Timecode DVD from P2 footage workflow

[John]

2hrs of DVCProHD50 is a not of data. Your G5 is having to decompress the DVCPro then encode to mpeg2 which is very processor intensive due to the its temporal encoding scheme. Just moving around that data is going to take time, let alone processing it. So.. it doesn’t sound all that unrealistic given that everything is being done in software.

If all you want is a quick and dirty DVD with TC, why not get a cheap (i.e. $199) DVD recorder from Costco or Sams and run the composite signal (or component if possible) from your deck/Kona card to the DVD recorder. Then, as long as FCP can output your DVCProHD50 footage (with the TC filter applied) in realtime, all you have to do is play in the timeline and record on the DVD recorder. The DVD recorder gives you a cheap, hardware-based mpeg2 encoder which allows you to off-load that processing from your G5. If you really care about the mpeg2 quality, you could buy a much more expensive hardware-based mpeg encoder to do high-quality, real time compression.

John Christensen
cdesign@airmail.net

[Eric Peterson]

Even if you had a hardware encoder it would take two hours. Compressor says 1.5x, pretty good. Have you tried adjusting your compressor settings to CBR of 5.0 and see if that helps.

[Jeremy Garchow]

That’s because the TCR reader filter has to be rendered before you can export it. The down and dirty way to do this is to use the ‘export to compressor’ out of the timeline and not render or export the footage first. No matter what, it’s going to take some time because every frame of that timeline needs to be rendered and compressed with timecode.

Another way to do this is to play your timeline out to a DVD Recorder in real time. You can get a cheap one for $200 or less.

Jeremy

[Fargoross]

Thanks for the good input!

What did end up doing now is sending a composite out to a set-top DVD burner, the timeline is playing fine without any render. We still have about three more of these two hour chunks to go through.

So if it is intensive for the processor to decode DVC Pro then re-encode it, my thought would then be to have Final Cut Pro convert the DVCPro 50 files from the P2 card directly to Uncompressed 8-bit SD.
In the end, we want to edit in uncompressed anyways.

Maybe this question is better off in the P2 forum, but can I set FCP to convert/import the DVCPro 50 footage as Uncompressed 8-bit?
or would i have to import the DVCPro 50 and then render out on a Uncompressed 8-bit timeline which would seem to be much more of a hassel, as the initial ‘captured quicktimes’ would still be in DVCpro 50.. and I would be editing with one giant rendered clip.. as i would like to have the individual clips that the P2 provided.

Thanks again,

Ross A. Hendrickson
Video Arts Studios

[David Roth weiss]

[FargoRoss] “But even the export of the reference file says it will take “At least two hours”. That doesn’t seem right, shouldn’t that only take like 20-30 minutes for 2 hours of DVCPro 50 footage? I’ve made sure to have the “Make Movie Self-Contained” button unchecked. And all the settings are set to “Current Settings”.”

Have you actually tried the full export? The time estimate is usually wrong, in fact very wrong. Do the export and time it, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. On my G5 I can turn out an export of a 86-minute 10-bit uncompressd timeline with timecode in under an hour.

DRW

[Bret Williams]

[FargoRoss] “So if it is intensive for the processor to decode DVC Pro then re-encode it, my thought would then be to have Final Cut Pro convert the DVCPro 50 files from the P2 card directly to Uncompressed 8-bit SD.
In the end, we want to edit in uncompressed anyways.”

I don’t think it’s very intensive. Heck, it can decompress it, add the TC reader, then recompress it in real time to send it out as you’re doing. But just copying the file to another file would take 20 minutes or so. AND you do have to compress it to one single DVCProHD file either to export via compressor or to export a reference movie. A reference movie can only reference video files on the drive. Not real time effects.

I’ve found that exporting a reference movie, THEN opening compressor is much quicker. Or the same goes with iDVD, DVDSP, or Toast.

[Fargoross]

After the slight panic last week with the timecode DVD’s, I got right on top of it this time around.

I applied the timecode reader filter to the FCP Sequence, and sent it directly to compressor, I first applied the “Fastest Encode 150 min” setting to the clip, then i adjusted the max bit rate down to 5mbps, and the average down to 3mbps.

These settings allowed the encode to go faster than real-time. (2 hours for 2 1/2 hours of footage). then the remaining 1/2 hour to format the disc made the whole experience ‘real time’.

This is actually kind of a hassell with p2. Because normally I would just use our mini-dv or beta deck, and send that to a DVD recorder, which leaves my edit system free. But doing this ties up my edit system for two hours. (So i took a long lunch.. give and take i guess 🙂

-Ross