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SD DVD Compression once and for all
So I’ve poured over these forums and the bottom line is that if you ask ten people what is the best DVD compression for SD DVD you get ten different answers.
#1: Most mentioned solution:
In Compressor choose DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes (or closest to that depending on length of project.
#2: Some contributors like Michael Sacci say that 1-pass CBR at 7Mbps beats the 2-pass VBR @ 6.2 Mbps (“When you can get the bitrate up past 6Mbps using VBR is counter productive.”)
My own research with a 45-minute HDSLR project @ 1920×1080 compressed to 1-pass CBR at 7.7 Mbps shows that Sacci is correct. *Note: I went straight from FCP to Compressor then DVD Studio Pro — did not export a self-contained Quicktime file using Current Settings. But how about this third option according to a guru like Robert Eidschun?
#3: Bring uncompressed 10-bit 422 into BitVice, or even better, Sheer 8-bit RGB. (You’d export from FCP to either format.) You’d have to buy the Sheer codec and BitVice though.
Bottom line is that artists/filmmakers need to learn Video Compression Engineering because shooting great material and losing quality in the export is a bummer.
Instead of asking the same questions over and over, I wonder if we can evolve the conversation.
Thanks in advance.
CC Newbie
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7 Replies
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Sacci is always right, now can someone tell my wife that. 🙂
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Haha yes Mr. Sacci you are correct.
I’m going to try out this Sheer codec export into BitVice…thanks for the tutelage.
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Mr Sacci. The owner and engineer at Innobits, the makers of BitVice insists that 2 pass VBR beats i pass CBR everytime. 1 pass is for those that may not have time for 2. Otherwise why do the really expensive encoders for Hollywood films use dozens of passes?
Michael Slowe
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While we all strive for the “perfect” encode in SD, we have no control over how it viewed. I have had comments like “too much motion blur, artifacting…etc” only to find out they are watching it on their 50″ LCD TV played from a bargain basement DVD player stuggling to upscale an SD format to a HD screen. I wanted to see what a difference this varible could throw up so I tried 3 players
1) Bargain basement player
2) Mid range player (@£100 Sony player)
3) Latest PS3 player
onto
1) 36″ inch CRT Sony
2) 46″ inch LCD Sharp 1080p(default settings)
with a
1) 8crb encode (cs4 encoder)
2) 2 pass vbr 5.5min 6.5target 8.5 max (cs4 encoder)
3) Disney animated title/Disney live actionThey were all sharp and acceptable on the CRT TV but a marked difference on the LCD screen, as expected the bargain basement player gave a soft, motion blurred, (much like a NTSC 525 to PAL 625 standards conversion).
All the results were no surprise and expected, with most households having ditched their CRT TVs for Flatscreens I feel we have no real control over the final viewing experience, so while I’m still searching for that perfect encoder with the perfect settings, I feel it is more for personal satifaction now a days.Signed an SD hippie in an HD world.
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[Michael Scott] “So I’ve poured over these forums and the bottom line is that if you ask ten people what is the best DVD compression for SD DVD you get ten different answers.”
[Michael Scott] “My own research with a 45-minute HDSLR project @ 1920×1080 compressed to…”
Unless I’m missing something, the question is regarding the compression of a 1920×1080 HD project for SD DVD? So it’s a downscale question, correct?
If so, I have never been able to get an HD project from FCP (export QT current settings or “send to compressor”) into Compressor and encode with “DVD Best Quality xx Minutes” and get a result that I am satisfied with. After delivering my first two HD projects (minor projects) with this method I was disgusted and had to find a better way for upcoming larger projects, which led me to the Matrox MXO2LE. If there is a method to get a good downscale just with FCP to Compressor, that I don’t know about, I’d sure like to know. It would really save me some hours on a current project, in which I have to downscale, reacquire in SD and finally Author and burn in DVD Studio Pro.
The only thing that ever gave me good enough HD to SD scaling results was playing the timeline through my Matrox MXO2LE for a hardware downscale.
Apologies if I’m off-track with the nature of the question.
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[Michael Slowe] “Otherwise why do the really expensive encoders for Hollywood films use dozens of passes?”
Because they (hollywood producers) are trying to get the best quality at lower bitrates, for that you do need a good VBR encoder. I didn’t say that CBR always beats VBR, I’m only talking about high bit rate CBR (6+Mbps) and I’m talking about Compressor.Everyone can do what works for them. I know that I give this recommendation a lot and a lot of people get better results. That is all that I care about. The guy at BitVice knows his stuff, I’m not an engineer but I know I like the results I get and I like that I get them is a fraction of the time and they look better.
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I have had similar problems. I use the same solution (only with a Kona LHe) for interlaced material, but for progressive I find I have more luck with Adobe Media Encoder. However, that program is far from perfect and I came here hoping to find a better software solution. There has to be something.
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