-
Compressing your rough cut
I’m a little confused about compression and the final output of your work.
I have a Sony Z1 HD camera which has just shot a documentary. The lenght of the doco will be about 45-60min and It was shot in 1080/50i at 25 frames p/s.
I have captured the footage in its original form with HDlink/cineform in mt2 format. The rough cut has been finalised using adobe premiere cs3 on windows platform. The doco has been funded and hence it needs to look as proffesional as possible. The final output of the film will be transferred to DVD for distribution and have a screening at a smallish cinema.
Now my problem is what compressor or file format am i to use for my final product. I have tried all the default formats ( MOV, AVI, MPEG ) with all the default compressors in adobe premiere but the quality seems to be poor for a proffesional documentary.
Is it meant to be exported as normal then put through a 3rd party compressor like Sorensen ? Or is there an industry standard one for doco’s and films ? Is it meant to be compressed at all ? I have looked on the web but they all the info is on web banners and smaller clips.
ANY HELP WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED ??
thanks in advance -
11 Replies
-
If it’s going out on DVD then it needs to be MPEG-2 in order to play on standard DVD players.
A dedicated encoding application like Squeeze or even better, Episode from Telestream should be able to produce great looking output.
Sadly it won’t look as good as the original whatever you do, as you’ll being going from HD to SD.
__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free! -
Thank You Daniel for your response, much appreciated.
I will have an in depth look at those applications you have mentioned. Just a quick one, what if i was to compress the film to Blue Ray then would the output look close to the original ? Is this not like HD on DVD ?
I need something which is going to provide the best possible output in terms of picture and sound quality, i was reading on the internet that H264 compressor was the best going around is this not true ?
THanks
Alper
Melbourne / Australia -
Indeed, BluRay can be much better than DVD, if encoded correctly you wouldn’t notice any drop in quality from your original. However authoring a BluRay disc is no where near as easy or cheap as authoring a DVD.
In addition not as many people own BluRay players as they do DVD players.
I know many people how can’t tell the difference between a well authored DVD and a mediocre BluRay when viewed on a typical domestic HD flatscreen.
__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free! -
The one you have recommended “telestreams EPISODE PRO” is at $995 but it seems to be a very high end product that will deliver high quality results, do you agree, is it something you have used?
As we are prepared to pay whatever it takes to have the final product looking as proffesional it can be, what do you suggest i try in terms of DVD authoring and Blue Ray Authoring as it seems i will make copies of both?
Also if the final product isto be viewed on cinema then you would hand in your blu ray copy to the cinema and they would play on the big screen through a digital projector is that correct ?
Thanks
Alper -
I don;t think you need the Pro version. I use it all the time and it’s capable of producing some of the best quality output you can get from any transcoder.
As for authoring applications – are you using a Mac or PC?
As for Cinema viewing, you need to discuss that with them directly, it would depend on what facilities they have.
__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free! -
Hello Daniel,
Im using a PC but will be transferring to MAC on future projects. So obviously I need a top end transcoder and a top end DVD authoring software to ensure high quality output.
I though some encoders would come with dvd authoring software, but anyhows if i was to encode using ‘episode’ which DVD authoring software do you suggest for both PC and MAC.. Can you use NERO ?
THanks
Alper -
If you want the best then you should take a look at Sonic Scenarist:
https://www.sonic.com/products/Professional/Scenarist/quicklook.aspx
__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free! -
Hello Daniel,
Thank so much for your help, but i have one more little problem
(there will probably be more to come)In this instance i will be using SONICS Cinevision to encode. Say in premiere i have finished my project and want to encode, how do i get the final cut from PREMIERE to my encoder SONIC CINEVISION (or)EPISODE ?
Obviously you cant export it as an mpeg than re-import it back into your encoder as you will be losing alot of quality. There must be another way ?
THanks
Alper -
Stick with the Cineform format and workflow as outlined here:
https://www.cineform.com/products/TechNotes/CineFormWorkflow0.htm
__________________________________________________________________
Please post back saying what solved your problem. It could help others, and saying ‘thanks’ is free! -
is there any other way, i t doesn’t seem to work that way?
thks alper
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up