Vegas 14 youtube quality issues, pixelating

[László Kovács]

Hi,

I tried to wacth those videos.
I could see it in 720p on my notebook, and I could not watch them full length.
The main difference, as I see, is that the first video in your post was shot by an action cam mounted right on the bike somewhere, while the other was with a cam mounted on your hat on top of your head.
So that the second video got a lot of stabilisation by your spine and neck.
The first video has to deal with 10000 times more motion.
I think that makes a difference too.

If you plan to upload to youtube, I think 15Mbps mp4 will do. Higher bitrates of course work better for fast motion, but youtube will convert them anyway, so at the end there will be zero difference.

These are just my thoughts, stay tuned for others comments.

Best regards

László Kovács

[Francois Pénzes]

Hi Ryan

I am going to assume that you are using a PC.

The key to using GoPro files is to properly prepare them before use in an NLE.

Have you tried this for prep ?

https://gopro.com/how-to-prepare-source-video-files-for-editing-windows-pc/

PC Win 7 64-bit 16gb Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF305 + Canon XH-A1

\’\’When the cutting stops, the editing begins…\’\’

[Ryan Stephen]

thanks for the reply, I tried to prep the footage. Not any better right out of the GoPro editor it becomes pixeltaed were the original file is fine? Really is driving me nuts. I see of companies putting up grade A quality go pro footage and I can not figure this out……..

[Francois Pénzes]

Hi Ryan

Just for troubleshooting purposes, if you do not have access to another NLE, try using DaVinci Resolve 12.5 (it’s free) and see if that works. Please get back to me with the results.

Cheers !

PC Win 7 64-bit 16gb Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF305 + Canon XH-A1

\’\’When the cutting stops, the editing begins…\’\’

[Ryan Stephen]

So I exported the footage from the GoPro software with their “youtube settings” which was a low bitrate. (8396kbps) clip was pixelated. Bumped it up to 51359 kbps and the same exact clip showed no pixelation. So I believe I’m on to something there. What I want to know is when you see people like redbull put up crystal clear gopro footage is it the editing software or how they export it? I’m a little bummer for a brand new hero 5 black and just bought the latest version of Vegas for a grand total of close to $1000, not to mention a $1600 laptop, and I still can’t get great looking videos up on youtube. Maybe I just need more seat time on the software. I’m going to keep plugging away at it. Any other suggestions I’m all ears.

[László Kovács]

Hi,

You could have paid the half for a desktop PC and have the double horsepower. Laptops are balanced towards energy efficiency, not towards performance. But that’s another question.
Getting back to ontopick:
Can you show us a link, where others “put up crystal clear gopro footage”?
Without knowing, I suspect (even I could) bet, they contain much less motion.
The motion your footage contains is really extreme.
Of course you can upload a 50Mbps video to youtube (overkill), but it will get pixelated too (after upload, when youtube converts it).
From here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en
what I read is that if you encode in bitrate higher than 15Mbps, won’t make any difference, as Yutube converts them internally.
So try to render to 15Mbps AVC, and see if it is better.
If it’s still not satisfactory, I’m afraid you have to look for another video sharing portal, which can hold higher bitrate video.

Best regards

László Kovács

[László Kovács]

I found one myself :))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOIk-Ddg1E8

Do you think it is not pixelated? It isn’t, where the footage is not moving extremly.
But where the motion is too fast…
Look at some still pictures I did via screenshot ?

Best regards

László Kovács

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[Ryan Stephen]

yeah the second screen shot is exactly what I’m seeing. Maybe there is nothing that can be done. That’s a super bummer!

[László Kovács]

Yes, there is. Decrease the motion of your footage.
Most important, stabilize your cam. Wear it on your head, so it won’t take all the vibrations from your bike.
When you mount the cam directly on your bike, it takes all the vibration from the bike, so the codec runs out of bitrate on every single frame.
Second, you can hide a bit the very fast motion with motion blur. I don’t mean it in the post, but when you actually shoot.
Action cams are full auto, so when there’s a lot of light (usually outdoor it is the case), they use very fast shutterspeed.
Using ND filters, it is possible to trick them using slower shutterspeed, which results in slight motion blur on your shots.
If I remember correctly, Douglas Spotted Eagle had an interesting article about this topic, but I don’t know where I read…
So if you have a slight motion blur, that reduces the moving detail in your video, thus encoder won’t run out (so quickly) of bitrate, and this will help avoid pixelation. And motion blur looks more natural than pixelation.
Third, use shorter action-cam events (as short as possible), and put some more static shots between them.
I think this will help the variable bitrate encoder as well as it enables the viewer to have a bit “rest”, which I felt so much lacking in your first video.

Best regards

László Kovács

[László Kovács]

Found it. The article.
Ok I remembered half way wrongly.
It’s about drones, but what they carry look very much like action-cams.
So it can be valid to Gopro’s as well ?

https://library.creativecow.net/spottedeagle_douglas/UAV-drone-filters/1

Best regards

László Kovács