iphone movie upside down in fcp

Jul 14, 2010 8:08 PM

Wrote this over on reddit - thought it'd be useful here.

Here's the problem: +What you have is 720p 24 frame h.264 files with 44k aac audio+. It doesn't matter if you understood this.

What's happening is that FCP can't handle compressed audio in RT; so you have a red render bar - which is giving you the beeping.

Final Cut Pro is optimized to work with footage in 'common' video formats - formats that are geared for editing. The problem with the supercompressed stuff like this is that it's meant for distribution, not really for editing.

Camera based (and editing based) codecs usually have all the information on every frame. There's less decoding for the editorial software (and less rendering) because the software has to essentially decode one frame.

Distribution codecs usually have a full frame…and then a series of frames that are only changes. Editorial software has to cache up to 15 frames to decode a single frame; it's stressful and the renders are far longer.

*Getting settings right is a pain*. So, starting in FCP 5, when you drop the first clip into the timeline, FCP will ask if you want to set the sequence to match your footage. Performance will be optimized this way. If you do this - you'll have Real Time (RT) video, audio, many effects and transitions - and the ability to tell FCP to use Unlimited RT - a way of having FCP play frames that might need rendering…without rendering (yes, I"m simplifying)

+But that only works when it's a piece of video optimized for editorial+

When you drop footage that is not standard, FCP still shows you the dialog box asking if you want to conform the sequence. It builds a sequence that matches the footage (as close as possible) You'll get zero RT effects, but you'll be able to play the video. But compressed audio ain't happening. Don't ask me why, I can only guess that the priority of non-standard, compressed audio is below other priority features/programming/bugfixes.

How to solve your problem. If you set this up, you can automate this. Reading this will take far longer than actually doing it.

We need to get your video into something native that FCP can edit - especially the audio.

We'll start by dragging a piece of your video into Compressor. Then under settings type LT into the search box. The top hit should be for Apple ProRes 422 (LT) - a less compressed codec.

But Apple hasn't gotten our audio right. So we need to fix it, save the preset…and then to automate the process save our setting as a droplet.

Fix the audio:
1) Select the ProRes LT setting in the top window and the inspector will light up.
2) The first inspector tab is for the Summary - we need to press the second one to get access to the encoders.
3) On the encoder tab, we need to switch the audio from Pass-through to enabled.
4) Then we're going to press the settings button.
5) Change the Format to Linear PCM, Stereo (L R), 48kHz, sample size 16 bits. Press Okay.

We now have THIS setting correct.

6) On the bottom right of the inspector is a button called SAVE AS… 7) Call this iPhone to FCP (ProRes LT)

Let's make a droplet

8) Clear the Search field on the Settings window.
9) Open the Custom Group
10) Select the iPhone to FCP (ProRes LT) and press the button at the top left of the Settings window that looks like a video file with a down arrow.
11) Save the droplet to your desktop.

Now you can drag your iPhone movies to the droplet, it'll throw up a dialog box, press submit and Compressor will transcode all your files to ProRes, ready to go in FCP.

*I did all of this for you. Here's the linked file http://files.me.com/jeffgreenberg/8iprtv*

+tl;dr Pass the files through compressor using the ProRes LT setting with one modification. It'll create much bigger files, but FCP will work (full RT effects.)+

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

I have this question too ( 3)