[MacDV] files for FCP

[Derek Roff]

Do you have Final Cut Pro?  If so, skip iMovie.  You can learn everything you need to capture video from a camcorder into FCP in about ten minutes, from the Help, a manual, or online.  Using the Log and Capture/Capture Now function is much like capturing video in iMovie.  This will save you time and guarantee against any possible differences in quality between iMovie and Final Cut Pro.  

I've read that iMovie does not lock sound synchronization to the video in the same way as FCP, and therefore some additional sound sync issues might come up in iMovie.  I've used iMovie for years, and only noticed sound sync issues a few times.  Always with Canon cameras, which at one time, were notorious for sound sync problems.  But then again, I have seldom tried to carefully verify the sync.  If I didn't notice a problem just by watching the movie, I didn't analyze further.  

I've exported hundreds of DV video sequences from iMovie 6, using the Full Quality setting.  The resulting .dv file is identical to the input footage- so say all the books and articles, and my experience supports that.  You get a .dv file, rather than a .mov file, when you are starting with the standard definition DV video source.  For DV, if you get a .mov file, then iMovie has done something other than the Full Quality export.  

I don't know if I have ever exported HDV from iMovie, using the Full Quality setting.  I don't know what extension the resulting video file has.  I would wonder if the .mov extension might imply that iMovie has changed the footage.  Of course, HDV 1080 is a curious format, a variant of MPEG-2 with a resolution of 1440 x 1080, and non-square pixels.  Transcoding it to something like Apple Intermediate Codec or Pro-res before editing is common.  You might check with the people for whom you are preparing the video, to find out how they plan to use it, and whether you should transcode it.  

Derek


> I'm FCP challenged, but I know you good folks will point me in the right direction.
> 
> 
> If I import HDV footage into  iMovie 6,  and save to Quicktime at "full quality," will the .mov file that results be as good, for use in Final Cut Pro, as if I had imported into FCP and created the .mov from there? Or how will it be different?