a question for any video gurus

a little background: i used to edit and encode videos for webmasters back in the day, but it’s been years and i didn’t do much HD, didn’t work in MP4 and never worked on this computer. i used to use sony vegas movie studio platinum either 9 or 11 (can’t remember), sorenson squeeze and some boilsoft products, and results were good.

i’m part of a small startup site, and started doing some editing only to find that my videos are coming out sort of crappy using the new vegas movie studio platinum 14.0 from magix. it doesn’t matter what i do - they come out fairly crappy and definitely lower quality than the source videos. they look like photos shot in jpg with the noise reduction on too high, with some smearing and moving background pixels. i’ve tried virtually everything i can think of including very high bitrates for web consumption (i’m talking 20 Mbps), single pass and dual pass, and so on and so on. results are always crappy.

i’m using MainConcept AVC/AAC at internet HD 1080 P, as well as sony tablet 1020P, and i customized the profiles differently for each test. my best results weren’t great. i’m not familiar with the company that now owns vegas, so i tried some other free and trial programs. some results were better but not actually good, and never as good as the source video.

so here’s my question - is it possible that my lack of dedicated video card could be causing this? i had a dedicated video card but a lower spec, older computer when i used to do video. i was under the impression that a shared video card would cause slower encoding, but is it possible it could create lower quality videos?

thanks!

Re: a question for any video gurus

First, I’m no expert… but…

I wouldn’t think so. The only thing it might do is borrow ram from the video card during rendering… which wouldnt affect the end quality.

I think to answer this, people should know what you’re doing to the video. ie, if you’re running it thru a MagicBullet or HitFilm filter/effect… these will often leave your end HD product grainy whereas the original is not since it doesn’t have those added.

Also, can you copy and paste your Template info so we know what has been changed? By default, Internet 1080p should be:

“Use this setting to create an MP4 (AVC/AAC) file for progressive internet downloads.
Audio: 192 Kbps, 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo, AAC
Video: 29.970 fps, 1920x1080 Progressive, YUV, 12 Mbps
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.000”

Re: a question for any video gurus

all i’m doing is a little cropping, joining, and on some added a graphic transparent watermark and a splash screen.

by now i’ve customized the template at least two dozen ways. i’ve worked with a constant bitrate of 6 Mbps and 8 Mbps, tried a two pass in both variable and constant. i tried the deblocking filter, tried the variable bitrate at a variety of max and average rates, none under 8 Mbps.

basic_template.jpg

Re: a question for any video gurus

The one thing that stood out when you said it, “cropping.” However, I’m not familiar with your software.

I’ve rarely seen quality retained when cropping. Instead of cropping, I will use the zoom tool (pan).

Re: a question for any video gurus

i used the wrong word - do i mean splitting? i meant cutting off the parts of the video where the director is talking.

Re: a question for any video gurus

Ah, cutting, editing. When I have a good scene that I had to coach the models through, essentially talking through the scene, yes, I’ll split the audio from video and dub over.

I’m inclined to agree with britton, it’s not your video card. I render at 30mbps, then run through handbrake.

I use both Adobe Premiere and Corel Visual Studio. Depends on which producer I get the content from. They all film with different equipment.

Take a peek at the video without the watermark.

Also, it could be something as simple as you are using “sharpness” and set to high.

Re: a question for any video gurus

Adobe Premiere gives very good results but required a subscription to Adobe unfortunately.

Re: a question for any video gurus

i never would set sharpness too high, and the videos without the watermark look exactly the same as the videos with the watermark.

so far i’ve had the same poor results in several programs including two i used to use. these videos were shot with a samsung galaxy S7 (they’re trying to be discreet) and i keep wondering if that’s the problem. the original videos look good - better than many i see in sites - but so far editing and encoding has been an exercise in frustration.

i think i’ll whip out my canon today, shoot a couple minutes of video and see how it edits.

i’m not worried about the $20 subscription, but i can’t use the trial as i downloaded it, opened it up and didn’t bother to try it months before.

i used to get beautiful video out of vegas movie studio, and yesterday after getting poor results out of it for several days, i also tried cyberlink power director, wondershare filmora, video pad, VSDC free editor and movie maker (ugh!), and results were always sort of crappy although not always the same. it’s gotta be either something weird i don’t know about the source video or my computer. i’m no video pro, but i never ran into this issue before…

Re: a question for any video gurus

Vegas has actually improved since selling from Sony so I dont think that is the issue. Are you changing video containers and specs? Are the beautiful originals also mp4 1080p and same frame rate as your rendered product?

Re: a question for any video gurus

we may be changing containers but i’m not sure. we are changing specs as the originals are 25 Mbps. vegas wanted the frame rate to be 29.something while it was shot at 60 according to the manufacturer but i’m guessing it’s actually 59.something. i did try 60 fps, which didn’t help, and most of the videos i check when reviewing are 30 fps.

Re: a question for any video gurus

samsung galaxy S7 … that might just be the culprit. I know I have problems when trying to edit videos shot on a phone. Someone else on the board might have some insight on how to edit/render those.

Re: a question for any video gurus

I have a vague idea of what you’re doing … but can’t offer anything other than this search return page re: the samsung galaxy editing maybe something or someone in the links can help.

Re: a question for any video gurus

that was my first guess, but i’m not knowledgeable to be sure. gonna do a canon video in a bit and edit it to see if it works out better.

thanks!

Re: a question for any video gurus

The video card shouldn’t have anything to do with output quality… they just for speed up the editing/rendering process.

I was going to suggest you do a sample edit with the 30 day Adobe Premiere trial but since that isn’t an option I’d try one of the other many programs that offer a free trial. Some are actually 100% free. Just do a search for “free video editing software”. The point would be to see if another program improves your output.

Re: a question for any video gurus

that’s what i thought.

i’ve used trials for 5 other video programs including power director. out of the free programs and free trials, i’m actually getting good results from VSDC, but i really hate it. talking about adding extra steps to everything! a friend is going to download the trial (it’s a week now, not 30 days) of premiere, and we’re going to see if it gives decent results. i used to really dislike premiere, but compared to VSDC, it’s easier to use. but for now at least i have VSDC.

Re: a question for any video gurus

I’ve not used the editing software you’re using, but I just edit and export a full, uncompressed video (from Final Cut) and then run the compressions with Handbrake. I’m guessing you could do the same with Vegas. The compressions I got from using Final Cut Studio’s Compressor were okay, but I’m quite happy with the way Handbrake performs – especially at how quick it runs them.

Re: a question for any video gurus

thanks for the suggestion - i have downloaded handbrake recently but didn’t try it. i’ve encoded a few videos with meh results.

do you have settings you can recommend to keep things as sharp and clear as possible?

Re: a question for any video gurus

This is just a wild guess, but are you sure you have all the necessary video codecs installed on your machine?

There is one cool pack of video codecs called K-Lite Codec Pack and it is pretty good and comprehensive. Perhaps some of the video editing software relies on these codecs which it expects on the OS level? I don’t know, but it’s worth a try, and probably won’t make things any worse.

You can download from here:

https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Re: a question for any video gurus

[QUOTE=basschick;173374]thanks for the suggestion - i have downloaded handbrake recently but didn’t try it. i’ve encoded a few videos with meh results.

do you have settings you can recommend to keep things as sharp and clear as possible?[/QUOTE]

I’ll check my settings and hit you up with a DM.

Re: a question for any video gurus

I’ll check my settings and hit you up with a DM.

Jason, I was wondering if you could send me your settings also or post them here. I’m working on a mainstream video project and edit in Adobe Premiere then export in Adobe Media Encoder using one of the H.264 settings like YouTube HD or Vimeo HD. The videos look great but the file sizes are very large. I’ve compared the size to some porn videos I’ve downloaded and those are much smaller but still look excellent. It seems like most porn editors and producers figured out a way to output great looking video with minimal file sizes. I wonder if its the Handbrake solution mentioned here so I’d like to give that a shot but am not sure what settings to use. Thanks.