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edit with h264 or transcode?
Hey all- I just switched platforms, from FCP to PP, from Mac to PC. I’m editing my first project on this new system and would like to get directions on the best workflow I should use. I shot the footage on 5D and 7D so all my footage is in H264. I know PP can handle editing in this codec but I’m not sure if this is the best option. I was used to trans-coding my H264 footage to ProRes when I worked on FCP, but looking at other threads I’ve seen suggestions for PC’s using PP such as DNxHD? What do you advise? Many, many thanks!
My system specs are:
Windows 7 (64bit)
Intel i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX Ti 256bit -
13 Replies
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Do you plan on doing anything else with the footage – compositing, motion graphics, roto, color correction? If so, then I would transcode it to a standard format. DNxHD is probably your best bet on a PC (I’ve heard of ProRes problems on the PC side).
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
If you are going to complete the project on your machine without needing to send it outside then use the recommended native workflow. I shoot with the Sony NX5U which produces AVCHD files. My workflow is to copy the entire card to my media drive. In Premiere use the media browser to import the files into your project. I find working with native AVCHD files to be acceptable. Jog and shuttling the files in the viewer is not as robust as I would like it to be. But it all works without the need to transcode. I don’t have a NVidia card which as I understand it helps with playback of AVCHD content.
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Thanks for responding Ryan! I really appreciate any tips and heads-up I can get. Yup, I will be doing color correction for sure (this is a creative piece, short story) and maybe some compositing if possible. So good to know that I should transcode, makes sense…
So far tho, H264 has been playing back smoothly. I’ve only begun to look at the footage yesterday and getting ready to log all the cuts.
Do you recommend Adobe Media Encoder or maybe Streamclip to do the job? I haven’t used Adobe’s Media Encoder but have had plenty experience with Stremclip. Thanks again! 🙂 -
Thanks Bill! You asked if I was going to send it outside? I think at least I’ll be using AE to stabilize some of the footage (the shaky handheld stuff) and maybe to work on the titles as well. I’m also going to have to do some color correction for sure, I shot everything with the Kodachrome picture style so as to facilitate color correction. I’ve worked with AVCHD files before as well, using Canon Vixia’s with my high school students. Their stuff is not meant for ‘professional use’ so then staying with native codec makes sense. However the footage I’m talking about will def need post work done to it. I won’t be doing big motion graphics nor complicated special FX, but color correction is something I was expecting from the get go. Does this mean transcoding to something like DNxHD?
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Hello Juan,
What I mean by “outside” is sending to someone else to work on it. Like color grading. But if you are going to complete the project on your machine using the Adobe Suit tools then I would stay with native files and not transcode. Just to be clear I am not an expert with Premiere. I only recently switched from FCP7. I have done some minor color correcting with Premiere’s 3 way color corrector effect with my native AVCHD files and it’s worked as expected. No issues using the native files. As a test why don’t you import a couple of native files into Premiere and start playing with the color correcting tools and see if you are happy with the results. Not having to transcode saves time and lots of drive space.
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If the H.264 plays back well on your computer, there is NO REASON to transcode to another format. Working with the original media is always best. You will not “gain” any color depth or anything by transcoding to a 10-bit format or anything – your colors are limited to what you captured. Adobe will work with them in a high-bit-depth, but transcoding will only add time and disk space.
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This is exactly what I want to know, because I thought that H264 was a ‘compressed’ version of the footage that one would need to ‘decompress’ and open up in order to get the full depth of data captured. Thanks Ryan, just getting used to this new system and workflow! Any advice and heads-up is greatly appreciated! =)
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Ryan Patch is right that there is no added bit-depth, color information, or resolution added to a file that you transcode. The file can ever only be as good as what you capture it on originally. Period.
However, the reason transcoding is necessary is that not all apps work like Premiere Pro. Not all apps can just play any media. So if you plan on doing more than just editing in your timeline I encourage people to transcode. If you’re doing color correction, as you state, I would highly encourage transcoding beforehand as most color grading apps won’t deal with h.264 media (Resolve kinda does, but not to where I’d rely on it as a workflow). Apple Color won’t. Speedgrade, assuming you’re running CS6, will transcode your footage to DPX files for color grading.
Point is if you don’t have to transcode don’t. As Ryan says, it takes more space and time. But if you plan on doing work in other apps that aren’t Premiere Pro then I would transcode to save yourself the headache that comes from other apps not playing well with a heavily compressed format – h.264.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
Yes, all very true.
One workflow that hits both strengths would be to edit nativity with Premiere, and then only transcode the material you need to correct. You could do this either by using the project manager to consolidate media you need, or use the “Send to speedgrade” command do get DPXs made. I was told that you can actually “Send to speedgrade”, let Adobe do all of the rendering for you, then from speedgrade, save an XML and open that in resolve. Haven’t gotten this to work yet, though.
Ryan
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I’m running CS5. I haven’t done a lot of color correction except with FCP’s 3-way color wheels, and right now I’m just beginning to work with Premiere and other Adobe apps. A desire and need to learn AE was a big reason for the shift in editing platforms. So I actually still haven’t looked into what Premiere or AE offers for color correction.
This is a creative piece I’m working on right now and I assumed that either I or someone else would do some color work in the end to make it all look uniform and, well, better. Like I said, I shot it with a couple of different cameras (5D and 7D) with the Kodachrome picture setting so as to be able to work on color in post.
I just began to read and get informed on Speedgrade and Resolve, thanks for the info!
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