Cropping video

[dotman]

What are the implications of cropping video, such as loss of quality? I have a filmed interview that needs some slight cropping in the subjects. Is this a problem? Using FCE minidv.

dot.

[clay]

What's the final deliverable--web video, DVD, film? As a general rule, I tend to think that you can get by with cropping 10% of the pixels for a DVD program and not notice significant degradation in quality. As the editor, you will notice the difference if you do an A/B test, but if you just see "B", you probably wouldn't know any different.

If you're delivering for web, you can usually get away with more, simply because frame size is generally smaller on the web.

let me know if you have any further questions--I do video for a living so I've had some experience doing exactly what you're describing.

good luck.

[dotman]

Thanks clay. makes more sense just to to us motion and boost the scale a bit. Would you agree? I did that and it seems fine. why i didn't think of that in the first place is beyond me.

dot.

[clay]

yeah, that's what I do normally. Achieves the same end as cropping. Same "rule" still applies ( no more than 10% larger)