Export HVX200 P2 footage Uncompressed

[TWJP]

Hey all --

I've been trying to clean out my library of old projects... and I want to basically go into Premiere Pro CS4, open up my project... export it fully uncompressed... so I can delete all the raw footage and reclaim some hard drive space.

The important projects are all recorded in 720pN.

I thought 'export to P2' would be the dead-on way to do this... but after testing it out, I'm a bit confused.

For some reason, two video files were created in the new export's Contents folder. I loaded both video files into PP, and this is where it gets really weird for me.

Both files are the full, 14 minute long movie. The first one is 1.1gb in size, and the second one is about 4gb.

So I drop both files into a time-line... and the only difference between the two, that I can tell, is their data rate.

The first (smaller) file's data rate is 1.4 MB/s. The second (and larger) file's rate is 4.1 MB/s. In the small monitor (and at 1am with tired eyes), there's no naked-eye difference in video quality.

So I switch back over to the edited project's time-line and check some clip properties. The original footage's bit rate is 5.5MB/s (the number you get if you add the first and second exported video files).

So... I'm at a loss. Could someone explain what's going on? Just a one time glitch maybe? Why isn't the P2 export a carbon copy of the edited footage, just into one single MXF file?

 

[cbrougham]

The P2 Export function creates a P2-compliant folder and file structure, so that it can be placed on a P2 card for playback. This means that you get a CONTENTS folder with the standard 6 subfolders (AUDIO, CLIP, etc.), and the individual video MXFs are limited to 4GB in size to adhere to the FAT32 filesystem. It's working as it should.

What you're doing is bringing those two MXFs in as individual clips which isn't necessary, due to the fact the Premiere automatically links spanned clips. If you use the Media Browser (set to Panasonic P2 view mode) to look at the folder you exported, you'll see just one clip--not two. If you import this one clip, Premiere will reference both video files comprising that clip, and play them back seamlessly. The same thing happens when you shoot a long take to P2 that goes over the 4GB limit.

The reason for the weird bitrate is that Premiere is doing some math that doesn't really apply. Yes, 5.5MB/s is the correct bitrate, which is based on file size divided by duration. Well, you have two MXFs with different file size, but to Premiere, they have the same duration (because Premiere spans those clips, remember?). Premiere's math is correct, but it's operating on the wrong numbers, hence the weird bitrates. Just ignore this; if you import according to the method I mentioned above, the bitrate should be calculated correctly. As you've surmised, the video quality is the same. At least with P2 Export, you won't create one encapsulated file; what you're seeing is what you get with that method.

Now, that all said, if you're using the P2 Export, you're not exporting uncompressed, because P2 does not support uncompressed media. You're exporting to whatever the format of your sequence is set to be; in your case, that's DVCPROHD 720pN. So, you will have some compression/recompression going on, at least for segments that need to be compressed. If you don't see a red line above your footage in the sequence, Premiere should do a direct copy from the source to the destination without recompressing the footage. As long as the footage looks good, though, you're going about it the right way.

 

[TWJP]

Thank you for the crystal-clear response! You were right.

But, now I have a new (but related) question for you.

The entire edited movie is 'redlined' because it was shot with a lens adapter (footage is upside-down and had to be rotated) and simple PP based color correction throughout.

Should I use a different export setting to save the best copy? I don't plan to ever edit anything in the movie again, I just want the best copy possible so I can create different exports of it in the future, if need be.

I've heard of the Lagarith RGB codec and a couple others... which would be best?

It's a 14 minute long movie, and all the raw footage is about 65 gigs on my hard drive. If I can keep the 'uncompressed' file at or below 20 gigs, I'd be more then happy.