Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Compression Techniques Compression Export Setting FCP for Highest Quality and Smallest Size

  • Compression Export Setting FCP for Highest Quality and Smallest Size

    Posted by Lubi Kocheleva on December 4, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    Hello

    I have a an edited project in FCP, the raw footage is HD 1920:1080 PAL
    total duration 12.05 mins

    I need to get a quicktime file to someone on the other side of the world.

    My predicament are as follows:

    i need the highest quality possible to be able to play this to a room full of people on a 2m screen, though a laptop

    i need to upload the file to an FTP with 1mb upload speed overnight, so need a file as small as possible

    but the client needs quality first, if i export the HD master as Movie/self contained its 7.5GB

    with apple pro res its 16GB….

    Any suggestions would be really really appreciated, ideally i need a file no bigger than a couple of GB but full res. Is that even possible?

    Please help!

    Thanks you!

    Lubi

    Lubi Kocheleva replied 15 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Craig Seeman

    December 4, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    This describes many predicaments. It’s a fundamental issue of compression. It is also fundamental that you and your client will have to compromise. It is subjective as to what is an acceptable compromise.

    A MacBook Pro would generally be able to handle an Apple ProRes LT file but such file might be too inconvenient to upload.

    What we do not know is:
    The capabilities of the laptop being used
    How the file is getting to the 2m screen. Is it a projector and is the projector HD capable and otherwise what dimensions does it support.

    Without the above info we may not provide an accurate answer.

    Generally I’d recommend an H.264 file compressed to an appropriate frame size and data rate which is hard to recommend without the above information.

    You’ve done an excellent job providing source details and upload speed. Please provide more playback details.

  • Craig Seeman

    December 4, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    This describes many predicaments. It’s a fundamental issue of compression. It is also fundamental that you and your client will have to compromise. It is subjective as to what is an acceptable compromise.

    A MacBook Pro would generally be able to handle an Apple ProRes LT file but such file might be too inconvenient to upload.

    What we do not know is:
    The capabilities of the laptop being used
    How the file is getting to the 2m screen. Is it a projector and is the projector HD capable and otherwise what dimensions does it support.

    Without the above info we may not provide an accurate answer.

    Generally I’d recommend an H.264 file compressed to an appropriate frame size and data rate which is hard to recommend without the above information.

    Please provide the details.

  • Craig Seeman

    December 4, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    Using a bit rate calculator I’m finding that if
    the source file is 12:05
    the target file size is 2GB (generally the maximum you can FTP although some are limited to 1GB)
    the bit rate would be about 23,000kbps.

    You could probably still get very good quality with a 1920×1080 H.264 file encoded to 10,000kbps and have a file around 800Mbps to upload.

    As to whether that’s the best solution depends on how the laptop can handle the file and whether the projector is an HD projector (usually very expensive) or SD sized projector. This might give you examples of what might the various projector displays might be.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_display_standard

  • Lubi Kocheleva

    December 7, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    Thank you Craig for your info, I have managed to get a hard-drive onto a flight with the full size file, and its being played as I write this in Antigua on a lovely big boat. I could not get the info required from them so went for a plan B.

    Thanks again for a quick reply that confirmed my own thoughts.

    Best wishes
    Lubi

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy