How to convert .mov files?

T

tears2040

Carbonite Member
I was basically loading the .mov files into Final Cut and editing my clips like that, it now appears that I must convert them to Pro Res 422 for optimal quality?


When I had my GH1 through Log and Transfer you converted it through there ( final cut) I see no option else where or who do this even in Compressor?


Someone help me out

thanks
 
tears2040 said:
... it now appears that I must convert them to Pro Res 422 for optimal quality?
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No, the point of using ProRes in your workflow is NOT for quality purposes. Its for speed. Working with the off-camera H.264 files is much slower than using a ProRes intermediate.
 
Use Compressor.

Actually my favorite way to do it is to create a droplet, or just use the default Droplet.app (search for it I think there is one that just exists.) Just drop all the footage onto the droplet and select ProRes 422...hit send and fire up batch monitor to see what's going on with the process.

Depending on your hardware you can set up Q Master to give yourself faster transcoding speeds.
 
When exporting ( I have a small clip ) do you export to Apple Pro Res 422, 422HQ or H.264 for best quality?

Thanks once again



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tears2040 said:
"The initial reason for transcoding to ProRes was to work with a more editing friendly codec. However, I am no longer recommending this because the video range is limited to 16-235 RGB (as Oleg summarized so nicely). Instead, edit in H.264 and render your Color project to ProRes, giving you a broadcast quality final Quicktime which can easily be compressed for Vimeo or print to HDCAM SR or what have you in FCP."



Thoughts?

http://vimeo.com/1829823
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As for the "video range is limited to 16-235 RGB" in ProRes, I'm not 100% familiar with the codec but it would seem awfully stupid on Apple's part not to allow full 0-255 mapping with ProRes. Surely there is an option.
 
shaocaholica said:
No, the point of using ProRes in your workflow is NOT for quality purposes. Its for speed. Working with the off-camera H.264 files is much slower than using a ProRes intermediate.
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Not quite. Speed, yes but h.264 is a VERY compressed format with crappy color space so you want to convert to ProRes for speed AND quality.
 
Noiz2 said:
Not quite. Speed, yes but h.264 is a VERY compressed format with crappy color space so you want to convert to ProRes for speed AND quality.
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You mean color sub-sampling? You can't get something from nothing. Converting to 422 from 420 doesn't actually add back the lost color data.
 
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