Quality of saved videos is low?

[meegja]

Corel Videostudio 2018 Ultimate. Camera used: Sony FDR-AX53
Somehow I can not get a high quality of videos anymore?
For example, here information and screenshots of video I made today at the DTM Races at Zandvoort (the Netherlands).
I did choose the "Same as first videoclip" option with saving. Any other profile gives even worse results.
First the saved screenshot and then the original screenshot. There is a huge drop in quality with the Saved Screenshot. In the 1920x1080 it is way more visible, had to downscale because of the forum.
Then the information of the original and the saved video. The information is the same, yet the quality is so much lower?
How to save in the highest quality without any or minor drop in quality?

[tletter]

Corel Videostudio 2018 Ultimate. Camera used: Sony FDR-AX53
Somehow I can not get a high quality of videos anymore?

I'm making a 4K video and have tried the "same as first video clip" option in VS 2018 which sets the following properties for a Panasonic ZS100 4K MP4 clip (130,605 KB):

NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 3840 x 2160, 29.97 fps
Frame-based
H.264 High Profile Video: 105600 Kbps, 16:9
48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 128 Kbps

Unfortunately the resultant output by VS 2018 is 49,340 KB and it's grainy and low quality (36600 Kbps) so unusable. Obviously reducing the clip's size by 62% (from 130,605 KB to 49,340 KB) is the issue.

Reverting to VS X8, the "Same as first video clip" option also sets the above listed properties for a Panasonic ZS100 4K MP4 clip. However, the resultant output by VS X8 is 130,092 KB and it's high quality (96800 Kbps) so usable.

The bottom line is that VS 2018 is not capable of rendering usable Panasonic ZS100 4K MP4 clips while X8 is. Clearly there is something amiss with VS 2018 SP3 (21.3.0.141) rendering that needs to be fixed.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[aljimenez]

Your details seem to imply VS encoding is worse; I agree the quality is worse. I also note that video file size is 10% smaller, which says to me encoding was not as good as the original video.

The video captures rapid motion of a car race and it tells me it needs the highest bit rate possible. Capturing this type of video is a challenge to do with high quality. I also notice the frame rate, fps, is unusual being 100 fps. That Sony camera is doing a very good job for you, and VS needs to up its bitrates to do as good a job apparently. If you read recent posts around this topic, VS limits its encoding to bitrates of 65; only by using what you did, namely, same as video source does the VS encoder goes higher than 65. I think for your video, VS needs higher than the 100 bitrate it used and VS does not allow this right now.

[meegja]

The bottom line is that VS 2018 is not capable of rendering usable Panasonic ZS100 4K MP4 clips while X8 is. Clearly there is something amiss with VS 2018 SP3 (21.3.0.141) rendering that needs to be fixed.

tletter

I thought I was imagination it but I have the same problem: I used to have X9 and the output was higher quality then VS 2018.
Also playback in the review window is way way more choppy

[meegja]

Your details seem to imply VS encoding is worse; I agree the quality is worse. I also note that video file size is 10% smaller, which says to me encoding was not as good as the original video.

The video captures rapid motion of a car race and it tells me it needs the highest bit rate possible. Capturing this type of video is a challenge to do with high quality. I also notice the frame rate, fps, is unusual being 100 fps. That Sony camera is doing a very good job for you, and VS needs to up its bitrates to do as good a job apparently. If you read recent posts around this topic, VS limits its encoding to bitrates of 65; only by using what you did, namely, same as video source does the VS encoder goes higher than 65. I think for your video, VS needs higher than the 100 bitrate it used and VS does not allow this right now.

Thank you for this info, I did not know this.
So what you are saying is that VS is not up to prosumer camera or modern camera's with higher quality?

Edit: I think the bitrate is not the problem? I just did download and install a trial of Cyberlink PowerDirector 16 and it saves it perfectly with 60 Mbps. No wash out, no fading, colors just right.

[Ken Berry]

If you still have X9, then I would reinstall that and use it until this problem is resolved.

[tletter]

I thought I was imagination it but I have the same problem: I used to have X9 and the output was higher quality then VS 2018.

Because VS 2018 is not capable of rendering Panasonic ZS100 4K MP4 clips as a usable output while X8 is, my workflow now is:

1. Create the VSP using VS 2018 as it has a better UI than X8.
2. Save the VSP from VS 2018 in the X8 format.
3. Open the VSP in X8 and render it as a usable output.

Here's the list of fixes given to me by the developers -- 24 in all:

mp4 video crashes Video Studio
Panasonic clips will have frozen preview, or green artifacts
...
Regression: Mpeg-4 file hangs VS 2018 SP3, works okay in earlier releases

VS 2018 didn't use to have this problem rendering before SP2 so I hoped that SP3 would fix the issue because of the number of MP4 and Panasonic issues supposedly resolved in SP3. However, such is not the case.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[Charlie Wilkes]

Your details seem to imply VS encoding is worse; I agree the quality is worse. I also note that video file size is 10% smaller, which says to me encoding was not as good as the original video.

The video captures rapid motion of a car race and it tells me it needs the highest bit rate possible. Capturing this type of video is a challenge to do with high quality. I also notice the frame rate, fps, is unusual being 100 fps. That Sony camera is doing a very good job for you, and VS needs to up its bitrates to do as good a job apparently. If you read recent posts around this topic, VS limits its encoding to bitrates of 65; only by using what you did, namely, same as video source does the VS encoder goes higher than 65. I think for your video, VS needs higher than the 100 bitrate it used and VS does not allow this right now.

Thank you for this info, I did not know this.
So what you are saying is that VS is not up to prosumer camera or modern camera's with higher quality?

Edit: I think the bitrate is not the problem? I just did download and install a trial of Cyberlink PowerDirector 16 and it saves it perfectly with 60 Mbps. No wash out, no fading, colors just right.

No, bitrate is not the problem. I don't think high-end gear is the problem either.

My experience is that VS will seriously degrade any AVC clip it renders, even if I choose a high-quality codec for my output. This is true with VS x9 as well as VS x10.

Here are the test images I generated to illustrate this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zl0o0N ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hVdjsZ ... sp=sharing

The only solution I know is to use VirtualDub2 to convert AVC to Cineform before I edit with VS. Then I have to rip my audio tracks as separate files and re-sync them on the timeline, because VS cannot read the audio header in a file generated by VirtualDub2, even though it can play the audio in a clip.

Here is a link to VirtualDub2.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdfiltermod/

[asik1]

I also dislike VS's mp4's . few years ago I made short 3D animation and had it as uncompressed AVI.
Than when I got it into VS in order to use it in my project I noticed "snow" on it whenever I render to mp4.
So... I render to WMV and get nice and clean segment. from then on I output from VS, 90% as WMV.

[meegja]

I got it solved ... got Cyberlink PowerDirector Ultimate 16 and the quality is just great Also the 360 degrees is way way better.
I have been using VS from version X5 and after careful deliberation I came to my conclusion that the updates in the versions is not enough. VS is holding on to a concept that is fine for older/cheaper camera's, resulting in software that is not up to today's standards. Just my opinion
So for me it is solved this way. Thanks for all the info all