Loss in Quality?

Hey everyone, I was noticing that when I create some text in LiveType and it shows me the preview it looks crisp, but when I import it into FCP it seems to lose some definition and clarity, it looks half as good as the LiveType version. Is there a setting I can change so that it looks better? Thanks! Matt

Depends on where you're watching the previews and what your sequence settings are in FCP. LT will produce super clean movie files that are huge using the Animation codec. When you bring Animation into DV, you lose significant amount of pixel data. But, if you're watching the rendered output on a video monitor, not a computer display, you'll be surprised at how lovely LT files are.
We see this topic several times a month, scroll down a few pages and you will find several conversations. Mark Spencer also wrote a nice explanation that appears on the LAPFCPUG and kenstone.net
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Editing iPhone video without loss of quality

I've a stack of video clips taken from my iPhone 3GS which I want to simply stitch together and edit down a little WITHOUT loss of quality.
All I want to do is import, crop and stitch them together, thus create a single file *with no change in image quality*. (for smaller projects, I used to do this kind of thing in older versions of QuickTime Pro.)
What is the best procedure for this in iMovie 09? Indeed, can it be done?
My understanding is that ANY re-compression will result in artefacts and loss in quality.
Further info...
I've managed to import the clips ok (making sure any options to 'optimise' anything are turned off) and edit them together in iMovie. This way, the import is fast and the images seems untouched, so I assumed no conversion has been done on the video (I think I'm wrong here?)
(Setting the project aspect ratio to 4:3 was the other gotcha.)
Having sorted the above out, and done some editing, I now want to export to a single file. I understand the iPhone codec is H264. However, when I export (via quicktime) and select H264, it wants to re-compress. I worry this will loose quality.
When I export with lossless compression, of course I get a 150G file - owch. The sum total size of the originals are 2.63G
Any suggestions?

iMovie will re-compress. To me this is a small price to pay for having an edited movie. Personally, I would optimize, but if you keep your movies simple, you will be OK without. If you decide to apply image stabilization or speed changes, you will definitely need to optimize. Optimization resolves the highly compressed h.264 frames into full frames in Apple Intermediate Codec.
While the quality loss you may experience is not likely to be visible to the naked eye, if that is your only criterion, then avoid iMovie and follow QuickTime Kirk's advice.
Here is a [sample video|http://vimeo.com/7093442] that I made in a Dentist Office. You can see what the re-compression looks like. In this case, I did not optimize.
Editing in iMovie is non-destructive, so you can try it both ways (imovie and QuickTime Pro) and see if you can tell the difference.
Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

Imported & Exported HD Video Imovie '11 Big Loss of Quality

This is plain outrageous i noticed this flaw about a week ago.
I noticed how iMovie '11 degrades the quality of any HD Content whether it be a an Imported file or card or camera regardless. And Yes in the Prefrences FULL QUALITY is selected under the video tab. The Exported Content is the same Poor quality under highest settings quality FULL 1080P as imported even if exported a Quicktime X file H264 compression. The bottom line the imported content looks horrible in iMovie '11 it exports horrible too under the highest settings.
I tried Final Cut X on the other hand and It was Great no loss of quality there via the comand import Imovie Project. But I did notice how Final Cut X messed up on some of the transitions and the titles were off but that was an easy fix
Something has to be done iMovie '11 When Are you going ship '12 or '13

Welcome to iMovie Discussions.
(..Sob!..) If you can bear the anguish and argument and technicalities and angst, Search for "Steve Mullen" and follow any of those threads: you'll find all manner of description about what's happening, what's going wrong, how to correct it, whether it can be corrected ..and so on, and so forth..
(See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11846858&#11846858 ..)
I've never noticed this problem: but when I HAVE seen poor quality - by adding an iMovie '09 title onto pristine DV footage, like this:
..I've followed Karl Petersen's instructions about how to change it into (apparent) top-notch quality like this:
Karl suggested opening the exported movie in QuickTime, and pressing ⌘ and 'J' and ticking the 'High Quality' box in the lower-right corner of Video Settings:
See here, and click on 'Start Slideshow'.
Steve disagrees, I think, with this, and says that this simple fix doesn't work.
Try it, and see if it works for you.

Loss of quality of exported DVD movie on TV when compared to Digital original

Hi
Can anyone please suggest a way to limit the loss in quality when burning a completed movie to a DVD for TV playback?
When I playback on my Mac monitor (in either MPEG or H.264 saved versions) the image quality is 'mint' and seems as clear/rich as it was filmed.
However, once I have exported (using various 'best options' availible to me in via Prem Pro export menus) the SD (and Blu-ray) DVD playback on a TV seems a long way away from the quality level of the digital original still playing on my Mac.
I am prepared for a drop in quality in both SD and even HD formats due to the compression processes, but I'm still disapointed with how amazing my digital copy looks compared to my best DVD efforts.
Why is it that commercial 'hollywood' SD are still miles apart from my 'home made' version?
Can anyone please suggest their tried/test 'digital alchemy' formular for getting fantastic results onto a DVD/TV playback, please?
Here are my current details/settings:
Canon 5d and XF300 to capture 1080p 25 fps footage (timeline created to match footage)
CS5.5 platform = Premiere Pro/After Effects/Media Encoder/Encore (and burn saved ISO image using Roxio Toast version 10)
Length of edits = 40 to 50 minutes (approximately) creating HD but mainly SD event movies.
Create HD but mainly SD versions
Export out of Prem Pro = MPEG or MPED-DVD/Blu-ray H.264
Video Quality = 5
Field order = None/Progressive (matching my original source footage)
VBR 2 = Min 7/Target 8/Max 8.5 or CBR 8
Use Maximum Render Quality
Could the issue be with what happens after the export from PremPro into Encore?
What else could/should I be doing?
All constructive comments are very weclome and appreciated ...
Thanks,
B

Why is it that commercial 'hollywood' SD are still miles apart from my 'home made' version?
Because they use super-expensive hardware compression.
Still, I make DVDs that look almost exactly like the output from Pr using my Kona card.
I wonder if you're ending up with double-compression on your DVD. And maybe I'm confused here, but it sounds like you're using Toast and Encore, and I see no reason for that, if so.
There are a few ways to get to DVD from Pr. The simplest may be just to send your Pr project to Encore, using Dynamic Link. That will ensure you're only compressing once.
Another is to export from Pr or AME using a DVD preset, and when you take the resulting MPEG2 to Encore, be sure your clips are set to "Don't transcode." And use the comparable strategy for BR.
CBR at 8 should yield you stunning looking DVDs.

Import(?) then export pdf's - loss of quality?

Hi-
A complete newbie to printing. I prepared layouts in my database (filemaker pro), exported as pdf. They look great when opened in Acrobat Pro, and print nicely. Now I find out most companies want pdf from In Design or a similar program. If I open pdf's in In design, can I then export them like the printing company wants without any loss of quality? This would all be grayscale, but has a numver of images (it's a book from a specialty dog show).. The layouts are just what I want, with tables that were finicky to get right, and data straight from my database. I would HATE to start over! Any help / ideas would be deeply appreciated!
BTW - there is no way to mimic pdf''s from In Design in Acrobat Pro?
Many thanks in advance.

Interesting question, there's two elements to it, firstly what you assume 'most companies' want and secondly what can Indesign do to help you.
Firstly, all companies are different and have different workflows and requirements. The simplest thing to do is to send 'the company' your PDFs as you have them now and ask them to make sure they are suitable. If not, or if this won't work for you move on to the second question...
Secondly, yes, Indesign can do that, and I for one frequently use Indesign for just that purpose, refrying PDFs from multiple sources to a more consistent standard. It depends on what you are using the PDFs for as to what export settings you use but Indesign is very good at this, with the exception of the greyscale part you mentioned. Others could offer more detailed advice but you have to use Acrobat Pro to make sure this is working properly and apply fixes as necessary. Personally if greyscale id needed I use the 'TouchUp Object' tool and a plugin called Pitstop but there are other methods too, let us know your specific problems, if any.
One very useful tool when putting PDFs through Indesign like this is Scott Zanelli's MultiPageImporter, highly recommended for placing more than one page, and sometimes even when placing only one page too!

Quicktime loss of quality in web browsers?

Hello. I'm trying to upload a 30M MOV file to my website. I noticed that there's a loss of quality when the movie plays in a web browser as opposed to just playing it in the Quicktime player outside of the website. Is there something I need to add to the code?
Note - this applies to just trying to play an MOV in any web browser (meaning, with no HTML - just going 'file', 'open' in any web browser).
Can I add something to the HTML code that will make the quality match how it looks in Quickime?

ASP-CT wrote:
It is so obvious that there is a noticable loss of quality in all files exported from LR
Most of the people in this forum who try to help others with Lightroom are pleased with the quality of exported results we're getting. If you are unsatisfied, it would behoove to explain.
I mean, for me, there is no loss of quality (in fact, image is 100% same) when exporting in original format. And when exporting in reduced sizes in formats like jpeg there is some softening unless output sharpening is applied.
Otherwise, color is same, tone is same, brightness is same - it's all good for me...
Exception: some viewers are not color managed, or are color managed but do it "wrong" (I have no idea why color management tends to be so problematic) - in which case color (and to some extent tone) will be off...
What about you?
PS
ASP-CT wrote:
it is assumed that the photographer is doing something wrong
Operator error is a frequent culprit, but it's not the only culprit - sometimes computer setup is to blame. But if that's the case, you know who is going to have to make it right, right? Anyway, if all is well using another software, that may be a path of less resistance.
Don't get me wrong - Lr may have bugs which are influencing correct functioning in your case - but insisting that it's all Lr and none you (or your computer..) is a place from which there is nowhere to go, except to that other software we were talking about, but beware - it may have problems too .
My advice: take a deep breath, maybe a walk, even sleep on it if need be, then start again from a cooler place.
Rob

Converting from Apple Lossless to MP3: loss of quality?

Hi,
I have made the "mistake" of importing dozens and dozens of CD's using the Apple Lossless encoder. Nothing bad about the encoder, on the contrary. But my iPod is now full.
Is there a way I can convert all these tracks to MP3? Will there be a loss of quality from the re-conversion beside the one inherent to MP3? (since we are not starting from the original CD) And will I have to re-create my playlists?
Mmmhhh... doesn't sound too good, right?
Xavier.

Go to Preferences in iTunes. Then go to advanced and importing. In importing change the import using to MP3 encoder.
Quit out of this menu. On the top tool bar you have Advanced and under here you have convert option. If you select the songs that you want to convert and use this convert option they will go to MP3s

Photoshop CS2 - Blowing scans up with as little loss of quality as possible

What's the best way to make a file that you can blow up into a big poster, say 10 by 20 feet, for example, without the image being too blurry?
I plan to scan in some drawings I did on 8.5x11", colour them in Photoshop CS2, and then make a file so that you can print it out as a big poster, like the 10 by 20 feet example above. I would like the printout to be sharp (as little loss of quality as possible).
What's the best way to do this?
Which dpi should I scan the pictures in, so I can blow them up big?
Which file type should I save the working file, and the file I'm going to print them out?
Please advise. Thank you.

What are your specifics (how high is the resolution of the scans, how many pixels do you have in the image you want to print)?
There are some tools out there for doing just that kind of thing, but you have to realize that there are limits - no software yet can invent detail where none exists.
Starting with very CLEAN image information, a product called Perfect Resize (which used to be called Genuine Fractals) is pretty good at this, as it finds "edges" in the image and tries to preserve them. I have a beautiful 24 x 30 inch print I made from an old Canon D30 capture (just 3 megapixels) upsampled with Perfect Resize and it stands up even to close inspection.
But the good news is that people don't usually scrutinize giant prints from too closely. A rule of thumb is that viewing distance will typically be no closer than about the long dimension of the image (e.g., 20 feet in your case).
OnOne Software has a trial version of Perfect Resize available (chances are you'll only need the standard edition). Alternatively, if you'd like to post a small part of an image you're considering blowing up, I'll be happy to run it through Perfect Resize and post the result so you can see. Here's a small example using one of my own images:
Original:
Upsampled 400% in each dimension (this forum software may mess up the display but you should be able to copy and paste it into Photoshop or a viewer app):
-Noel

Exporting to WMV with a massive loss of quality

Hi there!
I've never had an issue with this before, but I need a little expert help on this one.
I'm trying to export a time line, source of 1280x720, into a WMV file. I've done it before with no issues.
But now, it seems like when the exporting is done, and I open the file, there is a loss of quality in the beginning. It's odd because, it seems like the video starts off just fine, but then a few seconds in, it degrades. The degragation continues for about 5 seconds, making the image a little blurry, but then it kicks back into the high quality it was. It maintains the high quality for the rest of the sequence.
What is even odder is that, when I export the individual, 5 second scene that looks degraded in the main file all by itself, it looks just fine.
I can't help but thing that it's something about it in my sequence that is making it do that. There is no effects or transistions between scenes involved at all.
Im exporting:
FORMATL Windows Media
PRESET: HDTV 720 60 High Quality (thought I have used 30 as well, with the same issue)
Video settings are
CODEC: Windows Media Video 9
Encoding Passes: Two
Bitrate mode: Variable Constrained
Framerate: 59.94
Pixel Aspect: Square Pixels
Decoder complexitiy: Auto
Keyframe interval: 5 seconds
Average video bitrate 5000
Peak Video bitrate 8000
peak video buffer size 5
Thanks in advance for any help!

Correct, it has its own ways to mess up your video.
So, you're not helping with the question at all, you're just rallying against YouTube?
Thanks for your help.
We had issues like that with 2 Pass VBR. We even dialled in huge data rates which did not fix the issue,m Switching to a CBR profile fixed it "good enough" but not perfect. In our case wmv was demanded by the client (PowerPoint). I concluded the wmv encoder was defective in AME and best avoided.
Can you use H.264 instead for your purpose?
Thanks for the suggestion! I just tried H.264 and had the same exact issue, though.
Since the individual pieces weren't having the problem, I decided to try some tests. Every piece along was fine, except for the "Begin Transmission" part, which still screwed up.
So, I tried various renderings with and without it, the words, the static...and eventually came to find out that it was the "Static" video that was doing it. I suppose it may have been because that video was originally 640x480, and I just zoomed into it to make it fit the screen. For whatever reason, that was the problem, and when I re-encoded it with the static gone, it worked just fine.
Thanks for your help, though!

Adobe Flash - Loss of quality in images

Hello,
I am building a movie in Adobe Flash but when previewing in Flash it shows image quality as perfect but when previewing in HTML it is losing its image quality. Do you know why?
Thanks,
Adrian

ASP-CT wrote:
It is so obvious that there is a noticable loss of quality in all files exported from LR
Most of the people in this forum who try to help others with Lightroom are pleased with the quality of exported results we're getting. If you are unsatisfied, it would behoove to explain.
I mean, for me, there is no loss of quality (in fact, image is 100% same) when exporting in original format. And when exporting in reduced sizes in formats like jpeg there is some softening unless output sharpening is applied.
Otherwise, color is same, tone is same, brightness is same - it's all good for me...
Exception: some viewers are not color managed, or are color managed but do it "wrong" (I have no idea why color management tends to be so problematic) - in which case color (and to some extent tone) will be off...
What about you?
PS
ASP-CT wrote:
it is assumed that the photographer is doing something wrong
Operator error is a frequent culprit, but it's not the only culprit - sometimes computer setup is to blame. But if that's the case, you know who is going to have to make it right, right? Anyway, if all is well using another software, that may be a path of less resistance.
Don't get me wrong - Lr may have bugs which are influencing correct functioning in your case - but insisting that it's all Lr and none you (or your computer..) is a place from which there is nowhere to go, except to that other software we were talking about, but beware - it may have problems too .
My advice: take a deep breath, maybe a walk, even sleep on it if need be, then start again from a cooler place.
Rob

Confirming no loss of quality on export "Movie to DV Stream"?

This may be a very dumb question, but before I spend a lot of time on this, I wanted to confirm there is NO loss of quality.
From a DV file (imported form my DV camera) if I choose a portion of it in Quicktime and export using the feature "Movie to DV Stream" there is no loss of quality from the original DV file right?
I am working on an iMovie project, opening the original LONG DV files into Quicktime and pulling shortened clips from them to import into iMovie, so as not to import the whole thing.
Before I spend time doing this for my entire project, I want to make sure there is no loss of quality from my original DV footage.
Thanks for the help!
Cheryl
MacBook 2.0 GHz 2GB iMac G5 1.8GHz 2GB Mac OS X (10.4.9)

export using the feature "Movie to DV Stream" there is no loss of quality from the original DV file right?
There will be loss of quality if you export via iMovie's expert settings! The video is deinterlaced and the embedded timestamp is lost!! This is an old bug.
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_6_bugs.html#expertsettings
To preserve the original quality you must therefore always remember to export via the Full Quality preset instead.

Is there an audible loss of quality when converting from WMA to MP3/AAC?

Just wondering when I convert my WMA files to MP3 or AAC using EasyWMA, iTunes for WIndows, Switch or whatever, will there be an audible loss of quality in the conversion?
Thanks.

There is always an audio quality degradetion while converting a compressed file from one codec to another. It may not be significant for everybody tough.
To avoid this degradation, you should compress your file from the original instead of passing from one codec to another.

Convert DNG twice in lossy format, additional loss of quality?

I've got some DNG that by mistake I converted with embedded raw all spread in my Lightroom catalog.
I want to discharge raw, so as Lightroom doesn't allow to sort files by size (whyyy?), the easier solution is to choose all DNGs and convert them again to DNG unchecking "embed raw".
My question is: will this procedure convert twice my image in lossy format resulting in a additional loss of quality or the already compressed image will be untouched?

I've got some DNG that by mistake I converted with embedded raw all spread in my Lightroom catalog.
I want to discharge raw, so as Lightroom doesn't allow to sort files by size (whyyy?), the easier solution is to choose all DNGs and convert them again to DNG unchecking "embed raw".
My question is: will this procedure convert twice my image in lossy format resulting in a additional loss of quality or the already compressed image will be untouched?

How many minutes without loss in quality?

I started using iDVD in 2003. Back then, I was told that you can put up to about 80 minutes on a DVD without any noticeable loss in quality. Based on my experiences, that seemed to be a good rule of thumb.
Have there been sufficient improvements in the encoder to allow significantly more minutes at high quality? I use iDVD for archiving and don't want to come back years later and realize that the quality was compromised. On the other hand, I don't want to waste discs with over-kill (some misguided individuals think that 60 minutes is the limit).
Message was edited by: Michael Collins3

iDVD encoding settings:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/11417.html
Short version:
Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes
Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes
Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)
Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced technology to encode your video, resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned abo
In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.
And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

Why do I get a loss of quality video when placing titels or grading in FCE. Even after rendering and saving to the final product? The video starts to get shaky

Whenever I place a title in my video in FCE, the part where I placed it losses its quality. Its getting shaky and blurred.
Even afther rendering and saving it to the final end product. The same problem occurs when I'm collor grading. I use the internal tools for titels and grading of FCE.

and some more specs;
My systsem >>
IMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
clips and master on Imac
Scratchdisk on external disk with firewire 0.8
On both disks I have more tehn 0,5 TB geheugen left
Videocamera HF 100
Imported clips >>
- FXP 17 Mbps
For RT I use >>
- RT Unlimited
- Playback Video Quality high
- Playback framerate high
Videoclip =
- videorate 25 fps
- framesize 1920 x 1080
- compressor apple intermediate codec
- pixel aspect square

Apple Loss lees quality

Hi,
I have just got a B&W Zepplin speaker for my ipod touch. The guy in the shop told me that I should convert my tunes to apple loss less quality which would mean I would get a far better sound from my speakers than the default that the ipod currently has.
Does anyone know how I do this and change the settings so it is a higher quality
Thanks
Andy

iTunes>preferences>advanced>import tab, at that point the 2nd window is "import using", click on the drop down & select Apple Lossless. You will have to re-rip your CD's, if they have been ripped in the AAC @ 128 default setting, as you really can't convert from a Lossy format to a Lossless format.

Loss in Quality?

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