-
best export settings
Hi there,
I’ve been searching around in the forums but haven’t found the answers to my specific problems. Hope I haven’t overlooked anything and bother you guys with stuff that has been answered many times before.
So I’m working on a feature film that we shot on the Canon 7d. I did the rough cut in the native Canon format, then transcoded to Apple Pro Res 422 25p for the fine cut. Now I’m getting close to the point where I want to export everything in the highest quality. (I do realize that a 100-minute-film will end up as something like a 100 GB file, but I definitely want to keep a high-quality-copy of it. Even though I’m not sure how well something like the Quicktime-Player will be able to deal with a file of that size.)
I’m thinking that exporting it as Quicktime with the Pro Res 422 codec would be the obvious way to go. But would there be any advantages in going Pro Res 422 HQ or Pro Res 422 LT? I have done some tests and they all didn’t look different on my computer screen, but that’s not something I should trust I suppose. So would there be any differences aside from file sizes?
Would using the H.264 codec be an alternative? As far as I know that codec is more commonly used and other programs can deal with it better. Or am I mistaken here? Would that make the files smaller?
Are there any other settings I need to keep in mind? 1920×1080 25p obviously, but is there something like pixel aspect ratio that could screw it up for me?
Any help and/or ideas would be very much appreciated. I do realize there have been heaps of posts about export settings, but I haven’t found anything that deals with these specific issues.
And then I have another question, which is much less important, but still there. I put together a 3 minute slideshow in FCP. It’s just jpegs with a bit of a zoom effect on them and music. When I try to export this, FCP tells me it needs about 2 hours. Is this normal? Is it because the program has trouble dealing with the still images I imported? Is there something I should do differently?
Alright, that’s enough question asking for the moment. Like I said, help and ideas would be great.
Thanks a lot in advance,
Niko
-
7 Replies
-
[Niko Kuehnel] “And then I have another question, which is much less important, but still there. I put together a 3 minute slideshow in FCP. It’s just jpegs with a bit of a zoom effect on them and music. When I try to export this, FCP tells me it needs about 2 hours. Is this normal? Is it because the program has trouble dealing with the still images I imported? Is there something I should do differently?”
How big are your jpegs? You can significantly save render time by downsizing them before-hand in PhotoShop to a pixel dimension that’s no more than you actually need.
Andrew Wilson
WestView Digital Video & Design
http://www.westviewdigital.com -
if you want to export a good quality file just to keep as a “backup” of your edited master, then just export a Self-Contained QT file… Don’t export using QT Conversion.
If your sequence settings are ProRes422 and you export with conversion to Prores422 HQ, you’re not going to get the benefit of the larger export because your render files are written in the “lower quality” codec.
If you’re exporting for some type of specific distribution, then you should be choosing the best codec for whatever your distribution channel likes. Some (still) like MPEG-2… but more are leaning to H.264. Maybe they will want a blu-ray AVCHD…. depends on who’s going to be looking at it and how.
Most of my stuff ends up being h.264.
Andrew Wilson
WestView Digital Video & Design
http://www.westviewdigital.com -
[Niko Kuehnel] “I want to export everything in the highest quality”
Highest quality what? DVD, web video, blue-ray, file for iPhone, what. Each of these will have different “best export settings”
So for us to tell you what the best settings are YOU need to tell us what you are actually trying to accomplish.
[Niko Kuehnel] “I put together a 3 minute slideshow in FCP. It’s just jpegs with a bit of a zoom effect on them and music. When I try to export this, FCP tells me it needs about 2 hours. Is this normal?”
Again we cannot say, as you did not provide us with the needed info for us to say. We need info on the photos, the file type, size of photos, time line settings, etc etc.
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
-
If you want the highest quality possible for archival, select File>Export>Quicktime Movie. A dialogue box will come up asking you where to save it. Toward the bottom, select Settings>”Current Settings”, and check “Make Movie Self Contained.”
What this does is creates a new file that exactly represents what is in your timeline. Imagine it copying each clip exactly and stitching them together in order into a new file. Each clip maintains the same settings you have set in your timeline; in your case, Apple Pro Res 422 25p. This is not “uncompressed”, but it’s without further compression.
I also like to keep these for archival, even though they take up a lot of space, because you can open this file in Compressor and make anything out of it later on. Editors used to export their final cuts to tape for archival, which I still recommend as drives have a limited life span. However, in the last few years the cost of digital storage has gone down greatly and I highly suggest making a Current Settings export at the end of every project.
H.263 is popular because it looks good when highly compressed, but that is not what you want here. That is a delivery codec and it’s very compressed.
How large are the pictures in your slideshow? If you’re using high-rez photos, remember that those are much large than high-rez video and it very well could take 2 hours to render, even though it seems like simple job.
-
Thank you very much, Kate, that is the info I was hoping to get. It’s what I have kinda been thinking but thought I’d get some advice from someone more knowledgable.
By the way, of course by highest quality I meant highest quality, not highest quality for a cell phone. Obviously highest quality to archive and maybe project it. And yeah, down-converting it in Compressor later sounds like the way to go. Maybe converting it into h.264 so I can get a manageable file size to send to film festivals that’s still HD quality as opposed to going to SD DVD?
And for the photos probably their size is the problem. I pretty much just pulled them off my camera which is set to the highest Jpeg quality. So I suppose with a camera like the 7d they would be pretty big. Didn’t realize FCP would have more trouble with these stills than with video, but what you said makes sense.
Thanks for your wisdom.
Niko
-
[Niko Kuehnel] “By the way, of course by highest quality I meant highest quality, not highest quality for a cell phone”
Simply saying highest quality means nothing with out context, you did not give is so we had to ask. Highest quality settings will differ vastly depending on what you are trying to do.
[Niko Kuehnel] “archive and maybe project it.”
Archival depends on how you plan on archiving. Tape, Hard Drive?
If its hard drive just simply export using current settings as this preserves the quality in which you edited in. And remember you cannot add quality only preserve it.As for projecting, those settings are going to be determined how how it is being projected.
[Niko Kuehnel] “And for the photos probably their size is the problem.”
Again what are the time line settings, thats important info when it comes to how long rendering or exporting will take.
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
-
Hi! I have a question! I am editing a movie that has both HD and SD footage. Panasonic HVX and canon 5d footage and Sony vx 2100 (SD) footage. I was told if I am going to make a DVD (which I will) I should edit my sequence timeline in SD since DVD’s are SD and the HD footage won’t loose quality and not make my time line settings based HD and scale up or crop the SD stuff. Im wondering is this correct? Since I am making a dvd should I make my timeline base SD and just scale up the HD stuff? So question is for DVD should I make my time line SD base? and if so what are the best export settings for best quality outcome for my dvd?
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up