[Matthew Bruder]

I realize my work flow is wonky. It’s a long story, not worth going into.

Actually, I’ve been using Flip4Mac to get wmv’s out of the timeline from FCP and it works great, it’s just incredibly slow, like overnight slow. As far as encoding wmv’s on the PC, Premiere is complete crap, and I’ve found using Windows Media Encoder or Ulead (which uses the WME engine) is far superior.

I’ll give Black Magic and motion Jpeg a shot to see what results I get.

Thanks!

[Matthew Bruder]

OK, I want to use Premiere b/c my PC is way faster than my Mac and it handles the compression out to .WMV files (the necessary output for me) WAAAY faster. About 2000% faster. It has tons of other support files that I need, it has 8gigs of Quicktrax that I need. I could go on…

Also, I don’t really see why mpeg2 is so lossy. In Premiere, when I capture footage off my FX1 it captures as an mpeg2 file, b/c that’s how the FX1 handles hi-def; it is “natively’ mpeg2. (I’m sure you know all this, I’m just building my question.) That mpeg2 file is then portable across a bunch of other PC-based systems. If I render an edited timeline at 100% quality, mpeg2, file at 25mbps from Premiere, there is no detectable loss in quality that I can see. I know it’s there, b/c I understand that any time any mpeg2 is rendered out in this way there’s going to be a compression process. Why choose 25mbps? Well that’s the theoretical bitrate its coming off the camera (I’m sure you knew that too) so now I have an edit that is very close to the quality of the original capture.

As a side note, is it weird that QT can’t play the capture files? In the PC world, any number of players can play captured hi-def footage.

Your questions:

What’s the original you’re cutting? (see above; captured hi-def files)

How exactly are are you exporting? (Compressor or QT Conversion?)

File>Export>Quicktime Movie>Apple Intermediate Code 1080i60*
Both boxes unchecked.
*Also tried HDV 1080i60

I didn’t use QT Conversion b/c I didn’t see hi-def settings that I’m used to in Premiere like “HDV 1080i60.”

Exactly which codec and what settings are you selecting? (not sure what codec FCP is using if it’s behind the scenes. I’m just doing the process I outlined above.)

And, what is your overall objective? (What will cutting MPEG files in Premiere actually accomplish???) (see above)

My questions.
How do I know what codecs are on my MAC?
How do I install a Black Magic codec?
How do I specify in FCP to use that Black Magic codec when writing out a file? Will it show up in the drop downs?

[Matthew Bruder]

I should have been more clear. I know how to open files via the method you prescribe. When I open those files using right click open with quick time, they open in QT but show a white screen. The same happens on my PC, thus I didn’t think PC vs MAC had anything to do with it. For what it’s worth I have all the HD and mpeg2 codecs installed on my MAC. The same white screen results when I try to open the raw hi-def capture files. A raw capture in HD is an mpeg2, it SHOULD in theory open with QT. Do you have any suggestions as to why I’m getting this white screen?