Mastering mp4 and webm video using Video Artifact

Encode mp4 and webm with best possible quality and speed.

For versions 1.x.x

Video Artifact Premium can be used for video mastering.

Video Artifact has a possibility to encode for consumer distribution your 8-bit or 10-bit source video with 16 or 24 bit audio. Many source formats are supported including DNxHD in MOV or MXF from DaVinci Resolve.

It can create different resolution versions with required color matrix: bt.709 of bt.601. These resolutions are supported: 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p. For 240p/360p it creates a half frame-rate version from a 50 or 60 fps source. Resize is gamma-compatible, but processed in a linear light space. Also it is ringing-free.

Mastering Features

High Quality YouTube Export

High quality YouTube export, that is compatible with 10-bit video. Usually 8-bit video is dithered and some values between bytes should be encoded with dithering patterns. For YouTube compressor this means additional bitrate for these flat areas. So we get compression artifacts even from a static video.

The VA author had some experiments with encode dithering. And now VA has the best possible quality encode algorithm that keeps a bitrate for YouTube and Vimeo. It is compatible with a screen-recorded content or a reclaim video with large flat areas.

High Quality MP4 Consumer Distribution Video

Video Artifact can create a consumer video. It uses the best quality external x264 and Apple Quick Time AAC encoders. Compression settings are tuned for a compromise between quality, encode speed and old device compatible. There are different encode scripts for screen content and movie with very different encode settings.

High Quality Video for Web

Video Artifact can encode webm. It uses a reference Google VP9 encoder vpxenc with Opus audio codec. Compression settings were tuned for screen content or movie. We can create best possible quality webm The encoding settings were optimized by hand for every supported resolution. Also encoding is fast. Default settings allows you to encode 1080p VP9 video on 4 GHz i7 with 2-4 fps.

Low-compressed Master File

While mastering you can also create a special low-compressed version to keep it and use this master video later to encode for additional resolution or different encoding settings. This way keeps user time, because no project source is required. Restoring a NLE project from backup and then to encode film again may be very slow.

Video Artifact uses H.264 10-bit 4:2:2 video for the master file. It is compatible with 24-bit audio.

Steps to Master

1.

Place a final result MXF or MOV file from your NLE to the project folder.

2.

Execute a mastering encoder script from va\out\master-*\Convert*.bat. Use a “video” version for video or a “screen” version for a screen recorded content or video with large flat areas.

3.

Get the result in the out-* folder.