Need advise on best settings for FCP 7!

Question

Need advise on best settings for FCP 7!

I am looking for some advice on the best settings for FCP 7 when I am syncing sound using pluraleyes, exporting into quicktime as one file and then importing that new file into FCP 7 for editing. I have noticed that sometimes my Quicktime files are very large (20 gb) and sometimes they are much smaller (130 MB), but I never changed the settings.

I am working on FCP 7 and shot using my Panasonic GH3 at 24 fps (which comes to 23.98). My frame size is 1920x1080. Compressor is H.264. Data rate: 8.6 MB/sec. Audio rate: 48.0 KHz. I have heard that FCP 7 does not properly deal with H.264. So, I am wondering, what should my settings be? Should I set to "Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) 1920x1080 24p 48 kHz"? Is there anything I need to know when I export to Quicktime 7 Pro in order to not reduce the quality of the video? Should I be changing my video files first before I even start to work on them?

I haven't edited in almost ten years so I am desperate need of some guidance!

Final Cut Pro 7, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 5, 2013 3:37 AM

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Answer 1

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Sep 5, 2013 10:28 AM in response to Vietnam_Alyss

ProRes 422. Use Compressor for this, or MPEG STREAMCLIP. ProRes HQ is overkill...it's meant for shooting formats that are 10-bit to begin with. H.264 is 8-bit, so save space and use ProRes 422. There will be ZERO quality difference for you anyway between them, so use the one that takes up less space.

And yes, you MUST convert to ProRes 422 before editing. H.264 in FCP is a pathway to disaster.

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Answer 2

Sep 7, 2013 3:27 AM in response to Shane Ross

Hi Shane Ross,

Thanks for your help. So, I already synced all of my interviews in FCP 7 (using pluraleyes) before I changed the video to ProRess 422. Can I just go into FCP (in the same project) and compress the video footage, import the new video files and throw it into the timeline? Or will this cause issues? I tried this as a test and it seems to be okay but I just want to check that there aren't any issues that I am not considering.

Also, when I do compress, it seems to take forever (sometimes two hours). Is there any way to make this move along faster?

Thanks so much!

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Answer 3

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Sep 7, 2013 3:36 PM in response to Vietnam_Alyss

Sorry, this stuff takes time. Editing is a time consuming thing at times. If you want to work with footage without converting, you can look at Adobe Premiere Pro CC. It will do that...as long as you have a beefy computer with lots of RAM and a really good graphics card.

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