[Ed Dooley]

Is it an H.264 MP4? Have you done a search? This has been a problem for at least 2 years now, it’s been all over every forum about video. There’s even a thread just a few below this one. Search man, search!
ED

[Ed Dooley]

Here’s a couple of posts that may help (or maybe not!).
There’s also a lot of talk that by calibrating your monitor to a custom setting, it affects the gamma when exporting a file to H.264.
Some folks have said that putting your monitor back to one of the default settings before exporting (then back to your custom setting afterwards) fixes the problem. I haven’t tried it.
Ed
___________________________________________________
This one is from Chris Meyer and includes debunking of some solutions:
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/brightness_issues_with_h264_quicktime_movies/P0/
________________________________________________
Open the QT
Go to “Window/Show Movie Properties”
Select “Video Track”, then click the “Visual Settings” tab
At the bottom left, change the transparency to “Blend” then move the slider to 100
Change the transparency to “Straight Alpha”
Close the Movie Properties window, then play or scrub the QT. Your black levels should now look correct
Save over old .mov
This is for PC’s. On the mac you change the transparency to “composition.”
And use “Save As…” from the File menu and select “Save as a self-contained movie.”
This adds the Fast Start information to the file.
____________________________________________________________
Update on x264encoder.
There is a way to make the exported file maintain a consistent appearance whether you are in a 2.2 or 1.8 gamma workspace. I’m thrilled I figured this out.

Choose x264encoder in the QTpro export pulldown.
Click Options
Click the Extra Options tab
Change the pulldown menu that says “No nclc atom” to one of the other options (I chose 6-1-6)
Make sure the “Add gamma 2.2 (legacy atom)” is NOT checked.
Hit OK and export your movie.
Now you have an h.264 encoded movie with correct gamma, and the appearance stays the same between 2.2 and 1.8 workspaces. (Confirm this by opening your display color preferences and toggling the gamma settings while your quicktime movie is open.)

[Ed Dooley]

Sorry, it just struck me as funny. Can’t help directly, but do you know that CS4 installed the QuickTime Exporter plug-in? That’s what allows FCP and QT (and other QT apps) to export to FLV.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

That’s funny! 🙂 It’s like bringing your Chevy to a Volkswagen
dealer for repair because you also own a VW.
Ed

[Joe Feng] “I’m using Final Cut Pro though…”

[Ed Dooley]

I owned a 17″ PowerBook for a couple of years, taking it all over the world so I could do rough edits. I loved the size, and I didn’t think the 7 pounds was that much more than the 1.3 pounds less of a 15″ (or somewhere around that difference). So when I recently bought another MBP, I started thinking the same thing……but….. I tried a 15″ with FCS, and I don’t notice any difference in available screen space. It’s smaller, of course, but without a 17″ next to it, it’s not noticeable at all. I disagree about the hard drive. The most important thing about hard drives is how full they are. A half-full 5,400RPM drive will outperform a nearly full 7,200RPM drive, and both are perfectly suitable for video and audio editing. A 7,200 is certainly faster, but not necessary, especially if you’ll be running off the battery for any amount of time (the 7,200 will suck more juice). But, I would suggest that the most important thing is to use an external drive for editing anyway. Depending on what format/codec you’ll be editing in, a single drive (either FW800 or SATA with an Express Card) will work fine for HDV/DV, or a 2 drive RAID0 setup (they even have cool little 2-2.5″ notebook striped arrays in a little case, some even run on bus power). Max out the RAM and you’ll have a fast portable system.
My travel system (only when I really need it) is a MBP, 2 drive RAID0 case, and an LCD combo VGA/video monitor, which fits in the laptop case (NTSC/PAL/component/s-video/composite/VGA). It works as a field monitor, a 2nd editing monitor, and a rough video monitor.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

You can also find one for $30 or $300. There are 3 chips commonly used for the cards and all of them act different. The JMicron cheap chip cards
can boot a MBP, but are limited in speed. The $300 Sonnet tempo with the Marvell chip can’t boot, but it’s port-multplied.I think all but the expensive Sonnet are limited to around 130MBS (and the PM versions are maxed out at 225.
Ed

here’s a bit of info on that one:
https://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/sonnet/pro-expresscard/

[Ed Dooley]

I do have the manual, so if you get me your e-mail address, I’ll send it to you.
But I fixed my problem without the manual. I took a sewing needle and poked and poked at the yellow plastic that was stuck in the power socket, which broke it up into small pieces. When the plastic breaks off the AC adapter plug tip, it gets stuck in the socket. There’s a little spring in the socket that gets pushed out of the way when the plug is in the socket, which won’t allow the battery to work.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

And you can create the black bar border in Photoshop and lay it on top of the video in FCP, AE, or Motion.
Ed

[Ed Dooley]

Here’s the answer (from a search!)
In Frame Controls:
>>>Select Custom as the Frame Controls
(default is Off). Select Best for Resize Filter, Progressive as Output Fields, and Best as Deinterlace. Also select Best as Rate Conversion at bottom (not sure if that’s necessary, but what the hell). One of those 6 buttons at the top of the Inspector is Filters, and one option there is De-interlace,
DON’T use that one, it’s crap, and you’ve already selected all the de-interlacing you need. <<< Ed

[Ed Dooley]

The easiest thing to do is read the manual. It will tell you how you select the preset, click on the + sign (the right button of the 3 at the top left of the preset tab) which will duplicate the setting, and allow you to modify the preset. Double click on the duplicate preset to open it, go to the 5th button (Geometry) from the left (at the top of the preset) and chenge the frame size. The 3rd button from the right (Frame Controls) is what you want to use to de-interlace, not the standard de-interlace filter). I won’t go into those details, but do a search of this forum (De-interlace Frame Controls) and you’ll find tons of advice.
Ed