MP4 in FCPX and best HD frame size for SD DVD.

[Tom Wolsky]

FCP doesn’t edit MPEG-4. The AVCHD media that’s in the MPEG-4 framework is rewrapped to QuickTime on import. It’s seamless.

If you’re going to SD DVD only, you may as well shoot 720p24. It’s be easier when going from SD to HD.

All the best,

Tom

“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2012 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand

[Jeff Kirkland]

My general advice is shoot as high a resolution as you can, so 1080 unless there’s some technical reason not to.

As to MP4… Even if FCPX coukd play it, it just isn’t a codec designed for editing. FCPX is built around ProRes and my advice is always to convert footage to ProRes before editing, even the other formats natively supported, as it just improves performance and saves headaches in the long run.

Jeff Kirkland | Southern Creative Media
video * audio * post * production
Melbourne, Australia

[Jeff Kirkland]

The advantage to shooting higher resolutions is that ‘over sampling’ by shooting at 1080 then reducing in post can help make footage from a less than great camera look better

Jeff Kirkland | Southern Creative Media
video * audio * post * production
Melbourne, Australia

[Claude Lyneis]

I am shooting 1080 H.264 format at about 24 Mb/s with a Canon XA10. As I understand it mp4 is h.264. With my new 27″ iMac I find it works well to not convert to Apple Pro Res 422. The GPU in the iMac is fast enough to play back the H.264, FCPX has no trouble editing it and it saves a huge amount of space not converting to 422. In the end with compressor I can go to whatever format is required. Hard disk are relatively cheap, but managing lots of them to use Apple Pro Res 422, seems like a nuisance.

So I would shot in as high a resolution as possible, and the output it as needed. You might need the resolution for future use.

[Tom Wolsky]

It also will produce more scaling artifacts when the image is compressed down to 480.

All the best,

Tom

“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2012 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

“Claude Lyneus: You might need the resolution for future use.”

In this particular job, I will never see the footages again …. lol

“Jeff Kirkland: The advantage to shooting higher resolutions is that ‘over sampling’ by shooting at 1080 then reducing in post can help make footage from a less than great camera look better”

I totally agree.

“Jeff Kirkland: FCPX is built around ProRes and my advice is always to convert footage to ProRes before editing, even the other formats natively supported, as it just improves performance and saves headaches in the long run.”

Do you all believe it is true for all codecs supported by FCPX ? Including HDV ?

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OWC RAID 5 with 4TB

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Tom Wolsky]

FCP doesn’t create ProRes for HDV. If you want ProRes files you’ll have to convert the media outside of FCP.

All the best,

Tom

“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2012 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

I have been importing HDV directly into FCPX and edited without any problems. FCPX doesn’t make a Prores file out of HDV because it deals pretty well with HDV. But I was thinking if the job could be made easily and smooth if the HDV files are transcoded to Prores.

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OWC RAID 5 with 4TB

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”

[Jeff Kirkland]

There’s certainly no need to convert something that FCPX can play natively but, and this is personal preference, I would rather just deal with one format right across my workflow.

A typical project for me might have h264 from a dslr alongside AVCHD, XDCAM, and HDV. In my workflow, the original media gets archived and everything gets converted to ProRes whether it plays natively or not. All the conversions are done by external applications because FCPX is just way to slow if I leave it to do the conversion for me.

The edit, for me at least, just seems to go much more smoothly if I start off with everything in the same format.

Jeff Kirkland | Southern Creative Media
video * audio * post * production
Melbourne, Australia

[Fredy Schwerdtner]

“Jeff : All the conversions are done by external applications because FCPX is just way to slow if I leave it to do the conversion for me.”

Hi Jeff, I totally agree with you when you talk about the velocity of FCPX. What external applications do you use for that task, I meant, to make those files a Prores file ? I have Quicktime 7 and 10, MPEG Streamclip, iSkysoft Video Converter and Voltaic.

iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memory

MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

OWC RAID 5 with 4TB

OS X 10.7.3
FCPX
Final Cut Studio “3”