FCP sequence format for 5D videos

M

maltess2

Well-known member
Hi, I have a weeding video shoot with the canon 5D at 1920 x 1080 25 p, I am triying to make a dvd but the quelity result is far from the original. What is the secuance preset I should use to edit in FC? I am not familiar with this and dont knlw the best option. hdv 25p? H.264?

Is the H.264 preset in quicktime conversion de best output format fpr best quality?

I trid this codec when exporting and went to compressor and choose DVD HD best quelity, than I burned that in DVD SP and Roxio toast, in both cases i got very poor results, well the copy from dvd sp was not readbale by the dvd player. So I guess I am chossing the worng sequence format to edit in FCP

Best regards
 
I'm not sure where to start. Which FCP are you using? Which setting did you use for the edit? Did you transcode before editing? Did you get errors in DVD SP when building? How long is the total of all video on DVD? If it is under 90 minutes you can encode via compressor to a better quality then DVD Best. Also "DVD HD best quelity" is not a setting used for SD dvd's.
 
DVD is SD, so no wonder you can see a loss of quality from 1920*1080 to 720*480 pixels. Make a BluRay disk if you want to conserve the quality.

I convert the native 5D file into ProRes422 with the Canon log and transfer plugin, edit in ProRes422. Export this as Quicktime movie (.MOV) "master file" still in ProRes422. This I take* into compressor and convert it into best quality DVD under 90 minutes, and author the DVD from that. That is as good as a DVD can get (not even near the original, as explained above).

A better, modern delivery route is to convert the master .MOV into a 720p h.264 file with Compressor (Apple devices) trying to push it under 4 GB in size (for across platform compatibility). This can be played with a computer from a HDD, possibly connected to a HD TV, and given to people on a USB memory stick. YouTube also takes this format.

*) It is possible to export the timeline to Compressor directly, but I have noticed that text elements do not always keep the right font size when taking this route (???). So making a full resolution "master file" first "burns" the text into the frames and Compressor can not mess with them.
 
I was trying to get some more info before jumping to conclusions. DSLR footage can look really good on a DVD. If you, however, edit the files directly from the camera then export as h.264 then take into Compressor using the HD DVD settings then take into Toast thus allowing toast to try and convert this footage into SD DVD Mpeg-2 it will look awful. It will also take a very, very long time to complete these awful files.
 
Ok so based on the OP you are doing it wrong. That may not be the case, but from the few detail provided it seems likely. If you are using FCP version 6 or 7 then you need to transcode the 5D footage. Many prefer ProRes but it is not required. You could use any number of Codec's FCP supports. When you are done editing export with the Quicktime movie option. Then take that file to Compressor and select an MPEG-2 option that is for SD DVD. If your final DVD will have less then 90 minutes you can adjust the settings to give you even better quality then the presets. I use 7.5Mbps. Import that MPEG-2 into DVD Studio. Be sure to watch the warnings issued by the software during the build process. Currently Blu-Ray and Video file delivery are the only way to deliver HD quality content but DVD's made from DSLR footage can look very good. If yours does not then you are doing something wrong.
 
Thought I should also note that it may seem to be bad quality if you watch it on a modern computer in full screen mode. On any given computer you are asking it play footage from double to quadruple the original size of the medium. The same goes for watching it on a 52" LCD TV. When I use my PS3 and my 32" LCD it looks amazing, but so did my DVX100 footage.
 
Hello, Thanks a lot, I was not doing the transcoding so I will start from the beginning following these instructions. Just one thing, I jave already edit the project, Can I export a an edl file ? to use the project lately with transcoded files, it would be terrible to start all over again
 
I have use the plug in and now I have all the files in 422 and ready, but my main worry is the EDL thing. I am triying to open the edel i created with the first edit and I get an eeror saiying thet is not possible to open EDL, markers have been place where error occured. Can I solve this? I never tried an EDL operation before. Can I use the same original edit project with the new files trough this or any other way?

thanks a lot
 
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Hi again, Since te EDL option was giving me errors, I coopied the edit original project in a new one, since the original files (not transcoded to pro res) were in a diffrent herd drive than the transcoded one, I turned off the HD and once the media is missind I have reconnect the media from the transcoded files. I think is ok now, when i export a quictime movie , this is prrress 190. Now, when exporting the prores quicktime movie should I make it self contained? then i go to compressor

cheers
 
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