iPhone 4 Video: slow in FCE HD

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Level 1

6 points

iPhone 4 Video: slow in FCE HD

I am using Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1 on my new MacBook Pro and am in the early stages of making a home movie using video (.mov files) taken on my iPhone 4 and my wife's iPhone 3GS. I tested a .mov video file taken on my iPhone 4 in FCE HD and I noticed that when i test the clip to figure out my in and out points that the audio plays seamlessly, however the video is delayed/slow. When i drop the clip into the timeline, the video is still delayed/slow. When I rendered the video, it then played fine.

In the past when i have pulled video from my Sony HDR-HC7, the video always played fine right from the beginning w/ out any rendering.

What am i doing wrong that is preventing the iPhone videos from playing smoothly so i can properly test the in and out points and then drop it into my timeline?

Do my video files need to be converted into a different file type?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Oct 26, 2011 6:11 AM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Oct 27, 2011 5:23 PM in response to DavidG21

Edit in Apple Intermediate Codec rather than H.264 iphone video.

If you plan to do a lot of this, consider buying Compressor @ $49.

Good luck.

Russ

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Answer 2

DavidG21 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 31, 2011 11:59 AM in response to Russ H

Thanks. What is compressor? I ended up downloading mpeg streamclip to convert my iphone files into quicktime (apple intermediate codec) files. Does compressor do this as well? What else does compressor do? I do plan on taking lots of iphone video to eventually be used in final cut express.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Oct 31, 2011 1:17 PM in response to DavidG21

Compressor works with various types of QT movies to change frame size, frame rate, bit rate rate, codec, and can do many other things as well. Michael Grenadier recently posted an excellent note on Compressor capabilities.

MPEG Streamclip is a great tool and I, for one, use it a great deal. It can do some things that Compressor can't do, but Compressor can do things that MPEG Streamclip can't and offers a wider array of controls to fine tune output.

I'm not certain whether Compressor also offers access to all the codecs that are packed with FCP. Pretty sure that Motion does, but that's an entirely different animal.

Russ

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Answer 4

DavidG21 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 1, 2011 8:51 AM in response to Russ H

Ok, Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that to me!

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