FS100 - Conversion / Editing

[Peleus]

Hi all,

I'm posting this on behalf of a mate trying to get into video editing, so if I get any of the details wrong, sorry.

He has a FS100 Canon SD Video Camera. To the best of my knowledge this is recording in the standard MPEG2 format.

He wants to use Adobe After-Effects software with it, and he also wants chroma key editing to work with green screens.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction as to what I need to do to get the default output of this camera (mpeg2) working with this software? We've tried to put the default file into Adobe After-Effects but it's coming up as an unsupported file, so we must have to go through a conversion process first.

Thanks again for any help you can give me on this, any questions just shoot and I'll find out.

Cheers.

[Soopafresh]

Use Sdcopy to convert .MOD to Mpeg2

http://zyvid.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=280.0;id=153

[Peleus]

What's the best way to then get it working with Adobe After-Effects, it won't work with mpeg2 will it?

(Happy to be corrected)

[Soopafresh]

Only way I can think of is to convert the MPEG2 to a lossless codec like Huffyuv in an AVI container with an app like VirtualDubMod. I don't know AfterEffects at all, maybe someone else has a better idea.

[Steve Stepoway]

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but if that camera is recording mpeg2 (I don't know whether it really is), your friend is in for no end of trouble trying to chroma-key. The compression of mpeg2 is going to make pulling a clean key impossible. For learning purposes, perhaps OK, but the results are not going to look very good. MPEG isn't very good for editing, either. If the camera really records mpeg2, he's starting from a bad place.

Steve

[Peleus]

Hmm,

According to http://www.canon.com.au/products/digital_video_cameras/home/FS100_specs.aspx it's recording in MPEG2, apparently muxed in with AC-3 audio.

What do normal video's usually record in? What's the better format to have as a "starting place".

[Steve Stepoway]

In standard definition home video (with pro cameras it's a different story) it's getting harder to find anything new that's not mpeg based, though there are lots of used camcorders available. A better solution is a camcorder that records DV on tape (usually Mini-DV tape; that's what was standard for many years). The Canon Australia website shows the MD225. It uses lower compression than mpeg, and it's possible to get a good key for chroma-keying (not necessarily easy, but possible). Searching this site (or any of a number of others) will turn up a number of threads about getting a good key from DV. Editing's also easier. The downside is a 13 Gigabyte/hour data rate. Manufacturers have decided that the limits of mpeg video are not important in the home video market. You can do away with the tape and record on memory cards, since the video data is so much more compressed. But if your friend is trying to do anything semi-advanced and creative, mpeg's going to be a problem.

Steve

[turk690]

The trend in video is towards ever more compression in different forms and rates and degrees of quality pro and consumer; the Canon FS100 is not unique in that. I initially didn't like the thought of capturing and editing in MPEG-2 such as that which the FS100 produces because I have all along been told that MPEG-2 is super-compressed and degradation in editing is surefire, blah-blah. However, after trying out the FS100, I couldn't see what the fuss was really all about. The highest video bitrate this camcorder can do is 9mb/s (XP mode) and as long as I stick with that, with simple cuts and fades and smart re-rendering, Adobe Premiere Pro 2 doesn't miss a beat. Even out to 3rd generation re-encodes only golden eyes can tell which parts, if ever, of the original video has degraded (more pixelation?). In this day and age of inexpensive 3GHz Quad Cores and 8GB systems memories paired with the latest GPUs with 1GB of video memory, Premiere scarcely differs in speed between editing, say a DV workflow and MPEG-2 such as that sourced from an FS100. And in any case, my typical projects have sources ranging all over the place from HDV to DV to AVCHD to NTSC to PAL. It becomes hard to tell which part is slowing down which, if ever.
If you're really skittish about compressed sources but willfully or not already have an FS100, this is a workflow I recommend: 1st, transfer the *.mod files from it to your PC HDD. Open these files with Womble MPEG-VCR to properly set the 16:9 flag correctly (Premiere and Windows Movie Maker doesn't "see" this flag and mashes the video) and/or change the Dolby Digital audio to MPEG layer 2 (if your NLE will not accept DD for some reason) and save them with the *.mpg extension (some NLEs refuse to recognize *.mod). These *.mpg files can now be opened and edited in Premiere. If you think they'll degrade if edited multiple times then export it to a type 1 or 2 DV file first, then use the resulting *.avi as source material for editing instead. In fact, this *.avi can be accepted now by After Effects. Note that transcoding from *.mpg (or *.mod) to *.avi will NOT increase quality, but sure makes your editing blazingly faster.
In a similar manner, I transcode AVCHD to HDV because I want to avoid that odd PC lock-up tangling with AVCHD, editing is more responsive with HDV, and lastly, no matter what Adobe says, AVCHD with Premiere CS4 is a token.