GordonPrice
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Degraded fidelity when processing H.264 from H.264 source

I am using FCP-X and Compressor in a screen casting workflow that also includes Claquette, and I am having some issues with final output. I record with Claquette and export to an mv4 file that looks excellent, but is a full screen export, and I need just a cropped area. So I use Compressor to crop to just the area I need (2560x1440 pixels), and that results in a slight loss of fidelity. I then bring that into a 1080p FCP project. I use the higher resolution to allow for some headroom to zoom in on certain areas. I then produce final files in Compressor ar 1080p and 720p resolutions, and these files don't look very good at all. The level of blurriness makes them almost unusable.

Long ago I used the Animation codec for the intermediate steps, as it is lossless, and I suspect the problem I am having is just a function of too many times through a lossy conversion. So, wondering if anyone has a suggestion on either an overall better workflow, or some Compressor settings that will allow for a lossless, or at least less lossy, workflow. I know one option is to just use Camtasia for Mac, but I much prefer editing in FCP, so I would prefer to keep that in the tool chain if at all possible.

 

Thanks! And happy New Year!

Gordon

Final Cut Pro X, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Dec 31, 2015 4:27 AM

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GordonPrice

Q: Degraded fidelity when processing H.264 from H.264 source

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  • by Russ H,

    Russ H Russ H Dec 31, 2015 5:49 AM in response to GordonPrice
    Level 7 (21,880 points)
    Quicktime
    Dec 31, 2015 5:49 AM in response to GordonPrice

    Assuming that the bit rate of the original recording is not high enough to withstand the recompression.

     

    As you know H.264 is a lossy codec and will not stand up as well as an i-frame codec.  Definitely use one of the Pro Res codecs (422 and higher), which is an editing codec  instead of H.264.

     

    Russ

  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB Jan 1, 2016 8:05 AM in response to GordonPrice
    Level 6 (10,026 points)
    Audio
    Jan 1, 2016 8:05 AM in response to GordonPrice

    To be honest, Claquette is trash.  What you really want, if you do this regular, seriously, is ScreenFlow.  Very worth the money, lets you do cropping and zooming and such inside its own very easy to use editor.  I do professional software training tutorials daily, and would never dream of using anything but ScreenFlow.

     

    Your loss in quality is due to two things:  First, you're enlarging the image.  Second, you're using super highly compressed codecs that fall apart quickly over generations.  Claquette forces you to use them, it won't save a ProRes, as far as I know.  I could be wrong about that.

     

    But yeah, you're doing two things that ensure you'll loose image quality.  ScreenFlow will save you tons of time (you'll never touch FCPX or Compressor), and tons of major workflow headaches.  Spend the money, do it right, relax.