Exporting .MOD: Best MPEG Streamclip settings for FCP?

[WestSt]

First, sorry if this has been answered before, but been spending hours and days in reading and searching forums (including macrumors) and I have not found a good answer to my specific question: Advice on settings in MPEG Streamclip for exporting .MOD files (from Panasonic HDD cam: 720x480 vres) for editing in Final Cut.

I´ve of course obviously, after a lot of research and hassle, finally come to terms with the fact that FCP can´t handle .MOD files natively, and MPEG Streamclip being the best free option for exporting to a format FCP can handle (probably best regardless - amazing software!). Therefore, I also know all about .MOD files actually just being Mpeg2 with AC3 audio, etc, etc, and all that (Why the h... did they do that??) Also I´ve already exported a lot of my video just using the QuickTime 16:9 (Apple Motion JPEG A - Quality 100%) presets in MPEG Streamclip, and done some editing. It works great, and I´m really satisfied with the quality of both video and audio. I´m really just experiencing one issue I would like to hear some viewpoints on: The exported files get really large! A clip some minutes long suddenly gets to be 200 MB - easy!

So my questions are:

Have anyone found optimal settings and format for exporting .MOD files in MPEG Streamclip for FC?

How can I reduce the file size of the exported files without compromising video and audio quality?

Thanks a lot for any feedback!

 

[spinnerlys]

MPEG-2 is a storage space saving codec, thus it gets used, even on video DVDs.
Also MPEG-2 uses Group Of Pictures (GOP), which means only every 15th frame gets stored, the rest in between gets interpolated.

Editing applications don't like that, as they need every frame to make frame precise cuts, which are needed if one wants to edit properly.

As you footage is in Standard Definition (SD) and is in NTSC, either use the DV or Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) to export the footage.

Btw, you will have to deal with big files, as DV encoded video takes up 13GB per hour (AIC should be around the same). Make sure you use NTSC settings.

And external storage is quite cheap (1TB for 60€). Btw, if you have a Mac that is not a Mac Pro, use an external scratch disk to store your video on, as it is not recommended to use the HDD on which the OS resides to store video on which you want to edit.

Have you already used:

MRoogle - a very effective tool to search these fora using Google and made available by edesignuk, introductory threads: 1, 2 and 3​

?

 

[WestSt]

Thanx spinnerlys! I´ll try both DV and AIC and see how it turns out.

 

[WestSt]

New issues - back again...

So I´ve been through most of the settings in Mpeg Streamclip now, and no matter what I choose I seem be getting one or two out of three issues.

I´ve tried exporting all the DV formats, and these seem to give no issues (best quality at least) but one - the video is stretched (issue 1). My video is 16:9 so thats why of course. However, as MPEG Streamclip lets you choose formats regardless of previous settings, I hopes it would just be "override" the format, but that does not seem possible with either of the DV presets.

All other formats I´ve tried (including AIC), either gives me horizontal distortion lines in the video (issue 2), or requires rendering before editing in FCP (issue 3). Neither is an option, of course!

This is really starting to bug me, but I do have such a wast amount of video from that old camera that I cant throw out no matter how tired I get, and this project has to se an end no matter what. The HDD camera, BTW, is a Panasonic sdr-h20 (and the VRES I stated above might be wrong - can´t seem to find what it is anywhere).

Any help will make me eternally thankful! Thanks!