toddjb

Q: Importing 2.7K video for a 1080 project; Quality not good

I'm on FCP 10.1.4.   Editing on a 15" MBP that is running OS 10.9.5.

I have imported some beautiful 2.7K 60fps (59.94p) GoPro footage.   When I play it back in the viewer on the upper right quadrant of the screen, it looks great.   Sharp, bright color, smooth.

 

I have created a 1080 30fps (29.97p) project.   I plan to export to that resolution as I find it streams well and looks fine on most screens large and small.  However...

 

If I take a video from the browser and drag it into my Project, the quality is severely degraded.  When I now play that same clip from the project instead of the browser, it is now very soft, colors are not as nice.  It just looks like another crappy GoPro video and not the great quality it looks outside of the Project.

 

I have not exported it yet, but from past experience, my export to Compressor doesn't bring back the fidelity of the original.

 

I am aware that I'm dropping the video resolution and the frame rate, however, I have seen some very crisp 1080 and even 720 video, so I'm not sure why this occurs.  I thought if I gave FCP more than it needs, it could extract something nice.

 

Should I trust that Compressor will clean it up as much as it can? 

Should change over to a project that is 2K and/or 60fps (to match the max resolution of the collection of footage I have.)?

I'm sure some of my footage is only 720p.

Is there a FCP setting to have it spend more time translated the video from the native resolution to the project resolution?

 

Thanks for any help.  This has plagued me for a while.  Web searches don't turn up obvious answers to this question so I was hoping someone here could help.

Posted on May 19, 2016 6:44 PM

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Q: Importing 2.7K video for a 1080 project; Quality not good

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  • by Tom Wolsky,Helpful

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 7:29 AM in response to toddjb
    Level 10 (118,096 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 7:29 AM in response to toddjb

    SSwitch the viewer to better quality and render the project. Generally I think, unless you're planning to use the extra size to reframe, most users edit in the original size and create a full size master before scaling down on export.

  • by toddjb,

    toddjb toddjb May 20, 2016 7:28 AM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Video
    May 20, 2016 7:28 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Tom, thanks for taking the time to answer.  I changed both settings you indicated.  It may be marginally better but I am not certain.   When I did "render all" it finished the job in 5 seconds which seems really quick if it rendered the entire 2 minutes of clips I have in the project thus far.  I tried selecting Render when highlighting the project in the browser and when I was down in the project.  No difference.  If I trigger it another way, please advise.

     

    So you hit on a point which I also could not find an answer to.  Editing in original size or scaled down.

    Again, web searches gave no definitive answer on if it is better to let FCP size down during editing, or have Compressor do it on export?

    I should say, I do have some clips in the project already at 720K and I am using 2.7K on others so that I can crop a bit and still get a nice image, but that isn't working out.

     

    If I do edit at full size, would this be the "2K" resolution option in Project?

    And if I do that, will it cause any bad artifacts to my 720P originals it will try to scale up? (I wasn't sure if it will fill in missing pixels to get up to 2K and then when it gets translated back down to a lower resolution on export, I'm in worse shape due to multiple processes on the same file.)

     

    Again, thank you for your time.

     

    I have at least 4 questions up there, so if anyone else has an opinion on the matter, I'm all ears!

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 7:52 AM in response to toddjb
    Level 10 (118,096 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 7:52 AM in response to toddjb

    IF I had 720 media I would work in a 720 project rather than scale it up. The 2K material will not look as good in the project but you then have reframing options with quite a lot of leeway.

  • by Russ H,Helpful

    Russ H Russ H May 20, 2016 8:33 AM in response to toddjb
    Level 7 (21,770 points)
    Quicktime
    May 20, 2016 8:33 AM in response to toddjb

    Just to add…if you were to scale up your 720 clips to 2.7K. you would probably not introduce artifacts…but you would definitely soften those images so that it was noticeable. So what Tom said about a 720 project being the better choice.

     

    And agree with your supposition that Compressor won't be able to clean up any video clips that are already problematic.

     

    Russ

  • by toddjb,

    toddjb toddjb May 20, 2016 8:37 AM in response to Russ H
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Video
    May 20, 2016 8:37 AM in response to Russ H

    Thanks.

     

    Yes, I'd say 70% of the clips were recorded at 2.7K, but I have the rest in a mix of 1080 (most)  and 720 (some).

     

    Nice to know I won't introduce artifacts if I scale up.  So here is the question then...

    If I were to scale up the 720P to a working 2.7K project, and let's say I then export out to 720P, will I end up with clips as good as the original 720 files or will the quality be reduced due to the scale-up/scale-down process?

    I wasn't sure if Compressor starts with the source material and applies all renderings at one time, or if it works with the state the FCP Project left it in.

     

    In reality, I'll export at 1080 as the greater majority of my footage is 1080 or higher.  I'm just looking for the best way to get there.  It's heartbreaking to see such beautiful 2.7K drone aerial footage rendered to a pretty soft looking 1080.  Again, I haven't done a full export, maaaaaybe Compressor will do me right.