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User profile for user: Bill Lindsay
Bill Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Sequence settings for Apple MPEG-2?

I know there must be a way... in Final Cut Pro 7.0.2, in the Sequence window, every time I make a change, it seems like I need to re-render my footage. I know I must be missing a setting, is there a way to get the Sequence settings to match the video footage? (I'm assuming the right codec which I know the video is in Apple MPEG-2, which I don't see in the Sequence settings list). I know there MUST be a way...

Because I have a new camera, the only way I could figure out how to transfer the footage in, was to capture it in iMovie v8.0.6 and then import the files into FCP.

Looking for any suggestions to speed up this process! Thanks... -Bill

MacBook Pro, iMac 24", Mac OS X (10.6.3), Final Cut Studio 2 (FCP 7.0.2)

Posted on May 19, 2010 8:02 AM

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User profile for user: Tom Wolsky
Tom Wolsky
User level: Level 10
151,064 points

Posted on May 19, 2010 8:19 AM

MPEG-2 is not a production codec. You need to convert your media to a proper codec like ProRes. Depending on where this came from exactly and how it's encoded you can probably use MPEG Streamclip to convert it.
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User profile for user: Bill Lindsay
Bill Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 19, 2010 8:33 AM in response to Jim Cookman

Jim, if I could figure out a way for FCP to import DIRECTLY, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I called Apple because my Canon camera would not show up in FCP. THEY told me, it was because my camera was newer than FCP, so I had to import my footage into iMovie (which does see my camera), and then bring the footage into FCP.

Do you know of some way to bypass this???
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User profile for user: David Bogie Chq-1
David Bogie Chq-1
User level: Level 7
26,590 points

May 19, 2010 9:10 AM in response to Bill Lindsay

called Apple because my Canon camera would not show up in FCP. THEY told me, it was because my camera was newer than FCP< </div>

Apple's general support knows nothing about FCP and FCP support costs extra. That's why we're here! Canon is notoriously non-compliant but it shoots to a codec and it writes to media and that media is available as a mountable device of some kind. All we need to do is figure out how you see it. USB? FW? Does it mount to the desktop as a drive device?

Exporting form iMovie is an unfortunate kluge but it will get you a useful file for FCP. Your question about the flavors of ProRes can be answered in the manual, just look up the terms. But this implies you've decided to use ProRes422 for your production sequence and that may or may not be a good idea.

bogiesan
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User profile for user: Bill Lindsay
Bill Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 19, 2010 9:37 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

David,
I hook up via USB, and it does mount to my desktop. But once there, I get unrecognisable jumble of .MOD and .MOI files to which I can do nothing.

This is one of the things that really frustrate me in FCP. Codecs. All I want to do is edit my video in the Sequence window, without having to re-render all the time. And I usually use Compressor with a final output codec of H264. I can go through the pain of exporting from within FCP to get them to a format I can use (like what was suggested above, ProRes422), but if there is a BETTER solution/codec to use, I'M ALL EARS!
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User profile for user: David Bogie Chq-1
David Bogie Chq-1
User level: Level 7
26,590 points

May 19, 2010 9:53 AM in response to Bill Lindsay

Bill Lindsay wrote:
David,
I hook up via USB, and it does mount to my desktop. But once there, I get unrecognisable jumble of .MOD and .MOI files to which I can do nothing.


Here, let me google that for you:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=.modfileformat

The upshot is this is an extension of MPEG2. You cannot use MPEG2 in FCP for really good reasons and someone like me might have researched that before you invested in the camera. There are conversion utilitie, see versiontracker.com. MPEG Streamclip or VisualHub oranother freebie might do the job. PC geeks just change the file extension once the files have been copied to a local drive.

Here's one:
http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video-Converter.aspx?type=GoogleAdWordsContent&gclid= CMrzwPfS3qECFQVaagodCyz3Jg

*The .MOD file format is used by various digital camcorder models (I.E JVC Everio) to save their videos. These .MOD files are often accompanied with small .MOI files (See links below) which contain the videos' time-stamp information.*

*The .MOD format is simply a MPEG2 formatted video file, and if you simply wish to view the files on your computer, it is reportedly safe to rename the extension from .mod to .mpg or .avi*
*The known camcorder models that use the .MOD format are:*
*JVC: GZ-MG30, GZ-MG70, GZ-MG37, GZ-MG77, GZ-MG505, GZ-MG130, GZ-MG155, GZ-MG255, GZ-MG555Panasonic: SDR-S100, SDR-S150, SDR-S10, SDR-H18, SDR-H200, SDR-H40, SDR-H60, SDR-SW20Canon: FS100, FS10, FS11*

Bill Lindsay wrote:
This is one of the things that really frustrate me in FCP. Codecs. All I want to do is edit my video in the Sequence window, without having to re-render all the time. And I usually use Compressor with a final output codec of H264. I can go through the pain of exporting from within FCP to get them to a format I can use (like what was suggested above, ProRes422), but if there is a BETTER solution/codec to use, I'M ALL EARS!


Eventually, each of us finds our own versions of what we think are convenient workflows. Your misperception of FCP's power is typical. You need to be looking for an i/o box that converts your MPEG2 on the fly during ingest or get a camera that shoots in a format your chosen editing platform supports natively or explore how to use a transcode operation on ingest.

bogiesan
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User profile for user: Bill Lindsay
Bill Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

May 19, 2010 10:06 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Eventually, each of us finds our own versions of what we think are convenient workflows.


David, what works for you?
Again, I don't mind doing the conversion right now, it was recommended above to go to ProRes422, but I get the feeling you use a different codec?

I'll convert it now, take the pain upfront, so I can edit this thing easier! Final output is a DVD, and like I said before, I've been using Compressor with H264 for the finished movie.

AVS Video Converter has no Mac support. Will look into MPEG Streamclip (thanks)
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Sequence settings for Apple MPEG-2?

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