m2t direct to QuickTime

[David Scattergood]

I won't ask anymore today I promise...!

I need to deliver footage (almost raw...as I'll explain) but I currently have no way of transferring HDV footage (720p25) to another tape.
As this is more for viewing the content (it's a host of kung fu sequences) rather than for quality and further editing purposes I'm going to deliver this as a Quicktime movie.
The short amount of footage lasts around 16 mins which I captured via DVHScap leaving me with a m2t file.
I've made an attempt at this by exporting this m2t file as a quicktime H.264 file...it's been encoding for almost 2 hours (with about 20 mins to go...and 200 data breaks?!).
The resulting file will probably break 5gb and therefore not fit on a DVD.
This footage needs to be seen on any version of QT (hence me going the H.264 route), so I need to know how I can then 'shrink' this QT file down??

Many thanks.

[Dino Leone]

Have you tried mpeg streamclip? A google for m2t and final cut brings a few posts where people used this. A 15minutes 720p shouldn't produce a 5GB file... even raw mpeg2 would be smaller.
Here's one of the tips that google brought up:
http://finalcutpro.digitalmedianet.c...e.jsp?id=61807

Hope this helps
Dino

[David Scattergood]

Cheers Dino - yes I use Mpeg Streamclip (and did so to export the DVHScap m2t files here).
In Finder the file states it's 4.59 gb on disc (just under 5gb in the end), which as you say is much too large.
Might it be worth exporting again from QT as a quicktime movie (or even mpeg 4)?
I've seen 20 min 1270 x 720 movies on this forum that are less than 500Mb and still very good quality...I'll take a browse at your link - cheers Dino.

[Dino Leone]

Originally Posted by David Scattergood

Cheers Dino - yes I use Mpeg Streamclip (and did so to export the DVHScap m2t files here).
In Finder the file states it's 4.59 gb on disc (just under 5gb in the end), which as you say is much too large.

Well, sounds like it's just a matter of using the right compression settings. Did you check the output resolution and framerate? When you use H.264 I'd go with something around 7-10 mbits. That should produce a file smaller than 500MB.
Dino

[David Scattergood]

Originally Posted by Dino Leone

Well, sounds like it's just a matter of using the right compression settings. Did you check the output resolution and framerate? When you use H.264 I'd go with something around 7-10 mbits. That should produce a file smaller than 500MB.
Dino

It may be that then Dino...I'll know in future to check that, although I felt that compressing to h.264 should be enough to at least fit on a DVD. This isn't for web delivery yet but merely a way of viewing the unedited footage on a machine which may contain an old version of QT (poss 6).
I'll probably delete that file and start again with a lower rate - poss even via mpeg 4..oh well, new learning curves an all that!

Cheers Dino.

[David Scattergood]

Originally Posted by Dino Leone

Well, sounds like it's just a matter of using the right compression settings. Did you check the output resolution and framerate? When you use H.264 I'd go with something around 7-10 mbits. That should produce a file smaller than 500MB.
Dino

Hmm...tried converting it to mp4 at 50% quality (rather than 100% .mov file) but it's still racking in a over 700Mb...not sure how much tweaking you can do quality settings wise with the Mpeg streamclip program (still like this in 1280 x720).
Should I send this out of Mpeg streamclip to Compressor first perhaps?

[Dylan Pank]

h.264 won't play back under Quicktime 6. It's only in Quicktime 7. Straight MP4 might play OK under QT6 but I don't think it handles high resolutions very well.