Canon XL1 3CCD Camcorder User Manual


 
Æ
Choosingbetweenencodingspeedandquality
‐Manycodecsofferacontrolthatspecifiesatradeoffbetweenencodingtimeandquality.Thefaster
modestypicallyperformmuchlessexhaustivemotionestimation.‐Generally,bigspeedchangescause
muchsmallerqualitygains
‐Thecorrecttradeoffbetweenspeedandqualityvariesdependingontheproject.‐ForDVDprojects,
titlesunderanhourwon’tgainmuchbyslower,higherqualityencodingbecausethedatarateisso
high.Webdistributedcontentalmostalwaysbenefitsfromtheslower,highqualityencodedfiles,
becausebandwidthissooftenthelimitingfactorforwebvideo.
Æ
Settingframesize
Framesize(alsocalledresolution)istheheightandwidthofthefinalvideoframe,measuredinpixels.
Thedataratechangesinproportiontotheareaoftheframe(heightxwidth).
‐Thus,convertingfrom320x240to640x480wouldrequireaboutfourtimesthedatarate,but
convertingto192x144,youcouldreducethedataratedowntoonethird.Becausetherearefewer
pixels,pixelqualitybecomesmoreimportant.
‐Mostcodecsandformatsrequiretheheightandwidthofavideotobedivisiblebytwoandgivebest
compressionefficiencywhenheightandwidtharedivisibleby16.
Æ
Specifyingaspectratio
‐Animportantfacetofframesizeisaspectratio.MostwebandCDROMformatsusesquarepixels,
andmanyformatsonlysupportsquarepixels.
‐Conversely,thediscbasedVCD,SVCD,andDVDformatsonlyusenonsquarepixels.‐It’simportantto
figureoutthetargetaspectratiofirst,andthenmakesurethattheframesizeyouchoosegivesthe
correctaspectratiogiventhepictureshapeinwhichthecontentisdelivered.
Adjustingtheframerate
Higherframeratesappearsmoother,andlowerframeratesappearchoppier.
Æ
Anythingbelow20fpsdoesn’tappearsmooth,andbelow10fps,thevideolooksmorelikea
filmstripthanmovingvideo.
Æ
Reducingorincreasingtheframeratehasmuchlesseffectthanframesizeonthedatarate
becausereducingtheframeraterequiresencodingtwiceasmuchmotionforeachframe,aprocess
thatrequiresmorebitsforeachframe.Also,eachframeappearsfortwiceaslong,sothere’smore