-
very basic question on rendering and graphics card
i have everything completed in final cut pro. video looks great on the canvas, and ready to export.
i did have some problems rendering some FX, so i did not use those. however, i have done some relatively intense color grading.
if everything looks good in the canvas. when i export with a lossless codec, it looks identical.
however, as soon as i prepare for the web (used h.264 with compressor), the quality looks nothing compared to the canvas in fcp. i followed many tutorials, setting kbit to 5000, multipass, 100% quality, and so on. still not getting satisfactory results.
Here is the question: I’m using a macbook (not a pro). It has the very basic graphics card – is this why i’m getting bad results? or should this not be the case? are there any other methods i could use to export for web? i even tried h.264x (but its still not even close to what my video looks like in fcp canvas).
Thanks!
-
7 Replies
-
Hi Bhavik–
what exactly are you seeing in your encode? There are a lot of possibilities of what could be contributing to your quality concerns. If you could provide your source and target settings, that is invaluable, perhaps a screenshot that is a good example of the quality hits you’re identifying would be useful as well. What are you seeing? Blocking? Pixilation? Gamma? Color bleeding? There’s a lot that could be going on. I will say that the more “intense”the corrections are, whether that is grading, filters, transitions, etc. the greater chance for a quality hit in compression. Maybe we could help you out though if we had a bit more information to work with.
Josh
-
thanks josh,
i shot footage with a d90, at 720p. converted to prores using mpegstreamclip. then imported into fcp timeline. I was prompted, “would you like to change sequence settings to match clip”. I selected YES. everything ran smooth as butter.
then i exported a QT reference file. I then imported the QT reference file into squeeze 6 encoder.
Here is a screen shot of my settings. Not sure if this these are the best settings to use for web.
And here are before and after sreenshots
thanks again!
-
Bhavik,
encoding for the web is tricky for sure. Not sure exactly what your specs are as far as robust file size, data rates, etc. It looks like you’re losing some of your highlights and a bit of detail in the color. Unfortunately, that’s sort of part of the bear of compressing for the web. I haven’t used Squeeze much myself, but you might try selecting “main” instead of “baseline” for your encoding profile. That should loosen up a few options for you. Try increasing the b-frames to 3 or 4 and then lowering your i-frame count to 24 (or about 1 second). That will let you balance the file size and output quality a bit, but try forcing a stand alone frame more often (the i-frame) and increase the b-frames (reference frames used). Usually that helps all the frames around it, the ones referencing it, to have a greater chance of retaining their detail. You’re actually running a pretty steep data rate that’s going to demand a lot for web browsers and end systems to play back smoothly. Of course, the lower the data rate, the greater chance that you lose some of that detail. Play around with the compression profile and find a balance that works. Try using CABAC as well. It’s a little more robust on the decoding end of things. Too bad we all can’t stream prores, right?
If you’re really worried about the picture darkening up a bit, see if there’s a leveler filter you can apply in Squeeze. I’m not sure how advanced that software is exactly, but my suggestion is to play around with the data rate, the i/b frames, and just find a balance you can live with. Most of the time with web encoding, that’s what it comes down to.
best,
Josh
-
-
thanks again josh!
i’ll play around with the settings more, as you suggested. yes i agree, uploading in prores would be awesome. and encoding for the web is always hit and miss for me.
i’m also playing around with the filters. they more likely do more bad than good, but with tweaking, i think its possible to match the prores version.
-
thanks Rafael! i’ve seen many of your posts here, and also have seen your website…you’ve created some fantastic footage in Loas, i feel privileged that you responded to one of my threads! lol
-
Hi Bhavic,
Sorry his morning was in a hurry to elaborate my answer.
There is not point in setting the number of Key-frames, first because you have not a tip to do it properly, second, because a multi-pass encoding is for that: To optimize the data rate and key-frames according with the kind of pictures.
You are allowing a hugh data-rate or your clips. I made mines like some 10 or 12 folds smaller.
For the same size I set between 500 and 1.000 Kbps. 720p25 H264 I let from 5.000 to 15.000 Kbps.
The more key frames, the bigger the file, but also more quality.
In your case I think that you have separate the key frames too much and without need. With that data rate and size I think you could have a key frame every 5 or even less. Your picture should be almost as good as the original.
Think that high quality MPEG-2 like the one used in XDCAM, sets a key frame every 12 to 15 frames.
Let the application set the k-frames in auto.
You should also set more B-frames. These are interpolated pictures that will increase the quality of the encoding. I can not give you a tip on how any because my experience with h264 is very limited.
Sure you will get the info in the manual.
The rest of he things I see in your setting are OK. may be something to improve things, but I can not play the buttons from here.
Anyway, with the changes that I’ve suggested you, and even slashing the data-rate, your clip should look great.
Cheers,
Rafael
PS: Thanks for your comments on my humble clips.
Anybody who loves nature would go crazy in this place.
I would like to pass you the link to some more recent clips I have in Vimeo, but right now I’m unable to log in. I’ll post it to you.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up