Mac/FCE <--> PC (best quality)

PerroneFord

PerroneFord

Deals in Lead
I posted this in another forum, but really got nothing, so thought I'd ask here in this forum since you Mac people are VERY active here:

*****

Please forgive me, I am not a Mac owner, but am trying to coordinate projects with Mac owners. One in particular at the moment.

Here is what we are trying to do:

1. He owns a Mac with FCE. He owns an FX1.
2. I want him to capture to FCE in the best possible quality
3. I want him to export a file that I can read on my PC
4. I want to do color correction and grading, and send him files back with no loss of quality.

My questions are these:

1. What is the absolute best format he can use to get data into FCE? I am aware of the AIC codec. Is this as good as it gets for FCE? Is Cineform HDV or Cineform 2k a viable upgrade? I can read Cineform so it's not an issue.

2. Can he write out a file from FCE that is "lossless" or essentially lossless without purchasing anything. If all he can do is AIC, can he use QTPro to export that file lossless to QT_Uncompressed or QT_PNG?

3. When I finish my work on the PC can I hand him back a file he can take natively into FCE? Or will he have to do another conversion from a QT format into AIC? I'd prefer not to go through that quality loss twice if I don't have to.


For the purposes of this, disk space is not a problem. I can read Mac drives on my PC, and we have all the disk space required.

What would be your ideal workflow as a Mac/FCE person working with someone on a PC? And please don't say tell him to get a Mac, because that ain't happening! LOL!

Thanks,

-P
 
I believe it can. I know that Final Cut Pro can but I'm not completely sure on Express. I would bet that it can.
 
Shoot is done, videos are out of post, and proof DVD is cut. However, I am trying to give the best finals back to the client.

And in future work, I believe he can export uncompressed or lossless PNG and give me those instead of working with QT_JPEG like we did this time. My ignorance of his options on the Mac and FCE are why I have compressed files for this job.

Surely SOMEONE out there has FCE and can check export and import setting. Otherwise I'll call Apple on Monday.
 
Final Cut EXPRESS only works with DV and HDV...period. HDV native and Apple Intermediate Codec for HD. It does NOT work with uncompressed, nor export uncompressed.

The HDV and AIC codecs ONLY WORK on Macs with FCE or FCP installed. You cannot view them on a PC or a Mac that doesn't have FCE installed.

As a general rule, you cannot mix editing platforms when it comes to sharing footage. Footage captured with one system typically does not work well, if at all, on another system on another platform. Your options would be to edit in FCE, the export an EDL that you can use to recapture the footage for color correction on the other system. Or output a tape of the final edit and capture that into the other system. Those would be the "lossless" options.

There are the SHEER codecs by BitJazz...very good compression and cross platform. Lossless? No, but very little loss.
 
Well,

Somehow he was able to export photojpeg from FCE and send those to me on a hard drive. Which I opened just fine, edited, graded, and have created masters of. I'm not sure how all that works though.

I did note on some webpage that FCE was able to export "quicktime" formats, whatever that means. That's what got me curious.

Thanks for your thoughts thus far.
 
Might be time to upgrade to Final Cut Pro if actual paying jobs on the line. FCE is fine but meant for HDV and DV hobbyists making the leap up from iMovie not pro, paid work...

Noah
 
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