How to sharpen 4K to 1080p/720p exports?

No unsharp mask available...but have access to Compressor, no Motion either. Like to shoot 4K, but my broadcast format is 720p60, and throwing 4K onto a 720p timeline produces extremely fuzzy results, much blurrier than if I just shot the content in native 720p mode. Other than just throwing a default Sharpen 2.5 effect at it, which results in very grainy noisy video, I shoot night ENG with a lot of gain, how should I go about exporting my HD files from 4K? Been dealing with this issue for years with no fix..tried the Alex4D plug in but it won't install.

Paul

Apparently downscaling certain types of 4K footage to 1080p or 720p is a bug that multiple users are experiencing. Unknown if Apple will attempt to fix this. But try resizing using Compressor to see if that helps. In the VIDEO tab at the bottom be sure to choose BICUBIC if you are downscaling. I'd try leaving the "Details" and "Anti-aliasing sliders alone at first and you can leave the "adaptive details" box checked and "dithering" unchecked.

Thank you Redifer....those settings through compressor looks amazing....spat out some 4K A7sII footage to 1080p, and viewing on my 49" Sony the video is extremely sharp, no artifacts I was getting with sharpening filter, and no fuzzy or blurry image. Looks amazeballs.

Paul

Awesome! Glad to hear!

Ive always filmed in 4k and placid on a 1080 timeline.. should I be placing on a 4k timeline the exporting via compressor to 1080 or 720 etc for web stuff?

Only if you're having the same sharpness issues that Paul is having. I think it's related to certain types of 4K footage... ie a certain codec or whatnot. Your footage may not fall into that category.

I can only generate Sony XAVC 4K camera files...my successful test with red's settings were 4K on a 4K timeline exported to 1080p Compressor droplet. Wouldn't a 1080p timeline bypass the resize filter of Compressor, since the frames will be sent already resized and just transcoded into the Compressor codec setting?

Paul

After more testing, I found the best and sharpest is in fact to set the timeline to the original resolution, and set Compressor to the final output resolution, with Lanczos3 resizing filter, and resize detail level slider to 25ish for my 720p output. When tested by setting timeline to final output resolution, the results bypassed any Compressor resizing filtering or detail levels, and were blurry garbage. You may need to play with the detail slider to determine what detail level is best for you...I work with relatively undetailed raw 4K, so thta the 4K will look smooth at full resolution.

Paul