DVD Quality at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > Apple / Mac Post Production Solutions > Final Cut Pro X

Final Cut Pro X
The latest version of FCP from Apple.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old January 30th, 2013, 03:45 PM   #1
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Manchester England
Posts: 435
DVD Quality

Hi All,

I have filmed and edited a 1080p video in FCPX and now trying to supply a DVD to my client. I have tried a a wide variety of settings but the DVD looks plain old awful on a 32" plasma tv or laptop. It looks great on a 32" CRT TV. The client has complained now 5 times and I have no idea what else to do. Can anybody recommend any settings which they feel are safe?

The footage is 25p and filmed at 1920x1080. I am using apple compressor to compress the movie.

Thanks

Last edited by Tariq Peter; January 30th, 2013 at 04:19 PM.
Tariq Peter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 30th, 2013, 05:08 PM   #2
Major Player
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
Posts: 710
Re: DVD Quality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tariq Peter View Post
I have filmed and edited a 1080p video in FCPX and now trying to supply a DVD to my client. I have tried a a wide variety of settings but the DVD looks plain old awful on a 32" plasma tv or laptop. It looks great on a 32" CRT TV.
If you want it to look great, you'll have to supply the client with a blu-ray. DVD can't, by definition, handle anything close to 1920x1080. IIRC in PAL land a DVD is good for a maximum of 704 x 576 at 50i. And this will probably look fine on an old 32" analog CRT TV, but not so good on a new 32" plasma HDTV.
Bruce Watson is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 30th, 2013, 06:34 PM   #3
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Manchester England
Posts: 435
Re: DVD Quality

Hi,

I have supplied them with both a DVD and Blu-ray however they hated the quality of the DVD. They basically said that they have watched a large majority of home made family DVD's created from things like iMovie and the quality is far superior from what I have supplied. I can only but it down to the encoding settings but have no idea why the quality is as bad as what they have said.
Tariq Peter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 30th, 2013, 06:53 PM   #4
Trustee
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Crookston, MN
Posts: 1,353
Re: DVD Quality

are they watching these iMovie's on their big screen TV? Their laptop is more likely, and that is much easier to make it look good.
Robert Benda is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 30th, 2013, 11:07 PM   #5
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: New York City
Posts: 2,650
Re: DVD Quality

Difficult clients.

What are the steps,you are,taking to create this DVD? How long is the project? How are you exporting the project? Are you using the DVD presets or making your own adjustments? What are these adjustments? Have you tried to make a DVD directly out of FCPX using the Share menu?
__________________
William Hohauser - New York City
Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation
William Hohauser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 03:57 AM   #6
Trustee
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: York, England
Posts: 1,323
Re: DVD Quality

I've never been happy with the quality of DVDs from compressor / FCPX. We use CUDA downsizing algorithms in Premiere Pro exports to do the resizing, but I have to admit I dislike this solution.

If you watch a DVD after watching the Blu-ray you'll hate it.

If you watch a DVD after editing 1080p, you'll hate it.

Have they told you specifically what they don't like about the quality? Is it aliasing? Is it noise? what's the problem exactly?

Can they supply you with a home DVD you can use to compare against?

How long is the video on the DVD? i.e. how much did you squeeze on ?
__________________
Qualified UAV Pilot with CAA PFAW
Aerial Photo / Aerial Video | Corporate Video Production
Dave Partington is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 07:01 AM   #7
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Manchester England
Posts: 435
Re: DVD Quality

Hi,

I have two videos the first is 15minutes and the second, 1hour 10mins. Both on separate DVDS and both look pixelated

Workflow

Export the movie from FCPX using Share and select Pro Res 422 creating a High Res Movie.
Import the movie into compressor and use the following settings

Video Format
Format = PAL
Frame Rate = 25
Aspect Ratio = 16x9
Field Dominance = Progressive

Quality
One Pass CBR - 7.8Mpbs
Motion Estimation - Best

Gop
Gop Structure = IP
Gop Size = 6

Frame Controls = Off

The Output leaves the video looking extremely blocky with no smooth lines, almost like http://www.softize.net/wp-content/up...e_vreveal1.jpg

Watching the videos back on my own 21" monitor I would have to agree. When I play any Hollywood DVD the quality is amazing.
I understand they use the best encoders in the world but surely with the source footage I have I should be getting a better quality video.

I was looking at CinemaCraft only to read - IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT : WE have discontinued sale of all CINEMA CRAFT products, which promptly put that idea to bed.
Tariq Peter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 09:53 AM   #8
Trustee
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Mumbai, India
Posts: 1,385
Re: DVD Quality

If your Prores results look fine, then obviously it's the encoding process that's at fault. Your settings look okay for 25p. 'Pixelation' is unacceptable, even for consumer grade encoders. It's not rocket science.

It might be a good idea to take the project to another facility to keep this client happy.

And you don't need the 'best encoders in the world' - I have achieved excellent results with Premiere Pro and Encore. Common DVD players upsample to Hi-def, and GPUs do it too.

Does this problem occur with all your projects, or is this the first time? Did it work when you tested this workflow prior to commencing this project?
__________________
Get the Free Comprehensive Guide to Rigging ANY Camera - one guide to rig them all - DSLRs to the Arri Alexa.
Sareesh Sudhakaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 11:25 AM   #9
Major Player
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Glendale, AZ
Posts: 691
Re: DVD Quality

Between 2008-2009, I spent literally weeks upon weeks of time trying to get my DVDs to look better, to no avail. Ultimately I have concluded Quicktime is the culprit.

You can only improve things by tweaking settings - but the root cause is Quicktime crappy scaling from HD to SD. There's no fix.

Here's the ultimate customer service solution: Ask for the DVD back. Produce another Blu-ray, purchase a Blu-ray player ($59). Ship them their new Blu-ray player and Blu-ray. Wha-la ...happy client.
Craig Terott is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 11:34 AM   #10
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: New York City
Posts: 2,650
Re: DVD Quality

I have created dozens upon dozens of DVDs from HD master files and never encountered pixelation of any sort. Unless there's an issue with downscaling PAL HD in the DVD encoding process I would suggest you try the short program using the DVD preset in Compressor. Do not change any of the settings especially the GOP. You could also try creating a DVD directly out of FCPX. See how those come out.

You can also first use Compressor to make a downscaled PAL SD file and then use that file to make a DVD from the presets. See how that works.
__________________
William Hohauser - New York City
Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation
William Hohauser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 12:41 PM   #11
Major Player
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 553
Re: DVD Quality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tariq Peter View Post
Watching the videos back on my own 21" monitor I would have to agree. When I play any Hollywood DVD the quality is amazing.
I would suggest taking the good bluray disk to a PC and ripping the HD video files. Then use HCenc with Avisynth and Dan Isaac's hd2sd scripts to create a high quality DVD compatible downconvert.

HC Encoder | BitBurners.com
http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page
http://3dvp.com/hd2sd_sd2hd.zip

In my opinion, this free software gets closer than any other software under $1000 to the encoding and downscaling quality of $50,000 pro solutions. If you are good with computers, it is also possible to run this software under the Wine windows emulator on Linux and likely OSX as well.
Eric Olson is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 01:28 PM   #12
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Ontario, California
Posts: 309
Re: DVD Quality

Tariq, I also have issues with my burn DVD's, pixelated as well, and looks horrible while watching it on my HD TV. I found out that if your using Compressor, change "same as source which is the default from the output fields in Frame Control "to progressive". It will give you much better results, no more pixelating in my experienced.
Rickey Brillantes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 06:10 PM   #13
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Manchester England
Posts: 435
Re: DVD Quality

Hi,

I have tried progressive and hoping this may work out. I have actually just met the client and watched the video on her TV, I have to say she is being extremely picky but I can understand why.

She has a DVD player and a 40" HDTV, now I did try and explain that watching a video which is being stretched to fit a 40" TV will cause a loss of quality I am limited to the amount I can do.

I could see the issues she was having, faces in the background seemed blocky, and edges were not rounded. It just seemed a like a heap of pixels in the background instead of faces which I have not seen before when watching DVDs on my HDTV.
Tariq Peter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 06:56 PM   #14
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Ontario, California
Posts: 309
Re: DVD Quality

Pixelating is highly visible on TV's with matte screens, compared to glossy screens, specially those small heads in the background, looks like Lego people or MINECRAFT which my kid is playing right now.

Good luck and let us know the result of the changes.
Rickey Brillantes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 31st, 2013, 07:25 PM   #15
Major Player
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 826
Re: DVD Quality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tariq Peter View Post
Quality

One Pass CBR - 7.8Mpbs
Hi Tariq.

Run, don't walk, to your computer and reset your quality mode from "One Pass CBR" to "Two pass VBR Best".

Quick!
David Knaggs is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > Apple / Mac Post Production Solutions > Final Cut Pro X

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:53 AM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network