Ryan Holmes
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Tom you probably ought to start a new thread for your question. This a 2 month old thread that you’re posting to.
Per your question the Avid MXF files have to be transcoded to a Quicktime Movie file and then brought into Premiere Pro. The Quicktime Movie file can use whatever codec you want – DNxHD, ProRes, Uncompressed, etc. Premiere Pro handles most codecs without much issue. To transcode the footage I think Adobe Media Encoder will handle it (don’t quote me on that though).
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Dan Sakols] “I still haven’t got my head around the preview settings under “segment settings” Im not sure how MPEG I frame, (the setting I see now) is usefull, as those should only occur about once a second. “
What dialog box are you looking at exactly? Is this when setting up your sequence? While editing? While exporting your sequence? Or are you talking about Handbrake here?
If you’re editing the h.264 file then like you said you’ll likely have 2 I-frames provided that the camera records in an IBBP h.264 format (segmented at 12 or 15 frames depending on your frame rate). Some newer cameras, such as the Canon 5D Mark III), can record in an All-I based h.264 format. So instead of having predictive frames and bi-directional frames the codec is actually recording all the information and storing it in each frame with no need for “B” and “P” frames.
In order for PPro to show you anything on your timeline it’s doing all the interpolation under the hood. So if you’ve parked your playhead on a “B” or “P” frame it’s unpacking the codec in order to show you that frame. You won’t see any quality loss if that’s what you’re concerned about.
[Dan Sakols] “BTW, I took a look at your site- some very impressive work!”
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Dan Sakols] “Im just an enthusiast making fun videos,”
If this is the case, then you’re probably fine working in h.264. If you were dealing in say the broadcast/film world then h.264 isn’t the best working format. It’s an efficient codec but it throws out a good deal of information and isn’t the most ideal codec for multiple generations of re-compression. DNxHD or ProRes stand up extremely well to multi-generational encodes which can sometimes be necessary in the post-process.
Given your description of what you’re doing, I think h.264 is a fine way to go.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Dennis Radeke] “why should you have to transcode at all?”
h.264 doesn’t play well in every program. So if he’s going out to other apps for compositing or color grading or graphics h.264 is not a good codec for that. An intermediate codec would be much better suited to that and stand up to the multiple re-compressions that may occur in moving through a pipeline.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Paul King] “So instead of Adobe taking responsibility for faults in their software,
it’s my responsibility to change vendors.”Calm down Paul. I never said anything like the above quote. If you’re not happy with their product and they aren’t changing their tune then you may have to look elsewhere. Should it be that way? No. Ideally Adobe would fix every bug, listen to every customers need, and make the software work exactly the way each of us need for each of our applications. Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen completely. As Angelo points out they target fixing certain bugs over others and prioritize certain features over others. All companies do this – limited resources, limited time means you can’t do everything you want to do.
[Paul King] “BTW – Symphony and MC are virtually the same thing, Vegas is a toy, FCPX was so good Apple had to put FCP7 back on sale, Smoke is only turnkey on PC. So by my count that’s about 2 or 3 competitors, not a big choice in this category.
“You seem to have extremely strong views about the market. Bottom line: you have several options if you want to move on to something that serves your needs better. That was my only point. Hopefully Adobe address the problem your referencing.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
The ones that are analyzed you can manipulate.
I would recommend you cutting out the portions of video that you want to stabilize, export that as a self-contained Quicktime movie, re-import back into FCP, apply SmoothCam filter, rinse and repeat for other clips.
It was definitely a weakness of FCP that it wouldn’t stabilize simply the In/Out range of a clip, but it would tackle the whole clip. So if your brought in a 30 minute Quicktime, but only used 10 seconds it would start analyzing the whole 30 minute clip. But like I said, just trim out the 10 seconds you want and make a self-contained QT file. Then you apply the SmoothCam filter you’re only literally analyzing a 10 second clip. Don’t forget to leave yourself handles on both ends in case you need to trim, slip or cross dissolve the clip. Add a second or two to both ends to give yourself some wiggle room in your edit.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Paul King] “Problem is Adobe don’t have enough competition”
I would contend that there’s plenty of competition if you want to switch NLE’s — Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony, Autodesk Smoke, FCPX, Vegas. Take your pick.
If your bug persists and impacts your client/editor relationship it may be better to vote with your wallet and move to a different software. That way you can leave PPro to us “wedding video editors”
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
[Dan Sakols] “What about sequence formats. Im not sure if I should actually edit in the same format as the AVC source from my DSLR or in a less compressed format.”
The answer to this question depends on what you plan on doing with the footage beyond editing. Do you plan on doing compositing, color grading, graphics work, etc. with the footage? If so h.264 is not a good format for that type of work. For that you may need to turn to an intermediate codec such as ProRes or DNxHD.
However, if you’re just going to straight cut (or dissolve) between shots PPro CS6 handles h.264 without much problem provided your system is a newer computer (last 2 or so years) with a Nvidia graphics card.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
Post in the FCPX forum. You’ll get a better response. This is the FCP1-7 area (i.e. legacy).
https://forums.creativecow.net/fcpxtechnique
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
Dan – I’m not knocking Handbrake. I use it. It’s just a program that is ill suited towards professional video delivery. Frame rate conversion, de-interlacing, aspect ratio, profile settings, bit depth rendering – not Handbrakes area. This is the territory of the above listed encoding apps.
Additionally Handbrake only deals in h.264 (and MKV). The other encoders listed, save for Quicktime Pro, can take 1 Quicktime mov file and churn out 10 or more different formats (h.264, blu-ray, DVD, mp3, WAV, flv, DPX, etc.). For my workflow Handbrake is just not a good fit. I wouldn’t encourage others to use it for their final delivery prep (unless you’re ripping DVD’s to your computer for your flight! 😉
Just my $.02….
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes