LRTimelapse Forum

Im using LRT3 and LR4 and rendering the video at high quality MP4 1080p, and the finished results look spectacular.

The problem is now I want to compile a couple of clips together with some transitions.

Ive tried Apple iMovie (because I have it, and it suffers from a known issue of desaturating the final output) and Premier Elements. After again exporting the clips from both apps still at high quality (.mov from imovie, .mpeg from Elements), Im getting quite a degradation in quality, maybe the untrained eye wouldn't see it, but I notice much more noise and banding.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to be rendering from LRT at higher quality to start with?
Whats your workflow and what do you use? Any tips that won't break the bank because all I want to do is compile clips. Im really happy with LRT after playing with it, so will be registering to get beyond 400 frames, but what do I do now with the clips to compile them and preserve the quality?

Thanks

Why mpeg and what's the "high quality" you mentioned for final output in numbers?

(2013-09-14, 16:40)Ulli Wrote: [ -> ]Why mpeg and what's the "high quality" you mentioned for final output in numbers?

Mpeg because I don't know what I am doing
There are so many output formats, I didn't want FLV, didn't understand what AVCHD is, so MPEG seemed the obvious. But looked in more detail and AVCHD has settings for mp4.
I exported another file, this time using AVCHD>mp4-H264 1920x1080, which gives a much better quality file, although the file size has increased from the original 36MB to 58MB, no idea why.
The MPEG file was 1920x1080, 23MB, so Im guessing this format is more compressed, hence the reduced quality? The second file I exported is much better, but still possibly not quite as good as the original (maybe 95%). I can see slight noise. So being new to video and knowing nothing, is this to be expected when re-exporting?

There are differences between different codecs but higher quality results in larger files. 23MB mpeg at HD is perhaps good for 2-4 sec. but not more - I guess your clip is longer?
H264 is a good choice for your final version but you've to set the datarate for playback at Vimeo or YouTube to at leat 5MBit/s - 1080 with vimeo profits from bitrates up to 20-30MBit/s.