How should I export for best quality?

[Jared Smith]

is this for DVD or online?
when I upload to vimeo I use Compressor and under “apple devices” I use Apple TV and it does great for the vimeo upload…
then for DVDs I still use Compressor and just use one of the DVD lengths (like 90, 120, 150 minute) in Best Quality

[Charles House]

I need to send two scenes to a digital effects editor who uses After Effects. As long as it’s an MOV file, he can use it.

[Richard Keating]

As long as its true that “if it’s an MOV, he can use it”, meaning he has all the codecs on his machine that you have on yours, then outputting a Self-Contained reference movie would be ideal. Trouble is, if your timeline is, say, ProRes422 and he doesn’t have the ProRes codec on his machine, then it won’t work.

Richard Keating
Editor, Co-Creator of ScreenLight
“Painless Video Review and Approval”
http://www.screenlight.tv

[Charles House]

I think I’ve found the issue, but I’m unsure.

We shot almost everything in 24p. When I imported, I let it auto-detect the capture settings. It captured at 30fps. I edited the entire film at 30fps. I’m starting to feel like this is a mistake.

[Wilmar Luna]

Charles,

It definitely sounds like you’re having frame rate inconsistency with your projects. Anytime there’s things like ghosting and horizontal lines, you could be:

1.) Exporting at the wrong frame rate.
2.) Exporting in the wrong field order.

In DV you have to start your export with Lower Field first, while with Progressive you need to start the export with Upper field selected first.

Also, unless the After Effects guy has Final Cut installed, using the Apple Pro Res Codec or the DVPRO HD codecs. It will not play on any machines without Final Cut installed, or money spent on codecs to play the appropriate files.

[Charles House]

If they were imported at the wrong frame rate, can I fix them without re-importing? I have probably 20 hours, and hundreds of cuts, in the project.

Take a look at these samples of what I mean. These are without the deinterlacing done, so this is what it would look like if I did “to quicktime.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSorL3UgVvk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te71gHz_dfY

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[Walter Soyka]

[Wilmar Luna] “Also, unless the After Effects guy has Final Cut installed, using the Apple Pro Res Codec or the DVPRO HD codecs. It will not play on any machines without Final Cut installed, or money spent on codecs to play the appropriate files.”

Quicktime now includes a free ProRes decoder on both Mac and PC. If for any reason you cannot update to the latest version of Quicktime, there are standalone ProRes decoders for Mac and Windows for older versions of Quicktime. ProRes encoding requires FCP, you as you noted.

Any After Effects artist should be able to import ProRes media, though they may not be able to return ProRes media.

Like you said, there are no free DVCPRO HD codecs. You’d need either the DVCPRO HD codec installed with FCP, or a compatible codec Raylight DVCPRO HD or Calibrated DVCPRO HD.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Charles House] “If they were imported at the wrong frame rate, can I fix them without re-importing? I have probably 20 hours, and hundreds of cuts, in the project.”

Was your entire project shot at 24p, but you captured and edited at 29.97, or do you have mixed frame rates?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Charles House]

It’s 720×480 DV standard.

I did auto-detect for the import settings, and it imported everything to be edited at at 30fps. I don’t intend to do Blu-Ray or make a film output, that’s just silly for such a low-budget film.

Everything was shot on the same DVX100A, a few times early on we flipped over to one of the other settings, but I don’t think we used any of those shots, anyway. Nothing came out at a mismatched frame rate, everything imported to be edited at 30fps. Until I started noticing this very subtle banding/interlacing (every 4 frames) when I watched it full-size, I never noticed any issues wiht the image, and I’ve worked with it every day for at least 3 months.

[Walter Soyka]

[Charles House] “Everything was shot on the same DVX100A, a few times early on we flipped over to one of the other settings, but I don’t think we used any of those shots, anyway. Nothing came out at a mismatched frame rate, everything imported to be edited at 30fps. Until I started noticing this very subtle banding/interlacing (every 4 frames) when I watched it full-size, I never noticed any issues wiht the image, and I’ve worked with it every day for at least 3 months.”

This is called pulldown, and it’s how video devices display 24fps material (really 23.976p) at 30fps (really 29.97i).

The problem with editing this way is that you break the pulldown cadence; your pulldown will run 3:2 within any one shot, but not across the entire media.

You can either laboriously remove the pulldown from all your clips and conform your 29.97 edit to 24p, or you can try running the finished product through Compressor with frame controls on, and Deinterlace set to Reverse Telecine, and hope that it correctly detects your broken cadences.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events