Charles Simonson
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, this has been a problem for a long time when using Windows Media and software rendering.
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When you open it in Windows Media Player, and then hit apple+i on the keyboard, what codec(s) does it say it is using? It is possible your movies are using a very old codec that isn’t supported by F4M. I would also check the F4M forums or email their support to see what they say.
If you can report what codec your movie is using (or better yet, upload a small sample file), then I can help you find something else that may help you.
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How many systems have you played the encoded movies on? Often, with WMV and color issues, it has more to do with your graphics card’s drivers than it does with the actual encode. In particular, systems that just use the onboard integrated graphics tend to exasperate this issue. Also, even if you have a dedicated GPU, if you open a movie in two different players at the same time, one of the players will use the GPU for rendering and the other will use DirectShow through the processor; this results in vastly different color rendering results (not that this is related to your issue – I just wanted to note this).
What codec are you encoding to? A couple of things to try is to go to the Troubleshoot tab in the Advanced settings from the Display control panel. If hardware acceleration is turned on, then turn it off (or vice versa). Also, if your graphics card’s drivers have a setting to “accelerate WMV decoding” like I think ATi does, then try enabling/disabing this.
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This is pretty simple. Just download the Flip4Mac Player Pro component for QT:
https://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_playerpro.htm
Once you have installed this, you will then be able to open the WMVs in QT Pro and can choose to Export to another format just like you would any other QT file. -
I have the Digigami MegaPEG encoder. It can produce some really nice results if you are willing to wait for it. Unfortunately, the encoder is not very fast (even on a quad g5), but if you have the time and want mastering quality, then it is a good product. Plus, it has access to just about every option available in the MPEG spec, although this can be a great or terrible thing depending on if you know what you’re doing.
As far as your current encoding issue… are you sure it is Compressor that is causing an issue with the interlacing? It may be because you are playing your content back on an progressive monitor. Interlacing on 480i is much more noticable than on 1080i (which I assume is the res of your HDCAM source). I would suggest you try deinterlacing your 1080i content to 480p when encoding, if you haven’t already. Also, if you use Windows XP, then another encoder I would recommend for MPEG-2 encoding is Canopus ProCoder. If the mac is the only option, there is also the MainConcept encoder. It doesn’t have the “mastering” level quality of Digigami, but it is much faster and for the majority of my projects I find it more than suitable.
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Hmmm. Looks like they haven’t updated that page in a long while (page has a date of Jan 2004, well before the final VC-1 spec was ever submitted). It is true that for MS’ “original” spec of VC-1 (WMVA), 4:1:1 was the default for interlaced encoding. (*Note that WMVA is no longer supported, but if you have just Windows Media Encoder installed on your system, then you probably have some version of the WMVA encoder installed.) Windows Media 9 Standard (WMV3) doesn’t even support an interlaced mode, and thus all it ever supported is 4:2:0. The SMPTE “approved” spec of VC-1 only supports 4:2:0 as well, in both interlaced and progressive modes.
I know this because myself and my company is heavily invested in the development of VC-1 encoders in both the post production and broadcast spaces. Obviously for our broadcast products, understanding and getting interlaced encoding right is paramount. While I could certainly see benefits to using a 4:1:1 color space over 4:2:0 for interlaced encoding, this just isn’t possible as of today.
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Windows Media at this time is only a 4:2:0 codec. This is one of the main reasons it is not generally suitable for editing. There is talk about releasing a better sampling version for a later implementation of VC-1, but nothing is publicly available yet.
Per your capturing, if you are shooting on DVCPRO HD, then the best option would be to keep it DVCPRO HD (if your DVCPRO HD setup has firewire connection capabilities). No reason to convert it from DVCPRO HD to something else if you are using a Final Cut system workflow. The only benefit to capturing to PhotoJPEG (or MJPEG is shooting interlaced) is if you need to capture with an SDI card, which would normally require very large storage disks for capturing as uncompressed files.
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Photo-JPEG definitely has compatibility with YUV at 4:4:4. Even the BitJazz link I provided contains comparisons of Sheer to PJPEG in both RGB and YUV environments at these sampling rates. As for where the 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 modes kick in/out and where RGB takes over from YUV, I don’t know. You’re right in that there is a lot of conflicting information on this out there. From the results you noted in your tests, I would say that the 100% file was likely RGB, the 99% clip was 4:4:4 and the 75% clip was 4:2:2. If I have some time this week, I can do a real in-depth analysis on this.
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Ed, Photo-JPEG can handle both RGB and YUV at various color sampling modes. At 76 – 100%, P-JPEG is 4:4:4, and below 75%, it is 4:2:2.
Here is a great resource for learning about editing codecs that I have referenced for a long time now:
https://www.onerivermedia.com/codecs/Also, as mentioned above, Sheer is a good codec I have included a link that compares it with the codecs I noted earlier to it. The only issue I have with Sheer is that it is not free and you will have to install it on all systems you intend to play back your clips on:
https://www.bitjazz.com/en/products/sheervideo/speed/broadcast_codecs.php -
If you are looking for an intermediary less-lossy codec to store source files and want to maintain QT compatibility with accurate editing capabilities, I would recommend either MJPEG for interlaced sources or Photo-JPEG for progressive sources. If you have iMovie HD installed on the system, I have also found the Apple Intermediate Codec (originally intended for HDV captures, but works well for other formats too) to be a good choice. If maintaining Alpha channels is important as well, then the PNG codec is an option, but it is slower than any of the above.
Overall, I would say that ANY of the above options is a much better way to go about this than your current solution.