Andy Mees
Forum Replies Created
-
You can pick up a 500 GB disc for under 50 bucks these days … if your client wants to retain the option to revisit the project at a later date then just charge them accordingly for the short term storage. Just remember to pop the bare drive in an enclosure once every 6 months or so and spin it up. Consider getting a bare drive dock and some antistatic drive cases for storage … you can factor all this into the cost.
If thats not an option then one easy way you can reduce storage requirements is by simply deleting all media from the Z1 as that can easily be recaptured from the original HDV source tapes which you would also retain (I assume you followed proper practice and captured with reel and timecode such that the footage could be recaptured at latter date).
Best
Andy -
Compare the results Rob, what do you see?
I believe when you are sending a sequence to Compressor then FCP is sending a progression of rendered frames by one means or another (and no its not “rendering” the sequence such as it would become rendered in the timeline) so what Compressor is receiving is a quick and dirty frame rate converted version of your timeline from FCP ie its already 23.98 when Compressor gets it so theres no temporal conversion to be handled, just a re-compression. When you drop the raw clip onto the same preset directly then Compressor is handling the frame rate conversion … I would expect the results to be neither quick nor dirty, as thats not what Compressor is about (although you do have a certain degree of control over the quick vs quality tradeoff via the settings you choose).
Cheers
Andy -
>Does compressor make one stream mpeg 2 files?
Yes it can. Look in Compressor’s settings for Apple > Formats > MPEG2 …. both Transport Stream and Program Stream are “muxed” formats ie audio and video streams are combined (multiplexed).
>not familiar with “center cut”.
Center cut is the term used for cropping 16:9 aspect source to create a 4:3 aspect target or visa versa … this is as opposed to adding padding to the source image to fill it out t the desired aspect (eg adding a letterbox)
Do a quick search here for details on using compressor to create a center cut or letterboxed version of your edit, the topic has come up a couple of time in recent days.
Best
Andy -
>Not sure where you are getting losing your 40% loss Michael.
Agreed. I see it as 25% personally, but thats just me.
>So we are making sure our HD is center safe because ESPN will just center cut it. Doable but not preferable.
From a production workflow I’d say creating a single universally acceptable master is by far the more preferable option and is common practice, but aesthetically one could certainly argue that separate masters with graphics and overlays created specifically for the intended display aspect may be preferred.
>If you take your HD cut drop it into a 4:3 seq it will automatically letterbox it. 4:3 Done. If you want it center cut the bring it back to 100%.
No. Not 100%, a HD (16:9) to SD (4:3) center cut only crops the sides to create the 4:3 aspect, it doesn’t also crop top and bottom as these instructions would cause to happen. If you want to center cut for the sources and sizes described here then a scale somewhere in the region of 68% should be about right.
Best
Andy -
Hi Sam
If you’re not happy with editing the 16:9 HD files directly in the 4:3 SD timeline as David suggests (and your posts suggest you’re not) then you can go ahead and use the settings I noted above to batch convert your original 720p media to letterboxed 640×480 that you can use natively in your sequence. Do yourself a favor tho … convert one file at first and drop it into a test 640×480 ProRestimeline to test that the conversion settings and workflow work as expected. If its all OK then you can batch convert the rest overnight.
Best
Andy -
You could create and use your own shortcut Macro using a suitable third party app/utility, or p’raps even using Apple’s own GUI scripting capabilities … personally tho, I think if you need to do this a lot then my advice would be to use the “Shift-N” shortcut to create a freeze frame (which is loaded in the viewer) and then drag that into your Browser window (maybe drag it into a dedicated Stills bin) …. its relatively quick and painless and you just rinse and repeat this anytime, anywhere you want to save a still. When you are ready to export the stills at the end of the day / end of the session, then select them all in the Browser window (or select the bin) and choose File > Batch Export… set the Settings >> Format to Still Image (w/ Options as appropriate) and then Export in one fell swoop.
Best
Andy -
I’d have to agree with Jakob, I prefer to avoid sss as its a little overused these days, but s is a staple thats hard to avoid. As for your ssss, well I understand that it’s a new feature of FCP 8 and is strictly NDA at this time so its probably better not to talk about it.
Best
Andy -
I wouldn’t. If DVD delivery is on the cards then I’d probably be looking to edit everything in a typical Apple ProPres 422 NTSC 48kHz sequence.
The 370 x 240 stuff will scale up to this size easily (200%) and the 720p stuff, instead of letterboxing can be pan and scanned / reframed / center-cut for full frame 4:3 display ie avoid unnecessary scaling wherever possible plus avoid the ugly and unnecessary letterbox.
-
>I was surprised not to be able to find an answer to this since I’m sure that the fix is pretty straight forward.
Well its not a “fix” Sam, its just a bunch of settings to:
From the Compressor Settings window, apply the ProRes preset from Apple > Other Workflows > Advanced Format Conversions > Apple Codecs presets: you’ll want either Apple ProRes 422 for Interlaced material or Apple ProRes 422 for Progressive material as appropriate. Next you need to look at that applied setting in the job’s Inspector window, switch to the Geometry tab, and change the “Dimensions (encoded pixels)” >> Frame Size: to 640 x 480 and “Pixel Aspect” to Square, plus the “Output Image Inset (Padding)” >> Padding: to 16×9 1.78:1
Thats it …but as the others have already said, are you really sure about your workflow here … its a very odd one and you might want to consider your options.
Best
Andy -
Yeah, the whole Remove Attributes thang is good … but its not as good as “Conform to Sequence” 😉