FCP footage to Premier Pro?

[Alan Husband]

I’m pretty sure HDV8 isn’t uncompressed DV, but it probably is a format for use with FCP.

VLC can play it because it uses internal codecs and just happens to support HDV8. You could try using VLC to convert the footage into something PP can understand, but I don’t know how good VLC is at conversions since I’ve never really used those functions.

[Olaf Malachowski]

Ummm…err. Ok. Crap. Can anyone else confirm this?

Does anyone have experience using VLC to convert these types of files? I tried it real quick (also no experience) but had unknown codec errors in the conversion. Some help?

-Olaf

[Alan Lloyd]

You might try a program (free) called “Any Video Converter” to do this. I have used it on all sorts of things and it pretty well does what the name says – converts just about anything to almost anything else.

[Shane Ross]

Are they HDV files perchance? Shot with an HDV camera? HDV files captured by FCP are unreadable by any computer that does not have FCP…unless you get a third party solution to read the codec.

Ask what camera was used to shoot this. DV and HDV use the same tapes, so that’s why they might be confused. But when someone says “uncompressed DV,” that tells me that the person saying that has little to no experience with shooting or post. They have no clue what they shot. There is no such thing as uncompressed DV. DV by nature is compressed. And the fact that your tools show it as HDV8…HDV…I think this is HDV

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Olaf Malachowski]

Guys, thanks for the help and input. There were 2 separate Hi-def video cameras used to shoot this, so I assume it is HDV. Also, I assume the FCP proprietary codec was used and that is what HDV8 is.

I was recommended a program called handbrake which is converting these files to .m4v files, using the H.264 (x264) codec in lossless, which are readable and seem to be working for me.

Are these ok to use for editing? There is also a mpeg-4 (ffmpeg) codec option, or an mkv container option, which then also opens a VP3 (theora) codec option. Would one of those be better?

Thanks!
-Olaf

[Olaf Malachowski]

One more thing, The original file is 71M,
the M4V H264 file is 401M,
the ffmpeg files are 68.1M.
the MKV VP3 file is 63.5M.
All look the same.

Am I losing something with the ffmpeg and VP3 files? or is that a codec efficiency thing? Why are the h264 files so much bigger? What’s the best to use? Or should I get another program that can convert to a better format?

-Olaf
And I forgot to mention it, but I have asked for specifics on which cameras were used to shoot.

[Jeff Greenberg]

You’re going to pick up the phone, call him and have him transcode everything to ProRes, then download the prores decoder for windows and you’ll be good to go.

What happened is that he’s working with an HDV Camera (about 30:1 compression, MPEG-2 format, long GOP.) Final Cut has captured the data of the MPEG-2 transport stream then placed it inside of QuickTime.

The problem is, the MPEG2 codec requires licensing that comes with FCP – and is only available (in this form) on a macintosh.

If he transcodes everything to prores you’ll be fine – if you download the prores decoder.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
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[Shane Ross]

The ProRes decoder is not needed as long as the client has Quicktime 7.6. The decoder is built into that version.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def