FCP7 conversion to something that will work on PC

[Mark Suszko]

If you are talking about playing the file off of a thumb drive, if the files are high def, the drives may not have the transfer speed to play clean; are you having users drag the video to their desktops first? That way it plays off their hard drive instead.

When I make files to share to unknown places, i use h.264 and windows media. Usually one or the other will work. But again, playing anything larger than a 30-second clip direct off a thumb drive may not play clean.
Just my own opinion.

[Rainer Wirth]

It depends on the software on a windows based PC.
Nearly every PC has got a windows media player. Best format is WMV. If the PC has got a Quicktime player it will play quicktimes. The safest format is WMV 4:3 letterboxed. If the media player is an actual version it will also play H264(Mpeg4).
By the way, we do all transcodings with Episode,
cheers

Rainer

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Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems

[Rafael Amador]

[chris rust] ” I have a project shot on HDV, edited in FCP7 ( HDV native). My client wants me to output a version onto 16gb flash drives for playback on PC laptops. My initial output was to QT – giving me a .mov file. The first test on a PC the .mov would not play. “

SONY had the brilliant idea of making different the HDV codecs for the Mac and te PC.
So HDV files are not cross-platform.

[chris rust] “Then I tried converting to Mp4. This test was interesting, because the vid played back, audio was good, but the aspect was wrong. “
Your choice of MP4 was correct.
The distortion is a different issue.
I guess you shoot HDV 1080, which is 1440×1080 HD Pixels, but the standard for HD is 1920×1080 SQUARED PIXELS.
So when exporting, in the Geometry options, change to that specs; 1920×1080 Squared Pixels.
if there is not an option for pixels (QT Player), just forget about and export 1920×1080.
rafael

[Chris Rust]

Thanks for your suggestions. Here are my results… Yes I did consider that the flash drive transfer speeds would not be fast enough and did try dragging the vid to the desktop — no difference.
You say you use H264 AND Windows Media. If you don’t mind, please explain what you mean by that. I understand H264 is what I’m trying to get from Compressor. Windows Media? Are you talking about the player on the PC? or something else?
I have also tried creating different versions using the QT Conversion settings and came up with some really ugly looking video.
Going the h264 route: creates a file that is something on the order of 3X the size of the .mov (which was too big to begin with). Took forever — became such a size that I couldn’t get it onto a flash drive (11gb became 30+gb).
Now, if necessary, I’ll take my machine to theirs and make a transfer via ethernet — but that doesn’t account for backup copies….
Second, I made an MPEG2 version and stored it on DVDs. They would not play on the PC either. This is the way I have delivered to non-broadcast clients for years and has always worked. I use the DVD MPEG2 Best Quality 90 minutes and AAC audio settings.
I looked at the flip4mac site and of course, the version I need is the most expensive. There must be some alternative to spending $180 to convert these files.
Again I thank you for your suggestions and taking the time to respond to my query.

[Mark Suszko]

Windows Media? Are you talking about the player on the PC? or something else?

I meant .WMV format, using flip4mac, either exporting from the timeline directly, or from compressor. Other tools I use are FLCrunch and the ever-popular MPEG STREAMCLIP.