[Sytse Wierenga]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I actually made a mistake myself, thanks for having me check again. I exported 1280x720p, h264 to 1080p for some reason. Nonetheless a weird artifact, that complete shift.

It might please Dave that this actually fixed my problem of two days ago (Qt-fcp render relations) too! It was his hint to export in Intermediate codec that got me on track.

So out of humble gratefullness, I will confess that the original material was not shot on a DSLR (which indeed i usually would have done) but on…… (you guys will kill me now)
an iPod and an iPhone. Oops, credit gone. I thought to shoot a demo for a friend, and made it a test case for workflow. and found out these crappy machines all have slightly different framerates.. yackk.

well, thanks for waking me up 🙂

[Sytse Wierenga]

Thanks, Dave!

I’ve resolved my issue meanwhile (reimported all), but the main question (top of post) remains. I read between the lines of your post (and that of many others here) that there is an enormous lot of industry-specific context knowledge hidden behind the codecs list that drops down when ‘export settings’ is pressed. Which made me wonder 10y ago, and still. That’s why the web is good.

[Dave LaRonde] “H.264 is not among the standard set of codecs that’s best in FCP. It’s extremely processor-intensive and difficult to edit.” I noticed that, and hardly ever use it for editing; I was under the assumption though, that it would at least be handled smoothly as a delivery codec, aka replay and export. At least by Apple themselves.

[Dave LaRonde] “In any single edit timeline it works best using one single solitary video resolution, one single solitary frame rate, and one single solitary codec.” True for the industry-side that grows on well established soil of film, video & tv. Less true -or at least continuously under attack- for the yet dirty side of digital video exchange.

I wish, wholeheartedly, that things were more clear and singular for transcoding recording, editing, delivery, and intermediate formats (and let’s not get started on the Metadata issue). But you find the web exploding of codecs, transcoders, and forums full of questions about it. For my clients (at the moment its Universities) every image that moves on a screen is video, and I stand often alone and abhorred watching what trashed qualities they willfully accept or deliver- as long as some deadline is matched. Me thinking things like: Why would I even try explaining what could really be done using the EX-1 and 7D they own, if they happily accept anything YouTubeified the same day? But let’s not get too drifted away.

So my question is in fact quite practical. There’s a list of codecs that Quicktime uses for itself, and a different one that FCP uses. Very easy to see, just compare what’s in export, or sequence settings in both programs. My question was aimed at FCP’s specific use of these (sub)lists. Like in: how come i can see some clip fluently in the viewer, but not in the canvas, although settings are the same? Where is the line between what’s used (and useful) of Quicktime, and FCP? I’m sure this forum hosts some reference on that.

(Please don’t tell me to start using iMovie 🙂 )

[Sytse Wierenga]

Thanks. I’ll advise on buying the plugin-

In the mean time: what happens if I’d export to PAL 50 fps? A test on 10 sec I just did actually dosn’t look too bad. But then again I shouldn’t trust my monitor (LCD so no fields..)

MacBookPro 2.16 Core Duo 2GB 667 MHz

[Sytse Wierenga]

I’d like to get the natress plugin, but my time & money are too small for this onetime transfer. Could I use the demo to convert this one take of 40 min?

Or else: compressor seems to have problems: it keeps failing to export using a PAL preset and using a custom setting (to Qt .mov) produces a mov that won’t be red as a movie by either Qt or VLC.

MacBookPro 2.16 Core Duo 2GB 667 MHz

[Sytse Wierenga]

Would converting NTSC tp PAL through compressor do the same nice job you think? I haven’t got Natress.

Did try to do it using Quicktime Pro, but Final Cut Pro stills says it’s 29.97 fps after exporting (I did set fps to 25 in Qt, and there it does show as such after processing :-?)

Thanks!

MacBookPro 2.16 Core Duo 2GB 667 MHz