• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Compression / Export options – Please Help

  Posted by Justin Jay on October 13, 2008 at 6:16 am

  I am trying to export a music video that I shot. The project was shot in HD 1080 24p. I would like to export several versions for different purposes and I am overwhelmed and confused with the amount of codec choices.

  I need 1 version high quality that will fit on a single 4.7 GB DVD. The song is only 3:30, so data space should not be huge issue. What will give me the best quality? Should I export as a Quicktime Movie or use a Quicktime conversion? Please be specific with all settings in each codec window option.

  I also want to export a second version that will end up being around 150mb web use. I would like the final size to be around 720 across. What would you recommend?

  Thanks in advance.
  J.

  Simon Hustings replied 17 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Simon Hustings

  October 14, 2008 at 9:15 pm

  Justin,
  The version to fit on DVD, is that to be viewed by commercial DVD players/Computers or is the DVD just a storage medium? (Data Disc compared to VIDEO_TS DVD)
  The 150Mb web version sounds suitable for H.264 encoding. Is that your max sixe limit? For such a short duration, and with good compression available, 150 may be a little bit of overkill!
  What version of FCP, QT and Compressor are you using?
• 

  Justin Jay

  October 14, 2008 at 10:47 pm

  I am running Final Cut 6. I need the DVD copy to be playable, not just a data disk. I’d like it to be the best quality possible and still fit. The duration is about 3:35 minutes long.

  The second copy just needs to be reasonable to download and stream via a backslash link on my website. I’d like it to be a decent size window.

  Thanks!
• 

  Simon Hustings

  October 15, 2008 at 2:43 pm

  For the DVD version I’d suggest using the Compressor preset of DVD: Best Quality 90 mins. This gives you a video stream of 6.2Mbps (2 pass) and 192Kbps ac3 audio. You can increase these settings, but I wouldn’t recommend taking the combined data rate over 8.5Mbps, even though most DVD players will accept data rates of up to 10Mbps, you want to leave yourself a big enough gap from this limit as some DVD players may have a lower threshold.
  I’ve always used DVD: Best Quality 90 mins and although I may change other encode setting, I leave the bit rates alone and have always been happy with the results.
  For the web version, I’d have a look at the H.264 800Kbps/LAN presets. They offer reasonably sized video compared to file size and anyone with QT7 and above can view it. Depending on your source material, you may need to change the Pixel Aspect parameters and Frame size within the Geometry Settings of your chosen H.264 preset. A few trial runs may be required. Check out Compressor Manual for further information on Geometry Settings.
  All the best,
  Simon

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