Optimizing workflow of game film: from SD card to Vimeo?

[NellieFilm]

I'm in the (volunteer) position of taking game film 2x a week from an SD card to loading it on Vimeo for team viewing. This is for high school soccer, and obviously not using professional software.

I inherited a workflow that takes HOURS and seems like it could most certainly be improved upon, but I don't know anything about the processes, so I can't really troubleshoot. I'm hoping someone here can help me improve it. I'm a Mac user.

Workflow

1. SD card into card reader, I open iMovie and IMPORT MEDIA. (Takes more than 12 hours for 1.6 hours of video, even though my Mac is new and fast.) I don't know what settings/speed the video is shot at, but I can check if someone can tell me how!

2. I add a title frame in iMovie and export as a file. Typically about 15-17 GB. Takes about an hour or so.

3. I open Handbrake, and open the exported file, and start with default settings. Usually about 4 or more hours.

4. Upload the compressed file to Vimeo for team viewing.

How would you recommend the best quality with a simpler process. Can I pull it straight into handbrake without using iMovie to import? I'm a photographer and familiar with still photo technology but know nothing about video settings and optimizing.

Thank you!
Nellie

[latreche34]

The reason the import is taking so long is because iMovie is encoding the file on the fly, You don't have to do that.
What kind of files are on the SD card, Can you post a sample?

For uploading to online video platforms usually de-interlace the file if it is interlaced, resize it to 1440x1080 if the source frame is 4:3 or 1920x1080 if 16:9 and upload to the platform and let them do the encoding for you, save all that wasted time doing other daily life tasks.

[NellieFilm]

To paraphrase Ted Lasso, I'm about 0-5 in that sentence.

I could definitely share a piece of the film, how would I do that?

And the rest of it, I get that I am doing something unecessary but not sure what I should be doing with the interlacing, etc. Thank you for your kind patience with a video dunce, I appreciate you trying to help and translate!

[latreche34]

The easiest way is to install mediainfo and get the file's information and post it here, What is the source of those files?

[NellieFilm]

Ok, I will do that right now, thank you. The camera is a Sony AX33.

[NellieFilm]

The attached screen shot is the media info summary for a file from this camera. Thank you!

[latreche34]

That's a mpeg-4 AVC HD file, just load it to Vimeo or Yutube without doing a thing to it, When you browse for file during uploading point the browser to the SD card folder, select the file and hit upload, Done.

What's the source file? Is it video from a camcorder? What do you mean by game film?

[NellieFilm]

Thank you! It is a sony ax33 camcorder, game film for players to review and send to college coaches for recruiting. Nothing needs to happen to it. Unfortunately sometimes the file is cut into pieces, I think that is a function of the card being SDHC, and the vimeo storage requires compressing to make the weekly limit of GB. That is why the iMovie workflow came into play, I wish we could upload straight from the card! Sounds amazing!

[latreche34]

Don't wish try it. YouTube I believe don't have a size limit. Otherwise try a frame accurate cutting software that can split the files into small segments without re-encoding, there are free ones and there is Smart Cutter from Fame Ring for $49. Also PC platform you have better choices than being on a Mac platform.

[msgohan]

Probably the issue is the 4GB filesize limit of the FAT32 file system. Longer recordings are split into multiple files.

I think these are the Mac instructions for using the Sony software instead of iMovie to copy files: https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp...mport/hdd.html

This software "should" copy the recordings over without recompressing, and stitch together the split recordings into single files.

But I suspect the weak link in your transfer speed is actually your SD card reader.

[latreche34]

I can't believe in 2021 moving files from a flash drive to the hard drive is a task that you need a software for, Just slect and drag the files over, pretty sample. It's not a DVD or a CD that you have to rip first. Though not sure about Mac, it's a weird OS, very limited in functionality and never liked it from the get go, Kudo to Bill Gates.

[joonas]

I myself use ffmpeg merging video files taken from SD card.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...s-using-ffmpeg - read concat demuxer, takes about 4-5 minutes to merge them to one video.

Also I would not re-encode it using handbrake if you are trying to upload to youtube/vimeo. Also you could subscribe to google drive extra TB for smaller fee as it uses youtube player for playing back MTS videos uploaded there. The video platform re-encodes the video if necessary.