Ryan Holmes
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Without knowing the settings you’ve selected in Compressor or AME people here can’t really offer much direction. In general – the higher the data rate the better quality the end result is and the larger the file size. The lower the data rate the less quality in the end result and the smaller the overall file size is.
The are inherent tradeoffs in any and all encoding apps (Compressor, AME, Squeeze, Episode, etc). It’s just the nature of the business.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
What’s your reason for going to ProRes? Editing format? Compatibility with other editors/vfx? Standard workflow practices?
You don’t really lose any quality, but you also don’t gain any either. So unless you have a specific reason or need to transcode to ProRes there’s nothing wrong with XDCAM.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
You’re problem isn’t with the encode, it’s with how the various media players interpret/decode the video. Quicktime 7 (now called “Legacy” by Apple) is notoriously awful at displaying color and gamma accurately. The only advice I’ve been given is to not use QT7 to make color decisions.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
If you’re encoding ProRes the sliders grayed out because you can’t change the data rates. The codec comes with the data rates embedded. if you’re dropping down to ProRes Proxy with 1080p30 footage you’re looking at about 45Mbps. This ProRes White Paper from Apple breaks down all the various data rates of each ProRes codec. There’s a super handy table on pages 21-22 that lays out all the codecs, frame size, and frame rate options.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[Warren Eig] “It could be directory corruption. It could be a bad card. But rule #1, always format the card in the camera you will record to.”
Warren is exactly right. My guess is you got a bad card. And in the future, leave the formatting to the camera.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[Jarrick Harris] “I’ve heard that you can use “watch folders” for using media encoder in the background while working on AE but don’t know if you have to keep the pc running the whole time it’s rendering or not. Or if you can set system resourse priorities for it at all.”
Watch folders just automate jobs starting and having certain presets tied to a given watch folder. Once a job starts you need to leave your machine running. You cannot start and stop your encode. However, it is possible to “Pause” your encode within the encoder. That would allow you to pause it whenever you needed to work in AE or other graphically intense programs. But keep in mind that pausing it will lengthen encode times as it’s waiting to start encoding again until you tell it to “Play.” Regardless, your computer cannot turn off.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[Mitch Ives] “A tough lesson learned. One of the advantages (sarcasm intentional) to having been forced onto CC.”
I’m unclear reading this how the PSB format is a CC related issue? The PSB format has been around for more than a decade dating back to at least Photoshop 8.0 (when they first introduced the original CS bundle in 2003) and is used for large file sizes that you need to retain Photoshop layering on. PSB files can handle resolution of 300,000 by 300,000, and can be 16 or 32 bit images (standard PSD’s stop at 30,000 by 30,000). PSB files have been around for 12+ years already.
I’m glad you found a work around. If you don’t need the PSB format, run a script (or action within Photoshop) that opens and saves them out as something more manageable for your workflow.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[Todd Kopriva] “H.264 is a codec. .mov and .mp4 are the file-name extensions for some different container files that can contain H.264 media.
I advise against the QuickTime H.264 codec, which is what is used in a .mov container.
Use Adobe Media Encoder to make H.264 files, not After Effects.”
Todd is exactly right (what else would you expect from an Adobe AE Product Manager after all! :-). But the standard container (or format as Adobe calls them) for h.264 is mp4. Remember that things like .mov, .mp4, .avi those are just containers. And containers hold stuff. So inside of that container you can hold any number of codecs – ProRes, DNxHD, JPEG, h.264, etc. Now having said that Adobe kinda mucks up that terminology by allowing people to chose a “format” of h.264 (which is technically a codec) which will create a mp4 video using the h.264 codec. I’m guessing they did this because h.264 is so prevalent that it’s just easier for most users to see it in that initial drop down list in Media Encoder.
You can adjust the data rate used and that will impact both the quality of the encode and the final file size of the encode. Like Todd recommends though, use Media Encoder to make your deliverables. That’s what it’s there for and it does a good job.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[James Tucker] “I actually meant 3553×1080 – my bad!”
If this is true then you can use h.264 to encode your video. You’ll need to set your Level to 5.2 as that’s the spec that defined 4K for h.264. That Level 5.2 setting can handle UHD resolution 3840×2160. Your resolution is clearly under that so you’ll just need to unlink the height and width and type in what you need.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
[James Tucker] “thus I will need to create an image that will be 1080×3553”
I’m assuming you mean that 1080 is your width here (typically listed first) and 3553 is your height. If so, you’re correct, h.264 doesn’t have capability for that resolution. You would need to use something JPEG, ProRes, or DNxHR. Since you’re handing it off to somebody else, I’d guess JPEG is best codec of choice for this project. However, you should really run some tests to verify that their system will properly playback the file that you encode.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost