[Ryan Holmes]

If the frame size came out smaller you need to double check your settings — both the footage encode settings as well as the sequence settings when you re-imported the file. Streamclip, AME, etc. only do what you tell it to. So if frame sizes are off go back through and check all your settings.

Also, please be aware that you don’t have to transcode AVCHD footage for CS6 to use it (FCP7 you did). Premiere Pro can take those files in and you can edit natively, from within PPro you can do your slow-mo and resize work without much effort (right click on clip in browser and chose Modify–>Interpret…)

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Follow Shane’s tutorial and you’ll be good to go:
https://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

If you’re trying to get out of h.264 .mov’s (which come from your Canon 5DII), then Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD are easily the 2 best size to quality choices.

You could try Sony XDCAM format or a DVCPRO HD setting. Those should come in slightly smaller than the aforementioned preferred codecs. Or you can always edit natively in CS6. Just leave the files in their original .MOV wrapper as h.264 files and edit away.

FYI – Any setting that says Andriod, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, DVD, or Blu-ray are not going to be good quality and are not edit friendly.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

So you’re just looking for a way to batch transcode footage? MPEG Streamclip. Or Adobe Media Encoder. Or drop them into PPro and place them on sequences with the appropriate settings then batch export those sequences out of PPro with settings in tact.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Equally good advice from Mark.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

+1. Exactly what Shane said. No use in spending money further developing your knowledge and skills in a software that is dead. Better spend it on training material for After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Avid Media Composer (of FCPX if you’re so inclined).

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Jermey,
You’re only option for a DVD is MPEG-2. That’s the standard. Period. If you were doing Blu-Ray you’d have more options. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-2

Compressor should get the job done for you. There are plenty of presets in there to get you rolling. A single-sided DVD can hold 4.6GB total (audio+video+menus). So as long as your encoded file falls under that your golden. After the file is transcoded drop it into DVD Studio Pro and burn away. If you don’t have DVDSP, you might look at Rafael’s suggestion above regarding Toast.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

No problems on my system. I have 3 systems running 5.5 and 6 side-by-side.

Your problem will be backwards compatibility. CS5.5 can’t open CS6 files – Photoshop, AE, PPro, etc. You can always go from 5.5 to 6, but not the other way. If you collaborate a lot with them then I would hold off on the upgrade until everyone is on board.

My $.02

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

Ryan Patch is right that there is no added bit-depth, color information, or resolution added to a file that you transcode. The file can ever only be as good as what you capture it on originally. Period.

However, the reason transcoding is necessary is that not all apps work like Premiere Pro. Not all apps can just play any media. So if you plan on doing more than just editing in your timeline I encourage people to transcode. If you’re doing color correction, as you state, I would highly encourage transcoding beforehand as most color grading apps won’t deal with h.264 media (Resolve kinda does, but not to where I’d rely on it as a workflow). Apple Color won’t. Speedgrade, assuming you’re running CS6, will transcode your footage to DPX files for color grading.

Point is if you don’t have to transcode don’t. As Ryan says, it takes more space and time. But if you plan on doing work in other apps that aren’t Premiere Pro then I would transcode to save yourself the headache that comes from other apps not playing well with a heavily compressed format – h.264.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes

[Ryan Holmes]

In your project bin where the media clips are imported to have you tried right clicking on the actual media file itself and gone to “Modify –> Interpret Footage…”

Inside that dialog box you can tell PPro to conform the PAR to a setting. In your case, D1/DV PAL (1.0940). That should solve your problem. PPro might be interpreting something from the XML incorrectly.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes