Chris Blair
Forum Replies Created
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They may want it for archive purposes or as an intermediate file to do further compression on. I don’t believe you can do an MPEG2 file at sizes below 720×480. But yes you can wrap an H.264 file inside an MPEG2 wrapper. However it’s typically used for broadcast distribution on HD content.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
If your description of the intent of the group is accurate, then the guy you’re battling with is indeed a supreme douchebag!
Why on earth would he not want you to have the footage? Are you sure he doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to hand out the raw footage master as opposed to making you a dub or providing digital copies of the raw takes? What I mean is…perhaps he’s just trying to protect he raw footage itself rather than give it out to folks?? Sort of like how movie studios used to lock away the raw footage reels to protect them and edit from duplicates.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Jon Gulbrandson: …reinstalled the latest K-lite codecs, MPC, and 64-bit codecs.. issue still there.. I cleaned my HDD’s and defraged.. still there…
You listed your problem right in your post. Those codec packs are a big “no-no” in a professional environment. They install all sorts of old…odd and buggy codecs and filters.
My guess is it included an old version of FFMPEG or some iteration of that, and it’s now controlling your MPEG video playback using it’s codecs.
And no offense, but why on earth are you using Media Player Classic? There are loads of better media players out there, VLC, KMPlayer, SMPlayer, Zoom Player to name a few (most are free).
First thing I’d do is download VLC and try playback. It uses it’s own internal codec engine so won’t use FFMPEG or any of the k-lite codecs for decoding…and see what you get. If it plays back smooth, you’ve found your problem. If it stutters in the same place, then it’s something else.
If VLC (or other media players) play the file without issue, then uninstall k-lite. Next, check playback in other media players that were stuttering. If you still have the stutter, check to see if FFMPEG is still on your system. If it is, you can either go into it’s settings, go to the decode list of codecs and disable FFMPEG codecs for all MPEG playback (usually the libavcodec). Now check playback, if all is smooth, you’re done. If it still stutters, uninstall ALL iterations of FFMPEG.
Now check playback. One of two things will now happen. The file won’t play back at all (because an appropriate codec is missing) or it will play back smoothly.
If it doesn’t play at all, then download the latest version of FFMPEG (just search for it), install it, then retry. If you get stuttering again, search for MPEG2 codecs online or find a freebie software DVD player application. This will install an MPEG2 codec for playing back those. Disable MPEG2 codecs in FFMPEG, but allow FFMPEG to control playing back MPG4 files for you, shouldn’t cause a problem with those.
Report back and let us know your results so others can benefit from this.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
If you’re converting from the Quicktime animation codec to an uncompressed AVI, the only thing occuring is a transcode from one format to another. There is NO compression occurring.
If you’re converting to MPEG, you ARE compressing and we’d need to know what type of MPEG, MPEG2? MP4? Also, what codec are you using?
You would want to make sure you’re just passing through the pixel dimensions, frame rate, bit depth etc. of the file when you convert it. Otherwise, you should not be seeing any sort of degration going to uncompressed AVI. You would see some degradation going to MPEG2 or MP4, but if your data rate is set high enough, it would be virtually imperceptible to the eye.
Obviously, going to uncompressed AVI is the best choice if file size is no concern.
To give you more specific help we’d need to know all the specs of your original render, and the settings you’re using in your export.
Also, if you’re referring to Adobe Media Encoder when you mention “media encoder”….it sucks royally. It has so many quirks and bugs in it that in my opinion it’s unusuable in a professional environment. Others would dispute that, but we gave up on it and moved on to more robust encoding tools.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
I’d start with a Google search. If it were me, I’d play the VHS tapes straight out to a set-top DVD Recorder and that’s it. I’d record at the medium or low-quality setting (most DVD-recorders have settings that will record at different quality and hence fit different amounts on disc), and be done with it.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
What settings did you use for going tot he m4v? Very strange that a DVD (maximum of about 4.3GB) would result in a file 5 times that size. So sounds like some of your settings weren’t right.
An m4v file should end up being about half the size of the .vob file on a DVD even if you use the same data rate (roughly 4-6Mb/sec). H.264’s value is that it produces visual quality similar to MPEG2 at about half the data rate.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
By definition compression reduces quality, so you’re going to certainly lose some quality considering you’re starting with VHS as your source. Whoever invented VHS should’ve had their arse kicked years ago…mainly for its positively awful quality. I’d venture to say that 720×486 web video is better visual quality today than VHS.
So all you can really hope for is a relatively clean transcode to your MPEG2 format in preparation for burning to DVD. The software you use isn’t going to seriously impact that quality as long as you meet the DVD video specs and keep your video data rates at about 4-5MB/sec.
I’ve seen people run VHS through mid-range video processing tools that reduce noice, restore sync and adjust color values as they’re digitizing the footage to MPEG2 in real-time…and that slightly improves quality…but it’s not possible to take 240 line resolution VHS and add back much in the way of quality otherwise.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Todd…we’re similar to you in how we started, but we’ve always had some form of a print piece to hand out. At the start, we printed folders that had pockets for one-sheets with pricing or proposals and a slot for a CD or DVD disc.
Now we have a glossy tri-fold brochure, but we only print-on-demand…meaning we take it to a local printer and they’ll print 50 or so off and fold them for us. Those usually last us several months. That said, it’s a very nice looking brochure designed by a graphic designers we use on a freelance basis.
But we also do print design, websites, kioks, trade-show stuff etc. so it really helps us to show a printed piece along with demos of our video work.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
Yeah..I just read that on their site. Good call!
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog -
The easiest and fastest method would be to use an encoding application that can:
1. Import all the various file formats and sizes
2. Export them to the agreed upon final format, frame size AND stitch them together as one file.Most mid to high-end encoding programs offer the ability load batches of files and then stich them together into one encoded file. For instance, on Windows…Procoder offers this (although it’s an older app), and Telestream Episode does too. I know I’ve read that Sorenson Squeeze has stitching as well.
What encoding/compression applications do you have access to?
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog