rendering & exporting long sequence XDCAM footage to quicktime

[Rafael Amador]

[daphna inbar] ” After I have the quick time I need to give it to a client so they can make a Blu Ray of this project.”
Then no reason to export to XDCAM HD. The codec is great for acquisition, but no for production.
Change the sequence codec to Prores. Rendering will be faster.
For better quality, set “Render all YUV material in high precision”
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Daphna Inbar]

Thank you rafeal for your reply.
Will I lose any HD quality if I render the project in Prores?
I guess my bigger concern is keeping the top quality for the blu ray dvd. And its the Quicktime that is taking enormeous amount of time. Do I need to compress my project? If so, what should be my setting? Right now I am just making a straight forward EXPORT-QUICKTIME with no adjustments to the setting. I am sorry to be so ignorant. This is my first time working with such big files.
Any help & advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

[Rafael Amador]

[daphna inbar] “Will I lose any HD quality if I render the project in Prores?”
Not at all, but the opposite.
If the sequence needs to be rendered, going to Prores you will keep more quality that if you render to XDCAM and the rendering will also be faster.

Keep XDCAM only if you are just cutting raw footage, (no effects, resizing, graphics, etc.) so no rendering needed.
Avoid exporting with QT Conversion. Export QT with current setting and with the “Recompress all frames” unchecked.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Daphna Inbar]

What I don’t understand is why 2 hr. of sequence is taking 2 days (47 hrs.) to make the quicktime movie? I have it set up just that way. The way you say is best. But the quicktime is reading 47 hrs. to make. What am I doing wrong here?

[Rafael Amador]

The rendering time has too many variables.
FC will calculate the total remaining time on base of the actual rendering speed.
If in a clip you apply many effects/transformations (so the rendering is very slow) FC will calculate the remaining time up to that speed, even if the rest of the sequence has no effects/transformations.
Anyway, XDCAM is one of the slower rendering options available for being a LGOP codec.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Daphna Inbar]

Rafael, thank you. I really appreciate greatly you taking the time to reply to my issues here.
OK. I understand about the render. What about the quicktime? I don’t understand why 2 hr. sequence is taking 2 days (47 hrs.) to make the quicktime (self-contained) movie? I have it set up just the way you say is best. But the quicktime is reading 47 hrs.
Thank you, thank you for your help.

[Daphna Inbar]

Dave,
I can’t thank you enough for really explaining this to me. This is so frustrating and so time consuming I am just at a loss of how I can speed things up.
So just to go over how the process should be –
1. import footage in from card and have FCP pick the setting (XDCAM HD).
2. edit entire project
3. render project in prores setting
4. export-Quicktime & make self contained movie.

If you can confirm this, I would greatly appreciate it. Please consider the final project needs to go to bluray made on a pc platform.

Thank you so very much.

[Rafael Amador]

[daphna inbar] “Rafael, thank you. I really appreciate greatly you taking the time to reply to my issues here.
OK. I understand about the render. What about the quicktime? I don’t understand why 2 hr. sequence is taking 2 days (47 hrs.) to make the quicktime (self-contained) movie?”
Once the sequence is rendered exporting the “QT file with current setting” shouldn’t take so long.
You are not exporting by QT COnversion, don’t you?

[daphna inbar] “So just to go over how the process should be –
1. import footage in from card and have FCP pick the setting (XDCAM HD).
2. edit entire project
3. render project in prores setting
4. export-Quicktime & make self contained movie.”

Right, but again: No QT Conversion.
If you use QT conversion (beside the quality lose), the project will be rendered again, even if the sequence has been fully rendered.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Daphna Inbar]

Thanks again Rafeal for your kind reply.

But I am still right where I started with the EXPORT- QUICKTIME still taking forever.
“recompress all frames” and “self contained movie” are both un-checked. This QT needs to play on pc platform.

Any further thoughts? Thanks so much.

[David Eaks]

Just a thought, have you rendered the sequence? You can’t export an unrendered timeline, if you try, FCP will render it first before beginning the export. One thing to keep in mind is that this render (done automatically when exporting) will not be saved in your sequence. Meaning that next time you need to export, it has to render again. So, always render before exporting.