BIG GREEN BAR (when trying to export to m4v with compressor)???

[Eric Strand]

Is your source footage H.264?

[Alec Eagon]

No, source footage is Apple Pro Res (HQ). Sorry forgot to list that.

Alec E.

[Michael Gissing]

Are you exporting a QuickTime movie from FCP first (self contained, current settings)? If not then try that as exporting from the FCP timeline straight to Compressor may be taxing your system. It goes without saying that your timeline needs to be fully rendered.

Those green bars often indicate a graphics card unable to cope, particularly if you have fxplugins on shots.

[Alec Eagon]

Won’t that result in loss of quality compared to the “Frame-by-Frame” approach of Compressor?

Alec E.

[Alec Eagon]

Oh that is good to know.

Alec E.

[Alec Eagon]

So I just tried exporting a .mov out of FCP and then converting that to .m4v in Compressor (with Frame Controls ON) and no luck….I am still getting the green bar.

Any ideas? Or methods of trouble shooting?

I noticed that digital rebellion had what looks like a suite of programs for FCP maintenance. Anyone used those?

Thanks!

Alec E.

[William Carr]

Confirm please that your original sequence is fully rendered.

Also, are you viewing the end result in Quicktime 7? If so try viewing it in the newer Quicktime X, or in MPEG Streamclip. Or on an iDevice.
Quicktime 7 has become broken when trying to show mp4/h264 since Mountain Lion (for me, anyway).

And, try just using the standard preset and not worrying about frame controls. Apple’s own presets for its own devices are really quite OK, quality-wise.

Next idea is to make a regular ProRes (not Q) and work with that. The quality issues are simply not as critical as you are defining them since your end goal is iDevices and your presets are Apple.

Finally, try a 3rd party conversion app if all else fails.

[Eric Strand]

Try using Handbrake with the self-contained QT movie, see if you still get it.

[Jeff Meyer]

Export a QT out of Final Cut using Current Settings. This is a full quality master.

Do a ProRes422 conversion in Compressor with all of your Frame Controls, resizing, rate conversion, etc. No need for ProRes HQ at this stage, as any benefit will be lost in the m4v conversion – but feel free to use HQ if you’re compelled to go that direction.

Convert the 2nd ProRes file to the m4v file.

==

If that doesn’t work consider trying MPEG Streamclip for the mpeg conversion.

[Alec Eagon]

Yes, my sequence is fully rendered.

Yes, I am viewing it in QT7 (looks the same in Mpeg Streamclip and VLC).

I am converting to .m4v for upload to Vimeo (which was recommended to me recently when I became utterly dissatisfied with even Sorenson Squeeze’s ability to transcode h.264 for the web). Also, the original ProRes HQ files are film scans so due to the insane native latitude, even the slightest shift in color or quality is noticeable.

Every digital video I’ve ever worked with ends up looking better on the web the less compressed it is before the final for-the-web crunch (yes even on Apple devices).

Thank you for the ideas. Unfortunately I am not trying to find a workaround here. I am rather trying to figure out how to make this program work the way it should. So far I have done nothing wrong that should, at least “in theory”, seem to cause this issue.

So if anyone has any ideas related to troubleshooting software or hardware I would really appreciate those.

Thanks!
-Alec

Alec E.