8mm Question

[NOCSUCOW]

I just captured about 50 8mm tapes (Pretty sure they're originally Hi8 but used a Hi8/Digital 8 camera for capture) via firewire. It all captured fine with the following settings:

Final Cut Pro 6.0.5
-Sequence Preset: DV NTSC 48kHz
-Capture Preset: DV NTSC 48kHz
-Device Control Preset: Non-Controllable Device

13.3" MacBook Pro (Dec 2009)
-4GB GSkill Ram
-320GB Seagate 7200rpm 16MB Cache HDD
-Firewire 800 1TB Western Digital My Book Studio

-Old Sony Handicam with Firewire output

I need my final product to be viewable on PCs as well, preferably without need to install additional codecs.

I've cut test videos roughly 6min long without touching the export settings and the file size is several hundred megabytes to about a gig. However, with Quicktime (Snow Leopard) I can convert it to 480p and it drastically cuts the file size down to less than 100MB.

I have a 13.3 MBP and play the original setting cut vs. the 480p conversion side by side and they look almost identical but for some reason the 480p version looks darker in a good way.

-What settings are you guys using in this instance?
-Is the 480p setting different from the large original file? In what ways?

[Janke]

NTSC and 480p are the same resolution. File size depends on the chosen codec.

DV files take up a lot of space - about 12 Gb per hour.

You might export and burn your stuff to DVD - best quality gives one hour, next best two hours on a 4.7 GB single layer disk, and that would be viewable anywhere. Since your originals are hi-8, you'd not be losing much quality - there isn't much to begin with...

[cgbier]

Yep, Janke is right as usual.
Cut your projects to a max of 90 minutes then send them to Compressor. Use the DVD presets (60 or 90 minutes), then open DVDSP and choose a nice template. Everyone will be able to watch it on a computer (worldwide) or set top DVD player (NTSC world).

[Janke]

Everyone will be able to watch it on a computer (worldwide) or set top DVD player (NTSC world).

Most PAL DVD players can handle NTSC disks, too - but not always the other way around...

[iThinkergoiMac]

Also, if you're going to go the DVD route, make sure you use DVD-R (instead of DVD+R). While the +R format is technically better, the -R format plays in way more players (like mine... it refuses to play +R discs).

[drapeama]

While the +R format is technically better, the -R format plays in way more players (like mine... it refuses to play +R discs).

Doesn't this apply only to older players...?
most recent players should be able to play both without problems?

[iThinkergoiMac]

Nope, my brand-new Samsung BD player refuses +R format. I have no idea why, and I'm hoping they fix it in a future firmware update. It's annoying as heck.

You're generally correct, but not *all* players accept +R, just most. I don't think there are any players that don't accept -R unless they're older than when burnable DVDs became relatively mainstream for the consumer.

[NOCSUCOW]

How long would compressor do to do something like this? I'm new to Mac and only had mine for 2 months now.

[iThinkergoiMac]

Depends entirely on how long your video file is and how powerful your machine is. The more powerful your machine, the faster it will go through (of course). Which Mac do you have and how much footage do you need to encode?

[cgbier]

I have 2 2.4GHz Dual Core Macs. To compress SD DV to MPEG is about 1:1 per run on these machines. If you have a faster processor, the time'll be even shorter. The Compressor presets makes two compression runs for quality reason.
With your Hi8 footage you can build a your own preset with only one run. That should be sufficient.

[NOCSUCOW]

Depends entirely on how long your video file is and how powerful your machine is. The more powerful your machine, the faster it will go through (of course). Which Mac do you have and how much footage do you need to encode?

Specs are above but I forgot to say which 13.3 MBP, its the 2.26GHz but with the upgrades listed above. Videos could be at an hour at the most.