I have a few different formats such as smart phone long ways (1920 height 1080 width), 720p, 1080p, a couple of oddball ratios. I'm going to use all in a 1080p project. I am transcoding the native footage to a mezzanine/intermediate codec format like DNxHD or Cineform (I'm on PC).
I was trying to figure out if I should transcode all of the formats into 1080p, or instead of that, transcode them all to match their source dimensions and frame rate and then leaving it up to the final export to bring it all together. The latter is obviously more processor intensive than the former because there's going to be more work per movie clip in coercing into a final format than with the latter (which would do that a part of transcoding).
I have a fairly decent laptop nowadays so native encoding seems to be working well... therefore transcoding is really about making editing and export just a bit more easier, perhaps a lot more so in the long run, but the point is that the two alternatives I just presented, one being more intensive later in the workflow than the other, may be splitting hairs... perhaps it's just best to transcode but retain the source format and have max flexibility in the working project... sort of a balance... benefits of transcoding without doing too much to the footage in terms of aspect ratio and or frame rate.
To add confusion, there's also choices in frame rate... for example, I could transcode a non-1080p format to match it's source ratio but change it's frame rate to match the final project... getting that taken care of up front.
Any thoughts or good wikis on differing source formats with transcoding?
AdChoices