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Help, please: Jerky FCP Exporting to FCP Movie & QT
Hi,
I’m working on a ballet project, using FCP 3.0.4/OS X 10.2.8 on a FP G4 iMac/800/1GB. The source footage is relatively low res QT .movs. There are four total video tracks, with two of them title tracks, one of which is deactivated depending on the version. There are 7 audio tracks, five of which are deactivated and the last two active ones are mixdowns of the upper five. So, in effect I’ve got 3 video tracks and 2 audio tracks active. My problem is that whether I export to FCP or to QT (DVD PAL Superwhite) the playback hangs at regular intervals, as does the audio. Exporting to an FCP Movie destroys the smoothness of the cross dissolves and fades. Most of the cuts are straightforward J or L or crossfades. I’ve tried downgrading the resolution quality in QT Export to no effect. This is a test project which, if the results are ok, I’ll reshoot using a better camcorder and serious post system. At present I’ve got a “workprint” of just the titles and a short sequence, on which I’m testing export. Am I doing something wrong or is my system just too underpowered to render and export the sequence? The entire clip is maybe two minutes at this point and depending on the export takes either 8 minutes (QT) or 18 (FCP Movie.) Any help will be greatly appreciated. Of course, I can provide detailed info on the settings if necessary.
All the best,
David
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4 Replies
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There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.
You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs, sync-slippage, or freezes.
NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.
First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:
Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.
You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.
It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.
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Also, make sure you RENDER the entire timeline at the highest quality.
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10x Thax!
For cluing me in. Your message was really helpful and I’m glad to know that there’s a right way to do this. I’ll try it out tomorrow morn. I was under the mistaken impression that I was mixing down by exporting all the sound tracks as a separate QT file – which didn’t make any appreciable difference.
Best regards,
David
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Thax,
Thanks again! I Mixed down the audio in the timeline and began some Export testing. Exporting to QT: VGA, No Compression, at 640 x 480, w/interlacing from source removed and with either High Quality at a Thousand Colors or Med High Quality at a Million colors are the only resolution/setting options which produce a non-jerky dub. All the other res, size and compression options result in jerky QT and FCP Movies that hang cyclically. Fortunately, though, for my immediate purposes the 640 x 480 med res is good enough. I just need to show a workprint to generate interest. Any ideas on what’s happening?
Best regards,
David
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