• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

Fanediting with a Mac. Is it really possible?

tjdavis1138

Active member
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Trophy Points
6
I use a macbook pro as my daily driver.

I'm struggling to figure out how to convert an mkv to prores and split the audio file to separate wav's to use in Final Cut Pro.  Ironically enough I have no problems converting to prores on a pc.  :)

I'm really lost without virtualdub and eac3to.exe

Is it possible? Or should I just punt and install a windows vm on the mac to convert the files with.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

DigModiFicaTion

DᴉმWoqᴉԷᴉcɑꓕᴉou
Staff member
Faneditor
Messages
8,607
Reaction score
3,506
Trophy Points
168
I think @"macmilln" is our new and current macguru and a pretty swell editor to boot :) Macmilln any insights?
 

macmilln

Well-known member
Messages
576
Reaction score
60
Trophy Points
53
I know my name makes things confusing, but I’m a PC boy.

Coincidentally, I was gonna make a joke about “editing with Mac” but figured it’d be confusing... yet here we are! ;)

If there’s no threads here to help you out, I think OT (OriginalTrilogy.com) has some guides that could.
 

addiesin

Well-known member
Messages
5,888
Reaction score
1,502
Trophy Points
163
Personally I demux my Blu-ray ripped mkv files on Windows with tsmuxer (free), save to external HDD, then edit on Mac.

However, I got started on my project well over two years ago (originally with the intent to edit on Windows) and a cursory Google search suggests tsmuxer now has a Mac version available (and I never thought to look it up til now). I haven't looked deeper into it than that but that should help you get started with ripping and demuxing. I take the video file straight into Premiere (but also create a smaller proxy file with Handbrake for much smoother previewing while editing) and take the audio file into Audacity and export each track as individual wav files.

I have had small problems with my long audio files that I found workarounds for (editing fade outs with the GUI have been glitchy for me but manual fade outs with keyframes on Volume are fine, and this may only be me or my setup or my files, IDK) but video editing has been accurate enough that I don't get unexpected flash frames or misplaced cuts in my exported files. I understand the concept of converting to lossless but lack of HDD space and lack of issues editing m2ts directly, and my own (probably unfounded) suspicion of allegedly lossless conversations still adding layers of generational quality loss, have led me not to do so.

Edit: Also worth noting, I'm on current OSX and current Adobe CC versions. Got most of my technical start by reading this thread: https://forums.fanedit.org/showthread.php?tid=4915
 

DigModiFicaTion

DᴉმWoqᴉԷᴉcɑꓕᴉou
Staff member
Faneditor
Messages
8,607
Reaction score
3,506
Trophy Points
168
macmilln said:
I know my name makes things confusing, but I’m a PC boy.

Coincidentally, I was gonna make a joke about “editing with Mac” but figured it’d be confusing... yet here we are! ;)

If there’s no threads here to help you out, I think OT (OriginalTrilogy.com) has some guides that could.

I think in my head I merged your recent 4K guide with another thread that referenced similar things with a mac. Ultimately I deserve one of these...
giphy.gif
 

tjdavis1138

Active member
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Trophy Points
6
Thanks guys! I'll do some reading and hopefully be able to figure something out.
 

Captain Khajiit

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,685
Reaction score
8
Trophy Points
48
AviSynth+ is now a cross-platform tool, like VapourSynth, MakeMKV, and tsMuxeR.  Both VirtualDub2 and eac3to work for me on Linux under Wine, so it's a good bet that they work under Wine on macOS as well.  You can convert to ProRes with ffmpeg, a free cross-platform tool.  Here's a starting point:
Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -f mov -c:v prores -pix_fmt "yuv422p10le" -profile:v 3 -an -y output.mov

If I can do everything on Linux, you can do it on macOS – no question.
 

Ryantology

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
325
Reaction score
130
Trophy Points
53
I do all of my edits start to finish on a Mac. I’m sure I still have a lot of things to learn but I’d be willing to walk you through my workflow or answer any questions for you that I can.
 

Silver Screen Samurai

Well-known member
Messages
237
Reaction score
395
Trophy Points
78
The only difficulty I've encountered is if you choose to edit on Davinci Resolve;

It's quickly become a more accepted software in the professional industry than Final Cut Pro, for various reasons, so I know certain editors want to edit on there to give their edit access to a greater degree of professional tools. The only problem is Davinci doesn't accept MP4 files, because they're compressed, so to edit on there you have to have a MOV file.

Anybody know of any easily accessible tools that can convert MKV to MOV on a Mac? I've yet to have any luck.
 

addiesin

Well-known member
Messages
5,888
Reaction score
1,502
Trophy Points
163
Silver Screen Samurai said:
The only difficulty I've encountered is if you choose to edit on Davinci Resolve;

It's quickly become a more accepted software in the professional industry than Final Cut Pro, for various reasons, so I know certain editors want to edit on there to give their edit access to a greater degree of professional tools. The only problem is Davinci doesn't accept MP4 files, because they're compressed, so to edit on there you have to have a MOV file.

Anybody know of any easily accessible tools that can convert MKV to MOV on a Mac? I've yet to have any luck.

That's weird, it says it supports mp4 with h.264 on their official site. Has it not accepted any you've tried or just one specifically? Are you sure it's not the opposite problem, the file is too big maybe, in which case you'd need to create a smaller proxy file?

Regardless I'd suggest trying tsmuxer to get the m2ts file from your mkv, it's the direct video stream without reencoding it, and Resolve also says it accepts that. It is also compressed but you won't add compression to it. I assume to get your mp4 you're either repackaging the streams in your mkv file with an mp4 container (no reencoding) or using a program like Handbrake (reencoding, which likely means inherent quality loss). Definitely avoid the latter if you intend to edit the resulting file.

The more correct way to do this is follow what Captain Khajit says as closely as possible, the dude's a guru with file prep. His suggestion on this thread appears to result in a ProRes file with an mov container, and it sounds like that's exactly what you're asking for anyway.



...
Sorry if any of this seems nosey, just trying to get enough info to help troubleshoot.
 

Ryantology

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
325
Reaction score
130
Trophy Points
53
I fought for what seemed like forever finding the best video converter. I can’t tell you how many times I found one that seemed perfect only for it to have some ridiculous flaw. I went through three separate converters that would only convert to 24fps and not 23.98 which left my audio out of sync. I could retime the audio but I’m a giant weirdo and would constantly think it wasn’t “just right.” Spent a lot of time with my face two inches from my screen looking at mouths.

The one that I’ve finally had a ton of luck with is Tipard Video Converter Ultimate for Mac. It is $50 so that’s a bummer but it’s been a great tool for me.
 

Canon Editor

Well-known member
Messages
1,730
Reaction score
80
Trophy Points
53
I also use a Mac, and the converter I stick to not only for videos but for music too is Smart Converter, the one with the round, light blue logo with the Play button at its center. It is free and works wonders, and has minimal quality loss. It can be a bit slow depending on what you’re converting but it is worth it.
 

Silver Screen Samurai

Well-known member
Messages
237
Reaction score
395
Trophy Points
78
addiesin said:
Silver Screen Samurai said:
That's weird, it says it supports mp4 with h.264 on their official site.
In regards to this specific part of your reply, I think what they mean is that they support EXPORTING as an mp4 file, not IMPORTING. This is because it's also a very common software for YouTube editors, and that file format usually uploads the best with YouTube's compression. So Davinci will EXPORT a lot of different file types, it is just very limited on what it will IMPORT.

And THANK YOU for the additional feedback, by the way, it was quite helpful.
 

tjdavis1138

Active member
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Trophy Points
6
Unfortunately Wine doesn't work on Mac os 10.15.  Hopefully it will in the future.

Silver Screen Samuri- I tried Resolve a few months ago but it crashed frequently on me. I figure if I'm going to use Resolve I might as well stick with my windows pc anyhow. I have both right now but I'm thinking of switching my main desktop out for a mac. That's why I was wondering.

Ryantology - I may have to take you up on that. :)

Captain Khajiit - Thank you for the reminder on ffmpeg. Forgot about that one. I never learned ffmpeg command line. Guess I might have to. :)

Thanks for the help and replies guys, it's greatly appreciated.
 

tjdavis1138

Active member
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Trophy Points
6
Pavtube also doesn't work on macos 10.15  This is rather frustrating. I'll see if I can learn how to use ffmpeg, if not I'll probably just stick with my windows pc. This kind of stuff seems so much easier on windows. I really wanted to try out FCP but I'm not sure it's worth all this hassle.
 

Hal9000

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
687
Reaction score
95
Trophy Points
48
Oh, well that sucks. I don’t know if I’ll ever do any more fan editing once I someday upgrade from Sierra and say goodbye to FCP7. It’s certainly been fun, though.
 

Silver Screen Samurai

Well-known member
Messages
237
Reaction score
395
Trophy Points
78
Hal9000 said:
Oh, well that sucks. I don’t know if I’ll ever do any more fan editing once I someday upgrade from Sierra and say goodbye to FCP7. It’s certainly been fun, though.

HAL, NOOOOOO!!! You're one of the best editors on this site, don't give up!
OS-15 still supports professional softwares like Davinci Resolve 16, and that's one of the best softwares out there!

If anybody can make it work, I definitely believe it's you!
 

tjb_unofficial

New member
Messages
4
Reaction score
4
Trophy Points
8
Running Macbook Pro M1 chip OS12.6, here's what works for me as of Jan 2023:

Ripping discs - MakeMKV
Extracting MKVs - Inviska MKV Extract
Creating MKVs - MKVToolNix-52.0.0
Filetype conversion - EaseFab Video Converter

Not sure if I should link to these or not, this is an early post so don't want to appear to be spamming! However you know how to use the internet.
 
Top Bottom