I'm an FCP editor working in Canada on a co-production with a company in Europe.  The  other editor needs to export a PAL SD QuickTime from an Avid system on a PC platform.  This file will be sent to me via FTP.  Then, using Final Cut Studio I need to convert the PAL QT to 23.98 NTSC and from there to an MPEG-2 for DVD authoring.  Because the program is nine minutes long and has to be sent by FTP, I'm hoping for a reasonable file size.  I'm wondering if Avid has a proprietary codec for SD that produces results similar to Apple's ProRes codec.  I've tried the Animation codec at medium quality but the files contain dropped frames and I'm concerned that this is causing jerky motion.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! 

Try same as source.  You can download the Avid LE codecs for free for Mac or Windows which will allow you to work with them in Final Cut (or anything else).  I've worked with a FC editor before that had him give him quick times that way for his system.

peterw:

the files contain dropped frames

Is this by any chance a 24p project? Then the export might have 24+1 pulldown (when they would choose to export at 25fps), which might explain the dropped frames and is not preferable when needing to convert to 23.98. From 24p projects in Avid, with certain codecs (the Avid codecs, DVPAL, H264, Animation and several others) you can set the framerate to 24fps and you will get a true 24.00fps export without any pulldown, which should result in a much easier conversion to 23.98.

Also, using the Animation codec will result in huge files.

As said, let them use Same As Source, and make sure that you download the Avid codecs. Avid has DNxHD for HD, which is a codec that can be compared ProRes. In its smallest form (DNxHD36) it would run about 15GB/hour. In SD, Avid has various compression options, including 14:1p which is often used for features, and runs a little over 5GB/hour, and DV which runs 12GB/hour.

If file size is a big issue then exoporting as the highest quality H.264 Quicktime would probably be the best solution. Avid only does the DNxHD codec at HD resolution so H.264 would give the best quality for a small file-size.

Exporting "same as source" will give the best quality but may be too big for FTP.

Are you using the Natress plugin in FCP to convert the frame rate? Does a great job in my experience!

cheers,

Campbell

Thanks for your responses, everyone.  I do have the LE codecs for Mac, so FCP is able to import the Avid files.  In response to Job ter Burg's post, no, it's not a 24p project, so unfortunately I can't use the workflow that you suggested.  However, I found that converting from 25fps to 23.98fps yields fairly smooth motion. As for the codec, I'll try your idea of using Avid 14:1 compression.  2:1 or 3:1 file sizes are probably too large for FTP, right?  

Gumbycat, thanks for your suggestions.  Because I have to convert to MPEG-2 at the end, I'm concerned about starting with a highly compressed H.264.  Have you tried going from H.264 to MPEG-2?  To convert from PAL to NTSC, I used Apple's Compressor, because I find that the Nattress plugin softens the image too much.  

You can send a 2GB file over FTP if you want.  It isn't too big...will just take awhile.  If you have some flaky sattelite connection then forget it.

Would it not be better for the guys in Europe to convert to MPEG2 and FPT that much smaller file for you to use in the DVD?

NICKB:

Would it not be better for the guys in Europe to convert to MPEG2 and FPT that much smaller file for you to use in the DVD?

Yes, you're right, but our co-production arrangement requires that I do the conversion to NTSC and encoding.  The DVD is a promotional screener so we can compromise on quality a bit.    

I'd use one of Avid's MPEG IMX codecs (MPEG 50, 40 or 30) and then to deal with the file size issue (large files over FTP, while possible, can be problematic) use spanning in a ZIP or RAR program to span the file into multiple parts.

MPEG 30 is pretty decent quality. MPEG 50 is almost indistinguishable from Digibeta.