Best practices for dealing with H.264 to be imported/edited in FCP X.

Hi Everyone.

I have to work with some video shot with a dslr. Unfortunately it is h.264.

I've always heard that you should convert the video prior to import into FCP X using MPEG Streamclip or something similar.

Is this even necessary any more with X? I know it was an issue with previous versions like 6 and 7.

So what is the final word on workflow and import of h.264 video.

Your help desired and appreciated at the same time.

Jonathan

It's not necessarily. If you're going to be doing compositing work or heavy grading you would want to optimize the media, which you can do on import or once the media is in the application.

Jonathan Levin wrote: Hi Everyone.
I've always heard that you should convert the video prior to import into FCP X using MPEG Streamclip or something similar.
Jonathan

Just stop listening those guys and you'll be fine.

Thanks guys.

So this got me wondering: When and or why would you need to use MPEG Streamclip, Pavtube or other converters as long as you can optimize on import in FCP X?

The only thing I can see is to create a different frame rate i.e. going from 29.97 h.264 to 30p Pro Res 422. or something along those lines.

Thanks.

Jonathan

Don't use Pavtube unless it's been improved a lot. Streamclip can also rip DVDs.

Thanks for that Tom!

So from a historical FCP progression from version 6>7>X, I'm guessing with the early versions of FC these converter would be needed i.e. Media manger, Compressor pre X.

So putting things into perspective, I almost took it for granted that there are things like that which make using FCP X much nicer.

Jonathan

From 6.0.6 to 7.0.3 AVCHD was converted on ingest, usually to ProRes or LT. FCPX simply rewraps to QuickTime without changing the codec.