By that I mean could I make a 1080p video project and insert 4k material into it and then enlarge the central portion of the 4K footage to produce an equal quality zoomed shot, then export the whole thing at 1080p?
Would there be any import or export problems assuming same frame rates are used?
Hi
. . . . I make a 1080p video project and insert 4k material into it and then enlarge the central portion of the 4K footage to produce an equal quality zoomed shot, then export the whole thing at 1080p . . . .
Yes I do that regularly with one minor difference, my projects are set for 4K, so I can quickly go back and export for 4K as required.
If exporting as 1080 eg for BD or web then the 4K does give an optional 'extra' zoom level, however with 'down sizing' there can be very minor shifts in placement of titles, graphics etc - so far by no more than 1 or 2 px.
HTH
John EB
Thanks for the answer John.
I'm not sure I can see a 1 or 2-pixel shift differences so I'm not as concerned about that.
Should I set the project to 4K then or set it to 1080p? What happens to the frames of each type? Is one video expanded or contracted over the other depending on the project settings of do both show the same size but differing in quality? All I'm after is the ability to x2 zoom without a loss of quality at 1080p. I have two cameras but one is fixed focal length which is convenient to use but lacks zoom capability.
Ray.
All of our wedding work is a mix of 4k and 1080, we just set up a 4k project then render out to 1080. The one I am working on at the moment has 4 parallel video streams, 3 in 4k and 1 in 1080, plus two separate audio tracks. Much of the 4k footage is zoomed and panned in post and there is never a problem. I export to dvd and 1080 mp4 with an option for 4k export if needed.
Roger
Thanks for clarifying Roger.
I hadn't contemplated the obvious ability to move a 4K piece of footage to re-locate where the center of the frame of a scene would be, so effectively having two or more uses.
As both my cameras seem to only use a smaller portion of their sensors when recording 1080p this should be a good way of preserving and leveling the quality of individual takes.
Much appreciated.
Ray.
Hi John.
The reason I was wondering about setting any project at 1080p is just to protect the lack of processing power of my current system.
Although I can play 4K content within MEP I have no illussions about the additional strain it may produce in my component chain until I can effect an upgrade, which will have to happen before the end of support for Win7.
While I have been able to keep my CPU temperatures down, rendering times are horrendous, sometimes taking up to one hour per minute of video processing for the best resolotions I can manage for uploading to YouTube that do not suffer from YouTube's re-rendering process.
The results though have been worth the effort so far with only the degredation from enlarging normal 1080p footage for closups being a problem. Final YouTube video quality has been very close to my original footage, so very pleased with the program itself.
Luckily, since the introduction of the i9 processor, earlier i7 processor prices have come down by some margin and I should be able to upgrade components at the end of the year with luck.
Hi Ray
. . . . setting any project at 1080p is just to protect the lack of processing power of my current system . . . .
The lack of processing power will rear its head when you try to playback the timeline if you are not using proxy files and when you export the movie as 1080p - there is a lot of processing involved down scaling 4K to 1080.
HTH
John EB
I have more or less had to use proxy files from the start, John.
I don't expect to be able to use more than two separate video tracks when trying this out but then I grew up in a time before multitracking audio, so I can figure out workarounds most of the time.
I'm very pragmatic about the limitations I have to work within as I've always had to compromise somewhere for an unspecified amount of time until my equipment capabilities equal out to cope.
Every time I have bought a new camera over the years I have inevitably had to upgrade other hardware along the line at some point to cope with processing.
I don't worry about things I can't change immediately but try to work within the limitations I find myself in. I think of it as part of the creative process. 😁