best method for downscaling from hd to sd

[Kati Haapamäki]

The story continues…

So I didn’t find a proper tool for HD to SD downconversion. I went deep and started to study more. I ended up writing own plugin and went even deeper… But now I am back and I am back with a brand new plugin for After Effects 🙂

I want to believe this plugin beats many commercial software scalers. But you can find out for yourself, because I am giving it away FOR FREE! 😉

Plugin can be downloaded from my site https://sites.google.com/site/katisvideotoolbox/smooth-bspline-scaler. There’s some test images and other information about it.

It’s Pixel Bender code and works only with CS5+ on both Mac and Windows (There’s is tiny possibility that it could work also in CS4 but I have not tested).

Kati Haapamäki

Ps. Because this is FCP X forum, I must remind that FCP X does very decent downscaling. There’s no need of doing round trip to AE. Upscaling may be a different case tho..

[James Bayliss-smith]

Hi I’m coming to this a bit late but I was wondering if compressor 4.1 has changed any of your advice? I only have FCPX and compressor. It seems that FCPX does a good job according to Kati. Should I still have a HD timeline then export to SD using compressor presets or shall I just Edit in an SD timeline? Cheers I’ll do some tests but I’d be interested in your thoughts. I have to deliver to mp4

[Em Arun]

hello everyone,

also you could try these settings in compressor to achieve better results

1. export 1920×1080 apple prores 422 hq movie file from FCPX
2. then use the following settings to downconvert HD to SD sizes with good results

File Extension: mov
Estimated size:
Time remapping:
source frames play at 25.000 fps
Audio Encoder
16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
Video Encoder
Width: 720
Height: 405
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop to: Letterbox area of source
Padding: Preserve source aspect ratio
(L: 0, T: 0, R: 0, B: 0)
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Selected: 25
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
Multi-pass: Off, frame reorder: Off
No gamma correction
Interlaced (top field first)
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 0
Temporal quality: 0
Min. temporal quality: 0
and also with deinterlace in filters/video set accordingly

it worked for me may be it will work for others too.