DCP from H264 bad image sharpness

[goliathmaroof]

Hello,

I work at film festivals, where I need to convert a lot of films to DCP fast.
We receive a lot of *mp4 H264, which DOM can import, but it encodes badly.

1. If I import H264 into DOM and convert to DCP, the final image has a bad sharpness.
2. If I import the H264 into Premiere Pro, export it as Tiff, import Tiff into DOM and convert to DCP, all seems well.

Is there any way I can skip the Tiff intermediate phase without losing quality? Because it really takes a lot of space to export as Tiff.

Here you have images from my tests and the 3 files if you want to compare : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7FvF ... mFCZEk0WjA

Thank you,
Darie

[Carsten]

Hmm, strange. h.264 is a very complex codec, and, technically, it may be that FFMPEG in DOM uses non-optimal decoding. I will try to replicate your findings. I have never experienced that behaviour before. Maybe it only occurs with certain h.264 files.

- Carsten

[goliathmaroof]

Update.
I compared the files in EasyDCP Player and they were all the same.

Seems the problem might be from my video card or codecs? As I get the bad image sharpness in MPC-HC and Premiere Pro.
I will try to compare them also on a MacPro with Final Cut or Avid. Be right back!

- Darie

[Carsten]

How/where did you check these DCPs for sharpness after conversion?

- Carsten

[goliathmaroof]

Checked them with MPC-HC, VLC and Premiere Pro CC2017 (which allows importing of *mxf files).
Seems they interpret the H264 codec wrong and apply a blur.

As I said, when comparing in EasyDCP player, there is no difference between the H264 and the DCP made directly from the H264.
(in the latest EasyDCP player version you can import and play *mp4 H264. Try the free trial, it does it's job for testing purposes)

Do you know any other player/video editing software with which I might compare them?