re-editing h.264 file

[Lustgarten]

So after cutting feature film the original file was deleted and all I have is an H.264 that is 7gb. To avoid recutting the entire film what am I looking at if I do changes in fcpx to the h.264 file and then export it again. what should I export in to maintain quality. Am I screwed?

 

[Exact]

So after cutting feature film the original file was deleted and all I have is an H.264 that is 7gb. To avoid recutting the entire film what am I looking at if I do changes in fcpx to the h.264 file and then export it again. what should I export in to maintain quality. Am I screwed?

As long as you didn't crush the bit rate too much in the first export you should be fine.

Even if you did crush it too much, what's to stop you trying a minute or so of the video and seeing how you like (or don't like) the final result. Chances are you'll be fine.

For the future, anything I think I may need to do *anything* with, including transcoding to different devices etc, I export a ProRes file and make an H264 from that. That way I know I have a god quality source.

This assume of courses that you no longer have your original event/project that you can recall, in which case what kind of re-edits are you going to do anyway?

 

[Lustgarten]

As I posted previously I apparently moved the project files without using the right protocol and then managed to delete the original project file so I'm left with just the output edit or going back to originals and re cutting the film.

 

[Exact]

OK - so try doing an import / edit and export of a short section and see if the quality is 'good enough'. Simple.