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Importing & ProRes Codec
Hello!
I’m having a bit of an issue. It’s been seriously slowing me down, and I just need to finally solve it, hopefully there will be some help here 🙂
First, some specs:
Computer:
Macbook Pro 2010
Intel i7 2.66Ghz
4GB RAM
nVidia 330M (512MB)
More than 200GB of free space as of this writing.Running:
Final Cut Studio 3 (including FCP7, and etc)
Basically I have an uncompressed AVI file that I captured using VirtualDub (PC) from an image sequence, and my next step is to import it into Final Cut Pro.
Now I was able to successfully use Compressor to transcode the uncompressed avi (~3GB), to a ProRes 422 (HQ) Progressive codec file. (~350MB).
Everything is just fine with the clip itself. It imports into FCP, and using QT7 it plays back fine also from desktop and such.
However…
When I put this clip into my viewer during editing on FCP, it stutters around and there is no smooth playback whatsoever. This is very, very annoying and would be tough to continue editing.
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I should mention that before I tried FCP, I tried a similar workflow on Avid’s Media Composer 5. The way it worked was that when I imported the files they were converted to the DNXHD 110 X codec and playback/editing was no problem whatsoever… HOWEVER… for this project I would prefer to use FCP and I would really like to solve this problem.
The reason I mention the Avid MC5 situation is because the DNXHD is a similar codec (functionally) to FCP’s ProRes, so playback shouldn’t be a problem I imagine.
Something is wrong on the workflow end it seems. Perhaps I’m not transcoding, importing or working the clip properly.
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One more thing…
I’m not really so attached to solving this particular problem with ProRes… If you would like to suggest a different approach or method, making use of a different codec all together. I would happily consider it!
In a nutshell, all I have is a bunch of uncompressed AVI files that need to be edited in FCP with as least amount of quality loss as possible (hence why my initial idea was to work with ProRes).
Thank you very much for the help!
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5 Replies
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Try compressing your AVI to the normal ProRes 422 codec, not the HQ version. That will likely play on your laptop.
There might be other settings in FCP that are limiting its playback, also. The sequence settings should match the clip, you should have this data on an external hard drive connected via FW800 or better, etc. There are many articles on this forum and elsewhere that deal with system settings.
If standard ProRes 422 doesn’t perform well on your MB Pro, follow Shane Ross’ recently posted video tutorial outlining online/offline workflows. Use ProRes 422 (Proxy) for offline editing on your laptop and then reconnect the full resolution files for your export.
Tutorial:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7.php
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Your computer shouldn’t have no problem moving any Prores flavor when you use an external FW800 HD. For what you say, you are using your very laptop as media storage: No-No.
Rafael -
Ah… good point!
Yes you’re right, I was trying to use the OS HD for project files.
Will an external USB drive work, or only FW800?
Also… while waiting for the replies, I was able to somewhat solve this problem using a very strange work around:
Basically I imported the uncompressed avi into Avid MC5 as a DNxHD 110 X codec… next I exported as QT file…
Then imported that QT file into FCP, and export yet again as ProRes 422 1280×720 HQ – 30 fps
No noticeable quality change (except of course from the original uncompressed avi, but that changed with the dnxhd encode right then and it’s acceptable (hardly lossy). And yet, I am now able to play these new files in FCP normally. No FW800 drive, same exact config.
By taking this measure, am I doing something bad that I don’t know about or see? Why wouldn’t compressor give me a decent file to work with in the first place?
Big thanks again for the help!
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As Rafael mentioned using your system drive for media should never be done. The OS is working constantly and will interrupt the video. Put media on an external FW800 or better drive as suggested. USB 1 or 2 (don’t know about 3) shouldn’t be used for similar reasons. It will not playback continuously.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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No USB HD. Its doesn’t works even for DV stuff.
[Vlad Ermant] “Basically I imported the uncompressed avi into Avid MC5 as a DNxHD 110 X codec… next I exported as QT file…Then imported that QT file into FCP, and export yet again as ProRes 422 1280×720 HQ – 30 fps
No noticeable quality change (except of course from the original uncompressed avi, but that changed with the dnxhd encode right then and it’s acceptable (hardly lossy).
By taking this measure, am I doing something bad that I don’t know about or see? Why wouldn’t compressor give me a decent file to work with in the first place?”You are loosing two generations on your footage before start to editing.
Try to re-wrap your AVI as QT: Use MPEGS Streamclip > Save as QT.
Or transcode the AVI to prores directly. Use MPEG Streamclip.
rafael
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