Preserving the smooth framerate from Canon "Easy" Mode
 

Hello.

I already posted this in the Canon area, but I'll post here as well (sorry Mods).

I just purchased an iMac and would like to do all of my editing on it. My issue is in trying to preserve the smooth framerate from "Easy Mode" on my Canon in my editing software.

Before this, I used to import the video from my HF-100 to a PC running Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0. I'd edit then render as HDV 1080i 60 fps MPEG2. These videos look silky smooth when played back on my PS3.

I've been doing a few tests on the Mac, and I always lose that smooth video. I've tried a few third party apps to convert the AVCHD, but I always loose that smooth framerate. It's hardly jerky, but just not as smooth.

I see that Final Cut Express has an import option for 1920x1080 60i. Does anyone have experience with FCE and Canon camcorders. Will it preserve the smooth framerate?

... or does anyone have another suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

Brian.

Re: Preserving the smooth framerate from Canon "Easy" Mode
 

I think you might have to encode your AVCHD into ProRes to work with Final Cut, and possibly only FCP not FCE can do it. Have a look when you Log and Transfer to see if it's an option.

Re: Preserving the smooth framerate from Canon "Easy" Mode
 

Thanks for the response, Jordan.

I think I'll take the FCE jump, but I think I'll wait a few months to see if it's refreshed, or shows up in the App Store.

Re: Preserving the smooth framerate from Canon "Easy" Mode
 

It has been sometime since I looked at FCE, but if I recall you can't use ProRes however you can use Apple Intermediate Codec -- AIC is like ProRes in that it is a codec that allows the conversion of temporally compressed files to a format that retains each frame ... at the expense of file size. So a conversion to AIC results in a much larger file that will edit smoothly in FCE. AIC lacks the opportunity work in 4:2:2 and so is not a replacement for ProRes, but if you're working in FCE you're unlikely to be troubled by the difference.

But that doesn't address the 'smooth video' problem -- there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to maintain silky smooth video if your source enjoyed it. Somewhere, you are making a setting mismatch that is causing your problem. My suggestion would be to convert your material to AIC, and check that the AIC material plays smoothly using QT. If it doesn't, review your conversion settings -- maybe you are reversing field order, or creating fields when your source was progressive ... Once your material is smooth in QT in the AIC format, import the AIC files to FCE and edit them. All will be good.

Cheers,
GB