Defining "loss"

[Chamber005]

So I'm wondering if someone could further elaborate on the whole loss of data thing? I'm working in Premiere Pro with AVCHD recorded at 24mbps. I plan on having the (black and white) image projected on a large screen from off a bluray or DVD, but I keep hearing stories about HD footage breaking down on the largest of screens because of the data loss.

Could someone point me in the right direction to make sure I'm doing everything I can to "lose" as little data as possible and come out with the best possible projected image?

The files start as MTS files. I know everything is about the codec, or so I've heard.


Thanks!!!

 

[FixMix]

I had my SD signal (shot with an XL-2 then transcoded to an MPEG-2 DVD) shown in a small theatre with a digital projector. Not sure what that thing did but it looked great. So HD will look better. Sure it won't look like real film scanned at 4k, projected at 2k, but still good.

 

[Chamber005]

I had my SD signal (shot with an XL-2 then transcoded to an MPEG-2 DVD) shown in a small theatre with a digital projector. Not sure what that thing did but it looked great. So HD will look better. Sure it won't look like real film scanned at 4k, projected at 2k, but still good.

Good to hear! Thanks

 

[ydgmdlu]

Uncompressed video takes up an unbelievably large amount of disk space. In order to save disk space, a compressor (which is part of a codec) is used to throw away redundant information. There are two kinds of compressors: lossy and lossless. A lossless compressor compresses information in way such that all of the original information can be restored upon decompression. A lossy compressor throws away much more information, stuff that it doesn't think that you'll notice very much. The loss of data from a lossy compressor is only an issue when you transcode the information multiple times with a highly loss compressor.

When a video file loses a visually significant amount of data in the transcoding process, the image becomes softer and more artifact-ridden. This is similar to what happens in the analog world when you copy a copy of a VHS tape.

To limit the amount of loss in the post-production process, use as few transcoding generations as possible, and use intermediate codecs with much less loss than H.264. ProRes is an excellent choice, as are Cineform and Avid DNxHD.