Shooting h264 .mov?
 

Hello to all:

Have a request from a foreign client who wants footage supplied to them as SD 16:9 h264 .mov.

I assume there are no cameras that shoot this directly (correct me please) so would I need to shoot
SD as DV tape and then convert this... on a Mac... which I do not own?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

H264 tends to be a delivery format rather than a shooting format so you will have to convert, ask if they can accept apple pro res as there are recorders that you could hire in to shoot direct to pro res and hook up via hdmi or sdi if your camera has either of those.

There is also free software for mac and PC that could do a batch transfer to H264 as another option. have a look at http://www.squared5.com/

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

I don't know what edit system you are using, but wide-screen dv in quicktime format is a common format. Premiere Pro (on a PC) , for example, readily outputs quicktime files in H.264 codec. Quicktime for PC is freeware from Apple. A number of file conversion programs (Prism by NCH, for example) can utilize Quicktime for Windows to convert sd files such as .wmv or .avi to H264 Quicktime format.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

You say a foreign client but no country listed for you or the client?

Anyway if the client "oddly: wants SD 16:9 I would shoot in HD and convert to SD 16:9 in the final output.
Any editor should be able to output H.264.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

Thank you for these replies. This helps me.

Looking at the Squared 5 mpeg streamclip program...

I do not see h264 mentioned but I do see mpeg4 as Quicktime. Is this the same format, then?

Thanks.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

Mpeg4 is the same as H264 but with .mp4 rather than .mov you can do both in mpeg streamclip and H264.mov files would be better for an edit.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

OK, yes I see there is an option for h264 under "Export to Quicktime".

BTW: What audio codec is best for use with h264 out of the options they give as:

mpeg-4 aac, mpeg layer 2, ima 4.1

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

Pretty sure .aac is the best choice, particularly if mac is involved.

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

I think you really need a tighter specification from them than "SD 16:9 h264 .mov"

Audio codec is one thing, but bitrate is the other that comes to mind - do they want high quality large files, or lower quality small ones? There's no definitive right and wrong, but it shouldn't be left to you to guess - and there may be a right and wrong as far as they are concerned!

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

You have a point. If this comes to fruition I will ask for exact compression specifications.

My real concern is uploading all this. Recently upgraded to AT&T's Uverse for my internet connection but this will still take tons of time to send if I'm shooting interviews and B roll. I assume it's best to chop up the tape(s) into multiple sections and send as a batch.

What kind of internet connection do you folks have to do the FTP file transfer to a client's server?

Re: Shooting h264 .mov?
 

Forgive me if I'm wrong. But does the Canon DSLR not use h625 in a mov folder.