Need to convert all my movie files from H.264 to Pro Res HQ

Try the RECOMPRESS...but FCP dislikes H.264, so how it deals with it is unpredictable. Never know how it won't work. The files needed to be converted before you began editing, ideally.

Try it though...see if it works. It won't be any better than Compressor. Use the RECOMPRESS option, with 1 second handles.

>What are your feelings about Wondershare Video Converter?

Heard mainly bad things. But why use that, when you have free options available to you?

1) FCP media manager...RECOMPRESS

2) Compressor (Free, came with FCP)

3) MPEG STREAMCLIP (Free)

The last two options will convert EVERYTHING..so your hard drive will fill up fast. Using FCP and the Media Manager, only the footage used in the cut will be converted.

Media Manager retains all metadata.

Yeah, the first hit for MPEG STREAMCLIP is the ad for Wondershare. Hint...in the GOogle search results, anything surrounded by yellow is an advertisement. The SECOND hit is right:

http://www.squared5.com/

Go FILE>EXPORT TO QUICKTIME MOVIE...

You get this window:

Then click on the COMPRESSION window and get this list:

Do you have ANY prores versions? HQ is really overkill for H.264...waste of space. ProRes 422 is better suited. Is that not an option?

Are you running this on the same computer as FCP? IT should be an option.

Yup.

Basic tutorial:

http://lfhd.net/2009/06/26/mpeg-streamclip-tutorial/

BAtches:

http://lfhd.net/2009/07/05/using-mpeg-streamclip-with-fcp-pt-2-batches/

I've actually had great success with media managing h264 to prores within fcp. I didn't do ANY editing in fcp. I had about 16 hrs of material from dslr's that I lined up with audio in premiere. I edited selects and exported an xml that I brought into fcp. FCP kept the links to the h264 files. I then did a prores media manage and it worked fine with one minor exception. Although everything matched between the media managed prores files, and my timeline, there seemed to be a problem with the metadata of the prores files that showed some slight discrepancy with frame rate and indicated that these clips would need to be rendered for export. I took all the clips into cinematools and did a conform to 23.976 fps and everything was fine.

Your mileage may vary, but worth a shot.

Oh and are you from Astoria, Queens, NY? If so, hi neighbbor.

Method 1 is to use Apple Compresor

Method 2 is to use some ProRes Converter like iDealshare VideoGo which can easily convert H.264 to ProRes HQ 422 or 4444. Besides convert H.264 to ProRes, it also helps to convert AVCHD, TOD, MOD, AVI, WMV, MKV, FLV, etc to ProRes.