Very, very poor quality MPEG2

[Brian Semple]

Thanks David again. Yes, all your steps are the ones I have done… and the quality is terrible. This is why I cannot work out what is going wrong. Would Quicktime version affect it?
By changing the Compressor to ProRes, is that creating a timeline in ProRes then even though originals are still HDV?
I’m at a loss. And yes I’m sure I’ll get the hang of FCP. At the moment I find it very sluggish and have to render everytime I change a effect to be able to playback. I’m not used to this.

[Viktor Kibanov]

I am not professional, but if it can help you. I had a lot of problems with compression of HDV to MPEG2, but after everything I found this workflow for me:
1) export QT self-contained,
2) open and then export the resulting file with QuickTime (not Compressor) HDV1080p30 (if you don´t need interlaced; for interlaced video is better to use DVC pro 50, but the quality is not the same)
3) In Compressor – m2v and acc – and then in DVDSP – everything suggested by Mr. David Roth Weiss
(Thanks to David´s posts I returned to FCS2, because before I couldn´t obtain the needed quality of DVDs to see them in plasma)
The resulting file has very good quality, I think better than Procoder 3 and Liquid.
The point is to go progressive, interlaced DVCpro50 is medium quality, ProRes didn´t serve to me, but probably I didn´t use it right.
Regards,
Viktor

[David Roth weiss]

[Brian Semple] “By changing the Compressor to ProRes, is that creating a timeline in ProRes then even though originals are still HDV? “

Essentially yes. An unrendered timeline is essentially just a bunch of metadata that references the original HDV clips — when rendered, FCP creates a new media file in whatever codec you specify in the QT compressor. And, when you export a self-contained QT, FCP simply makes an identical copy, with no additional rendering.

So Brian, there is a solution to this, I assure you, because too many of us do this all the time. So, let’s back track…

What camera was your HDV shot with? And, what framerate was it it shot at?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[David Roth weiss]

[Viktor Kibanov] “2) open and then export the resulting file with QuickTime (not Compressor) HDV1080p30 (if you don´t need interlaced; for interlaced video is better to use DVC pro 50, but the quality is not the same) “

Hi Viktor,

Glad I helped you out before.

With regard to exporting at 30p, I’m not sure why that works for you, and it certainly is not a cure-all for everyone, with every camera.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Brian Semple]

Cheers. Shoot on a Sony Z1 at 25fps PAL. Brought shots into FCP in 2 ways – capturing in HDV & importing from Firestore harddrive…. both have compressor as HDV 1080i50 & Pixel Aspect as HD(1440×1080)

Just had a thought over lunch… could I have a faulty MPEG2 codec which Compressor, DVDSP, Toast all use. Because the quality is terrible from all of them. If I make a self contained QT file from FCP it looks fine, apart from interlacing effects which will be my next problem to solve.

[Brian Semple]

Thanks. I will give that a go. Nothing else seems to work.

[Jack Tunnicliffe]

Bitvice. Worlds best software mpeg 2 compressor. Better than almost all hardware compressors. Forget Compressor. It sucks.

[Brian Semple]

Still been testing and got a much better result when using Viktor’s method but still compression artifats and interlacing.
David, you mentioned the AC3 file but how do you get that because when using the DVD Best Quality in Compressor there is no audio by default. I tried adding audio but the picture quality got even worse. Have added a FF to show you problem…look around the lettering. Shots with effects on them look like this. Nothing seems to work. I should be able to get pristine quality for DVD.
Tried uploading the jpg file but says file not supported. You know what files are supported…. doesn’t say anywhere.

[David Roth weiss]

[Brian Semple] “Tried uploading the jpg file but says file not supported.”

Jpgs are most certainly supported. Pngs are not. You most likely have a screen shot that’s a png.

Here’s a FF jpg from one of my HDV projects — BTW pics must scaled down at least 50% to embed in a web page.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[David Roth weiss]

[Jack Tunnicliffe] “Bitvice. Worlds best software mpeg 2 compressor. Better than almost all hardware compressors. Forget Compressor. It sucks.
“

Jack,

While it is true that Bitvice may improve some MPEG2 encodes, Bitvice does nothing to make a terrible MPEG2 encode good. So, I don’t really see how it is germane to this thread and your addition to the thread is really nothing more than noise added to the signal. So, please be kind enough to bow out so I can help Brian and get on to other people’s issues as well as some things that are important to me. Thank you for your cooperation.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.