frame by frame sharper than rendered output

Agree. It doesnt make sense at all. And I'm comparing both on a studio display. What is most puzzling is why the frame-by-frame on the viewer looks sharp for half a second, then drops to a lower resolution. This isn't even 4K footage or anything, it's a basic 1080p timeline and export. I don't know any reason that should happen. It's obviously properly rendering the individual frames, but then defaults to lower rez when it rests. I've seen the *reverse* happen a lot, where playback is but when you hit pause it snaps to full rez, but this is the bizarro opposite. It has something to do for sure with the compound clips, but I don't know what.

[Edited by Moderator]

Yeah, thats not the issue, it's definitely soft, not perceived softness, because I'm comparing original footage with the output at the same size. And as I mentioned, it is *sharp* when advancing frame-by-frame, and soft when paused, or in regular playback, or on export.

Interestingly, yesterday on a lark I opened up a snapshot of the project that was about a week older, and on THAT version, this problem does not exist, which is baffling since its barely different beyond some trims. Whatever I did, or whatever happened, is not obvious to me.

sorry dont mean to be "cagey". there arent any effects on this at all beyond scaling and position.

I have earlier versions of the project where this is not an issue and I'm trying to figure out what could possibly have changed. The original media in this particular problem area is low rez crap to begin with.

SUCCESS.

This makes no sense to me at all, but I found the problem. It was, of all things, a series of *Text Layers* causing this. Normally, I use a Build-In/Out>Custom Text layer as my default, but on this particular compound clip I used the Basic Text>Text layer. Just for kicks to see what the difference was. Well now I know! It's special feature is messing up your footage resolution.

I disabled those text layers and the problem vanished. I rebuilt the text with the Build In/Out text and it works perfectly fine. WHY this was happening is beyond knowing. But I had four text layers and each one was contributing progressively more degradation of the image. Never had that happen, but I've never used the Basic Text presets before.

So I have no idea if this is just a fun one-off on this particular project, but just putting it out there that for this can happen with Basic Text and scaling in compound clips. First and last time using that setting!

AFAIK no effects were applied on purpose to the text layers, nor were they animated or doing anything beyond sitting there and being scaled along with the rest of the material.

But Yes, I agree it must have something to do with the background setting. I had just assumed it behaved the same as clear alpha, but apparently even if it *seems* invisible, it does interact with other layers unlike the Build In/Out text layers. Definitely not messing with that again when doing comps.

Turns out, weirdly enough, that it was using a Basic Text>>Text layer. Deleting that and using a Build-In/Out>Custom Text layer (like I was using everywhere else) solved the problem. I guess the Basic Text has a built in background layer that must have been messing with the render in some way even though it was invisible.

So, problem solved, I think this is some kind of bug, but I know to steer clear of the Basic Text presets in any future comps.

Yeah, thats not it.