Quality, Export, and Compression help (pic included)

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Quality, Export, and Compression help (pic included)

I'm working on an edit of my RTW trip and am struggling to figure out some quality issues. Video was captured by 3 cameras (a JVC everio, a GoPro Hero 2, and a Droid 4). All record in HD (720 or 1080). I figured I would use the lowest common denominator and converted all the video in MPEG streamclip to be 1280x720 HD, using Apple Intermediate Codec and 100% quality. I have the whole timeline basically finished in FCE, but I'm trying to refine it now and I'm really bothered by the quality. It doesn't look HD at all...it looks really pixelated. Below is a screenshot of my viewer, which is at 100%. Note the edges where the blue arrows point-they're all jagged.

It looks decent at 100% but that is not even 1/6th of my screen. If I go up to 200% it looks like crap. Is this just because I'm editing on a 26" iMac and my screen is so big that I need 1080p or 4K to look good at full screen? When I cropped the 100% screenshot in Preview I noticed that it is 640x360 pixels...exactly half of 1280x720 like I would expect. Why is that? How do I get the quality to be like it should? Am I losing it in MPEG Streamclip or Final Cut? I haven't even started the export battle, which always infuriates me with how bad the quality comes out if the video is a reasonable file size (This video is 5m40s, I feel like 100MB or less is reasonable for streaming right?)

Thanks a ton for the help. I really want to finish this edit this week but want to make sure I do my trip of a lifetime justice.

Posted on Jul 10, 2014 7:58 AM

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Answer 1

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Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Jul 10, 2014 3:32 PM in response to lfboarder133

If that is your canvas, it looks like you are editing letterboxed in a Standard Definition timeline. Is this what you want to do?

Click on your the Sequence in the FCE browser, and once selected, type Command+9 to see the properties of the sequence. Either report those properties here or take a screen shot of the properties and post that here.

Next, click on any one of your source clips in the FCE browser (you said they are all the same format) and once selected, type Command+9 to see the item properties for the clip. Either report those properties here, or take a screen shot and post that screen shot here.

MtD

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Answer 2

lfboarder133 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2014 5:28 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm guessing the answer to your question is that no I probably don't want to be editing letterboxed in a standard definition timeline. Below are the properties for the sequence and the two of the three source video cameras (The GoPro and JVC were both 1280x720 so I only included the GoPro. The Droid is 1080 so I figured I would show it) I can see that there is a problem here...what's the best way to fix it? Thanks again for helping out so quickly. I'm itching to finish this project.

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Jul 10, 2014 5:56 PM in response to lfboarder133

Well, the problem is you have edited your clips into a Standard Def 720x480 timeline using a bottom feeder DV codec. So your HD source material has been reduced to fit into this sequence, and in that process, something has to give - so FCE throws out pixels to make the source material fit.

I'm doing this from memory, and haven't used FCE for a number of years but here goes (I assume you are using a late version of FCE like 4.0.3):

Go to the menu File and create a new, empty sequence.

Drag one of your 1280 x 720 clips and drag it into the empty timeline. You should be prompted to have the sequence match the source properties. Say yes.

Once you have done that, delete that clip from the timeline.

Return to the sequence you have edited in Standard Def and click anywhere in the timeline.

Type Command+A to select all the clips. Once selected, type Command + C to copy them.

Go back to the new (empty) timeline you created, and click anywhere in it.

Type Command + V to paste your sequence into it.

If the clips to do not appear to fill the canvas correctly, click anywhere on the timeline and then type Command + A to select all the clips.

Once they are selected, control-click on any one of the selected video clips and from the drop down menu, choose Remove Attributes. When the Remove Attributes pane opens, check the boxes for Basic Motion and Distort ( if they are not grayed out) and then click OK.

That should resize all the 1280 x 720 clips correctly for the timeline, you may have to manually go trough the edit and resize all the 1920 clips to fit the timeline.

MtD

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Answer 4

lfboarder133 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2014 6:14 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks. I did what you said, but there is no "remove attributes" available on the control+click menu so therefore my clips are still not appearing correctly in the new sequence. Is there another way to access "remove attributes?"

RE: manually editing the 1920x1080 clips, how would I go about that? Could I export them via quicktime as 720p and have them automatically scale or is there a better way to do it in FCE? Thanks!

Screenshots below:

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Answer 5

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Jul 10, 2014 6:43 PM in response to lfboarder133

With all, the clips selected in your new timeline, type Command + Option + V, does that bring up Remove Attributes?

MtD

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Answer 6

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Jul 10, 2014 6:54 PM in response to Meg The Dog

From the FCE manual:

MtD

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Answer 7

lfboarder133 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2014 8:04 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Wow, what a difference. Amazing what HD looks like when you actually edit it in HD. Sorry for my total Final Cut stupidity...the learning curve is brutal, but this is how you learn I suppose. Two last little questions and I'll shut up:

1.) Any advice for resizing the 1080 clips?

2.) Some of the clips still have blurry frames. Now that I have the sequence totally edited and don't need to trim/move clips all the time, if I use the raw source video (not optimized for Final Cut via MPEG streamclip and the Apple Intermediate Codec) in Final Cut, will the quality be better or will it be the same/not work at all?

Thanks for all your help!

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Answer 8

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Jul 10, 2014 8:19 PM in response to lfboarder133

1.) Any advice for resizing the 1080 clips?

Go to the first clip in your timeline that is 1080 and looks incorrectly sized. Double click on that clip in the timeline, you will see the clip open in the Viewer. Once it does that, in the Viewer, click on the Motion tab, and then adjust the Scale paddle until the frame is just filled. Once that is done, type Command + C to copy the clip and the settings adjustment you made.

Now go to the next instance of a 1080 clip in your timeline and click on it to select it. If there a bunch together you can hold down the shift key while you click on the clips and select as many as you want at a time. Once you have made the selection, type Option + V to paste the attributes from the clip you had just copied. The Paste Attributes window should open, and you want to check the Basic Motion box and keep everything else unchecked. Then click OK, and the clips you had selected should now all be resized.

2.) Some of the clips still have blurry frames. Now that I have the sequence totally edited and don't need to trim/move clips all the time, if I use the raw source video (not optimized for Final Cut via MPEG streamclip and the Apple Intermediate Codec) in Final Cut, will the quality be better or will it be the same/not work at all?

Final Cut Express will only work with HD material in Apple Intermediate codec. You were smart to convert the footage prior to editing. Are the clips that look blurry the 1080 clips? At any rate, you may need to render your timeline, see if any colored render bars are showing on the timeline (rendering will occur automatically when you export your finished movie).

MtD

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