AE50 - Do you convert to intermediate?

[Marlon Martins]

I'm doing a batch script to copy files from card to pc (joining spanned files) and convert to intermediate format (and/or create "down-sized" SD version as well)

how you guys edit the videos from ae50? native editing? convert to some intermediate format?

i use Canopus HQ for a long time for intermediate/export purposes, and a while back the codecs became free, so now is my solid choice.

also, if wanted, i pretend to release the script after testing and making a proper installer.

i started this because i like to came home from the event and go to sleep. so the script do "everything" unattended. (detect memory card > ask for output folder > copy and join files to disk > verify file count > eject memory device > convert to intermediate (HD) convert to intermediate (SD). its also "multi-threaded" (multiple encoding's at same time)

[Joel Corral]

I edit native in premeire pro. I see absolutely no point in using an Intermediate codec. It is a unnecessary time wasting step for me..... obviously if you are a film maker you may need to for color correction purposes. But i find h264 stays together quite well with slight tweaks....

[Noa Put]

I edit native in premeire pro. I see absolutely no point in using an Intermediate codec.

I do work with Edius and edit natively which is a decission mainly because of space on the harddrive I"m trying to save (Canopus hq files can be 3 to 4 times the size) and that works out well, everything I do is realtime, including colorcorrecting BUT if space wasn't an issue I would convert every project to canopus HQ, the workflow is much faster in that codec, everything, including scrubbing the timeline, is butter smooth. You have to experience it to see the benefits.

Marlon: That is very cool, are you releasing the batchscript for free? Too bad it can only do one card unattended, would be great if you could attach several cardreaders at once and it would convert one by one.

[Marlon Martins]

i use vegas, editing AVCHD is good, not amazing, but good. the main problems is with long projects, start to become sluggish. with intermediate files everything is ultra-fast. i also use external encoder, so exporting is also very fast.

yes, i will release for free. just need more testing and testing. i think i can "implement" multiple card-readers also ;)

[Noa Put]

Marlon, would it be easy to modify the script to perform some more basic copy paste functions? I was thinking of attaching several cardreaders at once (as after a wedding there are always several cf cards to be copied) so that each cardreader gets a drive nr and then let the batch software run to copy all the data from the cards to 2 different drives of which one would be a backup?

How much larger are the canopus hq avi files compared to the native avchd files?

[Marlon Martins]

yes, i already did last night more than one card reader function. just need to implement in the whole thing.

backup function i was thinking also. maybe i put a function to ask if backup is wanted, so it copy the video only, merging the spanned videos to one place, and the original files from card + playlist + CPI files to another place (keeping original files as backup instead the processed ones, a.k.a. "full card backup")

canpus hq have normally 4~5x the filesize at 24mbps (about 50~60gb hour)

the convert functions will be optional also. i started this just to be a automated copy script, but the spanned files where a problem (files past 2gb). so i found a way to "analyze" the playlists in the AVCHD folder, detect which files are spanned, and join them directly on copy to disk (and after copy, rename to original recording date/hour for better organization and management)

[Erik Wittbusch]

I work with the good old Final Cut Pro 7.
I convert all the material to ProRes LT and work on it fluidly with my 6 1/21/2 years old MacBook Pro.

I consider changing to Premiere Pro or Avid MC as I don't like FinalCut Pro X.

With Premiere Pro CS6 I can just import the material without transcoding. But it's not really fluidly running if you start to add lots of footage or some FX. I know I'll need a new computer soon, but the camera put a hole in my pockets. No money left...

[Noa Put]

great stuff Marlon, will be very interested to see the end version.

[Marlon Martins]

thanks for the input guys. will release when ready ;)

[Noa Put]

Weird no-one else responded to this, seems there is not much interest in such a piece of software? I think it would be awesome to plug in all my cards in several readers, start up a batchscript and go to sleep to find all my data on my harddrive with a backup when I wake up.

[Marlon Martins]

maybe not everyone have a large amount of events/number of cameras to make a big deal out of this.

i also don't have that much need for automation, but the fact is, i automate, do shortcuts in everything i can to speed up workflow without compromise quality, that i can now see the result: "more free time" ;)

i do shortcuts for multiple vegas filters (plugin manager) i do a bunch of scripts to speed work, i did a automated encoder for dvd (convert exported file to video + audio in few clicks), scripts to scan video for black frames, batch to record dvd-r with single click, etc...

lot of time wasted to make them, but results are amazing ;)

[Erik Wittbusch]

With FinalCut Pro things are so easy - no need for further scripts.

I copy the card to my backup drive.

Then import into FinalCut, where all clips are transcoded to the codec I choose. With my old labtop, that needs some time, but I can go sleep...

[Noa Put]

Edius can do this too but that's not what Marlon script does, it appears to go futher then that, if I understand it right it should be possible to connect several cardreaders to your pc, put all your cards in it that you used at a wedding and start up the script that could take the data from each card, join spanned clips, and move all footage from all cards to a folder, or convert to a intermediate codec and then move the entire folder structure from each card to a sepparate folder/harddrive as back up, all while you are sleeping. :)

Well, that is what I would consider a major timesaver if Marlon could pull something like this off, I wouldn't even mind paying for such a script.

[Erik Wittbusch]

Sounds great - but only in the windows world which I left happily years ago...

[Noa Put]

"only in the windows world which I left happily years ago"
Watch out, this is how windows vs mac bashing usually starts, better to concentrate on the good stuff, no matter what OS you are using. :)