[Craig Seeman]

[bbalser] “It only replaces the F4M Player.”
Updated Flip4Mac replaces the Player as well as import and export components. For those with export (Studio series) you’d note that you now can export to VC-1 (Windows Media 9 Advanced) and the 2 pass vbr green video issue is much improved.

[Craig Seeman]

When I first started working in video 1/2″ was open reel video and there were a few competing formats. I was still running into 1/2″ open reel video into the early ’90s.

[Craig Seeman]

As bogiesan mentions there are many things that an avi can be. avi is a wrapper, not a codec.
I’ve had not problem using DV AVI files in FCP without any conversion at all. FCP gives a warning but the files work without render despite that warning. I suspect DVCPro50 AVI will also work but I’m not sure about DVCPro100. Note that in Quicktime Pro you can save DV25 and DVCPro50 to avi but not DVCPro100. I’m not sure about other things wrapped in avi but if you can get them to play in Quicktime Pro they’ll either work or can be converted to work in FCP.

[Craig Seeman]

[dateix] “I am getting some really strong moire patterns in my Flash compressions.”

It may be the result of the visual content of your source. Thin lines for example. I’ve seen this on shots of computer screens where the line pattern is visible.

Have you updated to Episode 4.3?
Are you using Flash 8 or Flash 7?
Can you post a link to your encode?
Would you be willing to FTP a bit of the problem area of the source? I’d provide the FTP space but I’d need your email address.

[Craig Seeman]

Danny’s correct.

Here’ some more info.

Modern codecs will insert keyframes on edit points (scene change). Those are often referred to as “natural” key frames. There’s also setting a keyframe rate, often referred to as “forced” key frames.

Those “forced” keyframes can become important if you have shots that go on for a bit without an edit point. The image can gradually look worse as it gets farther away from a keyframe so there can be value to using forced keyframes.

Sometimes you can see keyframe “breathing” though. A sudden visual increase in quality for one frame (the keyframe) which can be more or less obvious depending on codec, frame rate, content.

10x the frame rate for forced keyframes is a good rule of thumb as Danny mentions but what one may chose might depend on content. Something with lots of fast action/motion might warrant more a higher forced keyframe frequency.

[Craig Seeman]

Open Compressor and select and set up for MPEG2 Encoding. In the Inspector click on the Encoder tab (2nd from left) and you’ll see Video Format, Quality, GOP, Extras. Go to Extras and select Multiplexed MPEG-1/Layer 2 Audio. That’ll give you an MPEG-2 Transport stream with mlutiplexed audio.

[Craig Seeman]

What kind of asf? Not all asf files are the same.
QT7.1.5 broke Flip4Mac 2.1.0.33 compatibility with Microsoft ISO MPEG 4V1.1 which can be .asf as well as .avi.

If you go to this page you can download the beta 2.1.1.70 which fixes the issue
https://www.flip4mac.com/support.htm

Let me know if this works or not. If not, I’d like to get a hold of your file somehow and I’ll have the developer look at it.

I’m a beta tester.

[Craig Seeman]

Compressor and QuickTime Pro use the same “engine.” Compressor gives you more tweaks if needed though.

If your final edit is FX and transition heavy, you might drop it into a DVCProHD or even 8 or 10 bit uncompressed timeline and rerender in FCP. This way the FX and transitions won’t suffer an HDV MPEG2 Quality hit before going on to compressing the file in another codec for web use.

For compressing I’d make sure your frame rate is set to “Current.”
Generally if you have lots of fast editing, codecs use “natural” key frames (edit points) so use of “forced” keyframes (key frame every x frames or seconds) depends a lot on content.

[Craig Seeman]

The beta 2.1.1.70 is available now for testing. No wait. I suspect they’ll be making even more improvements for yet another release.

[Craig Seeman]

There’s no reason I can think of that would prevent you from matching the file size of the 1080p files on Apple’s site.

Keep in mind your source is interlaced and Flip4Mac’s deinterlacing is very simple. I’m sure Apple’s sources are all progressive. I don’t think Windows Media 9 will look as good as H.264 at the same data rates. On the other hand VC-1 (Windows Media 9 Advanced) should be competitive and will be supported in the next Flip4Mac release. Regarding H.264, Compressor now has very good (and very slow) deinterlacing.

BTW if you are using the Sony V1 why not shoot in 24p or 30p?

Again keep in mind you’re coming from heavily compressed MPEG2 (HDV) and that’s a CBR encode too (as compared to XDCAM which, while GOP based, is a VBR encode). There probably are other related factors that may have impact on quality I’m not thinking about at the moment.

That said, you should get a pretty good looking encode. If you can put one up and post a link maybe I (we) can have a look at it.

BTW, the Apple full size 1080p movies trailers play in real time (progressive download) for me even though they’re around 10mbps. I’d thought I’d mention that, as a result, I’m really a lousy judge of how patient people have to be.