Soft, compressed footage of people. Interpret, output settings?

It depends on what you have set in the Preferences/Media tab for scaling. The options are nothing, Set to and Scale to. Whaddya got there?

As to your test, of course it didn't show any difference.

I'll give you something that will.

Create a 720x480 sequence. Drop a 4k file on it twice, one using Set to, and one at Scale to.

Now take the Motion options of the ECP, and set both for scaling at 400%.

The "set to" clip will be shown computing from the original 4k data ... the "scale to" clip will scale up from 720x480, and look like crud.

Neil

Wondering if it is my workflow.

When I record sometimes the host isn't as zoomed in as I would like, but I figure I'm working in 4K and that gives me wiggle room. (Maybe not)

I assumed reducing the 4k dimensions to 1920x1080 wouldn't lose any clarity. In Photoshop when you shrink down a big image it often looks better.

Once I'm at 1920x1080 I have to reduce the zoom to fit the 4K footage. If I reduce by 50% I can see the whole capture in the preview window. But remember, the host was a bit small int he frame so I often bump this up to 65 or 70%. I figure that's still less than 100% so I shouldn't lose clarity. But I think that is EXACTLY where a lot of the problem is.

Is there a way in the workflow to pull in 4k footage into a 1920x1080 and reduce it where it does not lose clarity, like my Photoshop situation?

Thanks.

Before uploading to youtube does it look sharp?

Beware Youtube re-encodes everything.

I find people with dark skin much more challenging.