workflow qustion mark II

[Greg Corke]

Okay,

Hopefully, I have now got around my internet connection issue and can now create a thread that actually has some information in it rather than the blunt thing I posted a few days ago (and please feel free to delete my other thread as this is now a double post effectively). If this doesn't work I shall quietly commit suicide somewhere so if you are ready this I'm still happily alive.

I have a few questions about work flow so I'll try and make them as clear as possible so as to make answers relatively easy.

First off, my set up:

Mac Pro, 2.75 terabyte hard drive software raided, 6 gig ram, FCS2.

Current situation of project:

I have 40 hours of footage that I have digitized to a 500gig iomega drive using DVHScap creating .m2ts files through my pc.

On getting FCS2 I tried to capture one of these files but FCS2 did not recognize the file (although it was able to recognize the drive even though I had formatted it for pc, thank God).

I then proceeded to go down the mpegstreamclip route as (a) I don't wish to compress my footage further and (b) from what I had read this seemed the best way to go about it.

I managed to succesfully convert one of my 8gig files with streamclip to Apple HDV 24p giving me a lilke for like sized file. However, I am unsure how compressed these files are, if at all?

I then thought I'd do a test and coverted the same file using 10bit uncompressed as I understand this is the method if wanting to color correct using something like Color. However, this gave me a whopping 150gig file and did not play back very well in either Quicktime or Streamclip. So I imagine this must be unworkable if wanting to edit in realtime (natively) with FCS2.

So I guess my first question is, what should my workflow be if I don't want to compress my footage further but edit my 24p footage with FCP in something it can handle.

I have read some relevant threads on the subject but I'm still unsure. However, The thread "don't edit in hdv" has been of particular interest as Steve Mullen mentioned towards the end that the latest version of FCP has made a major advance in that it has now cut the link betwween the i/o parameters and now employs an "open timeline". He also went onto say that anyone with the latest version of FCP has "no need for an intermediate" for this very reason.

Now my understanding of what Steve was saying is that I could copy my files from my external Iomega drive onto my scratch disk. Capture the files straight into FCP using the appropriate settings (although, as yet, I'm usre as to exactly what these are). Then, edit my project with all of the cuts and transitions then, export as 10 bit uncompressed for example, to Color for correction. Have I understood this correctly? Is FCP able to allow me to edit using, for example, Apple hdv 24p and then recompose the finished project from the files on my scratch disk and allow me to export as the higher bit file (in this case 10 bit). Sorry if i have not used the correct terms here but hopefully this gives a clearer picture.

I know Tim mentioned in another post that using Streamclip was not needed also with the latest version of FCP but I have also noticed that when using Streamclip it corrects timecode breaks (of which I have many). Will FCP be able to do this if I bypass Streamclip? Also, is it better to cut my footage into smaller clips with something like streamclip or could I also do this with FCP? Hope this makes some sense as I'm trying to avoid a ingesting all this footage using a method that will not give me the flexability I would like further down the line.

Thanks to everyone in advance, Greg.

P.S. In morocco at the moment on Prince of Persia. It was 48 degress today. Anyone got any ideas on how to keep cool before I melt. G