Editing DVDs in FCP

[David Bogie]

q[Eddie Witkowski] “What is the best possible way to do this, in detail.

I have a program called MPEG-Streamclip, but which file type works best with FCP? MP4, MOV, DV? “

I say the BEST way is to play out of the DVD player into a FW capture device and convert it on the fly to DV. then you go back to MPEG2 to the DVD. It’s all gonna be bad. But there really isn’t a best process here, only what you find acceptable in terms of artifacts, time, hassle.

any way you try to do this it’s going to be a mess so you sort of try different things to see what presents an acceptable level of bad artifacts.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Roth weiss]

[Eddie Witkowski] “I have a program called MPEG-Streamclip, but which file type works best with FCP? MP4, MOV, DV?”

Streamclip works very well, you absolutely want it to create a QT file, and that can be DV. If its from a progressive source such as film then you might need to be concerned about deinterlacing, but otherwise don’t sweat it.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Eddie Witkowski]

What my boss wants me to do is to take our DVD of our product and cut certain parts out of it, and add other parts from other DVDs of ours and create one video with it, and have it loop so we can play it at the booth we are setting up. It has to be the best quality possible under the circumstances and it will be played on a small 20″ screen.

Thank you guys so much for your input.

Also, under the Quicktime Export, what would be the best compression type to use to maintain quality and burn another dvd?

[David Roth weiss]

[Eddie Witkowski] “It has to be the best quality possible under the circumstances and it will be played on a small 20″ screen.”

Eddie,

As the great prophet once said, “it is what it is.” MPEG2 to DV and back to MPEG2 will never be as good as pristine uncompressed video, but, with Streamclip it will be just fine when played on a 20″ monitor.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Eddie Witkowski]

oh yeah, i knew that it definitely was going to lose quality. That’s why I mentioned the 20″ screen, because i knew it wasn’t going to be that HUGE of a deal.

On another matter, I also have DVDxDV. I don’t know how much experience you guys have with that, but it fattens my video very slightly and it’s a little bit more blurry than the video.

Streamclip gives a me sharper picture and perfect size, but it has lines running through (almost like it is interlacing the video very slowly) so when the fast parts of the video come up, there are horizontal streaks of mixed frames on it. Why is this?

[David Roth weiss]

[Eddie Witkowski] “Streamclip gives a me sharper picture and perfect size, but it has lines running through (almost like it is interlacing the video very slowly) so when the fast parts of the video come up, there are horizontal streaks of mixed frames on it. Why is this?”

It most likely means the fields are reversed.

[Eddie Witkowski] ” I also have DVDxDV. I don’t know how much experience you guys have with that, but it fattens my video very slightly and it’s a little bit more blurry than the video.”

I have DVDxDV and its also great. Something is clearly wrong with your settings…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Adam Smith]

How complicated is the editing going to be?

If it’s real simple cut/paste assembly you might look into doing the whole job in an MPEG editor or DVD authoring package… if you’re able to work with the files natively (and avoid re-compressing needlessly), then you’d wind up with the exact same quality on the compilation DVD.

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor / Final Cut Neophyte

[Eddie Witkowski]

yeah it is really basic cut and paste job. How do I do what you’re referring to?

[David Bogie]

[Eddie Witkowski] “yeah it is really basic cut and paste job. How do I do what you’re referring to?”

If it’s that simple, play the composite out of the DV player into your DV deck and just capture as DV via Firewire.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[John Heagy]

MPEG2 is generally 4:2:0… DV is 4:1:1… so going MPEG2 to DV then back you’ll end up with 4:1:0… not good. I’d suggest going to DV50, IMX50 or ProRes, as they are all 4:2:2, then back to MPEG2.

John