Are Mac PremierPro Projects Compatible with PC PremierePro CS4?

[Jon Barrie]

Hi Jiggy,

you have actually captured this material in a Final Cut Pro HDV format only supplied by Apple with FCP so I am sorry to say but none of the material in the apple codec will open on a PC – let alone be editable.

If you had used Premiere Pro HDV native capture in MPEG-2 then you could use that material over the two platforms of PPro.

You will need to convert the material into something the PC can use, most likely format to keep quality would be something in the form of Uncompressed or Animation set to 90-100%. But this will make the file sizes massive.

Personally i would recapture the material with PPro using the HDV capture supplied with PPro.

I am thinking you captured this with FCP.

– JB

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Jiggy Gaton]

jon, thx so much for that. makes sense now. I tried using episode pro to transcode the FCP capture into an AVI file, with limited success. The video coded fine, but the audio fell apart a few minutes in. But the client left with his harddrive knowing the audio was a problem, which I also supplied as a wav file. I cringe everytime pc people come into the shop, for example, his external was riddled with conflicker virus and formatted in NTFS. When will people learn? Cheers!

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Tim Kolb]

[Jiggy Gaton] “I cringe everytime pc people come into the shop, for example, his external was riddled with conflicker virus and formatted in NTFS. When will people learn? Cheers!”

Hmmm… The virus is obviously an issue…but not for Mac, right? As far as NTFS is concerned, a PC can’t write a file larger than 2GB to FAT, so the news is that all PCs use NTFS…your Mac can open and read NTFS, so I don’t know why this would be an issue. Since MacDrive exists for PCs to be able to read/write to a Mac formatted drive, there must certainly be a counterpart on the Mac end…?

As far as cross-platform compatibility, PPro CS4 opens FCP project files pretty faithfully with all standard effects that both software packages have…I doubt FCP claims the reverse.

The main problem with cross platform operations are the proprietary codecs that FCP uses…not the other way around. I’ve edited 90 minute timelines of Pro Res footage on a PC, I just can’t output to ProRes as only FCP is allowed to do that. PPro works with native media in several video data formats that media FCP still converts.

If you have to go to an intermediate codec, use Pro Res as PCs can read it. FCP proprietary-wrapped HDV, DVCPHD, and P2 are not formats that Apple allows PC users to access without the help of some pretty obscure third party plugins.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Jiggy Gaton]

thanks tim for that, no virus problems here:) but trying to write to a NTFS drive that has one is a pain in the butt, as most client’s PC drives do have something bad on them here. I can’t write NTFS from our macs, I have to open up Parallels Desktop, and then I can. How do u do that from OSX? Anyway, I think next time I will take previous advice and just not capture in Apple codec if going to PC…I had no idea that those 422s and 444s were not supported by PC and Quicktime there. Seems odd. Also did not know that PPro could open an FCP project – wow! But I bet that requires CS4 with updates no?:) cheers!!!

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Tim Kolb]

[Jiggy Gaton] “I had no idea that those 422s and 444s were not supported by PC and Quicktime there. Seems odd. Also did not know that PPro could open an FCP project – wow! But I bet that requires CS4 with updates no?:) cheers!!!”

Yeah, well…I guess only Apple knows why they keep those codecs proprietary…I’d think FCP’s functionality would be enough of a sales point that proprietary codecs wouldn’t be necessary…keep in mind that most of the more ‘traditional’ codecs are supported by the Windows version of QT…ProRes read ability on the PC end does help somewhat.

CS4 can be updated for free…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Jiggy Gaton]

Tim, thx again, I will keep prores in mind for next time (if there is one:)

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.