Export Settings for "Stock" Video

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d90123

Member
I have very long clips, some over an hour, and they all have just peices of useable material I will be adding to my own libraries of "stock" footage.

Ideally, I would just like to trim off all the parts I do not want and store the clips that i like just as the original video was shot. But I take it this is not possible? Or, is there a way to simply cut my footage and keep it in the same mp4 container it was shot in?

From what I read it seems I will have to compress it in order to save the new, trimmed clips. If that is the case I was wondering what good compression settings are. I have been using h264 with a variable bitrate of 15 to export the clips to use in future projects, and I am having a hard time finding if this is a good mix between file size and quality.

How would you guys handle storing clips to use in future projects like this?

Thank you for any input!
 
In Davinci Resolve, two ways:
- Cut the video in short clips. Save as compound clips.
- Or cut the long clip in short clips then deliver as 'seperate clips' instead of clip (='whole timeline').
Save the clips in any format or container you like.
Now you have different clips.

Now use viewer, for sony that is Catalyst Browse' or any other viewer. To change your clipname and metadata.
 
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Thank you. So I am correct in assuming if for example you have a one hour 20GB mp4 clip from your camera, you can't just cut it in the middle and have two roughly 10GB mp4 clips, you have to send it through an extra round of compression first, or do lossless. I suppose I just don't understand video enough to comprehend why doimg something like that is not very simple, just cutting a video into pieces.
 
You can save or render the clips in any format. So yes you can cut it in the middle. And save as mp4. But rendering is always nessecary as far as I know. But there won't be an extra round of compression when rendering.
 
d90123 said:
I suppose I just don't understand video enough to comprehend why doimg something like that is not very simple, just cutting a video into pieces.
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Even if you COULD do that, why would you want to? If you're going to export for "stock" video you can't just trim the clips and call it done. You will also need to do some grading or touch-ups to the footage before you submit it. Everything needs processing in post. No exceptions. No video camera ever made by any manufacturer produces video that cannot be improved upon in post, especially with a program such as Resolve. Look at it this way, can you imagine a professional photographer shooting JPEGs and submitting the files for stock without running them through Lighroom, Photoshop, or whatever? Not a chance. Professional video is no different. If you want clips that will actually appeal to potential buyers you must touch them up in post.
 
OP isn't "submitting" anywhere, these clips are just going into their own stock library. Color correction/grading is not needed for this.

d90123: Re-compression is necessary with any editing, as the original compression was inter-frame - meaning most frames are not complete in and of themselves, but instead refer to other frames to save data. Consequently it must be decompressed to cut it, and hence recompressed to save it again (unless you want to save it as huge uncompressed files, of course).

Personally I'd just save the whole thing and not cut it at all, you really never know what parts might be useful in the future.
 
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nothing said:
Re-compression is necessary with any editing,
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That is not always true. I use Sony's Catalyst Browse software all the time to trim my clips without an recompression or transcoding. The software just makes an exact copy of the original file using whatever in/out points I designate - and throws away the tail and/or head. Besides the shorter length, there is no difference to the original footage.
 
Doug Jensen said:
That is not always true. I use Sony's Catalyst Browse software all the time to trim my clips without an recompression or transcoding. The software just makes an exact copy of the original file using whatever in/out points I designate - and throws away the tail and/or head. Besides the shorter length, there is no difference to the original footage.
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I believe that is the same way Mpeg Streamclip works. No recompression or transcoding.
 
Doug Jensen said:
That is not always true. I use Sony's Catalyst Browse software all the time to trim my clips without an recompression or transcoding. The software just makes an exact copy of the original file using whatever in/out points I designate - and throws away the tail and/or head. Besides the shorter length, there is no difference to the original footage.
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Then why didn't you post that in the first place? That's exactly what OP is looking for.
 
nothing said:
Then why didn't you post that in the first place? That's exactly what OP is looking for.
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Because I thought the OP wanted to submit the footage as "stock" -- and that is NOT a valid workflow for stock -- so I didn't suggest it. You say he doesn't want to submit the footage as stock, but only wants to build his own library, so maybe Catalyst Browse is the answer. But the OP doesn't say what brand of camera he is using, so if it's not Sony it probably won't work for him anyway. My earlier post was to address your blanket statement that trimming clips always requires recompression. It does not.
 
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nothing said:
I've done exactly that and it's definitely recompressed - it was not fast. Perhaps it depends what codec the original is in.
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GH5 16 sec. original file shot at 3840x2160 59.94p 420/8bit long gop 150Mbps with 1 second trimmed of front and end takes less than 2.5 seconds to save as. 284mb original and 278mb trimmed. I don't think it is recompressing.
 
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Rule #1, if exporting something for later re-use, don't use .mp4, very lossy. Consider .mp4 being for delivery only and should not be part of any archiving or compositing strategy. I can't speak for Catalyst - if it does indeed trim video into shorter clips with NO recompression, that's fine then no harm done.

But in general, if exporting a segment from your NLE for later re-use, use a good quality "intermediate" codec such as ProRes, DNxHD, or Cineform. These create files that may be quite a bit larger than the camera original, but the clip is then less-compressed. Meaning the source might be inter-frame (Long-GOP) with 4:2:0 color and the intermediate is likely intra-frame with 4:2:2 color. No, it doesn't make the source look better than the original, however it puts the brakes on quality loss since you are not compressing any further and the intermediate clip actually has far less compression than the original so will hold up better to additional editing and transcodes.

Thanks

Jeff
 
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