CreativeThirst Productions

Yup, I’m getting frustrated. I don’t get why this is happening. It takes about 30min to encode a 4 minute video from 1080i60 HDV to 720p h.264. I’ve now done this export 3 times with absolutely no luck. Check out the screen shot from Quicktime: So in the picture above you can see very clearly that 2 frames of video are merged in a macro-blockish sort of fashion. This is an encoding glitch. My intention is to upload this client video to www.vimeo.com to be shared with the world. But these flashes happen about every 10-15 seconds (randomly) making the video look absolutely amateurish. The 2 frames are nowhere near each other in the timeline and the “glitch” is approximately 3 frames long.My conversion process goes like this:

1. Export video from FCP timeline to HDV QT file.
2. Open said QT file in QT Pro and choose export.
3. Choose QT options as follows (key frame rate= 30, bitrate=3000, codec=h.264, size=1280×720, letterbox if necessary).
4. Let it export  . . . 
5. Watch the glitchiness

I am on the latest version of quicktime and can’t for the life of me figure out why this is happening. It’s never happened on any video that I’ve ever exported using these exact same settings. Here are my next steps to see if I can find resolution. If anyone reading this can think of some suggestion - please let me know.1.) Try using compressor. I’ve had bad luck with compressor and vimeo, but I’ll gladly try it again.2.) Try a different video and see if the same settings have problems3.) Try a different key frame rate. I know sometime the keyframe rate can sometime cause macro-blocking weirdness, but it usually lasts longer than 3 frames. If any of these work, I’ll update this post. ——————Sweet. So it’s done, what I did is used compressor which took significantly longer most likely due to superior deinterlacing. The weird macroblocking disappeared. I still wish I knew why it was happening in the first place. But here is the video:

written by Kjell

I was working on some motion graphics for a DVD menu in Final Cut Studio and ran into this problem. I’ve encountered it before but played by chance. Not this time. Here’s the flaw with Apple Motion. When working with HD media that will eventually be dumped to a 16×9 Pan Scan menu the guides don’t give you an accurate representation of what it will look like on a 4×3 TV screen. If you don’t know this, DVD Studio Pro allows you to set your menu to “16×9 Pan Scan” mode which will automatically crop the image to 4×3 framing on 4×3 TV’s. On 16×9 TV’s the image is displayed in it’s entirety. It’s a great feature when working in High Def. But since 100% of my current deliverables are in SD letterbox - and most of my customers will be viewing on a standard TV, I need to make sure that my composition fits in a 4×3 frame. To do this, I need guides in motion that match 4×3 aspect ration at the resolution of 1920×1080.

Here’s the solution.

It only took a couple of minutes in Photoshop and was not difficult to do at all. In CS2 I created a new document with the HD 1920×1080 preset with guides. I drew a few boxes using the guides and aligned the layers using the background layer, the box layer and the “align by horizontal centers.” I Added some text to show “action safe” and “title safe” areas. Saved as a flattened PSD and imported it into a motion layer. Once it’s in motion you need to change the layer’s overlay mode to “screen” which will remove all of the black and BOOM! you have 4×3 guides for a 16×9 HD document with 1920×1080 resolution.Once you make your composition you can send it to DVD Studio Pro, set the Menu to 16×9 Pan Scan, and marvel at the beauty of thoughtful design. This is also helpful if you’re working with HD content such as an interview that will be showed on SD projector screens, TV’s, etc.

4×3 HD Guides at 1920×1080 Screened so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel!

Comment if you’ve found this useful!

written by Kjell \\ tags: Design, Final Cut, Graphics, guides, HD, Motion, SD, Video

I got an email this morning that amazed me. Someone had posted a video response to Sam’s Developing Worship video. Pretty cool how fast that community of worship leaders has grown. I’m glad I’ve been able to be a part of it.

written by Kjell \\ tags: Developing Worship, Sam Middlebrook, Worship

I love Sam Middlebrook. He takes me out to dinner and has an amazing point of view. I ask him lots of questions. He sang at my wedding. He’s just simply an amazing guy. He has this new website called Developing Worship for which I’m doing video work. It’s been an enlightening process to say the least. Anyway, I just finished his latest video and uploaded it to my favorite video service Vimeo.

written by Kjell

I’ve got a new wish list for my video production business. Guess I’d better get busy making some money or selling off gear. But here it is anyway:

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written by Kjell \\ tags: Ex1, HD, Sony, Video, Wishlist, XDCam