Jagged Edges on Scaled Video

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

You must only monitor quality on an external video monitor.

When I scale-down high-rez video, I add the Guassian Blur filter to the clip and key-frame the amount of blur during the “move.”

Add just enough blur to remove the “jaggies” but not enough soften the image to the eye.

[Daxbedell]

I am monitoring on an external monitor. And the video I scale looks jagged. It seems like I shouldn’t have to add blur to make something not look jagged. It’s not just during the move either. If the video is locked in one place but scaled to say 50%, it looks like you put something half res in there and blew it up. All of this on my professional external monitor.

[Daxbedell]

I could do it in after effects, but I just want to put one piece of video on top of another, like Picture in Picture. As soon as I make the video smaller, it gets jagged. And actually, Motion does the same thing. If I scale a clip in Motion, it looks just as bad as if I did it in Final Cut.

[Daxbedell]

My field order is fine, all lower on my captured media and in my timeline. Is there really no one else that has this problem? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

[Daxbedell]

All the jaggedness is on a rendered segment. It actually looks better before I render it if you can believe that. Also all of my render controls are set to 100%. I am stumped as to why this is looking so bad. It looks as if I rendered it at half res.

[Chris Tompkins]

I have the same probs. I too blur slightly to minimize

[Daxbedell]

Thank you for all the advice. While I certainly could do it in After Effects, I feel as if there is something wrong with a setting or something in my system that is causing this problem. Let me go into a bit more detail.

I am trying to do a simple picture in picture effect in a particular sequence. I am using the Kona 3 card and all of my clips were captured using their presets for Uncompressed SD 8bit 4:2:2. In my sequence settings, motion filter quality is set to “best” and all options are checked under the render control tab. Frame rate and resolution are both set to 100% and field dominance is set to Lower(Even). RT is set to Unlimited and everything underneath is set to full quality. When I scale down the video, the bar at the top of the timeline turns green (preview) and it looks pretty okay on playback. When I render that clip, it looks worse than the preview; as if I had rendered it with resolution set to 50% in the sequence settings. One interesting note, if I change my sequence settings to progressive frames (no field dominance) and render the clip again it looks great. But as long as the field dominance is set to something other than none, the scaled video looks terrible. I have tried deleting my preferences and restarting and all that. Totally stumped. Can someone else try this and see if they get similar results. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Dax Bedell
WEDU-TV Tampa, FL

[Daxbedell]

Thank you for all the advice. While I certainly could do it in After Effects, I feel as if there is something wrong with a setting or something in my system that is causing this problem. Let me go into a bit more detail.

I am trying to do a simple picture in picture effect in a particular sequence. I am using the Kona 3 card and monitering on a Panasonic professional LCD broadcast monitor. All of my clips were captured using Kona presets for Uncompressed SD 8bit 4:2:2. In my sequence settings, motion filter quality is set to “best” and all options are checked under the render control tab. Frame rate and resolution are both set to 100% and field dominance is set to Lower(Even). RT is set to Unlimited and everything underneath is set to full quality. When I scale down the video, the bar at the top of the timeline turns green (preview) and it looks pretty okay on playback. When I render that clip, it looks worse than the preview; as if I had rendered it with resolution set to 50% in the sequence settings. One interesting note, if I change my sequence settings to progressive frames (no field dominance) and render the clip again it looks great. But as long as the field dominance is set to something other than none, the scaled video looks terrible. I have tried deleting my preferences and restarting and all that. Totally stumped. Can someone else try this and see if they get similar results. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Dax Bedell
WEDU-TV Tampa, FL

[Jeremy Garchow]

Have you changed position of the clip? If so, go into the Motion tab and make sure that the ‘center’ parameter is sitting on an even scan line. For example, the center parameter might say 200,-101.39. Change the -101.39 to -100 or -102 (something even).

Jeremy

[Bret Williams]

A few things, try setting your motion fx to normal, not best. That has been buggy since version 5 came out. I’ve experience it on an intel with version 5.1.2. I had a graphic that looked sharp as a tack when played back in real time. Rendered it and it went completely blocky.

It was a combinatin of things. It was in a nest, and either the nested sequence or the regular sequence was set to normal or best or something for the motion render prefs. As I flipped the two between settings, trying all combinations, it would occasionally render correctly (unrendering the rest of my timeline of course) so I’d try to duplicate and the same setting would be blocky the next time. Definitely a legitimate bug.

But on any moving or scaled graphic I’ve had horrible results when using best ever since ver 5 was released. Blocky issues, screwy field order, etc. Use normal and give it a shot.

Also check that you’re not rendering at half rez. You used to be able to do that. Not sure if it’s still an option.