FLV quality discrepancies

Question

In the standalone Adobe Flash Video Encoder, the following settings produce a crisp, clear flv:
- On2VP6 encoder
- Max data rate: 400 kilobits per second
- 10 fps
- Keyframe placement: automatic
Those same settings--used in Premiere CS3's "Adobe Media Encoder"--produce a very blurry flv.
This causes us an additional step in the workflow: we have to encode the file as an HD mpeg, and then we dump that file into the standalone Adobe Flash Video Encoder. The result is good, but time's a'wastin'.
Any insight?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Funny you should mention it... I was thinking along the same lines. I have a theory:
1.) In Adobe Media Encoder, when FLV is selected, the "deinterlace" checkbox is checked by default. This will slash the vertical resolution in half prior to scaling, which usually does not yield the nicest results.
2.) In the standalone FLV encoder, deinterlace is off by default. In this case, interlacing is "ignored" and the image is simply scaled down. The will generally provide nicer resutls for vertical size reductions that are less than half of the original resolution (such as the examples posted).
You may want to try ensuring that the deinterlace box is not checked in Adobe Media Encoder. If my theory is correct you should be able to achieve results similar to that of the standalone encoder.
That being said, you should check out HDV --> SD DVD thread as Andy suggested and have a look at my basic workflow example:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?224@@[email protected]/204
If you are able to get this going I can easily create a custom AviSynth script for your FLV output that should get much nicer results than you are currently getting. (Sharper, less jaggies, no lossy intermediary compression stage...)
The only downside is that you'll still need an "extra step", but it will obviate the need for creating an HDV mpeg intermediary file.
Instead, you would create a lossless AVI file at the same resolution and framerate as the final FLV. You would use the standalone FLV encoder to convert this AVI to your final product.
Also: Have you thought about using 15 fps instead of 10? It seems to me like a better option but that is just my opinion.
If you use my suggested method you could also achieve a very nice conversion to 12 fps. This would be accomplished by converting your interlaced 30i source to 60p and then selecting every 5th frame.