How do you avoid recompression with DSLR footage?

[Nevin Styre]

The nature of long GOP codecs like h264 or hdv means footage can’t be cut without reordering the GOP. Every editor has to reorder the GOP at the end to export a final video file which results in re-compression. The best thing to do is to export your final video to a higher quality iframe codec like prores.

[Phil Radelat]

[[The nature of long GOP codecs like h264 or hdv means footage can’t be cut without reordering the GOP.]]

Well, we’ll see. Apparently the Media Studio Pro software is end-of-life, but the SmartRender technology was rolled over to a $50 consumer app known as Video Studio Pro X4.

However there is another, also consumer app for ~$90 known as Power Director by CyberLink that apparently does the same thing, only more efficiently. This I would assume is because the app is 64-bit native. I will be testing this app to see if it lives up to such claims. If so Adobe then has egg on it’s face, when two consumer apps can do what PP can’t.

As I said, we’ll see.

[David Cherniack]

[Phil Radelat] ” If so Adobe then has egg on it’s face, when two consumer apps can do what PP can’t.”

I don’t think anyone, including Adobe implicitly, is saying that it can’t be done. As has been pointed out MainConcept has been doing it with mpeg2 and I think their Reference app may do it with shades of h264. However for a commercial app oriented at professional use like PrPro how big is the demand to encode back to AVCHD untouched? Probably not very big at all. I haven’t seen any hordes of users clambering for it. Does Avid, FCP 7 or X, do it? I don’t think so. Egg on on Adobe’s face over this? A rather unjustifiable assertion, don’t you think?

David
AllinOneFilms.com

[Tim Kolb]

Yes, whether or not it’s possible, developing a feature for a user base of less than 40% of the user base is impractical.

It sounds like what you probably need is that consumer application.

(Keep in mind that your assertion of the proof of concept has all been for MPEG2…MPEG4 is a different animal.)

I like DSLR footage, but I can’t see myself needing this feature myself, so I will poach my eggs and eat them…they’re good protein.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor