convert hd (video) files without losing quality

Question

Level 1

0 points

convert hd (video) files without losing quality

hey everyone

I use SONY handycam HDD DCR-SR35 http://gdgt.com/sony/handycam/dcr-sr35/ with 30GBs of in-built memory, been shooting for a particular movie project, mostly collect snippets of videos

work primarily viafiles FINAL CUT PRO X, firstly i convert the hd videos into mp4 format using Miro Video Converter and then drag and drop

and the final results are modified video snippets but when i locate them in the folder and click "get info", the 10-second snippets (15 overall) have the size of 4gb, thats huge, i mean each video lasts not more than 10 or 15 seconds and they take **** of a large space, meaning if i ever complete the project (apprx. 1 hour long) it will turn out to be like 50gb size movie

so i was curious, am i doing a wrong thing by converting initial file with Miro Converter into mp4 (cos that`s the only way FCPro can read the file)?

or shall i get a different program to compress the files, make them smaller so that they wouldn`t occupy the large space

but at the same time i don`t want files to lose their quality as i used ISKYSOFT and it did exert an influence on converted files, by drastically losing their quality

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 3, 2013 10:18 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Mar 4, 2013 4:50 PM in response to mikajju

I would forget the MP4 step.

Apple's video editors will work with a variety of formats, but QuickTime remains the go-to container,

AFAIK, your camera shoots MPEG2. Use MPEG Streamclip to convert to a Pro Res 422 (or LT) Quick Time movie and ex[ort as QT. That will be about as good quality as possible in the transcode.

Good luck.

Russ

Reply

Answer 2

mikajju Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2013 11:08 PM in response to Russ H

tried MPEG Streamclip but the quality came out deteriorated

well it took a while to figure out the issue

once i import the mpeg2 file into Miro Converter, it comes out half smaller size than the original without the quality loss, then i import it in FCProX and fvck with it there (editing and all that $hit)

after i export it from FCProX, the file is 3 times larger and then i hit Toast Titanium and convert the file ticking H.264 and the outcome is considerably smaller than FCProX import (but not as small as the Miro-converted one)

Reply