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• Background color well: Sets the letterbox color. Click this box to choose a background
color from the color picker.
Noise Removal
Reduces random flecks of noise from the image. Some codecs introduce noise into the
video file, which can be softened with the Noise Removal filter. You can improve image
quality and spatially compress your material more efficiently by reducing its fine detail.
The noise reduction filter allows you to blur areas of low contrast while leaving
high-contrast edges sharp. This is known as adaptive noise reduction. The results are
imperceptible to the human eye but improve the final compression of the source media.
It is especially important to use this filter with live video.
• Apply To: This pop-up menu allows you to choose which channels you want to filter
the noise from. The default is All Channels, which filters out noise from all channels
including the alpha channel. The other option is Chroma Channels, which filters out
noise only from the two chroma channels—U and V—in the AYUV color space (or R408
in Final Cut Pro terminology).
• Iterations: This pop-up menu smooths out image noise. Choose how many times
(between 1 and 4) you want the selected algorithm applied to the source media file.
The modified image is used each time as a starting point for the algorithm. The more
iterations used, the fuzzier the image becomes.
• Algorithm: Select one of the following algorithms from the Algorithm pop-up menu:
Average (each pixel’s color is modified by taking an average color of pixels around it,
including its own color value); Replace (each pixel’s color is modified by taking an
average of pixels around it, while ignoring its own color value); and Merge (each pixel’s
color is modified by taking a weighted average of surrounding pixels and itself; the
pixel’s own color value is given greater weight).
260 Chapter 22 Adding Filters to a Setting