[Gary Seabrook]

Hello Shane.

Sorry to piggy-back this thread, but I’m new to Prem Pro CC, having recently converted from FCP7.
I’m working on Mac (OSX – latest version of the OS). I used to convert all footage to ProRes to work in FCP7, but have been told that in PPCC that isn’t necessary. However, there’s a big difference between “can manage to work with” and “preferred” format. Or at least there is in FCP7!

Could you please advise me whether there is such a thing as a best-practice codec to work in PPCC on Mac?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice offered and for your time.

Gary, London, England

Best thing to do with good advice? Pass it on

[Gary Seabrook]

Both persuasions are well represented here. Neither is likely to switch position. Either position is tenable and fair (*and legal).

Mike, can I ask you a question related to your post here? A couple of years ago, we shot some video profiles across the world for a client. No contract was signed in terms of who owned (or would own) any aspect of the project. Like any other project, we ended up with the raw footage, the finished edits and all of the other attendant files (Music bed, After Effects files, Color Project files etc). We delivered the finished edits over to the client in their requested format.

There was a verbal agreement that the client would only use these files on their website and would only use them for a year. After that they would come back to us when they wanted to film any more content.

In this tough economic climate, they presumably decided not to film any more profiles, as they have not come back to us and haven’t added any further work on their site. BUT…. they are continuing to use the edits we produced for them.

So, my question is this… As no contract is in place to determine any rights of use, does this mean that they legally have the right to continue to use these videos on their site, if they wish, or is there some kind of right, as with photography, where they would need to buy out “in perpetuity” the right to continue to have them embedded on their site?

The law seems to be very blurry in this area of video / film production in a way that it isn’t where photography is concerned.

Any thoughts welcome. Thank you.
Gary

Best thing to do with good advice? Pass it on

[Gary Seabrook]

Thanks very much for getting back to me Michael, I appreciate it.

I’m just doing some experiments now.
Do you happen to know if there’s any difference in the method one would use to format a DVD for use on a PC as opposed to a Mac as opposed to a standard DVD player? I’m truly baffled by this.

I think the end users for this DVD will be in the Far East. Are there ‘Region’ issues that I need to be aware of?

Thanks again,
Gary

Best thing to do with good advice? Pass it on

[Gary Seabrook]

First of all Jessica thanks very much for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.
I have a couple of questions….. I’d be really grateful if you could look at them and give me an answer.

You said:
“Send your sequence to Compressor. Select one of the DVD Presets that closely matches the time of your program. Also choose the “Best Quality” preset. From there, you export. However, until we know how long your program is, I can’t tell you of you need to adjust your data rate for the .m2v file.”

ANSWER:
The final edit I need to burn to DVD won’t be more than 3.30 – 4.00 in total. It will be one piece and won’t really need any chapter markers or buttons, just a straightforward play/pause / stop, which I imagine will be more straightforward to produce. The smallest amount of time selectable from ‘DVD: Best Quality’ presets is 90 minutes. My file will be about 4 minutes maximum! Is this going to be a problem?

The client, correctly or incorrectly, is requesting that the file is burned to DVD in .MOV or MPEG format (definitely NOT MPEG4 as their machines can’t handle them for some reason?)

You Said:
“Open up DVD Studio Pro once your streams have been made. Import the .ac3 and .m2v into your project.”

1st question I have is why am I exporting .ac3 and .m2v files? Are these standard formats for burning to DVD? Do you mean import ac.3 and .m2v into DVD Studio Pro?

2nd question is; In DVD Studio Pro there are there setting when opening a project, ‘Basic’ , ‘Extended’ and ‘Advanced’ – which one do I need to go with? I’m guessing extended?

Lastly, I followed your instructions with a small test sample of my finished edit – FCP to Compressor using ‘DVD Best Quality’ setting. It produced an m2v file but no .ac3 file? Is that embedded within the m2v? Or did I lose it somewhere??!

Thanks very much.
Gary

Best thing to do with good advice? Pass it on

[Gary Seabrook]

Thanks very much for taking the time to get back to me. I really appreciate that.
Unfortunately, removing the three preference files you mentioned made no difference.
FCP still refuses to open.
Any other suggestions very welcome.

Frustrated of London!

Gary