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The Never Ending Search for Best Vimeo Compression Settings....

Patrick Wieland

Patrick Wieland

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I've never been happy with the results I'm getting on Vimeo. I've tried 100s of different ways of exporting and compressing. No matter what I do videos are still muddy and softer.

Does anyone have a secret sauce their using to keep sharpness on vimeo? Video I'm trying right now is simply just lost all sharpness.

How do I keep it through the compression on vimeo?

I'm using FCPX exporting a Pro Res HQ and then compressing with Handbrake a x264 1080p file.

Am I really just screwed filming with Scarlet 4k and not having 5k for the extra sharpness when the videos are down converted...
 
Patrick,

Below is from this thread I posted onto a while ago: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?95558-Vimeo-YouTube-Settings

Mark

I've had good success with Vimeo and use FCP 7 with Compressor. I've made two custom settings in Compressor, one each for 1920x1080 and 1280x720. Here's the one for 720p which is what I use virtually all of the time because the 1920 settings are still a bit too much for the majority of my clients to view. Another thing I do is tell them to view the HD version which is located under the clip info / download button. That version plays very nicely and looks great. But here are the settings in Compressor I use:


Standard Video Compression Settings
Motion
Frame Rate: Current
Key Frames: Every 24 frames
Frame Reordering: checked

Data Rate: Restrict to 5000 kbps
Optimized for: Download

Compressor Quality: High
Encoding: Best Quality

Sound Settings:
Format: AAC
Channels: Stereo (L R)
Rate: 44.100kHz
Show Advanced Settings: checked
Render Settings:
Quality: Best
MPEG 4 AAC LC Encoder Settings:
Encoding Strategy: Constant Bit Rate
Target Bit Rate: 128kbps

Inspector:
Name: VIMEO 5000kpbs
Description: Makes 720p QT for Vimeo HD Service

File Extension: mov
Estimated size: 2.3 GB/hour of source
Audio Encoder: AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100kHz
Video Encoder:
Format: QT
Width: 1280
Height: 720
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Selected: 23.976
Frame Controls On:
Retiming: (Fast) Nearest Frame
Resize Filter: Statistical Prediction
Deinterlace Filter: Better (Motion Adaptive)
Adaptive Details: On
Antialias: 0
Detail Level: 0
Field Output: Progressive
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 24
Temporal quality: 50
Min.temporal quality: 25
Average data rate: 5.12 (Mbps)

Geometry
Source Inset (Cropping)
Crop to: Custom
Left: 0
Right: 0
Top: 0
Bottom: 0

Dimensions (encoded pixels)
Frame Size: Width 1280 Height 720 1280x720
Pixel Aspect: Default for size
Output Image Inset (Padding)
Padding: Custom
Left: 0
Right: 0
Top: 0
Bottom: 0
 
Couple of things. I encode video every day for a network, so here's a couple of tricks:

1) Encode at 10,000bts. 5,000 is often way too low, especially for 1080.
2) Never use Constant Bit Rate. That will kill you on tough scenes. Use 2 Pass VBR (the VBR will "variably" adjust the bit rate per shot, and allow the compressor engine to work harder on tough scenes, and save time on easier ones too. But it does great work on HARD scenes with lots of compression nightmares like folliage, high contrast etc...on CBR these have a tendendcy of pixilating).
3) Use x264 yes
 
When I encode files for low bitrate streaming services like Youtube and Vimeo, I like to pre-process the video before handing it to them. Kind of like audio mastering before you go to the CD, there are things you want to do with your original file to make sure the video sharing services maintain the correct details.

The problem is that the base file you upload has a lot of small details that get destroyed, because YouTube and Vimeo need to throw away something to make it all fit into 4,500 kbps.

You as an artist can actually control what gets thrown away in the image before you send it to the compressor to maintain higher fidelity than had you just uploaded the file without pre-processing. Here is what I like to do:

  • denoise cB and cR channels. (Your eyes don't see detail here well, and it gets knocked down to 1/4th the size of the Y component)
  • use a scaler appropropriate for the sharpness level you want. I like using the spline36 method as it's sharp, without unatural haloing.
  • If the shots came from a high noise camera, or high ISO shot, reduce Noise in the Y channel for that shot, on a shot per shot basis.
  • Add static dithering patterns to gradients as the noise in the cB and cR channels was preventing dithering at 8-bpc 4:2:0
  • Encode to the final resolution, color space, and bit depth of the sharing service's delivery. Youtube is 3840x2160 8-bpc 4:2:0. You want to control how these conversions look, not YouTube

You won't be able to do all of these functions ust out of the NLE, but with the right external tools, like AviSynth you can achieve a good pre-processing chain before you hand the file off to the encoder. Any professional compressionist can help you out with these options. Scratch allows you to do some of these operations as well.
 
There's some great advice in here!

If you're on a time crunch or simply need a preset solution, I've found that Adobe Media Encoder has some great options that are pre-tuned to different services like YouTube and Vimeo, and honestly do a great job at compressing files.

The YouTube 1080p 23.976 VBR 2-Pass setting usually works well for both YouTube and Vimeo. It's 8Mbps, but the dual pass really helps maintain detail, and the deliverable file is relatively small, which speeds up uploading. You can also export directly to these settings out of Premiere Pro, which is an added speed benefit.
 
Soft video is most likely low bitrate. For 720p i use 25 Mbs and for 1080 i would use 30-35 Mbs. I really think you should use constant bitrate instead of vbr to create a solid stream for vimeo and youtube when they do there recompression. I only use vbr on final delivery but not for videos that will be recompressed.
 
There is really nothing you can do to avoid compression artifacts if you have a scene with a lot of moving details in it. Movement is what requires more bits to portray the original scene.

There are ways of using post stabilization to keep the shot more stable, or heavily noise reducing the Y channel as to where it picks up actual detail so you can control what details are getting destroyed, but it can be a lot of trial and error.
 
exporting straight ProresHQ to vimeo used to work for c100/ninja footage- doesnt seem to produce clear results in RED footage though. Alot of this looks way more compressed then on my desktop by far.
 
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