exporting a slideshow..output quality is driving me insane

[John Fishback]

Part of your problem is FCP is scaling your giant images down – and FCP’s lousy at doing that. All you need for a full frame image is a 720×480 image at 72dpi. If you want to be able to zoom in and around an image try doubling its size. Do this in PhotoShop or similar app.

You don’t mention your hardware so I don’t know if you’re monitoring on an external monitor. If not, know you can’t judge picture quality by looking at your computer monitor. If you have to work that way, adjust the size of the Canvas to 100%. That will get you closer to seeing reality.

You seem to be editing in a DV timeline. This will give you the worst quality compared to other codec choices. I suggest you use ProRes, or DVCPro50 if your version of FCP doesn’t support ProRes.

Export using QT with current settings. Do NOT recompress. It’s your choice of ref or self-contained. Use Compressor to turn that QT into mv2 video and ac3 audio files. Pick the best presets – the ones with the shortest time listed.

Bring those files into DVD Studio Pro and make your DVD. When you watch that on your TV you’ll see what you have. I suggest exporting a short piece of your program to experiment with. That way you won’t have to wait a long time for renders.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Christopher Rios]

hi john,

thank you very much for your time and advice.

im using a PPC G5 dual 1.8ghz. i have 3gb ram not 1gb as previously stated but thats not the issue. im editing and viewing the footage on my computer monitor – a 22in widescreen LG flatron. also, im using FCP 5.0.1

when you say change the codecs that i use in my timeline, do you mean highlight the project/timeline and then go sequence>settings>quicktime video settings> ? i assumed thats what you meant and i went ahead and changed it to DVCPRO50 NTSC with frame rate of 29.97fps,interlaced and aspect ratio of 4:3. when i go back to sequence>settings> menu i currently have frame size 320 x 240 (media large 4:3) and pixel aspect ratio “HD 1280 x 1080, field dominance lower (even)”.

i havent tried exporting yet, i wanted to check which export you mean. im guessing you mean “quicktime movie” and select “current settings” which i assume means the above settings that i just changed in the sequence settings?

by the way, i was green with envy when i saw your signature line…. you have some very impressive equipment!!

thanks again

chris

[John Fishback]

You are in the right place to change your sequence QT settings. I’m not sure why the 320×240 frame size and HD aspect pixel ratio are coming up the way they are. That’s really apples & oranges.

Try setting as follows:
In the General Tab:
Frame Size: NTSC DV (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: CCIR-601/DV(720×480)
Field Dom: Lower
Edit Timebase: 29.97
QT Settings
Compressor: DVCPro-50 NTSC (Note DVCPro50 is technically a DV
format, just higher quality with 4:2:2 color)
Quality: 100%
Audio:
Rate: 48k
Depth: 16 or 24 bit
In the Video Processing Tab:
Motion Filtering Quality: Best
In the Render Control Tab:
Check Filters & Frame Blending
Frame Rate and Resolution: 100%
Check Always Use Best Quality When Rendering Movie

Some of this may be different for your version of FCP, but it should be close enough.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Christopher Rios]

hi john,

good news – the settings you provided have made a massive difference in the quality of the quicktime movie i am exporting to my desktop. still seems to be a little jagged but like you said this may not be a true representation of the finished product. i am in the process of making a test dvd so i can play it on my tv. unfortunately i have just moved house and only have an old sony crt tv and no dvds anywhere but i will pick some up tomorrow to burn the project and test it.

hopefully in the end i will have a presentation that will play in perfect quality no matter what display/tv/dvd etc it is shown on.

i will let you know how it turns out tomorrow.

cheers

chris

[Christopher Rios]

hi john!

if i had ten heads and wore ten hats, i would tip them all to you!! i exported a self contained version of my movie and a non-self contained version. i then used toast to burn an autoplay disc and played them on my dvd player and oooold crt tv. BOOM! the resolution was perfetto on both versions.. i did get some cropping of images but i had ticked 4:3 not widescreen so my next test run i will try 16:9 and im sure that will work.

thank you for your time and effort helping me.

best,

chris rios

[John Fishback]

I’m glad it worked out.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Meg Van de ruit]

Thanks helped me a lot to!- same problem