I have some footage that was captured with FCP 5.1.2 as Quicktime HDV and I want to edit it on my PC system in PPro 2. I have the latest version of QT on the PC but it will not recognize the QT HDV.

Does anybody have a suggestion on a conversion software that will allow me to keep the quality with no loss?

the only truly lossless way that i know of is to output what you've done back to tape and re-import it into the PC editor....

I have some footage that was captured with FCP 5.1.2 as Quicktime HDV and I want to edit it on my PC system in PPro 2. I have the latest version of QT on the PC but it will not recognize the QT HDV.

Does anybody have a suggestion on a conversion software that will allow me to keep the quality with no loss?

Encode it as MotionJpeg A at 95%

Encode it as MotionJpeg A at 95%

When you say 'encode' what do you mean? With a piece of software? Which program?

Or do you mean from FCP export a quicktime that is Motion Jpeg?

As Mike said, just export it out of FCP using a Quicktime codec that Premiere supports (ie. JPEG 2000/Uncompressed/Animation, etc.). Just use Quicktime Conversion.

I am able to do a conversion on the MAC with MPG Streamclip, but the resulting file is enormous. From 17mb for the QT HDV to 78 MB for the AVI motion JPG A version. Unacceptable.

Surely there is a way to process QT HDV file into PC friendly m2t? Or some other PC friendly HDV format?

Anybody?

If you type "Quicktime Converter" in Google you will return hundreds of results.

Have a look at this one: http://www.squared5.com/

If you type "Quicktime Converter" in Google you will return hundreds of results.

Have a look at this one: http://www.squared5.com/

Yeah, I love Streamclip on the MAC, but when I tried it with the PC the video came out black.

Somehow QT HDV and the mt2 file are convertable. I shall keep looking....

Anybody have or use Grass Valley ProCoder Express?

Opps! Sorry, I didn't notice that you actually did the conversion with Streamclip.

What about DiVA? http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=591

Although this isn't the best workflow, how about you use use QT Conversion to go to 8-bit Uncompressed, put that file on the PC and then use the PC to convert to whatever format Premiere likes?

Also, have you got the latest version of QT installed on your PC?

Opps! Sorry, I didn't notice that you actually did the conversion with Streamclip.

What about DiVA? http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=591

Although this isn't the best workflow, how about you use use QT Conversion to go to 8-bit Uncompressed, put that file on the PC and then use the PC to convert to whatever format Premiere likes?

Also, have you got the latest version of QT installed on your PC?

That looks like a possibly good work around (Convert on MAC then reconvert on PC), I will give it a shot. Thanks. I will let you know.

UPDATE: Not really working. I can get the QT files to open on PC now, but they are 20x larger than before. How does one convert to a PC HDV codec? I am confused...

I haven't been able to convert from a QT HDV* file to something the PC can read without it being larger than the original file, or the size of the M2T had I captured to the PC. To do that, I use MPEG Streamclip on my Mac to convert the file to a Photo JPEG at 75% Quicktime file. Only other way that I know of to get M2T that the PC can read is to capture again on the PC, or use DVHSCap that comes with the Apple Developer Tools, to capture again on the Mac to an M2T.

*As far as I can tell, FCP doesn't handle straight M2T files, and thus when you capture HDV/M2T in FCP, it writes the information to the Apple Intermediate Codec, which is only available on the Mac (AFAIK).

Boy I sure wish I knew a programmer that could write a utility to do this.

Why aren't you capturing the footage with your PC if that is where you will be editing it?

It is never advisable to capture footage on one system to edit with on another. And all your conversion solutions might not carry over timecode, and timecode, my friend, is GOLD! If you lost the media drive...it died...and you didn't have timecode reference to your footage, then your edit is gone. Your time wasted. If, however, timecode was retained, simply recapturing the footage would drop it exacty where it belongs and all will be well.

Or more to the point - why oh why would you want to edit on a PC when you have access to a FCP system!!

Could you please explain your workflow? Why capture on a Mac and edit on a PC? Shane is 100% spot on - you shouldn't be converting stuff left right and centre.

Cody, again, are you sure you have the latest version of Quicktime installed on your PC? Can you play the HDV Quicktime file in the Quicktime player? I presume Premiere can handle any Quicktime codec having never used it myself? Maybe try reinstalling? See: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/310605.html

I have started my own stock buisness and create my product on a MAC. I want the people who use a PC to also be able to purchase and use my footage as well so I am seeking a solution.

I am not a MAC snob like many people can be. I love/hate both platforms and want to support them both.

Yes, I have the latest QT installed on all my machines. I find QT to be superior to AVI in many ways.

PPRo 2 will not support that particular flavor of QT, yet.

Yes, I see your problem....
I have the same problem.....
But the reality is that PhotoJpeg is about
the only cross-platform solution. That is why
most stock houses go that route....
I have shooters send m2t files that I
have to convert to PhotoJpeg......
Do some checking out in the marketplace
and that is what you will find.
We do offer some clips in DVCPRO HD as well
and have some clips as the MAC HDV codecs.

My guess is that they (QT HDV and M2T) have different headers and wrappers, but are otherwise very similar (I could be completely wrong). It might be just as simple as finding a programmer who knows the video programing ins and outs and see if the can write a simple and clean converter. Anybody know anybody? I would be willing to fund this on a micro budget scale.

the cross-platform issue is a real headache. i've been following this thread with interest, hoping that someone has solved it in a satisfactory way since it bit me. i'm still not reading anything here that seems more efficient or effective than to edit in FCP, output to tape, and re-import to the PC editor....transcoding doesn't save time, since those uncompressed file formats take hours to render anyway, and you end up with an unwieldy file size, as has been pointed out. plus, i wasted countless hours trying to avoid re-outputting to tape to solve the cross-platform issue, which only added to the headache. if i had just output to tape in the first place, i would have spent a few hours, rather than a few days, trying to make it work to my satisfaction.

Thanks for clearing that up Cody!

Most Online Stock Footage Suppliers use only Quicktime/Photo JPEG.

I don't think M2T file is a very good delivery format as its a transport stream rather than a program stream.

Quicktime seems to be the real standard at this stage. If you decide to stick with Quicktime/HDV (which again isn't a good delivery format) and your clients NLE doesn't support the HDV codec, they can always use Quicktime to convert from one codec to the other using the "Save as" feature.

As for making a conversion program it's possible, and I would't think too hard (if you have a good knowledge of programming, MPEG-2, Quicktime, etc.), but I don't think there is any real motivation to do it.

QuickTime movies compressed using MPEG-4 audio and video codecs can be exported to MPEG-4 file format without recompression, allowing you to serve your movies in multiple formats (.mov and .mp4) without sacrificing quality or time. Maybe that's another option?

Chris,

I really do appreciate your response. I will check into the MPEG-4 solution you mention.

I work daily with HD files. This includes doing all the in store processing for a Major Computer Megastore and a high profile banking institution and I see many different incarnations of HD coming through my edit suite. I also purchase stock footage from various large companies.

I would have to disagree with you a little bit on your opinion of QT HDV and m2t files. I find the HDV format to be quite useful in its ability to maintain such high image quality with such a small footprint. Since my source is HDV, I see no reason to upconvert for quality sakes. Also, it is so much more convenient to my customers to transfer and move the files. QT HDV works exceptionaly well with FCP and m2t files seem to be the answer for the PC side.

I must mention that I am talking about stock here, so I don't think the professionals will take issue. If they do, I could up convert my files and pretend that they are full on HD clips like a number of sources I have seen do. But instead, I hope to educate and believe in this excellent format. It is light years beyond SD.

On another note, I have put out a bid summary for someone to author that software and when I get it complete, I will provide it free of charge to anybody who wants it.

Cheers!

Have you read these threads?

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=19007
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=139239&postcount=43