Quick Time Compression?

[stevecoulter]

I am trying to export a half hour movie currently at full broadcast resolution to a quick time movie for DP from an AVID Adrenaline. Does anyone have a recommendation for a compression option?
There are about 20 choices in the menu

[Jim]

Export it at DV-PAL for Ireland if you want full screen playback on an external monitor via a transcoder like the Canopus ADVC 100.

You can reduce it to a smaller (quarter or half) size from the Avid if you just want to play a QT movie from within DP. In that case, I'd recommend a really efficient codec, like Sorenson, or Photo-JPEG at 50% or so.

Your term "full broadcast resolution" is a loaded one that can mean different things to different people.

<small>[ July 25, 2005, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Jim ]</small>

[lightningad]

just be aware that a dv-pal movie will run approx 1gb per 5 minutes of runtime. So you could be looking at a 30gb movie file!!

The adrenaline does come bundled with Sorenson Squeeze so you could get the editor to load it up and use that. Its amazing how much it compresses a movie with very little image degradation.

I often squeeze 10min/2gb files down to 30/40mb and the results are surprisingly good.

[BKK-OZ]

Get QT Pro 7 & use the H 264 codec. yummy.

[Jim]

Originally posted by BKK-OZ:
Get QT Pro 7 & use the H 264 codec. yummy.

Well... AFAIK, QT 7 isn't qualified for Avid products yet. It takes Avid about six months to a year to qualify "new" OS and QT flavors.

And, if you want the full screen playback on an external monitor via FireWire, DP limits you to certain codecs. RTM for more info.

[stevecoulter]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I ended up compressing the movie from the Avid Adrenaline using the Quicktime photo-JPEG option and it worked fine. It looks good and runs with no problem in DP. Thanks again - Steve

[BKK-OZ]

Originally posted by Jim:
AFAIK, QT 7 isn't qualified for Avid products yet. It takes Avid about six months to a year to qualify "new" OS and QT flavors. [/QB]

...sorry, wasn't thinking about Avid or his environment, I defer to your greater knowledge.

generally speaking, that 264 codec is just a dream tho, I'm sure its going to conquer the world in a few months.

[SuperDave]

Sort of on the same topic as this thread...If I want to export my movie from Final Cut Express HD, what format yields the "best quality" for destination to DVD?

[Jim]

You want to transcode as few times as possible. So, if you can make your DVDs on the same machine as your iDVD or DVDSP, you can export a QT Reference Movie for compression to MPEG2 in iDVD, Compressor (or another app like BitVice). If you're making the DVD on a different machine, export from FCP using whatever codec your footage is using, so that you don't transcode another time.

[SMP2005]

On the ongoing subject of Quicktime clips.... I am trying to post (to an FTP server) an 11 minute Quicktime film with my score in it and currently it can take up to two hours to post - and it frequently stalls in the middle of the transmission - requiring baby sitting on my part.

I tried to Dropstuff - but, that didn't work. Is there a solution and/or a suggested compression size for this kind of thing? What about emailing an 11 minute QT file? It needs to be compressed, yes?

Thanks

Shawn

[Jim]

You could look into software that'll split and cocentate: That takes a file, and breaks it down into smaller user-definable pieces that can be re-assembled (with the same software) at the other end. There used to be an OSX app called SplitnCocentate (I think.). If you're sending to a PC user, that could be a problem, though.

I think the pro versions of Stuffit let you do this, but they may have another term for it.

Most email providers have a size limit, so emailing an 11-min. video is probably not going to work, unless it's highly compressed.

You didn't mention what the video is for. Perhaps you could reduce the frame size, frame rate, or lower the quality (increase the ratio) of the compression... if it's just for screening or review purposes.