[Bernhard G.]

I appreciate that EVGA builds dedicated OSX cards now.
Have good experience with regular cards in MacPro.

I’m curious why EVGA decided to bring the 2GB version instead the 4GB.

With the last OSX update Apple drop the OpenCL-restriction.

[Bernhard G.]

In understanding what FCP-X means in terms of technological development,
I prefer to explain it as Disruptive Innovation,
following the Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen.
One of Steve Job’s favorite books.

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

Video on a DVD is always interlaced, even if the source was progressive.

Those DVD players are able to read a flag in the datastream
that tells them, that the two stored fields belong to a single frame.

Problems:
– only few authoring apps could set the flag

– DVD players need to be connected via RGB or HDMI
that reading the flag makes sense at all by passing the
progressive image to the TV.

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

for renderless cut-joins You would need a to utilize a feature called
smart rendering.

CS6 supports smart rendering for DV, DVCPro, XDCam formats,
but not for AVCHD which You have. (Perhaps in CS7 ?)

see:
https://blogs.adobe.com/kevinmonahan/2012/10/11/smart-rendering-in-premiere-pro-cs6-6-0-1-and-later/

Since 576p/25 isn’t standardized for DVD, the obvious solution is to convert
1080p/50 to 576i/25 thus maintaining temporal resolution.

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

1)
You could activate Frame Blending in AME;
under the hood this means:
1080p/25 interpolated to 1080p/50 reduced to 1080i/25

or

2)
You could place Your sequence in a 1080p/50 AfterFX composition
and activate pixel motion
which results in a much higher quality;
then let AME make it 1080i/25.

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

Thank You!

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

one more app to test for You:
https://www.squared5.com

MPEG Streamclip has a very sophisticated scaling! Sharp images without flickering nor aliasing. (Set scaling to interlaced, Better Scaling, and output 8bit uncompressed.)

But be aware: it processes at 8bit in 4:2:0 only. So on some footage you might
experience color artifacts!

One of the best options to scale interlaced for further DVD coding and it’s free!

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

some of my results (mostly on downscaling interlaced footage):
Scaling in FCP-X appears too blurry and I’ve found scaling in FCP7 better, which is nearly identical to Video Purifier.

Compressor (Scaling:Best, Adaptive Scaling) provides sharp images but suffers bad aliasing. Even setting Anti-Aliasing to 100% doesn’t fix this.

Ki Pro is a tiny bit better (more image details) than FCP7/Purifier.
MXO2 draws edges sharper than KiPro, but seems to preserve less details; but visually still better than FCP7/Purifier.
Kona3 has the best scaling I’ve tested so far on I/O-HW: preserves most details, sharp edges, but occasionally produces ghost lines (doubled edges).

PremierePro with MercuryGPU draws sharp edges but could provide more image details and interlaced scaling is not that flickering-free as with FCP7/Purifier. (Most SW scalers produce this flickering at interlaced scaling, also e.g. DaVinci Resolve.)
But I was very positively surprised after scaling progressive high-contrast material that suffered bad aliasing in all other software solutions incl. FCP-X that usually doesn’t have aliasing-problems. Beside the HW solutions, PP was the only app that performed very well on this!

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

(A)
if You have FCP-7, place Your HD-file in a SD-Sequence.
(Sequence Settings: MotionEstimation set to ‘Best’, High Color Precision)

Otherwise You could try Innobits Video Purifier (same scaling quality as FCP-7):
https://www.innobits.com/purifier.html

(B)
I assume, You also have PremierePro?
If You have a Mercury-supported GPU, place Your HD-file in a SD-Sequence
(do NOT directly scale within AME!) and export this SD-Sequence with AME.

(C)
The best quality You’ll get with hardware scalers like the one of Kona3.
But still, those scalers won’t work file-based … Workarounds …

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Bernhard G.]

[Dennis Radeke] “Maximum Render Quality is used when exporting from one frame size to another:

Maximum Render Quality Maintains sharp detail when scaling from large formats to smaller formats, or from high-definition to standard-definition formats. Maximum Render Quality maximizes the quality of motion in rendered clips and sequences. Selecting this option often renders moving assets more sharply.
At maximum quality, rendering takes more time, and uses more RAM than at the default normal quality. Select this option only on systems with sufficient RAM. The Maximum Render Quality option is not recommended for systems with the minimum required RAM.

Maximum Render Quality often makes highly compressed image formats, or those containing compression artifacts, look worse because of sharpening.”

Solution:
discarding the term ‘maximum render quality’ and implementing user-selectable scaling algorithms, assignable individually on clips in a sequence
(selection would fit perfectly in a new category Standards Conform I proposed above)

[Dennis Radeke] “Maximum Bit Depth is also not always to be used:

Maximum Bit Depth Maximizes the color bit depth, up to 32 bpc, to include in video played back in sequences. This setting is often not available if the selected compressor provides only one option for bit depth. You can also specify an 8-bit (256-color) palette when preparing a sequence for 8-bpc color playback, such as when using the Desktop editing mode for the web or for some presentation software. If your project contains high-bit-depth assets generated by programs such as Adobe Photoshop, or by high-definition camcorders, select Maximum Bit Depth. Premiere Pro then uses of all the color information in those assets when processing effects or generating preview files.”

Confusion:
Mercury on GPU processes 32bit float all the time.
So if I need 8bit for web-purposes, should I disable GPU processing at all?
This explanation doesn’t make sense to me.

Solution:
Making 32bit float the default and adding a tiny checkbox labeled Preview Quality which means ‘8bit only’ somewhere in the GUI near sequence viewer.

Best regards,
Bernhard