FCP and AVI Files & PAL Video on DVD

[DigitalGuard]

Hello,

I got 2 questions, first of all, When i try to load an AVI file on FCP 5.1, it gives the following error:

The Following media files are not optimized for Final Cut Pro. It is highly recommended that you either recaputre the media or use media manager to create new copies of the files to improve their performacen for multii-stream playback

Now does any 1 know if I loose any quality if I'm using AVI file to do some editing on FCP 5.1??? If yes what can i do to fix this problem to NOT loose quality and convert to MOV without recapturing files...

Second, My footage I got is PAL, now the person who burned DVD for me, burned the DVD video (pal) and Im using in my regular DVD player and its playing... its NTSC player and TV, its okay.. Now my questions, when I burn a movie do I need to do anything special to be able to watch PAL on NTSC player and TV or what do I need to do?

Thank You
DigitalGuard

[terryj]

Unfortunately, the avi file has ALREADY lost quality,
depending upon what type of CODEC was used
to create the file from the original source.

If the file was originally say DV footage, and your friend
took that footage and edited into a DIVX flavored .avi file,
then some compression happened to take it from its original
space, down to a 800MB or so .avi file.

What FCP wants is DV format, and if it can't get that, it wants
it in a file format that it can use , and will create a new copy
in rendered DV format.

Converting it to .mov will probably still cause you some grief,
as if you just save it out as a Quicktime self contained movie,
from QT Pro, the codec used in the file will trigger the same
response back from FCP, if you try and ingest.

Convert the file using Quicktime Pro to DV Stream, and ingest that into FCP. Going down ( DV to Avi) and then back up (AVI to DV) will make you loose quality, no way around it.

Another tatic you could try, if all you need is to do a quick edit
and get it say dropped into Toast to burn to disc, is use
MPEGStreamclip, which doesn't have FCP's strict regulations,
and just edit the avi in that. Save it back to your HD, and then drag and drop it into Toast and burn.

As for burning the disc to PAL for DVD, it depends upon what software you use to author the disc. Toast will just ask you if
you mean to burn a PAL disc, or do you want to transcode it
to NTSC. Just tell it leave as PAL, and it will build the disc to
the PAL standard.

If you use DVDSP, then you first have to set the project up
in DVDSP's prefs as PAL, and then begin your authoring,
as NTSC is default set in the prefs. Once you change that,
and complete your author, then just build the project, and
it will build it in the proper spec, but be sure to have ONLY
footage that is encoded at 25fps. One piece of footage,
whether a button overlay movie, a transition, etc in NTSC
will cause the build to get screwed up ( at least in DVDSP3,
I don't know about v.4).

[DigitalGuard]

See with the AVI's its being captured that way, I have a DVCAM tape I want to capture that so I can do editing, a friend of mine who has a studio works only on premiere and PC and he always captures in AVI format... for about 10 hours of movie he said it should be about 80-100 Gigs.... So the files are being captured that way, Now he says the way he does it is high quality and it shouldn't loose any quality...

Now I want to edit this in FCP, will it be okay or will i still loose quality..?

---

For the PAL project, i use DVDSP4 and thats fine, I can use it and put the format to PAL, and burn it to DVD, now my question is, will it play on a NTSC player and NTSC TV? If not what can i do to play it, cause someone had given me a DVD that is pal but it plays on my NTSC DVD Player and NTSC TV.... Any thoughts on this...

Thanks,
DigitalGuard

[terryj]

The DVD should play fine. Most newer DVD players recognize
25fps and play them just fine. I have a 7 yr old RCA DVD Player,
and it plays discs that I have made using Toast encoded
in PAL just fine with no problems.

as for your first question:
Aah, the dreaded DV-AVI format from Premiere.
see more here
and here

short answer: You need to do the capturing of the footage
yourself, or have your friend send you the original DV tapes
/or the footage on hard Disk RAW ( in DV - NTSC DVCPRO).
Or follow my steps as listed in posting #2,
if you can't get the original footage/ refuse to work that way.

Some things unfortuantely, have to be done properitary
to the system you are working on. PC/Premiere's default
is AVI-DV. FCP/FCS/FCE is QT DV - NTSC DVCPRO.
Media Manager is telling you this, and giving you two options:
convert to the format it wants, or re-capture FROM TAPE
or Hard DISC the DV footage, and then FCP will make it
it's native format. You can put it back on your friend,
send him the above links, and have him re-export the footage
correctly in FCP format ( 2nd link). Then you can bring it in,
and Media Manager will be fine with it, and no quality loss.

[DigitalGuard]

terryj,

Thank you for your help, So in conclusion, NOT recommanded and I should just capture it my self... umm... lol...

It just I don't have the DVCAM player to capture it and the cheapest one I found was about 1600 bucks.... Do you know anything for cheap but good quality.?

Thanks
DigitalGuard

[terryj]

Cheapest route---Get you friend to save the files
using the steps outlined here.

Outside of that, nope DVCAM is EXPENSIVE, and there are no
cheap players that I know of.