Hi,

I've currently decided to give Edius 4 Pro a test run and was wondering whats the easiest and fastest way to convert previously captured HDV m2t files into the Canopus HQ avi format? I understand this can be done in real-time when capturing from the camera but, I have tons of clips that are already on a hard drive.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Juan

p.s. I am very impressed with the quality and speed of Edius. Sony Vegas is looking less attractive each and everday.

I'm pretty sure that you can import m2t files directly into Edius and converts automatically to Canopus HQ codec during the import. Also Procoder (express version) can handle virtually any format conversion.

By the way, the HQ codec is pretty good and even converts HDV's 4:2:0 color space to 4:2:2.

load the m2t files into bin. right click on the files , there will be an option to convert to canopus hq files

create a watch folder for procoder.
drop all your m2ts into it and procoder will batch convert them to any format supported bt procoder, including HQ of course.

Thank you all for the tips!

I tried the different methods and opted to adopt the procoder and watch folder method. This method allows me to play with the quality settings before converting to HQ files.

Next step, I'm going to make some comparisons with the cineform codec and HQ codec. I'm really intrigued by how similiar they are designed and thus should render nearly identical quality and file sizes.

Thanks again,
Juan

Canopus HQ and Cineform are quite different animals.

HQ can be made to carry an alpha channel whereas the Cineform cannot.

But I believe the HQ ends up at far larger file sizes than the Cineform.

Hi Richard,

You are correct, they are different animals. What I was referring to and didn't bother to include is that both intermediate codecs use the wavelet form of compression. This allows for variable bit adjustment of the encoding. Both codecs allow for the user to pick the level of compression and thus the final quality result.

My initial test indicate that cineform files are bigger than those encoded by HQ. It would be great if you could also confirm that if you have the time and codecs readily available.

Juan

In my experience the Canopus HQ codec, even though it's DCT based, is superior to the Cineform. I tried both and Canopus is almost transparent to the original . Using Cineform there seems to always be a color shift. Also when rendering back to M2t files the Canopus encoder does a much better job.

Hi Richard,

..... What I was referring to and didn't bother to include is that both intermediate codecs use the wavelet form of compression....
.....My initial test indicate that cineform files are bigger than those encoded by HQ. It would be great if you could also confirm that if you have the time and codecs readily available.

Juan

Canopus HQ and CFHD are very different and yet similiar in a lot of respects. Cineform uses wavelet and HQ is DCT.Both are variable bitrate and intra-field and both expand the native 4:2:0 color space of .m2t to 4:2:2. Both are good codecs but I give the nod to HQ.
Cineform should be smaller in size unless you are using the 10bit codec or are comparing the high quality CFHD settings to lower HQ settings. The beauty of HQ is not only is it a great codec but it has a pixel bit depth of 32 which has room for alpha...HQ plus alpha looks good and plays back very easily as compared to uncompressed RGBA. To me the real advantage of Edius and HQ is the real-time you get with high quality full frame full resolution playback. With Cineform they downsample the original file to sustain their version of RT playback....with Edius and HQ you get what you see since it is full frame full res playback. With the right system Edius has many more RT effects at full res like chroma and lumna keying, blending modes,blur,region, soft focus and more. If you try the same thing with Cineform in Ppro it is render time.
Combine Edius with an Nx hardware card and see the beauty of HQ in RT at full res out to monitor...been enjoying it for close to two years now.

What is the different between Procoder express and Procoder 2.0?
Can you use procoder 2.0 in Edius 4?

posted wrong.

Procoder Express has been updated more than PC2 but that should change since I hear PC2 is up for an upgrade to support better export to all the new HD flavors and rumor has it includes AC3. If you have PC2 then yes go to the Edius download section and you will find a small file that plugs PC2 into Edius 4.x.
PC2 offers "Master Quality" for mpegs and PCE doesn't. Also the big seller for me is with PC2 you can have watch folders which support encoding a file(or files) to multiple targets. I use PC2 on a networked dedicated encoding machine to encode my HDV projects to SD mpeg, WM HD, and a .m2t to write back to tape....you can tell it to make any combo of files you want and do it with watch folders over a network....big time saver for me. With PCE you can use watch folders but to only one target file type.

What is the name of the file so you can use procoder into Edius?

You need to go to the support login page and register your version of procoder. There is a link in the procoder product downloads(registered user section) for a file called "procoder 2 Timeline export plug-in for edius v4"...that's the one you need.

Thanks alot I find it there.

Canopus HQ is better than Aspect HD
No colour shit.
Easy to convert to the HQ codec
Better realtime CC with no banding and has vary slowmo.
More realtime effects.

Procoder Express and speed encoder are great encoders, it can even encode out progressive DVD mpeg2 files straigth from the timeline.

I have problem encoding to Canopus HQ with Procoder Express, I get next message: "Error in encoding Engine. Please restart Canopus Procoder Express for Edius."

Reinstalled... still no go.

Questions:
Is there any other way to batch convert M2T to Canopus HQ?
Do we really need to convert to Canopus HQ, how much faster is it?

Trying to edit native M2t files to any great extent is difficult due to the long GOP mpeg2 structure. It eats up a lot of CPU power. It's doable for simple cuts, but add dissolves and effects and forget about it.

Converting to HQ makes each frame it's own - gone is the sluggishness of m2t editing and CPU usage goes way down. And the results of effects and transitions are far better. You can also convert the HQ files to carry an alpha channel in Edius 4.

Finally, m2t files quickly degrade in multiple encodings whereas the HQ files hold their quality.

Pretty good answer, thanks John!