Problem when importing great quality screen captures in quicktime and when opening in FCP the quality is poor

[Tom Wolsky]

When you bring the movies into FCP and put it into a sequence it will convert it to whatever format and frame rate the sequence specifies. What frame rate and codec are you working in? You’re giving very little information here as to what you’re doing and how you’re acquiring this material and in what form it’s in. Some codecs are not suitable for the type of work you’re doing, some are designed for video display not for computer display. Where are you trying to get to? How are you going to deliver this material? You used the magic word podcast, is that what you’re really doing. You do realize a podcast is a tiny image display? A computer screen shrunk down to podcast size is going to be barely recognizable as a computer screen.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs

[Jackknife]

Sorry, I am not trying to be difficult.

What I am doing is this:

Either using Camtasia (https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) on my windows machine, or iShowU (a wonderful screen capture device for mac) (https://shinywhitebox.com/index.html) on my mac, I am recording the screen while I go through the motions, showing the viewer how to do this or that, much like you see on many tutorials. The only difference is I am working on items that have a great deal of text instead of drawings or some other apps like FCP, Photoshop, and the like (which I do also and have not nearly the problems I am having with this text.)

Yes, this has to be available for download as a podcast AND in a watchable format on the schools website (Quicktime is to be used). So I need it to look good for both formats. The one I have finished is OK or podcast but I’d still like it to be better.

I have done many such projects directly in Camtasia without difficulty. It comes out pristine and I can convert into many formats. Unfortunately, I cannot use Camtasia for adding the audio because Camtasia only gives you one audio track and limited editing choices which I prefer to use FCP for.

The reason I export to Quicktime from Camtasia or iShowU is because that is what they allow you to do. Camtasia has more options, but not that will import into FCP.

In Camtasia and iShowU I output at the least compression allowed to get the best picture.

When I exported out of FCP, I used DV / NTSC48k output. But I can see the degradation the moment I put it in FCP.

I hope this helps more,

Thanks,

Robert

EGBOK. if you remember to back up youe data.

[Michelle Alvarado]

Did you ever get this problem solved, I am struggling with the same issue.

[Andy Mees]

Nothing changed Michelle … the issue is likely in the difference between the source codec and resolution and the target codec and resolution exactly as explained in the thread. So, for example, you can’t take a relatively high res progressive screen capture source and jam it into a relatively low res interlaced SD sequence and expect it to look good.

Explain in detail, your specific workflow including the hardware and software you are using for capture with all the settings you’re using for that capture, and add to that the source properties of those captures as reported by FCP after you’ve imported them, plus the sequence settings you are using for your edit … and of course details of your actual intended target / delivery format.

With those details, chances are someone will be able to give you specific help and guidance for your issue.

Cheers
Andy

[Michelle Alvarado]

That makes sense, so how do I resolve this issue.

I captured the video in Camtasia Mac – exported it uncompressed to only get a 300GB file so we re-compressed it as h.264 QuickTime Movie, 1920×1080 HD(1-1-1).

I then put it in a FCP 1280×720 sequence thinking I could then zoom in a to 100% and not loose quality. I tried rendering the above clip in a Sequence that requested to change format, I said yes and the text still looked very fuzzy. It looked better on the 1280×720 when the clip was not rendering. But when I rendered it or exported it, the image turned fuzzy.

The settings on the clip are:
HDTV 1280×720
Pixel Square
no field domainance
H.264
24 fps

The “Auto” convert sequence with camtasia is
HDTV 1920×1080
Square
odd
H.264
30 fps

Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. This video will be seen by the Obama’s team later today, so this is very important.

[Lawrence Eaton]

I work extensively with CS Studio and Cmac and FCP and I believe I might have a solution for you.

Regards,

Lawrence