MPEG Streamclip

[David Roth weiss]

[Robin Knight] “I saved it as a Quicktime file”

So, what codec is that QT file?

[Robin Knight] “when I transfer it in from the DVDs, it isn’t nearly as sharp as the played DVD”

How are you monitoring?

I have no idea why Streamclip is not transcoding to a QT at 29.97, but if DVDxDV is doing it properly use that. I have both, and have found that some DVDs are just problematic.

Don’t sweat the MPEG-2 playback component

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Robin Knight]

Hi David!

Thanks so much for your response!

Okay… not sure what the codec was (I am daft with this as of yet), have only had to edit on FCP from captured TAPES, but was given these DVDs… prefer to use the original source tapes, obviously, but was given these and what can ya do–

How am I monitoring? Ummm… dunno… still daft. HA.

It seems to have transferred to 29.7, but PLAYS in QT around 30fps, fluctuates when playing back… AND, most importantly and concerning, when I input into FCP, it transfers in at 30. Yikes.

BIG prob is… when I try to bring the DVD into MPEG-streamclip, it stops after about 3 minutes, only letting that much go in of an 18 minute DVD. It pops up an error having to do with breaks. I tried it both ways, with the fox and without it… sooo, right now I can’t even get a majority of the DVD in there!

And, as far as everything goes, the quality is bigtime not-as-good as it is when I look at the DVD on my DVD player hooked to TV or just in the DVD player on my MacbookPro… that bums me out, for sure. As was the case using the DVDxDV. Sooo… if the quality is similar on MPEG-streamclip and DVDxDV, well… I would prefer to just go with MPEG-streamclip IF I can get the WHOLE DVD in and the fps thing fixed.

Soooo…. if you don’t mind… let’s pretend I am 100% daft (not a stretch) and if you could please guide me like you would an 8 yr. old, I would be sooo thankful. I will even come to your company and give you free editing work, do some of your grunt work, be a GREAT assistant editor (I am in LA, to!)… if you could just pretend you are guiding someone who has a DVD given to them from someone and the quality looks pretty cool on TV, etc… and need to get it converted into QT and input for editing into FCP. I am joking for sanity purposes, but you get the idea…

I am on a MacBook Pro that is only a couple months old, working on FCP 6.0.5/Final Cut Studio 2.

Thanks sooooooooo much!

Robin

[Robin Knight]

Ooops, one more thing, David.

As far as DVDxDV goes… there’s the standard for $25- and the Pro for $80. I looked at both trials with a clip of mine and they looked exactly the same. Is the $25- one sufficient or is there a huge difference??

THANKS!

Robin

[David Roth weiss]

I have not used the pro version. I suspect the regular version is just fine.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[David Roth weiss]

Quicktime Files can be created with an almost limitless number of codecs, such as DV and DV50, all the way up to uncompressed HD. And, you’ll absolutely have to learn about the various codecs and learn to choose one to work in with for each project. And, Streamclip is no different, it allows you to transcode to any of the available Quicktime codecs installed on your system with FCP, and you have to pick the right one, otherwise you will fail. So Robin, we all start off daft, but like everyone else, you’ll have to read the manual and research the Web to get up to speed on codecs.

And, may I suggest that you study, and closely follow at all times, the following tutorial https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/realtime_sequences.php in order to learn how to properly setup projects in FCP, so that you are certain you’re starting each project correctly, because you can easily get into big trouble later if you don’t.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Robin Knight]

Oops, I mis-read your question… DV-NTSC

Sorry, I was really just concerned with the way it looked as opposed to the DVD itself… and it not getting into FCP with the 29.7 fps.