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Will I need to transcode ???
I was asked to quote an editing project where up to 20 people were to use a Flip to record their video. Then Flip announced its demise. Today I was asked if the project could be done with each participant supplying their own camera. I was told that could be iphone, other smartphone or some other camera including the Flip if some of the participants balk at using a Flip.
We won’t be compiling across the various participants, but we will need to render each to a uniform format, frame rate and size.
I have no control over the selection, nor what choices anyone makes. They will be on their own, and when it gets here, then I will know what I have to work with. There are to be about 20 participants, so I am thinking realistically I could easily have 5-7 variations to have to work with.
Each participant’s video will be brought into Premiere, cleaned up, trimmed up, titled up and rendered into its own clip. I know Premiere can work across the various media types I could receive by just setting up the various projects. But do you think am I further ahead to transcode everything when it shows up, and use a common Premiere Project ??? If you do feel transcode is the way to go, which program do you suggest ???
Thanks… any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated !!!
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5 Replies
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GPU-accelerated Premiere Pro CS5 is certainly the best choice in terms of working with multiple file formats and requiring the least transcoding and rendering. It used to be Sony Vegas Pro, but with CS5, things have changed.
I believe Flip video does not require transcoding on Pr Pro CS5.x. If you can send me a sample, I can try it on my system.
Alex (DV411)
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Thanks Alex for the input !!!
Last year I did a project for these people and we used Flips then, so I know they will fly through ok.
What I have to do is use uniform titles, frame rates and frame sizes to create the 15-20 end products from each of these 15-20 videos. The 15-20 that I will receive could be in .mp4, .mts, .mov or whatever the participants choice of camera spits out. These formats, again, could be in any of the standard rates and sizes too. As it stands right now, I won’t know what I will get until it all shows up.
I know I should be able to bring any of these into CS5 and spit it back out to a uniform format, size and frame rate without any problem. My assumption is I need to create various Premiere projects, to correspond to the various types of footage I get. I am not sure on what render times might be like, as Premiere “standardizes” whatever goes in, to whatever we select.
I have never transcoded before, but also never had the possibility of so many possible variations of footage being used at once.
So really curious to others thoughts on if transcoding is worth while, for overall time and quality aspects, or not.
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I don’t see why you’d have to create different projects or even sequences for each file format. Just import a clip, put it on a timeline, “scale to frame size”. You may have to adjust for interlacing, uncommon frame rates and aspect ratios (e.g. when importing 24fps or 4:3 clip into 16:9 30fps sequences), but in most cases, you should be able to use the same presets for most file formats, especially if the goal is to equalize them all to one standard.
Alex (DV411)
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Yes Alex my assumption was I may end up with Interlaced and Progressive formats as well as an off chance of SD format as well. I do not know for sure, but assumed Premiere may deal differently with each of these formats, as it renders out to that uniform size and format. So I felt it would be better to build out each project for each format I received. That way I set Premiere up to “know” it is to deal with, say, 1080 60i, and then rendering to 720p as the outcome. When you think about it, if there isn’t some variation, why would we declare what type project it is in the first place ???
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I always thought of project settings as primarily output-based – but I see your point in attempting to minimize conversion artifacts.
Alex (DV411)
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