Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity › Forums › Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy › How to import mp4, maintain HD, and export in HD

  • Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

    How to import mp4, maintain HD, and export in HD

    Posted by Jake Ni on February 11, 2011 at 12:50 am

    I am filming with a GoPro HD camera. I use 3 settings:

    16:9 @ 60fps 720p (1280×720) 60 NTSC 50 PAL
    4:3 960p (1280×960) 30 NTSC 25 PAL
    16:9 1080p (1920×1080) 30 NTSC 25 PAL

    All videos from the camera are in mp4 format. I know to use MPEG Streamclip, to “Export to Quicktime” and to use ProRes 422, but what is the difference between 422, 422 HQ, 422 Proxy, 422 LT? Correct me if my assumptions are wrong.

    Then I do my editing and I want to export my video to view on a computer, to upload to youtube/vimeo, and to burn to a DVD. This is where I run into trouble. I have been trying File > Export > Quicktime Movie & Quicktime Conversion. I have experimented with multiple settings and all of them give me extremely grainy video, or my video player (VLC) can’t play the video at all. How do I maintain the quality on export for these three scenarios?

    I think a comprehensive answer to these issues will help a lot of people.

    Zane Barker replied 15 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies

  • Jeff Greenberg

    February 11, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    [Jake Ni] “what is the difference between 422, 422 HQ, 422 Proxy, 422 LT”

    All are meant for some pretty specific uses – it’s based on data rate. The order of highest quality to lowest is:
    ProRes 4444, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT, ProRes 422 Proxy.

    The ProRes 422 LT data rate is above the data rate of your raw footage and produces a nice quality/file size ratio. Going to ProRes 422, will essentially only make larger files.

    [Jake Ni] ” have been trying File > Export > Quicktime Movie & Quicktime Conversion”

    Is there a reason you’re not using Send To> Compressor?

    Best,

    Jeff G

    Apple Master Trainer
    Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
    Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
    Compressor Essentials Lynda.com

  • Rafael Amador

    February 11, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    [Jeff Greenberg] “The ProRes 422 LT data rate is above the data rate of your raw footage and produces a nice quality/file size ratio. Going to ProRes 422, will essentially only make larger files.
    “
    I will explain it the other way round: Going to LT, you may be screwing your picture just to reduce the file size.
    Compression is always destructive. Apply the less possible you can afford.
    rafael

    http://www.nagavideo.com

  • Zane Barker

    February 11, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    [Jake Ni] “what is the difference between 422, 422 HQ, 422 Proxy, 422 LT?”

    https://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper_July_2009.pdf

    **Hindsight is always 1080p**

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy