AVI clips to FCP?

P

powerdog

Veteran
Is there any good way of converting AVI to editable, high quality mov files? W/o getting into my DV Rack issues with QT files, which no one at S.M. can solve, I'm wondering if I could just shoot AVI and convert them.

I did try using QT7 Pro to convert an AVI clip, and it imported but with red rendering line. Not a good sign to me, usually.
 
I use AVI alot with FCP.
either drop in timeline and render or use compressor to convert to QT.
I've used QT Pro for quick conversions as well.
I guess it really depends on your project.
If its a 30 sec spot...just render sequence in FCP.
 
Typically it would be a number of 1-2 minute clips, adding up to between 10 and 40 minutes total.

So is the AVI comparable in quality for DVD use?
 
For Horrorfest, the editing was done on a PC. I took the .avi file, dropped in FCP, rendered and then exported it to Compressor to turn it into a H.264 file and worked great.

In the past I've used .avi files mixed with my .mov files in projects and had no problems with picture quality. You just need make sure you render the files.
 
Blaine, I've done that, but went straight to Compressor, by-pass the FCP timeline and save yourself a lot of time.
 
BenB said:
Blaine, I've done that, but went straight to Compressor, by-pass the FCP timeline and save yourself a lot of time.
Click to expand...
I tried but Compressor wouldn't load the .avi file directly, for me. I had to first convert it in QTPro to a .mov file. That's why I took it into FCP.

Did I miss something?
 
If you convert it to a .mov in QTPro, then you can still skip the FCP step. Or just make it an H.264 in QTPro. I try to avoid AVIs as much as possible. I've come to really like WMV if I have to move between a Mac and a PC. But you "should" be able to go AVI to H.264 in QTPro without launching FCP.
 
BenB said:
If you convert it to a .mov in QTPro, then you can still skip the FCP step. Or just make it an H.264 in QTPro. I try to avoid AVIs as much as possible. I've come to really like WMV if I have to move between a Mac and a PC. But you "should" be able to go AVI to H.264 in QTPro without launching FCP.
Click to expand...
Ah, but there was the problem. I could make it H.264 in QTPro but it needed to be a smaller file than I was able to get out of QTPro so I had to resort to Compressor, which at least for me, was able to accomplish that. It could be that I haven't worked out of QTPro enough to know all the secrets, but I tried every setting I could find and just couldn't get it down to 50MB (Horrorfest)
 
Why do you suppose that an AVI clip converted to QT Movie in QTP7 still needed rendering in FCP? So far, I haven't found any conversion setting that avoids FCP rendering.
 
powerdog said:
Why do you suppose that an AVI clip converted to QT Movie in QTP7 still needed rendering in FCP? So far, I haven't found any conversion setting that avoids FCP rendering.
Click to expand...
It doesn't for me. But I just wasn't sure if I'd be introducing any quality problems with the conversion.
 
So, regardless of the time involved, if I drop an AVI into FCP and render, the quality should be comparable to native QT? If so, I can stop fretting about my DV Rack/QT problem and just shoot in AVI, the format DVR seems to prefer.
 
If it works for you, do it. FCP renders with the QTPro engine, so what would be the difference in render quality if you are NOT doing any editing nor compoisiting in FCP?
 
Well, anything that's recompressed loses something, "technically". Just a matter of if you can see it or not.
 
Thanks to all who pointed out that AVI to FCP is a reasonable workaround. The test clips look plenty good for my purposes (DVD and web). Rendering is slow, but I always have other things to do while I wait.
 
Mpeg Streamclip

Mpeg Streamclip

Use Mpeg Streamclip to convert AVIs to .MOVs. Drop the file in and export it as a quicktime movie using the dvcpro/ntsc compressor(assuming a DV sequence). This will allow you to work in a FCP timeline natively. It's much faster than dealing with render times in FCP and doesn't require a re-render if you change something. Also works well for converting photo slideshows. Saved me hours of rendering inserting slideshows into the sequence rather than keyframing each still. Good Luck.
 
Anything you can view in FCP, you can view in QTP (as FCP uses QT for it's imaging capacaties). To avoid one generation loss - go dirctly for QT or compressor.


Gunleik
 
Robo, the Mpeg Streamclip does work very well...much faster than FCP. The only thing I changed from the defaults was moving the quality slider to 100%. Anything else?
 
That should do it. You can experiment with progressive modes that might preserve more data but you may also encounter render issues on import. I've always dumped it back down to DVCAM so I just let Mpeg Streamclip perform the interlacing as to avoid too many transcodings. Good Luck.
 
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