What are the best sequence settings in FCP 5 for exporting screen capture video footage?

I capture video footage of websites in order to showcase in a demo reel. Using Snapz Pro, the compression type I have found to have the best quality is H264. When I take this footage into FCP (v5.1.4), I choose DV NTSC 48khz for the sequence setting. If I then select H264 for the sequence compression type, when I go to render I get a 'Codec error.'
The only way I am able to render properly is by choosing DV NTSC 48khz for the sequence setting and DV/DVCPRO-NTSC as my sequence compression type. The problem with this though is I get a perfect picture in the Viewer, but the picture quality in the Canvas (and the subsequent exported video) is slightly blurred.
I've been trying to find a solution to this problem off and on for years. I've finally decided now to get to the bottom of the issue. If you can solve this one you are my hero!
Ted

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried using DVCPRO HD in the past, but the picture quality of the captured screen footage turns out blurry. The only codecs I've found that provide a perfectly clear image are H264, Animation and Uncompressed 8-bit. The problem with the latter two is that video files lasting only a few seconds measure in the 100s of MBs. Working with files that large would slow my editing and rendering down to a non-workable length.
I just don't understand why I can't edit H264 video if my sequence codec is set to H264. The 'Codec error' I get is baffling.

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What are the best sequence settings for anamorphic?

sorry for the long explanation....
i have a project that was shot 16:9. my question is what is the best sequence setting to use so that when i export it to tape it will look right on a regular TV? on the FCP viewer it looks right with either setting. the difference is that if i choose a regular sequence setting ("anamorphic" unchecked), the video clips need to be rendered (it's green, but it will limit my ability to add effects and watch them without rendering). therefore i would prefer to use the anamorphic setting that does not need rendering. However, when i export the movie it comes out stretched (and only works with TV that has an anamorphic setting).
Can i edit the whole project with the anamorphic sequence setting and in the end copy it to a regular sequence without it becoming stretched?
i tried this on a little test sequence and it appeared to work, but i'm afraid that if the project becomes elaborate... well, last time i tried editing an anamorphic sequence (a while back, on FCP 2) i had to redo my whole film cut by cut with a regular sequence setting and then render it anamorphic so that it will look right.... it simply didn't work to just cut and paste the project onto a new regular sequence (could this have happened because i had many effects?). it came out stretched as it would when you merely uncheck the "anamorphic" box. has this been solved in the newer versions?

Your settings -- between the Compressor, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Frame Size -- are oil-and-water.
If this is going to YouTube (meaning not going to be viewed on traditional TVs) and it's mainly Photos, try using this:
Frame Size: 1280x720
Aspect Ratio: HDTV 720p
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Compressor: Motion JPEG A
Quality: 100% (though in a lot of cases, you could drag this down to about 75-80% and quality will not suffer)
Unfortunately, you won't get much (if any) real-time effects. Unless, of course, you're on FCP 6 or later, where you can use a ProRes compressor instead. But with your signature saying 10.4. something, I wasn't sure if it was safe to assume that. The Motion-JPEG setting should work in all versions.

What are the best sequence settings for editing a movie made on your iPhone

I have a lot of footage taken on my iPhone 3Gs. I want to make a summer fun movie and compile all the clips together. What are going to be my best sequence settings to make editing of the footage easy and viewable in real time without the need to render. Is this possible?

Open the videos in QT Pro player and export to a codec and frame rate consistent with any easy set up such as NTSC DV and edit that.

What are the best sequence settings for a movie to be put on youtube?

I am making a video that consists of mainly jpegs and audio. The final movie needs to be crisp and fairly high resolution because the pictures have some house plans that need to be easily read.
I have tried the following settings only to get a blurry image result in the end:
Frame Size: 960x720 Aspect Ratio: HD (960x720) (16:9)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC - CCIR 601 DV 720X480
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Quicktime Video Settings:
Compressor DVCPRO50 - NTSC
Quality: 100%
This seems to me like it should be a crisp enough image result but the end result is very poor. When I use the H.264 Compressor instead of DVCPRO50 - NTSC, the image is much sharper but the faded transitions are sometimes choppy, and you have to render the timeline with each change you make. Please help me find the best overall settings for smooth editing and sharper image.
Thanks,
Caleb

Your settings -- between the Compressor, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Frame Size -- are oil-and-water.
If this is going to YouTube (meaning not going to be viewed on traditional TVs) and it's mainly Photos, try using this:
Frame Size: 1280x720
Aspect Ratio: HDTV 720p
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Compressor: Motion JPEG A
Quality: 100% (though in a lot of cases, you could drag this down to about 75-80% and quality will not suffer)
Unfortunately, you won't get much (if any) real-time effects. Unless, of course, you're on FCP 6 or later, where you can use a ProRes compressor instead. But with your signature saying 10.4. something, I wasn't sure if it was safe to assume that. The Motion-JPEG setting should work in all versions.

What are the best quality settings in encore for DVD production?

Hello everyone,
I'm Paul. I was working on a HD PROJECT 1920 by 1080 30p 50mbps. I export it is using h.264 codec which produce mp4 file in pr pro cs6. When I import it in encore and export to DVD. The quality gets so dull and blurry compare to other DVD. I did not make any changes, just import and burn. It would be very helpful if some one can suggest highest quality possible settings for DVD. I even exported my project to mpegdvd. Then tried burning it with Nero 11. Every time I get error message saying, " some of the files cannot be written on the disc" and the quality is even worse if I use encore with this file. Today, I gave a try to Amrisoft DVD creator and the quality was awesome. I did nothing just imported mp4 and it burned it on the DVD. But I want to use encore since I bought the the whole production package. Thank you.

You do realize, don't you, that H.264 isn't a supported CODEC on DVD? Blu-ray, yes. DVD, no. And the top bit rate for DVD is 9.8Mbps IIRC, but a more practical limit is in the 7-8Mbps range. Maximum resolution is 720x480 in NTSC contries, and 720x526 in PAL countries, again IIRC.
So if you are coming to a DVD with 1920 x 1080 30p source at 50Mbps, a lot of information gets thrown away to make a DVD. Maybe 90% gets trashed. So it shouldn't be surprising that the resulting video looks "dull and blurry" in comparison. It should if you're only looking at 10% of the source data.
When I've done work something like this -- making DVDs from HD sources -- I typically set AME for MPEG-2, a max bit rate of around 8Mbps, a target of around 7Mbps, and let AME do the down-sampling and re-encoding as it will. The resulting DVD looks pretty good to me. Not anything like as good as a blu-ray, but played in an upscaling blu-ray player it looks reasonably good.
Now, it is possible to export small amounts of HD source (less than about 15 minutes worth) to DVD in blu-ray format. DVD players will choke on it since it's a foreign format, but some blu-ray layers will play it. Looks just like blu-ray for the short time that it will play. I've never done this myself though so I can't tell you how to do it.

What are the best import settings for iTunes - AAC 160 / AAC 192 / MP3??

Hi I originally imported all my treasured CDs to iTunes several years ago, and they've served me well (AAC 128 - default setting) but in recent times hard-drive sizes have trebled and my much loved iTunes Library has not been updated.
I am thinking of re-importing all of my original CDs - as I think now that hard-drive space would allow for a higher quality but at the same time I do not want to fill my hard-drive completely with music - hence my question;
WHAT ARE THE BEST IMPORT SETTINGS CONSIDERING SIZE AND QUALITY?
(I know this has probably been asked a million times, but I did a search and nothing came up that answered my Q - also all the answers that came up in Google search where dated 2003/ 2004 - a little out-dated me thinks!!)
Rachael

Personally I've started ripping everything Apple Lossless. That way I hope I never have to rip again.
I used to rip 320 mp3. I couldn't tell the difference between 320 mp3 and lossless, but, one day I might be able to - big maybe. But since disk price is not likely to go up, I figured I'd rip lossless from now on "just in case."
Probably few, if any, people could tell the difference between 256 AAC and lossless (I've done it at 192, but never at 256, and I have not bothered trying again recently - there might be a song out there where I could hear the difference, hence ripping lossless from now on - my time costs more than disk space . . .)
256 AAC is a pretty safe bet, unless you need mp3 compatibility, then use 256 (or 320) mp3.

What are the best external backup battery choices for the iPod Touch 4G?

Hello,
I am so disappointed with the battery life on my iPod Touch 4G, even when I turn off location services and notifications and put it in airplane mode.
As such, I realize that I am going to have to get an external backup battery, even though I don't like the idea of carrying around yet another item.
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bumping up (I hope doing so is allowed.)

What are the best protective cases to have for iphone 4

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What are the best optimization settings for Logic 9....

Hey guys,
I am running Logic 9 on a Macbook Pro 2.53GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, OSX 10.6.4, with a AK1 soundcard. And I was wondering what the best optimization settings for this setup are?
I have been having a few issues with drop outs in sound during playback, which is also carried over when i bounce the audio. I did some research and found my latency settings needed to be higher, so I set the I/O buffer size to 512. I am also running all samples from the local hdd, I was thinking maybe put the samples on an external drive. I also changed Logic 9 to 64bit mode.
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First, return to 32-bit mode. 64 bit still has some ß-issues and some features that are not working/disabled, and the only perk of 64-bit is that Logic can adress more than 4 GB RAM, which you don't have anyway.
Samples on the startup drive is not a problem, unless you start using really big third party sample libraries, or zillions of EXS instruments. Some of the Logic content insists on residing on the startup disk anyway, better leave that where it is.
If you have an external, use that to store your Logic projects, or, in other words, make it your recording disk (as recordings are stored in the project folder). You do record audio too, I assume? Anyway, if you get an external, make it a FireWire one, not USB. FireWire is much easier on the CPU, and +for audio (and sample-) streaming+ more reliable and faster than USB.
If dropouts you hear during playback also show up in the (offline?) bounce, it is probably not a buffer issue, as the buffer is irrelevant for bouncing offline.
So how many tracks and what kind of tracks in this project? Which plugins and how many instances of them?

What are the best wireless settings for a WRT160N v2?

I am trying to find out what the best wireless settings are for the WRT160N v2 to have the best connection with my PC (WUSB600N) and my PS3 gaming console. Are there any suggestions on which channel I should be using, etc? My PC and PS3 are about 30ft from the router and unfortunately, I cannot move the router. I have really no obstructions from PC and PS3 to the router, but signal strength is low. If anyone can enlighten me, I would much appreciate it.
Thanks for your help!

Here are some settings which you can set on your Router, and i think this should solve all the problem. As this is the same settings which i have set on my Router and its working perfectly fine.
Open an Internet Explorer browser page on your wired computer(desktop).In the address bar type - 192.168.1.1 and press Enter...
Leave username blank & in password use admin in lower case...
For Wireless Settings, please do the following : -
Click on the Wireless tab
-Here select manual configuration...Wireless Network mode should be mixed...
-Provide a unique name in the Wireless Network Name (SSID) box in order to differentiate your network from your neighbours network...
- Set the Radio Band to Wide-40MHz and change the Wide channel to 9 and Standard Channel to 11-2.462GHz...Wireless SSID broadcast should be Enabled and then click on save settings...
Please make a note of Wireless Network Name (SSID) as this is the Network Identifier...
For Wireless Security : -
Click on the Sub tab under Wireless > Wireless Security...
Change the Wireless security mode to WPA, For Encryption, select AES...For Passphrase input your desired WPA Key. For example , MySecretKey , This will serve as your network key whenever you connect to your wireless network. Do NOT give this key to anyone.
NOTE : Passphrase should be more that 8 characters...
Click on Advanced Wireless Settings
Change the Beacon Interval to 75 >>Change the Fragmentation Threshold to 2304 Change the RTS Threshold to 2307 >>Click on "Save Settings"...
Now see if you can locate your Wireless Network and attempt to connect...

What are the best sequence presets and settings to use in FCE for the best resolution with the least amount on strain on computer?

Hello!
Can someone please help me figure out the best settings to use in order to obtain the best resolution in FCE4 for a television show that is going to be sent out on full size Sony DVcam tapes, with 4:3 aspect ration and audio output at 48kHz? I am currently working with mixed media sources in Final Cut Express, and I am wondering what the best settings (presets and preferences) are, in order to provide the HIGHEST resolution possible, while putting the least amount of strain on my computer system?
I am importing mini DV-standard definition footage and still photos (from Canon Rebel camera, HD CMOS Canon camcorder that records in 1440x1080 at 48 kHz, and cell phone photos). For voiceovers I use the tools in FCE.
I use Voltaic (which I use thanks to recommendations from Apple discussion boards, love it!) to convert the footage from the HD CMOS-Canon HD VIXIA (HG 20) camera, and then I am using print to video to output onto Sony DVcam tapes (full size). This is for delivery for a television network that broadcasts in Standard Definition, so I need to produce the highest resolution and best quality possible that also puts the least amount of stress on my computer system.
If anyone has any recommendations, help, or sources that can help me answer this question I would be greatly appreciative.
Thank you!
Susan Kayne

This is happening because your video clip properties do not match your sequence settings. This is always a problem when you try to insert video from multiple camcorders/cameras (that use different video codecs, frame sizes & rates) in a single sequence.
It will help a lot if you provide more specifics - what FCE easy setup did you use to create your sequence? For your DV footage, are you using standard 4:3 DV or anamorphic 16:9 DV clips?
If you plan to export to standard def (DV/DVCAM) and are mixing DV from a miniDV camcorder, stills, cell phone images and AVCHD then I would suggest that you use the DV NTSC easy setup for your sequence. Use MPEG Streamclip or similar utility to convert your non-DV video (your AVCHD video) to QuickTime/Apple DV-DVCPRO NTSC. Then all your video will match your sequence settings. Yes, you will have to crop the AVCHD footage to 4:3 and you can do that in MPEG Streamclip.

What are the best configuration settings within the weblogic administration console for performance?

Hello,
Does anyone know of a good tutorial for setting the best configurations within the adminstrative console for weblogic servers?
Thanks,
Al

Hi,
Please refer the below links,
http://middlewaremagic.com/weblogic/?p=6384
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs100/perform/topten.html
Regard,
Ramprakash Arun
Industry Vertical
Please Mark Helpful / Correct Answer if so

What are the best affordable external drive options for my iMac ?

Hello,
I am a fairly recent newcomer to Macintosh as my primary personal computing platform. I have recently installed Adobe CS4 Design Premium Student Edition on a late 2006 20in iMac and have several important questions about external hard drives. First of all, everyone knows that using any personal computer (whether you its a Macintosh, or a PC running Windows and/or Linux) without an acceptable way to backup critical data is no different than driving in your car without your seat belt fastened. I need advice for a good external hard disk solution for backup and several other important computing tasks given the following realities
1. Contrary to what I to originally thought, I do not have Firewire 800, but instead have access to dual firewire 400 ports in addition to USB 2.0. My concern over connection speed in regards to Adobe's recommendation to use RAID 0 arrays for scratch disks used by Photoshop CS4. Adobe also recommends that scratch disks for photoshop CS4 are assigned on a hard disk that is not your startup disk. Nontheless, Adobe has no objection to use your startup disk assuming it has plently of Free space (and mine does w/ 189.53 GB available)
2. Do really need RAID 0 to achieve the performance I would need? I had prior Mac based training with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign, in High school. I have not used this software in 4 years and am not only trying to refresh my skills but to learn the software. In other words I am still in the beginner stage With practice and patience, I will certainly learn the software and use it to the best of my creative energies. Given the situation if my work becomes complex enough over time how important is RAID 0 when I make purchase of an external hard disk? I known that the disk utility in Mac OS X allows the user to create a Raid array. This seems like the cheapest way to accomplish the job. However, the purchase of an external Hard Drive must be able to safely backup my system and also provide adequate performance.
3. Speaking of backup, I am one of those users who is still stubbornly clinging to Mac OS X Tiger. However, updating to a new OS has been required ritual for my previous two PCs. That said given that Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard will be out in mere months, I do not see the wisdom now in upgrading to Leopard. After all as a higher education student, money is tight and see Snow Leopard as far more compelling and future-proof upgrade. Snow Leopard is getting better plumbing and will also include Microsoft Exchange Server support (possibly the biggest selling point). I also have interest in using Boot Camp in 10.6 (or 10.5) for running windows software (that are useful for my academics) and games (particularly Half-Life 2 and other Steam games that can run well within my Mac's fairly limited gaming capabilities. If I decide to use Boot Camp I have to partition my internal hard disk. This further complicates finding a very reasonable, affordable, and reliable external disk solution given everything that I have mentioned. Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks.

I don't think you should worry about the RAID stuff. The only way you could create a RAID is by using external drives, or one those external enclosures with two drives inside. Any speed advantage of such a RAID would be mostly negated by the FireWire 400 connection.
Use your internal drive space for speed critical functions. Use a FireWire 400 external drive for additional storage space, where speed is important but not critical, such as storing your existing media (including your things like your iTunes library files). Use a separate cheaper USB 2.0 external drive for your Time Machine (or whatever method) backup archive, where speed is not that important at all (some people even use a network connection for their Time Machine backup).
You can get a FireWire 800 drive and use an adapter to connect to FireWire 400. The connection won't be any faster on your iMac, but you can use the drive later with a Mac that does have FireWire 800. There are drives that have FireWire 400 and 800, and USB 2.0.
I like the drives sold by OWC
http://www.macsales.com/
I often buy the drive enclosure empty and find a good deal on the hard drive mechanism that I want. OWC sells most of their drives empty. My current Time Machine drive is actually one of these USB adapters
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
connected to a Western Digital 750GB SATA drive that I got for about $70. Found that deal through dealmac.com. Couldn't think of a cheaper way to add that large amount of backup space, and it works very well. The internal drive in my iMac is only 160GB, so most of my personal data is on an external FireWire 400 drive; both drives are backed up by Time Machine.

What is the best preference settings to use for CS5 Suites

I upgraded my PC a few months back and I'm currently running the CS5 suites. A few weeks ago I started having issues with the CS5 suites freezing up & in some cases even crashing on me. I always run Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign & bridge at the same time, as I'm constantly moving between program on any given project. What I'd like to know, is if there's an optimum setting to use in the preferences for each program, including bridge to help them run more smoothly & efficiently, without the computer or programs bogging down or crashing on me. Below is a list of the hardware I'm running, which I've been told is more than enough to run the CS5 suites. Any information would be greatly appreciated, as I'm starting to get frustrated with the performance.
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Generally speaking, freezing and crashing problems don't have to do with performance configuration settings, and there are fairly few such settings that affect most applications. Video editing software tends to have a bunch, but that doesn't sound like it is pertinent to you.
Indeed, your hardware sounds far more powerful than you'd need to easily avoid problems based on performance limitations.
I suspect, then, that each of the problems you are seeing is a seperate unique problem not a result of a configuration choice. It'll need to be debugged carefully with full details, and as close as you can get to a reproducible case as possible.
In InDesign, about the only settings of relevance are whether Live Screen Drawing is turned on (images resize in realtime when you adjust their bounding boxes), and whether the View > Display Performance setting is set to Typical (the default) or High Quality.
You could also experiment with disabling Live Preflight.
You mention running 4 apps at once -- when you do so, are the non-active applications performing computation, or just sitting there idle? For instance, are you executing a complex filter operation in Photoshop at the same time as exporting a PDF in InDesign, all while you are drawing patterns in Illustrator? I assume the answer is Probably Not, in which case it lends strength to the hypothesis that the performance characteristics of your machine are not at issue here.

What are the best/craziest applications and games for iPhones!?

Let me know please ! Cheers!

Matt,
This is a user to user technical support forum. Your post is against the Terms of Use of this forum that you agreed to when you signed up to post.
I'm sure there are many chatrooms or blogs out there that will get you the answers you need. Your post is totally inappropriate for a technical support forum.
Best of luck.
GDG

What are the best sequence settings in FCP 5 for exporting screen capture video footage?

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