Mixed formats in timeline

Hi,
I'm editing a piece that's being shot with various cameras and formats. Most of the footage is Quick Time 960x540,16 bit. A smaller amount of footage is AVI 640x480, 8 bit.
When I put the AVI footage into Quick Time, what should I export and save as before importing into FCP?
And, what should I set my Sequence Settings to so I don't have to render too much footage in the Timeline? I don't see a 960x540 option.
(I'm working in FCP 7)
thanks!
Eve

well it's a 16:9 format. Is your 640x480 material 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen, which means it's anamorphic with the display of the 640x480 image stretched horizontally? If this material 4:3, you have to decide whether you want your sequence to be 16:9, in which case you either have black bars on the left and right of your 4:3 material or you could scale up your 4:3 material to fill the frame and lose the top and bottom part of the frame OR you can make your sequence 4:3 and "letterbox" the 16:9 material (black bars at top and bottom) or scale up the 16:9 material to fill the frame and lose the material on the left and right. Remember scaling up will cause you to lose quality. If you decide on a 4:3 standard def sequence, you should be able crop your 16:9 "HD" material to fill the frame and this sounds to me like the best solution.
I would use compressor to convert all your footage to a single fcp friendly format before editing.
Before you go any further, what is your end use? This should help decide the best way to proceed.

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HDV mixed format editing and mastering for broadcast TV

Hi
I have HDV blues with regards mixed format and multi time base.
Any help advice will be greatly appreciated.
I have never handled HDV in multiformat and multiple timebase to Mater and output for Broadcast television.
I am hoping to master to DVD directly on the configuration ( details provided below ) to deliver to NTSC and PAL market for DVD retail.
However I would need to take to a post house, one or more quicktime file to Output to Digital Betacam for television broadcast for both NTSC and PAL formats.
with regards
problems I am facing are on two fronts:
1) I am unsure of best quality and workflow to output master on Digital Betacam tape for broadcast TV in NTSC and PAL both formats.
2) With sequence set at HDV 1080 50i, and export setting as current setting, upon render and export of self contained quicktime direct from FCP timeline I face few troubling symptoms;
- that the quicktime exports 3mins to 35 minutes of qt clip but not the whole program of 90 minutes as one clip. System crashes and I have to reboot.
- Another symptom is that by doing above my time line shows aduio as out of sync to video. here i see that Audio tracks A1,A2 as being torn apart at cut edit points and have gap of 1 frame at random ( but not on all edit points ).
A3, A4 and other music and sound fx tracks have slipped off sync by few frames , again at random and also other places the edit comes back in sync with audio.
- Of course I am having to re- render this sequence timeline a zillion times even though the previously rendered files still exist in relevant folder.
Program duration: 90 minutes
current sequence : 1440 x 1080 at 50i
edit sequence time-line consists following source material directly ingested from tape via firewire in native HDV and DV:
VIDEO
-HDV footage of 1440 x 1080, 50i
-HDV footage of 1440 x 1080, 60i
-PAL footage standard and widescreen
-NTSC footage standard and widescreen
- still images
AUDIO
-AUDIO is 16 bits , 48Khz
- Voice Over is 24 bit , 48 Khz
Software: Final Cut Pro version 6
QT: 7.4.1
System configuration:
1) Mackbook pro: OS 10.4.11
graphics/ display card: GeForce 8600M GT
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
monitor: one apple cinema display 23 inch
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
2) Mac pro: dual core, 2.3 ghz, 3GB RAM
two apple cinema display 23 inch
All project media residing in 1TB Lacie 800 firewire external disk.

Hi guys, thanks for getting back to me. My client has now changed her mind and so I'm just mixing XDCAM and HDV 16:9 footage which is absolutely fine. Awesome. Thanks for your help!
I have one issue - some of the XDCAM footage she has given me is .MP4 video (actually each clip is a folder with 5 files in it (.MP4, .SMI, .PPN, .XML, .BIM). Do I have to convert the .MP4 into .MOV via Compressor to work with it (presumably this will compress it somewhat) or can I convert it simply and losslessly somehow (perhaps using sony XDCAM software?)
Thanks again for any help!
Oliver

I have coverage with mixed formats - some with PAL ( we think 4:3 ratio) and some HD. When I chose

I have coverage with mixed formats - some with PAL ( we think 4:3 ratio) and some HD. When I chose our sequence settings to begin with, is there a way of preventing some shots with bars either at left and right or top and bottom?

Choose PAL 4x3 and scale down the rest.

Mixed formats-editing-transcoding and mastering

Hello,
My client has a project with that has mixed format and we need to figure out what workflow will be best to edit and master.
The final video will be 1-2 hours.
It will be shown primarily on the web and, at a later stage, in dvd.
There are 2 main sources:
a) screen captured video with animation codec at 1024X768, square pixel (most footage)
b) video footage shot at apparently 24p "advanced" and already digitized at 24 via Cinema Tools and converted to 29.98- non square pixel (some footage)
The client wants the final output to be either 960x720p or 800x600 h.264
Audio was recorded separately for both a) and b) so everything needs to be synced.
Project is in a FCP Studio 2 system with a G5.
Questions:
What should the sequence settings be? There isn't a 960x720 setting.
Should we uprez the DV 24p and to what?
Does the b) footage need to be converted from animation to AIC (lower data rate)? Would this be effective or introduce unwanted artifacts?
What to do with the square and non square pixel footage? Take them to AE?
Thank you for your feedback,
Mabel

well it's a 16:9 format. Is your 640x480 material 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen, which means it's anamorphic with the display of the 640x480 image stretched horizontally? If this material 4:3, you have to decide whether you want your sequence to be 16:9, in which case you either have black bars on the left and right of your 4:3 material or you could scale up your 4:3 material to fill the frame and lose the top and bottom part of the frame OR you can make your sequence 4:3 and "letterbox" the 16:9 material (black bars at top and bottom) or scale up the 16:9 material to fill the frame and lose the material on the left and right. Remember scaling up will cause you to lose quality. If you decide on a 4:3 standard def sequence, you should be able crop your 16:9 "HD" material to fill the frame and this sounds to me like the best solution.
I would use compressor to convert all your footage to a single fcp friendly format before editing.
Before you go any further, what is your end use? This should help decide the best way to proceed.

How can i recognize mixed format of text?

Mission:
if some text has "regular" fontstyle, i apply to it Bold style. And if it have mixed fontstyle (both bold and regular) i would like apply the Bold Italic style. But i discovered, that property FontStyle of text with mixed style is "Regular"! Then how can i recognize mixed format of text?
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When you have a text reference, check to see how many textStyleRanges it has. If more than one, you have mixed formatting. Check the style of each textStyleRange.
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use the selection first and the property change
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DVD Studio Pro crashes when accessing folders with mixed formats

DVD Studio Pro 4 on Mac Book Pro OSX 10.6.8
Program crashes whenever accessing my movies directory. It contains mostly HD content in MOV format. There are some MP4 and M4V in there too.
To check this I copied an MOV, MP4, and M4V into a separate directory. I added this folder to the Video tab of the Palette in DVDSP and same crash occurs until I remove all but MOV content.
Project setting is 1920 x 1080 HD. I have successfully imported several assets in MOV format.
My question is why would DVD Studio Pro crash just because it is pointed to a directory with mixed formats? Would it not just ignore to incorrect formats and move on? Why the crash if I am not trying to import them?

I was going to let this go doc, but....
I discovered the crash by accident while doing Ripple Current training - yes I am a complete DVD SP newbie! Anyway my story: Oh look! There is an icon pointing at my Movies directory in the Video tab. Gee thats cool lets see what is in it. Ooooh s&*t the program just crashed! That can't be right, lets just try it again. Now thats just wrong! I'll beat this thing so lets experiment. Lo and behold its a mixed format problem. Why doesn't DVD SP just ignore any unrecognized formats like any other program? Hmm, being the newbie I am, and there was no hint in the Ripple training, I would ask the docs on the Apple forum. They will know why and what to do!
DVD SP seemingly by default maps my Movies directory. My Movies directory has multiple formats in it from years of use. I have movies for my iPhone, iPad, movies for Vimeo and iTunes, as well as other distribution formats in the same directory. I also have been experimenting with different codecs. My Movies directory has been used as an Internet distribution point. So please excuse me if I did not clean out my Movies directory before launching DVD SP! Little did I know this would even happen. If I could "unmap" this selection permanently I would - do you know how to do this? So far I cannot find any preference for it.
In a round-about way you got there, however so did I on my own - isolate the project to its own directory and NEVER pick on the "Movies" icon. I am not satisfied since it would be really nice to block this from ever happening again. God forbid an incorrect format should ever sneak into the sacred project directory "sorry but DVD SP and incorrect formats don't play nicely", so stop doing that!

Mixed file formats in timeline not always playing nice.

Im using the latest version of premiere pro cc, and one of the great things about PP CC is that you can drop any file format in the timeline without trancoding it right? BUT! sometimes it doesn't play well when you add effects or titles, or adjustment layers. Lets say I have a 1080 DSLR timeline and I have a mix of H.264,ProRes and MP4 footage. When the footage is in the timeline with no effects, the playback is fine, but when I add a transition, a title or a adjustment layer over the footage, when it plays over that section, the footage sometimes stutters, or plays choppy. The footage will pause for a few frames an then continues, BUT only does this when effects are applied. Its behaves as if there is not enough frames to accommodate the transition or effect, which is not the case. But if I delete the clip and drop it into the timeline again in the same spot or I adjust the length of the transition the clip will play with no issues. Why is this happening? And yes ALL footage is rendered and I have powerful enough system to handle the work. Such simple effects should not affect timeline playback.

Hey Jim, with all do respect the symtoms may suggest that, as you stated but I know I have a powerful enough system. Im running a 8 core mac pro, 22gig ram,SSD drives and Radeon 5770 card. I have edited RED footage and Canon C500 footage with dynamic linked After effects on my system with no issues. So im certian its not my system.

Working Two Formats, one Timeline: DVPro 50 and DV HD

I am working with two formats and trying to make this process as smooth as possible, and it almost is in FCP 6.0. We haven't had too many issues, but there are issues non-the-less. So here is the background:
We have been doing a cooking show for 3 years now, the past two have been shot with DVPro 50, this year was shot with the Panasonic HPX 2000 (Cam A) and Panasonic HVX -200 (Cam B) using 720p 24pn. Both were shot in 16x9.
So, when we set up the master timelines, we've been using the DVCPRO HD-720p 24 Easy Setup as our default setup, so everything goes smoothly for the most part, except sometimes the footage which is shot with the DVCPRO 50 footage becomes choppy and uncooperative. The reason being (I Think??) is because this footage is shot in 29.97, then pulled down to 23.97, if that's right, then that might be the problem.
My questions are:
1) What, if anything can I do to smooth this workflow, so I don't come across these problems so frequently?
2) Should I try to recapture the DVCPRO 50 footage in another setting?
I think that's it, all help is greatly appreciated, and thanks.

See that's the thing, I thought that FCP 6 would handle a lot of the mixed footage converting, and it has, some of the times. When I place the footage into the FCP 6 timeline it usually brings everything up to where it should be in the timeline, and that's where I thought I could handle the frame rate conversion.
Even though, we originally shot the DVCPRO 50 footage at 23.97 it still has to go through the frame rate pulldown to get from 29.97, and FCP usually handles that pulldown. But why is it only handling it some of the times?

Transfer and log with mixed formats (Canon 5D and Panasonic GF1)

I've transferred and logged files from 2 cameras (Canon 5D and Panasonic GF1).
Everything was brought in at Apple Pro Res.
I was surprised to find that I could edit 25 FPS video (from the Canon 5D) in the timeline with the GF1 (the GF1 shoots at 30 FPS).
Am I missing something here? I thought that I'd have to go through an extra step to get them to work together, but everything seems fine.
Also, the GF1 is at 720.
Is it going to look bad or not edit well together in the timeline later?
I'm new at this FCP tapeless thing. Should I be worried about how I brought this in?
Cheers,
dugmore

Although fcp will mix framerates in the same timeline, you will not get the best quality letting fcp make "automated" decisions. If you're happy with the way they look, you may be ok, but I would do a test in the final form your program will be taking. So if you're end use is a video for the web with specific settings, do a test export. If you are going to be outputting in an interlaced format, do a test and view it on an interlaced monitor, in this format as this is an area where you may see problems.
Also, there might be problems if you are going to finish your audio in another program dealing with material in varying frame rates.
Personally, I almost always convert all material to one format (codec, pixel dimensions and frame rate) before editing. It's just safer. Although things will sometimes work ok without doing this, you are taking chances.
If you decide to do the conversion, I'd recommend doing it in compressor where there are options in "frame controls" and "geometry" which will give you tremendous control over the quality.

Facebook mixed format content export error

Can anyone tell me why the facebook exporter doesn't work correctly? I have mixed content on my timeline some 4:3 and some widescreen. I have scaled the widescreen content up to achieve a pan and scan effect within my SD 4:3 project. In my timeline I get a full frame 4:3 project but when I export to facebook the file is widescreen with a mix between 4:3 and 16:9 content. It doesn't reflect what I have in my rendered timeline previews. Am I doing something wrong?

imxcam
First, I suspect that you do not realize that you are not communicating with Adobe here. Rather user to user. That the way this forum works.
If you purchased Adobe Premiere Elements 12 from Adobe and you are within 30 days of purchase, you can contact Adobe via its Adobe Chat to work out the details of a refund. If you purchased Adobe Premiere Elements 12 from an authorized reseller then to contact that reseller to determine it own return policy.
I will gladly try to figure this out to determine what is going on. I will work through your details to see if I can reproduce the same results that you are reporting.
To do that, I need
1. The project preset that has been established for your Premiere Elements project
a. Edit Menu/Project Settings/General and the readings for Editing Mode, Timebase, Frame Size, Pixel Aspect Ratio even if the fields look grayed out.
b. You tell me that video one is 640 x 480. Does that have a frame rate of 29.97/30 progressive frames per second?
c. You tell me that video two is 1920 x 1080. What is the frame rate as well as interlaced or progressive?
d. Facebook Preset - PAL SD. I am OK with that.
The answers will be in your details.
Please let us know which way you want to go on this - help from us in this forum or you contacting Adobe about a refund?
We will be watching for your decision.
ATR
Add On...what were the export choices and settings that you used to take your Timeline to a file saved to the computer hard drive, followed by upload of that file to Facebook?

HD & SD mixed format - ultimate output will be SD DVD.... help?

I am working on a small doc for a client who will only ever want an SD DVD as final deliverable format. This will never be broadcast. For reasons I won't bore you with, the DP we hired shot DVCPro HD 720p60. I also have some home movies to cut in and those are of course SD and 4:3.
I tried using Compressor to downconvert the HD to 10-bit uncompressed NTSC, but in final cut it didn't look so great.
I tried upconverting the SD footage to DVCPro HD 720p60. Since it is old home movies anyway, the quality isn't as crucial and I thought this was a more visually acceptable option than the downconverting had been. HOWEVER, it is now squished and the only way I can figure out how to unsquish it is to blow it up even further... pushing the limits of what is acceptable. (Also I would prefer to crop out part of the frame rather than pillarboxing.)
And finally, I'm going to end up with an SD master so how do I deal with all of this best?

Generally speaking, doing all your post in the highest resolution
and exporting down to the deliverable resolution is the way to go.
However, you have made it abundantly clear that this project will
be SD output, that some of your footage is SD home movies, and
that it will never be broadcast, so what the heck. Edit it in SD.
Set up your FCP sequence for good old DV NTSC. Bring in the
beautiful DVCPROHD footage, and let FCP convert it to SD,
which will require rendering those portions of the timeline.
Since the HD stuff has a different aspect ratio, you'll have to
decide how to crop it, using the motion tab.
Doing it this way will give you the option of changing the crop
if that suits the purposes of the edit. You could add zooms or
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Buy FCE? Mixed formats? Mixed bit-rates?

Hello All,
History:
I ran into a very depressing reality about a year ago in iMovie (9). I came to realize that the project I spent months on had dv video with mixed 12 & 16. I ended up with the most depressing sound issues. I don't want to get into the history now and here. I am very tired of people telling me that I needed to record at 16, etc. etc. I know that now but that doesn't do anything to the large number of video files I have, some in 12 and some in 16. I have way too many to export back to the dv and reimport at 16. I am not hung up on the sound quality... if its a little fuzzy, fine. I can deal with that much better that it utterly messing up my "art" and basically stopping me in my tracks from doing what I want to do.
To complicate things, I no longer use that camcorder that I bought a decade ago. I now have Canon Vixia HF S200 (Imovie 9 support says: Canon VIXIA HF S200 - AVCHD dile format - Issues w/ Memory Video stabilization limitations and Filming in Cinema or 24p mode more... ).
I have spent hours and hours perusing forums, blogs, etc trying to figure out how to deal with my dv files with mixed bit-rates. But I still have no idea what program could help me with that...
1. First I was looking for a video converter to convert all my dv in 12 bit to 16 bit. I don't want a lesson in what I should have done... Is this possible? Can I just take my 12 bit .dv file and convert to .mov in 16? Quicktime Pro? Roxio? In FCE? I really need confirmation on this.
2. Do I even need to do #1? Does FCE allow me to use video in Avchd, avi, mov, dv (IN 12 BIT AND 16 BIT) in one project? If not, what would one suggest? (that is for a hobbiest and doesn't need the highest quality but maybe simplest route?)
3. I can "make do" in iMovie, but would be excited to get at least FCE for more options and expand my hobby/desire in art. I'd like ideas on how to move forward in the most effective and logical way. We are pretty slow in our house to modernize. We just got a PS3, but don't plan on burning to blu-ray, at least not yet as a lot of our family doesn't have it and I will burn to standard DVD and youtube most often. I understand that my HD camcorder might have to be dumbed down in quality (still better than what I had)? So thoughts with that might be useful before I get too far ahead of myself but also leave myself room for growth.
I hope on spending $250 to get what I want need. But if there is a much more streamline way to deal with this for $500 or $1000, taxes are coming back, and I could make it work even if it stings, a lot. And although I don't really want to (or am I able to) spend money on this, this is my main hobby and my familiy depends on my renderings as well for preservation of family history, etc. Please advise.
Thanks in advance!

I am neuviemmefemme too...
When I wrote:
I don't want a lesson in what I should have done...
What I mean is each time I have gone searching and read blogs of others who have this same problem or when I have asked for help, all I had found was the response "well you should have recorded at 16 bit". Yes, gotcha. Noted. I am continually learning from my mistake because I am only learning from trial and error, self-direction, manuals, and people telling me what I have done wrong. But, if all one EVER says is "well you shuda recorded at 16 bit audio" and no constructive help on how to work with the error of having all this video with 12 bit audio and to move forward, I'm not going to get anywhere. I got it, I recorded at 12 and should have at 16. (I don't even have a camera that records in 12 bit anymore...) And yet, I am still stuck with hours and hours of digital video embedded with 12 bit audio and an extensive project that I spent months on that will be tossed in the trash if I can't figure out how to convert videos with 12 bit audio to 16 (or find out if it is even possible and with what software) so that all the video clips can co-exist in this project together (all in the 16 bit range).
So back to your constructive help - I'm finally getting somewhere. You are saying that QuickTime Pro will allow me to convert my .dv files with 12 bit audio to another video format that has 16 bit audio. (AIFF suggested?). Should I expect a loss in sound quality? (which is fine, just curious).
I do not understand when you say the iMovie captures as DV (.dv) stream and FCE cannot use that format w/o conversion. I thought that iMovie projects could go directly into FCE for further editing, etc? Will the project be prompted to be converted? I am not understanding this...
In your second point, you write that FCE works natively with DV (quicktime) and AIC. Does AIC=AIFF? In 1 you mention that I should convert to AIFF so that FCE can work with it natively?
It seems I need further understanding of the different file formats. I haven't been able to fully understand what makes the different formats names different other than some work in some and some work in others, but it doesn't make much sense to me and I'm not really sure what will work in one or the other? Is there a resource that explains this well?
And finally, FCE doesn't work with .mov or .avi? ("All other formats must be converted prior to importing into an FCE project"?)
Thank you very much for your help
Message was edited by: mkusafr
Message was edited by: mkusafr

Mixing formats in sequence

I have an upcoming project that will be using a lot of file footage in various formats. The video has not been ingested yet, but will consist of Mini DV 16:9, DVC Pro 50 16:9, DVC PRO HD 1080i and some 720p as well. Also, I'll have to rip some video from DVD. I'll be working with FCP 6. Final delivery will be on DVD. Ratio of HD to SD looks like it will be about 50/50. I'm trying to figure out the best workflow here. I'm thinking my sequence might be DVC Pro 50 Anamorphic. Should I convert the miniDV to that prior to editing along with the HD footage? Or should I drop the HD stuff into the sequence as is and render away? This is by far the most "mixed" project I've had and I'm not sure exactly how to proceed. I do know that I do not want to upres the SD stuff since it's going to end up SD anyway. I'm also not working on my own system for this project. Newer Mac and OS, but still FCP 6.0.6. Don't have the exact specs at hand at the moment.

You could transcode it all to DVCPRO50 or ProRes (in SD 16:9) before you start and save the headache of the rendering during the edit, but the rest of your planned workflow looks OK to me.
Jerry

Mixed format sequence advice

I am in the process of receiving video clips from all over the world. My job is to put all the clips together and edit them in FCP and prepare one clip to be projected at a big meeting.
As of now, the format of the video clips has not been specified and could be anything but I can request to standardize the formats more or less. To make my job easier, what types of formats should I request, or what types of things should I request in general?
I am pretty new to this and any advice would be greatly appreciated. If you know other forums that I should address this kind of question, I would appreciate your input also. Thanks much.

Your projector will most certainly be NTSC. This is the TV standard you should be outputting.
Final Cut Pro can handle differing video formats in the same Timeline with relative ease.
The problem is going to be with different frame rates, you need to convert any PAL 25 FPS material to NTSC 29.97 FPS. It can be a tricky getting it right if you have little or no experience.
It can be done in software with products such as Natress Standards Conversion:
http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm
Better results will always be obtained by having PAL footage converted with a dedicated hardware standards converter at a professional facility.

Mixed formats in timeline

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