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Using .avi etc.
I’m sure this must be something simple but I can’t work it out.
I normally only use footage that I’ve captured myself (DV PAL 48k) but recently I’ve been trying out using other files such as AVIs. When I import them and drag them onto the timeline, they bring up the red line meaning that I need to render them, so I render them, but it takes HOURS. And HOURS.
Do I need to set up my sequence differently or something?
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4 Replies
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Hi Mark,
FC works with QT files. Although QT Player can play AVI, those are not QT.
They need to be always rendered in FC.
Rafael -
Final Cut Pro is a native Quicktime application. Any media brought into Final Cut projects should first be converted to an appropriate Quicktime format for editing. This includes .avi, .wmv, .mp3, .mpg, .mp4, and other file types.
There are frequently posts on this forum asking why Final Cut won’t edit files compressed with delivery codecs like h.264.
It’s important to realize the difference between delivery codecs and editing codecs. Delivery codecs are very efficient, using intraframe compression schemes to keep file sizes small, but they make editing difficult. Editing codecs use interframe compression schemes to allow easy single-frame editing accuracy, but they are less efficient for delivery to the web or other low-bandwidth media due to their larger file size.
For the smoothest editing experience in Final Cut, video source clips that use intraframe codecs like MPEG-2 or h.264 should first be transcoded to an interframe codec like ProRes, Uncompressed 8 or 10-bit, DV/DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, motion JPEG, etc.
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Thanks, so is there an easy way to transcode video source clips that use intraframe codecs to ones that are interframe codecs? Or is it easiest to just put them in FCP and render them? If so, will having more RAM make it quicker?
Thanks. -
[Mark Hammett] “Thanks, so is there an easy way to transcode video source clips that use intraframe codecs to ones that are interframe codecs? Or is it easiest to just put them in FCP and render them?”
If you have a lot of clips that need to be transcoded, Compressor is a great tool for this. If it’s only the odd clip or two, then you can probably get by OK just by rendering in FCP unless the clips are very long.
[Mark Hammett] “If so, will having more RAM make it quicker? “
A good rule of thumb for RAM usage in Compressor is to have 2GB per CPU core. Any more than that is overkill. Rendering speed is largely dependent on CPU clock speed. RAM is only an issue if you don’t have enough of it and the system is swapping to disk (virtual memory, page file, etc.) to compensate.
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