how to export a .flv file from Final Cut

[Nicole Haddock]

Try exporting a self contained QT and converting that file. If you’ve got the Creative Suite on your system, the Adobe Media Encoder can crunch it to an FLV file for you.

As a general rule, compressing straight out of FCP is often an exercise in crashing and futility. It’s really not made to do compression- that’s what Compressor and other utilities rock at.

[John Fishback]

If you don’t have the Production Premium suite from Adobe you can use Compressor. As explained by Nicole, export a reference or self-contained Quicktime movie of your program from FCP. Then drag that to Compressor and encode an H.264 file with the screen dimensions and data rate desired. Then, simply change the file’s extension from .mov to .flv. The last two versions of Flash Player have included the ability to play H.264 files. Just be sure to change the extension.

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

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

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

[Veronica Santos]

Hi there!

thank for your suggestions. I got a problem with the Compressor. I already exported a QT file with compression H.264. Then I dragged it to the Compressor and I tried to export a movie with these format: HD DVD: H.264 60 minutes and in the extension case I putted .flv but the program doesn´t allow me to export it, it says: Unable to connect to background process… Why? what does that mean? Probably I didn´t understood well?

[Nicole Haddock]

Well the unable to connect to background process is a different problem requiring a different solution (do a search and the fix will show up).

But the bigger problem is the compression you chose- why are you going to HD DVD files? From the beginning, it sounded like you were trying to get this up to the web. And you’re also compressing an already compressed file which really isn’t the best way to go. I would export a self contained file and then in the Compressor presets, go to Apple/Other Workflows/Web/Download/Quicktime 7 Compatible. You’ve got 5 choices there to get you started. Do not change the file extension in Compressor, wait until it’s done with your file, THEN change the extension. It should be fine then, but first you’ve got to fix the background error.

Digital Rebellion has gizmo that makes this easier (most of the time)- https://digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/compressor_repair_1.1.4_released.html

[John Fishback]

Perhaps I wasn’t clear. Here’s what to do.

1) Export a Quicktime reference or self-contained movie from FCP in your edit codec (DV, DVCPro50, DVCProHD, etc.).

2) Drag that to Compressor and choose an H.264 preset there (I’m not sure why you chose HD DVD. Do not use that. It doesn’t exist anymore.). Tell Compressor what size (in the Geometry tab of the Inspector) the image should be (320×240, 256 x 144, etc.).

3) Choose the data rate (in Video Settings in the Encoder tab of the Inspector) to use (500kbps, 700 kbps, etc.).

4) Encode your file. This will produce the file you want.

5) Now, change the extension .mov on the file made above to .flv and you should be good.

“Unable to connect to background process…” may mean Compressor is broken. Hopefully when you do the above you won’t get this message. But, if you do, this may help.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1888?viewlocale=en_US

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

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

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

[Veronica Santos]

Thank you very much for all your suggestions!

It was really useful! This forum is great.

See you guys the next I have trouble with my Videos.

Bye!

[Chris Morris]

Wow thanks!
That tip saved me a lot of time. I have the .flv component in Quicktime, so I used to compress everything right to .flv for client approvals. But the .flv compression (VP6 or sorenson)doesnt make use of multiple processors.
By using the H264 setting and my Qmaster Cluster, I speed up my render times by 7 times or so. What was taking me 40 minutes takes me 5 mins now.

Note: I find that I need to switch the Audio to AAC format for it to work in flv players.
Here are the setting I use for the Web 16:9
Name: H.264_flv_450x253 15frames
Description: AAC Audio 430 kbpsvid
File Extension: mov
Estimated file size: 188.96 MB/hour of source
Audio Encoder
AAC, Mono, 48.000 kHz
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: 450
Height: 253
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 75
Min. Spatial quality: 25
Key frame interval: 15
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 25
Average data rate: 440.32 (Kbps)
Chris