Video and formats

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hello_bamboo
hello_bamboo

Hi, I've got quite a detailed technical question here, regarding video.

I use a Canon Powershot S95 to make videos. I am quite happy with the video quality and prefer using this camera for video rather than using my micro 4/3 camera.

During a trip i will shoot snippets of video using the S95 which i will then edit into a single movie using iMovie '11 on a Mac. The result is quite nice. So far so good.

The S95 features 720p HD 24fps movie recording (1280x720 is what the file info tells me)

When I am done with my video project iMovie gives me the option of saving in various formats, different quality levels depending on where I intend to watch it. I want to save it in the best quality possible, to 'future-proof' it and to watch it on my 27" mac screen.

iMovie offers me the choice of saving in
- mobile
- medium
- large
- HD 720p
- HD 1080p

I just put together a 5 min movie.

Having saved it using the best quality, HD1080p, the result is a file which is a whopping 800MB for a 5 min film. I say whopping because i have full movies downloaded that last almost 2 hrs and take up only 1.5GB, and they look fine, if not better on the screen.

Given that the source files are 1270x720, is there any point in saving in HD 1080p? or am i just creating an unnecessarily large file with a resolution that is higher than the source material and hence, adds no improved video quality?

any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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kamaaina
kamaaina

You can't compare what you're generating with the movies you're downloading; the movies have been specially formatted to yield the 1.5 G size.

I also have a S95 that I've used to make movies with Final Cut X but have also used IMovie. And some of my short videos do get large. You'll have to manipulate your output settings, this forum posting may be helpful.

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hello_bamboo
hello_bamboo

thanks

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screek
screek

Your raw fottage is 720p...
Think layers (you know photoshop etc?), If your raw fottage is 720p then you can't change that, however you can put layers on top to decrease/change the quality and therefor the file size.

So, since your raw fottage is 720p, then you should compress it as 720p as well.
If you want better resault after editing it then you should look into video compression and codecs :)

This is not facts, just my exserpeince and observations. :)

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justin23
justin23
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by saving it as 1080p the software needs to interpret the extra pixels. So its actually not your raw video, but your raw video with extra pixels. So save it as 720p. TV's can upscale 720p quality to 1080p anyway and looks just as good as what the computer could do.

Also saving as a mkv, or mpg or mov file makes a difference. Also withint these file containers are different codecs for audio and video. It can get confusing. Simple answer though is keep it at the native resolution which is 720p in your case.

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hello_bamboo
hello_bamboo

720p it is!

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