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Losing Quality with Web transfer production (Quick Question)
Quick question here:
I’ve got a digital compositor I am working with, and I am going to upload my .mov files from Final Cut Pro to my FTP, then he’s going to download them, add the composits and send them back.
Will I lose any quality using through this online method of working on a project?
Thanks in advance for your imput.
Will Keir
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8 Replies
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You will not lose quality depending on the codec you use like Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2.
What you will lose is time especially you uploading and the compositor downloading. Round trip will be 4 transactions for one clip. Not very efficient.
If you could set up a local FTP server, preferrably a SFTP server/client you would only have 2 transactions per round trip clip.
FileZilla for Windows and Fugu – Mac OS X SFTP / SCP / SSH FrontEnd come to mind.
I hope you have fat pipes. A T1 line at 1.5 Mbps — note the small b — is only 187.5 KBps — Bytes or 1,500,000÷8(bit word)=187.5 KBps. So 1220 MB for an uncompressed one minute clip would take:
1220MB ÷ .1875MBps= 6507sec ÷ 60sec/min = 108.44445min ÷ 60min/hr = 1.8hrs for one direction.I just tested my connection at dslreports.com for comcast.net and got:
4479 kbps down and 699 kbps up which is:
559.875 KBps down and 87.375 KBps upB is for byte which is an 8 bit word.
I think I got all the math right, but even so I hope you get my point.
I used the second to worst scenario Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 since you were worried about visual quality. The worst would have been Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2. Of course with DV your file sizes will be about 210MB/min with 5:1 compression and 4:1:1 color sampling.
To determine various data rates and storage requirements you need to download aja.com – AJA_Data_Rate_Calculator_102b11.zip.
I’m just saying that anything over a couple of minutes FedEx still makes sense.
Inquiring minds…
Bryce WhitesideDon’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…
PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Mac OS X 10.4.5 QuickTime Pro 7.0.4
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion
After Effects 6.5 -
You might also want to try to transmit the files via Skype. It’s a bit friendlier & will configure itself for you. You just have to both be logged on, you select your compositor’s name in the Skype window & then click the “Send File” icon. I just don’t know if it will let you send a file that big!
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
That got me thinking about iChat AV. Not for video conferencing but file transfer. Don’t get me wrong, it will still take some time.
From the Apple – Mac OS X – iChat AV page,
Of course, iChat is also a versatile instant text messaging application, supporting AOL Instant Messenger and Jabber Instant Messenger clients. Icons and thought bubbles make it fun to see who
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Thanks for all the imput guys.
Most of the files are less than 50mb. I was playing on sending them the way I logged them, QT’s .mov files. Don’t know about uncompressed 8 bit or 10 bit, doesn’t that mean I’ll have to relog from DV again for this format?
I would think the .mov’s would be fine, since there the files I’m using to do all my edits as it is now.
Another thing, why use all those uploading/file transfering programs?
Is there anything wrong with simple FTP? I’ve got my own website that I can host it off of and I’ve got plenty of space. I was going to just upload the files for my compositor, and give him permission to upload them back my way.
Sometimes too much information just mixes me up. *KISS*
Thanks again guys,
Will Keir
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Look back at Bryce’s first post. He’s pointing out that if you upload the file to your ftp site, the compositor still has to download it. That’s 2 separate transactions for each file, just to get it one way. If you can send the file to him directly, that’s only 1 transaction per file, saving some of the transfer time. And applications like Skype & iChat are certainly not to hard to use.
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
Well the whole picture is a bit more complicated Arnie. You see, I’ve got a sun 56k modem here at my home office, so I’ve gotta go into town to do all my uploading and downloading. Thanks for the advice, the main thing I was looking for was that I would not be losing quality, and it seems that I won’t.
Those programs are a good idea, I’d use them if I had more speed.
Thanks again.
Will Keir
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Well then you are lucky because DV video is approximately 1/5th the size of Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 video. It will only take 1/5th of the time to transfer the files. You originally were concerned about image quality and did not provide us with specifics.
You as a video editor should know this.
There is nothing wrong with simple FTP, if the FTP server is physically local to you to just copy the files on to the server to FTP. If not, then it will take 4 internet transactions to get the finished files back to you–I am at a lost as to why you don’t understand that.
FYI,
Bryce WhitesideDon’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…
PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Mac OS X 10.4.5 QuickTime Pro 7.0.4
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion
After Effects 6.5 -
I seeded this calculator with typical T1 line of 1500 Kbps Bandwidth conversion calculator [forret.com web tools].
If you were using some DSL lines perhaps the number would be 384 Kbps or 768 Kbps.
Anyway look at row four of the chart B/h: bytes per hour and do your math from there.
Inquiring minds…
Bryce WhitesideDon’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…
PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Mac OS X 10.4.5 QuickTime Pro 7.0.4
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion
After Effects 6.5
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