Im getting confused with editing 7d footy on a Mac...

[picaplow]

First, I'm gonna say what I think it's the right thing to do to edit 7d footy on a mac, considering friends tips and video tutorials.

1 - Convert the clips to Apple ProRes 422
2 - Import the clips to Final Cut, and drag one to the timeline so that it asks if I wanna change the timeline settings.
3 - Click YES.
4 - Edit the Video and export it as Apple ProRes 422.
5 - Convert the video to H.264 (limiting data rate to 5.000kbps) using MPEG Stream Clip
6 - Upload on Vimeo, in my case.

Problems I've had doing all the steps above:

1 - After exporting the video as Apple ProRes 422, the video playback is really bad, it freezes, jumps parts but the audio works normally.
2 - I've just exported a 0:59 video ( doing all the steps above as well) but the final video is 1:59. There's 1 minute with nothing... just the black screen, no clips and no sound. The weirdest thing is that I checked the time line and it goes only until 1:09, how can the final video be 1:59.

Thanks.

[cgbier]

Why don't you just use Compressor instead of Streamclip?

[picaplow]

I don't know. I have seen some tutorials about converting 7d footy and in some of them they used MPEG Stream Clip. My friend also told me to use that. Are there any differences in the quality of the converted videos using MPEG Stream Clip and Compressor?

[cgbier]

How do you perform your first step?
How exactly do you perform your step 4?
What hardware do you have? Is your ProRes coming from an external drive (USB or FW?)?

[picaplow]

How do you perform your first step?
How exactly do you perform your step 4?
What hardware do you have? Is your ProRes coming from an external drive (USB or FW?)?

FIRST STEP
1 - Open MPEG Stream Clip and select Batch List.
2 - Drag all the clips that i wanted to be converted
3 - It appears " Please choose a task", "Export to Quicktime" -> "OK"
4 - Select folder...
5 - Change "Compression" to Apple ProRes 422;
Change the "Quality" to 100%;
Change "Frame Size" to 1920 x 1080 (HDTV 1080i)
P.S: My clips are all shot at 60fps with a 7d ( action sports scenes)
Sometimes I set the framerate to 60 sometimes not. I've heard that Apple ProRes 422 recognizes your frame rate or something like that...(Is it really necessary?)
Sometimes I select deinterlace and sometimes not. ( Is it really necessary?)
6 - Click "To Batch"

STEP 4

Well I just edit the video normally after have changed the timeline settings as final cut asked when I dragged the first clip. Then I go to File-> Export-> QuickTime Movie...-> Change from "Current Settings" to " Apple ProRes 422 1920 x 1080 60i 48HZ"

I don't really know what you exactly mean by "Is your ProRes coming from an external drive (USB or FW?)?" But... I import the footage with a USB Cable and store it in my External HardDrive

[cgbier]

Hold on. Are you shooting in 60p or 60i? That's a bit confusing here.

I have the feeling your complete workflow is a mess. Try the following:
1.) Copy the complete file structure of your SD or CF card to your computer.
2.) Open FCP
3.) Open Log & Capture
4.) Point to your folder with the clips
5.) Import
6.) Edit
7.) Send your timeline to Compressor for exporting to h.264

You also can export a reference video from FCP that you open in Compressor.

What I meant with the external drive was if the ProRes file you try to play is located on an external drive, and, if so, this drive is connected via USB or Firewire.

[picaplow]

1 - I actually don't have a 7d, but I thinking about buying a t2i soon so i need to solve this problems first. I just have a bunch of clips from my friend's 7d in my external HD so Im not sure if the footy is shot at 60p or 60i. I actually didnt know that 7d shoot at 60p, i thought it only did at 60i.

2 - Oh isn't the Log and Capture window just for importing clips with a FireWire Cable from a miniDV?
"4.)"-> What do you mean? Just change the "Log Bin:" to my current project? And after that, if I connect the t2i/7d with a USB is it going to work just as if I connected a miniDV camera with a firewire? I just can't understand that.

"7.)"-> Well Im gonna try using compressor instead of mpeag stream clip. Thanks.

3 - So what about all the converting process to Apple ProRes 422 that there are so many tutorials on youtube about that, is it not necessary? Are the clips going to work normally on the timeline playback as original h.264 video files?

Thanks!

[cgbier]

Oh isn't the Log and Capture window just for importing clips with a FireWire Cable from a miniDV?

Nope, Log & Capture is used to import and manage any kind of media.

What do you mean?

You have copied your card to somewhere on the computer. L&C needs to know where it is, so it can extract the clips.

So what about all the converting process to Apple ProRes 422 that there are so many tutorials on youtube about that, is it not necessary? Are the clips going to work normally on the timeline playback as original h.264 video files?

h.264 is NOT an editing codec, so FCP doesn't work with it. You don't have to convert your original clips into ProRes. You can convert them into any HD format FCP offers during the import. ProRes and AIC have the advantage though that they offer a relatively high bitrate with only a humble need for computer horsepower. However, don't bother to work with ProRes from an external drive connected via USB.