formats Questions - Video WTF - Questions and answers about video production, video cameras, editing, publishing, et cetera.

I am seeking a definitive answer on file formats for FCE

2009-12-02T12:51:01Z

Previously I was using Sony Vegas where I could work with nearly any video, audio and image fromat I wanted.

But because I own a mac, I bought FinalCut Express a while ago. The very first thing I discovered is the inability to just drag in video formats that I was previously working with. What a pain.

So... I have multiple formats from different cameras. I found almost nothing works without having to render the timeline.

I know this is a question that depends on the source footage, but I'm looking for a simple answer. What format should I convert video files to for optimal use in FCE, and what is the most common conversion software to handle the task of preparing video for FCE?

I thank everyone in advance for their replies. Certainly I am not alone in this dilemma.

what's the best low-/no-budget strategy for embedding videos in my site?

2009-10-20T02:26:42Z

i'm excited about all the html5 video embedding stuff i've read (especially the online book in progress, "diving into html5"), and i'm excited to move forward in implementing it for the community media center where i work. switching away from blip.tv and youtube as our hosts for embedding video into our web site would lessen the extent to which they pull away traffic and viewers, though we could still use those sites for promotional purposes. it would also help us to get rid of other people's logos on our embedded videos.

i'm less excited, though, about what this means for our bandwidth usage. at the moment we don't stream or host any video ourselves, "offshoring" all of the data charges to the aforementioned companies. (i unfortunately don't know how our web hosting plan works, but i can't imagine it would be free to begin serving lots of GB's of video content.)

SO! my central question is, what's the best, cheapest strategy for shifting to a modern/non-branded video embedding method WITHOUT incurring high fees for hugely increasing my bandwidth usage?

(PLEASE: instead of giving me answers about the lack of wide support for <video> tags yet, please read this Q&A thread and realize that i have also read through it. THANKS!)

and now, some more specific questions:

can a <video> element refer to source(s) hosted elsewhere — like a .mp4 or .flv file from blip.tv? moreover, is this considered "bad web practice", like having <img> tags load images saved on other people's servers?

what about archive.org? do they re-encode video (as does youtube) when you upload it, or is it flexible? (i need to explore this more myself too)

does some other non-branding, format-agnostic, free video hosting site exist that i'm not aware of?

thanks so much to anyone who can help!

final cut pro compression to You Tube novice stumped again

2009-11-10T17:38:36Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLLB3DoXlw

I capture HDV footage from a tapedeck to my iMac computer. But then when I begin to edit a sequence the software asks if I want to make sure the footage matches the sequence and I say yes. And then I end up with a product that doesn't fill out to the edges of the available frame.(see example) Can you tell if I need to change the Sequence settings or the compression settings or something else? If I try to switch the sequence settings, it takes forever to re-render and then doesn't look the right proportions no matter which selection. The following is a case in point...

What's iFrame about?

2009-10-15T17:48:35Z

Can someone explain the pros/cons of this new format called "iFrame."

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/sanyo-camcorders-use-apples-new-iframe-movie-format/

Apparently it's a 1/4 full HD (960×540 and 30fps) standard -- which should look pretty good for web-uploads. Anyone have any thoughts?

Export High Quality Video from iMovie?

2009-10-08T15:43:10Z

The great thing about iMovie is that tons of people have it for free, installed, and it is fast and easy to learn and use. Plus it simplifies YouTube uploading and iPod/iPhone publishing.

But what about sharing and sending work around to be re-mixed? How can you export your iMovie project to a "full quality" or "uncompressed format"? It doesn't appear that you can.

The current version of iMovie given away on all Macintoshes is iMovie 09. Since version 6, however, full-quality export to DV video has been disabled, and sending an edited movie back out to MiniDV or other camera source has also been disabled. I assume Apple is trying to push Final Cut, it's higher-end editing tool, but we've got schools with labs filled with iMacs that all have iMovie installed and ready to go.

I'm looking for advice understanding all the different export options in iMovie, a path to getting the best quality export to different formats and different work environments, and I'd also like to whine about this terrible limitation in iMovie. But I promise not to whine too much.

Can anyone who is a master in iMovie talk about the different export formats, the dozens of weird options in each one, and explain how to improve the export qualities in each format? The DV Stream, which I would assume meant full quality, is definitely NOT. DV from iMovie 6 looked much better.