nima
Well-known member
We managed to deliver a very good DVD compression of our 4K material, and we thought this might be interesting for somebody.
The artifacts and noise resulting from the mpg2 compression is mostly caused by the editing workflow.
Many of us downsize the 4k file to a 2k Apple Pro Res HQ (Red Workflow) in order to to edit the footage in FCS2.
Here is where you get most of the noise, even if you don`t see it.
Apple Pro Res HQ is a very good algorithm to deliver pristine images on your monitor and for your eyes... things change when you have to re-compress RED images. The noise you get with an mpg2 compression has the form of pixels, chroma noise, sometimes vertical lines and motion problem.
Any "best" or "custom" setting in Apple Compressor will result into a Nintendo game.
This although seems to deliver the best picture quality:
- At editing done (Apple Pro Res HQ 2k) I strongly suggest a custom color correction for DVD compression. Contrast, saturation, high lights and low lights should be slightly increased... good for you if you have a grading quality monitor and a real vectorscope.
- Downsize the final editing into a DV 16:9 NTSC standard file. Downsizing remember to select the letterbox option if you are coming from a 2:1 (it will prevent pixel distortion)
- Open the DV NTSC file in FCS2, it will look just fine, but it will show noise once compressed again into an mpg2 file. First you will have to use Neat Video Pro (Final Cut plug-in available also for CS4 - 99$). Use the manual setting of the plug in order to find the best setting for your footage.
You can do this process earlier, clean the footage while the it is still in 2k (Neat Video supports 2k res)... but somehow doing it when downsized delivers best results.
- Export a quicktime file of the de-noised material (keep the same format of the original DV NTSC file).
- Use Compressor if you like, but you will get better results with BitVice if you own it (cheaper then Cinema Craft MP...).
- If Bitvice: Uncheck Chroma 2:2:2 option, intra DC to 10bit (do not use DVNC noise reduction or any other Bitvice filter).
This gave me better results then USA studio (compression and post-production house in New York).
Good luck
The artifacts and noise resulting from the mpg2 compression is mostly caused by the editing workflow.
Many of us downsize the 4k file to a 2k Apple Pro Res HQ (Red Workflow) in order to to edit the footage in FCS2.
Here is where you get most of the noise, even if you don`t see it.
Apple Pro Res HQ is a very good algorithm to deliver pristine images on your monitor and for your eyes... things change when you have to re-compress RED images. The noise you get with an mpg2 compression has the form of pixels, chroma noise, sometimes vertical lines and motion problem.
Any "best" or "custom" setting in Apple Compressor will result into a Nintendo game.
This although seems to deliver the best picture quality:
- At editing done (Apple Pro Res HQ 2k) I strongly suggest a custom color correction for DVD compression. Contrast, saturation, high lights and low lights should be slightly increased... good for you if you have a grading quality monitor and a real vectorscope.
- Downsize the final editing into a DV 16:9 NTSC standard file. Downsizing remember to select the letterbox option if you are coming from a 2:1 (it will prevent pixel distortion)
- Open the DV NTSC file in FCS2, it will look just fine, but it will show noise once compressed again into an mpg2 file. First you will have to use Neat Video Pro (Final Cut plug-in available also for CS4 - 99$). Use the manual setting of the plug in order to find the best setting for your footage.
You can do this process earlier, clean the footage while the it is still in 2k (Neat Video supports 2k res)... but somehow doing it when downsized delivers best results.
- Export a quicktime file of the de-noised material (keep the same format of the original DV NTSC file).
- Use Compressor if you like, but you will get better results with BitVice if you own it (cheaper then Cinema Craft MP...).
- If Bitvice: Uncheck Chroma 2:2:2 option, intra DC to 10bit (do not use DVNC noise reduction or any other Bitvice filter).
This gave me better results then USA studio (compression and post-production house in New York).
Good luck
