Tom Laughlin
Forum Replies Created
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Has you tried the plug-in for Compressor for Cinema Craft? Or is it better to purchase and use a stand-alone, and if so, will it talk to FCP or how do you output it, as a QT then drag into CC? Which one would you prefer for serious DVD Mpeg-2 encoding or any SD DVD encoding for that matter?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Craig,
Have you seen tests with Mainconcept vs. AME? Would it be safe to say that if one used and got good with x.264 (free), it would be just as good as an encoder rather than purchasing MC or AME? Would it be safe to assume that the majority of those doing professional encoding use MC more, or is it a toss-up?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Are you able to save it out as a QT movie file, then drag that to DVDPS? Will it export to any flavor of QT w/o problems? Is it HD content in the edit? Is there a codec in your video that Compressor may not recognize? Can you export through Compressor using another preset? Will that work, or does it lock up on all presets you are using?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Which encoder do you prefer for most of your encoding, whether PC or Mac? If I went with Episode, would it give me the x.264 option, as well as a MainConcept h.264 option as well?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
We did some more testing with the MainConcept trial software, and we plan on encoding the same test clips using Adobe Media Encoder, we are not there yet, but has anyone else done this kind of encoding or testing of these softwares. I’d love to hear your preferences, any resource links, and reasons why you have gone with MainConcept or AME and why. Thanks,
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Eric, You and Michael, hands down, have given me pearls here, I’m very appreciative of all the you guys are doing in response to my questions. Just had a few more, if it’s ok.
Are Cinemacraft and Bitvice both PC-based and Mac-based?
Eric wrote: Down conversions are a big deal here as well. Since your working in HDV, the source needs to be a correctly downconverted 720×480 Anamorphic QT before you encode. Ive been using a free PC tool called AVISnyth for this kind of work and does a hell of a better job than Compressor.
Eric, one of the things I’ve done is, when I get ready to export, if I need a QT movie of the time-line, instead of exporting “Self-Contained” (Same as Source), I make a down-conversion (the only way I know) which was shown to me by a friend, you export using “QT Conversion”, and chose 720×486 (16×9), so is this a way of down-conversion that you’re talking about?
Depending on the project, I export it out as either an h.264, or an Apple Pro Res, or save it out as an 8-bit uncompressed QT .mov file, with the size being 720×480 (16×9), so when Apple QT player opens it, the resolution is 853×480, so is this a proper down-conversion in the way you see it, technically-speaking? If you had this time-line, how would you preform a down-conversion to SD, maintaining the 16×9, it doesn’t necessarily need to be 1920x1080p, or does it?
This is down-converting discussion before the encoding happens, in the past I’ve used Compressor to output the time-line straight to m2v and ac3 audio “Best Quality 90 min”, then in DVDSP, I have to tell Compressor to make the video asset “Anamorphic”, this is the only way I’ve done it in the past, so you know exactly how to answer me, I’m not saying this is the way “I” do it cause it’s better, I’m just going into more of a detailed perspective for you to see what I am doing incorrectly on my end, and how I can look better alternative ways of down-converting and encoding with other work-flow suggestions you may have.
Thanks Eric,
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Michael, thanks so much for the information, I consider myself a life-long student of media, always trying out new things, taking advice and learning from it, and always asking around. Thanks for you responses, they’ve been most helpful. With that, you mentioned something about converting it to Apple ProRes… When I import my EX-3 video that I’ve shot in SP mode, as a HDV 1440x1080p, 29.97, when I convert it using the Sony Conversion tool software, XDCAM Transfer, it converts it to HDV60i, are you suggesting to covert it to Apple Res through XDCAM Transfer or through FCP, I’m not sure I’m understanding the how to convert it to ApplePRoRess and why? Still new at all this in some ways.
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Michael said: “If you are working with ProRes you just throw away a ton of color information. If you are using ProRes, DVCProHD, DVCPro50 or other professional editing codecs, just export your timelines as self contained, current settings.”
I saw the quality difference and it wasn’t much, but the output to a QT uncompressed 8-bit to DVDSP was better quality, my source video on the time-line is 1440×1080 HDV 60i… ??
Do you think Larry Jordan is wrong in his tutorial as well?
https://lafcpug.org/Tutorials/basic_export_files.htmlTom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
Is it indeed a Compressor issue. Sometimes it could be a file hang-up, some corruption somewhere in a file that causes the hold, or it could be a computer issue as well. The the computer’s processing protocal or something where Compressor talks to your computer, is that a variable? I know G4 Macs can still run FCP7, but certain HD codecs will not load or set-up in FCP, when you go to install everything, it will say that certain codecs are not supported, but you hit continue and still, you can edit with it. Is the project outputting via QT Movie Export, or QT Conversion?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel -
So, would the encode results be exactly the same, it is like the same encoder engine, then? If all the settings were exactly the same and I was encoding an 8-bit, 10 second test clip using MainConcept on a PC vs. encoding with AME on a Mac?
Tom Laughlin
Producer/Editor
Salt Lake City, UT
FCS3/Sony EX-3/Mac Intel