Which codec should I export from FCP for Handbrake to compress?

N

Nityananda_SCSMath

Active member
Hey guys.
We used to shoot HDV video with Sony camcorders, edit in FCP and then export the HDV .mov master to be compressed to H264 distribution video using Handbrake.

We found that Handbrake compressed MUCH faster and made a visually superior result to Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder, and Sorenson Squeeze even with extensive keyframe/other settings tweaking.


My problem is that now we (happily, for the most part) shoot AVCCAM with Panasonic cameras and transcode to Prores LT for editing. When we export the final master in prores Handbrake can't read it (Handbrake uses FFMPEG which can't read Apple proprietary formats like AIF, Prores).

I have a couple of options:

- Export the master as 8 bit Uncompressed NTSC. (Gigantic file sizes)
- Export the master as DVCPROHD. (Can't seem to get proper 1280x720 dimensions?)
- Export the master as HDV. (Going backwards in image quality here, or does it not matter considering I'm going out to H.264 anyway?)
- Export the master as OfflineRT HD (Photo JPEG), Haven't tried this yet.
- Export the master as Prores LT, then use MPEG Streamclip (with the additional Avid DNxHD codec) to convert to DNxHD. Handbrake will read DNxHD.
(Having problems with brightness/gama changes from the original Prores)

Which option is best considering quality, speed, and file size? Or do you have an alternative suggestion to get Prores to Handbrake?

Thanks a lot!!!

-Chris
 
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I'd go Uncompressed- anything else is double compression which is kinda silly when you could just go straight out of FCP to H.264 with some good tweaking of your settings. But if you insist on Handbrake- feed it something uncompressed. Cheap hard drives are like what maybe $100 for 1TB these days?

Noah
 
Amazon was selling a 1 TB Seagate SATA drive with shipping for $40.00 earlier this week.

That's .04 cents per gigabyte.
 
I second going with Uncompressed.

Or go ProRes LT (the same as your sequence) out and use Compressor to encode to H.264?
 
I will say, I have gotten results in Apple's Compressor that rival the quality of the movie trailers on their website (compressed in H.264). Its all about tweaking your settings in Compressor. I'm not the first to say this, and probably won't be the last. I use the "Send To --> Compressor" all the time and have gotten great results. If you insist on Handbrake though , then I third the uncompressed file.
 
Hey guys. Thanks for the responses.

Uncompressed obviously is ideal, but I'm usually exporting 1-2 hour events and thats a dang big file.. Wish there was an equivalent in file size/quality to Prores that Handbrake could read, like DNxHD for instance.

As far as using compressor goes, I've tried tweaking it a lot to get good results and it was always slower and less quality than Handbrake. Other threads in other forums have reached similar conclusions, but I'm totally open to learning how to use Compressor to do the job faster and equal/better quality then Handbrake.

Maybe Joe and David you could give me some tips or refer me to a guide on how to better use Compressor? Also what is "QC" that makes it faster than Handbrake?

I've read a few tutorials/Ken Stone guides on using compressor and haven't had much success but I'd love to learn more.

Thanks again!
-Chris
 
Well as of now we've been editing different locations in India and USA, and always on someone's macbook pro. None of us have i7/i5's yet. Intel Core 2 Duo's only. Compressor 3.5.2
 
This thread was extremely helpful, as I'm in the same exact situation. Thanks for recommending the "Uncompressed" option. It will create a large file, but it's the best way to use Handbrake over Compressor, since Handbrake is far superior in every way.
 
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