Subtitles: FCP or DVDSP? Best workflow and quality?

I have always placed subtitles in FCP. I am now looking at DVDSP instead. This will help I know if I ever need a second language option. But how is the workflow and is the quality good?
For me it seems easier in FCP, because I can make editing decisions while seeing the subtitle. Having to make a locked and final edit and still not have subtitles in place appears more difficult and prone to problems. Anyone find these problems easy to deal with using DVDSP for subtitles?

Jon Braeley wrote:
I am talking about subtitles not captions
Maybe. the function isn't the issue, it's the delivery method that makes the determination. Are you encoding to Line 21, burning the text over the video, or creating a stream of subtitle data? Most DVD players cannot handle Line 21, that's a function of the television set. All DVD players can access up to 32 subtitle streams. If you're burning the subs into the video, it doesn't matter how you play the video.
My question is that if the delivery is to be DVD, why do some users still create subtitles in FCP instead of DVDSP?
Subtitling in FCP is still a grim chore. Just seems that DVDSP would be the better option, or does FCP offer much better text quality-format options?
There is no option to burn in "subtitles" in DVDSP. DVD subtitles are streams of text and formatting data, not text image files, although sub streams can display graphics. FCP does not have a utility to export text objects as subtitle data streams in STL, SMI, SML, SON, or SCR formats. You cannot import a QT movie into the subtitle tracks.
So, where you create the subtitles is determined by two things: a) your need for flexibility (for changes or to receive data from another source) and b) your need for quality. Subs created and drawn onto the screen by the DVD player will be fairly high quality. Text that is burned into the video will never be any better than the encoder settings you used for the MPEG2.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Is there specific order to adding footer, watermark, ORC scan, security and optimization to get best size and quality results?

Does it matter what order that the following are done to a document? Are there any guidelines of best practices to know?
- Adding meta data
- ORC scan to searchable image
- Footer/Page Number
- Watermarks
- Save as optimized PDF
- Security
Is it possible the results would be different (files seize and quality) if the above steps are done id different orders.
The example I am thinking of is:
- If footer and watermark is done first, will ORC scan that content or give errors that some parts are already text ?
- If the file is first optimized using good quality image resampling, will that ruin the ORC results if optimization is done first?

Hello Scott,
I have a question about a weird behaviour of the gmaps rendering: When I navigate the first time to gmaps, everything is rendered correctly...but if I navigate back to homescreen and then again to gmap, the gmap is rendered in a very small area of the page on the left side...Why such a rendering issue?
Maybe you are aware of that. Thank you!
Best regards,
Rufat

AVCHD workflow and quality loss

I have been trying to establish a workflow with imovie and my Canon HF100 to make a BD with menus. I tried the Canon program on windows that edits AVCHD natively, and it is miserable. I still keep parallels around just in case I decide to use the Canon program again, but I probably need to move on for the power of iMovie and FCE. I absolutely love the new iMovie for really quick edits and I have FCE on hand for the advanced stuff.
The reality is that using iMovie entails quality change. I have been spending weeks looking over clips on my PS3 and 52" panny plasma to decide which workflow to chose. I am sharing my experience for anyone who cares and please comment.
I have taken screen shots, because they are easier to show differences, but the missing comparison would be MPEG compression noise, which I will comment on. The lighting and backgrounds were chosen to show the differences more clearly. I watched many more video clips than Im showing, but the findings are all pretty consistent between clips.
http://picasaweb.google.com/robanderi/CanonHF100AVCHD17mbpsIMovieComparison#
A. The 1st set of cat pictures were done to test the workflow AVCHD -->import to AIC -->export to mp4 18mbps --> Burn Blu-ray disc using Toast 18mbps. I think the end product is ~8% inferior due to a what you can see in the pictures (brightening, maybe a loss of detail and more ...green?) PLUS this test had the largest increase in MPEG compression noise during playback.
B. The second set of pictures shows: AVCHD --> import to AIC --> export to AIC --> Burn Blu-ray 18mbps. The changes seem to be similar to the first test, but the MPEG compression noise was not as bad after the conversion. I would call this 5% inferior. Whatever percentage YOU give test A, I would say B will always be slightly worse by a tiny margin factoring in the MPEG noise.
C. Same as B.
D. Adding an h.264 conversion to another h.264 conversion changes the picture ever so slightly as I mentioned before, but you cannot see the MPEG noise that is the biggest deal.
E. Importing the media from AVCHD to AIC in Imovie seems to not be that big of a deal, except the picture darkens slightly resulting in the loss of information upon subsequent conversions.
CONVERSION TIME: Doing TWO h.264 conversions takes longer than going from AIC --> AIC then AIC --> mp4.
SPACE: Option B consumes massive space, because then you have TWO collections of AIC's plus space for the end video. My hour video thus needed 110GB! 50 + 50 + 10.
END RESULT: Option A: you can keep the best copy for viewing on the computer and have a BD. Takes longer, but you get two products. BD is not as good. Option B: Faster and better BD, but you really only have a BD and no copy for the computer (unless you fish out the .mts files). You would have to convert the iMovie again for a computer copy.
The last option is to eliminate the double conversion and just not have a BD with a menu. Will a regular BD player play a straight mp4 file?

AIC is a lossy intermediate codec.
You need to consider moving up to FCP which facilitates pro res HQ conversions.

Imovie workflow and quality

I have a Sanyo Xacti VPC-e2 video camera. It was a gift. Anyway, I shot some footage indoors with plenty of available light and used a tripod. The quality was sort of soft and not very good and since it's a brand new camera I can't tell if it's b/c of the way I imported the footage. I hooked the SD card reader to my USB port and tried importing directly to imovie. All looked good except that imovie didn't import the 5 clips entirely. For some reason each clip imported but only a 20 seconds of each 2 minute clip. So, I tried copying the files from the SD card to my hardrive and then importing to imovie. This resolved the issue and all the clips were present. I dragged the parts of the clip that I wanted to the project space and was all done. Is there anything that I did that would degrade the quality or it the camera?

I had a Wal-mart special Sanyo. I think it was the HD100. It was very sharp and the HD looked really good but it struggled with lighting and horrible inside with low light. The WB pulled a vacuum.
I am not familiar with your model at all.
--Mickey

Workflow and scratch disk setting

To improve the speed on editing and rendering, what would be the best workflow and scratch disk setting for follows?!
1) video files create by Canon 5D mark II on CF card
2) Video files create by JVC HM700 (in HD, .mov format)
Above 2 formats I usually work with FCP on follow hardware ,
iMac 3.4G i7
8G RAM
Primary drive, 256G SSD
Secondary, 1T harddrive
For each project, video material most likely around 120G.
i) What would be the best setting for the scratch disk in order to boot the speed on editing and rendering?!
II) to save up the disk space on SSD, should I set the video storage on the 1T harddrive and the video n audio rending path to the SSD?!
iii) anything setting should I care while transfer both video format to FCP for a better speed for editing n rendering?
Pls advice!

don't put ANY media on your startup drive-- that would include renders. I'm guessing this is an imac with the ssd and a 1TB? what I do is have one drive for media, one for renders and a third for exports. That lightens the load considerably on any one drive at a time and arguably gives marginally faster throughput.
1TB seems like a lot, but these days it really isn't. I've got 10tb hooked up to my machine, with 3 x 1TB ready to drop into a drive dock for archives-- and I'm always out of room.
You've got to pay attention to the codec your cameras shoot in. Dunno about the JVE, but it's likely an h.264 variant of mpeg4-- do NOT try to edit with this. convert all your footage to prores LT or prores. HQ is definitely overkill.

Subtitles made in DVDSP. Need to move them due to a cut in video. How?

I have a 90 minute film with subtitles made in DVDSP. Picture and subtitles were perfectly lined up until I made a 5-second cut in one scene 40 minutes into the film.
I need to move the subtitles from that scene until the end of the movie by 5 seconds.
I was told I can only move one subtitle at a time in DVDSP, is this possible???
Shouldn't there be a way to select them and move them all together?
Thanks for your help
Paula

'Fraid not... the software assumes that your cut is done by the time it gets to DVD SP.
Jerry

Workflow and settings for best quality .png export

I need to export a vector image to a .png for use on Retina display devices. What is the workflow and settings for exporting that results in the best possible quality .png image?

The workflow I used to produce the previously posted image on a WIndows 7 PC:
File>Export>Set "Save As" type to PNG
Upon pressing the "Save" button a PNG Options window will appear.
Resolution: Screen (72 ppi)
Anti-Aliasing: Type Optimized (Hinting)
I contacted Adobe support and they told me that the only way to export .png is via "Export" or "Save For Web".
"Save For Web" is designed to compress and I wanted to avoid that to ensure retina display quality.
I chose 72 ppi instead of a higher setting (support suggested I use 300 ppi) because Apple retina displays do not recognize ppi above 72.
The Anti-Aliasing setting was my default and I read somewhere that this was the best for getting crisp edges on retina displays (Sorry, I cant recall the source)
My concerns are that the export and anti-aliasing make larger files and I'm not convinced they are noticably better quality than "Save For Web".
Also, it's worth noting that the support was clearly reading from a reference guide. It was not a "real" expert that could explain the best workflow.

.wmv into FCP back to .wmv - best workflow with Flip4Mac?

Apologies if this has been asked before, can't find a specific answer to this.
My client has provided a .wmv (windows media video 9) source file that needs to be edited.
The client needs the final format to also be .wmv with the WMV9 codec.
I've downloaded and shelled out for Flip4Mac Studio, no problem playing the file in QT or FCP. Now, apart from being able to play, import and export to wmv, I assumed I would be able to also create a .wmv sequence in FCP, but not getting any wmv9 codec in my sequence settings.
Am I missing something? Or if it's not possible to create a wmv9 sequence, what's the best workflow?
Source file is 720x540 @ 25fps, bit rate 2303 kbps, audio is 44.1kHz
Thanks.
(PS Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my pals over there in the US)

Thanks Jerry - believe me I wouldn't be working with this version if I didn't have to. It's for presentation within Windows Media Player ultimately so it will probably be OK if I can maintain most of the original quality.< </div>
Coming into Quicktime is an issue simply because they're different universes, but you know that.
You know what I'd do? I'd find some yutz with a PC and pay him/her to edit it on some Microsoft product. Instant in, instant out.
Short of that, converting the .wmv to something simple that will work in FCP is not going to give you any appreciable compression hit if it started out so small. Compressing again for .wmv v9.0 isn't going to improve anything but it shouldn't diminish either.
bogiesan

BEST Workflow? MPEG-2 Cutting and preparing for DVD...

Hi all
I am in the process of putting together a showreel. The only way I can get my work on a DVD is to record the DVB-T Stream (its Swiss Television), which Quicktime says is "MPEG2 Muxed, 720 x 540 Pixel" - and it's with 25fps.
Now I'd love to cut those Files in FCP with as high quality as possible and export it for DVD-Studio. If I would not be cutting these files, as I already did last year, there is not much conversion but only demuxing needed to use them in DVD Studio.
But how can I cut those MPEG-2 in FC Studio 2 without much quality degredation?
Whats the best workflow for this?
I read somewhere here in that forum, that I have to convert this into DV, cut it in FCP, and then convert it again to MPEG-2 -- but that sounds like a lot of compression going on...

Thanks for your reply Shawn.
Im aware of the fact that a recompress is not the best way to go. But I don't have any other chance, since a broadcasted signal is already in MPEG-2 and there is nothing I can do about it, this is my only available source. There is no tape for me.
I was basically just wondering if there is something like a smart Compress..say, it only recompresses where there have been changes, between two I-Frames... and evrything els thats unchanged just get copied. that would be the way to go...
Message was edited by: loop 66

Best way/settings to export from FCP to DVDSP

Hey - I have a program I need to export from FCP to DVDSP.
It is approx. 1hr 15min long.
What would be the best settings to use to maximize quality?
I also want to include chapter markers for importing into DVDSP - is it better to create these in FCP or Compressor???
This is a very important showreel and quality is a major factor...
I am using: FCP 5.1.4 DVDSP 4.1.2 Compressor 2.3
Thanks for all your help in advance!
PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi:
<< What would be the best settings to use to maximize quality?>>
You didn't mention your movie codec. Assuming you are using DV, if your FCP projects has graphic elements and heavy filters like Color Corrections, etc. you must get the best quality exporting directly from FCP through Compressor.
If your movie is basiclally DV video with no graphics, you probably will get same quality and shorter encoding times exporting as QuickTime movie, self settings (self contained is my favorite flavor!) and using this file in Compressor.
In Compressor use the DVD: Best Quality 90 min preset as starting point taking the MPEG2 and the Dolby 2 (AC3) presets. You most probably will get the best audio level changing the followings parameters in the standard AC3 preset:
- Dialog Normalization: -31
- Compression preset: None
Using uncompressed (AIFF/PCM) audio in DVD-Rs is a major cause of playback problems and/or building errors because the high bitrate, and takes a lot of your disc space.
If you encode inside DVDSP (using the Quicktime movie file directly in DVDSP) you'll get AIFF audio. DVDSP doesn't encode your audio to AC3.
<<This is a very important showreel and quality is a major factor...>>
To save encoding testing times, take a short part/s of your movie and make some encoding test. Select some parts of your footage with fast movements in the image and/or heavy transitions to check the final result.
<<I also want to include chapter markers for importing into DVDSP - is it better to create these in FCP or Compressor??? >>
Allways create your chapter markers in FCP or Compressor. That way you can set the exact frame where to locate it and DVDSP will preserve that position. If you add a Chapter Marker in DVDSP it will be moved to the nearest GOP boundary, not in the exact frame you decided. Check this tutorial about Chapters and Compression Markers .
Don't forget to post your FCP movie codec/settings.
<<StirFry..>>
I think that a bitrate of 7.9 Mbps with uncompressed audio (DVDSP doesn't encode audio to Dolby 2) is too high and can cause some encoding/playback errors in some DVD players. Someone else can post his mind about this ! ;D
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Best workflow for working on a project on two computers (i.e desktop and a

What is the best workflow for the following--
I have a project where I want to do some work on my laptop, then work on the desktop, then back to the laptop?
As a video guy, in Final Cut I do this by having two identical copies of my media, and simply transferring the FCP project file back and forth between the two computers.
Is there an equivalent in Aperture of transferring your selections/edits between two copies of Apeture with the original master files on both in identical projects?

I don't know what you mean by "bandwidth options". If you mean the frequencies and bands the iPad can use with cell carriers, those are listed in the Wireless and Cellular area of the tech specs. For iPads sold in the US, see:
http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/
If that's not what you meant, please post back and clarify what you mean by "bandwidth options".
Regards.

Best Workflow; HD to YouTube, iPhone, and DVD?

Hi there. I'm currently editing a four and a half minute video in Final Cut Pro, which was shot on HDV 1080i, 30fps. To review my work, I've been exporting the timeline using the Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) 1440x1080 30p 48kHz setting. This creates a very beautiful, clear looking file, albeit a little large (roughly 4.5GB).
I am going to need to export my video to three places; YouTube, iPhone, and burn on DVD. I was wondering what the best workflow for each of these you recommend.
I'm completely unsure about YouTube, though I imagine for iPhone I could take the 4.5GB Quicktime file in Quicktime and do a File->Export using the Movie to iPhone setting. This would theoretically create the best quality file for iPhone, correct?
Further, I know I could use Compressor to create .m2v file ready to burn on DVD using DVD Studio Pro, but what settings do you recommend? Since the video is so short, I would want the maximum bitrate, but don't want to set it so high that some DVD players can't play it. Thanks SO much in advance!

I do basically the same thing you do, except at 24p instead of 30. My workflow for going to Youtube uses a pair of custom-crafted Compressor presets. First, I scale my ProRes 422 HQ reference movie down to 640x360, still in ProRes, with frame controls on. This gives me a really good downrez.
Then I encode the resulting downrez to H.264 at 20 Mbps, with AAC audio at 256 Kbps. (Sometimes I have to tweak the bit rate of the picture to keep it under Youtube's one-gig hard ceiling. I recommend BitRate Pro for this; it lets you calculate the bit rate needed to encode a show of arbitrary length to a file under one gigabyte.) This is the file I upload, on the theory that giving them all the bits possible will result in the best possible final encode to Flash.
The last step in my workflow is to stab the person who wanted me to deliver via Youtube.

Mixing anamorphic SD and HDV footage--best workflow?

I am about to start an edit of a multicam shoot with mixed HDV and 16x9 Panasonic anamorphic SD footage (from DVX 100 series cams). Any suggestions on best workflow would be useful.
I would like to use the multicam editing feature, which I have used before, but never with mixed footage.
Final delivery will be SD, though I wouldn't mind staying in HD for the edit/CC/EFX.

If you're doing multicam work, I would recommend converting all your footage to a single format before getting started-- generally, you want to convert the lower quality footage to the format of the higher, so in this case, convert all your SD footage to HDV. Alternatively, you could covert everything to an HD ProRes setting (this would be my route).

Cheap camcorders for fcp - workflow - compatibility - quality

Hello List
I am looking into purchasing a cheap camcorder (under $500), that are compatible with Final Cut Pro. Tape or Card are ok. The important thing is that I can easily edit the footage without having to do any conversion or ripping.
There used to be a supported cameras list for earlier versions of final cut. Is there one for Final Cut Pro 5?
Regarding HD versus SD in the under $500.00 camcorder pricerange, what are people's experiences / opinions regarding workflow and image quality? I understand that with a cheap HD'ish camcorder you'll get more pixels but in an 'inconvenient' delievery format that needs to be converted for FCP. Is the final image quality compareable to an uncompressed miniDV image that is smaller yet not compressed?
What about the workflow, how much of a pain is the additional conversion from mp4 or mpeg4 ( or whatever format these camcorders output ) to a dv quicktime movie?
any advice or receommendations are much appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards
-sk

On an other list one guy recommended this camera:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8661959&type=product&id=1196470790 863
The price is $250.00 which is super cheap! Will my friend be able to log and capture with this camera without any hassle?
Is there a camera compatility list for FCP / FCE and IMovie?
Thank you all for your help so far. I appreciate it.
sk

Question? Best Workflow HD/HDV and Reframing/Scaling to Export to both HD and SD when working in an HD Timeline?

Just wondering, what is the best method for working with HD Footage both HDV 1440x1080 and HD 1920x1080
Not long been using Adobe Premiere Pro CC, just switched over from Grass Valley EDIUS 6.08 and atempting my first Stage Show Multi Camera.
Source is 5 HDV PAL and 1x1920x180 60fps MP4 file from a Sanyo Handy Cam.
Final delivery is going to be DVD.
Have done a few smaller projects prior to and normally have edited in HDV 1440x1080 50i PAL and exported to whatever format I need.
Slightly different this time, I need to I need to crop/reframe some video from a couple of the Static locked off cameras. I know what to do but at moment though, I'm very much undecided which method to use for best results.
Doing some testing I notice that if I import the footage and edit in my usual HD Timeline as said above, then I go into Motion and Scale and reframe to suit, then the picture still
looks better still Full Screen on my 2nd Monitor in the HD Timeline than if I switch the Sequence Settings to SD DV PAL.
I am wondering how the scaler works when exporting. Say I go with the original HD Sequence, scale the Locked off Shots as I want them, then export to SD DV PAL then does the Adobe Media Encoder take into account that I am working in a HD Sequence (HDV 1440x1080 50i PAL) and then Scale to suit or does upscaling go in an HD Timeline then Exporting to SD make things worse, I am asking this as I still like to have the option to output an HD file for the Web and possible Bluray or Mobile Device later on.
I also still prefer working in an HD Timeline as for the other Camera Angles, then it is easier to judge focus since the image is sharper, as apposed to working in an SD Sequence.
I guess the other option I suppose is to edit in HD and then switch the Sequence Settings later on to SD before Export, but not sure that would work with the scaling? Or is that the same as working in an HD Timeline anyway and then selecting an SD Preset in the Adobe Media Encoder anyway?
I guess what I am saying is, if I say for example, Scale a HDV source to 130% or then export to SD in the AME then, is the AME upscalling the original HDV Source to 130% Loosing Quality firstly (making less pixels that to begin with), then downscaling back again to 100% SD Resolution, loosing quality once more, or does it see that the source is HD and has more pixels to use and take that into account? If you get what I am saying. Obviously if I am exporting to any HD Format then, I understand that where will be some quality lose with any amount of HD scale.
I also read that it is less CPU resource full working in the native resolution of the media when editing, especially on an older system.
The other option is to work in an 720 Preset possiblely?
At the moment I don't have a proper Preview device and am making do with the 2nd Display on my Graphics Card GTX 760.
I was looking at getting a Blackmagic Device for preview, or possible one of the Matrox.
It is a shame really, since I already have the Canopus HD Storm in the PC, which I was using with EDIUS for a lovely full screen preview to a 32" TV, since looked great, so since switthcing to Premiere, I can't use it and am having to make do with the GTX 760. Which isn't as good.
Maybe there is some setting I can alter to get a better Playback Image?
Anyway, I notice that the Full Screen Image from the GTX 760 is not as clear as it should be when editing, especially whilst playing back the image is slightly soft and more so when in the Multicam Mode it is even softer.
I am not sure if this is because my computer is not quiet fast enough? Maybe I should post this in a seperate thread in the Hardware forum, but I thought it was worth mentioned in this post aswell.
SYSTEM SPECS
Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR (Socket 775) Motherboard
8GB DDR PC-800 RAM (4x2 Sticks)
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz
60GB OCZ SSD (FM-25S2S-60GBP2 ATA Device)
2 TB 7200 Sata 300 Hard Drive - For Video (Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 ATA Device)
Windows 7 SP1 x64
So in short At the moment I am undecided which method is best to use

Your Creative camera is not the best one could wish for. Open a 1280 x 720 sequence, import some Creative footage, use motion scale to fit it in and judge the quality for yourself. My guess is you will be disappointed in the quality. Then when outputting to DVD you will reduce the resolution and quality again, making it even worse.
So, my suggestion is, don't follow that route.
Ultimately you will end up with 720 x 576 material for your DVD. You already need to upscale your Creative footage, and change the PAR and take serious quality hits, do not increase your problems by upscaling and then downscaling again.

Subtitles: FCP or DVDSP? Best workflow and quality?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for