Rendering with higher bitrate then source?

[John Rofrano]

[Darren Hugh] “my question is simply if there are any benefits with rendering higher bitrate then what the source file is.”

No. A higher bit-rate will not add anything to the video. It’s just using more bits to represent the same information.

[Darren Hugh] “Ive been shooting with GoPro3 Black Edition 30 mbps, and for some reason I think it looks slightly better or sharper when rendering like 50 mbps. Im not sure if its only my mind playing with me or if it is the case.”

It’s your mind playing tricks on you. As I said, you are just using more bits to represent the same information. There are some codecs that interpolate color information from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 and it’s possible that simply rendering to them will make the video look different, and you may interpret this difference as “better”, but it has nothing to do with bit rates. Rendering to a lower bit rate will loose information, but rendering to a higher one will not “create” information.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Darren Hugh]

Thanks a lot for taking your time replying. Really appreciated.

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome Darren. Hope you found it useful.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Norman Black]

No need to go higher than the source bitrate when staying in the same codec.

GoPro files are AVC. If you are encoding to an MPEG-2 format, then there is a use for a higher bitrate than the GoPro source file bitrate. This is because AVC compresses better, and can give more detail at the same bitrate than MPEG-2.

I also have a GoPro Black and at the high bitrate AVC the Black can do, it is amazing the fine detail that “cheap” little camera can give. 35 Mbps VBR XDCAM and 50 Mbps XDCAM cannot quite preserve the fine detail of the source. Both are mepg-2. Only AVC at the same settings and high bitrate intermediate formats like DNxHD preserve the source.

My videos are on my mountain bike and I have a lot of fine brush along the sides of the trail and this is the fine detail I speak of.

[Matt Carlson]

The exception to the idea that rendering to a higher bitrate does not help with quality is if you use effects that fundamentally change the data from the original clip. Plugins like Neat Video add and rearrange data so that a bitrate change may do some good. Any kind of generator plugin (light rays, glint, etc.) also changes clip data. The original footage does not look better but the quality of the effect is tied to the bitrate (and resolution.) In complex or overlapping generator effects artifacts can appear even at medium to high rates that will disappear the higher you go. I am guessing, since you did not mention it, that your effects use on the project was minimal though.

[Darren Hugh]

Im working with quite alot of magic bullet plugin. Mostly the intro of the video is the part with alot of FX. The rest is mainly just levels and some colour correction.

Im not sure about the codec stuff, I dont have that much knowledge about it.

Can anyone of you just tell me which codec would be the best? Ive done alot or videos before, but that wasnt with go pro footage. Back then i rendered in xvid, how would that work out with the go pro footage?

Again sorry about the lack of knowledge, im a abit of an amateur to be honest.

Im editing with sony vegas 12 btw.

[John Rofrano]

[Darren Hugh] “Can anyone of you just tell me which codec would be the best? Ive done alot or videos before, but that wasnt with go pro footage. Back then i rendered in xvid, how would that work out with the go pro footage?”

Best for what? How are you delivering the footage? Blu-ray? DVD? Internet?

I can tell you that xvid should be avoided. If you are delivering for Internet then use Main Concept AVC with one of the “Internet HD …” templates.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Darren Hugh]

Sorry my bad. Video os made to be viewed on tv’s with HDMI cabel and computers.

Darren

[John Rofrano]

[Darren Hugh] “Video os made to be viewed on tv’s with HDMI cabel and computers.”

I would use the MainConcept AVC Internet HD template. Computer video and “internet” video is the same thing… i.e. both are played on a computer.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Darren Hugh]

Thanks again for the reply, man.

Footage is shot in 1920 x 1080, with 59.94 frames, but I can’t see 59.94 frames in frame rate options?

Also: I was testing it out the other day with xvid. What I did was rendering so that the mbps was just above the 30 mark (source file), and then I encoded with Handbrake to mp4 (or mkv).

What’s your opinion on that? Do you think there will be a lot of quality loss by doing so? I mean rendering xvid at first really.

Thanks again