Highest Quality Smallest File Size for Red Scarlet Export

[Jason Morehouse]

Hello, just finished editing a 25-minute short shot on Red Scarlet. Was wondering what the best option was for a 1GB and 2GB size export for online screener upload for festivals.

I tried Vimeo HD MP4 and got good results for a one-gig file. But during a scene where there’s static on the television, the whole scene becomes pixelated. Someone told me that MP4 couldn’t handle it.

H264 codec looks great at five gigs but when reduced to 2 gigs, the quality is worse than the MP4 at 1gig. I’m pretty certain I’m doing something wrong.

Any suggestions on best options for 1GB and 2GB size export? A detailed export setting would help. Thanks!

[Chris Borjis]

make sure you use 2-pass vbr at 5mbps
and “best quality” checked and 1280x720P resolution.

That will offer the smallest file size, best quality HD situation
for online viewing.

2-pass encoding should be able to make that scene work.

[Jason Morehouse]

I have it at 2-pass and 5mbps and 1920×1080 but has the same problem.

Can you recommend some export settings that you use? I think it just might be the red footage making it hard to export a smaller file without heavily downgrading. Thanks a bunch.

[Chris Borjis]

anything with “snow” or similar looking will be difficult to encode.
nothing to do with it being RED footage.

try 1280×720 with max 10mbps instead of 5, but keep
the average at 5.

also try single pass vbr. rarely I will get glitches
in 2 pass vbr that I don’t in 1 pass vbr.