Is MPEG-2 Encoding Quality Improved?

Sidecar2 wrote on 5/4/2005, 2:37 PM
Has anyone noticed improved MPEG-2 encoding quality?

I have opportunity to compare the Vegas encodes to a Wired Mediapress X SDI encoder card fed by YRB from the DVCAM component-outs. It's very good (and real time)...for a mere $3,800.00.

I guess the real question is, how does one squeeze the last bit of quality out of Vegas's built-in MainConcept MPEG-2 encoder? Even set to "Best" and two-pass, it's not as good as a dedicated encoder card, at least the way I have it set up.

BTW, I bought the video in from DVCAM via Firewire.

Talking to the Blackmagic Design DeckLink guy at NAB, he said the best picture quality is achieved not by bringing the DV in the 1394 firewire, but by taking the YRB out of a DVCAM DSR-45 deck (for instance) or BetacamSP and bringing that into Vegas using the DeckLink card.

Comments

farss wrote on 5/4/2005, 3:43 PM
This isn't the first time I've heard this story and unless I've missed something it's totally wrong. The video on a DV/DVCAM tape is compressed, period. No matter what you do you cannot undo the losses due to that compression, playing it out of a DSR45 and capturing the video via component will give you a WORSE result than just capturing via 1394.
If you are dealing with BetaSP (4:2:2) then yes, capturing via a component feed into a 4:2:2 capable capture card will give you better results.
The scary thing is I've heard the same wrong info from a client who got it from the local Avid dealer. The guy had jumped through so many hoops trying to capture DV25 via his Mojo from a DSR45 because he was told that was a better way to go than 1394. In the end the guy took my advice and went 1394 from a DSR-11, saved some money and got a better result.
Nonetheless this myth (assuming it is that) seems to be speading through the industry, anyone know how it started out?

Oh, and I forgot to mention, what happens to the DV audio in this supposedly better workflow, going from 16/48K to analogue and back to 16/48K isn't the way to get better sound either.
Bob.
Cheesehole wrote on 5/5/2005, 4:17 AM
cops and sales people always lie. I think that's from Life 101 or something... ;-)

B_JM wrote on 5/5/2005, 8:23 AM
a hardware encoder is simply a software encoder on a chip ..

best quality is to start with best source material ..
Coursedesign wrote on 5/5/2005, 10:39 AM
Nice to see this is a clean joint again. The same problem just occurred on RAMPS (pro audio forum), wonder where all this is coming from.

1. The recommendation to capture DV via analog component to a 4:2:2 codec does have a basis in reality. It was observed that this was a way to get a picture that was smoother than a direct DV capture, and subjectively it could look better.

Obviously there is a much easier way to do this: capture digitally and apply a chroma smoother.

2. Beta SP is an analog format, so there is no "color sampling". Based on how much of the component format (YUV) video bandwidth in this format is allocated to luma (Y) vs. chroma (UV), it could be argued that Beta SP is about equivalent to a "3:1:1" digital format.


I spent most of my energy recently developing a workflow from Mac high-resolution animation projects to Vegas, with some very unusual characteristics. What a pain in the ass! I know a lot more about Quicktime now, including what works and what doesn't work due to sloppy design, and what workarounds are needed.

And don't get me started on Sorenson Squeeze, even their product manager is frustrated as hell. And they charge sales tax on downloads in California, which is wrong. I sent them the Board of Equalization documents showing the exemption for downloads with no physical delivery.

Next Apple, who shouldn't be charging sales tax for downloads either, but they may be more difficult to change. At least I can itemize these on my sales tax return, but why the extra work?

In the meantime I preordered "iCon", the story of the Steve Jobs era at Apple, published by scientific and technical publisher Wiley.

Jobs got so angry he pulled all Wiley books from Apple's stores, it must be good... :O)