Video Quality Blues

L

lukehumphrey

Active member
I'm using Xpress DV Pro 5.1 (software only) and am trying to get the best quality...having trouble (camera is dvx100a). I notice there's a video quality button under the timeline that for me, unfortunately, can only go so high (it says best quality but the help says that's 1 field 1/4 res draft quality). Looking at the help it looks like I can get the best quality if I had Mojo? How does that work? What does it mean 1 field vs 2 fields? Does that apply to progressive scan footage?

Also it mentions something about blue and green dots and the ability to export to an external firewire device, how does that work? I don't have the blue/green dot options and the menu item that exposes them in Special is grayed out. I obviously want to get setup on one or the other because the quality as it stands now isn't acceptable.

Also, when exporting my finished product will I still see the quality degradation or is that just inside the Avid software? I couldn't tell. What's the best way to export to get top quality?

Thanks in advance.
 
i really want to accomplish 2 things:

1) get the best quality preview of what my 24p dv footage will look like on a DVD
2) export it to a format the best quality format to be then burnt to a dvd

any advice here would be much appreciated.

thanks,

luke
 
okay, so the whole external monitor thing is starting to make sense to me. i think i need an external monitor that will display my current project/timeline in full quality. this will also give me an indication of what my stuff will look like on DVD I assume, instead of looking at it in the little preview window on my computer monitor in the avid environment (i have 2 24" flat screen monitors at 1920x1200, so the preview looks small and avid wont give me the option to show it at best quality). do you think my reasoning is correct here? can the external monitor just be my 16x9 tv? better yet, could it just be my second DVI monitor?

beyond that to output to a dvd from what i'm reading it looks like i should sorensen squeeze which came with avid...mpeg-2 probably? so i'm thinking i export it from avid to X format, load my X file into sorensen squeeze, convert to mpeg-2, then use sonic dvdit to write the mpeg-2 to dvd? should i still be switching from dv25P to 1:1 and how should i do that?

thanks! i think i'm going in the right direction though, just need feedback...
 
Take DV out to camera or deck and from there to your TV. If you use a DVI monitor, it will not be the same as using a TV because of calibration and other NTSC color space issues.

See my recipe for encoding 24p stuff using Sorenson here:

http://www.24p.com/24pMPEG.htm

And speaking of calibration, if you are using standard consumer type monitors, this device works great to get that properly calibrated for color correction:

www.spydertv.com

Michael
 
The http://www.24p.com/24pMPEG.htm article looks exactly like what I need, thanks very much. I do have a question though regarding something you asked earlier, you asked if I was dealing with uncompressed 1:1 video or DV25P...how would I be working with uncompressed 1:1 video? is my dvx100a capable of recording uncompressed DV video? what would be the advantage of working with uncompressed video, better quality/resolution?
 
In following your tutorial (and finally figuring out I'm using Avid DV Pro v4.6) for exporting 24p projects to DVD via sorensen squeeze, i noticed there's a setting in the quick time reference settings for using the Avid DV codec. What is this and should I use it?

Also now that I figured out I'm using v4.6, is there any value in upgrading to 5.2 if I'm not yet using HD for multiple DV formats (i'll just use my DVX100a for now)?

Thanks in advance.
 
FYI: I found enough info on 5.2 on Avid's site to determine it probably isn't much use for me upgrading if I'm not using HD. I started a new thread with the Avid DV Codec question.
 
In my personal opinion there are a ton of reasons to upgrade to 5.2 even if you never work with HD footage. For how cheap the upgrade is, Marquee is worth the price of admission alone.

But 4.6 was a very capable and stable version, so there's that to consider too. :)
 
It's leaps and bounds beyond the title tool in previous versions of Avid. I still do most of my titling outside of Avid, but with Marquee I can do quick titles within the app that look great. Marquee has features such as 3D space, layers, animation, etc.
 
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