Solved Exporting at Level 5.1

I've noticed Level 4 is as high as Platinum 13 will compress. Am I missing anything? If not, are there any (preferably free) 5.1 after-market options out there?

Happy New Year

Can you please be more specific ?
Which template/preset are you referring to ?

Archlich wrote: I've noticed Level 4 is as high as Platinum 13 will compress. Am I missing anything? If not, are there any (preferably free) 5.1 after-market options out there?

Happy New Year

Hi Archlich,

To help answer your first question, can you provide the "Make Movie"/"Render As" template you are using? Make Movie > Save it to my hard drive > Advanced options > Render As. A screen shot like these may be helpful.....





For your second question, Vidcoder, Mediacoder, or Handbrake may work for you.

Render 'Best'

[hr]
Even using a converter, which I have to do anyway just to get my recording to load into Platinum, I'm stuck with the compression Platinum's settings output post-editing. The data's already been tossed, so how could Handbrake, TEncoder, or any other help at that point?

Hi Archlich

Hope this helps......please read through the process below......

From Movie Studio 13 Platinum, select "Make Movie", then.....


From this window select, "Save it to my hard drive", then.....



From this menu select, "Advance options", then......



From this menu "Render As" select, Format = "MainConcept AVC/AAC" (on left side), and Template = "Internet HD 1080p" (on the right side), then select, "Customize Template" (towards the bottom), then.....



From this "Custom Settings" menu (in the Video tab), change the Variable bit rate Maximun (bps) = "240,000,000". Change the Average (bps) = "135,000,000". In the Project tab change Video Rendering quality = "Best". You can save this new template.....first give it a unique name at the top (replacing the default name), then click on the disc icon to the right "Save Template". Then click on "OK" at the bottom. This will take you back to the "Render As" windows. As normal select the folder for the rendered file and name the file, then click on "Render".




This should provide a video file with a Format Profile = Main@L5.1 in an mp4 container.

If you want a Format Profile = High@L5.1, then on the Template "Custom Settings", change the "Profile:", from "Main" to "High".

This template worked for me rendering a High@L5.1.

When you change the Variable Bit Rate you will see the default is Maximum 24,000,000 and the Average 12,000,000. What I don't know is, at what point during increasing the bps does the encoder switch from L4.0 to L5.1. I'm sure you can make some quick test on a short test clip to determine what will work out best for your purpose.

Please let me know if this helps or do we need to do some more digging.

I ran out of time yesterday, but this morning I had a few moments for additional testing. I was able to get High@L5.1 by using Maximum (bps) = 205,000,000 and Average (bps) = 102,000,000. It appears the break point may be anything above 200,000,000/100,000,000 combination.

If you prefer to use Constant bit rate, rather than VBR, either 135,000,000 or 240,000,000 will produce L5.1.

My short test clips really don't provide a substantial difference in time to render between the Maximum VBR 240,000,000 bps, and the 205,000,000, or the 240,000,000 as opposed to 135,000,000 Constant bps, but longer events may show substantial time saving to render.

Other than the difference in quality between the bps settings, the only other factor I think would make a major difference is the compatibility of the render file and your player device. It's my understanding some play devices will not handle files with High@L5.1 and max out at L4.1. Those are probably legacy devices. I'm just not that familiar with this problem. You probably have more experience than I do, if that is a concern. I'm using VLC and Daum players and all the test files played fine.

Archlich wrote: Even using a converter, which I have to do anyway just to get my recording to load into Platinum~~~

Oops! I just reread your previous post. Can you provide some background as to why you are using a converter on your original file? I'm not doubting you have to do this, just curious as to why. Perhaps you could state the device you are using for capture, and/or the codec and container used in the original file?

Is it the codec and/or the container/wrapper, that SMS13P doesn't like, which requires you to use a converter that compresses the original file?

Read the technical information about H.264 codec - there are many articles you can read about this and they take a lot of time to digest and understand properly.

Level 5 and above encoding is not meant for everyday 1080-30p video that you would upload to YouTube. Your file sizes are going to be absolutely massive and go completely above anything that YouTube actually recommends you use.

Level 5 is designed for extreme high frame rate video and large frame sizes like 4K video.

This wiki article is about as brief as it can be summarized here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

I also found an old article from Adobe that explains a lot of the basics and key components and is worth the read: www.adobe.com/devnet/adobe-media-server/articles/h264_encoding.html

Sorry it's taken so long to reply. It's been a hectic few days. :silly:

Is it the codec and/or the container/wrapper, that SMS13P doesn't like, which requires you to use a converter that compresses the original file?

Yup! Specifically:


I noted a small improvement in OBS' quality when I changed RBG to YUV here. Unfortunately, that prevents SMS13P from opening it. I use TEncoder to convert it into ProRes, which balloons the file size, but allows both Platinum and HitFilm Express to read it.

What I'm after is a decent, medium level editing codec to hold half-edited episode fragments, so I can play with them without going the full proxy route. Of course for final uploading to YouTube, nothing near this bulky would make a difference anyway.

Thank you both. I'll definitely give those articles a read, and try pumping up the bitrate settings advised.