Poor video quality, please help!

charales

charales

Member
Hi everyone!

I'm trying to export a video sequence captured with a DVX100b to an .AVI file with the smallest compression possible but I always get very poor video quality. If I export it to a .MOV I get a 4GB file from a 12 minute sequence using the best quality settings I could think of, but if I do the same to an .AVI file, this one is only 150MB and has huge pixelation problems.

Any ideas?

Thank you :smile:
 
I would select a codec that best translates to the end medium.
Is the project destined to air on DVD, broadcast, or Internet for example?
 
Yes, sorry I forgot to give details. The size problem mentioned above was because I made a .MOV file and then converted it with Total Video Converter.
If I try to export it to an .AVI file directly from Final Cut, I get a huge 2,66GB file that my Iomega ScreenPlay Plus HD Media Player can't read.

These are the original capture settings and the export to .AVI settings (if you need anything else tell me)

It's a 720x567 video recorded with these settings
Codec: DV-PAL
Vid rate: 25
Data rate: 3,6MB/second
Interlaced: Progressive

Tried to make an .AVI file with these settings:
Compression: DV-PAL
Frames per second: 25
Quality: Best
Scan Mode: Progressive
 
Exporting to a MOV file doesn't provide essential information. MOV is just a container that could hold many codecs.

It may be that you are compressing three times here.

Which codec did you use when you exported from FCP?
 
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Does it absolutely have to be an AVI in the end?

The other thing that stands out is that you're getting a 4GB file for as 12-minute video that originated as DV. DV runs about 5 minutes per 1GB, so at native resolution your file shouldn't be larger than about 2.4GB. Whatever setting you are using is a higher codec than what you started with.

No matter what you're doing, trying to get the smallest file size possible is always going to impact video quality. That said, there are better methods and better settings for getting the most quality out of less data. The first thing is to avoid exporting from FCP as anything but a QuickTime Movie, self-contained, at current project settings. Then, use the resulting exported movie in a standalone porgram to do the conversion. You might try MPEG StreamClip (squared5.com), which can handle AVI. But if the AVI wrapper isn't necessary, try a setting for h.264.
 
C2V said:
Does it absolutely have to be an AVI in the end?

The other thing that stands out is that you're getting a 4GB file for as 12-minute video that originated as DV. DV runs about 5 minutes per 1GB, so at native resolution your file shouldn't be larger than about 2.4GB. Whatever setting you are using is a higher codec than what you started with.

No matter what you're doing, trying to get the smallest file size possible is always going to impact video quality. That said, there are better methods and better settings for getting the most quality out of less data. The first thing is to avoid exporting from FCP as anything but a QuickTime Movie, self-contained, at current project settings. Then, use the resulting exported movie in a standalone porgram to do the conversion. You might try MPEG StreamClip (squared5.com), which can handle AVI. But if the AVI wrapper isn't necessary, try a setting for h.264.
Click to expand...

It does not have to be an AVI, but since the Iomega only reads theese codecs: MPEG-1, 2, 4, DivX and Xvid, I thought it would be best.
 
charales said:
I used MPEG-4
Click to expand...

So you exported from FCP as an MPEG-4, and then converted to an AVI? That means that you compressed the video twice, and each level of compression was pretty heavy. That would be why your results are so bad.

charales said:
It does not have to be an AVI, but since the Iomega only reads theese codecs: MPEG-1, 2, 4, DivX and Xvid, I thought it would be best.
Click to expand...

AVI is just a container... a single AVI can have one of several different formats hiding inside, though I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that AVI was best. Even .mov is just a container, and can have anything from ProRes and DVCPRO to any of the MPEG formats within it.

h.264 is an MPEG-4 file. So again, in FCP go to Export>QuickTime Move and make it self contained at current project settings. That will create a movie using the DV codec. Then, close FCP and use something else (Compressor, MPEG StreamClip) to convert the exported movie to h.264.
 
C2V said:
So you exported from FCP as an MPEG-4, and then converted to an AVI? That means that you compressed the video twice, and each level of compression was pretty heavy. That would be why your results are so bad.



AVI is just a container... a single AVI can have one of several different formats hiding inside, though I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that AVI was best. Even .mov is just a container, and can have anything from ProRes and DVCPRO to any of the MPEG formats within it.

h.264 is an MPEG-4 file. So again, in FCP go to Export>QuickTime Move and make it self contained at current project settings. That will create a movie using the DV codec. Then, close FCP and use something else (Compressor, MPEG StreamClip) to convert the exported movie to h.264.
Click to expand...


OK, I did what you said and it worked fine. I just changed the codec from h.264 to MPEG4 because my player did not recognize it.

Thanks a lot guys!!!!
 
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