[Alex Elkins]

Hi Hoping,

The simple answer is that HQ doesn’t improve quality in this case because h.264 from a DSLR camera and XDCAM EX are significantly lower quality than ProRes 422 anyway.
Gary Adcock wrote an excellent article that delved into the technical side of it all but I can’t find it unfortunately! Anyone??

For what it’s worth, we edit and grade HD broadcast work all the time using ProRes 422 (non HQ) and there’s never been a complaint!

Hope that helps – sorry I couldn’t find the link to the article, but if you do a search for ProRes vs ProRes HQ there’s plenty of information around.

All the best,
Alex

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

I’m a big fan of 5DtoRGB although it takes a lot longer to run the conversion. Quality is better, but the extra quality is overkill for anything that isn’t going to be graded fairly heavily.
5DtoRGB is advantageous over MPEG Streamclip as 5DtoRGB automatically adds the timecode from the .THM files. With MPEG Streamclip converted files you have to add timecode afterwards using QuickTime Change from Video Toolshed.
FCP adds the timecode automatically if you convert via Log and Transfer and is more user friendly for offline-to-online workflows, but it is my last choice.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

[Shonit Jain] “I suggest using handbreak & vlc (google it, they are free softwares) to convert everything to MP4. Then when you bring in the first clip fcp will ask you to change your sequence to match that clip – once you agree everything should go good.

Inside handbreak choose Apple TV pre-sets, and I also recommend that you make all your frame rates the same, as you never know if you have some European PAL clips or even American which might be in 24 or 30”

This is just such appalling advice. MP4, Apple TV presets… Why are you referring to these as FCP friendly formats?? FCP HATES these formats!

The key things to remember are:

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Wayne,

You can make up your own shortcut to do this using something like Butler:
https://manytricks.com/butler/

Butler is a seriously useful tool (as are the competition, I’m sure) that basically means you can create ANY shortcut as long as you know the key combinations to use. You just program in the shortcuts that you want to create a shortcut for, then assign that combination of keystrokes to a single key. I’ve created one for exactly what you describe and just have to press Page Up or Page Down to view previous/next clip. Very handy.

Butler used to be free but even so, for $20 it’s not bad at all. Not sure what other tools are out there that could do the same thing as I’ve only needed Butler.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

Any changes you made after grading will need to be re-done.

I’ve just run a test using the Media Manager on some DSLR h.264 files. The short answer is it worked, but the longer answer is it didn’t work properly – I re-compressed to ProRes Proxy, choosing to delete unused media with 0 handles (i.e. only convert the actual frames used). It converted everything and synced up to the new files perfectly BUT it didn’t delete the unused media. This basically just means your conversion will take longer than necessary but on the plus-side you are left with the ability to re-edit if you needed to.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

Media Manager can convert only the clips used in your sequence if you set it up to do so. I cant say off the top of my head how it handles files without timecode but you could give it a try. It wont erase any of what youve done. Just check the manual or search this forum as a lot has been written about Media Manager.
Another tool that I think should work is Clipfinder. It is a free download and it can import an FCP sequence XML and conform to ProRes. It isnt designed for h264 but it works.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

What format are you rendering to from Color? I haven\’t tested h.264 in Color but it might explain the issues. Do the files that you render out from Color look correct in FCP and QuickTime? If so, the issue is the export from FCP.
If the problem is visible in FCP then you might find the simplest solution is to use the Media Manager to recompress your edit to ProRes, send to Color and then import colour corrections from the previous Color project. This would save having to re-grade

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Anna,

Why not work in an HD sequence if you’re only dealing with stills?

Anyway, just make sure the dimensions and pixel aspect ratio of your stills match up with whatever settings you decide to use in FCP. This information can be accessed by going to Sequence > Settings…
Set your compressor setting to Apple ProRes 422

You can modify stills to be whatever aspect ratio and dimensions you need using Photoshop. If you want to perform any zooms or pans on the stills make sure to keep the stills larger than they need to be, so you never have to zoom them to more than 100%. Do a search for ‘Ken Burns effect’ for examples and suggestions of these.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Marco,

5DtoRGB isn’t really designed to avoid colour shifts. It’s just a higher quality way to convert h.264 to ProRes than some of the other tools (FCP, MPEG Streamclip, Compressor etc). It means more colour information remains, making grading easier.
Your issue with a colour shift on export is unrelated to whatever method you used to do the conversion.

Assuming the sequence you’ve sent back from Color to FCP looks fine in FCP (and an external monitor if you have one) then the issue is in the exporting. What happens when you export a full quality version of the sequence? (Render, audio mixdown, then File > Export QuickTime Movie)

If the file generated from here looks good then take that file into Compressor and convert to h.264. There shouldn’t be a noticeable colour shift.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED @ 100fps, Post on FCP/Color: Capoeira Film

[Alex Elkins]

I edit XDCAM EX .MP4 files natively via the Calibrated plugin so my only real interaction with Log & Transfer would be with R3D or DSLR files. In both cases I use third party tools for the added speed, options and quality for doing the conversions.

Form time to time I do need to use L&T for XDCAM EX files and I have nothing against it in this scenario as it’s only re-wrapping as opposed to transcoding. I don’t like using L&T for transcoding but the ability to batch capture/transfer is a big plus in its favour.

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.PostBlue.tv
Shot on RED, Post on FCP/Color: Short Capoeira Film