Hello Fello Mavic pilots
I just recently upgraded from a spark to an M2 Zoom
I am using apple final cut 10.4.5
Previously i would create a 1080p project for my spark projects and the export master file process was relativity quick
Now working with my 2.7K footage in Final Cut. First off i had to use a custom setting for the 2688 x 1512 footage.
However now when i am exporting a master file it is bogging down my computer saying it is transcoding the file.
Am I doing something wrong here? why does it need to transcode?
This may be just a rookie mistake or do i need to change a setting in final cut or on the mavic
It is default .mp4 video with h.264 encoding.
Help Please
2.7k is a lot higher resolution then 1080p so it’s gonna take longer to process everything.
One of the dark arts of film making is understanding codecs and how your tools handle them. Final Cut Pro will take your input files(you said these are H.264) decode them and then render them with your edits into ProRes 422. Since you have chosen to export a master file FCP will preform the export process with the highest quality it can and save your master as ProRes 422(unless you have modified this setting)
Because H.264 is a compressed format and ProRes 422 is a much less compressed format generally the term for going from a compressed format to less compressed format is called “transcoding.” Going from a less compressed format to a more compressed format is called “encoding.”
This is more of an informal distinction just due to the fact that “encoding” sounds like a bit of a dirty word to a degree because it implies a loss of quality do to compression but technically transcoding and encoding are the same thing, converting a video from one form to another.
Final Cut Pro runs on Pro Res 422 so one of the ways to greatly speed up performance is to convert videos to ProRes 422 before you even start the editing process. When you import media into FCP you are giving the option to “make optimized media” which will convert the files to ProRes 422 on import.
It will take some time to convert the files to ProRes 422 but once it’s done it will make editing faster, playback within FCP faster, and exporting faster. So basically you are investing time up front while you can potentially be doing something else rather than having to wait while FCP renders your edits while you are editing or waiting while FCP exports.
Now if you do this be aware ProRes 422 files are massive. Something in the neighborhood of 6x larger than h.264 files. So it’s a cost of disk space for speed and one you are done editing and have exported a master you want to be sure to delete the “optimized” ProRes 422 files.
If all of this sounds like too much work or complexity, that’s ok. FCP does a great job of handling this all for you without you even being aware. But that’s why it takes longer to export because it has to do several steps at once: decode, render, and transcode instead of just rendering.
