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5-hour Radio Show edit in FCP with Chapter Markers
Hello,
This is a somewhat unique project! I recently was part of a 30th anniversary radio show of a college station that I started at 28 years ago (if that makes any sense).
What I edited in Final Cut Pro was the audio down to 4 hours and 40 minutes and I added simple CG video, basically listing out all of the disc jockey’s names who were on at the time throughout the show. I added Chapter Markers every time a disc jockey’s name was added to the static CG list (over black), naming the chapter marker with the name of the disc jockey.
So, I’ve got a couple of snags:
1) Audio version of the edit: Just the audio size itself is 3 GB in stereo, but I only need it in Mono (which will hopefully half the size to 1.5 GB) since it’s all of us blabbing anyway. While keeping the Chapter Markers (I think the only way to do so is to “Export Quicktime Movie”), how can I convert the file from stereo to mono (with no video on this Quicktime version)? Further, is there a way to compress it as an .mp3 while keeping the Chapter Markers so that the listener can jump around a smaller file of the 4 hour and 40 minute show while listening within QuickTime. Also, the final movie wants to open in FCP instead of Quicktime even if I add a .mov extension – is there a way to change this?
2) Video version of the edit: I’m thinking of a 320X240 .mpg movie with Chapter Markers. However, I’m losing the Chapter Markers in Quicktime when I “Export Using Compressor” using the MPEG-1 preset. Is there any way to get this to work? I know that the LiveType Central tutorial files have QuickTime video with Chapter Markers so that you can jump around, so I’m thinking that what I’m trying to do should be able to happen.
Thanks in advance!
G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
5 Replies
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What do you want your final version of this to be?
An audio MP3 or do you need video at all. This really sounds more suited to Soundtrack Pro (turn you chapter markers into Scoring Markers).
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Thanks, John!
I wish I knew SoundTrack Pro well enough to edit in that, but then again I would like to keep the video if at all possible.
In the last couple of days since writing this e-mail, here’s how far I’ve got just by experimenting (failing much more than succeeding!). I do now have a QuickTime movie file with video and audio and I also have the ability to jump to the chapter makers right from within the QT window. That’s ideally where I’d like to end up so that I can upload it to my website and send out links to all of the disc jockeys (who are spread out all over the country) for downloading.
The problem is that the Quicktime .mov file is 5.77 GB!!! I can’t even fit it onto a DVD! The best I could figure out to do from FCP was create an audio and chapter markers only file using “Export Quicktime Movie” from FCP, since this Export function appears to be the only one that supports chapter markers. The bottom three windows in “Export Quicktime Movie” say “Current Settings”, “Audio Only” and “Chapter Markers”. So, what I end up with is a 3 GB stereo Quicktime .mov audio only file with chapter markers.
For video, I turned off the audio in FCP and chose “Export with Compressor”. There, I chose the MPEG-1 option (within the QuickTime 6 settings). I then ended up with a video only 320X240 .mpg movie of 2.77 GB.
Then, I opened both the audio (with chapter markers) .mov file and video .mpg file from within Quicktime Player. I copied and pasted both together and now I’ve got the end product that is a .mov file with audio, video and chapter markers, however it is 5.77 GB (way too big).
To get the 5.77 GB file smaller, I can do two things that I can think of (unless you can think of anything else?).
Regarding video, I can go to a smaller size (240X192, or whatever the specific numbers are, or even the 192X152), but the FCP “Export Using Compressor” option and the Compressor MPEG-1 preset won’t let me adjust the 320X240 size (I’ve tried looking in the Compressor Inspector Window and there’s no place to change that). So, I tried taking the 320X240 .mpg file into Cleaner in order to do this, but I keep getting setting errors there.
Regarding audio, the .mov file with chapter markers is stereo coming out of FCP. The 4 hour and 40 minute edited audio can be mono since it’s just a bunch of guys talking for the entire time anyway. I tried changing the FCP sequence settings to mono, but I still get a .mov file with chapter markers that is 3 GB (the same size as stereo) anyway. I’ve also tried to run the this file through cleaner to get it to a mono Wave, Aiff or ideally MP3 file, but then it strips the chapter markers off.
Would anyone have any suggestions of how I can get the same end result (.mov or .mpg file that plays audio and video with chapter markers in the Quicktime window) that is a smaller file size than 5.77 GB (again, smaller video and mono audio with chapter markers would be fine)?
Thanks again!
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
Here are some setting that will get you in the 30mb per hour area exporting from QT. However your viewers will need Quicktime 6 or higher to view this. If you lower the bitrate the file size should shrink. You can also compress the audio more. Do some testing on a one minute piece until you get the file size you want. I did these test at home with FCP 4.5. FCP 5 results may vary.
VIDEO
Compression: Sorenson Video
Quality: Medium
Frame Rate: 10
Key Frame: 24
Bitrate: 400 kbits/sec
Size: 320 x 240
SOUND
Format: Qualcomm Purevoice
Sample Rate: 22.050 khz
MonoDajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Quad – AJA Kona LHe
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 5-OS X 10.4.2-QT 7 -
Thank you for your help, Dave!
In FCP 5, the Export settings are a bit different than “Export Quicktime Movie” in FCP 4.5, but I figured out that the variables that you listed are now in the “Export with Quicktime Conversion” option.
I tried them and they do in fact shrink the file size, like you said, however I lose the chapter markers within the Quicktime window. I output the audio file from FCP via “Export Quicktime Movie”, which does allow all chapter markers to be saved, however it won’t allow me to enter any variables as you suggested.
However, I’ve been playing with the variables you suggested from the large video and audio files that I already made before you reply using “Export Quicktime Movie” (for the 3 GB audio .mov file with chapter markers) and the “Export with Quicktime Conversion” (for the 2.77 GB .mpg video file) from within FCP 5.1. It appears I lose the chapter markers when further exporting from within Quicktime player (although they are there in the original that is doing the exporting). However, the video file (2.77 GB) is exporting right now using your variables from withing Quicktime and, if I can “add” the video to the existing 3 GB audio file with chapter markers and it totals less than 4.7 GB, at least I’ll be able to now fit it onto a DVD!
It’s too bad about the audio file being so large and in stereo where mono would be just fine, but I just don’t know what to do in order to reduce the size while maintaining the chapter markers.
I’ll post again later when the 2.77 GB video file is done exporting in Quicktime Player and I’ve had a chance to marry the audio with chapter markers file to the new video file, but that’s where I’m at for now.
Thanks again for your help – it definitely got me to the next level!
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
Hi guys,
Thanks again for your help with this!
Your help got me to the next level and I still had one more level to go. So, I re-posted the same question today and got the additional help needed to re-add the chapter markers right from within Quicktime Player. If you would like to see how to do this and how this question ended up, please click this Creative Cow link:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=8&postid=894048
You’ll probably need to read the entire link to see how it turned out.
Thanks again very much!
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671
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