compressing AFX output without compromising on quality

[prateekvishwa]

Hello!
i recently successfully rendered a 3:20 sec walkthrough in 1280x720 px. I used AFX to compile it together & rendered it in uncompressed AVI format. output size is 13 GB & i am happy with the quality. The moment i convert it into .mp4 or any other format for viewing it on TV (pal) etc , quality is very poor.. though i have a good quality output in my hand i dont know in what format shall i deliver to my client for his launch..

Any suggestion?

Best Regards,
Prateek

[glorybound]

I'm no authority, but the only thing that works for me, is a DVD.

[YoyoBoy]

If you have Quicktime Pro you can crank it out as an MOV with H264 compression and it'll look really good and be nice and small. It works much better from Quicktime than it does through any Adobe product for some reason. But you have to "Export" rather than "Save As.."

[joconnell]

Yep - h264 or normal mp4 are both good bets. h264 has had some issues with the gamma being wrong in quicktime and washing things out, but there's plenty of walkthroughs on the net of how to solve it. What are you using to create your mp4 file? It should be capable of capturing the majority of the detail you have in your uncompressed file if you give it enough data rate / bandwidth to work with. There's no magic format that'll make your entire video fit on to a floppy disk but still have perfect image quality so you'll have to do a few tests on different data rates.

[prateekvishwa]

size really doesn't matter, i am okay unless it fits in a 4.5 gb dvd but quality should be maintained, i tried using demo version of total video converter, dont want to buy any such software unless i am sure it will do good job. Client may not accept .mov as most of the dvd players doesn't support that format. I am ok with .mp4 but somehow after converting it to mp4 with total video convertor, quality going drastically down..
I also tried writing it to dvd using nero vision but quality if very poor..

[joconnell]

Give this a go as a freebie - http://www.mediacoderhq.com/ - will take most things as an input, it's free and it's fast. Have a play with the video data rate to play with the quality.

[Morne]

Also try VLC. It's free and you can convert to almost any format. The defaults for mp4 output should be fine...

Let us know how you get on with the various suggestions

[glorybound]

Hand break is good, too. To create looping DVD's I use TMPGEnc. I also use their converting software.

Bobby Parker

[glorybound]

Here is their link:
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/index.html

Bobby Parker

[Undersky]

h.264 / mp4 from AFX is what I usually use, unless the client wants wmv. For a 1280x720 I use High Profile, Level 5.1 and a target bitrate of 4 Mbps or 6 Mbps and a maximum bitrate of 6 Mbps or 8 Mbps. VBR, 1 Pass (don't think you can do a 2 pass?). Usually works fine. And with h.264 you can go really low with the bitrate aswell without sacrificing to much quality. Good if you need to create an animation that the client can mail (still often the 10 Mb limit for some dumb reason).

[prateekvishwa]

Thank you all!
i dont have pro version of quicktime, i tried other options but some how all of them were giving more or less same result. I finally exported as .mp4 from AFX. Here is the final output-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3pfQgPWUf0

Regarding walkthrough-
I asked for 25 days from client but got only 12 days. SO this job was done start to end in 12 days by one man army which is my company i.e. PVDS I actually had tiff with client about deadline because he booked 5star hotel for launch without considering the time needed to finish this AV. I skipped interior camera movement, moving cars etc etc which i planned originally.. on top of that i missed my Christmas vacations to meet this deadline.. Anyways, dont know how to make clients understand that pushing us to meet unrealistic deadlines will kill that quality of walkthrough which we can do... well it is all done now & im lovin the free time with my family after very busy year end!

[glorybound]

very nice. I like your transitions. The quality looks clean to me.

[MoonDoggie]

If you have Quicktime Pro you can crank it out as an MOV with H264 compression and it'll look really good and be nice and small. It works much better from Quicktime than it does through any Adobe product for some reason. But you have to "Export" rather than "Save As.."

^ This is what I've found as well. Do it from QT Pro, never H264 from adobe products, it looks better from qtpro and is like half the size as the ones from premiere, etc.

[trixian]

One simple and fast way once you have the master avi, si Freemake. Its pretty darn fast and free too . I just wish it supported image sequences as input. Oter than that, h.264 straight out of AFX or premiere gives good results here after fiddling with settings, but maybe not for longer clips. If you want top notch encoding tips, you need to seek out the shady part of the movie release scene on the interwebs, aka the pirates
Personally I'd dump the whole quicktime stuff. Nasty software from an even nastier corporation, and completely unnecessary today. Last time Quicktime was relevant was back in the mid 90's.