AIC Files :(

PerroneFord

PerroneFord

Deals in Lead
Someone has sent me some DL DVDs with quicktime files. Unfortunately, they did an export from FCP with the Apple Intermediate Codec.

Do I have any options in either Vegas or Premiere?
 
Ok, as an alternative, is there an export format in FCP that will give me the cleanest 720p file as possible that can be read in Vegas? One of the HD intermediate formats maybe?
 
He can export as DVCPRO HD and with the Raylight Decoder plugin from DVFilm, you can edit in Vegas with it.
 
I'm looking for free options. I don't have budget for this. If the Raylight a freebie in FCP? And I assume the decoder is a Freebie for me?
 
It would be used with Vegas, not FCP.

The only free solution might be uncompressed, but I doubt you'll enjoy working with that kind of file, if it's workable at all. A few bucks will make your life eminently more pleasant.

Or, send the footage to a P2 card and bring it in to your Windows machine that way, but you'll still need Raylight (separate from Raylight Decoder) to use the MXFs with Vegas.
 
Perhaps if I state the issue, I can get guidance.


User A has a Mac with FCP. He has several 720p files that he needs to get to User B with as little compression as possible.

User B has a PC with Vegas.

The transport medium is DL DVD. The file run times are 8-15 minutes each, and there are about 8 files. User A is willing to put a single file on each DVD.

User B will not be editing the files, merely re-compressing them in a particular format for internet use. Neither User A or User B wants to spend any money.

Oh, User A is in eastern Europe, and User B is in Florida. :)





Thoughts are welcome.
 
MJpeg is nearly lossless, but not quite. If you don't want to shed the money for Raylight or Cineform, I guess you can export as uncompressed, install FFmpegX, export using ffmpegx as Huffyuv, install the Huffyuv codec on Windows, and then it will be able to read/edit that format.
 
PerroneFord said:
I think that is going to be the ticket. Any difference between MJpegA and MJpegB?
Click to expand...

There is, but not in ways which make a difference for this. That said, go with A, because B is an Apple flavor for Apple purposes which are not involved with Vegas.

The quality won't be as good as DVCPRO HD (and Vegas won't be able to play it back as well, either). It's essentially a bunch of JPEGs strung together, and JPEGs are, of course, relatively heavily-compressed. You'd be better off with DVCPRO HD, especially if you plan to recompress into something else, but if "free" is your main criterion, then go for it.
 
Final delivery will be to the internet/www, so good lossy is ok. I am weighing the issue of quality of re-compression and final delivery versus someone in eastern Europe trying to do me a favor by supplying me with raw video. I do not want to make this an ordeal for him, and I am certainly not going to ask him to buy software, or install any on his machine to accommodate doing me a favor.

I care about the quality as much as any of you, but sometimes you just have to go along with certain things to accomplish the job.

I've used mjpeg in the past and have been pleased with it. In fact the first RED videos I ever saw (milkgirls) was compressed with mjpeg and it look more than good enough to me.

Thanks for the tip on using "A" flavor though David. You've been incredibly helpful over my time here.

I already have Huffyuv and export with it, so that's not going to be an issue. Is that codec available for Mac? If so, we may do a test render and see if the files it creates are small enough. But I'm not going to hold my breath for it.
 
PhotoJPEG is also quite good, particularly at 75% quality or higher. I don't recommend 100% because it will switch to RGB colorspace and you may see color/gamma shifts.
 
PerroneFord said:
Final delivery will be to the internet/www, so good lossy is ok. I am weighing the issue of quality of re-compression and final delivery versus someone in eastern Europe trying to do me a favor by supplying me with raw video. I do not want to make this an ordeal for him, and I am certainly not going to ask him to buy software, or install any on his machine to accommodate doing me a favor.
Click to expand...

He actually wouldn't have to buy anything -- if you wanted to do DVCPRO HD, he can already do that; it's you who would need Raylight Decoder on your machine ($95).

But if the MJPEG solution is good enough, then so be it.
 
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