Final Cut& AVI files..

[David Roth weiss]

[Cal Johnson] “I just can’t believe that such high end software cannot read this very ubiquitous file format. With the corporate work I do, I get given AVI files all the time… so I’m not going to be able to work with this file type in Final Cut?”

Cal,

AVI files come in many, many flavors, many of which are proprietary and far from ubiquitous. For example, I could send you an AVI file created by a Pinnacle Targa card and you would be hard-pressed to open it in Premiere without downloading a very specific codec for that particular AVI. There are Apple Quicktime files which are also proprietary, such as Apple’s so-called native HDV QT file. So, in some cases even having Quicktime installed on a PC may not guarantee that you can read every QT file.

The bottom line is, no file format or codec is truly ubiquitous and no NLE on the planet will open and allow you to edit every file type under the sun. FCP is as good as any, but its not perfect. Show me an NLE that is perfct and I’ll show you one you don’t know very well…

Most people using FCP are able to find workable solutions to every situation that comes there way… I’m sure Premiere is no different.

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.

[Cal Johnson]

Ok, thanks for the info.

[Alan Lacey]

Cal,

What David says is absolutely true, both AVI and QT are just the wrappers for whatever ‘video’ is inside.

I’m in a very similar situation to, you editing both PC and Mac and the closest I’ve come to an editing app that will open the greatest variety of files is Sony’s Vegas (PC with QTpro loaded)

Whichever way you jump you’ll need to keep the app and codecs up to date as the list is ever growing!

Alan

[Andreas Melzer]

Back in July, I had to correct a student’s movie that was an AVI. I had no problems with this job in FCP 5. I don’t know what version QT was at that time.

As I just read this post, I tried to open this AVI file again.

Today, a couple of months later, FCP is the latest version, QT is also the latest, OS X is 10.4.11.

FCP 6 says, it cannot open the Codec when I put the AVI in the timeline, QT Player says that it is missing software to open the movie. Both let me hear the Audio however.

Very strange.

QT Player lets me see the format inside the AVI file, it’s ‘dvsd’.

Just my 2 cents as a newby:)

[Walter Green]

David,

Do you have any idea where I can find the codec for Pinnacle Targa 3000 AVI’s so I can open them in FCP 6?

Thanks
Walter Green

[Larry Watts]

David,

We have moved from Sony Vegas to Final Cut Studio. One of my editors can put together a transition animation in Vegas quicker than he can with Motion so he did. When he exported the AVI to QT it had some tearing in it so he used the AVI in the FCP project. It seemed to work fine. I’d rather be safe than sorry later so I took the AVI into compressor and created a QT using the DVCPro 50 codec. It plays just fine.

So what do I say to an editor who sees no difference in the outcome?

Are we better off with the QT, or is it a mute point?

Thanks!

Larry

[David Roth weiss]

[Larry Watts] “When he exported the AVI to QT it had some tearing in it so he used the AVI in the FCP project.”

That not enough info to base an answer on Larry. I’d need to know precisely what Quicktime codec he exported/transcoded to, because some are better than others. For instance, if he exported from an uncompressed AVI to a Quicktime using the DV codec, you can be sure there would be a huge compression hit. However, if he exported using the Animation codec or 10-bit uncompressed codecs, that would yield a very nice result.

[Larry Watts] “So what do I say to an editor who sees no difference in the outcome?”

Send him to an optometrist immediately.

Seriously, if the AVI works, then let her rip… Many do not even play at all in FCP, but there are many flavors of AVI, so if the lack of realtime performance and rendering aren’t killing you, then forge full speed ahead.

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

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Tatiana Crisan]

Avi comes in various versions. Final Cut can read some of them. If you are using a compressed version of Avi, you might need to decompress it. I use Power Director for this.

Good luck!

[James Bayliss-smith]

Hi there I’d like to join the discussion here as I have a relevant point. I’ve just received some archive footage that I would like to use in my documentary. They are all avi files. I used an application called VideoSpec to check them out here is the report

*** General Parameters ***
– Name: INV184463.avi
– Container: AVI – Audio Video Interleaved
– Creation Date: 1904-01-01 08:26:44
– Size: 55085.0 MiB
– Duration: 0:34:33
– Bitrate: 223 Mbps
– Encoding Library: Undefined
– Encoding Application: Undefined

*** Video Track Parameters ***
– Format: Apple FCP Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2
– Size: 53.4 GiB (99%)
– FourCC: v210
– Track number(s): 0
– Bitrate: Max.: Undefined
Average: 221 Mbps
Min.: Undefined
– Frame rate (fps): Max.: Undefined
Average: 25.000
Min.: Undefined
– Bitrate mode: Undefined
– Encoding profile: Undefined
– Resolution: 20 bits
– Width (Pixel number): 720
– Height (Pixel number): 576
– Pixel Aspect Ratio: Undefined
– Display aspect ratio: 5:4
– Chroma subsampling format: YUV422p
– TV standard: PAL
– Interlacing: Undefined
– Encoding library: Undefined
– Additional Parameters: Bits/(Pixel*Frame) ratio: 21.333

I imported them into FCP and I got the error message: The following media files are not optimised for final cut pro.

My instinct is to convert them all to ProRes 422 using Compressor. Is this the way forward?

If I convert them to ProRes422 should I up-res them?

Should it be HQ?

What is the Format: Apple FCP Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2?

My ultimate use for them will be in and HD (HDV) documentary 16:9. I may crop them so they are 16:9 aspect ratio. All my footage was captured as DV but I will ultimately recapture all the tapes at ProRes422 1920×1080 for final post-production. I am also using some archive from a DVD. I have converted the DVD using MPEG Streamclip.

Again should I up-res thee DVD footage if my ultimate project will be 1920 X 1080?

I know that FCP can handle different formats in the timeline but I’m a little confused about the whole up-ressing business. I would say 95% of my documentary is HDV so I would like to make an HD version but I don’t understand how to properly use the SD footage, both archive and stuff I shot not in HDV

Should I up-res the DV footage as well as the archive?

Any help on any of these points would be much appreciated,

All the best

James Bayliss-Smith
https://www.youtube.com/jamesbaylisssmith

I’m using FCP 7.03 Compressor 3.5.3 OSX 10.6.5