Hello!

I have a Final Cut Studio 2 HDV project (JVC HD100E HDV camcorder shootings + effects and other tracks).
I captured the shootings through camcorder's firewire connection, so the HDV files are compressed just once (in the Mini HDV videotape).

Now I need to export it as a single HDV file.

But I need just an m2t file. This is my question:

Is Final Cut able to make all the project/tracks as a single m2t file WITHOUT re-compress it?


I will not change the codec, always HDV;

The difference is that now I have several HDV shootings + several effect final cut tracks; at the end I'll have just 1 HDV video file.

So I fear that it re-compress all, but the codec is the same that I use while editing.


Thank you.

I'm afraid that, unless I'm mistaken, you will have to re-compress it. Normally, you can use a Quicktime Referene in these situations, but in AVID at least you cannot do this with HDV (presumably due to it being a GOP based codec or some such).

I think this is why they like ProRes422 etc etc...

JM.

Pro Res 422 is an awesome codec!

I think that with the camcorder that I use (JVC HD100E), bypassing the HDV compression of the minitape recording, taking the signal directly from the Uncompressed HD Component output, using an I/O portable box like the excellent AJA IoHD, that has the ProRes422 hardware accel. too, and importing in a notebook workstation in real time, on an external pcmcia-to-esata dual hard drive RAID0 enclosure, we'll obtain an excellent quality...

We miss just the notebook, the AJA box and the hard drives...

It isn't really recompressing it so much as conforming it. HDV/.m2t is really tough to edit, so Apple does a little finagling with the HDV footage upon capture, so when you're editing it on the timeline, there isn't a problem. When you output to tape, it does the conform to HDV/.m2t.

Before ProRes 422 debuted in FCP 6 (which is great), Apple really pushed the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC), which has gotten better over time. Unfortunately, the file sizes quadrupled upon capture/conversion. I also worked with the Photo Jpeg setting at 75% quality in the FCP sequence settings/QT settings, developed by Graeme Nattress. The quality didn't drop, per se, it just converted it to 4:2:2 YCbCr. 100% quality gives you RGB 4:2:2, but the file sizes are larger. ProRes 422 is a better codec.

I used to go back to tape (HDV), but now I just make a digital master in HD and if I need to output to something other than DVD or the web, I'll probably just go with HDCAM. Some fests still request BetaSP! With that in mind, I usually do an export as DVCPRO 50.

heath