DNxHD in FCP

C

chocblu

Member
Hey all,

Im trying to find a suitable intermediate codec to go from Mac to PC with DVCPROHD footage. So far we've been using the 10bit uncompressed blackmagic (i read somewhere that is looses some Luma i think) and also its pretty big. So i thought about looking into the avid DNxHD. Seems like a good codec. So i downloaded the mac version, installed it but it hasnt come up with the option to export from FCP.

Im using FCP 6 on a Mac Book Pro with OS X 10.4.10.

The codec i used was http://www.avid.com/onlineSupport/supportcontent.asp?browse=&productID=0&contentID=10554

as this was in a pkg format. It seemed to work, the installer completed with no problems.

Any help would be great

Cheers

Mark
 
How about exporting from QT? Does QT see it as an option?

I'm not sure the codec is available as an encoding option unless you have the Avid software. I'll wager the codec you downloaded was to enable you to VIEW footage encoded that way, but that you cannot encoded it that way in FCP. Because it is proprietary to Avid...they wouldn't want it to be compatible with FCP.
 
DNxHD is not suitable as cross-platform codec. I'd stick with the Blackmagic for best quality and cross-platform compatibility. Hard drives are pretty cheap these days. If it's all in one facility, consider a SAN(centralized media server).

Noah
 
The Avid DNxHD Quicktime codecs are provided free for both PC and MAC. There are no view/export limits what so ever with these Quicktime codecs. Avid actively encourage this which is why they make them freely available for both platforms, unlike Apple.

The ones you downloaded are the correct Universal Binary version. I have them installed too and they show up (as do all the Avid codecs) in the FCP 6.0 Quicktime export options.

As to whether its the right codec for your workflow, I would imagine not, since you will not get any RT or optimized playback performance cutting with this codec in FCP, so you would need to do another transcode which could be avoided with Noah's suggestion.
 
Thanks for all your help.

I got it to work in the end, just tried a few different versions i think.

In terms of RT or optimised playback, im guessing your talking about with the blackmagic hardware installed. This isnt our situation as were just using the codec. Mainly because its cross platform and free to download. Therefore with the black magic codec, it wont play back unless i lower the quality.

But ive been able to playback in real time the Avid codec. We're not actually looking at much cutting with this codec, its more of a way to get the rough/final cut to combustion on a PC (because we have more PC labs with combustion) in some form that can be read by a PC and back to finish in final cut.

Is there any downside to cutting with the DNxHD codec, or any downside at all that i should know about?

Cheers

mark
 
There's totally a downside DNxHD support in FCP is not great. Trust me unless you are Avid on both machines you do not want this codec in your workflow.

If playback on the Mac side is the issue you could always batch transcode the Blackmagic files to DVCPROHD with Compressor for RT edit work or go the Animation codec for VFX work. Then at the end of your edit you reconnect to the Blackmagic files so you'll have max quality and can then send the final edit back to the PC if needed.

Noah
 
Could you elaborate on the problems with final cut and DNxHD? ive done a few tests and it seems fine so far. I havnt done a lot on it so if there are problems id like to know about it. But i would like some concrete problems. I understand that i can use black magic as a final source as ive done this before.

However my point is that ive been able to playback in real time the DNxhD footage that i exported from final cut, on PC and MAC, and this would mean a lot less steps needed to export, grade and then make sure the final edit is correct.

The Luma loss i had heard about was when putting the 10bit uncompressed into AE, so this is no longer a problem, its more the size and inability to play it back in real time.

Is there a large quality difference between the 10bit and DNxHD?

Thanks for all your help
 
If it's working for you, go for it. My point is there zero support on the FCP side for this codec so if it starts going awry you'll be asking Avid for FCP support which is not a good position. But if you are into this codec it's all you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top