regarding compression, exporting, imovie, after effects. please help!

[FilmWithVx1000]

hello everyone! I'm max. I'll make this short and sweet, and allow me to firstly say that i am aware a few of these questions could have been answered by searching the hell out of these forums. I apologize in advance if this upsets you, i understand its an annoyance but I'm in a rush. i have to go to work till late and I'm hoping to put an edit out tonight when i get back.

Firstly, i film and edit skateboarding videos. Haven't in a long time, however. went on a long hiatus, and now I'm back! my equipment consists of a Sony DCR VX1000 equipped, at times, with a Century Optics Mark 1 fisheye (standard def - 3ccd - mini DV - 720x480 format)

i capture into and timeline edit with iMovie '11 currently. will be upgrading my timeline editing software soon enough, most likely to fcp. i also edit with after effects cc, the newest version of after effects. primarily just use after effects for its ramped slow motion feature. Assuming i use both iMovie and After Effects, and film with my vx1000 (refer to the above for specs), heres what i need to know . . .

1) best settings for exporting from iMovie to After Effects with my camera type? ? (purely wanting quality, file size is okay.)

2) best composition settings to import my clips from iMovie to After Effects with, with my camera type? (purely wanting quality, file size is okay.)

3) best settings for rendering back to iMovie from After Effects with my camera type? (purely wanting quality, file size is okay.)

4) why does my clip keep coming up as fast forwarded when i drop it in the timeline on After Effects to ramp slow-mo it / how do i fix this?
(literally before i change anything, i export a clip from iMovie while its at normal speed, import to After Effects, put it in the timeline, then its sped up when i watch it before doing anything)

5) best export from iMovie to youtube after my projects are done? keep in mind a few clips in most of my videos have gone iMovie->AE->iMovie. (purely wanting quality, file size is okay.)

thanks a million to whomever could help, i could really use it.

[smrpix]

1), 2) and 3) DV 720x480 29.97

4) Is this speedup during actual playback or just when it's preparing the playback preview?

5) Check out YouTube's latest specs https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en
Your material is 480i. You can encode 480p out of after effects (or imovie.)

Your gear is awesomely old-school.

[Cornucopia]

If you are doing a lot of processing, FX or greenscreen, you may want to bump up you 4:1:1 (or 4:2:0) DV to losslessly compressed 4:2:2 material (using e.g. ProRes422, AIC, Animation, etc). Otherwise, DV should be fine.
I agree with smrpix, as long as you are happy with DV & SD great! Going to HD (and being able to maintain the features you've come to know and love) will set you back a bit of $$ (since your setup is a step above JoeConsumer's).

Scott

[FilmWithVx1000]

1), 2) and 3) DV 720x480 29.97

4) Is this speedup during actual playback or just when it's preparing the playback preview?

5) Check out YouTube's latest specs https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en
Your material is 480i. You can encode 480p out of after effects (or imovie.)

Your gear is awesomely old-school.

firstly, thank both of you for the help! this stuff below is kind of a lot but it seems really simple for someone seasoned and would literally mean the world to me if you could help a bit further.

in accordance with your replies to 1, 2 and 3, i have a few more questions within them (there are other options within the compressing/exporting/importing i need help with) not to be a pest, just want to make sure i have all this completely down for the best quality


1 - do i use DV, DVPRO, or DVPRO50? (iMovie gives these sub-options for DV)
1 - do i set "scan mode" to progressive or interlaced?
1 - should i preserve aspect ratio with "letterbox" or "crop"? or neither, iMovie gives you the option to not check this part.
1 - should i lock or not lock the "audio format"? also, 32.000 kHz, 44.100 kHz, or 4400 kHz?

2 - should i use the D1/DV NTSC (0.91) pixel aspect ratio?
2 - "drop frame" or "non-drop frame"?
2 - should i choose to "lock my aspect ratio" or not to?

3 - should i set format to "quicktime"? dv wasn't available here
3 - RGB, ALPHA, or RGB&ALPHA?
3 - colors set to premultiplied(matted) or straight (unmated)?
3 - which option for codec? tons more but i listed the ones that seemed majorly applicable (animation, DV/NTSC 24p, DV25 NTSC, H.264, MPEG-4,
uncompressed YUV 10-bit 4:2:2, uncompressed YUV 8-bit 4:2:2, or none)?
3 - if above is animation, how many key frames per second?
3 - uncompressed or apple lossless for audio?
3 - what kHz for audio? along with what bit? (8,16,32)
3 - field render lower or upper or off?
3 - motion blur on or off? (i really only use AE for ramped slow motion right now, wasn't sure wether i should use it or not for that)
3 - frame blending on or off? (same as above)
3 - color depth 8, 12 or 16 bits per channel?

4 - during actual playback. tried it multiple times, waited it out to see if it was just working it out and it still keeps doing it.

5 - awesome!

thanks for the camera love as well! staying SD till i die!!!

[smrpix]

1) DV 25 720x480 29.97 interlaced, neither crop nor letterbox (can't recall if that camera shoots 16:9 at all) 48,000 locked or unlocked doesn't really matter.

2) Depends if you're shooting 16:9 or 4:3. Drop/non-drop doesn't matter, probably don't want to lock your aspect ratio

3 Quicktime/DV25 NTSC, lower field/48,000 16 bit LPCM Little endian if you're going back to imovie. If you're making your YouTube Output use h.264 video, 29.97 progressive, aac audio 192 in either a mov or mp4 wrapper. Try frame blending or not and see what you prefer.

4) This makes no sense. If you can post a short sample of your camera original we can take a look. Just attach it in your post.

[Cornucopia]

#1
There is, in PC-based files, not really any difference between DV and DVPro (aka DVCPro). The difference existed when it resided on the tape (track pitch, gap band width, separate analog audio cue track, etc). Only real difference now is whether audio is "locked" to the video or not. With DV it is optional to do. With DVPro/DVCPro/DVCam it is mandatory to be locked (and from a pro standpoint, it is less hassle come edit time). BTW, DVCPro50 is a different beast altogether (double the bitrate, less the compression, 4:2:2 color sampling). Don't use DVCPro50 unless directed to.
All DV is interlaced.
It is best to preserve AR by keeping the file(s) anamorphic. 2nd best would be letterboxing, worst would be cropping (but that only preserves the AR of the project!?...maybe they mean zooming?)
Audio for DVCPro/DVCam is ALWAYS 48kHz (@16bit, LPCM, stereo). For DV it can optionally be 44.1kHz (not universally compatible for video, but sometimes good if going to audio-only uses), or 32kHz (IMO, this is ALWAYS bad!, and was only tacked on as an option to lure in a few more consumers). Already talked about "locked"

#2
All NTSC DV (or DVCPro/DVCAM/DVCPro50) uses PAR of 10/11 (aka 0.91). PAL uses a different non-square PAR. There is NO DV that is square-pixelled.
Drop-frame vs. Non-Drop is only referring to how the TIMECODE is counted. It has NO EFFECT on the video framerate. For your purposes, unless you are doing longform video (>1hour) and/or editing to get a commercial on the air/cable/sat (or a few other esoteric uses), you should NOT use drop-frame, but rather non-drop. Yes, non-drop doesn't match it's TC count with a real time clock, but that shouldn't matter much to you.
I don't know specifically what you mean when you refer to Locking your AR. Which AR? - PAR or DAR?

#3
When you see "DV" alone in iMovie or Quicktime, there is a good likelihood that they are referring to a RAW, Containerless DV stream (which still has V+A muxed together in sync). Quicktime normally just puts that in a MOV wrapper. If you intend to use the file(s) with other apps or other users (particularly PC users), you SHOULD put the DV stream in a MOV (quicktime) container (even better for PC-specific users would be to put it in an AVI container). I know iMovie natively just likes working with raw DV streams, while FCP/FCX prefers all their A+V in QT/MOV containers.
Do you have alpha (aka transparency channel)? If not, you don't need "RGB+ALPHA", much less a separate "ALPHA"-only render. Those are useful for compositing (AE), but only if the material is already prepared correctly to include gradations of transparency.
Similarly, Premult & Straight. Premult is often handier and quicker to use once you are using a compositing app (if it has been premultiplied correctly), but Straight is more versatile (assuming you will know how to multiply the separate matte). However, if you don't have any matting or transparency, this is a moot point. Then, go with straight. At least then, it assumes you HAVEN'T multiplied it with some matte.

Codec choice is dependent upon WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO WITH IT and the LEVEL OF QUALITY YOU NEED and the SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. Too big of a topic to go into right now. Think:
1. Capture
2. Edit & Storage
3. Distribute
Most codecs fall into only one of those categories. That will help narrow down your choice of options...

Choose ALAC audio only when someone requests it, or for a particular reason. Otherwise, uncompressed (aka PCM aka LPCM) is fine. Stick with 16bit, 48kHz, stereo, LPCM throughout, and you'll be fine.

IIRC, DV is TFF, MPEG (for DVD) is primarily BFF. This of course is only applicable if you are using interlaced material. Note that both iMovie & FCP/FCX & probably PP are not so good with swapping field dominance. Even AE has faults at that. The best way to swap field dominance that I have seen is via AVISynth (PC-only app).

MoBlur & Field/frame blending should be OFF unless told to do so otherwise.

Color depth will depend on which codec you are using. For example, DV is ONLY 8bit per color channel. Higher is finer quality but takes more filesize & memory and not all apps can handle it. 16bit per color channel is really only for HDR and compositing use.

#4
You'd have to be much more detailed & particular about all the clips and the project settings & your system before we could get close to figuring this one out. Does the iMovie export play correctly in QT player?

#5
Sample and or MediaInfo text would greatly help.

Scott