Best Render / Export settings AVCHD

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Where are you delivering to?

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

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[Courtney Hobbs]

Hey Angelo
The outputs are for a multiple of things, small projection included. But when we watch it back just on the desktop it just doesnt come out as clear and as sharp as we had hoped or have seen other people produce.
Thanks !

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I need more detail. Right now it’s like saying “I put gas in my car but it won’t start”.

What are any/all of the output settings you are dissatisfied with? Can you post a clear HD video you feel is a “benchmark” in terms of clarity?

First thing is are you watching your videos at 100% or streched to full screen? iMac screens are larger than 1920×1080 so everything will be scaled up. Scaling up = loss of sharpness. Also viewing video on your computer is not like viewing a video on your HDTV where your TV may employ software to enhance sharpness and contrast. Contrast increases apparent edge sharpness.

The choice of export format and the codec used to encode that format will also have a bearing as they will all do image prefiltering differently. Using Premiere or Media Encoder, exporting with Apple’s h.264 codec in the MOV container is lower quality than exporting h.264 as it’s own option because the latter uses the better MainConcept’s h.264 codec. Their codec also allows for 2-pass encoding which can improve sharpness. These are bested still by exporting uncompressed from Premiere and using a commandline tool like FFMPEG to encode h.264 with The x264 codec. All of these codecs (pieces of software code) all produce an h.264 video, but with varying degrees of quality.

Some people choose to slightly over sharpen their full program knowing that it will go to a video site that will re-encode and lose a level of sharpness.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks
Can your post production question fit in a tweet? Follow me on Twitter

[George Kalogeris]

Just a quick question,
isn’t there a preset in AME that could use less render ?
my camcorder is AVCHD 1080p NEX-EA50

[George Kalogeris]

anybody? AVCHD is interlaced 1080i

Should we export to 1080p ? or is it the same blurry image into another framerate…
Should I choose 1080p, 1080i, or 720p ? (regarding Quality AND Rendering Time)

[Devrim Akteke]

In my experience, you can never know. Videos with pans are always risky in an interlaced world. There are too many codecs and displays. It might look good on one display and bad on another. Most displays are progressive today, so it looks better to convert to 1080p. You should select the deinterlacing option when exporting to see minimum damage. And CBR.