Mpeg2 Vs Cineform ? Which is more Sharper in Output ?

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plainman007

Well-known member
Mpeg2 720p @30 mbps Vs Cineform Avi 720p.

Which of these 2 formats will yield a sharper output result or rather which is of higher quality.

I recently rendered to Cineform 720p and found them slightly softer in output compared to the source.

Is cineform known to soften the output just like wmv does too ?
 
Cineform is better. It is visually lossless, while mpeg2 is not. It also handles better second generation editing (if smart rendering is not available, Cineform also has smart rendering btw).
 
Eugenia,

Thanks for your input.

Regarding the 2nd generation editing, you mean a cineform file can actually be used again as a footage itself and be edited and rendered out again without much loss ?

What do you imply by, "Cineform has smart rendering btw" ? Can u kindly explain.

Thanks
 
Yes, that's what I meant above. As for smart rendering, it's about saving the footage as is, without re-encoding, IF there are no plugins/transitions or any other alterations on it and the project properties/exporting properties are set properly to match the source footage. Both mpeg2 and Cineform have smart rendering support on Vegas. But if you didn't have smart rendering, Cineform would have a much better generation loss curve than mpeg2, since it's visually lossless and a true intermediate codec.
 
Thanks Eugenia.

But is it true the cineform encoder that comes in vegas is a very old ver (2.5 or something) and is not that high in quality compared to the recent ver 5 or so which is not licenced to Sony ? Or are they all based on the same core so the rendered quality would be the same ?

When you mentioned all of the good things about cineform i hope you were not referring to the new codec (v5 or so) which is not in Vegas.

Thanks
 
Yes, Cineform in Vegas is an old version, and it comes in "medium" quality I believe, and can't export above 1440x1080. Possibly still better than mpeg2 though.
 
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