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Keeping my Video HD, from beginning to end.
Hello Everyone, I have a question about something that i never really understood.
Okay so I have a lot of footage I’ve shot… All on the HVX and all 1080 and 24p (some of the slow motion stuff is 720 and 24pn as it has to be this way to get SM)…. anyway…
I’m editing some of the stuff… Importing to final cut… and I’m eventually going to want to display everything on a very large 1080 television.
I’m wondering how to go about keeping all my footage the very best HD quality from beginning to end. From the moment i import into Final Cut till I display this stuff on the HD screen…
I know that Final Cut pro converts all my footage to quicktime files when I import it…. Does this step right here hurt my video quality at all? Is there something to remedy this?
Also… I usually just drop my clip into the timeline and FInal Cut asks if i’d like to change my project settings to match the clip settings and I say yes, figuring this is best…. is it???
I’ve been told in the past that all HD really means is the 1080 resolution… well that may be true but all i care about is keeping this thing good “HD quality” right up until i display it.
Finally, What’s the best way to display it? We’re displaying this on a large hd plasma screen in my university’s RECREATION CENTER… should I burn an HD DVD and tell the school they need a BlueRay? Will my macbook pro (purchased in the last 6 months) have the ability to burn an HD dvd or blueray? (i have a superdrive)…. or should i tell the school to set up a computer and run a video file I’ve rendered? (they’ll probably only have some old pc without that great of a graphics card?)
Just looking for suggestions on the proper way to go. The quality of our footage looks awesome right now but from past experience… somewhere in the process from RAW footage to Final DVD quality gets lost. We know we’re probably ding something wrong.
Thanks for your help.
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7 Replies
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[Andrew Johnston] “I know that Final Cut pro converts all my footage to quicktime files when I import it…. Does this step right here hurt my video quality at all? Is there something to remedy this?”
Nothing is done to the footage. All that happens is that the footage is copied and put into a QT wrapper. It is full quality.
[Andrew Johnston] “I usually just drop my clip into the timeline and FInal Cut asks if i’d like to change my project settings to match the clip settings and I say yes, figuring this is best…. is it???”
Yes. FCP is asking if you want the sequence settings to match those of our clips. This is normal, and this is the best thing to do.
Now, as for DVD, HD DVD has died…that format is no longer being made nor devices being manufactured. BLU-RAY won. Your current software does not author BLU-RAY. You need TOAST 10. A Blu-ray burner will be in order too, but not necessary. You can author Blu-Ray onto a regular DVD up to like 15 min, but anything longer an you need an actual Blu-Ray burner and special Blu-Ray disks.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Shane Ross] “You can author Blu-Ray onto a regular DVD up to like 15 min, but anything longer an you need an actual Blu-Ray burner and special Blu-Ray disks. “
In all our testing, this does not work. We have tried it with 2 minute, 5 minute and 10 minute files using both Encore and DoStudio. Playback did not work on a first generation Sony BDP-S1 or 2nd generation Samsung 1500 BluRay player. I would not recommend this method to anyone.
Burn to a real BluRay disc using a BluRay burner.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Real world experience trumps what I have “heard around the internet.”
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I can second what Walter says regarding Blu-Ray.
Even though the HD DVD format is dead, you CAN make an HD DVD using DVDSP and burn a short HD DVD using your Superdrive.
Ken Stone has a tutorial on his site.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
I have used Toast 9 to burn Blu-Ray format 1080p shows to a standard DVD-R, and had successful playback on a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, DMP-BD30.
Toast is quite limited in it’s capabilities, though – and even re-encoded my 24 frame video to 30 frame by duplicating every 4th frame, so the motion isn’t as smooth as it should be.
This happened even when giving 24frame Br-compliant streams to Toast and burning to a BD-R, so it’s not the ideal way to go for 24p material – but if you don’t have a BR-burner, and you can live with 30 frame 1080i, it’s worth a try to see if it works on your setup.
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I do simple testing all the time with HD material to DVD-R, sometimes to BD-RE (so I don’t waste a BD-R). I always do it on a Lacie d2 Blue-ray burner. DVD-R play back fine as short blu-rays… I have done 10 minute tests as well as multiple trailers. It does work. Difference is I am using Toast 10 instead of Encore. I’m not at all saying Toast is better than Encore because I tend to lean the other way, but for this with clients who want short Blu-ray discs, this does work… Now getting chapters markers out of FCP is a whole other issue in Toast 10.
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I don’t touch toast for doing any encoding / authoring for BluRay disc. The ONLY thing we use Toast for is to burn the ISO files from Encore to disc.
Toast always wanted to re-encode anything we sent there so we dont’ use it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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