-
H.264 to Prores?
please, help me understand this….
I was given a H.264 1920 by 1080 video. File is 315 MB..i just need to add subtitles to it. So, as i’m not to lose so much quality in the process I wonder.
I drop the clip in a project automatic set resolution to 1920-1080..seems it can only be render as ProRes…so if I export this it creates a ProRes video of 6 GB..i could use compressor and make it H.264 again…and that’s fine.
But..its this back and forth necessary? will i lose to much generation quality with this steps?
my mind this that it the original is 315MB, i could just export the same format once and keep it simple..but FCPX seems to want me to use Prores to edit the clip…
thanks for your thoughts as always…
FCPX 10.7, Motion 5. Canon 5D mark II, T2i, T3i.
-
4 Replies
-
You can export h264 from FCPX, no problem.
Choose it from the “Video codec” drop down in the export window.
-
thank you…i saw this…
help me understand please..i got it done but my brain wants to know..
its FCPX making you work in ProRes timeline? even if I use your method it says: Source…ProRes h22…ummmmm???
so if i export H.264 I get a 999 MB clip…did it grew that much for the subtitles…?
thanks a lot
FCPX 10.7, Motion 5. Canon 5D mark II, T2i, T3i.
-
If you render something in the timeline, it will be whatever flavor of ProRes you selected in the Project settings (or Uncompressed 10 bit if you select that)
Upon export, your movie is getting recomposed as it has to due to the new subtitles.
If you need a smaller file, you will need to make a Compressor preset with a lower data rate or quality setting. You will be able to export right from FCPX using this compressor setting.
Jeremy
-
No this is the case:
You get a file with a certain resolution in H.264. You don’t know if it has a bitrate of 10 Mbps or 15 Mbps (you could check it, if you know the length and you have the size of the file, you know) or 20Mbps or 2, or etc. …
If you export H.264 out of FCPX it will also have a certain bitrate. Depending on that bitrate, which you can make a custom setting for in Compressor, you would also be able to make the file the same size (more or less) as the on you got.
But to answer your other question:
You will modify the file anyhow (adding subtitles, doing an effect, etc.) , so FCPX will need to render and re-compress anyhow. It uses Prores as a RENDER codec.
Because H.264 is a LONG GOP codec, it will need re-compression even if you just cut it up in different pieces.
That’s one of the reasons working with H.264 is not a great idea instead of working with Prores.
But for small pieces, I can imagine that it’s handy.I would suppose you best export to Prores. That will happen the fastest. And then afterwards recompress to H.264. Prores can take much more generations of compression, and the engine in FCPX compresses from H.264 source to Prores pretty quickly. If you export as H.264 directly, it could maybe take a lot longer then going from H.264 and re-exporting as H.264. That’s the nature of the codec…
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up