[Jeff Pulera]

“Surely “mastering” to Pro Res won’t make the source footage look better than it is?”

NO, it doesn’t make the footage look better than original. However, the idea is to minimize generational quality loss when copying files.

As discussed earlier, camera files typically use a very lossy compression – low bitrate, long GOP, 4:2:0 color. If you export to a similar poor quality format, quality continues to be lost. Of course, export to whatever you need to for deliverables. We’re talking about intermediates right now for use in the editing process.

Some users like Uncompressed video, but the files are huge. Therefore, it is suggested to use something “visually” or “mathematically” lossless. Not uncompressed, but very close in quality. ProRes on Mac, Avid DNxHD on PC or Mac, Lagarith or Cineform on PC, etc.

So when I say to export to ProRes, that is far better than exporting to say an H.264 format which makes much smaller files that are more compressed. Make sense?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

GeForce GTX 760 (from various vendors)

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I don’t know that much about what the Black Magic hardware is capable of, but it has occurred to me that with my MXO2 Mini hardware, that device will downscale via hardware, which would enable me to output the HD timeline as SD and therefore record live directly to the VHS deck out of Premiere, skipping the very lossy DVD compression stage. Perhaps the BMD unit can downscale its output?

Next question, how is the 4:3 VHS footage going to be framed in your HD project? Pillarboxed? Would it work at all to keep the footag widescreen? I know there is no natively widescreen VHS format, but I think if you sent an anamorphic (squeezed) widescreen NTSC signal to VHS, then capture it back and “Interpret as” widescreen in Premiere, it would come out ok, IF you wanted to keep widescreen throughout the process.

Back to your question, why use Compressor if you have Adobe? You could export direct from Premiere or After Effects. I still like Walter’s idea to export as 24p DVD and let the player convert, as the hardware is designed to do a great job at that. But again, have never dealt with that 24p conversion business myself.

Wondering, how did you get to where you have 1440×1080 video, perhaps that introduced the quality issues you are seeing?

Jeff Pulera
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[Jeff Pulera]

As long as the capture card accepts analog composite, good to go. However, I have no experience with 24p workflows/conversion myself.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Ken,

I was assuming you already had some method of getting the VHS footage back into the NLE…

You’ll need a video capture device with analog input, such as a BlackMagic Intensity, Matrox MXO2 Mini, etc.

Or if you have 1394 Firewire on your computer, a Grass Valley ADVC-55 will convert an analog source into DV video for capture over Firewire.

Using a BlackMagic or Matrox device will offer better quality options, such as 4:2:2 color and even uncompressed video.

Just had another thought – if you have one of those VHS/DVD combo recorder units, copy the VHS back to DVD then edit the .vob in Adobe. Of course, that is going to add more compression again. Something to try perhaps though.

Many methods to consider. The downside to any of these is going back and forth between 23.976p and 29.97i of course, as you noticed some issues already.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Well then, I think Walter nailed it – just create a 23.976 DVD and that should work. Couldn’t take more than 15 minutes to burn a short sample DVD, copy to VHS, and recapture into NLE to test sync timing.

Of course, there is the pulldown removal if you want to edit the VHS then as 24p.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I would first test if you can successfully copy from the DVD player to the VHS deck. Haven’t tried that myself, however I’ve had a lot of customers complain that their video capture cards will not accept analog video output from a DVD player, says “Copy Protected Material” even when using a DVD-R they made themselves. So I don’t know if a VHS recorder has any issue with recording from DVD, but something to check.

Please note that there are software plug-ins that simulate various degrees of video damage. A web search for “VHS look plugins” quickly came back with GenArts and CreationEffects for instance, check them out.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Sorry that I don’t know why Vegas is crashing – does it crash if you export to any other format? In other words, something wrong with the timeline, or the MPEG-2 encoder?

As for bit rates, don’t set AVG and MAX to the same thing, make MAX higher (just not too high).

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

VBR = Variable Bit Rate

Take that Maximum setting down to 8.0, some players don’t like high bitrates on burned media.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Rune,

You are correct that an HD video clip is 1440 pixels wide. Just drop that clip into a 1920×1080 sequence and Premiere will handle it just fine, and you can export as 1920×1080 later.

Not sure about the 24 conversion, have not tried it myself

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers