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fabriziorizzo
Participating Frequently
December 22, 2008
Question

How to transcode Canon 5D mark II H.264 video into something editable?

  • December 22, 2008
  • 63 replies
  • 75925 views
QT Pro v7.5 plays my 5Dm2 native video files just fine. Premiere CS4 however... unusable. I've heard that transcoding the H.264 40Mbps videos to another format allows a better editing experience.

Hardware:
Dell Precision 690, 1 quad-core 3GHz processor, 12GB RAM, 15000 rpm SAS system drive, 1TB SATA video disk (non-RAID), 1TB SATA temp disk (non-RAID), Quadro FX 3500 graphics card (non-CUDA unfortunately)

Question is... what is the most efficient format to transcode into?

A tutorial on Vimeo for Final Cut Pro on a mac mentions HDCAM EX as a format to use. (http://www.vimeo.com/2373679)
I don't see that option as shown on the Mac from my Vista box using either Adobe Media Encoder CS4 or MPEG Streamclip v1.2.

If I start a project in Premiere CS4 using the HDCAM EX 1080p presets, what is the corresponding Media Encoder format to choose for converting my clips before importing to Premiere?

I'm currently testing the following output format in AME:
MPEG2 Blu-Ray: 1920x1080,23.976 fps, Progressive, Quality 5, no audio, VBR 2-pass, bitrate setings of 25 min 35 target 40 max.

Has anyone determined a transcoding process that provides full HD quality while maintaining any ability to scrub and edit Canon 5D mark II video in Premiere CS4?
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    63 replies

    Show previous replies
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    _Mark_Slack_
    Participating Frequently
    December 29, 2008
    Has anyone tried the Canon 5d Mark II in 4x3 mode?
    the_wine_snob
    the_wine_snob
    Inspiring
    December 29, 2008
    I agree that this will be the "hot topic," along with the "footage" from the Nikon N-90 (variation on the MJPEG CODEC).

    This is about the fifth article on the Canon, that I have seen on Adobe forums. At least with two of them, the poster was doing their due dilligences, prior to purchase.

    Hope that people can come up with viable workarounds for these newer sub-formats. Of course, for many Premiere users no "workaround" will be considered viable - gotta' be native, or nothing.

    I've already linked to this thread, which has grown, since I last visited it, in hopes that it will help others.

    I'm in the same boat with Stanley, but hope to help others with the link. Keep the comments coming, as they will likely help someone else down the line.

    Hunt
    _
    _Mark_Slack_
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    For Stanley Jones,

    "I do not have this camera, nor CS4, but I find the discussion interesting. How is this footage different from any other quicktime H.264 file? What does tech support say about this footage?"

    My gut instincts tell me the only real difference is the bitrate. Your typical computer setup even now chokes on 15mbps h.264 already. And now we have 40mbps h.264?
    _
    _Mark_Slack_
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    For Luke Humphrey,

    Regarding Ulead and the 5d, take a look at the following link...
    http://www.vimeo.com/2559073.
    You may want to ask this guy some questions.
    _
    _Dmitri_Izosimov_
    Participant
    December 28, 2008
    Luke Humphrey, I use TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress for primary transcoding. It has lots of transcode templates and it supports batch processing. The outputted MPEGs have native 5dII resolution as well as progressive scan and 30fps (although I have to choose 25fps for the clips to match PAL project settings in Premiere).

    I don't replace the edited MPEGs with original MOVs when building a DVD. I'm pretty happy with the result as it matches the highest DVD quality possible (PAL, 720x576px, 25fps, interlaced).
    Stan Jones
    Community Expert
    Stan JonesCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 28, 2008
    I do not have this camera, nor CS4, but I find the discussion interesting. How is this footage different from any other quicktime H.264 file? What does tech support say about this footage?

    > Replacing the AVCHD issue at last

    Craig, lol.
    _
    _Luke_Humphrey_
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    Hi Mark - what does it mean that Ulead Video Studio 11 fully supports the Canon 5d Mark II? Are you saying .MOV files from the mkII play smoothly in their timeline view w/o rendering?
    _
    _Mark_Slack_
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    h.264 = mpeg4 level 10
    just so everyone is on the same page!

    Ulead Video Studio 11 fully supports the Canon 5d Mark II. Who would'v figured.
    _
    _Luke_Humphrey_
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    Do you have the link to the forum thread? did he say it actually played smoothly in the timeline view w/o rendering?

    movie studio is their consumer app, but I used to have vegas pro 8 and as far as playing AVCHD video in the timeline they were the same...so I would assume vegas pro wouldn't have anything special that would play h.264 smoother in the timeline view than movie studio....could be wrong of course.
    B
    Bob Ramage
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2008
    >Sony Vegas cannot smoothly edit the 5d footage from what I've seen, or at least vegas movie studio cannot. I've tried it...where did you hear this?

    Video University forums. One of the posters mixed some 5dII footage with stuff shot on a Canon XHA1 and edited it with Vegas Prp 8.0c. Movie studio is their consumer app, no?

    This is going to be an extremely popular camera in the video production world. Hopefully Adobe (or Canon) will add support for PPro CS4.
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