7D Program for converting h.264 to prores?

Finnegan

Finnegan

Well-known member
Hey everyone, so I'm pretty new to the 7D post workflow. Reading through the threads, I realize it's pretty important to convert the 7D's footage which is natively in h.264 format to prores, or another codec, for quality and speed of editing purposes. Some people have suggested a third party program called MPEG Streamclip, and others have said Compressor works just fine. I'm wondering, is there a definitive answer as to which I should be using?

For some reason, I'm wary of third party applications. Are there pros and cons for MPEG Streamclip, Compressor, or both? Are they essentially both effective at converting footage?
 
AndrewGentle said:
Can FCP's Log and Transfer window do it?
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The conversion from h.264 to pro res? I don't know, I haven't actually checked. I don't imagine that it would though, as far as I know it's simply a way of bringing footage directly into FCP, and adding metadata to that footage. I'm pretty sure all type of footage conversions happen separately.
 
Finnegan said:
The conversion from h.264 to pro res? I don't know, I haven't actually checked. I don't imagine that it would though, as far as I know it's simply a way of bringing footage directly into FCP, and adding metadata to that footage. I'm pretty sure all type of footage conversions happen separately.
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Well, that's how I got my friend's AVCHD footage from his HF-S10 into ProRes on the timeline. Maybe your FCP is different than his.
 
Before anyone can use a third party app like mpeg streamclip to convert to prores you will need the codec installed to you machine (via quicktime).
Most mac shooter/users have FCP installed so this means the codec is installed and it shouldn't be a problem.

As a general rule Compressor will do a better job than mpeg streamclip simply because it has more options. Furthermore if you mess with anamorphic or non square pixels mpeg streamclip cannot handle those files.

However I've run into problems when I have created h264 deliverables with Compressor and sent them to a client with a PC. In that case mpeg streamclip saved the day.
 
I have FCS 3 but I use MPEG Streamclip to convert my h.264 files into Prores. This app is very easy to use and so far had no issues with it. Someone made a nice tutorial covering the basics but you should be able to figure it out. Anyways, it's a great tool and it's FREE. :happy:
 
Finnegan said:
I don't imagine that it would though, as far as I know it's simply a way of bringing footage directly into FCP, and adding metadata to that footage. I'm pretty sure all type of footage conversions happen separately.
Click to expand...

I know that you can use it to convert .mts folder structures from AVCHD to ProRes, but only if the whole folder structure is intact. I probably wouldn't bet on it working with 7D footage though.
 
Use Compressor. Simply open up compressor and dump your master files, select a destination and the Aple prores 4:2:2 setting. No need to select prores HQ.

Mpeg streamclip is also another good and fast convertion tool.

Canon is about to launch the Final Cut Pro DSLR H264 to Prores plugin, I believe by the end of the month. Read this somewhere...
 
Batch processing in MPEG streamclip is a lot simpler, and for those times when you don't need anything specific, for when you just want to take lots of clips and transcode to ProRes.

I use ProRes Proxy/LT, I think the data rate of standard/HQ is a bit overkill if all you're doing is making videos to go on the web.
 
daniel-black said:
i have fcs 3 but i use mpeg streamclip to convert my h.264 files into prores. This app is very easy to use and so far had no issues with it. Someone made a nice tutorial covering the basics but you should be able to figure it out. Anyways, it's a great tool and it's free. :happy:
Click to expand...

10+
 
While testing a couple methods of transcoding Canon 7D H.264 to ProRes, you will discover that MPEG Streamclip kept more accurate colours than Compressor.

MPEG StreamClip vs. Compressor
- File sizes were nearly identical.
- MPEG Streamclip was faster.
- Reds were different in both. MPEG Streamclip was closer.
- Contrast was higher in both. MPEG Streamclip was closer.
- In a separate test Compressor ProRes(HQ) was almost identical to (LT)
 
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