,
There is a tab in the inspector labeled GOP. Under that tab there are settings: GOP structure, GOP size and Open or closed radio buttons.
That’s what I was referring to.
Thanks,
Paul -
Paul,
15 frame IBBP GOPs are going to give you the best quality for either SD or HD
.
I have never compressed MPGs for DVD without using IBBP. I can’t think of an application for DVD that would call for anything but IBBP if you want it to look as good as possible.I don’t usually compress GOPs at less than fifteen but I know experts play with GOP size and data rates to compress the most footage and have it look the best. I’ve have never delved in it that far but I think it is usually done by people using really expensive hardware encoders.
Brad
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GOP setting doesn’t have that much to do with quality. So you are worrying about the wrong thing. I never mess with it.
From 1080i 40 minutes the best (and FASTEST) codec settings are,
For the Field Dominance – Keep it as UPPER (this may sound wrong but since your source is UPPER it will play correctly in SD.
Encode: CBR 7.5 Mbps (when you are this high it is a waste of time to use VBR and high VBR rates can and will cause playback problems on DVD-R. This is also greatly speed up the encode. This is a win-win for you, better and faster.
There is normally no need to turn on Frames for downconverting but you may want to do a test both ways. Frames is a time killer.
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