Ideal format to convert to

[The Monarch]

I've recently updated my PC with a blu ray drive and have downloaded AnyDVD HD/Blu ray for ripping copies of my blu rays. I want to use the footage I rip for making my own edits through Final Cut Pro on the mac. I have been looking through the guides on this site regarding the various different ways of ripping blu rays using AnyDVD HD/Blu ray but I'm wondering what would be the best file type to convert the ripped blu ray footage to. I can't use MKV and I've been thinking about converting to MP4 but what would you guys suggest so I could get the best quality footage using in Final Cut Pro?

[redwudz]

Generally if I plan to do extensive editing and want frame accurate cuts with HD video, I would convert the video to a lossless or near lossless codec. You might look into Neo Scene for a good editing codec for HD video.

H.264 DivX, or any of the highly compressed codecs are terrible for accurate edits. Once you've finished the edits, then you can convert to most any format. Depends on what you want to use the video for.

BTW, if you're just ripping the BD to your HDD, it will be in whatever format/codecs the BD uses. Conversion is a different process.

[edDV]

I've recently updated my PC with a blu ray drive and have downloaded AnyDVD HD/Blu ray for ripping copies of my blu rays. I want to use the footage I rip for making my own edits through Final Cut Pro on the mac.

Blu-Ray is MPeg2, VC-1 or h.264 in 8 bit 4:2:0 color space.

Final Cut gives you 3 main choices for intermediate HD editing. There is no native support* for the above codecs.

1. Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) is matched to 8 bit 4:2:0.

2. ProRes 4:2:2 is intended for higher end 10 bit 4:2:2 camera source. You would convert to this format if you wanted to include these source clips into a high end film transfer or very high end 4:2:2 camera timeline.

3. Uncompressed (RAID required).


* Edius, Premiere Pro and Vegas Pro on the PC will natively edit 4:2:0 MPeg2 and H.264 without conversion.