Prepare mpeg2 for iMovie

[DocSnyd3r]

Hi there,

I have mpeg2 files which are VHS PAL rips and about 15 Mbit/s stream rate.

I want to edit and cut with iMovie and after that archive as H264 or 265.

So my guess is I will have to convert to H264, edit and it will convert again?

I plan to deinterlace (QTGMC) with the first conversion and cut 8 pixel from the bottom because they have artifacts. Is there a better codec for the first encode so I will loose less quality? Should I maybe look for editing software which can handle mpeg2?

I will do mostly cuts, some text displayed and maybe slight color correction and noise cleanup.


PS I'm planning on using StaxRip for deinterlace and encoding...

[babygdav]

1. iMovie apparently does not natively support MPEG-2 files.
You would have to convert to MP4, which iMovie does automatically with media formats it can convert.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209029#supported_formats

2. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/
https://my.avid.com/get/media-composer-first
There are other free, professional level video editing programs that apparently support MPEG-2 natively.
You can try these if iMovie has any issues opening your files.
https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/SupportNotes/DaVinci_Resolve_15_Supported_Codec_List.pdf

3. Typically, with any format conversion, you'd want to do that at the end of editing if you're working with MPEG-2/MPG/MP4/H.264 formats.
These are typically heavily compressed vs other codecs like DNX or ProRes, so any cropping, editing, etc. that you do to these files over and over will quickly add up and result in mush.

A GOOD video editing program like Vegas Video, Adobe Premiere, etc. will open the MPEG-2 files natively, allow you to crop, resize, add effects, deinterlace, etc. and until the final render, do no intermediate encodes that add additional defects and such to your MPEG-2 originals. Just 1 encode at the export.

No idea what iMovie does, but hope that it'll convert to MP4 at a sufficiently high bitrate that artifacts are kept to a minimum.

4. Besides staxrip to MP4 (heavily compressed to heavily compressed file format), you could use other tools to convert MPEG-2 to ProRes (a lightly compressed file format - big, but retains as much as reasonably possible), which iMovie will accept.
ProRes is hardly as bad as MP4 compression, so it will add the least artifacts to your converted MPEG-2 files for editing.
eg. http://www.squared5.com/

[DocSnyd3r]

Hi,

thank you very much. I did a test encode chose export to quicktime and then Apple DVCPRO - PAL. This will result in files with about 30 Mbit/s which will double the size.
This is fine since I will encode later on.

I'm asking myself what and when to deinterlace.

[DocSnyd3r]

Hi,

okay this is probably the wrong codec and the Mac version doas not support 64bit.

So I saw that StaxRip can do ProRes HQ with ffmpeg and I can use my deinterlace filter.

ffmpeg.exe -i "xxx.avs" -c:v prores -aspect 1.367521 -an -y -hide_banner "xxx.mov"

Duration: 00:07:26.88, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 0 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo (I420 / 0x30323449), yuv420p, 720x576, 50 fps, 50 tbr, 50 tbn, 50 tbc
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> prores (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[swscaler @ 0000019cf4325280] Warning: data is not aligned! This can lead to a speed loss
[prores @ 0000019cf4286b00] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf4289d40] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf428fcc0] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf42923c0] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf4298b00] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf429b240] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
[prores @ 0000019cf4277c40] encoding with ProRes standard (apcn) profile
Output #0, mov, to 'E:\Video\Capture\f79131488 Nachrichten_temp\f79131488 Nachrichten_out.mov':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf58.33.100
Stream #0:0: Video: prores (Standard) (apcn / 0x6E637061), yuv422p10le, 720x576 [SAR 128:117 DAR 160:117], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 50 fps, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc
Metadata:
encoder : Lavc58.59.100 prores