Exporting from Final Cut and converting to SWF (And large files problem)

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

Let me suggest a couple of things that might start you on the right path.

Can you compress files while you export? Yes, with a variety of results. (How are you exporting now? Knowing that would help in answering your questions. And do you have a target file size in mind?)

When you go File>Export, you want to examine the second and third options, “Using Compressor” and “Using QuickTime Conversion”. Compressor often yields better results, but it’s somewhat more complicated, if you are unfamiliar with the program. The simpler method is “Using QuickTime Conversion”.

Try this: File>Export>Using QuickTime Conversion. Then in the “Save” dialogue box, select a location for exported file and proceed to the Format and and Option buttons. If you click on the Format drop-down menu, you’ll see a number of choices (including various kinds of audio only or still files). You’ll probably want to select QuickTime Movie (though I sometimes opt for MPEG-4 or Windows Media). Click on the Option button to access the Movie Settings dialogue box, where you’ll want to look at the Settings and Size options. As I don’t know what your needs are, it’s hard for me to recommendation, but you might start by selecting Compression : H.264 as your Setting and Current as your Size. Hit Okay to exit the Movie Settings box and then hit Save in the Save window to render. If the file is still too big, examine other adjustments in the Compression Settings window (it comes up when you select your settings in the Movie Setting window) or select a different compressor altogether.

Don’t know anything about Flash, so I can’t help you there.

As for making it 16:9, if you shot 4:3 you can’t really change it, without distorting the aspect ratio. However, you can simulate it by putting a letterbox over it. (i.e. you inscribe a 16:9 image in a 4:3 frame. You will, of course, be cropping off the top and bottom of your shot, so unless the shots are pretty wide, you may be happy with the results.)

FCP includes the widescreen letterboxes as a filter. Look here: Effects>Video Filters>Matte>Widescreen. The filter gives you a choice of five or six different aspect ratios. I’d recommend 1.66:1 –the least extreme of the bunch, as your video was probably not shot with cropping in mind. Select all your video clips and add this filter. Voila!

Good luck.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Kenny Stein]

Mike,

Thank you for your response.

First off, yes, I’ve been using File>export>using quicktime conversion. Then I’m just selecting Quicktime and not messing with the settings. I probably should’ve mentioned that, yes. I also should have looked at the settings and tried to play with them to find a happy medium. What I need is a video that doesn’t lose too much quality and comes in at under 100 mb or even less preferably. The videos will play on a website and I believe will only be a on a small scale.

Before I posted here I did try using the compresser and h.264, though it didn’t change much and I am also a COMPLETE amateur on the compressor and had no idea what I was doing.

To transfer the files online, is it possible to zip or rar them to make them smaller? I compressed a file to try it out and it hardly made it any smaller at all when I zipped it. I thought the point of zip and rar was to make the smiles… well… compressed?

Thanks again,
Kenny

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

A couple more suggestions. If you File>Export>QuickTime Movie, you will get an uncompressed QT (that way you can see just how much compression is occurring via QT Conversion).

If you are exporting for web viewing of SD material, I would still go H.264, but I would change the size to 320 x 240.

If you’d rather convert to wmv, you need to have the Flip4Mac plugin ($49, if I recall correctly).

Not sure what you mean when you say “To transfer the files online . . . .” Do you mean you trying to compress files which are already compressed? Why? Are you trying to e-mail them?

I have no idea whether you can zip video files, but I imagine unzipping them at the other end will yield unsatisfactory results. You should compress the file to the proper size in the first place. If that size is too large to e-mail, than you’ll have to ftp it or use some service like YouSendIt (you can get a free account that accepts files up to 100 MB). Or burn it to a DVD and hand-deliver or snail mail it.

Good luck!

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Kenny Stein]

Hi Mike

Yes, I’m using yousendit to send the files to my boss. That’s what I meant by sending them online.

I have a few conversion programs (Handbrake, joboshare) that I can use to convert the files and I was converting them to flash files, but now my boss doesn’t like those either.

Is H.264 only available through the compressor or can I go directly from FCP?

I have been messing with the options and settings to just make it a smaller scale video file and that’s gotten them to near or under 100mb and still waiting to hear from the boss if he likes it.

Thanks for your help.

[Mike Raff]

H.264 is available directly in FCP, as follows:

File> Export>Using QuickTime Conversion, brings up the “Save” dialogue box.

In the he “Save” dialogue box, make sure Format is set to QUickTime Movie, then press the Options button, which will bring up the Movie Settings dialogue box.

In the Movie Settings dialogue box, in the video portion, click on the Settings button to bring up the Standard Video Compression Settings box.

At the top of the Standard Video Compression Settings box, you can select your desired Compression Type from a drop down menu. Locate H.264 in the drop down menu to select it.

Hit OK in the Standard Video Compression Settings box to close and than Save in teh Save dialogue box to render

If the resulting file is still too big, you can go back to the Standard Video Compression Settings box, reduce the frequency of key frames and lower the quality slider in the Compressor window to further reduce the size of the rendered file.

HTH,

Mike

[Kenny Stein]

Hey Mike

Thanks again for your help.

It looks like the settings were already for H.264. I reduced the quality and the size and it still came out to 40 mb. Now, my boss claims that on his old website the videos were only 20 mb and they are of good quality and not too small. I just feel like somewhere I have some setting that’s throwing everything else.

I should also mention that my exports are acting funny. They immediately start at 7% and then it stops and goes slow and takes maybe 15 minutes to complete the export, even for a small file. No matter how I export (in any format) the video, that’s what’s happening. Do you know what could be causing this?

Is there a format that’s similar to quicktime that won’t lose much quality but also be a smaller file size? Such as avi compared to mov?

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

I’m starting to run out of ideas. (You still haven’t told me how much an uncompressed file would be, so I still have no idea how much compression is required.)

At this point you might want to get away from QuickTime and start thinking about Windows Media Files, which in my experience are only slightly lower quality, but are much more compressed.

To export from Final Cut as wmv files, you need to purchase the Flip4Mac WMV Studio by Telestream for $49.

https://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm

Good luck!

Mike