1080i to Compressed on a PC HOW?

[Michael Gissing]

If it is going to be a flash then deinterlace. Flash is not normally displayed on an interlaced monitor so deinterlacing makes it computer monitor friendly.

[Rafael Amador]

You are not making a good choice with those codecs. H264 is great for delivering but not for re-editing (in the end is like an improved MPG2). Animation will yield files bigger than the 10b Unc.
We don’t you just put your footage in a DVCPro50 time-line in FC? Careful with the field order, set Rendering in 10b and Motion rendering to “best”. I’ve been downconverting HD footage like that and the SD clips looks great.
You can use as well the Blackmagic codecs or MJPG or so. Then the files can be open in a PC.

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE

[Tom Brooks]

You need to deinterlace for Flash. I would recommend PhotoJPEG at 75 or 100%. Compressor’s frame controls allow very good deinterlacing, but the time to compress is long. You might try deinterlacing in Final Cut to see how it compares. Squeeze’s deinterlace is pretty rough. MPEG Streamclip can also do a good job of making a PhotoJPEG deinterlaced intermediate.

[Jeff Coleman]

Thanks for the replies.

Blackmagic codecs. I guess I can download them from their website and transcode from my Apple 10bit?

Flash deinterlace. That makes sense. I’ll check with them to make sure they don’t have any other edit needs before they finish in Flash. I’ll try deinterlacing in FCP. But I don’t see how that’s going to help with those jaggy edges. If it’s field order, then to try and force Compressor to pick a field order it also wants to deinterlace which was unworkably long. A five second clip was going to take 2 hours on a clustered MacIntel! I’ve got four five-minute clips to process.

PhotoJPEG – can a PC read that?

Rafael, they’ve asked for 1280×720 compressed. Not SD. And they’ve asked for it in a codec that a PC can read via After Effects. I don’t think DVCPro50 and standard def meet those requirements. I’d give them a flash file, but they’ve come to me as a service bureau to give them a file they can work with. I just can’t figure out what kind of file would work. I’m wondering if their is something wrong with the compression or is this just state of the art?

Look at some screen grabs of the original and the resultant H.264 (the animation codec has the same jaggies on the edges. Look at the edge of the car and their clothes, etc.)

https://www.countdownvideoproductions.com/jaggies.html

Graeme where are you?

[Tom Brooks]

The H.264 does look horrible. The “jaggies” on original are obviously normal interlacing as you’d expect. I don’t call that “jaggies” but “comb” or “mouse teeth.” On the H.264, it’s much worse and that “zippered” effect looks like reversed field order interlaced. That’s a guess, since I can’t analyze your whole work flow. Something is wrong in your compression settings to get that result.

PhotoJPEG is a standard Quicktime codec, supplied with the player on both Mac and Windows. It’s a lossy codec, but at 100% it is visually lossless. H.264 is not an ideal choice for an intermediate between your original and Flash because it’s too much compression. Search out posts on the Compression Techniques forum. You’ll find mention of PhotoJPEG.

The key to quality in this case is getting the footage deinterlaced in the best way you can. FCP will simply throw away a field, halving your resolution. Other deinterlacing plug-ins for FCP will do a somewhat better job. Compressor can do a really good job, but at the cost of time. If you experiment with the quality settings, you might get it to look OK with a faster encode.

[Rafael Amador]

If you are making movies for a web site you need deinterlace because clips smaller than 300 pixels (more or less) do not support interlacing. So you make a good de-interlacing which parameters you can control (in FC or Compressor) or you let the application that is compressing (ie QT) make a de-interlacing that you don’t control.
If you send something to Compressor from the FC time-lne, Compressor will keep the field order of the FC’s sequence unless you tell him to change it.
If you de-interlace in FC you need to set the field order of the sequence to NONE.
I agree with Tom about the “Jagged borders”. You are capturing a field from your computer screen. That is nt a valid refference.
That the DVCPro50 is a SD codec doesn’t mean that you can not set a diffeernt size. I guess that with a number of lines that keeps the compression blocks can work.
I think that PhotoJPEG is supported by QT in PC. . At 100% quality (I disagree with Tom here) is RGB (files 3 times smaller than Animation, although not Alpha channel). At 75% probably is the best YCrCb 8b codec (off course with out counting the 8b Unc odecs0..

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE

[Tom Brooks]

[rafael amador] “I think that PhotoJPEG is supported by QT in PC. . At 100% quality (I disagree with Tom here) is RGB (files 3 times smaller than Animation, although not Alpha channel).”

You are right Rafael. I did not address the color space issue with PhotoJPEG 100%. However, since the Flash animation will be operating in the RGB color space, this seems like a good choice. If you need alpha channel, there’s always PNG. So, Rafael, which codec would be your absolute first choice in this situation?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Tom,
People keep using Animation because the Alpha channel. But today with so many people working in 10b, Animation has got old fashioned.
I spent few years ago some 100 bucks in Sheer. I think have been one of my best investments.

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE

[Tom Brooks]

Sheer was ahead of it’s time. I don’t have it yet, but I’m finding several uses for it now.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Tom,
Don’t hesitate to get it. Is a pity that the people don’t know about Sheer because is the solution many people are looking for (Uncompress yielding small files, both platforms, 8/10b, RGB/YCrCb and always an Alpha channel available). And the people who develop it (BitJazz) are really helpful.

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE