Episode help for DG Fast Channel encoding

[Bill Nelson]

just sent a test using your settings this evening. We’ll see how we do!

[Carl Varney]

Mr. Seeman,

You seem to be about the only person I’ve found who has successfully uploaded files to DGFastchannel. I have been going through this nightmare for the last week, myself. I am using Final Cut Pro Studio 2 and Episode 4.2.2. Though I did persuade one of the Fastchannel dropbox support techs to review the Episode settings with me step by step, my video continues to be “pixelated”.

I am trying some new tests using settings derived from your postings here… While I await those results, my questions to you are:

1. Were you able to successfully update your Episode 4.1 settings to Episode 4.2.2 and pass Fastchannel certification?

2. If I’m interpreting the posts in this forum correctly, it would seem that Fastchannel USED to accept video at 720×480. Now, the only acceptable size is 720×512! To my mind, this would certainly account for a lot of potential weirdness in the final file. Have you successfully encoded video at that size and passed certification using Episode?

If you could share any additional info on this topic, you would be my hero and I’ll recommend that DGFastchannel put you on retainer (since none of their techs seem able to solve my problems)

Thanks

Carl Varney
Image Associates

[Carl Varney]

I made a mistake in my last message. I am using Episode 4.4.1.
Sorry for the error.

Carl Varney
Image Associates

[Christian Mcilwain]

I’m having the exact same problem as Mr. Varney. I just purchased episode yesterday, trying to get up to speed with DG.

I’m not getting as far as Carl, though. I’m using the setting described above. But it seems that something I’m doing is blowing everything up. When I encode from a preset, everything’s fine. But when I initiate the settings above, my encode comes out as just a white screen. Audio is fine. Video is a polar bear in a blizzard. Any thoughts? I’m not even sure which preset I should be starting with? 7mbit? I-Frames?

[Carl Varney]

Mr. McIlwain,

This is something I may be able to help you with.

Are you opening the mpg files in Quicktime Player? I think I had the same white screen when I did that the first time. I haven’t tried using the QT MPEG Playback component, though. It’s possible it could solve the problem.

Try opening the files with VLC. Mine display fine there. But I will warn you that even if they look great in VLC, it’s no guarantee that they will pass certifcation on Fastchannel. As one tech told me, “VLC and others are far more forgiving than our hardware”.

Carl Varney
Image Associates

[Craig Seeman]

[Carl Varney] “1. Were you able to successfully update your Episode 4.1 settings to Episode 4.2.2 and pass Fastchannel certification? “

Yes, but you should be on Episode 4.4.1 now.

[Carl Varney] “. If I’m interpreting the posts in this forum correctly, it would seem that Fastchannel USED to accept video at 720×480. Now, the only acceptable size is 720×512! To my mind, this would certainly account for a lot of potential weirdness in the final file. Have you successfully encoded video at that size and passed certification using Episode? “

Yes they used to accept 720×480. They now want 720×512. I thought “padding out” letter box would work . . . easy to do in Episode . . . but NO, they want the black to be on the top only (vertical interval blanking of sorts).

I’m going to test a work around but it may be a bit awkward.

[Craig Seeman]

Quicktime does not like MPEG2 Program streams. VLC does. Good playback in VLC doesn’t ensure DG certification but at least you can see what your compression looks like.

[Craig Seeman]

I had settings that worked when DG used 720×480 and distributed them to many people. If they are allowing you to use 720×480, I can get you those settings. If they require you to deliver at 720×512, you’re going to bump into a few issues. I’m experimenting with that.

[Christian Mcilwain]

Thanks for the tip on QT.

DGFC is requiring 720×512.

Which preset are you using as your starting point?

[Christian Mcilwain]

VLC did solve my white screen problem. Thanks for your help. The strange thing is that QT played my files just fine if I compressed from a preset, without changing any settings. Change anything, though, and I got the white screen.