In Part 1, I show you how to convert your native H264 footage into something you can edit with.
Part 2 coming soon and deals with changing frame rates.
This tutorial is for Final Cut Studio 2 users. If you are using a MAC and do not have Final Cut Pro installed the codecs will not be available to you. Use something equivalent like DVCPROHd.
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Nice Tutorial… good piece of software. Fast isn’t it??
Philip you are the best. Thank you so much for FREE tutorials.
Philip,
So what’s the reason for using Apple XDCAM EX instead of ProRes 422 or even Apple XDCAM HD? (What’s the difference between the XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD by the way?)
Also, what format do you use when you export? is it H.264? If so, did you notice that the H.264 file always seems a little bit washed out compared to the Apple ProRes 422?
For disk space as mentioned in tutorial. XDCAM HD is not full hd unless you use XDCAM 422. Export comes in a later tutorial
Thanks Philip!
One wuestion, though. I don’t seem to have all the compression export options you’re showing on MPEG Streamclip.
I just installed the SW on a new laptop, no other editing SW in it. Are those installed by another SW, like Final Cut Pro?
For example, Apple XDCAM EX is not showing up.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Martin.
Yes it needs FCP 6 to work. The codecs come with it.
Thanks Philip
Nice Tut. I found that you can save your own preset(s) in the setup menu under presets. I often change the 30fps to 29.97fps when editing with XDCAM EX1 footage with Streamclip. Look forward to your next workflow for frame rate conversion.
Thank you, Philip. If one day I’ll get a Mac, I’ll know how to do it
the site says plugin is for windows also. i guess we can use it and edit on vegas or premiere?
MPEG Streamclip video converter for Windows XP/Vista/7
Good and concise tutorial Philip. I look forward to your full film look course.
Phillip, I am seeing a huge diffeerence in the contrast and density in files that are converted in both EDCAM HD vs. Prores 4.2.2 in Streamclip.
How are you setting up the in camera contrast, sharpness and saturation settings?
I am monitoring on a Apple Cinema 30.
Great work on your site. Love the new Russian piece!
I tried to use and like a Mac for two years. I hated it and am back to using Vegas on a PC. I hope you have some help for us PC users also. I am very interesed in getting a 5D. Your work is great and I love it.
)
am afraid I am clueless with PCs, MPEG Streamclip works with it too though! If someone wants to contribute a PC tutorial to my site please do!
Philip you are a star
Thank you!
I tried this on my Macbook Pro 2.53GHz and its painfully slow. A few minutes took half an hour and the laptop got heat up pretty fast. What is your experience like? Is this normal?
Just converting with MPEG STREAMCLIP? I use a laptop most of time and it shouldn’t be that slow or heat the computer up!
Yes, just converting using MPEGSTREAM. My laptop has only 2 GB of ram, I wonder if that’s why… I will upgrade it to 4 GB and try again.
Extra ram did make a different. 1 minute clip took 5 minutes to convert.
Philip, do we still convert this to prores now that FCP 7 supports AVHDC or h.264?
Hello Philip, very helpful tutorials for new users like me. I tried to convert the 5d files to xd cam but that option wasn’t in the list of available file types, I have a much shorter list. Any ideas on that? Thanks again.
[...] Philip Bloom Importing and Conversion Video To ProRes or ProRes HQ? For Windows – no tutorial but the product of choice, don’t use the 24p conversion, After Effects and Twixtor will do a much better job [...]
Very helpful, thanks. 2 questions :
- I’m running FCP 5, so all i have is XDCam HD… is it the best substitute to XDCam EX, or do you know of another better substitue? (DVCPro HD looks a little washed out)
- Once edited in XDCam, do you have a recommended method for exporting to SD DVD ?
many advanced thanks.
Not sure to be honest. XDCAM HD is not full HD so you lose resolution. What other options do you have? You compressor to convert to DVD.
I have DVCPro HD 1080i50 and 60, and some HDV. But surprisingly, the XDCAM HD using your method looks pretty good, closer in color and contrast than the DVCPro transcodes i tested. I’ll try finding FCP 7 or just the XDCAM EX codec, that may be simplest.
Regarding converting to DVD: do you have a recommended method for best results? (a straight export to compressor from the XDCAM timeline? or are there any benefits to transposing the timeline to a DV timeline first in FCP, and then exporting via compressor?)
Many thanks. E.
i export straight out of fcp into compressor and then into studio pro. looks awsome!
[...] [...]
You are damn good at this stuff. Great tutorial. I’m very new to video but I guess I have just enough of an understanding to soak up this stuff in one take. Thank you.
I’ll be getting the 7d disk in a couple of weeks along with my new camera. I’ll be using Nikkor primes initially so I’m now going to see if you have covered adapters and conversion.
Paulyman.
there is a link on my recommended gear page/ amazon store for the best nikon/ eos adaptor from Fotodiox Paul.
Hey Phillip, thank you for this, I have been stoked on your tutorials. We are using the 5d to shoot weddings, and showing movies on the spot at the end of the reception. It is really intense, but really fun.
We have been converting everything in compressor this season (pro res422), but on the apple discussions, someone was saying that you can get better detail in the highlights and shadows if you put your footage through color first, and send it out to Final Cut from there.
I just want to know if it is true, and if so, how do I do it in an organized fashion.
Here is the link: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9900126#9900126
his name is
Damir Frkovic
Thanks in advance for any help!
Philip / Others,
Can anyone tell me why I have far fewer compressor options than what Philip shows on his tutorials? I do not have any Apple XDCAM options.
Any ideas?
Philip – I just read the obvious at the top of the blog entry. Currently i’m using FCE, not FCP.. I’m guessing that is the problem.
yes am afraid so!
great work Phillip!!!!
y can`t u use compressor????
i think thats the best way to convert H264/AVCHD to pro-res 444/422 hq..
There is an inbuilt preset in the settings list search for that by “24f”
native 1 mts video for 5d mk2= arnd 300 mb–[fullHD 30f]
if u convert that to pro res422hq FullHD 24f………..then its around 1 Gib
and Btw Nothing is lost in terms of quality
Cinema tools and Mpeg stream clip are secondary ways ….i think that way
btw conform to 24 is available in Final cut pro itself under tools Menu
and i think AVCHD is avalable with FCE4.0—-
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
it says bulit in AVCHD so…..
Ramadas Narayanan
Apple Certified Pro
I don’t use compressor as I find it slow and unreliable.
Hi Phil, I’m new to the site, but love your tutorials. I was also blown away by your Skywalker Ranch footage. Great work on that.
I have a question about available codecs. I don’t have Final Cut Studio 2 installed yet. I had it, but had to uninstall it when I wiped my Mac drive to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Currently, the disks are not at my office, so I will be editing some test footage I shot with the Canon 7D this past Sunday on Adobe Premiere CS3. I actually haven’t edited with Adobe Premiere yet, but I can’t see it being that difficult.
My question is: What other codecs are good to edit with? Here is a link to a screenshot of the ones I have available in MPEG Streamclip (Windows version):
http://www.parallacticpictures.com/mpeg-streamclip-codecs
Let me know what my best option is here. Thanks!
To be honest not knowing Premiere Pro means I don’t know what to recommend…
No problem, Premiere seems to like AVIs. But I find that MPEG4 is a universally (for the most part), decent codec for working with. So I’m converting all the Quicktime H.264′s to MPEG4 w/ Apple Compressor codec. Fingers crossed.
ps
How does one get an avatar for his/her profile on this lovely site?
go to gravatar.com and create one there
What codec available in MPEG Streamclip (Windows version) is good to edit with in Sony Vegas Pro 9.
I have been using iPhoto, what happens if you do?
Philip,
Thank you for the tutorial – This makes things so much easier. I do have a question-
I shoot everything in 1080p 24FPS. When I do the conversion with MPEG Streamclip – Should I be selecting XDCAM EX 1080p24 35 Mb/s?
i recommend pro res LT these days or normal pro res. if you do use XDCAM then yes that is what you want
Thanks- Any reason why?
I don’t see Pro Res LT, but I do see Pro Res 422. Only downfall I am seeing is that the file size is quite larger then XDCAM.
If you have the time- can you please explain what the difference is between XD Cam and Pro Res 422?
My Original file was 412MB shot in 24p on the 7d in 1080p.
XD conversion brought it to 322MB
Pro Res conversion brought it to 1.01GB !!!
I appreciate any feedback you can provide.
Philip,
I am currently having a problem with not having the 1920×1080 codec available for me on the MPEG Streamclip Movie exporter. I read some of the other posts on this site and it seems that other people have the same problems, but the problem is usually that they don’t have Final Cut Studio 2 or have FCE instead. However, I have FCP Studio 2 installed and I’m still having the same problem.
Do you or anyone else have any idea what the problem might be? Also, I’m not too great with compressor- what would be the way to do it(albeit more slowly) with that?
nevermind, stupid mistake of mine caused that
which codec are you missing?
Here is a link to a screenshot of the ones I have available in MPEG Streamclip (Windows version)
http://www.parallacticpictures.com/mpeg-streamclip-codecs
Greetings Mr Phillip, I have a question. How do I convert/edit mov files in Final Cut Express 4. I do not see the same prores 422 options shown in your tutorial with Final Cut Studio 7, Thanks in advance.
Cont. I have a 7D & shot some footage in 1920×1080 24fps.
Hey PB, Has your workflow stayed the same since the video or have your adjusted it due to the recently released Canon FCP7 PlugIn.
also, your thoughts on ProRes 422 (LT)
Hi Philip,
I love your tutorials. I was just wondering, why is it better not to use iphoto (and I’m assuming image capture as well) to import my clips? And also I don’t understand why it’s better to use an external hard drive instead of my internal hard drive. I’ve been doing it the exact opposite way than you say for a while and I haven’t noticed any problems. Is there something that I’m not realising?
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Philip, Nice Tutorial! Its really helpful. When Im exporting from MPEG Streamclip via XDCAM EX 1080p 25f, and Import that into a new FCP Sequence that is the same format it plays fine with out the need for rendering. However when I export a Pro Res 422 (LT) from Streamclip and import that into a Sequence that is the same settings in FCP, it always wants to “Change the Sequence settings to match the clip settings” Do you know why ? I’ve checked the Properties of the Sequence of before and after the change to match the footage, but I cannot see a difference of settings.
Im running FCP 7.0.2
Thanks for your time
Regards Stephen (Melbourne, Australia)
That’s a great tutorial, but… what about the poor PC users ? Have you a link or something about the workflow, the good codec etc… to use with Windows ?
Thanks
Hi there,
I was wandering if you could do a premiere workflow. I would like to specifically know wether I should edit native footage from my 5d or convert with streamclip before importing to premiere to work with and what i should convert to to make editing faster. Playback is rough once I add one effect regardless of resolution settings for playback. I would also like to know the best export settings for web use like youtube or vimeo using premier’s export function with keeping file size in mind. I have been doing 720p 23.96 settings but the file size is still huge. Not sure if that’s just how it is or if I could convert it again to something smaller etc. I love you site and it helps me daily!!
Hello Phillip Bloom,
I just wanted to thank you for the tutorials. Would be lost without them! Cheers.
Hi,
Thanks for your easy and professional tutorials.
I am using a Canon 550D T2i. What cable would I use for the conversion and/or importing HD video to my mac? My outputs are a/v out digital or a HDMI ( I believe the later is for watching your videos on TV.) Would it be a/v – fire wire cable? What I use now is the one that came with the camera a/v – USB. I just want to be able to keep my files in HD. Iphoto probably converts the files to a low quality. Could I use Canon EOS utility or should I use what you suggested – Square 5.
Thanks for your help.
Pam
hi pam
iMovie does not drop the quality but the best way is a simple USB card reader. then the card shows up on the desktop and copy the folder to an external hard drive. Not to your internal drive and ideal with a backup.
Best
P
Oh Mr Bloom,
This is great. I spent hours trying to figure out which file type to convert these DSLR native files to.
So easy, so clear.
I am officially offering you my extra few hours of life that I would have spent wasting time experimenting with file types. Viva la low budget video editors.
i would recommend checking out magic bullet grinder. this article is a bit out of date!
Hi Phillip, With the Mark III what are you suggesting now, considering the new ALL-I codec? Pro Res?