Resolution question for T2i and 60D

Rayden

Rayden

Well-known member
Hello all, I am fairly new to DSLR video recording, and I was wondering if someone could answer a rather noob question for me. I have done alot of reading on this forum for about a month and a half now, and also so other sites for canon DSLR film making. I own both a T2i and a 60D. I recently shot a couple of short videos of my children and of some landmarks around town. I filmed both in the highest resolution on both camera at 30fps and at 1920x1280. The videos looked great on my mac during post, however I finalized the video using imovie to dvd format at the highest resolution and then played the video for my kids on my 55 inch HDTV. I noticed the picture quality was not exactly as clear and sharp as on the computer. My logic was that 1920x1280 would rival some of my HD programming that I see on Tv. My question is, was there something that i did wrong in encoding the video or was I not shooting in the right camera settings. I'm not sure if the video is supposed to look razor sharp on a screen that size. I am planning on shooting video for clients as I gain more experience later on. Just wanted to know what mistakes I may have made or are my expectations too high.
Thanks
Rayden
 
If your converting your video to a dvd, you downscaling your video to 720x480, so naturally when you blow that up on a 55" screen, its not going to look very sharp....
 
ok that explains it. Well what options do i have to reserve the 1920x1280 resolution. I have FCP, and im not sure what format to finalize in to keep that resolution. Is it not possible to output to dvd at 1920x1280 in imovie11?
 
Just to be clear, it's 1920x1080, not 1920x1280. I think you may be confused with 1280x720 which is the other HD standard.

I'm not sure what iMovie 11 can do because I don't use it. FCP can certainly output 1920x1080 but you'd need to be using Blu-ray to get HD quality on your TV. If you downscale to SD (standard definition) for DVd then it's simply not going to look as sharp as it did in high definition on your computer. If it did, they would have had no need to invent Blu-ray ;)
 
Exact said:
Just to be clear, it's 1920x1080, not 1920x1280. I think you may be confused with 1280x720 which is the other HD standard.

I'm not sure what iMovie 11 can do because I don't use it. FCP can certainly output 1920x1080 but you'd need to be using Blu-ray to get HD quality on your TV. If you downscale to SD (standard definition) for DVd then it's simply not going to look as sharp as it did in high definition on your computer. If it did, they would have had no need to invent Blu-ray ;)
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Yes your right, I'm sorry 1920x1080 is what I am shooting in. Ahhhh so 1920x1080 is a Blu-ray format. Ok My dvd player will upgrade Dvd but im not sure to what format. thank you guys for clearing that up for me. So what would be the advantage of shooting with the full frame 5d? Is it resolution or just more picture?
 
The 5D can give you a wider field of view with the lenses you have (you can always get the wider field of view if you have wider lenses with the T2i/60D). The DVD will upscale to 1080, but you're compressing down to standard definition for DVD and then your player is upscaling to 1080, so it's still not going to look as good no matter what you do.

Blu-ray creation isn't readily available on the Mac, so you're only option is to output a 1080 H.264 QuickTime file and find some way to play it on your TV.
 
I created 15 Blu-Rays this week on my Macs. You can do it with Adobe Encore or on the cheap with Roxio Toast 9 and 10. Based on the OP lack of basic HD knowledge I would recommend Toast over Encore, but if you want Pro quality and have a Mac then Adobe Encore is the way to go.
 
Nevermind...you've already got an upconvert DVD player.
Do...however, make sure that your settings on it are correct. My upconvert player looks fantastic...easily as good as the stuff that gets broadcast as "HD". But if the settings are off....it looks just like trash!
 
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Up-converting DVD when you already have a 1080p source is, frankly, ridiculous. Try to keep from resizing the video and figure out a way to play it natively.
 
Usually modern HDTVs have USB-in connections and are able to play HD video files out of the box.
From Final Cut pro send your file to compressor and save your movie in a full HD format (1920x1080). Copy it on a USB stick and put the stick on your tv. It should be able to play back the file as is. Alternatively save with imovie in HD format (but I think the best it can give is 1280x720) and copy to your USB stick.
Alternatively, you'd have to use a Western Digital WDTV device to playback from the USB stick. Standard definition DVD on a 55'' screen will look crappy. And to view your work in Bluray you'd need a Bluray recorder on your mac and a bluray player for your tv.

As for the 5d, I would suggest that you first master your t2i and the mac editing and export workflow before debating about fullframe or not.
The 5d has an awesome sensor, and would give you more options for wide angle lenses, but I claim that it is more demanding for video than APS-C (because of the weight and bulk, and because of the shallower depth of field due to the bigger sensor, which is more difficult to control). The t2i is excellent for video, especially if you are just starting.
 
some options for viewing 1080p content on your TV:
* hook a notebook (the standard VGA connector will work, but HDMI is better)
* burn a bluray and use a bluray player
* hook a multimedia player that plays 1080p files and outputs a 1080p signal (usually through HDMI)
* get yourself an HTPC and connect it to the TV (it's the most flexible option; when the sandy bridge issues are cleared, it should be cheap and easy)
 
Also, A cheap prog called Pinnacle studio allows you to burn AVCHD (1920/1080) disks to a normal DVD so you don't have to buy blank blu ray disks. (but you only get about 30 minutes to each DVD vs a couple hours) Most bluray players will play AVCHD disks. (I think....)
 
why not just edit, send the file back to the sd card, throw the card back in the camera, then run a hdmi from the cam to the tv. You will be able to view at full resolution.1920x1080 this should work till you get a blueray.
 
maranfilms said:
why not just edit, send the file back to the sd card, throw the card back in the camera, then run a hdmi from the cam to the tv. You will be able to view at full resolution.1920x1080 this should work till you get a blueray.
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:)
 
maranfilms said:
why not just edit, send the file back to the sd card, throw the card back in the camera, then run a hdmi from the cam to the tv. You will be able to view at full resolution.1920x1080 this should work till you get a blueray.
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That doesn't work. Try it.
These cameras are extremely finicky about playing back anything that wasn't recorded by the camera.
 
Well, I think the issue is that these cameras don't seem to record anything near 1080P to begin with (more like 640P), yet downrez'ing usually makes the quality pretty fantastic if you apply a good downrez method and keep the same bit rate and all that. As I see it, I'd almost say the problem is that the video files are exactly double the resolution higher than what the bit rate or whatnot can handle (I'd almost bet that 1080p requires something around 60mps), but the native quality loss also relates to invisible aliasing, larger than normal pixels, and bad color schemes. Most likely your video only looked good in post because you may have viewed it in a little editing window that automatically applied an intelligent downrez scale and whatnot in it's own player, you almost have to just have a 1080p monitor and playing the files back full screen to see what they are really like. *which for me, always looks horrendously awful.*

But I've never ruled out that my computer is just a bad one, I hope to someday view my files on a source that magically "brings out" more resolution and clarity than I'm getting now. I mean, I hope to be wrong about this as much as anything, I truly hope my files have more resolution packed in there than the blurry, aliasy images I get by playing my files back at full-rez on my monitor.
 
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Snapper123 said:
Well, I think the issue is that these cameras don't seem to record anything near 1080P to begin with (more like 640P), yet downrez'ing usually makes the quality pretty fantastic if you apply a good downrez method and keep the same bit rate and all that. As I see it, I'd almost say the problem is that the video files are exactly double the resolution higher than what the bit rate or whatnot can handle (I'd almost bet that 1080p requires something around 60mps), but the native quality loss also relates to invisible aliasing, larger than normal pixels, and bad color schemes. Most likely your video only looked good in post because you may have viewed it in a little editing window that automatically applied an intelligent downrez scale and whatnot in it's own player, you almost have to just have a 1080p monitor and playing the files back full screen to see what they are really like. *which for me, always looks horrendously awful.*

But I've never ruled out that my computer is just a bad one, I hope to someday view my files on a source that magically "brings out" more resolution and clarity than I'm getting now. I mean, I hope to be wrong about this as much as anything, I truly hope my files have more resolution packed in there than the blurry, aliasy images I get by playing my files back at full-rez on my monitor.
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LOL, ever the negative nancy.
If you're curious what a higher bitrate will do for your much maligned Canon, you have to look no further than Magic Lantern:
http://vimeo.com/17711166
 
Gary Huff said:
Blu-ray creation isn't readily available on the Mac, so you're only option is to output a 1080 H.264 QuickTime file and find some way to play it on your TV.
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Excuse me? Wait.... I need to recall all those Blu-ray discs I created on the Mac because I've just been told it can't be done!

There are lots of ways to make Blu-rays on a Mac, including Adobe Encore, Toast, Final Cut Studio to name just 3 of them.

It's true there are no 'player' options (that I am aware of) but you certainly CAN create the Blu-rays on a Mac.
 
I didn't say you couldn't do it, but that it wasn't readily available. Obviously, the packages you mention require additional cost, some of it quite the expense. And, on top of that, he'd have to purchase an EXTERNAL Blu-ray burner, yet even more cost.
 
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