Horrible renders of 4K video in VS 2020. How to fix?

[jungleexplorer]

Okay, Something has gone wrong and I don't know what or how to fix it. I am shooting footage on a Sony a6500 camera that I have used for two years and always got amazing results rendering from 4K to 1080p in VS. But for some reason, now when I render 4K footage to 1080p in VS 2020, it turns out like crap. I mean, like it was shot in VGA on a bad phone. That bad. Even using the Save Trimmed Video function produces a result that is of less quality than the original and introduces noticeable artifacts. What could be the issue?

[Ken Berry]

Do you have SmartProxy enabled?

[tletter]

What could be the issue?

1. What are the properties of the source clips?
2. What are the project properties?
3. What are properties for the rendering the video?

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

[jungleexplorer]

Do you have SmartProxy enabled?

Actually nop, I did not. This is a brand new system and installation and I had not enabled it because the system is so fast I did not need it for the preview to run smoothly.

[jungleexplorer]

What could be the issue?

1. What are the properties of the source clips?
2. What are the project properties?
3. What are properties for the rendering the video?

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

Here are the source file 4K and HD properties. Since posting this question I have discovered that even 1080P files are rendering badly.

I have used about every preset available in VS for 1080p and 4K and they all end up rendering in significantly less to horrible quality, with the exception of AVC/H.264 AVC 4K (3840 x 2160, 30p, 40Mbps). Using this preset, I can render in about 98% original quality. But all other fail. I have always been able to render to the MPEG-4 MPEG-4 AVC (1920 x 1080, 30p, 15Mbps) preset and get great quality before.

[tletter]

Here are the source file 4K and HD properties. Since posting this question I have discovered that even 1080P files are rendering badly.

Based on your images, your source videos are 4K, 99999Kbps whilst your rendered videos are FHD, 59998Kbps. FWIW, my source videos are 4K, 99999Kbps and are rendered as 4K, 99999Kbps so there's no noticeable reduction in quality.

I'd suggest that you start new projects with "Show message when inserting first video clip into the Timeline" enabled if you want maximum quality in the rendered output.

AVC/H.264 AVC 4K (3840 x 2160, 30p, 40Mbps)

According to your images, your source videos have a frame rate of 23.976 frames/sec whereas you're rendering at 30p. There'll probably be some loss of quality due to the addition of frames.

This is a brand new system and installation and I had not enabled it because the system is so fast I did not need it for the preview to run smoothly.

It's surprising that you don't need to use SmartProxy to edit 4K video. Are you using an Intel Core i5-10400F @ 2.90GHz per your profile?

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

[jungleexplorer]

Here are the source file 4K and HD properties. Since posting this question I have discovered that even 1080P files are rendering badly.

Based on your images, your source videos are 4K, 99999Kbps whilst your rendered videos are FHD, 59998Kbps. FWIW, my source videos are 4K, 99999Kbps and are rendered as 4K, 99999Kbps so there's no noticeable reduction in quality.

I'd suggest that you start new projects with "Show message when inserting first video clip into the Timeline" enabled if you want maximum quality in the rendered output.

AVC/H.264 AVC 4K (3840 x 2160, 30p, 40Mbps)

According to your images, your source videos have a frame rate of 23.976 frames/sec whereas you're rendering at 30p. There'll probably be some loss of quality due to the addition of frames.

This is a brand new system and installation and I had not enabled it because the system is so fast I did not need it for the preview to run smoothly.

It's surprising that you don't need to use SmartProxy to edit 4K video. Are you using an Intel Core i5-10400F @ 2.90GHz per your profile?

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

As I said in my OP, even using the "Save Trimmed Video" function results in a noticeable loss of quality. And as I said in my last post, I have tried every preset format available. I have also tried "Same as First Video Clip" and Same as Project Settings.

Yes my system is the one in my profile.

[cybernick]

If you use HW acceleration choose INTEL not nvidia CUDA. I also have nvidia card and I was using CUDA but when you choose nvidia you will be shocked but the difference in the render quality. Choose Intel.

[jungleexplorer]

If you use HW acceleration choose INTEL not nvidia CUDA. I also have nvidia card and I was using CUDA but when you choose nvidia you will be shocked but the difference in the render quality. Choose Intel.

Okay. Will try this.