Transcode before edit?

[Kyle Root]

I was talking to a guy the other day and he was saying he converts everything to ProRes 422 before he starts editing.

Me personally, I just drop it all on the timeline in PPCC and have at it... AVCHD, AVCHD2.0, MXF, MOV, MTS.

What do you guys do?

[Noa Put]

Same here, I use a garbage bin called Edius, it will take anything I will trow at it :)

Only when I really need to I will transcode to a intermediate codec to edit, that might be a multicam edit of 3 or 4 camera's in 4K. Otherwise I always edit natively which can be a mixture of 4K from my ax100, GH4 or avchd/xavc from my 1080p camera's.

[Bruce Watson]

Originally Posted by Kyle Root

Me personally, I just drop it all on the timeline in PPCC and have at it... AVCHD, AVCHD2.0, MXF, MOV, MTS.

What do you guys do?

I do the same as you. People *used* to transcode everything, before computers got fast enough that it often just doesn't matter. But those days are thankfully (mostly) behind us now.

[Daniel Latimer]

Sometimes I will let FCP X create prores proxies for multiclip sequences, just to make 4k play back a bit smoother.

[Roger Gunkel]

I also just chuck various formats into Magix with no problems.

Roger

[Michael Silverman]

One benefit of transcoding to ProRes 422 is that if I'm editing a long form wedding video (or a long recital) then Premiere Pro will export much more quickly than if I had edited with the original AVCHD files. For some of these two hour recitals, if I have to add Colorista or Denoiser to the footage in my timeline it will take over a day to export if I'm editing in AVCHD, but it will only take around 3-4 hours if editing with ProRes. With that said, it doesn't improve the quality but just makes things go faster.

I have read that if you shoot in a highly compressed format like AVCHD or MP4, it's a good idea to export your final video to an intermediate codec like ProRes 444 before compressing to MP4 for the web.

[Noa Put]

With current systems and NLE's almost no-one sees the benefit of using a intermediate codec but if I had to edit only one project a month I would transcode all footage from all my cameras to a HQX avi codec in Edius, it is like cutting through butter and just improves the overall editing experience.

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Daniel Latimer

Sometimes I will let FCP X create prores proxies for multiclip sequences, just to make 4k play back a bit smoother.

Ditto - otherwise FCPX just sucks it up and runs.

The only thing I do now is to use EditReady to re-wrap the source files with uncompressed audio instead of compressed audio. The video remains untouched. This has the advantage that FCPX doesn't need to copy the files to it's library (you can leave them in place) and Premiere Pro doesn't need to conform the audio either (which used to drive me nuts!).

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Michael Silverman

I have read that if you shoot in a highly compressed format like AVCHD or MP4, it's a good idea to export your final video to an intermediate codec like ProRes 444 before compressing to MP4 for the web.

I always export to a ProRes 422 file then use Handbrake to create the MP4, since it provides better results with smaller file sizes than either media encoder or compressor.

[Jon Robertson]

I go straight to pro res but I'm still in the dark ages using FCP7 so not much choice really.

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Jon Robertson

I go straight to pro res but I'm still in the dark ages using FCP7 so not much choice really.

If you have a machine that can run FCPX you will be amazed how much faster you can edit your weddings!

[Dimi Arachi]

Hi Please advice as I am new to the game.

I record full HD
is it worth to cut down to a lower format to make it fast for editing on Primier
Then export the media DVD format?

Thanks

[Nick Piegari]

Dimi, the first thing I'd do is test the hypothesis that transcoding actually is faster. Grab a stopwatch (or run a timer app), choose, say, three of your old clips, and...

1. see how long it takes to transcode everything, import it into Premiere, lay all the clips back to back, and export your project
2. do the same thing as #1, except using the native clips instead of the transcoded clips

If transcoding your footage is faster, you'll have to decide for yourself whether the saved time is worth the hassle of transcoding :-)

EDIT: when you say "cut down", do you mean transcode, or set your camera to record at a lower resolution?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

For a simple edit I don't transcode, otherwise I use prores. Some codecs like h264 need to be rendered in fcp6. Every time you change something it needs to be rerendered.