Skip navigation
spdorsey6969
spdorsey6969
Currently Being Moderated

AE CS 5.5 Mac OS 10.7, Imported screen captured .mov file is low quality

May 4, 2012 1:13 PM

    Hello

 

  I'm importing a few screen grabs that I made using Snapz Pro video. The quality of the original file is great. But when I import it into AE CS 5.5, and then zoom in and animate it, it looks really, really bad ONLY when I render at 1/2 resolution.

 

  If I did the same thing to images, they would look fine. But this movie asset (h264) looks horrible unless it's rendered at exactly 100%.

 

  To be clear, this only happens at render, and in the preview pane when the pane or render are set to less than 100%. If I view or render at 100%, it looks fine.

896 Views   9 Replies   Latest reply: Dave LaRonde, May 7, 2012 8:00 PM
 
Replies
  • Dave LaRonde
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Dave LaRonde,
    May 4, 2012 3:10 PM   in reply to spdorsey6969
    Report

    You've given us insufficient information to make a meaningful diagnosis.  Please answer the the litany of questions found at this link:

    http://forums.adobe.com/message/4200845#4200845

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • spdorsey6969
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. spdorsey6969,
    May 4, 2012 3:59 PM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
    Report

    Seriously?!?!

     

    • What version of After Effects? Include the minor version number (e.g., After Effects CS5.5 with the 10.5.1 update).

    10.5.1

     

    Yes

     

    • What operating system? This should include specific minor version numbers, like "Mac OSX v10.6.8"---not just "Mac".

    Os X 10.7.3

     

    • What kind(s) of source footage? When telling about your source footage, tell us about the codecs, not just the container types. For example, "H.264 in a .mov container", not just "QuickTime".

    H264 .mov captured with Snapz Pro Video

     

    • If you are getting error message(s), what is the full text of the error message(s)?

    None

     

    • What were you doing when the problem occurred?

    Rendering at half resolution, or previewing at half-resolution (also happens at other resolutiosn below 100%)

     

    • Has this ever worked before?

    Huh?

     

    • What other software are you running?

    Chrome

     

    • Do you have any third-party effects or codecs installed?

    Surprisingly, no.

     

    • Tell us about your computer hardware. Include CPU type and number of processor cores, amount of RAM installed, GPU, number of disk drives, and how any external drives are connected.

    Mac Pro 12-core 2.93, 24GB RAM, Radeon HD 5870, 4 internal drives (7TB total), about 10 external drives (RAID and separate other drives)

     

    • Do you have any third-party I/O hardware (e.g., AJA, Matrox, Blackmagic, MOTU)?

    No

     

    Yes

     

    • Does the problem only happen with your final output, RAM preview, or both?

    Both

     

    Yes

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Todd_Kopriva
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Todd_Kopriva,
    May 4, 2012 7:36 PM   in reply to spdorsey6969
    Report

    Start by turning off OpenGL rendering, and report back.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • spdorsey6969
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. spdorsey6969,
    May 7, 2012 10:01 AM   in reply to Todd_Kopriva
    Report

    OpenGL is off. The issue persists.

     

    Here's the look at 50% preview

     

    http://i.imgur.com/EhDle.png

     

    Here's the look at 100% preview

     

    http://i.imgur.com/oEOSW.jpg

     

    It looks the same way when I render. This makes it nearly impossible to do test renders at one half resolution.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Dave LaRonde
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Dave LaRonde,
    May 7, 2012 1:08 PM   in reply to spdorsey6969
    Report

    I see that when you set the screen size to 50%, you also set the resolution to Half.  What's it look like at Full?

     

    And even on the 100% shot, the detail in the video really isn't much to write home about.  Perhaps when you used the term "zoom" in your original post, you actually meant, "scale beyond 100%", and that's not good for any image.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • spdorsey6969
    Currently Being Moderated
    6. spdorsey6969,
    May 7, 2012 1:15 PM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
    Report

    It looks fine when previewing at 50% but leaving the resolution at full. But this defeats the purpose of using 50%. I'd be inclined to not call this a solution, but instead a workaround.

     

    It appears to me that the real issue is AE not accurately scaling the video layer in preview and render. This looks like a bug, folks.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • spdorsey6969
    Currently Being Moderated
    7. spdorsey6969,
    May 7, 2012 1:40 PM   in reply to spdorsey6969
    Report

    Wow - the forums look a lot better now.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • spdorsey6969
    Currently Being Moderated
    8. spdorsey6969,
    May 7, 2012 4:21 PM   in reply to Todd_Kopriva
    Report

    Replied.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Dave LaRonde
    Currently Being Moderated
    9. Dave LaRonde,
    May 7, 2012 8:00 PM   in reply to spdorsey6969
    Report

    You still haven't explained what you mean when you use the term, "zoom in".  Please descrive the amount of scaling you're doing, or shake loose a few more details about the project.

     
    |
    Mark as:
Actions

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points