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720p 24 HDV to Apple Pro Res
Hi. I just finished capturing a project shot with two JVC GY-HD250 cameras at 720p and 23.98. I captured the footage via firewire in the native HDV codec. I have not used the Apple Pro Res 422 codec yet and thought I would try creating a new project from this footage via Media Manager. When I go to Media Manager there are no options for compressing the footage again. Could someone tell me the step by step process to convert the 720 24p footage to Apple Pro Res 422? And what flavor of Pro Res do you recommend? Should I stay with 23.98 or bump up to 30? 60? Thank you for any input. 🙂
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15 Replies
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You really don’t want to do this. If you’re going to use ProRes, you really want to do this during ingest. The AJA Kona products do this in realtime during ingest and keep the signal incredibly clean.
Recompressing your footage after the fact will just add more noise to your already noisy HDV signal.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Thanks for the quick reply Walter. I have a JVC BR-HD50 deck for playing back my 720p HDV tapes. And I’m editing on a MacBook Pro laptop with Matrox MXO. How would I injest footage besides using the firewire output in this scenario? Sounds like I need to stay with HDV on this project.
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The posts I’ve seen so far about situations like yours suggest editing in HDV then putting it all into a ProRes sequence and rendering.
As an aside, do you have a newer MBP with the NVidia graphics, or the older ATI? I’ve been considering an MXO, but there’s an issue with MXO and the MBP/NVidia combo (and with Color too) that Matrox hasn’t posted a resolution to yet.
ed -
Thanks Ed. I have the ATI Radeon X1600 chipset in my 17″ MacBook Pro.
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I’m not trying to start any arguments, but trust me, converting HDV to ProRes using Media Manager is absolutely fine. Especially considering your circumstances. You don’t have HD-SDI capture and you probably don’t have an HDV->SDI converter box. On top of that, you already spent time capturing it via Firewire.
MM is the most convenient for you because it will automatically keep the timecode and reel names intact. And because ProRes is so good, there is no quality difference between that and HDV editing.
Highlight the clips in your browser. Right-click and select MM. Choose the option “recompress”. Not sure why you don’t see it. It’s there. Choose the sequence setting you want: ProRes 720p24 (which is really 23.98). And to answer your question, no, you do NOT want to convert the frame rate. At least not w/ MM. That is a very complicated process. If you don’t see a 720p24 ProRes sequence setting, you’ll have to create one. Make sure “delete unused media” is not checked, and choose a folder for where the new files go. The other options are self-explanatory and they shouldn’t even matter here.
Before I get lambasted, I’ll explain the reasoning as to why Walter and probably many others believe it to be better to capture ProRes on ingest rather than converting it with software. First of all, capturing ProRes on ingest uses the same exact Apple software encoder that Media Manager and every other QT app uses. It’s no different. The only hardware ProRes encoder I know of is in the AJA IO/HD. And it could be worse than the software encoder for all we know. Whatever the case it matters little because ProRes is so good. The issue isn’t the ProRes encoding, it’s the HDV decoding that is in question.
When you capture HDV over firewire and export it in Media Manager, your Macintosh uses the Apple software HDV decoder in order to export it. But if you capture on ingest, then the HDV is instead being decoded by the source device using hardware. In this case let’s say it’s the HD-Connect SI Box by Convergent Design: https://www.convergent-design.com/CD_Products_HDConnectSI.htm
This hardware decoder may be better than the Apple software decoder. It may also be worse. Or this model may be better than others (Miranda). Or the other way around. Who knows. I haven’t tested them to this kind of extent, nor do I know of anyone who has.
In the past when working with standard-def DV, hardware decoders built into DV decks, like the Sony DSR-1800, were always better than the Apple DV decoder. Walter, among many others, may be taking that old and wise knowledge and applying it to HDV. And he may very well be right. Or he may not be.
Anyway, the quality difference, if there even is one, should be very, very minor. Even if the quality is better on ingest, it won’t be dramatic by any means. If you are THAT picky about imperceptible quality differences, you should ask yourself why you are shooting on HDV to begin with.
Now as far as native HDV editing goes – HDV editing uses the same Apple HDV decoder as Media Manager. So NONE of what I’ve just been saying applies here. Hence, my statement that you won’t be able to see any difference after using MM. There won’t be any difference because it’s the same HDV decoder, and the ProRes encoder is virtually lossless.
One last thing. FCP 6 allows you to edit HDV natively while encoding only your render media to ProRes. You’ll find it in the sequence settings. This is probably your best option. This is what HDV is meant for. SDI capture vs. firewire/software conversion is very convinient for bigger places with machine rooms, SDI patch bays, and people who charge by the 1/2 hour. This obviously isn’t the case for you so don’t even worry about it.
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Wow Sean. Thanks for all the information. This gels with what I had been led to believe and read about converting HDV to Pro Res. I will try it tonight. Thanks again for all the detail!
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[Sean ONeil] “I’m not trying to start any arguments, but trust me, converting HDV to ProRes using Media Manager is absolutely fine.”
Watch out because you will need to compensate for the incorrect aspect ratio of Media Manglers conversions to ProRes- MM maintains the original file’s aspect ratio on conversion rather than rendering the content as full raster.
I use QT player – it always handles the conversion correctly (and it is fast when using automater)
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Thanks Gary. Do you have a process that you use with automater that you could share? 🙂
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[Randy] “Do you have a process that you use with automater that you could share? 🙂 “
its not mine to give out.
BUT you can create a folder action to save files added to a specific folder as ProRes, this method works just as well and is what I used prior to getting the script.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Thanks Gary. If the script is something that can be ordered or purchased I’d be interested in finding out more about it. I appreciate your help.
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