Best Mpeg4 Export settings for 720p29.97 highly detailed footage

discburn wrote on 4/9/2019, 8:02 AM

I have some footage of rushes blowing in wind on a lake. It was shot some years ago on a 720p29.97 camcorder.

The M2V files look fine on my VPX 6 timeline...

I want to export an Mpeg4 (H.264) 'master' which I can keep, but also upload to YouTube and give a pleasing result. My attempts so far have produced less than desirable results.

Here are the VPX 6 default export settings I am using...

And here's the resulting Mpeg4 file as played back in Windows Media Player. You can see the quality loss immediately, especially near the sides...

Finally, after uploading to YouTube, this is the result...

If I export at a higher bit rate, would that solve the problem? If so, how would I set it technically correctly?

All suggestions appreciated!

Seamus

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 4/9/2019, 11:12 AM

@discburn

Hi Seamus

. . . . I want to export an Mpeg4 (H.264) 'master' which I can keep, but also upload to YouTube and give a pleasing result . . . .

This is actually out of your control, YT will re-encode the video, into several resolutions as low as 240p, and depending on your Internet connection speed you may be receiving one of the lower resolution clips.

The recommended settings for YT are here - you will note for 720p the video bitrate is quite low compared to the default 720p mp4 setting in VPX.

If you are upscaling the HD video to full HD, ie 1920 x 1080, on export then this can add to the quality issue.

HTH

John EB

discburn wrote on 4/9/2019, 11:24 AM

Thanks, John EB. I’ll try a 1080p export.

Seamus

johnebaker wrote on 4/9/2019, 12:03 PM

@discburn

Hi Seamus

. . . . I’ll try a 1080p export. . . .

I think you have misunderstood my last sentence in my previous comment..

Upscaling to 1080p from 720p may well add to the quality issues you are having, ie upscaling from 720p to 1080p may lower the perceived quality of the exported video.

John EB

discburn wrote on 4/9/2019, 1:34 PM

Okay, thanks for that.

Seamus

discburn wrote on 4/10/2019, 9:41 AM

Hi John EB,

I tested an Mpeg export at Magix default setting for HDV1 Camcorder. That's 18,300 kbps. And the quality is much better than the Mpeg4, at least for that section where the river rushes are blowing in the wind (highly detailed).

Then I noticed the Magix HD Archive preset. I test exported that. It gives a medium 28,000 kbps, going up to a whopping peak of 73,000 (roughly)! Again, vastly better than Mpeg4, but maybe only slightly better than the HDV1 Camcorder preset.

So, I'll be making Mpeg 2 masters for this project.

I tried a small section with DNxHD export. Impeccable quality, but very big file!

I'll test upload a HD Archive section to YouTube and see how it turns out.

Seamus

Glenn-Woiler wrote on 4/10/2019, 11:30 AM

I many times export in VPX at the 1280x720 size and have learned to use my own settings to get a good sharp result. I export as 30000, 30000, 4000, 30gop, IBBP, high, 4.2, Faster. This might make a file larger than is necessary but it works for me. I have not tried to see how much smaller I could go. Maybe when I have time I would try that, but for now this works great , where as, before this, I had horrible youtube quality. <edit> I do NOT check "streamable"

discburn wrote on 4/10/2019, 11:56 AM

I many times export in VPX at the 1280x720 size and...

Thanks for that Glenn-Woiler! I've tried to find the dialogue to enter those export settings, but neither my Mpeg4 or Mpeg has a place for them.

My Mpeg4 is 'MpegIntelExport'.

Seamus

Michal-MST wrote on 4/10/2019, 12:06 PM

The best quality on YT gives you upscaling of any material to 4K / UHD and so we watch it in the browser. An exemplary test where FHD was upscaled to UHD.

(Watch in 4K. In FHD as you can see there is a decrease in quality !!!)

Below is the original FHD video.

Both recordings are exported with the same bitrate - 18 Mbps

UHD upscaling

FHD

discburn wrote on 4/10/2019, 1:01 PM

@Michal-MST

Michal-MST wrote on 4/10/2019, 6:06 PM

The best quality on YT gives you upscaling of any material to 4K / UHD and so we watch it in the browser. An exemplary test where FHD was upscaled to UHD.

Hi Michal-MST,

Are you saying to export in 4K?

Seamus

Michal-MST wrote on 4/10/2019, 1:09 PM

If we care about quality, yes. Only then need to play in 4K. After switching to FHD, the quality will drop again.

discburn wrote on 4/10/2019, 1:27 PM

Thanks Michal-MST!

johnebaker wrote on 4/10/2019, 2:59 PM

@Michal-MST

Interesting results which after testing I can partially confirm, the result I do not see is degradation of the 1080p upscaled to 4K and played at 1080p in YT as you see in your images/video.

@discburns original video is HD ie 720p not FHD 1080p so the 'magnification' factor is 9x (area magnification) compared to 4x for upscaling FHD.

Testing with high frequency content, ie like the reeds in Seamus's original video, in 720p upscaled to 4K introduced a noticeable degree of softness, particularly in the fine detail and further degradation when viewed at lower resolutions in YT.

John EB

Scenestealer wrote on 4/10/2019, 5:50 PM

Hi Seamus

This may be better because a .m2v is also Mpeg(2) compression and there is less transcoding involved during export...

Peter

discburn wrote on 4/11/2019, 2:05 AM

@Scenestealer

Less transcoding, that sounds right.

Seamus

johnebaker wrote on 4/11/2019, 4:05 AM

@discburn, @Scenestealer

. . . . This may be better because a .m2v is also Mpeg(2) compression and there is less transcoding . . .

Without comparing MediaInfo data on the m2v file, they are usually less compressed than the equivalent length and resolution mpg file.

John EB