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Can you export/render a video in .m2ts?

F

FR0STY

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
5
0
First off, let me tell you what I have been trying desperately for weeks to do.

I play this one video game called "Halo 3". I know it sounds nerdy, but now I edit videos for others and myself (at 14 years old, and I am getting better every day!), and it's a nice way to make money doing something that I enjoy. I have been uploading multiple "quality tests" to YouTube a day, and the quality, even though it is recorded in HD, is still fairly bad. My friend, however, uses a PC, and has AMAZING quality. He told me that he renders and exports everything in .m2ts. So, for the last 2 weeks, I have been trying to find a video converter, or change my recording or rendering settings, but nothing is as good as his. I do not like to render in .mov (QuickTime) because the file size is very large and takes FOREVER to upload to YouTube (Where most people "showcase" their videos).

What I previously wanted was just a file that had great quality and a small file size, but that search proving to be useless I have found myself here. So as my last ditch effort, please help me, if you know how to do this straight forward (without purchasing any software) please let me know! If you have any suggestions, feel free to share them as well. And if you do know how to do this, but I DO need to purchase some software, please let me know the name of the software, how much it costs, and a link to purchase it (if possible).

Thank you sooo much!!!! :)
 
J

J the Ninja

macrumors 68000
Jul 14, 2008
1,824
0
H.264 fits the bill of what you are looking for, and lucky for you, Quicktime supports it! You can also use Handbrake for H.264 encoding if you prefer. What program are you using to edit at the moment?
 
X

xStep

macrumors 68020
Jan 28, 2003
2,031
143
Less lost in L.A.
FR0STY said:
What I previously wanted was just a file that had great quality and a small file size...
Click to expand...

File size and quality video are at battle. Typically the smaller that you make the file, the worse the quality gets. Much of the size reduction is achieved by lowering the data rate. Less data means less information for the decoder to reconstruct a picture, resulting in muddier and pixelated images.

H.264 is about as close as you'll get. It claims to be able to keep a similar video quality while generating a much smaller file compared to other video codecs. For the same file size, it should be better picture quality.

Check out both of my export guides to get a grasp of the issues. Note that YT is now experimenting with full 1920x1080 HD, so take that into account when reading my guides.

Also remember that YouTube re-ecodes everything uploaded to it. Your aim is to supply it the best quality that you can achieve within their restrictions of 10 minutes and file size. I think they now allow up to 2GB file uploads.

How are you recording HD? How are you getting this to your Mac? What editing software are you using and what versions are they?
 
F

FR0STY

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
5
0
J the Ninja said:
H.264 fits the bill of what you are looking for, and lucky for you, Quicktime supports it! You can also use Handbrake for H.264 encoding if you prefer. What program are you using to edit at the moment?
Click to expand...

I use quite a few programs to edit, but mainly, I use Adobe After Effects. What I've been doing recently is either adjusting colors/saturation in AAE and then uploading it to check the quality, or just export the raw video file and upload it.
 
F

FR0STY

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
5
0
xStep said:
How are you recording HD? How are you getting this to your Mac? What editing software are you using and what versions are they?
Click to expand...

I record using a capture card called the Hauppauge HD PVR. What happens is, I Loop my component cables from my Xbox through my capture card, and into my HDTV. The capturing software I use is called EyeTV3, because the disk that came with my capture card only works on a PC. As for editing softwares, I mainly use Adobe After Effects.
 
I

icrude

macrumors regular
Dec 29, 2006
197
117
m2ts is just a box around all the information in a video. what you should be asking is what codecs should you use. H.264 is a codec inside the m2ts box. edit in whatever format your video is in, and export as h.264. that's the same codec they use for bluray, so it's good enough for youtube. :D
 
X

xStep

macrumors 68020
Jan 28, 2003
2,031
143
Less lost in L.A.
FR0STY said:
I record using a capture card called the Hauppauge HD PVR. What happens is, I Loop my component cables from my Xbox through my capture card, and into my HDTV. The capturing software I use is called EyeTV3, because the disk that came with my capture card only works on a PC. As for editing softwares, I mainly use Adobe After Effects.
Click to expand...

My experience with EyeTV has been with version 2 and my Elgato Hybrid TV tuner. Recording over the air HD 1080i television has given me awesome results.

I don't know the details of the XBox and passing its signal through the component loop. Does it downgrade the signal from 1080 to 720 lines, or can it be set. The Hauppauge page says it only handles up to 1080i, not 1080p, and can handle 720p. If the EyeTV software has settings for both 1080i and 720p, you might find that 720p gives a nicer result even though the resolution is lower. The progressive nature of 720p should give better results for high speed animation.

Ask you friend what his settings are for the recording. From how he sets up his XBox to how the recording software is setup. Also ask him what his export settings are.

Assuming you are getting a good recording, then investigate each step of your work flow. Somewhere along that path you may be degrading the result.

My guides are still helpful because they allow you to understand some the things needed to output a good result from any software.
 
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