[Scott Matthews]

[John Rofrano] “60i would be my last choice for YouTube because it’s interlaced but it would absolutely be my 1st choice for DVD or Blu-ray”

Sorry, one more thing — I’ve been doing more research, and it turns out the 60i in my camera is “Progressive Segmented Frame” — which I gather means it’s actually 30p video in a 60p “wrapper” — and, I gather, it’s not actually interlaced. So I’m not exactly sure if this might actually be the format you would prefer.

[Scott Matthews]

So, regarding your preference for 30p MP4 over 24p AVCHD — is it that you prefer “the look” of 30p over 24p? Or more that 30p is more forgiving when it comes to panning the camera? From my hunting around online, it seemed like most prefer 24p, so I want to be sure I’m following your thinking.

If I wind up shooting with different formats, is there some way to configure Movie Studio such that if I were to import a 24p source file, it automatically knows to set the project to 24fps, and chooses a 24fps render format — OR, if were to import a 30p/60p source file, it would instead automatically know to set the project to 30fps, and choose a 30fps render format? Or do I have to manually choose the project fps and select the corresponding render each time I use a different type of source?

[Scott Matthews]

[John Rofrano] “I would only shoot 24p if you are looking for that film cadence. You need to pan slower because motion isn’t as smooth because of the lower frame rate. I would shoot 30p for YouTube unless you really like the look of 24p motion.”

My camera only has 24p, 60p, 60i — and a 30fps MP4 (which I believe is the older format, with less horizontal resolution and non-square pixels) — what would you pick given that?

[John Rofrano] “Of course if you use a faster shutter speed you will get less blur but if you use a slower shutter speed you will get strobing not really more blur (i.e., the image will be more like a slide show than a movie)”

fwiw, I’d actually expect it would only strobe with the shutter *longer* than the frame rate — eg, a 1/20 sec exposure for 24p. But I’d expect that with, say, a 1/30 sec exposure for 24p, I’d expect that you could actually be able to accommodate more panning (because each frame would “contain more of the time” so to speak).

Thanks again, now every time I see a video I wind up wondering about how they shot it.

[Scott Matthews]

[John Rofrano] “Ask as many questions as you want. That’s how we learn new things. :-D”

Thank you so much, you’re generous to share your time with folks like me.

[John Rofrano] “Yes, YouTube expects 29.97fps and not 59.94fps.”

OR 23.976fps, correct?

[John Rofrano] “Just because your camera shoots 60p doesn’t mean you should use it for all of your shooting”

My AVCHD options seem to be 24p, 60i, 60p — and there’s also a 30fps MP4 — from what I’ve been reading, I think I’m now inclined to shoot 24p, and render 23.976fps files (for keeping and for YouTube) — does that seem sensible?

One concern with 24p is that if it’s bright out, I won’t be able to get a slow enough shutter (unless I also get an ND filter).

And a related question — I hear people say that it’s best to shoot with the shutter at roughly half the frame rate — eg, if I’m shooting 24p, then 1/50 second exposure is best. But following the motion blur argument, wouldn’t 1/30 be even better for 24p?

Thank you again!

[Scott Matthews]

Thanks, downloading build 896 / 64 bit now.

One question: With MainConcept still selected, I now see that within the “Render As” dialog, if I click “Customize Template” and then click to the “System” tab — there’s a button to “Check GPU.” If I click that, it says “OpenCL is available.”

I also see that on the “Video” tab, down by “Encode Mode” I can choose “Render using OpenCL if available” — though it defaults to “Render using CPU only” (even though I now gather I do indeed have OpenCL).

1) You said “OpenCL/CUDA will be faster but probably lower quality at low bitrates” — I’m a bit confused, if using OpenCL means I’m using the GPU to boost render performance, why would that result in different quality? Isn’t it still the same math either way?

2) Related, is there a reason the it defaults to CPU only, even though I have OpenCL? Meaning, is there some downside to OpenCL?

Thanks so much for helping me out here! -Scott

[Scott Matthews]

Oh, so if I were to update to build 563, I would also see Internet 720p and Internet 1080p options under Sony AVC?

I don’t know if I’m using MC OpenCL or CUDA — would that mean I’m probably not? Is there a way to check?

If I’m not using MC OpenCL or CUDA, does this then mean that I’d actually be better off using Sony AVC Internet 720p/1080p rather than MainConcept Internet 720p/1080p? (meaning, Sony would be of similar quality, but faster to render?)

Thanks so much!

[Scott Matthews]

Thanks — is there some technical difference between MainConcept AVC and Sony AVC? I’ve been using MainConcept AVC just because the “Internet HD” sounded like a sensible choice.

[Scott Matthews]

Thank you again for taking time to help.

fwiw, I was partly thinking about muxing not just because of the quality — but I also assumed it would be faster than recompressing — but that seems moot if I can’t do it in one place.

Thanks kindly for all, -Scott

[Scott Matthews]

Yes, thanks — I’m still recording audio in the camera — either via the built-in mic (if my speakers are on) or via the line input (if I’m using headphones), so that I can align the two.

Just curious: roughly how “mis-aligned” can something like speech (with video of a mouth) be before it feels wrong?

Thanks also for the alignment tip — it hadn’t occurred to splice and shift (I assumed I would have to ‘strech’ somehow) — the splice is obviously a much better way to go about it!

Thanks again! -Scott

[Scott Matthews]

Thank you, that was tremendously helpful!

If my goal is mostly to align the clips, and render a new one (with some trimming at either end) would I be better off with some sort of muxing application?

Or, assuming I stick with Movie Studio, am I correct to output with: MainConcept/Internet HD 1080p? (I mostly plan on keeping the files and uploading some to YouTube.)

Thanks again, I’m happy to be making progress!