How do you get your sample clips to look so nice?

[vjcharm]

I have been struggling with video editing and compression for a few months now, it's quite a jungle out there. Just wondering, how do you get your sample clips look so nice and clean? My clips always seem to come out pixelated, and yours are also only 320 x 240.

Some of my sources are from bittorrent movie rips, these files are usually compressed AVI files, does that matter? I have bought some clips (luma dancers) and they look great, smooth playback, but my files are glitchy, no matter what compression I use resolume is never totally happy. Anyway, can anyone point to me some good tips on video editing?

[VJair]

which format and what spec are you using? ( ie- codec, fps & pixel size )

if the clip is pixellated before compression, recompressing it wont improve it.

[vjcharm]

Most of the video clips I use are in 640 x 480, 29fps. I have used various codecs, but I find cinepak the best. People here recommend using indeo 5.11, but I find cinepak is better for smoother playback and allowing scratching. I also noticed that some of the resolume sample clips use cinepak compression. I was using Virtual Dub because I found premiere Pro daunting to use, but then I noticed that Virtual Dub made the clips look like crap, so I went with Premiere pro. When you rip a DVD, is there loss of quality? thanks.

[Rags]

when riping a dvd there is no loss in quality unless you reencode it on rip.

one thing tho if you are riping DVD then you probabily want to keep the file in the same dvd format of .mpg and also the same bitrate, normaily around 4-5mbr.

as you are using premier what setting are you using for the project and export, i also use prem and had problems to astrt with, setting up the project correctly b4 you start any editing etc will probabily sort you out loads. Also if you are scaling video clips up then dont use fit to video just use the scale tools, as prem will scale it twice and u will lose loads of quality...

There is a free video convert that i use with the resolume mjpeg codec whyich works great for me with 720x576 video and 640x480. when i get home will post the name and where to get it......

[vjcharm]

Thanks for the tips. I think I have traced the problem to VirtualDub, which I used to use a lot, but I just noticed that when it renders, it seems to make the image very pixelly and and it looks bad. Premiere Pro seems to do a better job. Another problem is that some of my sources are from youtube, which is low res already, and I have to figure out if it's already looking bad to begin with.

Also, I found out the hard way not to use widescreen as your project template, strangely when I would export it would actually stretch it more vertical than horizontal, i.e. it almost looked 480 x 640 rather than the other way around (even though it says 640 x 480). Also, has anyone ever noticed when creating sequences in PP that the audio goes out of sync after editing?

P.S., what software do you use for DVD ripping? Can Adobe do it? I use this program called Magic DVD ripper.

[thedave]

download streamclip from...
http://www.squared5.com/

and if you dont have quicktime pro then get qt alternative from...
http://www.filehippo.com/download_quick ... ternative/
Make sure to use qt alternative version 1.81 or earlier for full compatibility

then use streamclip for dvd ripping to mpeg 2 or transcoding to quicktime, avi or a bunch of other formats

I would reccomend exporting to apple png to get the best possible quality out of streamclip and then import that into your editing package to do any cutting or effects work

[gpvillamil]

Virtualdub works fine for re-encoding clips.

If you are resizing your clips using the built-in "resize" filter, make sure to use something like Lanczos or Bicubic as the resizing algorithm. The default, nearest neighbor, will look pixelated.

As far as the codec, if you are using PicVideo MJPEG, use a quality between 16 and 18. Disable the "separate fields if greater than 240" option. You might try to change the color subsampling to 1:1:1, try it and see.

Premiere often assumes you are working with non-square pixels. If you choose a widescreen template, it is cramming a wider field of view into the same number of horizontal pixels, assuming that the playback device will stretch them out. Resolume uses square pixels, so these clips will look vertically stretched. (For example, a widescreen DVD is encoded as 720x480 pixels (NTSC) but the player will stretch it horizontally at playback, for about 853x480 (16:9) display. Resolume would just attempt to play it back at 720x480.)

[ScamOne]

I tried encoding in virtual dub with the settings you just mentioned and the clip looks great, but the file size is about 90mb.

I notice some clips that I encode come out with really high file sizes - much higher than the original file - when I encode in virtual dub with PICT - sometimes double the size.

Indeo - seems to encode at 100% quality - a file size that is slightly higher than the original.

Why do the file sizes become so high and even though the file size is larger do the PICT encoded files playback better since its the preferred codec for resolume... or is that just some kind of bs becasue of a partnetship deal?

Thanks!