Capture using Premiere, transfer to FCP? Workflow?
 

Hi,

My current project was shot using: Canon XHA1/HDV/24p.

I am capturing the footage using Premiere Pro CS3 with the stock HDV/24p capture settings.

I may want to transfer the raw captured footage to Final Cut Pro (latest version)...

Can anyone suggest a workflow for this?

Will I need to transcode the raw Adobe .mpeg footage? If so, what is best workflow?

Many thanks in advance!!!!

Cheers,
Micky

I played around with this out of curiosity, and it worked -- may be other, better ways:
Using Premiere Pro CS4 (hope it's the same in CS3, not available to me) Set your capture to hdv 24p pre-set. Premiere will capture your Canon 24F (not techically the same as 24P, but fortunately Premiere recognizes it as 24P and captures clips that don't need rendering)

Export as Quicktime MOV files at 1920x1080, square pixels, 25kbps, uncompressed audio 48 khz 16 bit. Use H.264 codec.

The .mov files will be recognized by Final cut automatically in 6.0.5, with sequence setting of 1920x1080, square pixels, aspect ratio HDTV 1080i (16:9) and will open on the timeline without needing rendering. (I didn't try it with 1440x1080 and 1.333 pixel ratio, but that might work too.)

Premiere captures the MPEG-2 files and puts them in your project folder, you might want to try a batch conversion in Media Exporter to make it easy. MOV files are native to Final Cut so if you make them a flavor that FCP recognizes they shouldn't have to render on the FPC timeline. I tried converting in MPEGStreamclip but it took forever, I think the Premier/Media Exporter route will work efficiently. Best wishes.../Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Hi Battle Vaughan, many many thanks for those tips!!!!

I really appreciate it. :)

A part of me always wants to work in FCP, but another part of me kinda likes using all Adobe products... One thing I hate, is trying to remember all the keyboard shortcuts from Adobe to Apple... Lol!

This is coming from one of the web/multimedia dudes here at The Register-Guard in Eugene Oregon! Hehe, nice to meet a fellow newspaper person here on the forums!

Once again, a billion thanks for the tips, that is really helpful to me.

Have a great day!
Cheers,
Micky

Don't use H.264 codec for editing!
 

I would caution against using the H.264 codec. It is great for viewing on the web/iPod/etc but not for editing. H.264 is not a working codec, it is a delivery codec. There is a post on here somewhere where this was discussed where I went into this a little further, but the gist is that you should not edit in H.264.

Since I don't use Premier, I can't suggest what to do as far as workflow, but as far as transcoding for FCP I recommend using Compressor to convert to QT files using either the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) or ProRes 422 codec.

is simply dropping the mpeg file directly into an FCP timeline not an option?

That is a good question. IIRC, Premier uses the AVI wrapper format, FCP uses the QuickTime wrapper format. How FCP would handle an AVI file, I do not know; but giving FCP what it wants is always better than trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

Many thanks for the additional info.

This forum has been a life saver! :)

Last time I tried, FCP did not accept the raw Premiere .mpeg video files. :(

Maybe I should test a bit further though. I do not have the mpeg files handy, but will post back once I have had a chance to do some testing.

Thanks a billion all! I really appreciate all of the help.

Cheers,
Micky

John, FCP will not handle the mpeg files without rendering every time you touch a clip, the idea was to find a workflow where the timeline doesn't have to render.

Mike, FCP doesn't like AVI files, they need to be transcoded to DV stream or something, or they will need to render constantly.

Quicktime files and H.264 are natively recognized by FCP which is why I used that setup at the Premiere output They don't require rendering on the FCP timeline (at least in the current version, 6.0.5)

ProRes and AIC are not options in Premiere, so I suggested H.264 codec as being one that is present on both platforms and thus should not need transcoding. Happly, it worked, although I defer on the question of efficacy of editing with H.264 to Mike, who knows a lot more about that than I do. There may be better codecs but whatever the choice is, to work between the two editing systems, they should be present on both, I think.

The MPEG-2 captures made by Premiere are recognized natively and don't need rendering in Premiere. The Quicktime files exported to FCP, likewise... That was the basis of my experiment....seems to work, but there may be better ways... B Vaughan

Hi again Battle! Thanks for the reply.

Sorry that I have not responded sooner. :(

When exporting out as a Quicktime Movie, I found an options for AIC... Which I know FCP can read... Nice to know that AIC and H.264 are options.

In terms of just outputting an archival quality final video from premiere, what format would you suggest?

My source footage is typically HDV/1440x1080/24p (shot with XHA1).

Would you suggest AIC for output?

If so, what settings? HD anamorphic at 1440x1080 progressive?

If anyone has a few mins to let me know what they use to output HQ HDV footage from Premiere Pro CS3 Mac, that would be kick butt!

Part of me wishes I had FCP on my laptop (FCP on macs at work).

Many thanks in advance!!!

Cheers,
Micky

Not to hijack the thread, but I would choose AIC - H.264 is not an editing codec, it's a delivery codec.

Hey!

No problem, I really appreciate the feedback. :)

Last night, I kept getting my HD renders squashed horizontally using AIC! :(

I can post screen grabs of my timeline and output settings a little bit later today.

Any tips on exporting HDV footage from CS3? I really want a nice HQ HDV .mov!

In FCP, I really love how you can easily export as QT using setting from Timeline... I am just a little less experienced when it comes to output of HD footage from Premiere. :(

Thanks!

Since we spoke, found out that current Quicktime for Windows version will read and transcode ProRes and ProResHQ, there is also a stand-alone Prores transcoder available on the Quicktime site. Only works one way...convert prores to avi or whatever in quicktime, not anything back to Prores.

I have been called out on the h.264 recommendation before; point taken, except that, at the time, it was the only codec I could find that was common to Premiere and to FCP both, a pre-requsite for interchangability. In fact I have used it with some success, despite the theoretically correct point that it's a delivery codec. Horses for courses. /Battle Vaughan.

When you're in a pinch, one needs to be resourceful like that. I had a job for a fashion label that wanted a montage of runway footage edited down to a 15-minute DVD which they would loop on a widescreen LCD TV in their boutique in downtown Montreal. Sounds simple, only all the source footage for me to have was DVD-Video (not the source tapes). Yikes! Not only that, but it had to be rotated to fit a 9x16 frame (rather than a 16x9... they rotated the TV 90 degrees, though couldn't remember if it was 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise)! Blowing up MPEG-2 video to fill that frame was not a pretty job, only to get compressed once again to MPEG-2.

Going off on a tangent, my point is that sometimes you gotta do what you can with what you have. If other options are not working out, then there is no reason not to try H.264. It's not the best choice under normal circumstances, but maybe in others it is the only practical one.

Hi Mike and Battle, thank you for your replies. I agree about the need to be resourceful. :)

This thread has been very helpful. Thanks to all!

Re: Capture using Premiere, transfer to FCP? Workflow?
 

I know this thread is old... however, I\'ve had similar results and I\'m hoping you have some answers to share about exporting HDV fro CS3.