Tom Laughlin
Forum Replies Created
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So, what I’ve done was, I took Sony Clip Browser and used it to “import” the media, so now I have all the RAW from the EX-1, in .MOV, still as XDCAM-EX 1080p 29.97 35VBR. I’ve set up my project by opening Adobe and dragging a clip to the time-line to match the same settings that we shot in (XDCAM-EX 1080p 29.97 35VBR), and the same settings that the raw was imported in as .MOV files, time-line still at XDCAM-EX 1080p 29.97 35VBR. So my editing time-line is native to the imported media.
It may just be my computer.
Is it faster to jump import and edit the raw EX-1 footage .MP4s? I think that the habit of editing in the .MOV was a FCP7 thing.
But in answer to your question, nothing was wrapped using FCP7, Sony Clip Browser imported the media raw, and I’m editing native, XDCAM-EX 1080p 29.97 35VBR, but in .MOV. Does this answer your question?
Also, is it faster to export a sequence out using the same settings as the time-line, and then dragging it into Compressor to create a H.264 720p file?, How would you export a Sequence from Adobe Premiere? I’m not familiar with that still.
Can you just drag and drop a setting onto the one clip or a batch? Is it faster to export out of Adobe Media Encoder or out of Premiere? Less time and more speed are my semi-ultimate goals…
Last night, I exported (3) 7 GB clips (30 min interviews) that were exported (uncompressed) same as source XDCAM-EX 1080p 29.97 35VBR, then I dragged those three .MOVs into Compressor to output H.264/720p files, and it took about 3-4 hours last night to encode those, with no other apps open, just Compressor running. I guess I could have just exported right out of Premiere as H.264/720p files, with “time-code burn-in”. Would that be even faster? My time-lines are ‘yellow’, is this about the “pay your tax up front or at the end” (when to render) talk we heard at NAB this year?
What’s your additional thoughts everyone?
Thanks,
Tom
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
How do I check that? In my audio mixer, all channels are showing ‘Master’.
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
If you are really in a pinch, you could try setting your FCP7 playback to the lowest settings. Do a proxy low-res edit, then re-link later. But using Fire-wire 800 or something faster, will definitely help.
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Run Preference Manager:
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
Also, check your sequence settings, ensure your not editing and coloring proxy media, or low-res media, often reacts this way when coloring it.
Check your RT Settings, ensure your at the right frame-rate and playback quality. Export out some tests, you’ll know in the final out-put. It could be a issue where there is something going on in the color correction filter itself. Try copying your clip and placing it into a new sequence and try coloring that clip. Any change? Also, try deleting all filters, color it first, then add any other filters after that, like your film grain or what ever, if you have any other filters or third-party filters, that might be doing something to screw with your color corrections. Check what color space you are editing in, it may be that the footage was imported improperly and the color filters are reacting incorrectly in that way. Ensure your media is matching the time-line editing sequence settings.
Export out an uncompressed QT of your clip, open a new FCP project, import the uncolored QT, and color the QT file.
Lots of things to check, test, and try!
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Run Preference Manager:
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
Also, if your FCP project gets bloated, try copying your final edit into a new FCP project. Save that new file out as a new name. Your media will still read from that new project, but now, you won’t have to have such a huge internalized project. There’s also a consolidating feature, if you move the media and project files to another drive, this rids you of tons of media and assets that you may or may be using. For example, editors copy large amounts of raw media b-roll, that are never used in the edit, go through and figure out what you can cut out and remove from your drive, if all the raw is save on another drive, remove all media that you don’t think you will use. Also, music, if you have copied over a ton of temp music, rid yourself of all extra fat you’re not using that is not tied to your linked media, and blow it away off your drive. Minimize how many sequences you have in your project. Migrate your final sequence to a new FCP project, and see if that helps.
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Try using “Preference Manager”:
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
When FCP 7 starts to act up, I always run this. There are a few other things you can run to ensure FCP is healthy, check out this site, lots of great tools.
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Yea, I noticed that when you switch from the codec “MainConcept H.264” to the “x.264” at the top of the Squeeze interface, the list of ‘specs to change’ changes in the window, and there are different prefs, some are there and are similar, but with the x.264 window, not all the prefs to change are there in the MC H.264 drop-down menu.
So some of these prefs I can’t change or switch. Can you send me a spec list of the main prefs that I need to ensure are set to what you are saying, using the x.264 drop-down, or if you want, use the screen shot in my post of test 2 for reference, but AVC profile, and a few other ‘main’ prefs, can you remind me once more what they all need to be set at? Since x.264 (test 2) gave me the cleanest encode at 1000kps, I may just not worry at all about the other tests that used MC H.264 and focus on lowering the bit-rate and continue testing using the x.264 drop-down. But let me know what you want me to change here on this screenshot:
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
I did some tests and there was some artificating in a few spots, like a few areas with text, white text over a black background. And then there was one still image that came in blurry.
Test 1: Specs in Squeeze 8 (Final encode came out with ‘artifacts’)
Test 1: Problem areas: Artifacts
Test 2: Specs in Squeeze 8 (Came out clean, but data rate high.)
Test 2: Problem areas (and areas that encoded ok):
Test 3: Specs in Squeeze 8 (Clean video, but some video’ pulsing’ in few areas)
Test 3: Video clean, encoded ok, but data rate needs be at ‘700kps’, not 1000kps…:
So, there were some things I tried, and some things that worked, and some things that didn’t, but the “Test 2” (x 264, 1.1 Mbt/s data-rate) gave me best results, in comparison to the other tests, but I still need to see if someone could help me get this within 700kps data-rate.
Ultimately, I’d love to get this file to look as good as test 2, x.264, but with a lower datsa rate, so I’ll try this later. AVC Profile? Does this affect the encode? Square pixels display? Or, 3×3 or 16×9 display? Are there some other settings other than data-rate tha would help? CBR vs VBR? This video is mostly talking heads and pictures, so. No fast action.
If there is something I can tweak in my settings, please let me know. Squeeze is a lot more layered that others, so I’m still working to learn it more. If there is anything that needs to be changes, checked, un-checked, or any setting suggestions, please let me know.
I think the client will be ok with test 2, but the data-rate is a little higher, and this file was the “cleanest”.
But please let me know what more things I can try.
Thanks again everyone,
Tom
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Sometimes, if you have the time, I usually run a test on one minute of video, but running it through 3-5 different compressor softwares. I look at speed of encode, quality, and what control I actually am given inside the encoding software. Run some speed and quality tests, then you know how long a file takes, but checking the info of the file, and the time started or time ended or ‘created’, this will give you a ratio to use for 1 minute, so now, you can predict how long each encoder will take, and also evaluate quality, but normally, quality encodes can take longer regardless the compression software you are using. Bitrate, frame-rate and some other things can be changes to increase speed of encode drastically and not affect quality too much.
Jan Ozer is the genius of this, and he has a ton of info on-line about tricks you can do to help. I have friends who take frame-rates from 29.97 to 15 or less, and do not see that much of a quality hit, so.
Hope this helps a little…
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Jeff,
Is this correct, using Squeeze 8:
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Digital Chop House
Salt Lake City, Utah
