How to export 13 min vid in FCP7 in highest quality possible while keeping under 5GB?

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

How to export 13 min vid in FCP7 in highest quality possible while keeping under 5GB?

Posted by Tony Au on January 20, 2014 at 11:44 pm

Hi All,

I have been trying to export a 13 min video through Final Cut Pro 7 that needs to be less than 5GB, but haven’t been able to do this without a substantial decrease in quality.

I am using a iMac with OSX 10.8.2. I have tried exporting through Compressor as well as directly through FCP. Compressor tends to yield slightly better results but not by much.

When I export a ProRes MOV file, the size varies from 15-20GB. Below are my settings:
Compressions: Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
Quality: High
Frame Rate: 29.97
Automatic gamma correction
Progressive
Dimensions: 1920×1080
Format: Apple Lossless
Sample rate: 48khz
Channels: Stereo (L R)
Prepare for Internet Streaming
Fast Start

When I export an H.264 MP4 file, the size varies from 1.5-2.5GB. All other settings are the same as above, but my data rate is limited to 10000kbps or less. Unfortunately, the difference between the Pro Res MOV and the H.264 MP4 in terms of picture quality is like night and day. The Pro Res file is OK, but for the H.264 file, the color is off and there’s lots of grain. I usually adjust the data rate for H.264 MP4 files in order to reduce file size, but even with a rate as high as 10000kbps the quality of the MP4 is still not satisfactory.

What else can I do to keep my file size under 5GB without jeopardizing the picture quality of the file? If there is nothing else that I can do, then why are there so many videos on Vimeo (uploaded by Vimeo Plus members who have a limit of 5GB a week) that are much longer than mine yet so much higher quality?

John Fishback
replied 12 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Tom Lancaster
January 21, 2014 at 3:55 pm

I would say you can afford to push the data rate quite a lot higher than that. The limit for vimeo these days is 20Mbps, whereas a prores file could be 200Mbps. That will go some way to improving the picture quality but you will always get a colour shift in my experience when compressing but I have to say I have the same problem!
John Fishback
January 21, 2014 at 4:19 pm

You might have better results in Compressor using Frame Controls. I export a ProRes from FCP then use that in Compressor. If you have Squeeze, or other encoding program, try that, too.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.8.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.9, Motion 5.0.7, Compressor 4.0.7

Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN
Tony Au
January 22, 2014 at 4:46 am

Hey John,

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean by “using Frame Controls”? I’m not as familiar with Compressor as I am with FCP.
John Fishback
January 22, 2014 at 2:22 pm

I’m not in front of my computer so please excuse inaccuracies. In Compressor you find Frame Controls in the 3rd or 4th tab of the Inspector. Frame Controls allows you to set high quality settings for re-timing, resizing and/or de-interlacing. Using FC greatly increases the quality, but also increases the processing time.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.8.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.9, Motion 5.0.7, Compressor 4.0.7

Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN

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