mp4 videos come out sort of blocky

ChayHawk wrote on 7/23/2015, 3:18 PM

When i export my videos in mp4 format they have some artifacts in them and i was wondering how can i remove them? Is there any settings that i can use in mp4 advanced settings? I have all the settings at their stock values. I want my youtube videos to be the best quality possible. I have messed around with settings for days and cannot seem to get what i want. All my videos are recorded at 720p, and I am currently exporting them at 1080p, hopefully that will give it some better quality but i am unsure. What format could i use that is compressed to a good amount, but also gives good quality? i would like to keep the video under 5 GB though if possible.

 

As for that codec option in Magix, I dont see it, there's just blank space there.

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 7/24/2015, 10:11 AM

Hi

. . . . All my videos are recorded at 720p, and I am currently exporting them at 1080p . . . .

That is the problem -  trying to make an image 1280 x 720 upto 1920 x 1080, this is called upscaling, and, in effect,  making  the individual pixels in the 720p video larger to fit to 1080p and this is introducing blockiness.

. . . . I want my youtube videos to be the best quality possible . . . .

That you may want, however the practicality of delivering video at 1080p introduces a lot of compromises which must be made, ie there is a trade off of quality versus deiverability ie you can have the best quality possible however the video may not be delivered smoothly to the viewers browser.

I used to recommend using the recommended Youtube settings, however after a lot of experimenting and analysing HD video from the likes of Youtube, Vimeo etc, to find the best video format settings for our website I have settled on the following for exporting to mp4 which I suggest you try the following :-

Increase the sharpness of the movie on the timeline - Effects, Movie effects, Sharpness, Sharpness set to between 50 and 60 (depends on initial sharpness of the objects on your timeline)

Export MP4 as 720p but change the following MP4 export settings - under the Advanced, Video settings :

AVC preset Main   Mode Variable bit rate
Profile High   Bitrate 5000
Level 3.1                HSS bitrate 6000
Performance 9   CBP size 19200
Frame type Progressive      
Slice count 1      
Max GOP length 2 x the frame rate *      
Max B frame count 2      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*  as a whole number eg for 29.97 fps set to 60

The actual value for the Max GOP length can be in the range 2 to 4 x the framerate of the video depending on the amount of movement present ie for a video with fast moving content set the GOP length to 2 x the frame rate, if the video contains a lot of still images or slow pan shots or very little movement then set to 3 or 4 x the frame rate

Any other advanced settings leave as is.

Using the above settings I get excellent quality even when played at full screen ie 1920 x 1080 with virtually no problems playing in different browsers - however see this discusion re HTML 5 video.

For our new website I have reduced the resolution down to 480p and used the above settings, to cater for mobile devices as well, and still get very reasonable quality at full screen.

An example of 480p video using the above advanced settings is here .

Viewers will accept a slight reduction in quality compared to having to wait while the browser player pauses to load more video because it cannot get the data fast enough.

HTH

John EB

 

Last changed by johnebaker on 7/24/2015, 10:41 AM, changed a total of 11 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 24H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

ChayHawk wrote on 7/24/2015, 2:52 PM

Hi John, I dont seem to have soem of the settings in my version of Magix (2015). Here is what i have for mp4 settings, every setting is stock except for coding quality which i changed from balanced to Best. as for your other suggestions i will try them out.

Also, They are gaming videos, so there is very little times where we are just sitting around, there is usually some action but it vary's from time to time. Should i still use 60 GOP?

EDIT: I should also mention framerate goes up and down too, but not too badly.

http://oi60.tinypic.com/300w51x.jpg

johnebaker wrote on 7/24/2015, 4:51 PM

Hi

Apologies - I forgot I was using the Main Concept MP4 codec.

The Intel codec settings to try are shown below.

 

The only value which I think you should leave at the default value is the CBP setting, the default in the Main Concept encoder is much higher - I think more testing on this setting with the Main Concept codec is in order - I can find no definitive reference as to what effect specific values for this setting have.

If you want to use the Main Concept codec * - you may need to install this if you have not already done so - Help, Install extra programs, Main Concept mp4 codec -  and set this in the programs settings (Y key) as shown below

 

* If you have the Basic version of MEP 2015 there may be a licence fee for the codec.

HTH

John EB

Last changed by johnebaker on 7/24/2015, 4:51 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 24H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

ChayHawk wrote on 7/25/2015, 11:39 AM

I have been trying different things and my videos still come out as crap. I cannot upload like this. I tried 1080p 100% quality in my screen recorder and when i export from magix they look terrible still. The videos are crystal clear when they are fresh out of my screen capture device, but have artifacts when i export them from magix. There is no way that i am using the same settings as other youtubers and getting shitty results, something is wrong. All i want is for my video to not look like a top down view of minecraft! It cant be that hard, every other damn person gets their videos to look good EVERY SINGLE ONE. I am so upset and frustrated with this right now i cant even put it into words. What else can i do? It cant be the screen recorder, at least i dont think. Is there different mp4 codec versins that do different stuff? is it magix? I exported on the best settings and it looks terrible, exported in different settings and it still looks terrible, i just dont get it.

 

Here are some examples of videos from youtubers that i watch:

 

Game Grumps: 

Game grumps video is 224 MB

Markiplier: 

That video of markipliers is 473 MB

 

Notice how good the quality of the videos are, now here is mine:

My video is 1.25 GB

 

How are the other youtubers getting small video sizes and excellent quality and im not? I have 19 episodes to upload and i need to figure this out T_T

Notice all the artifacts in the video? I just want to get rid of those, thats it. If i can just make the video not look like lego bricks then i'll consider that to be perfect. There has to be SOMETHING, im starting out with really good quality video here. I know quality degrades every time you re encode a video but my god it shouldnt look that terrible.

 

EDIT: I just forgot that my graphics card (NVIDIA GTX 765m) has the settings set to performance rather than quality, could that be doing something to the video?

http://oi57.tinypic.com/2dsdzjr.jpg

johnebaker wrote on 7/25/2015, 4:34 PM

Hi

The links to the video as you have posted them do not work correctly.

However when viewing the two samples you say are good and your upload to youtube, after fixing the links, they all look similar and I can see no evidence of 'blockiness' in the first 12 mins of your upload.

Are there a specific times in the game play where you see this blockiness ?

. . . . Is there different mp4 codec versins that do different stuff? is it magix? . . . .

There are other codec packs out there however from previous experience, ie computer being trashed, I would not recommend installing any of the 'All in one' codec packs.

John EB.

 

Last changed by johnebaker on 7/25/2015, 4:34 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 24H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

Scenestealer wrote on 7/25/2015, 6:43 PM

Hi

They all look good here too. Cannot see any blockiness in the early parts.

I would certainly try setting the Nvidia setting to "Quality" but I have never been able to detect a difference with either setting.

Ss

Last changed by Scenestealer on 7/25/2015, 6:43 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

System Specs: Intel 6th Gen i7 6700K 4Ghz O.C.4.6GHz, Asus Z170 Pro Gaming MoBo, 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 512GB SSD system disc WD Black 4TB HDD Video Storage, Nvidia GTX1060 OC 6GB, Win10 Pro 2004, MEP2016, 2022 (V21.0.1.92) Premium and prior, VPX7, VPX12 (V18.0.1.85). Microsoft Surface Pro3 i5 4300U 1.9GHz Max 2.6Ghz, HDGraphics 4400, 4GB Ram 128GB SSD + 64GB Strontium Micro SD card, Win 10Pro 2004, MEP2015 Premium.