GH4 and h.264 MOV and FCP 7

Question

I'm just now figuring out how to edit 1080 HD h.264 MOV files from my Panasonic GH4. I have no trouble importing them, but as soon as I put these clips into the Timeline they need rendering. After rendered all is fine. I've read on-line that FCP 7 doesn't like h.264 and that one should convert these files to ProRes. I've tried that and that works fine too.
But what I'm wondering is: what is FCP 7 doing when I import the h.264 files and it has me render them? Is this rendering converting them to ProRes ( maybe shows how little I know about rendering)? If so, is it just as easy, if not easier, to go this route, rendering only the portion of each clip I use, rather than converting all whole file to ProRes before I begin?
Thanks
John

Answer 1

Canada John wrote:
So, if I understand you correctly, when I rendered was I converting the H.264 file to ProRes 422?
Yes.
If so, is this actually a reasonable place and means to convert, versus using Compessor or Log and Transfer (where I admit I couldn't figure out how to convert H.264 to ProRes)
While it will do it, it certainly not a best practice procedure. You need to check each render very carefully and very the entire file when you export that the video and audio from your source files is being correctly rendered - this is mainly a sync issue, more than a quality one. It really is much better to just convert the material prior to editing.
You can look at an application like EditReady, which will bulk convert your source material to ProRes:
http://www.divergentmedia.com/editready
They have a trial download that will convert the first 60 seconds of files so you can verify the workflow.
The Panasonic GH4 offers two H.264 MOV HD 1080p settings. One is 100 bit and (IPB) GOP. The other is 200 bit and ALL-I. In both cases I was required to render. I suppose in the ALL-I case it was that though a full-frame capture it was not ProRes.
Yes, that's right. The codec did not match. Keep in mind your camera is shooting in a format optimized for acquisition with the highest quality in the smallest possible file size, and that, while great for recording, is not great for editing. That is why Apple went with ProRes. More modern editors like Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro rely on the the newer hardware horsepower available now to basically do this conversion in real time on the fly - so you don't need to pre-convert your files.
When I look at the Sequence Settings, besides the information I list above the Aspect Ratio says HDTV 1080i (16:9). There are options for HD (960X72) (16:9), HD (1280X1080) (16:9), HD (1440X1080) (16:9), but no option to choose something like HD 1080p.
The setting for HD 1080i is the one you want. It is appropriate for work in 1080P as well, it is not listed that way because FCP-7 was abandoned by Apple before that was added to the listing - but it is the setting to use.
If rendering is conforming my clip to the Sequence Settings could it possibly also be converting my 1080p to 1080i?
Your sequence is progressive as long as Field Dominace is set to None. If it set to Upper or Lower, then it is interlaced. I you have an editing timebase of either 24 (for film output or the web) or 23.98 (for output to video) the Field Dominance option should be grayed out as there is no interlaced standard for that framerate.
MtD