At the risk of sounding like some sort of stalking fanboy (and I am far
too sedentary to stalk and at least a bit too old to be any sort of
boy), may I just say that it is always a bit of a thrill when the
members of this august forum respond in force to one of my questions? I
don't bring the simple "I-can't-remember-how-to-change-drop-to-nondrop"
questions here, but I'm still never certain what I find to be suitable
challenges will be so considered.
Enough. We have a winner and I just wanted to post the solution here so
when I encounter this same problem six months from now a quick search
will bring me back to, well, me.
How to Get H.264 to Best Match the Original Sequence
Send it by way of Apple ProRes.
OK, that's the short version and so far I only know it to apply if using
Apple Compressor. I exported same-as-source 601/709. I then opened it in
Compressor and used Compressor's preset: "Apple ProRes 422 for
Progressive material (High Quality)." (catchy name, no?) I then took the
resulting clip and, still using Compressor, converted it to H.264 using
the parameters Vimeo recommends <https://vimeo.com/help/compression>
(And, by the way, Vimeo has recently upped their allowable bit rate to
10,000 for non Plus or Pro users. Obviously, if you need H.264 for other
purposes, other parameters may apply.). I could see no difference in a
side by side visual comparison in QuickTime of the same-as-source,
ProRes and H.264 versions. An AMA reimport of the three showed an
extremely subtle difference on scopes, but the only thing I could
actually see was a slight, slight softness in the H.264, probably due to
Vimeo's non-Pro limit of 720 instead of 1080.
I have not yet attempted to export from Media Composer directly as
ProRes and then compress that sequence to H.264. That's certainly a
possibility and potentially a time saver, but I've always had better
luck compressing outside MC.
Thank you all for your help and suggestions,
Martin
--- In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, "Martin" wrote:
>
> I appreciate I am likely beating a dead horse here, but I'm hoping
> someone can't point me to a definitive link to my issue. I have
searched
> long and hard and all roads lead me to, well, other roads.
> I am trying to compress a copy of my show for Vimeo. Vimeo requires
the
> H.264 codec. I export a copy of my show from MC 5.5.3 Same as Source.
At
> this stage I get, as you would expect, a QT that perfectly matches my
> Avid cut for luma and chroma. I then have a choice on my system of
> Compressor, MPEG Streamclip or QuickTime Pro to compress to H.264. All
> three of these tools give me a sequence that is washed out: blacks,
> whites and colors are all dull.
> I've found and installed the X264 codec and tried it and I get a QT to
> the other extreme: blacks crushed, whites blown out and colors
> exaggerated.
> Am I having this problem because none of these compressors are good
> enough? Is there a successful workaround? As inelegant as it is, I
would
> be prepared to adjust the levels on my show before export, but how
much?
> Honestly, I'm not trying to get folks to repeat a conversation that's
> been talked to death, but X264 was my last lead.
> (Due diligence forced me to do one more search before hitting Send and
I
> came up with this
> > g-in-quicktime/> from July of 2010 regarding a Japanese version of
> X264. Has anyone tried this? I will be.)
> Any direction would be hugely appreciated,
> Martin
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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