H.264 editing/converting problem in FCP

[Michael Sacci]

[Cory Rose] “Hi all, I need urgent help.”
Why not search H264 in this forum, it is all over the place.

Short answer, you cannot edit H264 clips on use that as a sequence setting.

– Our software is idiot-proof, if you bought it it proves you are an idiot. – Dilbert

[David Roth weiss]

Read this thread: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1079373

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

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[Alan Okey]

[Michael Sacci] “Why not search H264 in this forum, it is all over the place.

Short answer, you cannot edit H264 clips on use that as a sequence setting.
“

Don’t waste your breath, it’s a losing battle. This comes up almost every day on the Cow and it’s not going to go away. It’s like trying to stop a tsunami with an eyedropper.

Despite all of the technical reasons why trying to edit h.264 is a spectacularly bad idea, I fear that the vast wave of consumer gear that uses this as its default recording format is going to force the issue and make FCP support it as an editing codec in some form. I don’t agree with it, but the sheer number of posts regarding this indicates that most people A) don’t understand, B) don’t care to understand, and C) don’t want to hear why it can’t be done. In their view, FCP is old and inflexible because it can’t work with the footage they shoot.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years.

[Scott Sheriff]

H.264 is like a PDF, meant to delivery, but not to edit.

I wonder if there is a MS Word forum somewhere that is bloated with questions like “Why can’t I move paragraphs. or bold fonts on this PDF a client sent me?”

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Cory Rose]

Thank you for the advice David. I think I will use MPEG Streamclip to export all the 62 video clips I have as AIC encoded clips and import them into FCP. I will make an AIC sequence and drag the clips there and edit. After I’m done with the edit, I’m thinking of creating an H264 sequence and pasting everything on there and I’ll reconnect each video clips to the source H264 clips and render everything. Then I hope to export the sequence as H264. Do you think that would be a good way?

[Richard Cooper]

After I’m done with the edit, I’m thinking of creating an H264 sequence and pasting everything on there and I’ll reconnect each video clips to the source H264 clips and render everything. Then I hope to export the sequence as H264.

No… This is not possible, as FCP does NOT have the option to create an H.264 “sequence”. As has been said, this is a “DELIVERY” format, something to encode “to”, not an “EDITING” format, something to “edit”.

Just try this….Once you have all your clips transcoded to AIC, edit on your AIC timeline and from there just export to whichever “delivery” format that you wish… From the timeline as any number of Quicktime flavors (Including H.264) or through compressor for any number of wonderful delivery formats.

Hope this helps.

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Cory Rose]

Thanks Richard, that was helpful. So if I export the AIC sequence using conversion (converting to H264), will I be losing quality? The output should be broadcast quality HD. I’m sorry I’m confused a little about H264. It’s my first job for editing HD.

[Richard Cooper]

For \”broadcast quality\” I would find out the delivery specs of the broadcaster and deliver that particular format which they will reqire. H.264 is a nice codec for web delivery but in general terms if you can export to Prores or ProresHQ for broadcast it will be better. I dont remember if FCP 5.x has that capability. If h. 264 is what you really want just be sure to let it decide on the data rate and don\’t limit it in the settings. A max data rate h.264 will look really good.

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Cory Rose]

Richard, I don’t know what the delivery specs are. I don’t think my employer has any idea either. I know it’s strange. But anyway, you are right I don’t have ProRes on my FCP 5.x. Since the source files were handed to me as H264 files, I’ll just output it as H264. It’s not for web but for TV mainly. When the editing is finished, I will open a new sequence and in Sequence Settings, I will choose either H264 or “None” for the compressor. I’m not sure which one. Then, I will paste the AIC sequence into the new timeline and reconnect all the clips to the original source files and export it without using “using QT conversion”. I think it should give me the best available result. Thank you so much for your time.

[Cory Rose]

I can see the problem now. I tried to put a dissolve between 2 H264 clips and I wasn’t able to render or export it. I’ve been exporting the H264 clips as AIC files using MPEG Streamclip but I’ve been using %1 quality to save time. I thought I could eventually replace the low quality AIC clips with the original H264 files later but I won’t be able to do it since FCP doesn’t allow me to put dissolves etc. As I understand, AIC is a lossy codec. I will start exporting the clips all over again with MPEG Streamclip but this time I’ll use full quality. Would AIC be appropriate for broadcasting on TV? Are there any lossless codecs I can use in MPEG Streamclip to convert the source files and use them to edit in FCP? Thank you.