[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

I’m starting to run out of ideas. (You still haven’t told me how much an uncompressed file would be, so I still have no idea how much compression is required.)

At this point you might want to get away from QuickTime and start thinking about Windows Media Files, which in my experience are only slightly lower quality, but are much more compressed.

To export from Final Cut as wmv files, you need to purchase the Flip4Mac WMV Studio by Telestream for $49.

https://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm

Good luck!

Mike

[Mike Raff]

H.264 is available directly in FCP, as follows:

File> Export>Using QuickTime Conversion, brings up the “Save” dialogue box.

In the he “Save” dialogue box, make sure Format is set to QUickTime Movie, then press the Options button, which will bring up the Movie Settings dialogue box.

In the Movie Settings dialogue box, in the video portion, click on the Settings button to bring up the Standard Video Compression Settings box.

At the top of the Standard Video Compression Settings box, you can select your desired Compression Type from a drop down menu. Locate H.264 in the drop down menu to select it.

Hit OK in the Standard Video Compression Settings box to close and than Save in teh Save dialogue box to render

If the resulting file is still too big, you can go back to the Standard Video Compression Settings box, reduce the frequency of key frames and lower the quality slider in the Compressor window to further reduce the size of the rendered file.

HTH,

Mike

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

A couple more suggestions. If you File>Export>QuickTime Movie, you will get an uncompressed QT (that way you can see just how much compression is occurring via QT Conversion).

If you are exporting for web viewing of SD material, I would still go H.264, but I would change the size to 320 x 240.

If you’d rather convert to wmv, you need to have the Flip4Mac plugin ($49, if I recall correctly).

Not sure what you mean when you say “To transfer the files online . . . .” Do you mean you trying to compress files which are already compressed? Why? Are you trying to e-mail them?

I have no idea whether you can zip video files, but I imagine unzipping them at the other end will yield unsatisfactory results. You should compress the file to the proper size in the first place. If that size is too large to e-mail, than you’ll have to ftp it or use some service like YouSendIt (you can get a free account that accepts files up to 100 MB). Or burn it to a DVD and hand-deliver or snail mail it.

Good luck!

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Kenny

Let me suggest a couple of things that might start you on the right path.

Can you compress files while you export? Yes, with a variety of results. (How are you exporting now? Knowing that would help in answering your questions. And do you have a target file size in mind?)

When you go File>Export, you want to examine the second and third options, “Using Compressor” and “Using QuickTime Conversion”. Compressor often yields better results, but it’s somewhat more complicated, if you are unfamiliar with the program. The simpler method is “Using QuickTime Conversion”.

Try this: File>Export>Using QuickTime Conversion. Then in the “Save” dialogue box, select a location for exported file and proceed to the Format and and Option buttons. If you click on the Format drop-down menu, you’ll see a number of choices (including various kinds of audio only or still files). You’ll probably want to select QuickTime Movie (though I sometimes opt for MPEG-4 or Windows Media). Click on the Option button to access the Movie Settings dialogue box, where you’ll want to look at the Settings and Size options. As I don’t know what your needs are, it’s hard for me to recommendation, but you might start by selecting Compression : H.264 as your Setting and Current as your Size. Hit Okay to exit the Movie Settings box and then hit Save in the Save window to render. If the file is still too big, examine other adjustments in the Compression Settings window (it comes up when you select your settings in the Movie Setting window) or select a different compressor altogether.

Don’t know anything about Flash, so I can’t help you there.

As for making it 16:9, if you shot 4:3 you can’t really change it, without distorting the aspect ratio. However, you can simulate it by putting a letterbox over it. (i.e. you inscribe a 16:9 image in a 4:3 frame. You will, of course, be cropping off the top and bottom of your shot, so unless the shots are pretty wide, you may be happy with the results.)

FCP includes the widescreen letterboxes as a filter. Look here: Effects>Video Filters>Matte>Widescreen. The filter gives you a choice of five or six different aspect ratios. I’d recommend 1.66:1 –the least extreme of the bunch, as your video was probably not shot with cropping in mind. Select all your video clips and add this filter. Voila!

Good luck.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Jeff

Sometimes Cinema Desktop Preview just doesn’t work right for me. A shut down and restart usually fixes it. But you should also check to see that you’re feeding All Frames and not Single Frames:
View>External Video>All Frames

HTH,

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Raffi

Rich and Gary are right. The JVC gives you two options: to record as FCP-friendly native QT or to record in the XDCAM-EX codec (i.e. mp4) which will require conversion before you can edit in FCP.

I’d go with the third party software for now, then re-read you JVC manual before your next shoot to make sure you get QT next time.

Hope that helps.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

You might want to check out PluralEyes, a piece of software that was introduced at NAB this year which automatically syncs clips by comparing their audio waveforms:

https://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/index.html

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Don’t know if this will help, but there is also a Boris pref you could trash:
Users>Library>Preferences>com.borisfx.Title 3D

HTH

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Pedro

I think we’re confused by the way you’re using the word “export”. (Around here, when you say you want to export a sequence, that usually means creating a new piece of media–a QuickTime movie for example–that is a single file comprised of all the media and effects represented by your sequence).

It sounds like what you want to do is copy your sequence to a portable device and move it to another system, without also moving all the media. Is that what you’d like to do?

If that’s it, then the answer is that it’s possible, but not quite the way your imagine.
Tom is correct that you can copy a sequence between projects. What you need to do, then, is to copy your project file to the flash drive, copy the project file from the flash drive to the second system, open your project and copy the sequence from your project to a project on the second system. (If all the media on your original system is on the second system, you’ll be able to play the sequence, but you may have to reconnect all the media first and, possibly, render all the files that need rendering. If the media is not on a drive attached to the second system, then your sequence will open, but you won’t see or hear anything if you try to play it).

So, to clarify, you can copy projects to external drives, but you cannot copy sequences or bins independently of their projects. Fortunately, the project files are relatively small. It’s the media files that are large.

I hope that helps.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA

[Mike Raff]

Hi, Dustin

Forgive me if I’m telling you something you already know, but closed-captions are different from subtitles. And you should be able to export a QT from FCP with closed-captions that you can turn on or off. (Closed-caption data is not in the visible portion of the video signal, but is encoded in the vertical interval.)

And I don’t think you can actually edit closed captions in FCP, though there are third-party programs which permit it to be added. Google “MacCaption” for example.

Hope that helps.

Mike Raff
Richmond, VA