ericschmerick
New Member
Editing 5D video is hard!
I've spent the last few days trying various ways on both a mac and PC to edit video on the 5D Mark II, and here are my thoughts so far in case anyone else is facing the same challenge:
I have a couple of simple goals re editing 5D video:
1. I'd like to just simply stitch together all my clips when I come home for "one long movie" of all the shots on my card (or maybe grouping clips, anyway). No format change, or a very very quick re-encode (like > real time) would be OK.
2. I'd like to watch my movies on my WD HD TV box in high def. I'm used to keeping movies / clips on a 16GB flash drive, so the requirement would be for me to have a quick and easy way to convert from the native (giant) files to something smaller but still HD and with high quality.
3. I'd like to edit in a pretty simple way. Meaning, just stitching together clips, adding transitions, adding music, etc. So, iMovie-like capability is OK.
What I've found:
- For clip stitching, there is a program called "Super" or something like that. It's freeware, and the interface is terrible. But it can streamcopy / stitch clips together with no re-encoding, so that you're left with one giant clip. You can add a bunch of clips at once, and it will just stitch them together. I think MPEGstreamclip might also do this, but I didn't try yet.
- For simple re-encoding, MPEGstreamclip is my friend. It's SLOWWWW. Like < real time on my quad core PC (2.66ghz), but still OK I guess. I find that re-encoding to H.264 at 720p / 2500kbs, I get file sizes roughly 1/10 original (or less? I didn't track carefully), and about 0.6x real time encode. These files are quite high in quality when played back on my WD HD TV box to my LCD TV. They are small enough that I can put hours of video on my 16GB flash drive.
- For editing, it's pretty necessary to re-encode to a difference codec before trying to edit anywhere. I tried Sony Vegas Studio on the PC (frame rate maybe 5fps which scrubbing or playing, with lots of jumping / stuttering). On the mac, I tried iMovie and Final Cut Express. The mac fares much better, with less stuttering a dropped frames, but it's still too jerky/slow for me. Importing the clips using the default full settings (for full HD) on either of these programs leaves you with a file encoded in Apple Intermediate Codec, but which is totally editable like any other file in real time. The import process is slow, but maybe a touch above real time? I'm on a slow Macbook Pro original 2ghz, so it'd be way faster on a newer machine. My final choice for editing is final cut express, importing as AIC. For movies I want to watch on TV, I render to HD H264, and pop it on my flash drive and into my WD HD TV for watching. Note that I tried re-encoding with the demo of cineform for editing on the PC (it encodes using the cineform codec), and it works great. I just didn't want to buy cineform, so I'll stick with the mac. I'm not anal about color, and the footage looks great to me, but I know there is a lot of noise on the forums about "black crush" or whatever. Anyway, looks great to me, Mr. Average Guy.
So, my "watchflow" is - copy original clips to HDD, pack into a single long movie with Super (or maybe MPEGStreamclip), convert to 720p, put on flash drive, plug in to WD HD TV, watch. If I want to edit, I use the original clip files, bring the ones I'm interested into FCE, re-encode to AIC, edit, export as required.
One last note on watching the raw footage. Plays "OK" on my first gen MBP in quicktime. Some dropped frames now and then, but basically fully watchable. Plays great on my windows machine with windows 7 in WMP, VLC, and almost anything else I've tried. I seem to have no issues playing back the raw files. I wonder if windows 7 is better at it. Even on my laptop (also windows 7, core 2 duo 2.93 ghz) the raw files play fine in WMP.
Take Care,
Eric
I've spent the last few days trying various ways on both a mac and PC to edit video on the 5D Mark II, and here are my thoughts so far in case anyone else is facing the same challenge:
I have a couple of simple goals re editing 5D video:
1. I'd like to just simply stitch together all my clips when I come home for "one long movie" of all the shots on my card (or maybe grouping clips, anyway). No format change, or a very very quick re-encode (like > real time) would be OK.
2. I'd like to watch my movies on my WD HD TV box in high def. I'm used to keeping movies / clips on a 16GB flash drive, so the requirement would be for me to have a quick and easy way to convert from the native (giant) files to something smaller but still HD and with high quality.
3. I'd like to edit in a pretty simple way. Meaning, just stitching together clips, adding transitions, adding music, etc. So, iMovie-like capability is OK.
What I've found:
- For clip stitching, there is a program called "Super" or something like that. It's freeware, and the interface is terrible. But it can streamcopy / stitch clips together with no re-encoding, so that you're left with one giant clip. You can add a bunch of clips at once, and it will just stitch them together. I think MPEGstreamclip might also do this, but I didn't try yet.
- For simple re-encoding, MPEGstreamclip is my friend. It's SLOWWWW. Like < real time on my quad core PC (2.66ghz), but still OK I guess. I find that re-encoding to H.264 at 720p / 2500kbs, I get file sizes roughly 1/10 original (or less? I didn't track carefully), and about 0.6x real time encode. These files are quite high in quality when played back on my WD HD TV box to my LCD TV. They are small enough that I can put hours of video on my 16GB flash drive.
- For editing, it's pretty necessary to re-encode to a difference codec before trying to edit anywhere. I tried Sony Vegas Studio on the PC (frame rate maybe 5fps which scrubbing or playing, with lots of jumping / stuttering). On the mac, I tried iMovie and Final Cut Express. The mac fares much better, with less stuttering a dropped frames, but it's still too jerky/slow for me. Importing the clips using the default full settings (for full HD) on either of these programs leaves you with a file encoded in Apple Intermediate Codec, but which is totally editable like any other file in real time. The import process is slow, but maybe a touch above real time? I'm on a slow Macbook Pro original 2ghz, so it'd be way faster on a newer machine. My final choice for editing is final cut express, importing as AIC. For movies I want to watch on TV, I render to HD H264, and pop it on my flash drive and into my WD HD TV for watching. Note that I tried re-encoding with the demo of cineform for editing on the PC (it encodes using the cineform codec), and it works great. I just didn't want to buy cineform, so I'll stick with the mac. I'm not anal about color, and the footage looks great to me, but I know there is a lot of noise on the forums about "black crush" or whatever. Anyway, looks great to me, Mr. Average Guy.
So, my "watchflow" is - copy original clips to HDD, pack into a single long movie with Super (or maybe MPEGStreamclip), convert to 720p, put on flash drive, plug in to WD HD TV, watch. If I want to edit, I use the original clip files, bring the ones I'm interested into FCE, re-encode to AIC, edit, export as required.
One last note on watching the raw footage. Plays "OK" on my first gen MBP in quicktime. Some dropped frames now and then, but basically fully watchable. Plays great on my windows machine with windows 7 in WMP, VLC, and almost anything else I've tried. I seem to have no issues playing back the raw files. I wonder if windows 7 is better at it. Even on my laptop (also windows 7, core 2 duo 2.93 ghz) the raw files play fine in WMP.
Take Care,
Eric
