[Paul Blinn]

I’m still not sure about what codec to use in capture. 10bit is just too big of a file, especially if I end up making this portable on my laptop.

Is there a 10 bit Pro Res codec? Also, could you please explain this? When you say DV, you mean 480, right? I don’t have an DV (tapes).

“If you capture DV as proress (with a good video card) this improve the quality of the picture.
If you capture Proress as DV this will degrade the quality.”

Thanks for your detailed answer.

[Paul Blinn]

Yes, exactly right. I’m trying to preserve what quality I have left. I’m a little surprised at how good the MPEGs actually look in the MPEG Streamclip window. But they don’t look that good imported into the FCP or the AVID. I’m about to try the uncompressed gag. I only tested MPEG streamclip for testing the conversions from PAL to NTSC.

I am very appreciative for this expert user group. Now I’m learning the program, in some detail, based on something practical I need to do rather than just plodding through the manuals and tuturials. But I’ll do that too. (I’ve found that stuff to be more beneficial AFTER I’ve beat my head against the wall a little).

So can you tell me a little something more about the “compression markers”? Does that mean the maximum suggested bitrate for encoding? Where do I get under the hood with that? Also a basic question: can I add chapter index in FCP, or do I need to export each clip to DVDSP?

Many thanks.

[Paul Blinn]

I’m a new user to FCP–I come from an Avid background. So I don’t even know how to change the parameters you are talking about . . . yet.

That said: what you’ve told me is really helpful. What little I know about FCP, I do know that the timeline is based on a certain resolution, format, and standard that I have to set. I’ll dig into it, and any Quick Startup Tips from you or anyone else is greatly appreciated–I know its not that hard. I did not know until now that when I render, I am interpolating data based on timeline parameters. Super helpful for me to understand this!

Could you please help with two questions so I understand this better.

why 8 bit? if the original source was from digibeta which is 10 bit, why choose 8 bit.

I always think its a good idea to avoid re-compressing compressed files. So maybe I’m not actually re-compresing to get to the 8-bit uncompressed, but I will have to compress again when encoding for the new DVD. The goal is simply to eliminate as much (or any) degradation, if possible. I thought that if I could set the timeline (codec) for the same parameters as the existing mpeg DVD assets, and burn the DVD from that timeline, that I would effectively avoid re-crunching the data and not lose any image quality. Is that right?

[Paul Blinn]

. . . . but does anyone have any opinions about the transparency issue I mentioned> If I use the mpeg files as-is in FCP, can I escape any degradation of the image quality?

[Paul Blinn]

Excellent! Its almost all set up. I tested a few different workflows. Compressor still doesn’t seem to want to see the ac3s I’ve got on import, but decAC3 works fine. I learned a bunch today! Thank you.

[Paul Blinn]

Unbelievably good! But it doesn’t recognize the ac3 audio files, They won’t open in there. How can I convert those ac3s?

My Powerbook, with older versions of DVDSP and FCP installed, has a program called A.pack. It converted the ac.3 into two SD files: L & R
But I can’t find that program on recent install of Studio on my G5 Quad. (that bother’s me).

Mpeg streamclip seems to support a standards conversion. have you used it for that? how is it?

Do you reccomend converting my existing NTSC mpegs to any certain kind of file in FCP, or just leave them as is? (clips being standards converted from PAL notwithstanding).

Thanks, that’s a gem.