[John Fishback]

I’d go the QT Pro route. Recompressing with MPEG Streamclip (an excellent program) to QT, editing in FCP and then compressing that to mpeg is not a good idea. You’re recompressing an already compressed file two more times. Quality will suffer.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Though not free, these are very reasonable as you can purchase per FX: audiosparx.com, sounddogs.com and soundrangers.com. Also, the Sound Ideas library (sound-ideas.com) is very comprehensive, but more expensive.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

I’ve not heard of Hippo. If you get any more info, please post it.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Here’s the DVD spec from the MPEG group: https://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/DVD/Book_B/Video.html

As you can see the max bitrate for SD DVDs is 9.8Mbps. However, approaching that rate is not a good idea. Most posts I’ve seen suggest keeping the bitrate below 8Mbps. As the bit rate increases toward the max, more and more players will have problems successfully playing the DVD. You have a more breathing space if you use ac3 for the audio stream.

The cited MPEG spec states, “The maximum bitrate of 9.8 Mbit/sec is more restrictive than MP@ML’s 15 Mbit/sec limit. However, the point of diminishing returns (no visual difference between original video and compressed video) is widely known to be around 9 Mbit/sec.” I believe that MP@ML refers to the main definition for a MPEG stream (that includes more applications than DVD). However, DVD is restricted to 9.8Mbps. We encode our programs for our Alcorn-McBride player at 9Mbps with muxed audio. The Alcorn’s max rate is 15Mbps which is in line with the spec.

Michael, after looking up these specs I’m still curious about what hardware is calling for 20Mbps as this is outside the spec for MPEG. Perhaps it’s for HD which would imply a greater bitrate.

There’s a lot more expertise on this subject than mine on the DVDSP forum on the Cow.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Yes, but not for DVDs. We encode programs for playback on specialized systems used in museums, etc. for video displays. That hardward will accept mv2s at data rates much greater than DVD rates. That said, we don’t encode at 20Mbps. What hardware is playing this back? Also, we have to mux the audio and video for the specialized players.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

I normally work in 8-bit uncompressed SD, but recently I copied AVIs from a hard drive for an edit and they worked perfectly with no render. It’s possible that the audio track was recorded at 44.1kHz instead of 48kHz which is required by FCP (and most professional video applications and hardware). There’s nothing you can do about it now other than render. However, check how the audio was recorded. If it was at 44.1 in the future use 48 and it should work.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

I make a USED bin and drag clips into it after they’re used.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

There’s a company named Alcorn McBride in Florida which makes a series of boxes that play multiple streams of video. Their url is https://www.alcorn.com

The boxes take muxed mv2 files and allow data rates that approach (maybe exceed) HD. We just finished a project that plays on an older version box (single stream only) in an exhibition hall display. These boxes may be available for rent (The one we used was already in place in the display). Someone at Alcorn McBride could probably help you out. Their customer service is excellent.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

Is the audio and video in one clip or separate audio and video clips? If they are both in the same clip, have you tried keyframing with time remap?

If they are separate clips, join them with command-L, then export them and re-import them and then try to apply keyframes to time remap.

Once I wanted to slow down an audio-only clip, but I couldn’t affect a speed change. So I joined the audio with a piece of video, exported that clip and re-imported. Then I slowed down the clip which worked. Then I separated the audio and video and used the slowed down audio. (When I tried to slow down the joined clip without exporting it didn’t work.) Hope this helps.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors

[John Fishback]

You are probably seeing the individual fields of each interlaced video frame flickering. This is a result of your slowing down the footage. It will be partiuclarly noticable on thin horizontal lines with strong contrast. There are plugins (like Twixtor https://www.revisionfx.com/rstwixtorgal.htm ) and applications (like Shake https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=154&page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/mench_michael/slow_motion/index.html ) that do a better job of slo-mo than FCP. You might be able to download trial versions of some of the plugins and apps and see how they work.

John

Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.3 QT7.0.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.0.4, DVDSP4.0.2, Comp2.0.1, STP1.0.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
SonicStudio HD DAW, Yamaha DM1000, Genelec Monitors