Editing and exporting videos shot on Panasonic GH-1 and GF-1

[Praki]

Hello Forum members:

I recently bought a GH-1 and GF-1 and shot some video with them. I have Adobe Premiere Pro running on a Mac. The video is of a training film for conservation non-profits that will be used on a DVD player both for PAL and NTSC (i.e. US and some countries in Asia). At some places they will be seen on a computer connected to a projector. I have to edit the video and burn the edited version on DVDs. I am trying to get information regarding:

1. The best way (in terms of time and cost) to convert the GH1 and GF1 video into a format that can be easily edited by the Adobe software

2. Best way (format) of outputting the video from Adobe Premiere Pro to be able to run on a DVD player for both PAL and NTSC systems. Same so it can be run of a PC or a Mac.

I have tried to get this info by looking at books in the library but it is difficult to get this info in a few books and it is confusing for a non-pro. So if you can help, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Praki.

[fredjeang]

Hi Praki.

Wide topic indeed.

I also work with Adobe Premiere. For DVD, I used to work with Adobe Encore but now no. A very good tool is the media encoder but that is also where the "fun" begins.

A CALL TO CHRIS SANDERSON: Chris, if you see that thread please consider this call: that would be IMO extremely usefull if you could do a DVD on that matter, I mean video knowledge orientated to the photographers who now start to work with video. I think this is the case of many.

Just as an example, when I want to export a project with the encoder, there are so many different options, filters, compression etc...a real jungle!
Just the simple fact of converting to quicktime and I have a list of options and standards longuer than the chinese wall...it's NOT fun.

I'm sure this DVD would be successfull. I would buy it no doubt.
Or also that could be some articles numbered #1, #2 etc...

Also, the sound is hard and less familiar to us than image. Video is so complex and at the same time so wide and captivating that some material that clear many concepts would help us a lot.

Maybe in addition to the lightrooms and captures DVD, a Final.Cut or Premiere DVD. (I know it is going to be Final.cut  ).
I'm evaluating now also AVID.

I think that video is really too important now in photography and that would be a great plus to the site.
And you won't have to worry about the my-gear-is-better-than-yours reactions or the-scientist-proofs-against-the-heresy and all that stuff.

It will be peacefull. Ok, it might be peacefull.

[francois]

Hello Forum members:

I recently bought a GH-1 and GF-1 and shot some video with them. I have Adobe Premiere Pro running on a Mac. The video is of a training film for conservation non-profits that will be used on a DVD player both for PAL and NTSC (i.e. US and some countries in Asia). At some places they will be seen on a computer connected to a projector. I have to edit the video and burn the edited version on DVDs. I am trying to get information regarding:

1. The best way (in terms of time and cost) to convert the GH1 and GF1 video into a format that can be easily edited by the Adobe software

2. Best way (format) of outputting the video from Adobe Premiere Pro to be able to run on a DVD player for both PAL and NTSC systems. Same so it can be run of a PC or a Mac.

I have tried to get this info by looking at books in the library but it is difficult to get this info in a few books and it is confusing for a non-pro. So if you can help, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Praki.

I agree with Fred, ask Chris Sanderson. Meanwhile, read Michael's article on the GH1:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/gh1.shtml

There's a few useful info on video editing.

[Chris Sanderson]

Forgive me, but many books have been written on questions of less scope!

My best suggestion is to use the free encoder MPEG StreamClip to re-encode your camera files *if absolutely necessary* - I think you will find that the new Premiere can handle just about any format thrown at it; in that respect at least, it is waay ahead of Apple's Final Cut today.

Once you have output an edit, use a simple DVD authoring program such as those written by Roxio to output to DVD.

Try and keep NTSC / PAL conversions to a minimum since they are complex & ugly - perhaps avoid them completely by getting either PAL or NTSC viewers to watch the videos through a computer or media viewer set-top box (XBox/AppleTV etc).

[fredjeang]

Forgive me, but many books have been written on questions of less scope!

My best suggestion is to use the free encoder MPEG StreamClip to re-encode your camera files *if absolutely necessary* - I think you will find that the new Premiere can handle just about any format thrown at it; in that respect at least, it is waay ahead of Apple's Final Cut today.

Once you have output an edit, use a simple DVD authoring program such as those written by Roxio to output to DVD.

Try and keep NTSC / PAL conversions to a minimum since they are complex & ugly - perhaps avoid them completely by getting either PAL or NTSC viewers to watch the videos through a computer or media viewer set-top box (XBox/AppleTV etc).

Thanks Chris.

But as an example I have 3 making-of on the web: http://www.pepe-botella.com/making-off/making-off.html

Don't laught but I'm currently working by instinct with quick time settings.
Well, the first making "summertime" is in auto run and you noticed that it is loaded immediatly.
Then, I don't know why but I lost the export settings and the 2 other makings are not appearing straight but they are loaded completly before so you have to wait with the quicktime logo when you load the page.
Can not find the reason and there are so many options in Premiere that I'm lost. I did something right the first time and then I can't repeat it again...   Tech drives me mad!

This example shows the kind of obscur hassles I was talking about.

I checked in the Cooter's videos http://www.russellrutherford.com/video/ and he uses another display system that works perfectly, but I wanted to play the makings in the same html page and not in a pop-up.

Any idea of why the first making displays immediatly and the others are loaded before they appear?

[Chris Sanderson]

Fred, QuickTime has a author-selectable 'Fast Start' feature. This feature is reasonably intelligent - not overly but reasonably  

It appears to state the required bitrate of the download to the player which in turn measures the speed of the incoming download. If there is sufficient speed (bandwidth) it will initiate the Play. However lots can go wrong, since web speeds are notoriously variable. But Fast Start is what you are looking for somewhere in the myriad of parameters within the encoding setup for QuickTime.

[fredjeang]

Fred, QuickTime has a author-selectable 'Fast Start' feature. This feature is reasonably intelligent - not overly but reasonably  

It appears to state the required bitrate of the download to the player which in turn measures the speed of the incoming download. If there is sufficient speed (bandwidth) it will initiate the Play. However lots can go wrong, since web speeds are notoriously variable. But Fast Start is what you are looking for somewhere in the myriad of parameters within the encoding setup for QuickTime.

Ah ah. Right on the money Chris!
Thank you so much, I know where to look now.

Cheers.

[joofa]

The "Fast Start" option for Quicktime is indeed encouraged for web delivery as pointed out by Chris. The reason is that Quicktime files have two main portions, the metadata and the actual encoded data. Many Quicktimes are prepared with the metadata after the actual encoded data, so that is why the QT player has to download all of it before it can play. However, if one has the metadata before the actual data then once the metadata is downloaded the QT player can start playing the video as soon as it starts receiving incoming data, much like streaming video; in essence streaming over http protocol instead of dedicated streaming channels.

One way to confirm that your movie is really fast start is by issuing the following command on a MAC:

hexdump -C CatRED1.mov

00000000 00 00 00 20 66 74 79 70 71 74 20 20 20 05 03 00 |... ftypqt ...|
00000010 71 74 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |qt ............|
00000020 00 00 00 08 77 69 64 65 01 b0 a6 05 6d 64 61 74 |....wide....mdat|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|

If you see that "mdat" before "moov" then your movie is not fast start. For a fast start movie you should see something like:

00000000 00 00 00 20 66 74 79 70 71 74 20 20 20 05 03 00 |... ftypqt ...|
00000010 71 74 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |qt ............|
00000020 00 00 12 98 6d 6f 6f 76 00 00 00 6c 6d 76 68 64 |....moov...lmvhd|
00000030 00 00 00 00 c0 45 16 e2 c0 45 16 e3 00 00 0b b5 |.....E...E......|

where you would see the "moov" before "mdat".

[Praki]

Thanks to all. The adventure of editing and putting it on a DVD begins in Dec. I will post my experiences in a short message.
The Forum members are extremely helpful.
Praki.

[fredjeang]

Fred, QuickTime has a author-selectable 'Fast Start' feature. This feature is reasonably intelligent - not overly but reasonably  

It appears to state the required bitrate of the download to the player which in turn measures the speed of the incoming download. If there is sufficient speed (bandwidth) it will initiate the Play. However lots can go wrong, since web speeds are notoriously variable. But Fast Start is what you are looking for somewhere in the myriad of parameters within the encoding setup for QuickTime.

Bloody hell and damnation!! Adobe just refuses to integrate the fast-start in the quick time parameters, at least the Premiere CS3 from media encoder.

When will these brands end once for a while their stupid wars and will bring full compatibility to the users?!

So that means to deal with another software like the quicktime pro or so and adding another learning curve on the very long list.

Of course, if you use their Adobe player, things just work fine miraculously...

[fredjeang]

Quick time exporting with fast start problem solved

Not from the Adobe encoder, as expected, just very easy: quick time Pro has this feature in the export menu.
So you got the video to encode in .mov and then command export and below you have the streaming bla bla, open the box and you find the fast start feature just there.

easy.

F... the flash player! because it also generates various swf skins wich double at least the number of files related to a movie.
I rather use the simple and efficient quicktime player to embed the videos.