Mac vs. PC video quality is different - What codec is best for playing video on a PC?

Question

Mac vs. PC video quality is different - What codec is best for playing video on a PC?

Hi all,

My source files are usually H.264 which FCPX then transcodes to ProRes422 files for me to edit with. Once my edit is complete, I export the final as ProRes422 (HD1080p 25fps) as the master file and then use compressor to encode according to specific needs (720p for online streaming etc). My client likes to receive the full res export AND an mpeg4 for use on their app.

The client has a Mac and loves the work I've been doing but has recently notified me that the quality of the video is significantly different when played on a PC, specifically colour and audio levels.

I suppose I have two questions here:

1) Am I getting the most out of the final video by exporting as ProRes422?

2) WHY does video quality differ so much when played on a PC? Do I need to be encoding differently for use on a PC?

Apologies if this is a bit of an inane question but I've been working with this client for a while now and have got comfortable always following the same workflow and using the same formats/codecs and now I feel like I've missed something major along the way.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,

Georgia

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 6, 2015 2:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 6, 2015 7:51 AM in response to georgia.greening

"PC" doesn't help us much. You need to know the exact application they're using for playback.

H.264 is as good as universal these days, we have excellent result with Windows Media Player. Still, most of our internally distributed online programming is transcoded to WMV using a relatively inexpensive product from Telestream.

Reply

Answer 2

Aug 6, 2015 8:24 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Hi David,

Well the client is actually watching on Vimeo and saying it plays back differently on PC to Mac. I have also had this recently where I edited a video that I was so pleased with, exported as ProRes422 and on Mac it looks beautiful but when I watched the file on my partners PC it looked awful.

Do you think using h.264 for the master file would work better than using Apple ProRes? I always thought exporting as ProRes was better but perhaps not.

Thanks again

Reply

Answer 3

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Aug 6, 2015 8:49 AM in response to georgia.greening

VLC (windows and mac) is a very versatile and good player.

Download for windows and see if it can play your stuff.

Reply

Answer 4

Aug 6, 2015 9:48 AM in response to georgia.greening

georgia.greening wrote:

Hi David,

Well the client is actually watching on Vimeo and saying it plays back differently on PC to Mac.

Thanks again

That would have been nice to know in your first post. What about other video online feeds like youtube or Hulu or Netflix? If you both access the same movie, do they look different?

Macs and PCs can be set up to use dramatically different color spaces at the OS level and at the display level. All of our Macs are easy to set up. All of our PCs require a tech because, collectively, we can put everything we know and like about Windows into a thimble. You probably need a good Windows nerd to help them with their problem.

Do you know how to use color reference signals like SMTPE or EBU color bars? Search on vimeo for COLOR BARS, there are dozens of useful clips You can easily use them to set the monitor's correct color response for online video but this may alter how your clients' PCs work looks in Windows, which will require tweaking the OS.

Whatever you do, don't tweak your client's toys! Let them do it themselves or use their trained staff.

Reply