wmv: washed out compared to avi

kunal wrote on 10/20/2009, 8:49 PM
I have 5 minutes of 1080-60i footage that I render to:

a) wmv using the 8Mbps HD 1080-30p video template

b) avi using the NTSC DV Widescreen template

I play both on an i7 desktop using Windows Media Player 11. The wmv has better quality overall (crispness, noise) but the image is significantly washed out compared to avi.

I realize these are 2 different codecs but any idea why the image is washed out for wmv but good otherwise?

What's the best render option for a 5-min video clip with minimal effects for viewing online?

Thanks.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 10/20/2009, 8:59 PM
WMV looks washed out because of compression losses and the way the codec treats the levels. There is in-depth discussion of this if you will do a search.

The most efficient codec for web delivery, and by far the most used these days is AVC / h.264. It can be wrapped as .mp4, .mov, or .flv (for Flash).
Sidecar2 wrote on 10/21/2009, 9:39 AM
I feel your pain. WMVs are so disappointing. To add insult to injury, Apple Compressor out of Final Cut Pro delivers a beautiful WMV: crisp, sharp and with excellent contrast.

I believe the problem with the standard Vegas WMV templates is a matter of gamma, contrast and other settings.

It's a pain to fiddle with and I wish the templates were closer to original, but you have to lower black levels on your timetime to unnatural levels before you render to WMV.

I also like to add the Sony Sharpen filter and set it to "low." Add apparent sharpness like a Photoshop filter.
corug7 wrote on 10/21/2009, 10:08 AM
You need to apply the Studio RGB to Computer RGB preset to the track you wish to output. Quicktime and Compressor do a fairly nice job of managing gamma when transcoding, but flip4mac is a terrible way to encode WMV, as the files can be non-compliant and are also usually larger than a comparable PC encoded version. Vegas makes you adjust the Gamma yourself, which gives you more control but also gives you a lot more room to screw things up.