FCP editing formats

[Ryan Holmes]

[Michael Bigda] ” they are saying we should use MPEG2 QT movie format on FCP. Is this going to cause issues with editing? For example long renders.”

First – who is the “they” in this sentence?

Second – FCP really doesn’t like MPEG2 format. ProRes is without a doubt the most FCP-friendly format. TO the best of my knowledge FCP won’t even ingest MPEG2 format. So you’ll have to convert it to something.

[Michael Bigda] “We could also switch to XD cam file format. Which would be better?”

XDCAM wrapped in a Quicktime would be galaxies better than trying to wrestle with MPEG2.

[Michael Bigda] “I know that we should be using prores but that is apparently out of the question.”

Why is it out of the question? Speed? Conversion time? Storage?

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Steve Eisen]

Use MXF Op1a wrapped HD XDCAM 35. You will use the Sony Cinemon plug-in for import into FCP.

https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-datastorage/resource.latest.bbsccms-assets-cat-datastorage-solutions-cinemon.shtml

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group

[Michael Bigda]

Thanks for your response. Our server is Omneon and they are the ones saying to use Mpeg2 or XD cam. They said Prores was not an option. Currently we are using IMX30 but they said that it is SD only. My company is looking to keep the same storage space when we switch over to HD and they are saying that MPEG2 would use the least amount of storage. I have been pushing them to use prores for years and they keep saying it wont keep the captioning if we have reedit something.

[Michael Gissing]

XDCam is basically MPEG2 and in that form it is a codec that FCP can edit although it isn’t as reliable and elegant as ProRes. With storage so cheap these days, I would evaluate the productivity versus storage argument. Alternatively explore Premiere as an editor that may work directly with your existing MPEG2 files.

I am not sure the captioning would survive conversion to XDCam and then edit in FCP and back out as MPEG2. Lots of testing required. Again Premiere might pass through captioning unharmed.

[Tom Matthies]

We use an Omneon server for playout here. We do all of out editing in FCP using ProRes for the production. After the project is finished we convert the file to mpeg2 for import into the Omneon. We have a watch folder setup using Flip Factory to do the conversion. You can also do the conversion using Compressor. If you enable the virtual cluster function it tales only a minute or two to convert a 30 second spot. Stay out of the mpeg2 format until the last minute and you’ll preserve the most quality.
The finished format for Omneon needs to be mpeg2 (actually Omneon’s version of it). You can do the editing in any format you like.

E=MC2+/-2db