Best quality encoding?

When you import a music CD, what's the best setting for highest audio quality? I read somewhere that MP3 is not high quality?

Apple Lossless is the most compact of the three, but has very little support in non-Apple players and programs.
WAV and AIFF are similar to each other from a format and size perspective, and are widely accepted, but AIFF is more flexible as it allows tagging and art directly in the file.
All 3 give equivalent audio quality, as they are all "lossless" representations of the audio on the CD.

Similar Messages

What is the best quality encoding ?

I am buring a DVD on iDVD8. I am trying to set the encoding. There are 3 options: Best Performance, High Quality and Professional Quality. Reading the iDVD quide, it was not clear at all, what would give me the best quality.
Set aside the background encoding, and all other factors, what would give the BEST quality out of the 3 options ?
Why Apple could not say that in simple words in the guide ?

Quoting F Shippey here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5248366&#5248366
iDVD 6 offers 'Best Performance' (under 60 minutes on a SL disc) and 'Best Quality' encoding (under 120 minutes on a SL disc).
iDVD '08 offers 'Best Performance' (under 60 minutes on a SL disc), 'Best Quality' encoding (under 120 minutes on a SL disc) and 'Professional Quality' encoding (under 120 minutes on a SL disc).
With either version, if your content is under 60 minutes 'Best Performance' will give you the best quality!
If your content is OVER 60 minutes and under 120 minutes 'Professional Quality' in iDVD '08 should give better overall quality than 'Best Quality'
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5611104&#5611104
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Best quality encode settings? Handbrake?

Hi Gang,
So, if I want to encode the best quality video for Apple TV, what settings would I want to use...say in Handbrake?
I want to make a true HD slideshow to show in our photo studio.
Thanks for any advice!
Rob

I've tried it, and it is quite good, but there is obviously quite a bit of compression. I want to display a slide show that is perfect.
Thanks!

FCProp 6: Which setting for the best quality encoding (capture)?

Hi everybody,
i am producing contents from HDV cam (Sony Z1) and i just saw one of my colleagues (journalist too) working on Adobe Premiere having a really better final report than my one (using the same tape).
i just wonder if someone could explain what would be the best workflow to get the best quality on a standard DVD (not the next generation)?
our reports are based on Fashion, so we are using some filters for some of the images. i heared about the RS422 or something like that wich is the new aple encoder ? am i right ? is this what should be used for the capture and rendering files ?
what about the export encoding setting? movies are all under 10min duration
Thank you very much for your hightlights
Sam

I use FCPX/iDVD regularly to make DVDs. Workflow is to edit 1080i project in FCPX, add chapter markers, and export video using Share -> Master File (default) with no changes.
The resulting .mov file is then imported to iDVD with various themes, etc. and "Save as Disk Image" is used to create a burnable file for creating DVDs with Disk Utility.
Be aware that the titling of chapter markers is flaky and you may have to retitle them in iDVD as the name from FCPX is not always saved. No big deal.
I also use MPEG Streamc;ip to create a 128//720 mp4 file which goes readily into iTunes and then i synced to my iPad for portable show and tell. Have to confess that I have Compressor too, but have never used it and from following the forums get the impression that it's not easy to use. MS works fine for my limited purposes

Best Quality/Encoding Problems

Hi,
I recently got a Canon Vixia HG21 camcorder (it shoots in AVCHD format) and I tried using it with my Windows computer. The technical specifications of that computer didn't match with the requirements for Premiere Pro CS4, which was my number one choice for editing software. I ended up buying a new iMac (the specifications can be read here: http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html.)
Now I have Premiere Pro CS4 and I really like all of the editing and effects features that are in it. I'm having a little trouble with importing the videos from the camera. I have been using the USB cord that came with the camera to save it on iMovie (in "full" quality) and then putting it into Adobe Premiere. My main problem though is with exporting the video. Since this is my first Mac I really don't know what format/codec is the best to export a video in. I tried exporting it in Mpeg-4 and H.264 formats but I'm really not sure if these are good choices. When I exported both of them the H.264 format had the best quality but I really think that it could have been better. I'm mainly interested in putting the videos on Youtube and occasionally on a DVD.
Another problem (sorry for so many questions) is that when I exported a 5-minute clip using the H.264 format, I left the computer running for a long part of the day and came back. It still had 2 hours to go after running for 7 hours! Is this right? Because it doesn't seem like it should be.
So basically I have three questions:
1. What is the best way to import videos from my camcorder to my iMac?
2. What are the best ways to export those videos from Premiere CS4 with the highest quality possible?
3. How long does encoding usually take and what is the best way to do it?
Thanks for all the help that I know I'll be able to find on this forum.

The Copying of the files to the HDD will be the route with the AVCHD material. The processing speed and ease of editing that footage will depend almost 100% on the speed of your CPU, with the remainder being handled by the RAM and the I/O sub-system (your HDD's).
For an Export format, especially for the Mac, I'd look into the H.264 CODEC. That should work well too for YouTube.
Good luck,
Hunt

What are best Mpeg encoder settings for making DVDs?

In switching from PP1.5 to CS3 the procedure is different for making DVDs and we have to encode mpeg files that later get picked up by Encore DVD build proces. What are the best mpeg encode settings for making the DVDs?
Thanks,
Chuck Taylor

Question:
If you are doing a video that is small enough that you are not worried about size, what is the absolute best quality encoder settings? Would a Continous Bitrate result in a higher quality file generally? VBR is for trying to make a smaller file I assume.
I'm frustrated with even white letters on black titles that have some flicker. I just don't seem to get the smooth quality I desire.
Should I look at a different encoder?
If you output PP3 to an AVI and then import it into encore, isn't there a reduction of Q. due to the save to the AVI file?
thanks.

Opinions on Highest quality encode for DVD

I am doing a 16:9 Loop DVD for a tradeshow display. It will be shown on a 50" Plasma screen. I am trying to get the best quality encode on the screen. The project is 50 Sec long (storage & encode time not an issue) and contains both graphics and video elements. Video elements were shot on HDV. Compositing done in After Effects at 1920x1080. There does not seem to be a direct way to encode from AfterEffects to MPEG2, probably because the frame size is not MPEG2 standard. What would be the absolute best workflow to get to MPEG2 with as little artifacting as possible? I'm thinking uncompressed 10bit 4:2:2?
G5 2.5 Dual Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Someone here said once that 10 bit was overkill and that there may be issues with some encoders's conversions from 10-bit down to 8-bit.
Having said that, I'd use either 10-bit or 8-bit uncompressed codec. You probably want to resize your After Effects render down to 720x480 on export from your render queue, rather than have the MPEG2 encoder do it. Then take the uncompressed 720x480 file and MPEG2 encode away. Since it's only 50 seconds, I'd do a 7.5Mbps CBR 16:9 encode (if delivery is via DVD-R).

Best quality to go from 1920x1080 to 720x480

How do I take 1920x1080 footage and convert it to 720x480 and maintain best quality?
When I use mpeg streamclip and convert via DV-NTSC - the image is distorted. Is there something else I can do?
Will a different Compression other than Apple Motion JPEG A work any differently?

#42 - Quick and dirty way to author a DVD
Shane's Stock Answer #42 - David Roth Weiss' Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:
The absolute simplest way to make a DVD using FCP and DVDSP is as follows:
1. Export a QT movie, either a reference file or self contained using current settings.
2. Open DVDSP, select the "graphical" tab and you will see two little monitors, one blue, one green.
3. Select the left blue one and hit delete.
4. Now, select the green one, right click on it and select the top option "first play".
5. Now drag your QT from the browser and drop it on top of the green monitor.
6. Now, for a DVD from an HD source, look to the right side and select the "general tab" in the track editor, and see the Display Mode, and select "16:9 pan-scan."
7. Hit the little black and yellow burn icon at the top of the page and put a a DVD in when prompted. DVDSP will encode and burn your new DVD.
THATS ALL!!!
NOW...if you want a GOOD LOOKING DVD, instead of taking your REF movie into DVD SP, instead take it into Compressor and choose the BEST QUALITY ENCODE (2 pass VBR) that matches your show timing. Then take THAT result into DVD SP and follow the rest of the steps. Except you can choose "16:9 LETTERBOX" instead of PAN & SCAN if you want to see the entire image.

REVISITED "DVD: best quality" & "MPEG-2 high quality encode"-difference??

Re-explain: I see "DVD best quality" and "MPEG-2 high quality encode" have all the same settngs. Not sure if there was a difference. Yesterday I was convinced no difference. After recompressing the same video at same settings MPEG-2 HQ encoding took three times longer to compress. going to work with it--this was home work--to view on monitor that, after reviewing, made me come home to recompress.
So--again--is there a difference fo the two choices???

which is what I did and there is no difference in seetings or what I have to choose for seetings. So, I guess--or confirmed--there is no difference???

Encoding: Best Performance vs. Best Quality

So I have a project that if I select Best Performance it shows that the DVD will be 3.4GB, and if I select Best Quality it shows the DVD will be 2.0GB.
So my question is: isn't that contrary to logic? Why wouldn't Best Quality be the largest size? Is Best Quality going to give me the best possible video quality?

Since you have posted to the iDVD 6 forum, I asssume that is what you have.
iDVD 6 has two encoding modes: 'Best Performance' and 'Best Quality'. iDVD '08 adds: 'Professional Quality'.
People misunderstand the names and I wish Apple had used different names for all three modes.
The below applies to a single layer disc (double the times for a double layer disc):
'Best Performance' uses a fixed video encoding bit-rate that produces a DVD with a data playback bit-rate just about as high as a set-top DVD player can handle. This limits content to 60 minutes or less.
'Best Quality' uses a fixed video encoding bit-rate that is BASED ON THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF CONTENT BEING COMPRESSED and is best suited for content between 60 and 120 minutes. Note that all the content is encoded at the same bit-rate so that it can fit on a single layer disc. (Apple calls this single-pass variable bit-rate encoding because 120 minutes of content gets compressed more than 60 minutes of content.)
The new 'Professional Quality' uses a variable video encoding bit-rate that is BASED ON THE INFORMATION IN THE CONTENT BEING COMPRESSED. It uses a two-pass process to first evaluate the content and then encode it based on the motion/detail of individual clips. It is best suited for content between 60 and 120 minutes. Note that not all the content is encoded at the same bit-rate BUT the maximum data bit-rate on playback can not exceed the playback capability of a set-top DVD player. (This is two-pass, variable bit-rate encoding.) This means the BEST encoded quality should be about what is obtained with 'Best Performance' for content under 60 minutes.
If your content is under 60 minutes, use 'Best Performance'. If your content is between 60 minutes and 120 minutes, use 'Professional Quality' if your processor is fast enough and you don't mind waiting about twice the time required for 'Best Quality'.
About the only thing Apple can do to further improve the quality of DVD encoded video is to offer compressed audio instead of just the present uncompressed PCM audio because the audio 'eats up' part of the playback bit-rate a set-top DVD player can handle. Compressed audio would make more of the maximum playback bit-rate available for video.
In your case, with iDVD 6, use 'Best Performance' for content under 60 minutes and 'Best Quality' for content over 60 minutes. Remember that your menu content counts against the total time limit.
F Shippey

"DVD: best quality" & "MPEG-2 high quality encode"--difference????

I've noticed the two settings under compression settings. I don't see any difference between the setting make up. Am I missing anyhing or is there really a difference if I use one over he other. I've always used DVD Best Quality.

which is what I did and there is no difference in seetings or what I have to choose for seetings. So, I guess--or confirmed--there is no difference???

Help understanding workflow for best quality.

Greetings.
I've read countless hours on this forum in the effort to understand this extremely complicated subject of getting my video out of my camera and onto a DVD in the best quality possible, and I'm still a little confused.
I'm not recording anything that is particularly high-action, but rather weddings, funerals, (yeah, I know), children's school programs, and my next big project is a seminar with keynote speaker.
I have three Sony HDR SR-11 cameras, which clearly record video as ACHDV and the video signal is 1080/60i (NTSC). I could also record in SD with an MPEG2 file.
I understand the a DVD is only SD at best, and am recording in HD since I have room for the files, and someday we might have better options for the video than we have now.
I started using iMovie, and have iMovie 11, and just love how easy and slick it is to make impressive looking stuff.
Once I import into iDVD to make the cool menus, I use "professional" encoding. I am about to produce a longer video than will fit on a single layer disk, and will be burning to a dual-layer DVD.
I own a copy of FCE, but was overwhelmed when I first started to use it, and on a time crunch for that project, reverted back to iMovie.
How I record events is to set up three cameras from different perspectives and then create a movie from the best angles, switching back and forth. This is a little cumbersome in iMovie, but I've had no trouble except for the date stamp disappearing and having to fix that on my most recent project. (once the date stamp is gone...it's hard to figure out where the clips are that you need for the next minute or two at a time).
I'm about to embark on an effort to market my work professionally, and am clearly working with amateur equipment, and without the time or resources to start all over with a $50K investment, would like to squeak by on what I have, and need to get the best quality possible out of it. Without any question, my market requires the movies to be on DVDs.
I'm most confused by interlacing/deinterlacing issue. I understand what the two are, but not what to do about it, if anything. I notice there is a button to check "deinterlace" in iMovie, and wonder why it's there and if it works and if I should be using it.
What would my specific advantages be, if any, to learning FCE? If a huge difference could be made, I would take the time to learn FCE, and I could lay out another couple hundred bucks for other software, if you had some to recommend that would greatly surpass what I'm doing, in place of iDVD or another intermediary I should be using.
I've been exporting with QT, using the following settings:
Video:
Compression: H.264
Quality: High
Key frame:24
Frame reordering: yes
Encoding: multi-pass
Dimensions: 960x540
Sound:
Format: Integer (Little Endian)
Sample: 44.1 kHz
Sample: 16-bit
Channels: Stereo
Then create menus in iDVD and burn to DVD.
Could you please give me feedback on my process, and try to answer my questions and clear up my confusion? I'd appreciate it so much!
Karen

Does FCE do this with multiple cameras? I'd want to make sure that FCS does it, before I buy it and am stuck with it, especially if FCE will do it and I already have it.
Yes and No
No - Multicamera is a function in FC Pro
Yes - but You do it in a very "Paper-clip" way. Put each Camera on one track ontop of each other
Camera 1 - v-tr 1
Camera 2 - v-tr 2
Camera 3 - v-tr 3
Then schrink the view of each track to 25% with Vireframe and put them into one corner
each (Not the same one)
Move them so that the sync. frame eg a photo flash is on the same time for all three video-tracks.
Now when playing one see the three views in paralell.
THIS demands that all Cameras has a common Sync-point (I use a photo-flash)
AND that no Camera was turned off during uptake.
IT is also important to know if any of the Cameras are sencitive to movements.
My small one is.
So I put mine on tripods !
This recording behaviour is the same if using FinalCut Pro ! Cont. recording and one sync. frame.
Then when playing in FinalCut Express - one use the transparicy tool to make the
Camera visibly that has the best picture.
When done the full movie (by adjusting transparicy - one re-size the Video tracks to 100% and let them fill view.
Now when playback - You see the edited result.
In FC Pro - You set Your Cameras as Multi Camera and set the sync frame. Now it will
in Viewer play (in 25% size) and You just point at the best view trough the movie
and it will assemble in TimeLine. You need not to be especially on target - easily adjusted
with roll-tool (I think) in after hand.
1 hour editing two Cameras takes for me (ME)
• FinalCut Express - about 10 hours
• FinalCut Pro - 2 hours to Capture - 1h15min to edit.
There is a program - CaptureMagic SD (HD) - that let's You copy directly to Your Mac
hard disk - NEED is one FW-port per Camera
(Port is something else than the connectors, My PowerBook G4 has one FW400 and one FW800 connector
BUT ONLY one FW-port - So I need to use a CMA-CIA-card with one FW-connector to get a second FW-port )
This set-up works and I get the material Captured in real-time. Resulting in editing time 1h 15min per hour movie.
Yours Bengt W

How to export and reimport clips maintaining best quality?

I'd like to ask a few questions.
(1) I have several subclips in FCE that I would like to export, so I can import them back into FCE as individual clips, separate from the original capture. I would also like the option to use the exported clips in iMovie project. The most important thing is to save the clips at the highest possible quality. I ran into a problem when trying to import the clips back into FCE.
First, I tried exporting clips using File>Export>Using Quicktime Conversion... with the following options:
Video Settings:
Compression Type H.264
Quality: Best (the slider in the Settings window I dragged all the way to the right for Best quality)
Key frame rate: 24
Frame Reordering: yes
Encoding mode: multi-pass
Audio Settings:
Format: Uncompressed
Sample rate: 48 kHz
Sample size: 16
Channels: 2
Prepare for Internet Streaming <unchecked>
The clip was saved to disk. I didn't open or modify the clip at all.
Then I tried using File>Import>Files... but when I tried to import it, I got this error:
"File Error: 1 file(s) recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown."
So this is the problem I'm experiencing. Can't re-import the clip into FCE (it imports into iMovie fine, though)
Questions: Am I using "wrong" settings? Why is this happening? How can I export and reimport clips while maintaining best video and audio quality?
(2) A couple related questions: Some of my original source video was recorded at 12-bit quality (32 kHz). I know 16-bit is best (48 kHz) but the camera I used came with factory default 12-bit (and as a novice I didn't know to change it until several months later).
So here are my questions.
(a) If I export these clips using audio export settings at 48 kHz instead of 32 kHz, would that cause any problems?
(b) Would those clips then be recognized by FCE and iMovie as having 48 kHz audio even though it was originally recorded at 32 kHz? (I know the quality will be no better, but I've read somewhere that using 32 kHz audio can cause some problems with out-of-sync audio, particularly in iMovie. My hope is the new clip with the 48 kHz audio will circumvent such problems.)
Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3) NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT

TSchneider: Thanks again for your valuable reply. I have a few follow-up questions.
My first set of questions is about rendering audio to 48kHz in the timeline.
Almost immediately you'll notice that FCE has tagged the
entire audio track with a red bar meaning it will
need to be rendered (if you try to play the clip from
the Canvas controls you'll just get beeping or very
low quality sound). Go up to the Sequence menu and
select the Render All (or Mixdown) command and FCE
will transcode the 32kHz audio of your clip to the
48kHz audio of the sequence it's sitting in.
I followed your instructions and everything seemed to work until I got to the passage above. I dragged the subclips into the timeline. The clips appeared in the timeline but there was no red bar. If I chose Render All from the Sequence Menu, nothing happened. If I chose Export to Quicktime Movie, however, it takes several minutes, apparently rendering the audio and video. If I chose instead, Print to Video, the red bars do appear and the rendering process again gets going. There is a small progress bar for both operations in the center of the screen with a percent done and estimated time remaining.
Question: Why doesn't the red bar appear as soon as the clips are in the Timeline?
Question: Why doesn't Render All (or Render Audio) work? It would be much easier to walk away while all the audio rendered into 48kHz and then come back later to save the individual clips to disk.
My second set of questions pertains to the possibility of using Export>Using Quicktime Conversion as a substitute for Export>Quicktime Movie, mainly for academic instead of practical reasons.
If you export a clip directly from the bin "Using
Quicktime Conversion" there aren't any suitable
conversion video/audio formats that would give you
both video in the right format (for iMovie) and
transcode the audio to the sampling rate you want.
I understand your description of rendering the audio files in the timeline. If only academic, I was trying to see if I could duplicate the results using using Export>Using Quicktime Conversion. I chose Quicktime Movie as the format. The video setting was DV/DVCPRO-NTSC. The audio was uncompressed with 48kHz rate. This created a Quicktime movie file with these formats. If I opened the quicktime movie file in Quicktime and checked the info on the file, the audio was indeed 48kHz.
Question: Does this mean that the Quicktime Conversion process rendered the 32kHz audio to 48kHz audio prior to writing the file? If so, it would seem to bypass the need to render the clips in a sequence (although if I could render all the clips in the sequence at once, while I was away from the computer, it would be faster than rendering and saving each clip one at a time).
Question: When I exported a clip this way, then imported it into iMovie, the original capture date/time info was missing when I got info on the clip. However, when I save the clip using Export>Quicktime Movie, the date/time of capture was still present. Would there be any way to preserve this date/time of capture info when using Export>Using Quicktime Conversion?
Question: If I decided to Export>Using Quicktime Conversion with the above settings (DV/DVCPRO-NTSC, 48kHz audio) there are other options I'm given pertaining to the video settings. There are settings for Compressor Quality, with a sliding bar where you can choose Least, Low, Medium, High, and Best quality; and there is Scan Mode (interlaced or progressive). How does one choose among these? If you want the best quality exported clip, I suppose you would chose best quality, but what scan mode is "best" for my purposes -- interlaced or progressive?
Thanks a lot for your help. I'm learning a lot!

Setting for best quality in compressor

Hi.
I'm running FCP 5.1 and Compressor 2.3.1. For best quality videos on youtube I've heard it's a good idea to max out the free space they make available to you. What are the best settings I should use in Compressor for maximum quality uploads to youtube? Also what's a good setting for good quality video with a smaller file size? Also I should note most of my videos uploaded are of short duration 1 minute to 5 minutes. I've been using the settings DVNTSC and it's okay but maybe there's something better you can recommend? Also I tend to use Toast to burn DVD's. What's a good setting for best quality dvd's?
thank you!

For Youtube encoding, read these: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/you_tube_redux_gary.html and http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/you_tube_hd_gary.html
Keep in mind that the more compressed the file is (smaller file size), the lessor quality.
As for DVD compression, I've always found Toast's encoder to create poorer quality DVDs than Compressor or DVD Studio Pro. The best method would be to export a self-contained or reference movie from FCP (Do NOT use QuickTime Conversion), then import that file into Compressor. Use the DVD preset in Compressor that best matches your movie's duration. You can duplicate and adjust presets as needed for your particular movie. Compressor will create the needed MPEG-2 video file (.m2v) and Dolby Digital audio file (.ac3). Import those two files into DVD Studio Pro for authoring and burning.
-DH

Best quality dvd-premiere pro or encore

hi all-some advise needed.
I want to make the best quality professional wedding dvd for a client nd I have a few options and i just want to get feedback on which is the best method.
pc=win xp, prem pro 2 and encore 1.5, PAL, 4x3 plenty of hard disk space, 2gb RAM
wedding is 2 hour long but am I splitting in 2 to get the best quality
I think have 3 options-which is the best?
Option 1 build the DVD in premiere pro via DVD layout (nice wedding menus as well)
Option 2 export the encoded wedding via the encoder (media concept i think) and then just import and build the menus and dvd in encore
Option 3 export an uncompressed avi file via file-movie-export into encore and let encore do the encoding and build the dvd.
What do you guys think? Am i missing any other better options?
I would really aprreciate any advise or criticism,
thanks
Paul

labrisher wrote:
IIf in laying out the DVD in Encore you find that you'd like to change something in the Premiere file after you've imported it into Encore, you simply make the change and re-export the movie to the same name/directory etc. i.e. overwriting the previous file.
I cannot stress how strongly I disagree with this method. You should never, ever overwrite an asset that is used in Encore from outside of Encore. That is asking for big trouble, and if you don't get bitten by it right away, you will get bitten by it eventually. Instead, you should add a version number to the modified asset, and then use the Replace Asset command. Another good method if you're using an all-Adobe workflow is to use Edit Original, which will open up the program used to create the asset. When you finish the modifications, saving will update the asset in Encore, and make sure that all links to all supporting files are maintained.
The worst thing that can happen using labrisher's workflow is that your Encore project will crash with the dreaded PGC error, or some other fatal error, and you will never be able to recover and build a finished disc, disc image or set of DVD folders. You will then have to rebuild the project from scratch.
-Jeff

Best quality encoding?

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