HD video - Output quality problems

[Streamerke]

Hi all,

I have been trying Video Studio a few times in the past. The first version I ever tried must have been Ulead Video Studio 7 or 8. I always liked the process oriented GUI and the goodies that are made so easy compared to other video editing software. I remember version 8 and next to be very unstable though, which is why I kept working with other software like Pinnacle. Each time there was a new version though I tried it and I have seen stability improving with every version. I would like to work with Video Studio a lot, however I have serious problems with output quality.

Since a few years I am filming HD video, AVCHD standard (1080i50) with a Panasonic HDC-SD5 and recently HDC-SD900. The last one, a new camera, offers incredible detail and quality. Of course I want to see the same quality in my end product, the output of the video editing software. Here is where I have a big problem.

1. When I save output as AVCHD an use smart rendering there are problems with the transition between two clips. There are blocks all over the place. I have tested this with X2, X3 and X4. I remember in X2 there seemed to be some frames in the wrong order at the end of each clip. In X3 there were blocks. In X4, which I am testing now, sometimes output is good, sometimes there are blocks worse than I ever saw in X3.

2. When I save as AVCHD, Bluray, H.264, ... no matter what format in 1080i without smart rendering there is a big quality loss. It is really visible, especially on the pc screen. I have tried many settings: bluray 2-pass encoding at 30.000bps, AVCHD and H.264 at 18.000bps. It seems to be impossible to get good quality out.

No matter what I did, I cannot even approach the input quality with Video Studio. And let's face it, it all comes down to the output!

I have tried encoding with some other free tools such as Handbrake and Staxrip. Of course these are not video editors, but at least I could compare the output quality. This is absolutely fantastic.

I wonder if anyone knows what is wrong.

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!! But I am afraid I have no particular good news...

I have said over and over and over again, till I am blue in the face, and no one takes any notice: NEVER use SmartRender with HD, either HDV or AVCHD. No one wants to believe me, but then they complain about the things you are now complaining of... If you maintain the same properties of your video as the original when you output, then you should maintain the same quality WITHOUT SmartRender.

Also, always make sure you are using Upper Field First.

The SD-5 never worked with X2 in any case. It had something to do with the codec used by Panasonic in that model, though I thought subsequent versions of VS worked well with it. I have about 4.7 GB of video filmed with an SD-5 and could never get it to work with X2, though it works well with X3 and now X4.

And to add to the bad news, your new HDC-SD900 films at true progessive 50/60 fps, and I am afraid VS simply cannot handle that format at 1920 x 1080 -- at least it cannot output it in AVCHD format. The maximum it can output in full progressive mode is 1280 x 720p. And Corel say -- correctly -- that this is because the international AVCHD standard has not been changed as yet to reflect the fact that there are an increasing number of cameras out there which can film in true progressive mode. The best you can do is output in AVI format, and that can do 1920 x 1080 at 50/60 fps using a number of codecs. But that does not help if you are trying to produce an AVCHD file, hybrid AVCHD disc or Blu-Ray disc.

[Streamerke]

Welcome to the forums!! But I am afraid I have no particular good news...

I have said over and over and over again, till I am blue in the face, and no one takes any notice: NEVER use SmartRender with HD, either HDV or AVCHD. No one wants to believe me, but then they complain about the things you are now complaining of... If you maintain the same properties of your video as the original when you output, then you should maintain the same quality WITHOUT SmartRender.

Also, always make sure you are using Upper Field First.

The SD-5 never worked with X2 in any case. It had something to do with the codec used by Panasonic in that model, though I thought subsequent versions of VS worked well with it. I have about 4.7 GB of video filmed with an SD-5 and could never get it to work with X2, though it works well with X3 and now X4.

And to add to the bad news, your new HDC-SD900 films at true progessive 50/60 fps, and I am afraid VS simply cannot handle that format at 1920 x 1080 -- at least it cannot output it in AVCHD format. The maximum it can output in full progressive mode is 1280 x 720p. And Corel say -- correctly -- that this is because the international AVCHD standard has not been changed as yet to reflect the fact that there are an increasing number of cameras out there which can film in true progressive mode. The best you can do is output in AVI format, and that can do 1920 x 1080 at 50/60 fps using a number of codecs. But that does not help if you are trying to produce an AVCHD file, hybrid AVCHD disc or Blu-Ray disc.

Thanks for your comment!

VS does allow editing 1080p50 though, of course outputting 1080p50 does not work. But I am not filming in that mode most of the times. I am filming 1080i50 just like most other cameras do.

In this mode I sometimes have a problem. In about 50% of cases even smart rendering works and it produces perfect output. In the other 50% I got the glitches and the blocks in the transitions. I thought I saw a topic on this so more people have this problem.

I should at least be able to output mpeg2, bluray or any other format without smart rendering. And I can, except the quality is poor. There is clearly quality loss e.g. in darker areas where there is a lot of detail in the raw footage, in the edited product the details are replaced by blocky video as if I encoded at a low bitrate which was not the case. It does not make a difference what format I choose, the result is always the same. I do not see how the fact that I have a Panasonic camera could have anything to do with this particular problem?

[Streamerke]

Also, always make sure you are using Upper Field First.

Oh yeah... I am!