Mpeg-2 custom sizes>Is this possible in FCP/Compressor?

[Daniel_l]

Assuming you don’t have either an HD-DVD or BluRay burner/player: Output to standard def PAL or NTSC and leave the plasma’s built-in scaler to do the rest.

For a list of MPEG-2 suppoted frame sizes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-2

Video AllSorts

[Michelle Weiss]

Thanks,

That answers my question, NO it is not possible to enter a “custom” size frame, YES it will still display correctly on my plasma. I think if I export it as HD1080i it will be the best (as my original footage is shot in 1080i), but I will experiment with a few different frame sizes and bit rates to see which gives the best quality vs file size!

Thanks again for your help,
Michelle

[Daniel_l]

Encoding at 1080i does not really make any sense if your display is 1366×768 as it will be scaling down the frame size and you’ll have wasted a whole bunch of bytes.

DL

Video AllSorts

[Charles Simonson]

Being that Compressor won’t do a proper 1080i to 720p conversion, I would recommend that you encode to 1080i. Especially if this will be displayed at 63″. I assume you will be playing this back from a computer, so bit rate really isn’t an issue. Just use what ever max bit rate you can afford to be able to play back in realtime on your system.

Most likely, that plasma display is going to deinterlace the vertical resolution of 1080i first to 540p, and then it will scale the horizontal and vertical resolutions to match its native resolution. If Compressor could do a proper 1080i29.97 to 720p59.94 (converting each field to a progressive frame while scaling), then encoding 720p would be recommended, but since it does not, I would stay with 1080i.

[Michelle Weiss]

Thanks for the suggestions,

Once I get my test screen back (in a week) I can begin to test this properly again! I’ll do a few versions and see what looks best on the screen, but yes, I am playing from a computer via DVi cable, so the file size is important (as files will be transferred over intranet connection), but not THAT important.. if that makes sense. What I mean is I’m willing to sacrifice a bigger file size to attain a better quality, to a degree.

[Charles Simonson]

Also, you will need to make note of what the maximum resolution the pc can put out to the display. Even though the display’s resolution is 1366×768, most of the time for HDTVs the max they can read from a computer is 1280×768. My Samsung is like this, no matter the connection type used. (Even though the computer resolution to the display is only 1280×768, the picture is displayed correctly and there are no black bars on the sides.)

[Michelle Weiss]

Yes, I did have some issues with this when I first started, but now it works just fine, the computer recognizes the res of the display and it’s just peachy 🙂 Monday or Tuesday my display is promised. we’ll wait and see!