render settings for FCP

[Steve Roberts]

The question is not about “rendering for FCP”, it is about “rendering for which final delivery medium”.

What is the final product? DV tape? DVD? QT to service bureau for Digibeta? Web? What kind of video out hardware do you have?

[Rick Neely]

Hi Steve,

most of the time it is outputted from aja io to betacam SP, or encoded for DVD. Does that help clarify what I need to do?

Rick

[Steve Roberts]

All righty then. Since the IO doesn’t have a codec, you are free to use anything you want in your FCP sequences, and by extension, for the files that get rendered in AE and go into those FCP sequences. I’d use the highest quality codec that could be played back well on my system. Animation is high quality, but might not play back well on your system. You could use Photo-JPEG, Motion-JPEG-B (or A, probably), or an “uncompressed” 8-bit or 10-bit codec such as the Blackmagic codec for higher quality. Try Animation or an Uncompressed 8-bit codec, but if the files stutter in FCP, you might want to use P-JPEG for acceptable quality. Hey, do a test and see which quality you like.

(On the other hand, if you were using a Blackmagic card, you’d probably use a BM codec in your sequences and in the files that come out of AE. That’s what I do: BM 8-bit or 10-bit when I have to.)

Now, if you know you’re going to make a DVD, you might want to set your FCP sequences (and AE comps) to 720×480 (not 486) so you don’t have to crop 486 to 480 when doing the DVD.

Does that help?

[Rick Neely]

It does,

not too familiar with black magic. I wish some graphics expert (like yourself) knew of a cool chart with all the codecs and a breakdown on quality stadards, average file size, render speed, known quirks, format recommnedations and all.
I’ll test a couple different formats. It was a bit easier with avid codecs and the known ‘lower field” render of after effects was pretty well known back when, but now I have to re-learn. I might also be working with clients who just expect the resolution to be just like a professional DVD (like a movie rental). Anywhom, any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks again!

Rick

[Steve Roberts]

There are a few sites that list codecs. Here’s one: https://www.onerivermedia.com/codecs/

The data rate figure would cover the file size question (just do the math), and usually the quality follows the data rate. However, “lossless” codecs have a lower data rate than using no compression at all, with no visible quality difference, if there’s any difference at all. So pick lossless (Animation or 8-bit or 10-bit “uncompressed”) over “none”. Regarding render speed for a particular codec, I think compression is the least of your worries, render-wise, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

By the way, MPEG-2 compression is nothing to look up to. It’s very lossy. If, however, you want to squeeze its quality to the limit, start with the highest-quality source you can practically use (say, QT Animation, or 8/10-bit lossless) then use your MPEG-2 compression app to get the highest MPEG-2 data rate possible, using Variable BitRate Encoding or VBR. This should be addressed in the DVD or Compression COW forums, but one tip would be to try whatever image smoothing is offered in your compression app. Be prepared to do a lot of testing until you get the right formula. Use a short clip (10 seconds maybe?) to save time.

[Lars Bunch]

Hi,

This is more about Compressor and DVD Studio Pro that FCP, but it might be useful to you.

On the issue of stuttering, field dominence can definitly create problems. You are usually best off assuming lower field first for NTSC, but not always. I believe that DVCam is always lower field first, and frankly, I’ve never had occasion to use upper field first in NTSC, but it does exist.

One really irritating problem that took me a long time to solve was I would work on a project and then use Compressor with DVD Studio Pro to make a DVD. Compressor defaults to guessing the field dominence and it’s not a very good guesser. If it gets it wrong, you will get really bad stuttering when the video is played back on an interlaced monitor. What makes it difficult to figure out is that if you play the DVD on your progressive computer monitor, the problem doesn’t show up. It’s only once you’ve burned the DVD and are playing it on a TV that you can see the stuttering. My solution was to create a template in Compressor to tell it to ALWAYS assume lower field dominence when making the MPEG2 file. (Obviously if you are working with Upper field material, you will have to create a template to compress based on Upper field dominence.)

Hope this helps,

Lars

[Steve Roberts]

Good tip.

However, in spite of Apple’s insistence to the contrary, we’re talking about field order, not field dominance. For more information, refer to this article by Chris Meyer.