• Compression Techniques

  Compressing and Uniform archival footage with different Aspect Ratio for same FCP Timeline

  Posted by Carlos Lerias on February 14, 2013 at 2:52 pm

  Hi there!

  Wondering what the best workflow would be for bringing a fair amount of mixed archival material into our project’s to make a video to be viewed online in my client webpage

  Sources/formats of the material are numerous… Canon Mark2, Canon 7D and Panasonic DVX110B (mini DV tape material that I already have digitized).

  The specs of different videos I have are:

  #1 Canon Mark2 – Frame Size: 1920×1080 Frame Rate: 23.98 Compressor: Apple Pro Res 422 (LT) Data Rate: 8.6MB/sec Pixel Aspect: Square Anamorphic: No Field Dominance: None

  #2 Panasonic DVX110B – Frame Size:_720x480 Frame Rate:_29.97 Compressor:_DV/DVCPRO-NTSC Data Rate:_6.9MB/sec Pixel Aspect:_NTSC-CCIR 601 Anamorphic:_YES Field Dominance:_Lower (even)

  #3 Panasonic DVX110B – Frame Size:_960x540 Frame Rate:_29.97 Compressor:_H.264 Data Rate:_476.4 K/sec Pixel Aspect:_Square Anamorphic:_None Field Dominance:_None

  #4 Canon 7D – Frame Size:_1920x1080 Frame Rate:_23.98 Compressor:_H.264 Data Rate:_5.5MB/sec Pixel Aspect:_Square Anamorphic:_None Field Dominance:_None

  Mpeg streamclip is able to recompress everything to ProRes but I’m curious how to make an uniform aspect ratio without distorting any of the footage?

  Any advice appreciated.

  Carlos Lérias simões replied 13 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Jeff Greenberg

  March 15, 2013 at 12:14 pm

  This is both an editorial question and a compression question.

  I’d ask; what size you’d like the video to be on the webpage;

  I’d probably recommend 23.98 960×540; explanation follows.

  Few (if any) clients are going to view your video in full 1080; all your 1080 is 23.98.
  But it’d make sense, given the mix to show off the HD and yet, not scale up the SD (the 480 content) too much.

  I think your best bet is 960×540 – 1/4 1080 size, still ‘higher’ than standard definition (therefore it’s HD, even if it’s not a broadcast matching HD.)

  #1 scaled down (looks great)
  #2 Scaled up slightly, needs deinterlacing/frame cadence (your NLE should do the frame cadence)
  #3 Matches, just needs some frame cadence adjustments/deinterlace
  #4 See #1.

  The other details depend on your editorial tool.

  Best,

  Jeff I. Greenberg
  Author/Master Instructor/Speaker/Consulting
  My contact info and more
• 

  Carlos Lérias simões

  March 20, 2013 at 9:15 pm

  Thank you so much for the advice.

  I have followed your advice and it still looks pretty good!

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