• Compression Techniques

  BIG MESS, but EASY FIX?

  Posted by Matt Bilen on July 29, 2011 at 2:09 pm

  Ok,

  So i was ingesting 6 shoots worth of data using our typical workflow, which involves E1 Plugin for 7D footage in FCP, XD transfer for logging and transferring Sony XDCAM footage into our system, then transcoding using compressor. I was having tons of problems with compressor, error messages on longer files, and it was making me pull my hair out. I decided to try transcoding with MPEG Streamclip, which boasts no frills, but is a stable, fast transcoder, especially when not changing the actual dimensions of a clip. And it was, I was so excited by cutting my time in half. I bragged around the studio to everyone (all 3 of us) But that’s where it went bad. We transcode everything to 422 LT, and then sync our interviews using Pluraleyes.

  I set my settings but later realized I had plugged in 24fps, instead of 23.98fps on like 200 clips. This caused a huge syncing problem, not to mention, time machine saw these as different files than the 23.98, I later put in. So we added an additional 3 TB of data we didn’t need to which caused a massive TM problem since we were near full. Anyway, I re-transcoded everything in 23.98 from original RAWS, and I finished yesterday. Is that the end? Oh, no. Once we imported everything into FCP, the audio was not synced with video on over half our interviews. I began to bang my head against a wall. Later I remembered that our cameras actually shoot in 23.976. So that .004 frames off cause audio lag by the time you were 20-30 minutes into an interview. ARRGGHH. This is why you don’t change workflow in the middle of projects without thoroughly testing. Here’s my question.

  CAN I SIMPLY SKIP GOING BACK TO RAWS AND JUST TRANSCODE FROM 23.98 to 23.976, AND WILL THAT CAUSE MORE ISSUES? OR IS IT SUCH A TINY AMOUNT THAT IT WOULD BE LOSSLESS? THANKS!

  I do endorse highly MPEG STREAMCLIP, just test it in your workflow first and choose setting carefully.

  Matt Bilen
  Wanderlust Productions, LLC

  MattBilen
  Creative Media Director
  Wanderlust Productions

  Matt Bilen replied 15 years, 1 month ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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