45min sequence to Compressor from FCP7….do’s and donts ?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi martin,
Should be no problem for that length, however i would recomend you to export a high quality master (ie prores) then import that to Compressor.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Martin Clark]

thanks Rafael,

Could you elaborate on what you mean by high quality master, such as best settings etc ?

Is this easier for compressor doing it this way?

Thanks

Martin

[Rafael Amador]

[Martin Clark] “Could you elaborate on what you mean by high quality master, such as best settings etc ?”
Avoid re-compression on exporting and export with the best options:
Basically export to prores enabling “render all yuv in high precision” and ‘render motion effects: Best”.

A problem of “Sending to Compressor” is that even if the sequence is fully rendered, Compressor will render it again; and if you are making a “double pass MPEG-2”, Compressor will render twice.
Three times for a Multipass H264. A waist of time.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Martin Clark]

thanks rafael.

so just to clarify..i’ll be making a pro res 422 quicktime movie to drop into compressor.

Do you have any advice on which ProRes to use….HQ, L, Proxy.

What’s the deal with 444….i hear some people say this is the best option???

Thanks

[Rafael Amador]

[Martin Clark] “Do you have any advice on which ProRes to use….HQ, L, Proxy.
“
I always use HQ even if some people say is “overkilling”.

[Martin Clark] “What’s the deal with 444….i hear some people say this is the best option???
“
No much sense. You gonna end up on an MPEG-2 (420).
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[David Dubé]

You don’t mention what format you are editing but you don’t have to recompress to ProRes. Render your sequence than just go File- Export – Quicktime movie – Current settings and uncheck “make movie self-contained”. Import that file in compressor. Or render your sequence and right-click on it in the browser and select send to compressor. Either one is fine, though I prefer the first method…

[Martin Clark]

Hi David,

They were H.264 quicktime files 24p from my 7D.

I transcoded them to ProRes 422 for editing in fcp.

Thanks

M

[Rafael Amador]

[David Dubé] “You don’t mention what format you are editing but you don’t have to recompress to ProRes”
Whatever the kind of footage you are editing, if rendering is needed, the best option would 10b Uncompressed.
the second better option Prores HQ.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[David Dubé]

There’s no gain in transcoding to a higher bit rate format than your sequence if going to compressor for a web or DVD output (which I’m assuming is the case here). If you were exporting for color correction, that’s another story. Export with your sequence settings, that’s all there is to it.

[Rafael Amador]

[David Dubé] “There’s no gain in transcoding to a higher bit rate format than your sequence if going to compressor for a web or DVD output (which I’m assuming is the case here). If you were exporting for color correction, that’s another story. Export with your sequence settings, that’s all there is to it.”

Is not about transcoding to a higher bit-depth or data-rate . Is about avoiding further recompresion.

If your sequence is, lets say, DV and need rendering, if your export with current setting (DV), your are heavily re-compressing the whole stuff again on exporting from FC, and will be crunched again to 8b/420 on the MPEG-2 compression.
If your stuff has to be crunched again, do it only one time, and in the end. Save “generations”.
Going to 8/10b 422 you save one “generation”.
And yes, there are benefits in going 10b when you can render in 32b Floating Point (High precision). : Effects, graphics and Motion effects will hold better.
And there are benefits in going 422 because FC renders in 444.

The story is simple: When you have to go from FCP to any other application, export always to the best codec, bit depth and data rate you can.
Re-compress only for delivery.
The perfect codec would always be 10b Uncompressed, if Prores is recommended is just to avoid the huge files created by the 10b uncompressed codec.
So get the best MASTER you can afford from FCP and do what your delivery format requires from there.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com