Slow Motion Footage - Poor Quality Export

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Slow Motion Footage - Poor Quality Export

Greetings,

I know its no where near a professional camera, but I've been importing some slow motion footage taken with my Canon S100. The original file out of the camera is MPEG-4 AVC - 640x480 @ 29.97 fps, 10.2 Mbps. It's actually capturing at 120fps.

When I use any of these clips in a Final Cut Pro X project, when I export the project, the slow motion clip always looks horrible. The rest of the regular 1080 footage from this pocket camera looks fine, its just the slow motion segments that are horribly compressed. I've tried export to "Apple Devices", exporting media to H264, just about everything - similar poor results.

When I transcode the original into "Optimized" media, I opened the Optimized file in Finder and it looked fine. When I created a Proxy version, it looked terrible.

Just to test, I ran the original media through Handbrake to a .mp4 H264 and the transcoded video looked fine. So its only after it passes through Final Cut that it looks bad.

Below are some screenshots of an original clip followed by an FCPX exported version.

Screenshot of original media

Screenshot of project output (in this case, .H264)

Any thoughts?

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.7.3), FCP 10.0.4

Posted on May 1, 2012 6:18 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

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May 1, 2012 6:43 PM in response to greg104

You're scaling 640x480 material up to HD? It's never going to look good.

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Answer 2

greg104 Author

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May 1, 2012 6:48 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I have a project that was entirely slow motion video - so the source footage was 640x480 and the exported version was also 640x480 - so no scaling. Same problem with poor output. See screenshots:

Source footage

FCP X output

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

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May 1, 2012 7:03 PM in response to greg104

Are you using the Conform function to slow the video? Is quality set to optical flow? Export media to current settings. How does it look?

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

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May 1, 2012 7:05 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Also what are the exact properties of the project you're editing in?

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Answer 5

greg104 Author

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May 1, 2012 8:11 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Wanted to start off by saying thanks for the help -

I am not modifying the speed/playback of the video in Final Cut. The camera records 120 fps, but the video file it creates/stores on the memory card plays back at 29.97. (So recording for just a second or two creates ~ 4-10 second video file)

The project properties for the projects that the screenshots are from are both:

640 x 480

29.97p

Stereo/48KHz

Any other properties I am forgetting to provide?

I tried Exporting to "Current Settings" and still got bad output.

As I said before, when FCP X creates the Optimized media, it looks fine - just like the source.

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Answer 6

greg104 Author

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May 1, 2012 8:18 PM in response to greg104

Would providing a sample video file help? As in a short original clip from the camera? The ski clip from above is only 20 mb and I could send you a dropbox link

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

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May 1, 2012 8:19 PM in response to greg104

I don't know what's doing it, but I suspect it has something to do with the way the camera handles the frame rate.

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

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May 1, 2012 8:21 PM in response to greg104

Sure. It would be interesting to see.

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Answer 9

greg104 Author

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May 1, 2012 8:31 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r8wweb9xlbtv8fk/MVI_5723.mov

Raw footage from the camera

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Answer 10

Tom Wolsky

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May 2, 2012 6:10 AM in response to greg104

I get a 404 message from Dropbox on that link.

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Answer 11

greg104 Author

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May 2, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I had a change to the link - should work now - try this one

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r8wweb9xlbtv8fk/MVI_5723.mov

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Answer 12

Tom Wolsky

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May 3, 2012 8:20 AM in response to greg104

Slowed down to 25%. I don't think you will do better than that with Twixtor or using an overcranked camera. This is highly compressed media. There's not a lot of detail in the original.

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Answer 13

greg104 Author

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May 3, 2012 5:25 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom,

I'm not sure I follow you completely. I'm not trying to slow this clip down any further. I might be understanding the term "overcranked" wrong, but I believe the camera is already overcranked - as its recording at 120 frames per second and playing it back at ~30. So the original file out of the camera has the appearance of being four times slower than the events really occured.

When I simply drop that clip into a project without any edits or modifications, and then I export it, I see the significant quality loss. I understand the original media is highly compressed and without much detail, but I feel like even then, the output is significantly worse.

In your attached image, is the left the original clip and the right a final output file of FCP X? How did you export it, because it looks better than my outputs.

Thanks again!

Greg

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Answer 14

Tom Wolsky

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May 3, 2012 6:01 PM in response to greg104

First, the image on the left is the export, the right is the original.

The video you uploaded is 29.97fps. It's not over cranked. Normally when you put high frame rate video in a 29.97 project the material plays at normal speed because the application converts it to 29.97. When you use the conform function in FCP that returns the video to its high frame rate, making it appear as slomo in the FCP project.

All I did was put your 29.97 video in a project that matched its specs and exported using current settings.

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Answer 15

greg104 Author

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May 3, 2012 6:54 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

This might sound silly, but I think I might have discovered my issue...

By default, all my imports create a Proxy version. In my settings, under Playback, I have "Use Proxy Media" checked instead of "Use Original or Optimized" Media. If I leave THAT setting to Proxy media when I export, does Final Cut use the Proxy media for the actual final Export? I always assumed that it used Proxy media for playback during editing to take stress of the computer, but a final export would always use the original media for best quality.

So you have to go into settings before a final export at the end of a project and change it back to Use Original Media to get the best quality export?

What about the "Playback Quality" setting - High Quality vs. Better Performance - does that affect quality the final export?

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