Render Madness in ProRes 422

I'm using Final Cut 6.0.6 on OSX 10.5.8 using my 15" MacBook Pro with the 2.16 Intel Core Duo and 2GB of RAM. I'm using an eSATA cable to a 4TB external drive.

The project I'm editing will deliver on DVD and Quicktime...they're wanting to be able to view it in small groups and project it to a crowd. It's a mix of footage pulled from DVD with Handbrake and converted to Apple ProRes 422 in MPEG Streamclip in a variety of screen resolutions...I left them unscaled, AVI movies converted to 422 Quicktimes in MPEG Streamclip, uncompressed high-def Quicktime movies, JPEG still images, web banner graphics, and probably a few more things that will show up tomorrow.

I haven't edited 422 before, but from what I read it sounded like a good solution...I could set my project to 422, convert all my files to 422 and not have to render. Wrong. I have to render everything, any time I adjust it. I set the project up as 720p so I could output a high quality Quicktime at the end. I didn't know what codec or resolution to use, since there's not one source driving the choice and client wants as high quality output as they can get. My laptop is older and is as updated as I can get it...not a lot of firepower.

Anyway...what format would work better for this situation, and is there anything I can do to rescue what I have, or do I need to blow it up and start over?


Thanks,
Brad

> I set the project up as 720p so I could output a high quality Quicktime at the end.

Here's where you needed to render. If your source is from DVD, you will get SD. So choose either prores NTSC or pal. And yea, skip the handbrake step.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks very much. I understand that the DVD sources will be SD. I also have hi-def Quicktime elements. I'm not sure of the resolution of the graphics and the web elements. I have pulled and transcoded 40-50 clips to ProRes 422 HQ...do you see a way out of re-capturing all that material?

If your video is SD, I would recommend using an SD timeline, and scaling HD down to fit.



Brad Johnson Wrote:
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> Thanks very much. I understand that the DVD
> sources will be SD. I also have hi-def Quicktime
> elements. I'm not sure of the resolution of the
> graphics and the web elements. I have pulled and
> transcoded 40-50 clips to ProRes 422 HQ...do you
> see a way out of re-capturing all that material?

Brad Johnson, your material is a mixed bag of picture qualities. You must decide if you want it to look like a mixed bag, as a 35 mm movie might intercut super 8 "found footage" and whatever, or to look homogeneous. You homogenize it by converting it all to SD. This is an aesthetic question, not a technical question.

If you choose to make it all HD then rendering is slower. You can reduce render time somewhat by relaxing the Video Settings in the Sequence Settings. 8-bit YUV and fastest motion filter quality might be good enough for editing. When you're done you can re-render the whole project to highest quality overnight.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany