Export opinions differ

[Shane Ross]

DVCPRO 50 is a great codec and format. No need to go 8-bit uncompressed with this format, as your titles should look fine. It is DVCAM or DVCPRO 25 or DV 25 that you need to worry about compression in your titles.

YOu can export a QT Reference movie than take that into compressor and use the high quality preset, or export directly from FCP to Compressor using the high quality preset. DON’T export using QT conversion…that is where you will introduce further compression. As will going to 8-bit uncompressed…don’t do it.

Again, if this were DV25 we were talking about things would be different, but DVCPRO 50 is a great codec.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Bill Lee]

> There are so many disagreements on whether to export to a reference file, export with conversion, or Compressor.

I think that is because the ‘Right Answer” depends on what you want to do, your experience and what your workflow is, all of which can change the answer as to which one is right for use right now. In most cases Export>Using QuickTime Conversion is not the right choice if we are going to later need another transcoding of your video, thus we can eliminate this (exporting from FCP directly to MPEG-2 doesn’t give you the range of encoding options that the other two methods have). Thus we are left with File>Export>QuickTime Movie

[David Roth weiss]

[billlee] ” I have to say that at this time, it is unlikely to be your codec and more likely to be a choice of video generator, font, color, size, or brightness of your titles. Are you using the Title 3D generator, or the old (left-in-for-backwards-compatiblity) font generator ‘Text’?”

I agree, there’s nothing wrong with titles from Title 3D.

DRW

[Joe Paolo]

Also, make sure you don’t use the motion tab to move titles. That will make them look chunky in any codec.

joe

[Alexander Kallas]

[billlee] “At one stage, FCP export directly to Compressor was broken, causing the video and audio encode durations not to match in an MPEG-2 encoding. This was often fatal to their later use in DVDSP. Those of us who discovered it and were affected by it probably swore not to export directly from Compressor again – this habit is likely to be followed by many.”

This problem was detected early in FCP3 and the well-known work around was to export audio to aiff separately, (which is a habit I still have), then on to AC3- No length problems.
Not a good reason to avoid Compressor Video encoding.

Cheers
Alexander

[Bret Williams]

Newer version of FCP actually restricts position of titles to even numbered scan lines when you drag with mouse. Much improved! I’m noticing all sorts of little tweaks like that now that I’m running the UB version.

[Ben Holmes]

[Alexander] “This problem was detected early in FCP3 and the well-known work around was to export audio to aiff separately, (which is a habit I still have), then on to AC3- No length problems.
Not a good reason to avoid Compressor Video encoding.”

Yup. Got into this habit earlier in DVDSP2 when I used to have issues with builds failing (I suspected due to excessive bitrates in the mux) unless the audio was AC3 encoded. As a result, I never had this issue – and am a fan of compressor still.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Bill Lee]

Oops, a typo on my part made it look like I was against exporting video FROM Compressor, where I really meant (and the context shows) that the issue was about exporting TO Compressor directly from FCP. My fault in not making it clear enough that it was about exporting to the Compressor application from the File>Export>Using Compressor menu option: ” swore not to export directly from Compressor again” should probably have read ” swore not to export directly from Export>Using Compressor again”

You should use the output of Compressor. Really. It has been getting better and better over time.

I note that even Alexander still keeps the habit of working around a fault of FCP 3 that almost certainly doesn’t still exist in FCP, which is the core of the comment I was making. Keeping track of when that fault was cured was not enough, since I was running across this problem with people using FCP 3 long after it had been fixed in a later version. The other benefits of exporting as a reference movie more than make up for the inconvenience of this separate reference movie to me anyway.

Bill Lee