Export from Final Cut Pro to format editable on PC (eg. AVI) retaining HD

[adrien23]

Hello,

I have been working on this issue for a while. I have been asking for exports of video files that have been shot in high definition. I want the exports to be full HD and uncompressed or as uncompressed as possible, so that I may edit the files on my PC.

The files have been exported using Final Cut Pro. Most of them were exported to a .MOV format.

An issue that I didn't realize until recently was that the MOV files were unviewable on my PC as well as my Mac (I tried playing it on both platforms just to see).

It turns out that Final Cut Pro, not just Quicktime, is required to view MOV file exports.

I have just asked for a RAW AVI export of a movie from someone and I hope the quality is uncompressed.

Did I ask for the correct format? I want to edit on my PC (Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 Ultra; 64-bit program and Windows is 64-bit as well).

As to what I want to do with the footage...

I want the best quality so that I personally may edit and convert to other formats (eg. put on a blu-ray with original quality, put on DVD, etc.).

So, I want to be able to do as much as possible with the footage, hence the desire for uncompressed video.

Obviously, a MPEG-4 h.264 has less compression than a DVD, but the HD quality is lost with that format.

Thanks for any help and advice!

P.S.

Here is what VLC showed for a movie I had exported to MOV that was not viewable to me since I did not have Final Cut Pro. (I just asked for a MOV file export). I had Quicktime, but obviously codecs available only with Final Cut Pro were required.

From VLC, I chose Media Information and under Codec Details, the following appeared:

Stream 0:
Type: Video
Codec: MPEG-1/2 Video (xdvd)
Language: English
Resolution: 1920x1080
Frame rate: 23.976000

Stream 1:
Type: Audio
Codec: PCM S16 LE (sowt)
Language: English
Channels: Stereo
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Bits per sample: 16

[terryj]

You need to ask the people supplying you the footage shot in High Definition, if they
can simply supply you copies of the RAW footage dumped to an External HD.
Preferably a FireWire one ( you may have to supply that), but if not USB 2 will be ok.

Getting them to ingest it into FCP ( possible dropped frames, depending upon how they ingest it,
if via P2 card or direct from camera ok, if dumped to a USB drive and then imported in
dropped frames, not to mention do they have the codec for their camera or are they using AIC
to get into FCP?) and then exporting out to a Quicktime .mov file isn't the way to go,
if you are talking of maintaining "same shot as" High Quality.

And as for your "PC not handling .MOV files" this is erroneous.
Quicktime is correct, if they properly exported the sequence out of
Final Cut using a default codec native to Quicktime, such as None,
Photo Jpeg, DV-Pal or DV-NTSC.
If it was exported using AIC, or DVCAM Pro, then yes, you would need
Final Cut Pro to view those .mov files encoded with those codecs.

Seems like there is a lot of "not knowing what to do" on the side
that uses Final Cut Pro.
This is evidenced by the fact they are handing you .mov files exported out
of Final Cut Pro that you can't playback on your PC. They are either
(a) being cheap in the delivery format to you ( I assume they are using a codec
to save space to fit the files on a DVD-5 for you)
or (b) just inexperienced in getting you what you are asking for.

Take an external drive over to them in person, and ask for the
RAW footage dumped from their camera onto your external Drive.
if they say "huhn? how do yew do thet?" then
hook up to their mac, hook up their camera, and show them
how to do a simple data copy form one device to another.

[adrien23]

Thanks for the information. But, the thing is that they have edited the RAW footage with Final Cut Pro. So, they can't dump it from their camera onto the external hard drive because it's not in the edited form.

But, it seems to be the case that the codecs selected for the .MOV export are those that require Final Cut Pro.

Would you confirm this fact / the codec used with one of the .MOV files I have? I have gotten information about the file using MediaInfo:

General
Complete name: /Volumes/Untitled DVD/movie.mov
Format: MPEG-4
Format profile: QuickTime
Codec ID: qt
File size: 1.66 GiB
Duration: 6mn 57s
Overall bit rate: 34.1 Mbps
Encoded date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:09:40
Tagged date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:23:26
Writing library: Apple QuickTime
Media/UUID: CFD063F3-F892-41D3-B358-2C7E0C3AE47C

Video
ID: 1
Format:MPEG Video
Format version: Version 2
Format profile: Main@High
Format settings, BVOP: Yes
Format settings, Matrix: Default
Format settings, GOP: M=3, N=12
Codec ID: xdvd
Codec ID/Hint: XDCAM
Duration: 6mn 57s
Bit rate mode: Variable
Bit rate: 32.6 Mbps
Nominal bit rate: 35.0 Mbps
Width: 1 888 pixels
Original width: 1 920 pixels
Height: 1 062 pixels
Original height: 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio: 16:9
Frame rate mode: Constant
Frame rate: 23.976 fps
Standard: Component
Color space: YUV
Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0
Bit depth: 8 bits
Scan type: Progressive
Compression mode: Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame): 0.677
Stream size: 1.58 GiB (95%)
Language: English
Encoded date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:09:40
Tagged date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:23:26

Audio
ID: 2
Format: PCM
Format settings, Endianness: Little
Format settings, Sign: Signed
Codec ID: sowt
Duration: 6mn 57s
Bit rate mode: Constant
Bit rate: 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 48.0 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Stream size: 76.4 MiB (5%)
Language: English
Encoded date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:09:40
Tagged date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:23:26

Menu
ID: 3
Language: English
Encoded date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:23:26
Tagged date: UTC 2011-01-31 21:23:26

---

Thank you!

[edDV]

If you are in a contract with a post house, you should specify the Windows program and version that should be able to open the uncompressed file. If the file doesn't open have your lawyer write a letter.

Aside from payment wars,

Was the original camera XDCAM-HD or EX?

Was the FCP edit actually done uncompressed or with AIC or ProRes422 intermediate codec?

If it exists on the Mac server or RAID as uncompressed 4:2:2, they should be able to export to a variety of containers. You need to specify which you want.

Note this isn't uncompressed but the standard container for XDCAM-EX (MPeg2) interchange is MXF. There are industry standards. A judge or arbiter would probably rule for MXF over Quicktime. Still better to spec the program that must open the file.