Mark 2 Video on Windows

[harrysimpson]

Windows and Mark 2 users have obviously run into the jerky playback in QuickTime running on Windows OS. From everything I've read it is a QuickTime bug and has nothing to do with hardware etc.
So I have a solution that really isn't a very good one and would love ideas for improvement.
Now I
1. capture the MOV
2. load it into QuickTime Pro or Plus ($29 upgrade)
3. export it to AVI (it re-encodes)
4. then use Windows Movie Maker to add transitions, credit screens etc and save the AVI.

I think the re-encoding to the AVI is causing loss of quality. I would like to upload result to my SmugMug, YouTube, and Vimeo. So far I've uploaded to Flickr is all.

So Windows users with 5D Mk2s, what's the easiest most efficient workflow to produce the best video?? Open source is fine too.....:D

TIA
Harry

[Leonard Wong]

If you want to upload to those sites, you can't use a Microsoft NLE. Windows Movie Maker limits you to save as AVI or WMV. You'll need to pick an NLE like Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, Adobe Premier, Nero, etc... Once you have one of these editors, you can directly import the video and edit it and save it as an mp4/h.264 file (or codec of your choice). These file formats should not have any playback problems with QuickTime.

Option 2, would be to get a Mac and see if you like the video editing on that platform. iMovie is included as part of the OS. Final Cut Express is a small cost more, and Final Cut Studio is rather pricey, but that's what real production studios would use. Head over to an Apple Store and try it out.

[osv]

since both imovie and fcp do not support native avchd editing, i'd question whether or not either package will support editing the raw h.264 video out of the 5d... you might be able to run premiere cs4 on a mac, and not have to re-encode everything before you can edit.

harry, you can verify whether or not it's a quicktime bug by downloading the free vlc media player, it handles both .mov and h.264 with no problems.

if the playback is still jerky with vlc, you need to look at what cpu is in your computer... if it's a slow computer, you'll need to move to a video-accelerated media player like nero has, or add the coreavc pro($15) codec to a media player... that's how we handle avchd on slow computers.

the editor in nero has a video-accelerated timeline for editing, which is something that you can't get with imovie, fcp, vegas pro, etc.

[Tony-S]

since both imovie and fcp do not support native avchd editing, i'd question whether or not either package will support editing the raw h.264 video out of the 5d...

Both Final Cut Express and iMovie import 5Dii video just fine. What happens to it after that I don't know - but working with the video is very easy with both apps.

[harrysimpson]

Uploaded AVI just fine to Vimeo.....really need a Windows process please. I'm not buying a MAC.

[osv]

1) never use quicktime on a pc.
2) for youtube & vimeo uploads: 1280x720, minimum 3Mbps video encoding, i use the h.264 codec, avoid wmv, because of possible deinterlacing issues.
3) be aware of the quicktime gamma shift problems with .mov on a pc:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-hd/140058-new-workaround-quicktime-h264-problem.html

[harrysimpson]

OSV,

Really!? I just bought QuickTime Pro(or Plus) to export from MOV to toehr non-jerky formats......
Thanks for for the settings though....

[osv]

i'd say stick with what the people in that dvinfo thread are doing, or the quality of your footage could suffer because of the quicktime gamma shift.