m2t quality vs codec XX
 

Hi guys,

Just begun my journey into HDV land. Captured some clips yesterday - watching them fullscreen on my 24" LCD (1920x1080) makes my eyes cry of joy! The picture is so crisp that every frame could be a good stillshoot!

Converted 1 min of video to WMV using the HDV templates(changing the size to FULL) - and sure it looks good... but not compared to the original m2t files. General concerns of the WMV file:

* Sharpness
* Vividness of colors
* Pan is shaky

The original larger m2t files plays perfect. I do realize that the WMV is about 35% the size of the m2t. Since it takes considerable time to test all settings for the encoders - I'd like your best tips for making the most of HDV.

Should I go for h.264 ? Can I render directly from Vegas? If not - what format should I put the file in between?

As always, all comments are mostly welcomed!

// Lazze

XVid
 

Last night I did some tests - rendered to QT 264 / DivX 6.6 and XVid.

I was most impressed by XVid.

The QT 264 was "horrible" - I'll try some tweaking here.

I have downloaded MC H264 v2.1 Trial - but I can't render from Vegas to this codec.

I do belive that I have to hook up my computer to my Panasonic 42" Plasma, and check the quality on the TV. Panning shakes etc should not exist on the TV as on my LCD 24"

//Lz

Wmv
 

Codec: WMV - CBR 9MB - 2 Sec between keyframes, full sharpness

Vegas: Frames interpolate, Motion Blur: Box

Generates VERY HQ HDV, file size about 1.5mb/second

// Lazze

Try contacting Steven Gotz by replying to any of his posts around here, he has been doing WMV for a long time. He will be happy to share his experience with you.

I guess the bottom line is, what are you trying to achieve? That's what should drive your experiments. What is your final product going to be? Computer playback only? I don't think it's really worth reducing the quality just to cut the file size in half... at least as long as your computer plays the original file with no problems, and hard drives are this cheap. Or are you trying to burn your product to disk media?

This seems like a good place to jump in...

I just entered HD land as well, with the new Canon HV20. So far, I like it a lot, beautiful video and not bad stills either...

Now for my question:

I'm a hobbyist and shoot mainly family vacations, concerts, school plays occasional stuff for my church, etc... I like to edit and use backround music, etc... I have both Premiere Pro 2.0 and Vegas 7.0e (I am much more familiar with PP), Encore and DVD architect. I have my computer networked to my xBox so I can use xBox's media center to stream video, but I also would like to burn to DVD's. I downloaded Cineform's plugins for both PP and Vegas, but I probably won't buy them (too much money)

What are my options in regards to exporting my movies in order to:
a. get the best quality HD for both "computer streaming to HD 46" TV via xBox" and "Burning to DVD"?

I would appreciate detailed directions/settings to choose for encoding in either PP or Encore, Vegas or DVD Arc...

THanks,

John

Surprised there wasn't more posts in this category as there are quite a few people out there who mightly like to figure out a way to tweak WMV to produce the cleanest video.

I do am working with HDV and when playing back either .m2t files or Cineform encoded .avi files, the iamges are pristine and beautifull. Seems I can't find a CODEC to render in that achieves really anything close to the quality of these original files.

There must be somebody out there who's gone over and over these settings and has determined a few different settings (I use Vegas 7.0e) and can give 2-3 suggestions for settings.

Jon