Contest Delivery Requirements

I know there's quality loss in compression. I'm stretching before compressing, and then compressing both files (stretched and unstretched) the same way... and I can see the quality difference very clearly.

Everything I've read about Final Cut either a) talks about stretching/distorting which I've done with not-so-great results... or b) Software called Compressor, which I do not have (and you can't buy by itself).

I have a friend who's pretty proficient in FCP and have been trying to call him... will try more tomorrow.
 
My rendered Mpeg (m2p) file plays choppy but the audio is fine. hmmmmmm. I used a preset in pro coder too. I wonder.....


edit: ok so i should have googled before deleting the file. m2p is procoders mpeg and all i had to do is get a player...
 
To take care of the whole stretching issue, we took the LONG route. We uprezzed all the frames with Photozoom Pro to 1280 wide ... we're then importing that back into the NLE so when it does the slight stretch, it doesn't effect our image, as it's already shrunk down to fit in the 720 wide project (but with HD pixel/size). It's a pain, but worth the end result, we think.
 
So, I figured out how to output the CBR and all in Compressor, but I'm still a little hazy on this merging audio/video streams. Can somebody clear up how to join the two for me?
 
Thanks Brian,

I used that progream and it worked well I think...how did you test it? I cant seem to open a .mpg file with anything I've got .....any suggestions. I just want to make sure it looks the way it should before I send it off.

Thanks

Kip
 
THX - I used bitvice (and the helper app) too... you need to buy the mpeg-2 playback component from Apple ... (it's like $20)
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
Then you can test the file.


Envision... How many hours did the photozoom thing take.. I've considered that route, but was afraid of the time it would take...
 
Depends on the machine and the software encoding. Anything 3 Ghz or better and you'll be close to real-time. I.E. a six minute film taking around 6 minutes to encode.
 
I shot 4:3 and masked in post. Now how the hell am I supposed to make this 16:9 anamorphic file in FCP4?
 
Bryan said:
I shot 4:3 and masked in post. Now how the hell am I supposed to make this 16:9 anamorphic file in FCP4?
Click to expand...

Do you have Compressor? Apparently, in Compressor you can do the resizing you need to (crop out black bars, resize vertically)

If not... check out:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=45240

I've been in the same boat and researching for days how to accomplish resizing to 16:9 without losing quality... and I *don't* have Compressor.
 
Listen, set up a new FCP project with anamorphic settings. Before you import your 4x3 video, make sure that you're seeing the 16x9 black bars in the canvas window. Import your 4x3 video with or without letterboxing into the anamorphic timeline. The clip should "window box" (so it should retain the 4x3 aspect ratio)in the Canvas window--so it shouldn't stretch or anything like that to fit into the 16x9 bars. You should see some empty space on either side of the video. Now if you haven't already added your widescreen matte, do it now. After adding the matte, resize the video so that it fits into the 16x9 frame. We letterboxed to 1.78, so we had to scale the video to 136 in the motion settings.

We're not using compressor to create our mpeg2 (we're using Sorenson) but I ran a compressor test with a 16x9 setting and the final product came out anamorphic (open it in Quicktime to check it--you should see no black bars and the resolution should be around 720x404) with a little loss in quality. A noticeable loss (if you really look hard), yes, but I can live with it.

I think this method is pretty similar to what Briceman did in Avid.
 
Shaun,

I did try something similar in Final Cut and all I can say is that the quality loss to me was night and day noticeable.... and not something I could live with. Could be I'm doing something wrong, though my steps were almost identical to yours. I'm testing another program right now, but will certainly try the FC method again later.
 
I don't have Compressor, or Sorenson Squeeze, or Cleaner. So even if I make 16x9 anamorphic project file, is there no way I can export to MPEG-2 from FCP4? I need some sort of third party software?

If so, this is unfortunate. All this work for nothing. These "Delivery Requirements" came way too late in the game.
 
Bryan... try BitVice... that's what I used
http://www.innobits.se/
They also have a free "helper app" for muxing.

You might want to check out:
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html

That's what the other link I sent you is about.

Shaun,

It was that bad before AND after. I wouldn't say it was HORRIBLE, but it was clearly noticeable... and noticeable enough that I could live with it.

But the MpegStreamClip software I'm trying now seems to (at least before mpeg-2 compression) do a much better job... I'm burning a DVD now for testing.
 
Another good program is the VLC player. It plays back MPEG-2, DivX, and plenty of other good stuff. Good for testing.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Go nuts. :) I don't have that MPEG-2 content component from Apple and it works fine.

At least... I don't think I have it...

In these late hours (late being noon after being up until whenever)... my mind is pudding.
 
Barry....we are rendering to mpg2 this evening (31Jan)..tried yesterday and murphy's law kicked in during the last minute of rendering...yep...power went off in the building...not kidding. Anyway...between teaching college classes all day I'm working on getting it rendered this evening or later tonight. I understand the process completely...so no technical issues here...but just a note that it will be sent to you guys shortly...don't wanna miss any deadlines or anything.

Thanks,
ProfD
 
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