Hi,
Is there a way to control how much compression is used on uploaded media? We have been finding the default compression used for animations is really heavy and is making hard for clients to comment and review because there is so much artifacts and color shifts from the compression.
Thanks
Hi @thecrayon,
Transcoding compression is not something that can be controlled in the UI and uploaded videos are transcoded into a streamable 720p, H.264 format.
Here is some documentation regarding our Transcoding process:
If you like, there is an option to do the transcoding yourself:
We have heard from a few clients that they might like the ability to have a few controls within Shotgun that they can set to give them optimal video quality for their review process (which can vary widely from client to client), while still having the media load quickly and efficiently. If you would like to make a request for this, it can be done on our Roadmap page under Submit Idea.
Cheers,
Beth
Hey,
I would think this is a pretty easy thing to implement as a UI setting per project/site or what have you? Not to say crucial for doing proper work with SG as a review tool. The current default compression is really nasty which means we have to download dailies which in turn kinda kills the whole point of having reviews in SG…watching high bitrate media offline and then going back to SG to annotate is not a very nice workflow.
I believe this have been brought up several times over the last couple of years. Please make it happen.
Cheers,
//J
Hey Janak!
Thanks for the point of view here. As we are building out Create, this one was of the things we are trying to keep in mind. For reviews (or media playback in general), if the user has access to the media stored on disk Create has the ability to switch through the representations available. We realize Create isn’t for everyone yet, but if it works in your workflow, maybe this is something to check out.
Basically in the timeline there is an indication of either the file extension of the frames, the movie or web that you can toggle between. This is telling Create to try and load the media either from the path_to_frames, path_to_movie or look at the web-transcoded version and stream it. You can also set a preference to try and load one of those first. (i.e. “always try to load the frames first”)
If you check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNSaq1DGgO0 in the timeline there’s a “mov” on the left hand side, that indicates it’s pulling the path_to_movie for playback.
Let us know if you have any questions or if you have any other feedback! Would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Kevin
Thanks, Beth, that’s exactly what I was looking for. I hope this will one day make it into shotgun as a more user friendly feature.
Hi Kevin,
For us it’s a problem with reviewing media through the client review site. There is so much compression put on the animations we upload it’s impossible for the clients to make decisions on the texture, color and lighting. We are also having to send out the animations separately for review and ask clients to then respond to the highly compressed version on the client review site so all the comments can remain in shotgun.
Michael
Hi @thecrayon,
The Client Review Site does have an option for the client to download the original source media of each Version. You just have to be sure to enable downloads when you share the playlist. This could help resolve the compression issues they may be having.
Here is a little more information on the CRS for Clients.
Cheers,
Beth
Hey Kevin,
I guess this only works if everyone is in the same place? Eg. checking dailies on SG that’s also on the server?
Didn’t really look at SG Create, what’s the difference vs. regular SG?
Cheers,
//J
Hey Janak,
It does work if everyone has access to the same local media server. So if the media path is on a local NAS, and the users machine can reach that location, it can use that data vs streaming it from Shotgun.
Shotgun Create is a native desktop view of Shotgun, it’s been designed around the iteration cycle between Artists and Reviewers with the goal of making it an easy out of the box solution.
Cheers,
Kevin
Ok, so for a cloudbased studio it’s not as useful then?
This also doesn’t work with the Client Review site? But maybe that’s not part of Create anyways?
//J
Looks like you snuck in a reply that I missed! Sorry 'bout that.
Trying out some SG Create right now. So how do I know what path is needed for the hires video? And does the dailie need to be submitted in a specific way or with a specific tool or…?
Cheers,
//J
I dont want to be mean here but I do think it has been brought up a lot in the past.
you 720p awfull compression really itsn’t cutting it for any online reviews other than for layout purposes.
If you really want to make the client review site usefull for clients you need to enable us to set the settings for the encoder.
I understand this will also affect your media storage costs but come on… 720P media in 2019/2020…
And yes, we all know about DIY transcoding but why should we always do all the work here?
It is not something I can keep explaining to my boss…
Hi all. I’m the Shotgun PM now responsible for our image transcoding capabilities.
To be brief - I agree that they have languished. We’re now in planning stages in engineering for enabling better content preview.
There’s an existing card for this work, published onto our public roadmap. You can add your thoughts on what would be most helpful for your use cases: https://portal.productboard.com/9yfnzm5dxd3vzwducxczpphv/c/64-transcoder-optimization
Hey @Janak !
For the hires video, if submitted through Create it looks at the path of the frames submitted and adds that to the path_to_frames. (If another user has access to that path, they’ll be able to switch to the frames.)
If you submit it through your own tool it should just be the qualified path that you add to the path_to_frames so if it’s: /mnt/the_project/some_folder/ you would add this to the field.
At runtime, in Create, when consuming a path, we loop over the path-prefixes to see if one matches the beginning of path-to-frames. So, for instance, if the path-to-frames is “/mnt/HSM/shot1/version3.mov”, the linux prefix will be found and then replaced by the current platform’s prefix so the path will become:
On Linux : /mnt/HSM/shot1/version3.mov
On Windows : s:\some\where\HSM/shot1/version3.mov
On Mac : /Volumes/HSM/shot1/version3.mov
Then if the path resolves, you should see that media-rep in the media-rep popup. The same should work on path_to_movie as well.
Hope that helps clear it up a bit!
Cheers,
Kevin