Talkin' FCP HDV Workaround/Intermediate Codecs...or, Graeme Nattress was right! Duh!!

Elton

Elton

Veteran
Hey all,

Real quickly...

I've been doing some testing today of most of the available QT codecs to export to from H1 .m2t files in MPEG Streamclip.

Well...I've been doing the DVCproHD thing for awhile (mostly via SDI) and it's worked fine, but I think the codec that works the best as an intermediate is PhotoJPEG at 75% (4.2.2) I've done a number of conversions today, and I'm astounded at how clean and smooth this codec is...not to mention a very reasonable bit rate. (12MBs, I-frame, less than DV100!)

It looks practically lossless and it's a full raster-square pixel 1920x1080 format--and best of all--converts back to DV100 and h.264 EXTREMELY WELL!! I've been using HDVxDV (demo still works for raw m2t's!) and MPEG Streamclip. So, the poor man's no-SDI HD card route with a few cheap-to-free utility programs seems to work quite well.

Short take: PhotoJPEG is amazingly good. Graeme Nattress told me to work in this format some time ago, and I finally conclusively found that it really is the best low bit rate HD format to work in...in FCP.
 
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Thanks John.

My only disappointment thus far is I haven't been able to get it to capture live SDI or HDV to SDI in real time-full raster- to the codec. I keep doing a custom setup with the Kona card and it sees the signal. I capture and all it seems to do is 960x540 resolution, full frame rate, in real time...and this is with a G5 dual 2.7! MPEG Streamclip seems to convert the m2t's faster than real time, so I'm definitely a little confused. Have you had any luck with your Decklink?

Of course, there's always the option of uncompressed (with the proper RAID) and then converting if I need it for SDI tap, but it's an extra hassle I didn't think was necessary. Oh well, it's still a great codec, but apparently requires some hoop jumping. Hopefully Apple will finally get around to supporting 24F in FCP and then give us a number of ways to acquire it to an intermediate (not AIC!!) in real time.
 
Well, I guess a faster machine can give you 50% like I got. Maybe the quad can actually pull it off, but oh well. In the future I'm going to go uncompressed and convert to this codec when necessary, but that's probably only for SDI live tap. MPEG Streamclip does an exceptionally high quality and fast job converting from m2t.
 
Compression. I thought any other compression level wouldn't work without dropping frames.

Also I thought Final Cut Pro wouldn't edit in realtime any HD Photojpeg higher than 25%. I think there was a workaround to force FCP but I cannot remember anymore.
 
Oh I'm definitely able to edit full 1080 rez at 75% quality on the G5. It's just the conversion to the codec isn't real time full raster in FCP with my machine.
 
I'm getting PhotoJPEG at 75% quallity via my Decklink card on a Dual 2.7 with 4GB RAM and a 800GB Promax dvBOX Firewire 800 drive.

If I nudge it to 80% I sometimes get a sustainable capture, but I sometimes get dropped frames. So 75% seems to be the ceiling for this custom preset.
 
Elton said:
Thanks John.

My only disappointment thus far is I haven't been able to get it to capture live SDI or HDV to SDI in real time-full raster- to the codec. I keep doing a custom setup with the Kona card and it sees the signal. I capture and all it seems to do is 960x540 resolution, full frame rate, in real time...and this is with a G5 dual 2.7! MPEG Streamclip seems to convert the m2t's faster than real time, so I'm definitely a little confused. Have you had any luck with your Decklink?
Click to expand...

I don't have a capture card yet, been working only off the HDV. I do expect to get one, and when I do I'll report any interesting results.

By the way, what are your exact settings when using MPEGStreamClip to export to photo JPEG? I have a quad mac and am seeing my exports going at about half real time when quality is at 75%. This is for 24f footage, btw. Haven't shot much 60i.
 
starway2001@mac.com said:
I'm getting PhotoJPEG at 75% quallity via my Decklink card on a Dual 2.7 with 4GB RAM and a 800GB Promax dvBOX Firewire 800 drive.

If I nudge it to 80% I sometimes get a sustainable capture, but I sometimes get dropped frames. So 75% seems to be the ceiling for this custom preset.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Is that a full 1920x1080 capture with no dropped frames at 75%? I don't have the firewire raid but FCP wasn't indicating any dropped frames. Hmmm, does Decklink specifically support the codec in it's hardware?
 
Yes. Full 1920x1080. And I think the PhotoJPEG is a Decklink codec because when I do "get info" on the actual Quicktime file it reads Decklink Codec.
 
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