Zero quality loss compression rates

Hi. This my first post. Thanks to all who have posted so far, very helpful. My goal is to get away from DVD storage for home movies entirely, so I need to compress my .avi files to a reasonable size. I refuse to do so at the expense of quality, however. After a dozen experiments in QT, I determined that from my Sony Handicam, the following settings retained full clarity:
h.264, 29.97frames/s, 5700kb/s, best quality, 640X480.
The end result for a 54 second clip was an .mp4 file roughly 1/5 of the size of the .avi (188MB down to 38MB). Has anyone achieved a better compression rate without quality loss? I want to ensure the best rate before I set to converting hours of home video. Any suggestions appreciated.
Message was edited by: Dirk The Hammer

Patrick, thanks so much for your help. You're all really helpful on here!
Exporting in prores still displays artifacts and they show up when I bring it into FCP (regardless of whether I import the clip fresh or have it saved back from a "send").
Here's what I tried:
importing clip directly into a new motion file (not sent from FCP) - movie displays with artifacting - upon rendering, rendered clip still has issue - imported into FCP - still shows artifacting
by importing the motion clip with artifacts into FCP and display in the timeline, FCP changes it's settings to match the clip as usual - I then tried importing the original source clip directly into FCP and when I move it to the timeline, it also shows identical artifacts. However, if I bring in the original clip first, so FCP changes it's settings to match it, the motion clip still shows compression.
Assuming the problem is with the transcode, is this just an issue with this video format working with motion? If so, I assume this means our video team needs to use a different codec. We're shooting a lot of green screen for HD video - any recommendations for a better codec?
Also, is this an issue that Apple can address with future versions of Motion?
Thanks again!

Similar Messages

Compression Rate = Quality... Rule of Thmb?

Are there any rules of thumb for compression rates and resulting quality? For instance, I've heard 5Mbps is the bottom end for "as good as commercial movie DVDs". I guess measures that describe "quality" are subjective or varied... but terms that are significant to me are things like "Movie DVD's" "Betacam" "VHS" "no perceptable loss, even in motion scenes".
I often need to decide if a client will need one or two disks, based on the proposed amount of footage, before production. I make a rough bit-budget ahead of time. So, if the bit-budget calls for a 4.2 bit rate and that is too ugly for what I think my client needs, then I'll need to go to 2 disks. So, knowing in advance the bit rate -to- quality relationship would be very helpful.
Let's say the constants are:
Decent DV footage, let's say "average" screen action
Edited on FCP
Compressed with Compressor-2, Constant Bit Rate, to Mpeg-2
Thanks, Ralph
Desktop G4 / 1.5 G / Mac OS X (10.3.6)
Desktop G4 / 1.5 G / Mac OS X (10.3.6)

Not really. A lot comes down to what you see on screen when you try a few test encodes. Higher data rates don't always equate to higher quality - particularly at the upper end of the scale... can you see a difference between 8MBPS and 9.4MBPS, for example?
The fact is that it is only through experience that you get to know what tends to look good for the material you have got... therefore encode lots of things and see how it turns out!
Quite often the client will demand a single disc set, for example. Your experience will tell you that their 4 hour sport video won't look very good and so you have to have that conversation with them. No matter how good the source footage is, when you reduce the bitrate too far to get a file that fits the disc they want the quality will suffer - but you can turn to MPEG1, half D1, etc to help get them to replication, of course.
In general, the middle of the bit rate scale will be a good enough place to start. If you have really clean source footage then a software encoder like Compressor might do the job alright, but a better encoder, such as BitVice, MegaPEG.X, Canopus Procoder will do a better job with the same bit rates. A hardware encoder like the sonic SD2000 might give a different result again, whilst Cinemacraft could be set up to run a multi-pass VBR encode over a period of several days and squeeze every last drop of quality out of the footage.
There are simply too many variables involved, and I'd be sceptical of a 'one size fits all' approach, I'm afraid.
5MBPS for 'as good as commercial DVDs' is nonsense in this context. 5MBPS on really clean betacam source footage run through an SD2000 is a dream compared to 5MBPS on noisy, poorly lit mini-DV put through Compressor... it's unwise to make generalisations, IMO.

What quality loss is there when cam videos are compressed sent over email?

What quality loss is there when sending videos taken with the iPhone 3GS over email? It seems that it's being compressed in preparation for being sent over email.

Hi Ric,
The Canopus ADVC-100 works fine with FCE. Here are a few tips -
First, make sure you only connect or disconnect it from your Mac when both your Mac and the ADVC-100 are turned off. Make sure that your camera video-out is connected to the s-video port on the front of the ADVC-100. Ditto for the audio connections. Only DIP switch 2 (IRE level) should be in the ON position. Connect a FW cable from your Mac to the 6-pin FW port on the back of the ADVC-100.
Second, once they are connected via FW, make sure the ADVC is turned on and actually in analog-in mode before you start FCE. I have often found the ADVC-100 resets this mode by itself after being turned off or idle for an extended time. (All you need to do is hit the silver button once or twice, depending on the current mode, in order to switch it into Analog-in mode.) If it is not in this mode, FCE will not detect the ADVC and will act as if there is no device connected. (Normally there is a warning message if FCE fails to find a camera or ADVC connected however if you turned off that message at some earlier time you would not see it again.)
Third, you can use either the DV-NTSC or DV Converter easy setup in FCE. I have used both with my ADVC-100 and they both work.

How to compress a pdf file without quality loss

How to compress a pdf file without quality loss? Please help....

With the way you worded the question, your only option is to zip (or equivalent) the PDF. There are options in terms of graphic compression (this is generally a loss of quality in reducing the pixels) and nonstorage of fonts (likely making the file unreadable to some). So there are techniques, but with a tradeoff. It all depends on what you mean by loss of quality.
The other techniques that do not lose quality, but give up on some functionality are to remove links, bookmarks, and tags. The tags are often necessary only for converting a PDF back to another form and maintaining accessibility - important in some business situations. These are all tradeoffs that give something up.

Best bitrate settings with no quality loss from MPEG2?

I currently use Elgato's EyeHome to watch MPEG2 (DVD) files on my TV (thus no quality loss).
I have just ordered an AppleTV and would like any advice as to the best bit-rate settings for transcoding MPEG2 to H.264?
1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile... which bit rate for no quality loss / minimal quality loss?
Many thanks
Rick

Many thanks for your helpful comments.
First, I curently use EyeHome: this is a forerunner to AppleTV and very good. I stream 100% quality MPEG2 (converted from .vob files): so the quality is just as watching a DVD.
Second, the Export to AppleTV preset in Quicktime results in much worse quality. For example, taking a 5 minute sample from a DVD results in MPEG2 file size of 188MB. Export to AppleTV squashes this file to 77MB and a resulting drop in quality.
Third, although h.264 does compress file size better than MPEG2, for the AppleTV, the only (published) setting that does not result in drop of quality in terms of resolution, is to rescale upwards to 720i.
Through experimenting, so far using MPEG Streamclip and bit rate of 4MB/ps results in file size that is slightly larger than MPEG2 (as would be expected due to larger screen resolution) with no noticeable reduction in quality. Bitrate of 3MB/ps results in obvious quality drop. 5MB/ps obviously even better, but not noticeably greater than 4MB/ps.
Thanks for all your help again,
Rick

Doubts about quality loss from analog to DV.

Hi, friends. Can anyone help me clarify this doubts, please?
From analog media to miniDV tape to iMovie DV file, is there any quality loss? If the answer is yes, in which step does the loss happen? In the analog to miniDV or in the miniDV to iMovie DV file or in both steps?
Resulting quality of imported analog footage to iMovie DV file is the same using either the above technique or the pass through technique that skips DV tape use (8mm camcorder media send to Mac through miniDV recorer)?
Thanks in advance.

Hi onClick,
inside your mini-DV camcorder, some chips do the converting "on the fly" - from that moment, you realize no loss, because then, everything is digital, 000 and 111.- so, you shouldn't realize any difference by taping or pass-thru.
in technical terms, DV has a much better quality then analog, but, for sure, any conversion is lossy. DV has a high compression rate, compared to what is done in a professional studio . but for the normal John Doe as us, you will not recognize any loss in quality after converting.
besides: never judge the quality of the pic on your Mac's screen! computers and tv-sets have very different techniques in displaying video! you can just judge pic quality after playout on tape/tv....-

Motion Graphics quality loss when encoding to DVD

I have completed a logo reveal and movie titles for our short film that we will be authored to DVD. I used AE CS4 and created the compositions as 1050x756 PAL square pixels.
The uncompressed AVI renders look amazing. However, when i encode using MPEG2-DVD straight from AE there is a big hit on quality. I understand that encoding is about compressing and that we need to expect a certain amount of quality loss. But the text is especially bad.
I read somewhere that saturated reds are not particularly well handled by the MPEG-2 encoders. So we changed the color to a more subdued burned orange. We also remove the titles horizontal scroll on the screen that was causing excessive flickering. But there is still a high rate of quality loss on the text.
Is there any special workflow that i should be using, tips or tricks that you know of? I see some awesome intro titles on DVD and the text does not behave in this way.
Any pointers and suggestion you can give, would be greatly appreciated

Robert:
The MPEG-2 encoder in AE/AME is a very good, general purpose encoder.
Commercial DVD titles frequently use high-end, specialized encoders. This includes very expensive, hardware-based encoders.
That said, you could get better quality from the MPEG-2 encoder in Adobe applications by using 2 pass encoding. Unfortunately, the Render Queue in AE only can do 1 pass encoding. In order to use 2 pass encoding, you'd have to launch Adobe Media Encoder in standalone mode, pick an MPEG-2 DVD preset and enable 2 pass encoding.
Specialized encoders include, for example, Cinemacraft SP. It can do multipass encoding and offers a great deal of control over encoding settings. Even as a software-based solution, it's not cheap.
It's also worth pointing out that type for highly compressed media has its' set of do's and don't's. Applying a very subtle vertical blur (Reduce Interlace Flicker) usually helps. Fonts designed for high-resolution media (most families with serifs) need to be used at large sizes, or use sans serif typefaces for smaller sizes, etc.

HDV or AVCHD editing = processor utilization = import/exp. quality loss

Hello,
my question about processability of HDV/AVCHD Movies with iMovie. I have learned that HDV and AVCHD files are transfered in the AIC format. That should mean editig a movie would be always in the AIC format and I assume no difference whether I come from HDV or AVCHD format it should be similar demanding to the core2duo processor except initial transcoding from H264 to AIC - is this right?. When I save a movie out of iMovie do I save it in AIC or in HDV/AVCHD? Is there a quality loss transferring a movie back and forth from/to HDV/AVCHD to AIC since HDV employs mpeg2 and AVCHD employs H264 which are both compressed formats? Practically does this also mean that AIC can work as a bridge to between both formats?
Thanks for your replies to my several questions!

I have cut/pasted this from another thread where I posted it following a question from a Canon HV20 owner. The info applies to all HDV and AVCHD cams though. Might help you decide.
This comes from www.camcorderinfo.com
Compression (7.0)
The Canon HV20 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $903) uses HDV compression, a very efficient MPEG-2 codec with a fixed data rate of 25Mbps, identical to the data rate of standard definition DV compression. HDV excels in capturing stunningly high-resolution video, but it is inferior to DV in terms of rendering motion realistically, due to its dependence on interframe compression. This means that at 1080i, only one in fifteen frames is a full-frame picture, while the intervening frames are compressed in relation to each full I frame. Interframe compression is much more efficient than intraframe compression, and allows HDV to squeeze a full 1920 x 1080 picture into a 25Mbps stream, recordable to inexpensive MiniDV tapes. DV uses intraframe compression, so each frame is a fully independent picture, allowing much better motion capture. DV also uses a superior 4:1:1 color space while HDV encodes via a truncated 4:2:0 color space.
The inherent weaknesses of HDV have led many networks to deem the format sub-standard for broadcast, but it is still the best high definition format available on the consumer camcorder market. Most consumers find the stunning resolution of HDV trumps the superior motion handling of DV. A professionally lit HDV interview (or any HDV shot without too much detail or motion) can look nearly as good as footage shot in a professional HD format on a $20,000 camera. AVCHD, a new HD format that uses H.264 compression was introduced in 2006 and compresses video even more aggressively than HDV. Our tests of Canon's UX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $729.95) and SR1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) last fall show that while AVCHD video is very sharp, it suffers from grain and artifacts much more than HDV compression. The wildcard in the consumer high definition arena is a new MPEG-2 format developed by JVC, the MPEG Transfer Stream codec, which appears for the first time in the Everio HD7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1529). MPEG Transport Stream compresses video at up to 30Mbps, and may rival or even outclass HDV compression.
Media (6.0)
Like other HDV camcorders, the Canon HV20 records to MiniDV cassettes, the same inexpensive and widely available format used by standard definition DV camcorders. MiniDV cassettes have a run time of 60 minutes in SP mode, but can hold up to 90 minutes of more compressed LP video. Unlike the DVD, memory card, and HDD formats, MiniDV tapes are linear media so moving clips to a PC from tape is a real-time process. For anyone serious about the quality of his or her video, HDV recorded to MiniDV cassette remains the best consumer HD option available. To date, consumer non-linear video formats do not support the highest-quality video compression codices for high definition (HDV) and standard definition (DV).

Significant quality loss and jagged diagonal lines when exporting from FCP

I've been working on this problem for several days and I'm going insane! Every time I export my movie from Final Cut, there is a significant quality loss. It is most noticeable in two ways: diagonal lines become very jagged (looking somewhat like diagonal lines in an older video game -- more a diagonal sequence of blocks); also, in some areas such as faces, the colors get a little blurry and there seems to some "pooling" of colors around the edges of the face.
I'm pretty sure the problem's not in capture: the Quicktime clips that I captured from the camera are all pristine. When I play them in Quicktime, I can blow them up several times their original size, and they maintain their sharp lines. (I also Reverse Telecined them all with Cinema Tools, if that's relevant.) I also know the problem's not just my computer monitor; when I play these movies on my external monitor and TV, they look bad too. The clips look bad after I bring them into Final Cut, and while I'm editing, but at first I figured that was because Final Cut sometimes doesn't show full resolution in the timeline. Still, when I export, the quality of the original captures just isn't there.
Some details:
Captured from 24A progressive, Sony HVR V1U HDV.
Using Final Cut 6.0.1, Compressor 3.0.1, Quicktime 7.2.0, OS 10.4.10 (all the most recent versions I believe).
I've exported in many different ways: using Compressor (and have tried a number of different settings: the DVD Best Quality 90 Minutes default Setting, as well as using a variety of bit rates from 3.0-8.0, One pass CBR, Two pass CBR, Two pass VBR, Two pass VBR best; Video Formats NTSC, HD 1440x1080...I have tried many combinations. Regardless of the size of the m2v created, the files seem to have the same problem over and over. I've also tried exporting from Final Cut as a Quicktime Movie and with Quicktime Conversion. Same result. I also tried using different compressors with my Final Cut sequence: Apple Intermediate Codec (which I used when capturing -- you have to with the Sony HVR), HDV 1080p24, HDV 1080i60, Apple Pro Res 422, H.264...
What's happening? Why is Final Cut turning my nice pristine captures into jagged foulness? What can I try that I haven't yet?

Welcome to the forums!
Unfortunately, you seem to have tried everything I can think of, and I don't have the latest versions of FCP to know if it is a bug. However, in the off chance that you haven't given this a shot:
Take a problematic 10 second section of your timeline (set in and out points) and the Export -> Quicktime (not QT Conversion) and make sure that you have it on Quality settings that you captured, and select the "Make Self Contained" box.
Look at that in Quicktime and see if it's bad. If it's not problematic, use that video file in Compressor for your render.
Hope that helps!
~Luke

Another quality loss issue: exporting

I see a lot of people have problems with quality loss.
I am importing an movie of an animated screengrab (using Snapzpro). This movie looks great - nice and sharp when viewed in QT. After importing into iMovie it's slightly blurred, notr a big deal just looks a bit "warm".
However when I export it looks bad, diagonal lines are very jagged. I've tried export at Full quality, I've tried expert settings with DV-PAL and many other codecs.
It's just about OK if I use "none", and then import into QT Pro and export with DV-PAL - what I don't understand is why I can't just use DV-PAL direct from iMovie.
Is this something I just have to put up with? Would it better with Final Cut Express?

Actually I discovered since posting the question, that the dimension is something to due with it, but too small rather than too large. I was capturing at 640 x 480 and I discovered that capturing 768 x 576.
I also think that the nature of the image is crucial. This is large scale musical notation - lots of diagonal black and white straight lines so any jaggedness becomes very obvious.
What I still don't understand is why the export from iMovie using DV PAL is not as good as the export from QT using DV PAL - I have to export from iMovie with no compression, then re export from QT Pro.
Although I,m totally ready to accept this is a human operator error, I've also seen lots of people say iMovie does degrade on importing which is why I wonder if I need final Cut Express or Pro

Huge quality loss in iMove '11

Hello fellow iMovie users.
Yesterday I upgraded to iLife 11 to get the new iMovie and its "new" audio editing capabilities. I could ofcourse just buy it from Mac App Store, but I am principally against App Store and its strict rules, so I choosed to get it the old way.
Anyway, I liked what i saw. Finally the new iMovie was about as good as the five year old one, and had some neat features like chroma key and cropping.
So I decided to start practicing and create a short video based on some old DV-videos filmed with my Canon MV950 DV-PAL camera.
I imported the footage into iMovie, and noticed some significant quality loss after the import.
And it get worse. After I exported the video, it seems like it is heavily compressed, even if I'm exporting to QuickTime and selects the highest quality possible.
I have some screenshots to show you the differences.
This is the original DV-footage.
The imported video. Notice the higher compression and the choppy edges.
And this is the exported video. Notice the insanely bad quality, especially in dark areas.
Is there any way to fix this, or do I have go back to iMovie HD?
PS. Sorry if my post is a bit unreadable. I'm from Norway.

Steve,
While I agree everyone should have owned a HD camera by now, there are a lot of low-end SD cameras that are still being sold today. In this era of our economy, consumers are sensitive to prices; especially low or lower prices.
And unlike the video camcorder boom of the 80s with Sony introducing the Video8 handycam (shoulder mounted camcorder), people today do not video using traditional camcorders. Most either do it through a digital camera, DSLR, iPhone or blogger cameras and are already mostly in an acceptable progressive format. There is nothing wrong with DV style cam. Canon GL-2 and the Panasonic DVX-100 are still commanding such a very high price tag for cameras of older technology and still being repaired goes to show that there are people out there still using it.
If one can convert quality interlaced footage into quality progressive footage, you can use that footage and create good results using iMovie 11. I agree with you and Tom that iMovie 11 captures interlaced footage in full. But what's the use if it can't make a good product in the end that looks like what iMovie 6HD can do and when there are PC software out there including the free Windows Movie Maker that can do this with no problem.
Consumers, unlike some of us, only relate to past software used and are usually benign to the fact of progressive vs interlaced. I have dealt with some mis-informed customers that they believed FULL HD only means 1080p at 60fps; anything else is not. I digress.
With Mac users, they don't necessarily follow the same upgrade frequency as PC users either. Macs generally last a lot longer between upgrades compared to a PC because they don't have to run a barage of virus/spam/anti-malware growing definition files which ultimately slow an otherwise healthy PC down. Macs do not have to worry about this.

Quality loss after exporting 1280 x 960 30fps footage

Hello everyone,
Everytime I edit and export footage shot with my GoPro camera (1280x960p, 30fps) the quality gets a little less. Very frustrating as I am clueless after a long time of looking for what I'm doing wrong..
I use Premiere Pro Version 4.2.1
Sequence presets:
General
Editing mode: Desktop
Timebase: 29,97fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 1280h 960v (1,0000)
Frame rate: 29,97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
Fields: No Fields (Progressive Scan)
Export settings:
Format: H.264
Preset: Custom
TV Standard: NTSC
Frame Width: 1280
Frame Height: 960
Frame Rate (fps) 29.97
Field Order: None (Progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels.
Has anybody got an idea what could help here?

Thanks for the replies guys, but unfortunately the problem isn't really solved yet..
I tried checking the maximum render quality, but that only resulted in my laptop not being able to smoothly play the exported video.
Filming with the 1280 x 720 setting is possible, but then the footage just doesn't look that sharp.. (as I can't film in 60fps, I got the first GoPro 960).
I installed Cineform and converted a little test video to AVI. This resulted in an export video without quality loss, but the conversion with Cineform took way too long for it to be a practical solution cause I edit a lot.
At last, Abhishek Kapoor, I couldn't find the video setting you're talking about to increase the maximum bitrate.
Any other ideas that might work?

HELP! iPhoto 08 Quality loss after edits

HELP! iPhoto 08 Quality loss after edit!
Any edited version, no matter how minor, causes the file size to be cut in half!
Original 3872 x 2592 is 3.1mb at 300dpi .
Edit version 3870x2590 becomes 1.5Mb at 72dpi.
B&W conversion 3872x2592 becomes 1.6mb at 72dpi.
Seems like a major degradation! iPhoto 6 wasn't this bad.
DPI change is not a problem but the file size change sure is!
PLEASE! any ideas before I upgrade all my files to 08. Please - don't say Aperture, it's still too slow and cumbersome. Trying to avoid Lightroom and stay within Apple sphere.

It really isn't a big degradation. There is a jpg compression when you make any edit but you might be hard pressed to see the reduction unless you're enlarging/printing the file to very large sizes. The most critical part of an image file is the number of pixels in it.
The reduction in size depends on the image content of the photos. If there's a lot of the same color, i.e. like lots of blue sky or a same color wall, that type of image will see much more compression than a very intricate photo. Also when removing the color information for a B/W conversion reduces the file size considerably. Do a Google search for jpeg compression and you'll find some very informative descriptions on how the compression is performed and what part image detail plays in the resulting file size.
You would have to compress the file a number of additional times time before you'd see the change. And with iPhoto's Revert to Original capability, you can start a new edit fresh with the untouched digital negative.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Major Quality loss when editing in Iphoto 09

Hi,
I am a new user to Imac and Iphoto and I saw that when I edit an Image in Iphoto, I loose a lot of my original data.
I have found that I can return to the original picture, but I wish to edit (especially using the CROP function) then print the Image on 20x30 cm size and therefore I need all the quality I can get.
When I Crop either JPEG or .RAW formatted images (for example 10 MBytes in size) even if I select the COMPLETE image, I am left with only 4 or 5 Mbytes of data.
It gets much worse when I really Crop a part of the picture.
A 12 Mega pixel photo should supply sufficient data to cover a complete wall, but for some reason a lot of quality is lost when I use any of the editing features.
Am I doing something wrong ?
Should I change any of the settings ?
Thanks for your advice

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
the only difference is that Iphoto took my quality !!
Are you basing the "quality" loss on visual appearance of the photo or on the resulting size of the jpeg file? If it's the latter that is really not an accurate method. True, some information is lost with a jpeg edit and save (only the first edit in iPhoto results in additional jpeg compression) but, in my experience, you would have to print a VERY large print before seeing any noticeable image degradation. I've compressed jpegs as high as 60%, i.e. a quality setting of 40, and for most all uses up to 5x7 prints haven't seen noticeable image degradation. However, I realize image quality is subjective and open to individual interpretation.
So unless you are visibly seeing image degradation I wouldn't worry about the file size reduction, especially in iPhoto as it's compressed only once no matter how many edits are made and saved. Apple uses a compression algorithm that gives the best image quality for the amount of compression it uses.
The following is from the Usernet FAQ site article "JPEG image compression FAQ, part 1/2':
Subject: [4] How well does JPEG compress images?
Very well indeed, when working with its intended type of image (photographs and suchlike). For full-color images, the uncompressed data is normally 24 bits/pixel. The best known lossless compression methods can compress such data about 2:1 on average. JPEG can typically achieve 10:1 to 20:1 compression without visible loss, bringing the effective storage requirement down to 1 to 2 bits/pixel. 30:1 to 50:1 compression is possible with small to moderate defects, while for very-low-quality purposes such as previews or archive indexes, 100:1 compression is quite feasible. An image compressed 100:1 with JPEG takes up the same space as a full-color one-tenth-scale thumbnail image, yet it retains much more detail than such a thumbnail.
Read more: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/#ixzz0UKB59gND
Message was edited by: Old Toad

Export quality loss

I must be missing something. Is there some place I can read all about codecs and video formats and how to export from FCE without massive quality losses?
Typical example:
I download a one-minute video in MPEG-4 format. It's 114MB, 1280x720, uses AAC and H.264 codecs, and data rate is 14 Mbit/sec. The QuickTime inspector says "millions" (of colors, presumably) and 60 fps. Video quality is excellent.
I edit it in FCE, and when I try to export it, there is severe quality loss, even when I set the bit rate very high.
Can somebody clue me in as to what I need to do to preserve the original quality?
Message was edited by: G Robert Lewis

Thanks. I got through the use of MPEG Streamclip OK, but I'm at a loss how to create an HD sequence that matches the clip's specs. None of the "settings" or "preferences" or "properties" I've looked at seem to cover the needed options. "Easy Setup" came the closest, but a matching resolution spec wasn't available.

Zero quality loss compression rates

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