Quote: I've learned recently that bitrate has something to do with the quality of video that is produced. I believe the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality of the video clip viewed.

I just produced, in H.264, a couple of clips at 3 different bitrates - as set in the custom profile section of the Produce' section of PD13. I did this in the attempt to view all three produced clips and observe the difference in video quality. I might have seen a difference between 10 Mbps and the 28Mbps clip - on text that I had in a 'Title' page that described the bitrate. But I think I was hard pressed to see any difference in quality between the 28Mbps clips and the 48.5 Mbps clip.

Is there a 'Test Pattern' - like those used in the old days of television, that would help me 'see' the difference in how the bitrates affect video quality? Is there somewhere i can go (as in a website) to be able to dl them?

Thanks

CS

Yes, there are.

Google Images *Test Patterns*

The above link should be to Large Images, just pick one or more and save as on your computer. There are several resolution charts That would make the effect of bit rate pretty plain. 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.

Hi CS -

Where you're most likely to see glaring differences in PQ with different video bitrates is where there's motion in a video. A static test pattern won't show it so plainly.

As an example, here are two renders of a short graphic video clip - no not that kind of "graphic"! The original MOV file was rendered at 139Mbps. Here's one PDR14 produced at *30Mbps* & here's another rendered at *3Mbps

Attached is a side-by-side screenshot, but the difference is far more obvious in the videos.

Cheers - Tony
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Here's a little project that may be useful for testing. It's a HR test pattern with motion applied.

Render at high & low bitrates, at the same resolution, and make your own comparisons.

Cheers - Tony
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The Test Pattern Motion.zip has a PD file in it Tony that the message "This project was created in a newer version of Cyberlink PowerDirectoer and is not supported by the current version".

You don't have that file in a PD13 version do you?

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Quote: The Test Pattern Motion.zip has a PD file in it Tony that the message "This project was created in a newer version of Cyberlink PowerDirectoer and is not supported by the current version".

You don't have that file in a PD13 version do you?

CS

You can edit the PD 14 pds file to make it work in PD 13. Open the pds file in Wordpad, search for 14, read the file to see if the 14 refers to the version number of Powerdirector. There are about three locations in the pds file you change to 13. Three is just a guess, I have done it but I do not remember how many there are. One is right at the top of the file, the rest are much lower, close to the bottom of the file.

You know when you have changed all of the version numbers when the pds file opens in PD 13. After the PD 14 pds file opens in PD 13, Save As the file in PD13 to be sure it continues to work in PD 13.

Only change the PD version numbers, do not change anything else.

Edit the pds file at your own risk. (make a copy first!). 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.

The "14" appears a few dozen places in the file when I used 'find' in WordPad.

This line appeared:


and while it isn't "14" exactly, I'm wondering if I need to change 1400 to 1300 and the "14.0.0.2303" to 13.0.3516.0 - my current PD1 version?

The word 'version' is only found in 6 places and it's not always referring to the PDR version.

There is another place that lists the following:

VCacheFilePath="C:\Users\Tony\Desktop\PDR14 Output\Preview Cache Files\Cache_Video01eba7de.xml" ACacheFilePath="C:\Users\Tony\Desktop\PDR14 Output\Preview Cache Files\Cache_Audio01eba7e0.xml"

referring to PDR14 Output - should those be changed too - to PDR13 Output?

Thanks Carl

CS


edit: adding what I've done so far

I went ahead and changed what I mentioned above. When I go to save the document in WordPad I think I saved it under the wrong file extension. There are 5 possible extensions that WordPad will save under and as I think this is an XML document, I'm going to try to save it (with the modifications mentioned above), as a Office Open XML Document. Then I'll try to 'open it' in PD and see if it'll run.

CS

Thanks for taking the time Carl but I clearly do not know what I'm doing in an XML file. I've tried saving the changes as that Office Open XML and I still either am not changing what needs to be changed or not saving in a correct format or who knows what.
So, I'm hoping you or Tony (or anyone else) can help point me in a direction for a motion Test pattern.
CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

CS2014 - Here attached is the fixed .pds file that will work in PD13. Simply put this in the Test Pattern Motion folder and open it in place of the other one.

Let us know if this fixes the problem.

Thanks tomas - I got it dld and then was trying to just drag it into the editing widow - that wasn't getting me anywhere - so .. if all else fails - I followed instructions... (lol).

Copied it into the Test Pattern Motion folder and then opened it - it opened in PD13 and I see the test pattern. I've gotten the same pattern off of the net earlier. Didn't think to zoom in a little and pan - you did. So I think I've gotten whet you intended for me to get.

Thanks.

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Quote: Copied it into the Test Pattern Motion folder and then opened it - it opened in PD13 and I see the test pattern. I've gotten the same pattern off of the net earlier. Didn't think to zoom in a little and pan - you did. So I think I've gotten whet you intended for me to get.

I did not write that pds file. Open it in notepad and you'll see the name Tony and his pc folder paths in PDR14 just like the other one. I only made a change to allow it to open in PD13. You have to follow his instructions as intended. In fact users of PD14 can open either file and the content and use result is the same.

Thanks for doing that tomas - I got that file to work that you (by way of Tony) provided!

I opened it in WordPad and tried to find where to change ...whatever referred to PD14 to 13 but was unsuccessful. Not surprising as I really do not know my way around that sort of thing. Carl tried to help me but I just did not find the proper things to change. Not sure I saved what I did change into a proper file-type either.

What did you change in the file, if I may ask?

I'll produce that file at a Custom Profile at 10Mbps, then the default 1920-1080 60p/28 Mbps, and then a final custom profile of 48.5 Mbps. Then put them all on a flash drive and compare them as played on a DVD player - a BD player that lets you read form a flash drive too.

I'd really like to 'see' the difference bitrate play on video quality.

Of course my next questions will be (probably on a new thread) - When I burn a BD in PD, what bit-rate does THAT happen at?

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive