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Noob Question: 1080p to 720p benefit?
  • ragnarragnar

    I see and understand how taking 4K footage and putting it into a 1080p timeline helps in regards to noise, scanning, and panning and zooming. Is the same true if I take my 1080p GH2, GX7 and LX7 footage and drop it a 720p timeline? Will I see less noise, etc?

  • 11 Replies sorted by
  • balazerbalazer

    Yes, video can benefit by being downconverted from 1080p to 720p. Downscaling reduces noise. But then it wouldn't be 1080p. 720p video looks a bit soft on a 1080p monitor.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    Agree with @balazer of course. I tend to stick to 1080p but if it's a video for the web and won't be shown full-screen, then there's no harm in 720p I guess, and gives you some post-pro options.

  • ragnarragnar

    Thanks for the replies. I've seen so much said about 4K to a 1080p timeline that I didn't want to assume the same was true for 1080p to a 720p timeline.

  • Fool4UAnywayFool4UAnyway

    I may be wrong, but I believe the 4K down to 1080p involves a simple process. It's just combining information from 4 source pixels to just 1 target. It's a 'fixed mapping'. If you downconvert 1080p to 720p, the maths may me more complex. I think this could even make things worse, but I do not know. I just wanted to mention it.

  • DouglasHornDouglasHorn

    I think the advantage is if you need to deliver in 720P and can choose between shooting 720P or 1080P. In that case, you'll probably do better to shoot 1080P and downconvert. Starting from a larger sample usually increases the overall quality. (Except where you're just down-sampling by a very small amount and can introduce re-scaling artifacts.)

  • flaschusflaschus

    also...call me crazy, but to me it seems that uprez'd 720 footage to a 1080 timeline and export 720 is smoother than a 720 sequence straight export.. in cs6...

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    @Fool4UAnyway, that's right: downrezzing 4k 4:2:0 also effectively gives you 4:4:4 at 1080p because each pixel at 1080 is a combination of 4 original ones and thus will have its own chroma as well as luma info, so you get much finer chroma detail than you would with native 1080p 4:2:0.

    So downrezzed 4k at 1080p usually looks better than native 1080p. Not sure quite how the maths works out going from 1080p to 720p...

  • ragnarragnar

    Wow, didn't know that 4K 4:2:0 becomes 4:4:4 in a 1080p timeline. That's great. As far as editing actual 4K in a 4K timeline, I'll wait for the H.265 4K Lumix cameras when they come.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    yep - hunt around for some 4k / 1080p comparisons on YouTube and watch them in 1080p and you'll see a definite difference. For example:

    This wasn't shot with the GH4 but you would get similar results. I'm quite tempted just because of this - would be great for colour / greenscreen work, for example.

  • arnarfjodurarnarfjodur

    Downres to 72 pixels and I promise you won't see any noise :)

  • zcreamzcream

    Is there a way to use simple weighted average downrez methods to go from 1080p to 720p ? I can use AE, PPro and of course MPEG Streamclip. I basically want to reduce stubborn noise that 2 iterations of Neat Video have not succeeded in removing.

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