Which is the best quality output format?

Dreece47

Newbie Location: Adelaide, Australia Joined: Dec 18, 2010 01:24 Messages: 19 Offline

Solved by

Feb 08, 2013 03:51

Having just upgraded to Powerdirector 11 I am unsure which is the best format to output my project files. I am editing full HD 50p footage and want to produce it at the highest possible quality. I tried an mkv file and it looks excellent, but I think it is still compressed as I have produced this particular clip before and the file size was 2gb (this one is 800mb).

I have quite powerful setup so I'm not worried about system requirements. If anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it. Also, I am wondering why with certain output formats I don't have an option to use 5.1 surround sound? The footage was recorded with surround sound but the option is greyed out with some of them e.g. mpeg 4. Can anyone give me any information regarding that?

Cheers

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 05:05

Hi

I always Produce my projects to the same as my camera.

I shoot in either 1920x1080/50i or P @ 28mbps - which is one of the default profiles in AVC & MPEG4.

As for your 5:1 audio, try looking in the Custom Profiles under the Audio tab, there might be something there.

A good rule of thumb when it comes to quality is to Produce to the highest quality possible, as you can always decrease it but never improve it

Happy editing

Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
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Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 05:06

Hi Dreece47 ,
I'll address your question: Which is the best quality output format?
The one that matches the original recorded video. If we knew what that was, then you would be better directed.

The other part would deal with "what is your intent?" Knowing what you intend using the video for would have a direct bearing on what would be best to retain the quality but match the suitable use you intend.

Audio selected choices are limited to specific file formats.

Use a software called MediaInfo to analyze your footage. Attach the text file output to your next post/reply and you will be guided further.

MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Dafydd

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 05:07

Seems I was one minute 12 seconds too long writing my input... well done Neil

Dafydd

Dreece47

Newbie Location: Adelaide, Australia Joined: Dec 18, 2010 01:24 Messages: 19 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 07:46

Thanks for the responses everyone. The video files are .h264 avc files so I guess I should produce the using that format? I have produced a couple of clips with this format already and there are a few artifacts in the end result. The project I produced as a mkv was seamless. I am going to burn the files to blu-ray as I have a blu ray writer and a blu ray player, so basically I want them to be as good quality as I can (nothing like 2k 4k though.)

Cheers

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 08:22

Quote: Thanks for the responses everyone. The video files are .h264 avc files so I guess I should produce the using that format? I have produced a couple of clips with this format already and there are a few artifacts in the end result. The project I produced as a mkv was seamless. I am going to burn the files to blu-ray as I have a blu ray writer and a blu ray player, so basically I want them to be as good quality as I can (nothing like 2k 4k though.)

Cheers

If you are getting artifacts in the produced video, try producing without (uncheck) Fast video Rendering technology (HA).

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 17:23

Hi

Further to Carl's excellent advice on disabling the Hardware Acceleration in Preferences, artifacts can also be caused by low bitrate.

Try increasing the mbps from (say) 8 to the maximum which I think is 28 mbps

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 08. 2013 17:24

Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
My Youtube Channel
My Vimeo Channel
PD3.5, 5, 6 & 7. Computer: Dell Dimension 5150, Intel Pen. 2.80 GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 256MB, Windows XP Pro!!
PD8 Ultra v3022. Computer: Dell Studio 1747, Intel, i7 Q740 1.73 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 560v 1GB, Windows 7 Ult. 64
PD10 Ultra v2023. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD12 Ultra v2930. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD13 Ultim v3516. Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Mob. Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
PD16 Live v2101 Computer: HP Pavilion dv7, Intel, i7 2630 2.00 GHz, 16GB RAM, ATI Mob.Radeon HD 6770 2GB, Windows 7 Pre. 64
Director Suite 6: PowerDirector 16 Live, PhotoDirector 9, ColorDirector 6, AudioDirector 8

Cameras: Sony(s) HXR-NX5P, HXR-NX70P, NEX-VG10E, a6300 4k, HDR TG5E, GoPro 4 Black, Canon 6D DSLR

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Dreece47

Newbie Location: Adelaide, Australia Joined: Dec 18, 2010 01:24 Messages: 19 Offline

Feb 08, 2013 22:41

Hey guys thanks for all the responses, but I have tried turning off svrt and that isn't helping. I am noticing that the artefacts appear ost when a transition occurs but they also appear randomly. Dafydd, I have attached the mediainfo file, so hopefully you can help me further once you have seen it.

Thanks again!

Filename	354.xml	Download
Description	media info file
Filesize	2 Kbytes
Downloaded:	424 time(s)

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Feb 09, 2013 08:06

Can you post the Text version of dxdiag instead of the xml version?

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Dreece47

Newbie Location: Adelaide, Australia Joined: Dec 18, 2010 01:24 Messages: 19 Offline

Feb 09, 2013 09:09

Sorry, here is the text version. Cheers

Filename	text.txt	Download
Description
Filesize	3 Kbytes
Downloaded:	323 time(s)

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Feb 09, 2013 10:57

Hi Dreece -

As other members have advised, it's "best" to produce as close to the original properties as possible.

Your camera clips are AVC H.264 1920X1080 @ 24MBps (maybe set to record 28MBps) 50 fps

To maintain original quality, just use the same format & profile. By clicking on the + button, you can tweak the settings.

There may be times when you'd want to select a different format/profile (say, to decrease file size), but the settings above will give you the "best" quality result.

Cheers - Tony


Filename	AVC Produce.png	Download
Description
Filesize	115 Kbytes
Downloaded:	7622 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 09. 2013 10:58

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