Setting up a HD AE Comp

[Steve Roberts]

When bringing the footage into FCP, use the P2 import feature — check the FCP Help. This should convert the footage into DVCPRO HD Quicktime files.

Once converted, import them into AE. To make a comp from the footage, drag a footage item onto the new comp button at the bottom of the Project window. This should make a comp that is 960×720 (non-square pixels) or 1280×720 (square pixels), depending on your version of AE, and how it interprets the footage. Either is correct.

Change the length of the comp if necessary in the comp properties.

Let us know if you have any troubles.

[Joe Moya]

Isn’t there a quality loss when you make this codec conversion?

I use Avid Liquid and it uses the native HD video codec of m2v… it seems working in a .mov would be counter-productive in terms of quality of video.

[Steve Roberts]

m2v is for MPEG-2 files. It is not a “native HD codec”. It is used for HDV, which uses temporal or interframe compression meant to fit HD material onto a 25Mbps data rate, like DV25 (mini DV).

P2 files are recorded to the DVCPRO HD codec, which corresponds to 100 Mbps, or DV100. The MXF format on the P2 card is just a wrapper, as is Quicktime. So there’s no loss when ingesting P2 material into FCP as Quicktime.

https://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=63717

[Joe Moya]

Thanks… but, isnt’ the DVCPROHD compression type different that the mpeg2 (m2v) compressed format?

And, I was always under the impression that changing between compression types cause some degradation in quality.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to go from the current mpeg2 (HD) to a more universal codec of RGB Avi format? It seems the only problem would be the size of the Avi file. Am I missing something?

Joe

[Joe Moya]

Does the RGB Avi format meed the criteria you mentioned… my guess is – yes.

Joe

BTW, I did a search and the RGB avi doesn’t fit into your “no go” formats… i.e., Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264.

[Joey Foreman]

I think you’ll find that if you try and make a new comp with the panasonic quicktime files by dragging the footage to the make comp icon, the resultant comp will have the wrong aspect ratio and be squished. Unless adobe had fixed this issue in the latest AE update. If they haven’t here’s what to do:

If interpret footage says the footage is 960×720 with a par of 1.33, then setting the comp to either the same settings as the footage with par correction enabled in the preview window, or setting the comp to 1280×720 with square px should correct the ‘squeezing’ you are experiencing.

i prefer the later option of dropping it in a 1280×720 square pixel comp… if you need to, you can always create a preset for the size, par and framerate that you are working in, to make it easier to set your comps up.

That’s a quote from an older post. I too prefer he 2nd option. Works great.

[Steve Roberts]

That sounds familiar — I stand corrected. I concur that Option 2 was preferable, if I recall.

[Joe Moya]

Thanks…

I think my confusion comes from the Mac vs. Windows aspect of the workflow…

At any rate, I wish there was a sticky that described certain frequently asked questions about AE codec format and work flow combo’s for both Mac and Windows HD codecs (including MiniDV as well as P2).

As it stands, it pretty difficult to find answers to some pretty frequent questions I see posted with regard to HD. But, then again… I may be missing something in my searches and there may be a good thread (or threads) that exists somewhere in this forum.

Joe