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H.264 Pro not pro?
So after getting feedback from my last post, it appears that the h.264 Pro does NOT allow a data rate of higher than 20Mbps and does NOT support 1080i (60i)? Can anyone verify this is true or not? If the encoding it does is LESS than HDV it would seem pointless for me to get one and use it to bypass my camera’s HDV compression, and have this encode it in AVCHD….anyone able to help me with this? I REALLY cannot afford to buy a $500 paperweight!
Thanks in advance!Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
5 Replies
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Hi Scott,
If you’re trying to bypass your camera’s HDV compression, or go from HDV to a more “edit friendly” codec, then H.264 Pro Recorder is probably not the right product for you.
You’re simply going from MPEG2 to MPEG4, both which are not recommended as an editing codec.
regards
Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design -
I am not worried about the editing codec…I am interested in the picture quality..in my research, HDV has some limitations that AVCHD does not. This product is supposed to do 4.2.2 vs 4 2.0 on HDV and several other concerns as well. I shoot 5-7 cameras live and need something that is easier that like the BM Intesity and such (I use that at the studio)….
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
So I can verify that the ProRecorder at this time does not do interlaced. If you feed it 1080i59.94 it will give you 1080p29.97.
This is something we’d like to add but we don’t have any time frame on this currently.
As for the codec. This is a more subtle point. HDV and H.264 are two different compression types. MPEG2 vs MPEG4. And H.264 is far more complex of a compression algorithm. What does that mean for real people? It means that it requires less data rate to achieve the same video quality. So you could expect that H.264 at 20Mb/s to look better than HDV at 25Mb/s. Okay, then, so what’s the downside? It’s more complex, so it’s even more cumbersome to edit with than HDV. This is why Kristian mentioned that neither are really preferred formats for editing.
MPEG2 and MPEG4 are widely considered delivery formats (mostly because they’re a pain to edit), both can be used in Blu-ray, but MPEG4 is more widely used because it is significantly smaller. But it require a bit more horsepower to decode.
I hope that helps clarify.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc. -
This is EXACTLY what I needed to know!! Thank you so much!! I will look into the H.264 pro now. I am trying to switch over to AVCHD and want to keep my current HDV cam and bypass the compression. I re-encode with neoscene anyway, so there is no real issue with editing. I am not so worried about it turning progressive either, as long as I can feed it 1080i….so looks like it may be what I am looking for…thanks again so much!
RegardsScott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
No problem at all.
Sincerely,
Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.
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