[Magda Fernandez]

Wow! Excellent advice, Daniel. Thank you so much! This is exactly the kind of lead I’ve been looking for. I can’t thank you enough for it.

Incidentally, I just posted a similar vote for the better compression product in the FCP forum, if you’re curious to see how those readers weigh in.

Many thanks again for your help!

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Daniel. I shoot my videos with my Sony HDR-FX1 in 1440 x 1080i. I capture in FCP 6 with AppProRes HQ preset at 29.97. I composite most of that footage in Shake and export it back into FCP in animation format at 29.97. Back in FCP I assemble my clips and apply lots of FCP and VFX filters. I then export the completed, unrendered animation file directly into Compressor. In Compressor, I tried the SD High Quality Encodes over the Fast ones. The results were unacceptable. But the HD Encodes work beautifully. But, as I explained, I need to create a high-quality HD to SD .m2v file.

So I searched the forums to find solutions. What I found were many forum entries such as mine, and in those cases the experts pretty much recommend solutions such as blu-ray (which wouldn’t work in my case), or Cinema Craft Encoder, Episode, etc. The conclusion in most of those entries is that Compressor is not up to the task of creating high-quality compressions from HD into SD, and that there are better compression products.

I’ve accepted that, and am now asking for comparative reviews of those better compression products from folks who use them, so that I can make a more informed choice.

I’m curious, since you seem to be promoting Compressor, are you suggesting that there won’t be much of a quality difference between HD to SD Compressor results, versus the same attempts with Cinema Craft Encoder, Episode, etc.?

[Magda Fernandez]

Okay, Daniel. My source content are videos that are, on average, about 12 minutes long. All of my videos are silent. I use FCP as my editing software, and about 95% of the clips consist of Shake-composited footage. I use lots of cross-dissolves and transitions between clips, too. In FCP the video is in animation format (since it’s not lossy), set to 1920 x 1080 and 29.97.

When I’ve tried to export my animation file to Compressor to downconvert to SD, the quality was hideous, and some of the transitions didn’t work. So I stopped trying that approach, and came up with a combination that works on my computer, at least, and looks great, and that fits onto a DVD:

I exported my animation file to Compressor, created a beautiful AppProRes(HQ) Interlaced file (approx. 22 GB). Then I imported that AppProRes .mov file into DVD Studio Pro, and converted that into an .m2v file, which I then burned onto a 4.74 DVD. To do all this, I used the settings recommended in Ken Stone’s website, and I applied many of the workarounds listed in the Cow for dealing with the gamma shift issue in QT movies.

Although my decent-looking DVD file does not play on my standalone DVD player, it plays pretty well on my DVD Player on my Mac Pro. There is some very minor stuttering that I can live with in the DVD samples (but no seizing), and the color and resolution look pretty good. All of the transitions work properly, too.

Is there a way to achieve the same results with a Compressor SD file?

[Magda Fernandez]

Thank you, Daniel. You’ve answered an important concern of mine: that for reliable DVD playback of my file, I need to compress my HD sample to an SD format.

And you’re also right–I sure don’t want the curators to copy my sample videos onto their hard drives. I simply want them to pop my DVD into their computer drive, so that it activates their DVD Player (or equivalent) to play my compressed (but high quality) video sample.

You mention that I should use Compressor. However, my attempts to downconvert to SD with Compressor have produced lousy results. This is why I’m asking if there are better compression products out there for what I’m trying to do.

Do you still recommend Cinema Craft Encoder, Digigami MegaPEG.X, or Episode, and if so, is one better than the other?

Thanks for sticking with me on this question.

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Kris. The protocol in the art world is to send DVD samples that are viewable from computer drives. Most curators, many of whom are not tech savvy, would not bother with artist samples in a portable USB hard drive, even if the larger files better represent the video.

Whatever DVD sample I submit has to look outstanding, otherwise my exhibition proposal won’t stand a chance.

As usual, it’s the compression that’s the rub. So I’m looking for recommendations from all the pro readers in the Cow for the best Mac-compatible compression product out there for compressing my HD shorts onto DVDs.

If my exhibition proposal is accepted, I would have the liberty of setting up the projection of my videos to my specifications. I guarantee you I’d use anything but DVDs! Most likely I’d use either my HD projector with a Mac-Pro station or a blu-ray player.

Charlotte Warner

[Magda Fernandez]

Thanks, Daniel. I’ll look into these suggestions. If you, or any other reader, care to share your thoughts on the strengths and limitations of these products, I’d really appreciate it.

[Magda Fernandez]

Oh yeah, you are sooo right about that.

Charlotte Warner

[Magda Fernandez]

Well, sometimes the solution is so simple.

After spending the entire weekend trying to troubleshoot this problem down, I figured it out, many, many thanks to Rennie’s list of possible causes.

The unwanted scrolling line was indeed a ground loop problem, a stray interference signal.

The rippling line disappeared after I moved my Cinema Display screen’s DVI to ADC adapter apart from the other cables, surge protector, etc.

Thank you SO much, Rennie, and Creative Cow for your help! Now I can return to what I’m better at–the creative work 🙂

Charlotte Warner

[Magda Fernandez]

Thank you, Rennie. I suspect the same, which is why I bothered to mention the red/green color + auto-focus shift challenges, in case. I have a feeling that I’m running up against the limits of HDV technology with this scene.

I will take your suggestion and write that clip to tape, and then screen the tape on another device (other than my Apple Cinema Display). It will be a couple of days before I have access to other playback devices. But I will post my results.

If anyone has any other theories, tests, or angles, fire away, please.

Thanks, Rennie and readers.

Charlotte Warner

[Magda Fernandez]

I don’t have the means of posting the clip, Richard. Thanks for offering.

Charlotte Warner