Question about outputs and conversion

[Trip Gould]

[David Roth weiss]

The simple answer is export to the best Quicktime format for file sharing with who have QT installed, which is Export–QT Conversion–h.264.

BTW, I would suggest that you bone up on the export capabilities in FCP by clicking on help, searching “export” and reading the online manual.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Trip Gould]

Thanks for tip. I was able to get pretty good results with H.264 through much trial and error. I have read up on exporting, but for some reason, I am pretty inept at it. I use the settings that make sense and output tests of short clips from the project, but it seems so hit and miss with me that I am often at a loss. For instance, I can’t seem to get my widescreen aspect ratio to maintain unless I use the HD 1440X or 1280X 16:9 size settings. I’ve tried so many combinations of the smaller sizes with preserving that aspect ration with letter box and crop, and it always comes out squeezed. And when I use current size, it comes out squeezed as well, even though my sequence has the correct aspect ratio. Like I said…I think I’m just inept at the whole compression and export art.

Thanks again.

[David Roth weiss]

[ventureforth] “And when I use current size, it comes out squeezed as well, even though my sequence has the correct aspect ratio.”

You’re using an anamorphic (sqeezed) format, and unfortunately as you’re finding, many of the different apps in this world are not as smart as they should be and thus demand that the user be able to outsmart them. Over time you will begin to wrap your brain around it, but it can take time if you don’t have a friend or trainer to give you “the short course.”

BTW, one of the very finest things about Apple’s ProRes 422 HD is that it is “full raster,” not a squeeezed format, which tends to make it nearly foolproof in these identical situations. If you export to 16×9 Pro Res 422 from your DVCProHD timeline, that file can be used to make other file types that avoid the trap that you’re encountering with the anamorphic squeeze.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Trip Gould]

That’s good to know. And using ProRes would be in lieu of or in addition to outputting a FCP movie with the “current” setttings? In other words, should I use the ProRes output to make DVDs and everything else I would normally do with just a straight FCP movie taken from the timeline (which, of course, also has the appropriate aspect ratio even when I open it up in Quicktime outside of FCP)?

Thanks.

[David Roth weiss]

Yes, that’s one good way to accomplish things in a foolproof way, even if it has an extra step. There are many other ways of doing these things that you will discover in time, including using Compressor, but its always good to have a nice foolproof method to rely on.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Trip Gould]

Speaking of compressor, and other people have mentioned this on these forums but I’m not sure why it is so, when I use compressor with the exact same settings I use with QT conversion, the compressor created movie doesn’t look as nice as the QT converted one. Is there a reason behind this? Also, I have gotten great results exporting the FCP movie, opening it up in QT outside of FCP, and then doing the exporting and conversion from that. It allows me to continue cutting while a batch of QTs export, and it looks better and is even a little smaller than what I get when I try to use Compressor. But, again, if I really knew how to use Compressor, I’m sure I could get much better results that way.