Differences between FCP movie export and QT Export??? recompresses?

[Don Greening]

Export a self-contained QT movie from FCP. Use the same export presets as your timline. This will allow you to put the movie on an external drive for use on another computer. Export using Quicktime conversion will encode the movie to a different codec such as MPEG2 for use on a DVD, so that’s why that particular method is taking so long when you export that way.

– Don

[Paul Harb]

I understand how it all works, I guess my question is if I set up my QT conversion to the same settings as my timeline, the movie is the same exact size if I export it as a FCP self contained movie…..so why is it taking longer? Is it actually recompressing to DV even though it already is coming from a DV timeline? Is it degrading the picture in any way? When would you use QT Conversion export and set it to your timeline settings, or is this redundent…..

Paul

[Don Greening]

[paul] “Is it actually recompressing to DV even though it already is coming from a DV timeline?”

Well it must be, otherwise it would take the same amount of time to export as using the simple “Export Quicktime Movie” command does.

[paul] “When would you use QT Conversion export and set it to your timeline settings, or is this redundent…..”

Beats me, although there must be a reason to have the choice available or they wouldn’t include it in the export options. Would They? There has to be a reason why it’s in there. Since I’ve never had the need to export a DV movie using the Quicktime Conversion command plus using the same exact DV codec I’ve no idea what kind of quality hit there’d be. If any. Why not take a 5 min. piece of your project and encode it to see what happens to the quality as compared to the simple “export QT movie” command.

– Don

[Graeme Nattress]

“File -> Export -> Quicktime Movie…” good – use default settings, make self contained. Best quality output

“File -> Export -> Quicktime Conversion…” – only use for making web movies or you’ll incur problems with repeated Y’CbCr -> RGB -> Y’CbCr and other nasties.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Paul Harb]

thanks, makes sense……

[Daniel Sanz]

Although I can

[Martin Baker]

Exporting as a reference movie does this:
* Renders any unrendered or RT effects in the sequence
* Creates a new QT file with LINKS to either the source clips or render files as appropriate (this takes very little time)

Exporting as a self contained movie does this:
* Renders any unrendered or RT effects in the sequence
* Copies the relevant source clip or render file MEDIA into the exported QT

So there is no additional compression going on with either path but if any parts of your sequence are showing as RT effects then they will have to be rendered first. Assuming the sequence is fully rendered then exporting as reference movie will always be far faster than self-contained because FCP doesn’t have to copy large media files from one QT to another.

As Graeme says, avoid the “Using QuickTime Conversion” option as this goes through YUV-RGB-YUV which is not desirable.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
________________________________________
NEW! MovieLogger – QuickTime logging made simple

[Dave Gardner]

I hope an expert can weigh in on what I’m seeing with my own eyes here. The manual indicates export > QT conversion always recompresses everything. But here is what I’m seeing on a 22 second test clip:

Using Export > QT movie (current settings) I get 80.9MB self-contained or 43.8MB ref. movie, but it looks soft when I play it back with the QT Player.

Using Export > QT Conversion , selecting “uncompressed” and “best” quality, I get a huge file (446.4MB), but it is noticeably sharper when I play it back with the QT player.

I am going to use the resulting file to create Flash video using Flix Pro. Can’t imagine why Export > QT movie gives me such a soft image. Anybody???

Dave Gardner
Producer/Director/Writer
Visions West
Breakthrough Communication for World-Class Companies
Colorado Springs * Dallas * Atlanta


Main Office:
760 Wycliffe Drive
Colorado Springs,

[Martin Baker]

It’s soft because older versions of QuickTime Player do not display DV movies at high quality on screen. This is a historic hangover from the days when decoding a DV movie at full quality and frame rate was on the edge of what was possible with the processors.

In 2006 it’s not a problem, so the current version of QuickTime Player provides a preference called “Use high-quality video setting when available”. If that is checked then DV movies will play at full resolution and not look soft. Uncompressed movies always play at full quality which is why your export looks much sharper.

Regardless of whether it looks soft when played in QuickTime Player any further compression you do to the file will always be done at full quality.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
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[Dave Gardner]

Thanks, Martin, for the great explanation. Why the big difference in file size, though? By the way, I love your plug-ins for FCP and plan to purchase some of those!

Dave Gardner
Producer/Director/Writer
Visions West
Breakthrough Communication for World-Class Companies
Colorado Springs * Dallas * Atlanta


Main Office:
760 Wycliffe Drive
Colorado Springs,