Rendering Content; The Basics Of Content Creation; Recommended Codecs - High End Systems CATALYST Series User Manual

CHAPTER 19
Custom Content

Rendering Content

The Basics of Content Creation

1. Start with the highest quality source content possible. This gives you more options
later, such as when you are color or gamma correcting the file, or scaling it for a
different sized output, or other manipulation options.
2. Master to high quality source rather that directly out of the compositing application,
or a 3D program. Instead, render out to an uncompressed DM (Digital Master file).
Or, if space is a concern, to a very high quality QuickTime PhotoJPEG file, with the
quality at 95-98% (Control click 'n drag to get it that high on Mac, Alt click 'n drag on
PC).
3. Use Batch Capable Tools When Possible. Whenever you have a group of files to work
with, use a tool capable of batch processing the results. Discreet's Cleaner or Apple's
Compressor are good choices. For single files, QuickTime Player Pro works well. You
just can't batch or save settings for future use.
4. Know Where You're Going Beforehand. Know what you're planning on doing with the
footage, and plan accordingly. If you know it's going to be a DV file, for instance,
avoid strongly saturated colors. If you're destined for video output, avoid fine
horizontal lines and broadcast illegal colors. If you're going to DVD, don't work with
720x486 footage unless you know how you're going to crop it.

Recommended CODECs

DV & PhotoJPEG are recommended as the best codecs for developing Catalyst content.
QuickTime DV codec plays back best under heavy load and is highly recommended if you
want to play several movies concurrently. Apple has coded it to use dual processors at the
same time for each movie, so it scales well.
If you are NOT trying to play the maximum number of movies at the same time, try the
PhotoJPEG codec at medium (50%) quality. These movies tend to look better than the DV
files, but are more processor intensive than DV, and are NOT coded to use dual processors
for each movie (the code isn't multi-threaded and multi-processor).
If image quality is of paramount importance, try PhotoJPEG first and see if it will play
back as many movies simultaneously as you need. If it works at medium (50%) quality, try
bumping up the quality until you find the highest level that can be recompressed.
TIP: Since the PhotoJPEG compressor cannot set a fixed data rate, each movie
compressed with the PhotoJPEG codec will have a different file size. It can
even have different data rates within the same movie. So test your files, let
the entire movie play back in case one part has a higher data rate than
another, and make no assumptions about what will work without testing it.
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Catalyst® V3 Media Server User Manual