[Joe Orange]

Thanks guys

Shane – I am not nor am I planning to work in H.264 in FCP for obvious reasons but am looking at the best way to convert to ProRes without losing quality and I’m using a calibrated Apple monitor to judge these blatant differences.

Thomas – I converted the same H.264 clip from a 5D to ProRes with all 3 applications, MPEGStreamclip, 5DtoRGB and FCP.
The result from MPRGStreamclip came out looking around a stop darker and with color shift compared to the original H.264.
The 5DtoRGB clip was darker by only about a third of a stop with a little color shift.
The conversion made via FCP was virtually identical to the original H.264 that came out of the camera, which is great – yes?

Rafael – why can’t I compare results from MPEGStreamclip and 5DtoRGB when the results are different when used for the same task?

[Joe Orange]

Hi Michael,
No Log and Transfer, just importing a regular H.264 produced by a 5D that needs to converted to ProRes.

Anybody else use Rarevision’s 5DtoRGB?

[Joe Orange]

Thanks guys.
What I’m trying to do is get the same slowmo effect I got from previously converting 5d footage shot at 30fps to 25fps via CinemaTools.
Post 5D firmware update my now 25fps footage def needs slowmo-ing.
Dave, it seems I have to convert these H.264 files into ProRes to get them to convet smoothly in AE?
and Walter my footage was shot at 1080, what can I do to avoid or minimize any quality issues that I’ll come across?

[Joe Orange]

Thanks for the helpful reply Walter.
If AE uses the same technique as Twixtor, where does Twixtor come into it’s own?

[Joe Orange]

Ok here goes –

2.33 vs 2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo
3 GB vs 4 GB RAM
External drives used in both cases via FW800 – although one not mains powered
What is a virtual cluster and how do I know if I have one?
OS X 10.6.3 vs 10.6.2
Compressor 3.5.2
H.264
Apple ProRes 422 HQ

Managed to narrow it down to putting Frame Control – On and beyond being where the time remaining becomes hours instead of minutes but the difference is plainly too much even allowing for the difference in specs.

[Joe Orange]

they’re already marked in Final Cut and are displayed marked when in Compressor but whole clip is processed instead.

[Joe Orange]

Many thanks for the responses.

So basically, FCP doesn’t like H.264 – not even just to view.
Presumably then, neither does Quicktime nor my Macbook Pro as again the playback is choppy.
How then would preview what’ just been shot without having to convert to ProRes first?

[Joe Orange]

Files are yet to be converted, but even in QuickTime and Quicklook (highlight then spacebar), the same thing happens.
Besides I may want to view the native files first to decide which to convert.

Tried first using a 500gb Rugged then a powered 500gb 7200rpm Quadra and the same thing.
Internal hard drive is also 500gb.
What’s an SSD drive?

[Joe Orange]

It has to be said, all be it as a novice and without getting too deep into the whys and wherefores, that it is quite disappointing and baffling as to why one clip viewed in QT and FCP – both made by the same people Apple – should look so different, especially when the look is such an important part of the process.

My 10 cents worth

[Joe Orange]

Thanks. I obviously didn’t look hard enough in the most obvious of places.

These are R3D clips I want to sharpen, which I guess are pretty robust.
Being captured digitally, are they similar to digital stills in that they will always require some degree of sharpening and if so what amounts would be considered reasonable or is it a case of what you tweak is what you get.

Thanks