Compressor Export Setting - Dithering - check or uncheck?

Hello,


Please does someone have more information about Dithering?


In Compressor Help I could only find:


  • Dithering: When selected, adds a certain type of noise to images to prevent large-scale distracting patterns such as color banding. If your image has excessive noise after rendering, deselect this checkbox.


The inbuilt Compressor presets don't use it.


How would this "certain type of noise" look?

I tried it and could not see "excessive noise" afterwards, so I kept this setting,

but what are the advantages/disadvantages?

Honestly I couldn't see a difference (maybe just in my case, footage of forest, many leaves).

Also, does it add a lot to the rendering time?


Many thanks!


iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Apr 28, 2023 6:20 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 28, 2023 6:51 PM

Dithering won’t be any use to you with the material you describe. It’s primarily for use with smooth gradient colors like sunsets. 8-bit formats will be unable to create smooth color changes and will reproduce the colors as distinct bands. Adding noise will help the encoding to break up the banding.


It depends on your system, but it shouldn’t as a great deal. Only use it if you need to. With 10-bit encoding it’s almost never needed.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 28, 2023 6:51 PM in response to coxorange

Dithering won’t be any use to you with the material you describe. It’s primarily for use with smooth gradient colors like sunsets. 8-bit formats will be unable to create smooth color changes and will reproduce the colors as distinct bands. Adding noise will help the encoding to break up the banding.


It depends on your system, but it shouldn’t as a great deal. Only use it if you need to. With 10-bit encoding it’s almost never needed.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Compressor Export Setting - Dithering - check or uncheck?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.