Client needs uncompressed AVI - how in FCP?

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Level 1

5 points

Client needs uncompressed AVI - how in FCP?

I'm a Mac/FCP person (though not a pro by any means), so I was befuddled today when a client asked for me to capture about 90 minutes of video into an uncompressed AVI.

I have not had much luck with AVIs in FCP before, although I know they are the raw video format of choice in PC editing.

How should I go about transferring this video into an AVI? Should I:
a) capture in FCP as a mov/dv file (as I usually do) and try to export to AVI? Or:
b) Should I track down a PC with a program such as Adobe Premiere, and do the capture with that?

I'm not wild about the hassle involved with learning a new video program, but I'm worried that doing it in FCP will not give the client the raw video they are looking for.

Any ideas? There MUST be some hybrid Mac/PC video experts out there who have run into a similar problem before. Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on May 28, 2009 2:38 PM

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Answer 1

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

May 28, 2009 2:46 PM in response to Moxie Cat

Final Cut pro only captures to a QuickTime .mov.

You would have to capture with a suitable codec for your material then export to AVI with the Uncompressed or None codec setting. Give the resulting file to your client.

Or learn to operate some PC software that does what they want.

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Answer 2

D Gilmore

Level 4

3,525 points

May 28, 2009 2:49 PM in response to Moxie Cat

Assuming you've captured the media as Nick mentioned, then with FCP open, click on the help menu and select Final Cut Pro User Manual.

In the search box type "avi"

the first result is titled _Exporting an AVI file_

click on that and all the instructions will be revealed.

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Answer 3

May 28, 2009 2:55 PM in response to Moxie Cat

Hi MC,

I would capture with one of the uncompressed codecs (8 or 10 bit) and when finished convert to AVI with MPEGSTEAMCLIP. I'd Suggest ProRes but I don't know if STEAMCLIP works with PR. Hope this works.

Good luck!!

Jeff

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Answer 4

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

May 28, 2009 3:02 PM in response to digigraphx

Ahem. Is your R key currently involved in industrial action?

MPEG Streamclip.

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Answer 5

Moxie Cat Author

Level 1

5 points

May 28, 2009 3:03 PM in response to Moxie Cat

Wow, thanks for the replies--and so quickly!

D Gilmore--I had read awhile ago that AVI exports were limited in some way--such as FCP could only export a 5-minute segment max, or something similar. Is this true? If so, then your method is probably a no-go for a 90 min. video.

Jeff, I'm not familiar with the programs you mentioned but I will look into them.

Learning PC software is my other option...honestly probably the best one. But obviously it will take longer to do because of the learning curve of a new program. Which is why I wondered if FCP was a good idea for this (or not).

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Answer 6

May 28, 2009 3:16 PM in response to Nick Holmes

STEAMCLIP! Probably a new way to sanitize video.

You also want to ask your client why they think they need AVI in the first place; they probably don't have a clue. AVI is so obsolete, the last time an AVI codec was updated for Macintosh was about 1996. AVI is dead dead dead but it's still walking around feeding on the brains of ignorant clients.

bogiesan

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Answer 7

May 28, 2009 7:58 PM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Hey David,
If I'm not mistaken, AVI is still very alive and well on the PC side of things. Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas both use AVI as their standard capture format. Usually its DV/DVCPRO compressed avi, but its captured the same way as DV/DVCPRO .mov in FCP. Unfortunately, I have a few clients that request .avi files of raw footage that my company shoots to P2. Most of them are not aware that PC's with Premiere Pro or other editing software will work with quicktime files, and I try to tell them, they just demand .avi's. So I wind up having to convert all the raw footage to .avi. And it is a pain, but they pay for the conversion. Silly clients....

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Answer 8

May 28, 2009 9:16 PM in response to Chris Young5

As David Bogie points out...AVI's is a dead container (even on the PC side, they just don't it is dead). Microsoft dropped all support/updates for AVI's years ago. Why does Sony and Adobe still use it, I have no idea. It could be that they still hold a license (if there is one) and don't want to loss it.

As you said AVI's is alive and well... It's is alive in FCP/Compressor and I'm glad Apple has buried (pun) it within the program. I wish AVI's would just go away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AudioVideoInterleave

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Answer 9

May 28, 2009 9:46 PM in response to Moxie Cat

You might be thinking of the demo version of Flip4Mac which can convert QT to WMV files. The demo version has a time limit for what it will convert.

rh

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Answer 10

Moxie Cat Author

Level 1

5 points

May 29, 2009 6:21 AM in response to Chris Young5

Chris,
Hope this isn't a trade secret... 🙂 But when you say "convert all the raw footage to AVI," are you using a program like that MPEG Streamclip mentioned above, or are you exporting/converting in FCP?

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Answer 11

Jun 1, 2009 2:50 PM in response to Moxie Cat

I use Compressor with a custom AVI (DV compression) setting. The only thing about this, is if you're raw footage has more than one audio track, those tracks will be muxed together into one file. So, for instance, you shot with a lav on one channel and the camera mic on the second channel, those channels are going to be put together, and you won't be able to have the clean lav channel. (Unless you bring it into FCP, turn off the cam mic and then export.) You also loose original timecode of the clip. And there's probably some other things that are not great, but if you have to have DV compressed .avi, it is possible to get it out of FCP/Compressor.

Hope that helps.
Chris

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Answer 12

RedTruck

Level 4

2,145 points

Jun 2, 2009 11:16 AM in response to Randy Holder

AVI is not a codec. What was the footage acquired in? Is it film transfer? Did the camera cost over $30,000? Usually when someone asks for uncompressed, they really don't mean uncompressed. They mean, don't add FURTHER compression, like MPEG2, or H.264. Ask them what the needs are. You could convert DV footage to uncompressed, but the resulting file would not look any better, at all, and the file size would be huge. The codec is what you need to know first, and then the application they want to open the file in is what you need to know second. If it's for archival, they may want something like JPEG2000 reversible. But either way, you can change the extension from .mov to .avi, and as long as the app they use can handle the multiplexing scheme of the codec, it'll play just fine.

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Answer 13

Jun 2, 2009 11:23 AM in response to RedTruck

Matthew, excellent contribution. Methodical, too.

bogiesan

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Answer 14

Jun 2, 2009 12:07 PM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Hey RedTruck, my experience converting DV to uncompressed did in fact improve quality.

I had been doing just that, in order to take our earlier MiniDV shows to broadcast.

You're right that the file size was huge...at least 5 times larger (going from DV-NTSC to Uncompressed 8bit).

But the quality was remarkably better, particularly graphics.

That's not to say it's the best or proper way to go (and some broadcasters might still reject it), but it certainly worked for us.

Not sure this is of assistance to the OP...just wanted to put it out there.

K

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Answer 15

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Jun 3, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Kevan D. Holdsworth

Kevan, the reason it looked better with graphics is you have gone from a 4:1:1 color space to a 4:2:2 with a MUCH deeper color depth. This helps enormously with graphics - text edges, gradients, etc.

A standard work flow in the day when DV was king and people had to produce material with lower thirds etc was exactly what you are doing - capture DV, convert to 8 bit SD and output via Kona or similar card back to tape.

It also worked with green screen material in that you could add a chroma smoothing effect then pull a good key. 8 bit just gives you more subtlety at the edge at the price of enormous file sizes.

Cheers,

x

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