[Matt Hannon]

Thanks for your advice David,

I actually didn’t mean to add an extra compression, as I was under the impression that this is often the cause of quality loss? I left the box in MPEG Streamclip checked as ‘Uncompressed’ – so not sure why it has added that motion compression??

Either way it looks as though I am starting from scratch, which is a good lesson learned – i’ll be sure to check short clips next time before doing a whole days work! A little foolish I admit..

So does anyone know where I am going wrong?

Should I be specifying in the MPEG Streamclip settings that all the files should be converted to 25fps, with a frame size of 1440 x 1080 (as this is my sequence settings)?

What about the fact that I have NTSC and PAL clips?

Sorry guys, I just learning here…

Thanks again,

m

[Matt Hannon]

Ok so this may be lengthy, I will try to be clear – many thanks for your patience..

The sequence (of which I already have a lengthy rough cut from my dominant camera in place) has item properties as follows:

Frame size: 1440 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: HD (1440×1080) (16:9)
Field Dominance: Upper (odd)
Editing timebase:25 (25fps)

The clips from my dominant camera which have been used to create the rough cut, have item properties as follows:

Vid Rate: 25fps
Frame size: 1440 x 1080
Compressor: HDV 1080i50
Creator: Quicktime

Therefore, I am assuming (and hope!), that the clips in my rough cut and sequence are compatible and correct.

The issue begins when trying to introduce clips from my hard drive that have been recorded on 5 different cameras. I converted nearly all of these clips yesterday, by using MPEG Streamclip and exporting using ‘Quicktime’ format, however, as previously mentioned the clips need instant rendering when imported to the main project (the aforementioned rough cut in FCP).

I will now give item properties of the 5 different cameras before they were converted by me yesterday using MPEG Streamclip.

Camera 1:
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Frame Size: 1280 x 960
Compressor: HDV 1080i50

Camera 2
Vid rate: 30 fps
Frame size: 720 x 480
Compressor: XVID (Perian)
Pixel aspect: NTSC – CCIR 601

Camera 3
Vid Rate: 25 fps
Frame size: 720 x 576
Compressor: DV – PAL

Camera 4
Vid rate: 27 fps
Frame size: 512 x 384
Compressor: Apple Open DML JPEG

Camera 5
Vid rate: 25 fps
Frame size: 1024 x 576
Compressor: Motion JPEG A

I now realise after looking at the different item properties above, that I have a mixture of PAL and NTSC formats happening here, which is probably going to be a whole another issue…?

……………………

Yesterday, I converted the above 5 camera’s clips with MPEG Streamclip using the ‘Quicktime’ conversion, and when I compared the item properties of these new formats (ie. the ones I just converted) to the older formats (ie. camera 1-5 above) the only significant difference that I could notice, was that the new format’s compressor had been replaced with Motion JPEG A.

Carelessly, I spent many hours yesterday converting the clips before asking the question of whether or not I was converting to the right format – which I now know I wasn’t.

Now that it looks as though I will have to convert everything again, is it possible to convert again from the newly converted clips that have the new compressor ie Motion JPEG A instead of the original clips? The reason I ask this is because I spent a long time viewing, selecting and putting ‘in’ and ‘out’ points into the clips I converted yesterday.

Obviously, if there will be a reduction of quality, I will start from scratch and just take it as a learning lesson…

Hopefully this is the information you need, sorry it’s so long…. thankyou.

matt

[Matt Hannon]

one last question if I may…

When i import the newly converted files to FCP as .mov (quicktime) files, they need rendering straight away.. is this normal, or have I not converted them under the right settings??

They seemto play fine once they have been rendered…

thanks again

[Matt Hannon]

Ah ha… thanks Tom you’re a legend… its working well and surprisingly quickly.. cool freeware!

[Matt Hannon]

Thanks for your advice Tom – appreciated.

I take it MPEG Streamclip is software? Do you know if this usually results in a compromise of video/audio quality?

Sorry for my naivety.

[Matt Hannon]

Thanks Rafael… I just realised the model name is actually HDR-HC9 not HDV-HC9, not that it should make much difference….

I’ll go through some different tapes to compare results…. thanks