MPEG-2 from FCP7 not recognized

[David Roth weiss]

We know what you want to do, but you have not explained why you have chosen to grade MPEG 2, which is certainly not a good choice for many reasons, including bad compression low color depth.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Damien Molineaux]

Hi David,
I want to grade Mpeg-2 footage because that is the native shooting format.

I have solved my issue by installing the Apple Pro Codecs thanks the the great utility unPKG.

Cheers,
Damien

__________________________________________
C-SIDE PRODUCTIONS / EARTHLING PRODUCTIONS
Production, Rental & Post-production
8 rue de la Coulouvreniere|1204 Geneva|Switzerland
http://www.c-sideprod.ch / http://www.earthling-prod.net

[Ryan Holmes]

[Damien Molineaux] “I’m trying to import a FCP7 XML with MPEG-2 files generated by FCP7 from XDcamEX footage. Resolve does not see the files on the hard drive, as if they weren’t there.”

In order for Resolve to see your XDCAM footage it has to be in a Quicktime wrapper (.mov) and have the appropriate Sony codecs installed on the system, which must be a Mac. Resolve won’t see MXF wrapped XDCAM. If the Resolve system is a PC then you’re out of luck as it can’t work with XDCAM EX footage.

Best option is edit with your native footage, and when going to color do a conform on the timeline to export out ProRes or DNxHD options for the colorist. Those codecs are much better suited to editing, color, and vfx.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=386

[David Roth Weiss] “We know what you want to do, but you have not explained why you have chosen to grade MPEG 2, which is certainly not a good choice for many reasons, including bad compression low color depth.”

XDCAM is a MPEG-2 based codec with a 4:2:2 color sample and an 8-bit color depth. While not ideal to edit or finish in it “technically” is broadcast worthy (at least according to Sony!).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XDCAM

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[David Roth weiss]

Gotcha Ryan! I thought he was referring to a straight-up MPEG 2 file, as in DVD quality in 4:2:0 color space, not a camera original MPEG variant.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Damien Molineaux]

Thanks all for contributing to this thread.

Of course MPEG-2 is not ideal for grading, but isn’t it best to grade your native footage and avoid going through a transcode, which may not be optimal?

If you grade your native files, you avoid a generation loss. Of course my renders and exports out of Resolve are either in ProRes 422 HQ (when going to Broadcast, web, DVD and BDR delivery) or ProRes 4444 when going to DCP.

Cheers,
Damien

__________________________________________
C-SIDE PRODUCTIONS / EARTHLING PRODUCTIONS
Production, Rental & Post-production
8 rue de la Coulouvreniere|1204 Geneva|Switzerland
http://www.c-sideprod.ch / http://www.earthling-prod.net

[David Roth weiss]

It’s kind of a toss-up… Transcoding to Pro Res before grading could, in theory, I introduce some artifacts, but grading a hi-performance codec like Pro Res has numerous advantages as well, including faster and less processor intensive renders.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.