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m2v to FCP to m2v to DSP?
Hi all
I’m trying to put a showreel together for someone whose movie files are only available to me on DVD. Needless to say I would be very grateful for any tips, as I’ve promise a ‘first draft’ DVD showreel by tomorrow and this is my first attempt at DVD authoring!
I’m using MPEG Streamclip, FCP3, DSP4 and Compressor 2. I’m doing most of the editing within MPEG Streamclip (to retain quality), but occasionally use FCP when I need frame-accurate editing.
I’m stuck on these issues:
1) One of the DVDs is at a frame size of 704×576(PAL) and the rest are the more common 720×576(PAL). I need to edit one format with the other in MPEG Streamclip but it won’t let me because of the different frame sizes. Is there a lossless solution in ‘converting’ 704×576 to 720×576? Failing that, how about 720×576 to 704×576?
I’ve tried the frame cropping option in Compressor (but there seems to be a slight vertical rippling effect on the resulting image (on my monitor at least). And it doesn’t have the option of 704×576, or am I missing something?
2) In order to edit frame-accurately in FCP, I’m exporting to Quicktime 7 from MPEG Streamclip. But what is the best compression option for use in FCP bearing in mind I’m subsequently going to convert back to m2v for use in DSP or MPEG Streamclip?
I have tried using Motion Jpeg A at 100% on the quality slider and the resulting movie file is acceptable, but wondered if there was a better option, particularly regarding minimizing file sizes but retaining quality. Also, I’m surprised how noticeable the quality loss is when I convert back to m2v using Compressor in the ‘High Quality’ mode.
Help!
DH -
7 Replies
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A general point – irrespective of how you do it (and you are using most of the right tools, although I’d bring it all into FCP to edit via MPEG SC) the results will not look good.
MPEG 2 is a delivery codec, and modern DVD players are remarkably good at removing noise from the compression. Any attempts to edit with MPEG 2 derived footage result in blocky, noisy, pixellated images. Recompressing it onto a new DVD will only make this worse, as the noise in the original compression makes the second pass even worse.
Sorry to be negative – but I remember how disappointed I was the first time I tried this. Do anything you can to get hold of the footage in another format – it’s not a good way to put any sort of showreel together – although I appreciate your choices are limited at the moment. Perhaps you can present them with this as an ‘offline’ to convince them to source better quality transfers…
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.
OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
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Hi Ben
I’m curious about ‘MPEG SC’ but can’t seem to find it in FCP3 or Quicktime.
Of course you are right about quality issues in recompressing MPEG2.
However doing it within MPEG Streamclip is lossless because there is no re-compression needed. VOB’s are demuxed to m2v’s/AIF’s. The m2v can be edited to the nearest half second and the AIF’s frame-accurately, elsewhere, and ‘re-combined’. These can then be used ‘as is’ to burn with DSP (AFAIK at least).
It’s only a small fraction of the clips where I need to find a ‘frame-accurate’ editing solution.
Thanks
DH -
Apologies Ben. I just realized that, by ‘MPEG SC’ you meant MPEG Streamclip!
Not sure what you mean by ‘I’d bring it all into FCP to edit via MPEG SC’ though?
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I think Ben means to Export your clips using MPEG Streamclip to Quicktime using a codec like uncompressed 8-bit or DV50 and then import and edit them in FCP. Yes, you will have to transcode, but the results aren’t too bad at either of these codecs. Then encode back to DVD whatever way you are most comfortable.
This way you can edit frame accurately and resize everything to 720 x 576.
Just let your client know that it’s garbage in – garbage out. Maybe not in those words.Good Luck
Steve Radley
Digitec
Orlando, FL
https://www.digitecinteractive.com -
Hi Steve
Just did a short test with ‘FCP uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2’ (if that’s what you meant?)and the resulting file size is enormous, ie nearly 30x the original, ie. not really practical for me.
With ‘DV50’ not sure if you meant ‘DVCPRO50 PAL’ or ‘Apple DV PAL’ or one of the others. File sizes are more managable for these, particularly ‘Apple DV’, but still much bigger than what I tried previously, ie. Motion JPEG A.
Would these be a definite improvement over JPEG, as I’m finding it hard to judge much difference with the short tests I have done (it’s been a long day.. sigh).
many thanks
DH -
For decent quality and not too enormous file sizes, use DVCPRO50PAL which is about equivelant to Digibeta quality. DVCPRO25PAL is close to Beta SP and a little smaller file size. You are doing the right thing by testing file size vs. quality. Keep in mind if your are delivering on DVD, it gets encoded again, so going the DV route will be lesser quality than the others.
Steve Radley
Digitec
Orlando, FL
https://www.digitecinteractive.com -
Hi again Steve
I did try DVCPRO50PAL and file sizes were a little on the large side for me. I’ve search for DVCPRO25PAL in QT but can’t see it, unless perhaps it is the one listed as ‘Apple DVDPRO-PAL’.
I’ll try and find a site that lists the differences between all these codecs in QT. There must be one out there.
Thanks again for your time.
DH
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