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Poor quality SD render from HD project
I’m hoping to improve the results of the quality of my down conversion from an HD project to an SD file, so I can include closed captions without losing quality.
I shoot XDCam HD. I edit on an HP xw8600 running Windows 7 (64-bit) with Adobe CS4, using the Matrox Axio LE hardware. I produce 30 second spots and have been delivering letterboxed 4:3 beta tapes to most of the local stations. I usually play out to beta from the Matrox HD timeline through component, down converting via my playback settings. The quality is amazing, for SD.
To include closed captions, I’m using the Adobe Media Encoder to export my HD sequence, down converting it to SD and then importing it back into my project and putting it on an SD Matrox sequence.
Then I export an mov file to CaptionMaker. Once I’ve timed all my captions, I export an mov black movie. In Premiere I add the black movie to the SD Matrox sequence, with the line 21 data and throw a garbage matte on it.
Playing out from the SD sequence looks fuzzy. Apparently the Adobe Media Encoder is not using the Matrox hardware to down convert the HD sequence to an SD file. And I’ve tried every possible SD file type; mpeg2, avi, Matrox avi, uncompressed, mov. They are all very fuzzy compared to just playing out to tape from the HD sequence.
I have not tried playing out from the HD sequence to beta, then capturing that. I’m really hoping to avoid such a ridiculous workflow.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there something I’m missing that I should be doing?
Thank you for any input,
Justin Freeman
Alaska State Troopers
Visual Information SpecialistStory Rock Media
Owner -
5 Replies
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Hi Justin,
First and foremost, make sure that “Maximum Quality” is selected. In CS4 you had to go through a little contextual menu on the right side in the export panel. I think I have noticed some improvement in CS5 as well, but it could just be a placebo effect 🙂
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Hi Justin,
As Vince says, try the Maximum Quality button. Aside from that, a workflow I’ve used for a few years with Matrox RT.X2 is to export my HD sequence to a Matrox .avi file using the Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame codec, then put that in the Matrox SD timeline for export to DVD. It seems you have already tried that and are not happy with the results, but it has been good for me so maybe there is a setting wrong somewhere in the mix?
Choose “Microsoft AVI” as the format, then choose “Matrox NTSC 16×9” for the preset, and you can further adjust settings under Video tab. Check that the codec is “Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame”, and increase data rate perhaps (default is 25Mbps) under the “Codec settings”. When I export to Matrox codec, I am not using the Max Quality button.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thank you Vince and Jeff for your timely suggestions.
I tried selecting Maximum Quality Render to no avail. It looked the same. I also tried increasing the bit rate to 50Mbps before I ever posted to the forum. That didn’t help.
However, after explaining my efforts to a local colleague, he suggested the solution. Apparently we should have been applying Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation is more likely the correct one.
I simply nested the HD sequence in the SD sequence and scaled it down. Viola! Talk about a simple workflow. And it looks great. It’s still not quite as good as playing out from the HD sequence. But it looks worlds better than what I was getting with all my other efforts.
Thanks again guys,
Justin Freeman
Alaska State Troopers
Visual Information SpecialistStory Rock Media
Owner -
i have similiar problems 2 would like to know why as well
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Thanks for posting your solution!
-jeff
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