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Overall Video Quality Poor On Export, Deadline Approaching Fast!!!
Dear Any and ALL users,
I have been working on a video for a marketing DVD. The footage is all 1080i60 HDV. My Sequence preset is set to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ); Capture Preset was set to HDV-Apple ProRes 422; The meta data for the clips after being digitized are 1440 x 1080, 29.97, Apple ProRes422 Compressor. I also have a quick slide show and the images are Photo JPEG 2816 x 1880, square pixels. Everything looks beautiful within FCP, the video, the photos, and even the text and images I created in Photoshop.
I exported the movie for use in DVDSP using compressor. I just used the standard DVD Best Quality 90 Minute settings.
When I made my DVD with the menu and everything, burned it to a disc, and then played it through a set top player, the video was no where near as crisp, the images were pixelated as was the text. Even the text I used directly within DVDSP for the buttons.
Why is this happening? How can I fix it? I’m getting so many options online and can’t seem to find a solution.
Thank you for your time and consideration!!
Scott
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8 Replies
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Was your footage shot on the Sony EX? If so export as a self contained QT and import that into DVDSP
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The footage was shot on the Sony HDR-FX5 or variation of that model. Not a Sony EX camera. I have also tried self contained and reference. Quality is still poor.
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Not sure about your video quality, as it seems to be a good workflow. However, text created in DVDSP will look terrible! Menus, buttons, text, backgrounds, etc….should be made in Photoshop for stills or Motion/AfterEffects for motion assets.
Content creation is not DVDSP strong point – as well it shouldn’t since it is an authoring environment. Why Apple even allows these options is beyond me. (In all their other ventures – if it doesn’t work in a nice, beautiful, easy way the feature isn’t even implemented.)
Tech-T Productions
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The video quality is fine, not as pretty on my mac working with the footage, but that is the least of my concern.
I guess a main concern are the still images. The pixelation that occurs makes the images look as if they were tiny and then blown up. In actuality they are hd photos as the aspect ratio is posted earlier. I guess I will just have to make the menu in Photoshop…was trying to avoid that just for time.
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If you convert the footage to “Apple ProRes422” why are you using an (HQ) sequence setting.
You can down-convert the footage in FCP by dropping it onto a SD timeline. Keep frame rate and compressor codec the same.
Or when you take the HD QT export into Compressor turn on Frame Control and set to best (will take a lot longer to encode) If your money is under 90 minutes change the Encoding mode to CBR and set it to 6.5 Mbps. (this will short the time to encode).
All in all you need to do short test and burn to a disc.
Building menus in DVDSP sucks, especially when you use the text for highlights, build them in Photoshop or Motion. There are a number of threads in the DVDSP forum on using the correct size for menus.
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You do realise that the DVD will never look as good as your Final Cut Pro edit, don’t you? DVD is a standard definition format – just over 500 lines of resolution. Your footage was shot HD – over 1000 lines of resolutiion. There is no way of getting around this (unless you make a BluRay).
Also if you are viewing the DVD on an HD television the quality can be made worse depending on the upscaling system in the television.
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
Yes, I am perfectly aware that it will never look as good, but the still images are going to be the main issue.
I will try the idea of putting the HD sequence into a SD sequence and maybe that will solve all the issues.
But why are the still images looking so bad when put onto DVD?
Do I have to go through the painstaking process of taking each photo into photoshop and scaling down the image to a SD size? Will that take care of the jagginess that is happening?
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[Scott Jacobs] “I will try the idea of putting the HD sequence into a SD sequence and maybe that will solve all the issues.”
My experience is that down scaling in FCP is terrible. Makes everything soft. Best bet is to play with frame control settings in Compressor.
As Michael said, your sequence settings should be the same as the clip codec. Perhaps you should make a new sequence in ProRes 422 and copy you timeline in that. Make a self contained quicktime movie using current settings and take that in Compressor and tweak.
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