Transcoding for FCP

[Richard Harrington]

While you COULD work around these issues… you are making a TON of extra work….

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork

[Adam Smith]

B>[Richard Harrington] “While you COULD work around these issues… you are making a TON of extra work….”

Well the point of my post was to get help in avoiding workarounds, or finding the most efficient ones possible, so if you’ve got something in mind, speak up!

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor / Final Cut Neophyte

[Richard Harrington]

Unless you have hours of free time…

don’t switch NLEs in the middle of a project.

The only reason to do this is to uprez a project for an online.

Trying to hand media off between Avid and FCP is not an easy process

Stay in the same NLE… or be prepared to spend hours transcoidng media and relinking files.

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork

[Walter Biscardi]

[Adam Smith] “Question 2: My AJA card doesn’t like the Avid codec, so I’m forced to render the sequence if I want playback instead of still-frames on my external monitor. That’s fine, but then I constantly do things that make the clips come un-rendered… what’s the best way to convert the clips to avoid this?”

It’s not the AJA card that doesn’t like the Avid codec, it’s FCP. I’m surprised you can even get this to work as the Avid codec has led to a host of issues including unstable systems when they are installed on FCP systems.

When we work with Avid projects, we are given an AAF from the Avid timeline and then re-capture all the media on the FCP system. This is the absolute fastest way to work with an Avid project.

There is absolutely no efficient way to work with those codecs on an FCP system. You need to convert everything over to an FCP native codec and that would take a lot more time than simpy re-capturing all the footage on your FCP system.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Adam Smith]

Ahh gotcha.

Well I’m not really switching systems mid-project, generally I’m importing a quicktime of an edited project and adding some fluff from the comfort of home… or in this case, using the Avid to digitize and then doing the chromakey work here.

So no complicated translations of timelines, no recreating effects (and no Automatic Duck needed), I just need a good game-plan for importing 601 color movies and trusting what I do will match again later.

As there’s no FCP import settings or Interpret Footage command I’m not sure what to do… do I just trust FCP to get it right when it appears to be getting it wrong? Manually adjust levels to compensate?

Of course I can export from the Avid in RGB color, I’d prefer to know either way.

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor / Final Cut Neophyte

[Adam Smith]

[walter biscardi] “‘m surprised you can even get this to work as the Avid codec has led to a host of issues including unstable systems when they are installed on FCP systems.”

Ah… well I guess I’m lucky so far then!

I’m generally only talking about 2-3 quicktimes, and often those are only for reference as I output effects as alphaed-quicktimes for the Avid, so my biggest issue is the 601 color.

I can start outputting RGB uncompressed quicktimes at work, and bring my firewire drive in instead of the thumb drive, that seems to be the best answer so far… but as an overall generic non-Avid-tinged question, how do you compensate for 601-color source files in FCP?

And if I have a clip that unavoidably does not match my timeline and I’m a FCP noob and keep accidentally un-rendering it, is a pass through Compressor the best bet or maybe render once in the FCP timeline and then import and work with the rendered file? (For these types of things, timecode is not an issue.)

Thanks much to you both Richard and Walter!

-Adam

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor / Final Cut Neophyte