Compressor in Final Cut Express?

I picked up a copy of Final Cut Express to do my video editing, and realized that it doesn't come with Compressor! Any idea how I can pick up a standalone copy, or is there a third party software that will do the same thing?
Is it even necessary, or will exporting with quicktime conversion work just as well?
Ryan
www.ryanestrada.com

Compressor greatest strength is that it's a batch processing tool. If you're doing a single podcast at a time that you want to encode for iPod, then there's no advantage to using Compressor. It'd be easier to do an export using QuickTime to an iPod formatted MPEG4.
Hope this helps,
Greg

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Final Cut EXPRESS compressor???

How do i go about getting a Compressor for Final Cut EXPRESS?
I bought FCE thinking it would have the compressor with it. Is there any chance i can get it for FCE?
Thanks
nath

Will Compressor 3 from the Final Cut Studio work with Final Cut Express?
Nath

Question re Final Cut Express Capabilities

I'm about to make the jump from another editing system over to Final Cut Express 4.
One of the things I want to be able to do is line up and load three different angles from three different cameras and be able to edit "on the fly" as the scenes play. I have a concert video, shot in a studio, with three cameras on tripods. Now I've got three tapes and I want to load them all into memory and then crossfade or cut between angles on-the-fly.
As well, I want to be able to shoot interviews with two cameras, each one pointing at the different people interview. Can FCE handle two different simulataneous inputs and then store the scenes in such a way that I can then cut between the two during the editing process?
Is there additional software or hardware needed for this? In my ten-year-old editing machine I've been using, this can be done ... but it's a major workaround and a major effort. And in the later versions of my same old machine, they had a feature called "Quad Cam" which showed up to four scenes on your monitor playing simultaneously, but it was expensive and needed a fast processor, which I didn't have. I suspect my new MacBook Pro will handle this, assuming FCE4 is able to do it.

Hi
The Multi Camera function in FCP is very time saving. And there are other functions
in FCP that might add to the value to take the leap.
The Color correcting tool was so much better and Color included (even more sofisticated)
DVD-Studio Pro
AND - Compressor !
Still to get more than one Camera to hard disk in live.
I tried a simpler version of this "Capture Magic HD" - only SD but
on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz
one extra FW-port on a PSCIA (or whatever) card - to get an extra individual FW-port
and TWO Cameras in real-time download to internal hard disk.
EACH Camera Must have a true FireWire port - not a split one as on Mac 400/800
(they are one and the same)
It worked as a charm. Ready to be edited immediately after Capture.
Yours Bengt W

Need advice on a system setup / Final Cut Express or pro

Hi all,
I am about to take on a pretty big project. I will be working on a full length documentary, approximately 90 minutes running time.
We currently have a 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of memory (667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM) which we will be using for editing. We are using a mid-level Sony High Definition camera that records on MiniDV.
We don't have a huge budget and I wanted to get the opinion of some experienced editors on what would be the right choice. We can get a new 3Ghz iMac or Final Cut Studio. We currently own Final Cut Studio Express and are relatively well versed with it.
So, the question is, would we benefit more from the speed of an upgraded Mac, or the additional functionality of Final Cut Studio?
Editing a full length feature like this can be a long frustrating process. With a 2Ghz machine, are we really going to feel the pain while trying to work with Final Cut Studio? Might we find ourselves gliding along with more ease (or less burnout) without the additional chugging along of a 2Ghz processor when editing on a 3Ghz processor with Final Cut Express?
I understand that the two greatest benefits (as far as I've read) is the batch capturing and color correction of Final Cut Studio. There is also something about keyframes that I know little to nothing about. Are these things you believe we might get a lot of use from, particularly in the context of a documentary? I can definitely see using the batch capturing but don't see that being worth and additional $800. I'm unsure too how beneficial color correction is.
Any tips or experiences would be greatly appreciated. So far we've only done 15 minute shorts and don't see too much computer slowdown. I'm a little worried about the sheer number of gigs of video we're going to be dealing with against a 2-year-old computer.
Thanks for taking the time.

I vote for FCS3. Of course you'll love what you can do and then you'll want a better machine, but that can wait. All the modules, Color, Soundtrack and Motion as well as Compressor make it worthwhile.
Make sure all your footage is the same format (ProRes) and you'll have much fewer timeline rendering issues.

Is it possible to make an MPEG-2 from Final Cut Express ?

I need to make an MPEG-2 file, exported from Final Cut Express 4. But I don't see an option for it.

Which type of MPEG-2 file?
There are three common types, each with their own variants:
Elementary Stream (.m2v) - contains video only; no audio. Commonly used by DVD authoring applications prior to multiplexing (muxing) with a separate audio file.
Transport Stream (.mts or .m2t) - muxed video and audio. Commonly used for tranferring broadcast quality video over a network.
Program Stream (.mpg or .mpeg) - muxed audio and video. Commonly used for automated server based playback.
At one time QuickTime Pro included an MPEG-2 encoder, but I believe Apple removed that option with the introduction of Compressor. Other apps for encoding include: Sorenson Squeeze, Cleaner and Episode ... to name a few.
-DH

Downgrading from Final Cut Pro Studio to Final Cut Express

Will Final Cut Express let me use the Boris Title 3D Video Generator effect that I now use in Final Cut Pro Studio?
Does it have an outline text video generator effect?
Since I have DVDSP 4.1.2, will I be able to drag my exported non self-contained quicktime movie into DVDSP? I have read I can use iDVD.
I see from the tutorial (http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/tutorials/) it does not have the ability to log clips for batch capture later but it does have a project button. Does anyone use that and can share what it does?
I have a Canon DV20 HD camera which I use for DV also. Since I have read that FCE will not read HDV from this camera, has anyone brought DV in using this camera?
Does anyone see any other negatives to downgrading?
I have been using Final Cut Pro from version 1.5 since it did what I needed it to do. Over the years they have added a plethora of packages to it, none of which I use. So why spend 700.00 to upgrade when I can spend 200 to get what I will use?
Thanks for your input.

Lots of questions:
"Will Final Cut Express let me use the Boris Title 3D Video Generator effect that I now use in Final Cut Pro Studio?"
Yes.
"Does it have an outline text video generator effect?"
Yes, but don't use. Use Title 3D.
"Since I have DVDSP 4.1.2, will I be able to drag my exported non self-contained quicktime movie into DVDSP?"
Yes. Or you can use Compressor, which you should have, to encode your video.
"I see from the tutorial (http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/tutorials/) it does not have the ability to log clips for batch capture later but it does have a project button. Does anyone use that and can share what it does?"
It allows you to log your material first, selecting the pieces on the tape you want to capture and then going back and letting the machine capture the selected pieces.
"I have a Canon DV20 HD camera which I use for DV also. Since I have read that FCE will not read HDV from this camera, has anyone brought DV in using this camera?"
Never heard of camera.
"Does anyone see any other negatives to downgrading?"
What version are you using?

Poor quality when exporting HD project directly from Final cut Express

I am doing some HD projects in Final Cut Express HD. I filmed with the Sony HRD-HC1 in 1080i. I import into FCE using the 1080i 60 preset from Easy setup. I completed the project and it looks great from FCE full screen. I export as Quicktime (not Using Quicktime conversion), and I get a perfect looking output file using the Apple intermediate codec, 1440x1080. The problem is that the client needs to play back the video on windows machine using Quicktime. The windows Quicktime does not support the AIC apple intermediate codec, so I have to export to another format. I tried everything exporting from FCE, MP2, H.264, DivX, everyone option. They all look terrible. Blurry, especially parts that have quick motion. Really terrible. I called Apple support, no love. I then tried taking the AIC version of the file and used compressor. It took forever, but came up with am OK MP2 HD file. It still doesn't look that great, but it is way better. So, is their something broken with the FCE exports using Quicktime conversion? Anyone have similar experiences or workarounds? I don't want to use compressor as I don't have it on my Mac Book pro, I had to move it to another machine to do that.

Being that the dimentions you suggested should be widescreen, I re-ran the conversion to your parameters, this time un-checking "Preserve aspsect ratio.. as letterbox" and this time it is widescreen. Not sure why, but it was putting the black bars on the left and right, not the top and bottom, scrunching to 4:3ish with that box checked. Strange.
Anyway, the quality is the best H.264 I have seen exporting directly from FCE. It still blurs quite a bit on the fast moving video parts, my MP2 version from compressor still looks lots better. Seems like there is some problem with exporting HD from FCE. It just is not coming out sharp, like the Apple intermediate codec version you get with Export - -> Quicktime movie or if you wait for compressor to do the work rather than FCE. Does compressor use a different engine, or does it use the same QT and just take more time to do a better job in the export? Something just isn't right.

Final cut express to idvd

Hey guys,
I have been having a problem with the picture quality of the DVD's I made with final cut. I export them to a "Quicktime movie" from the file menu; which is what Apple said to do. So I went to my local Apple store and had the guy in final cut express, do what i did, export to quicktime movie..., Then with Final Cut express again, we used compressor (ONLY available in FC pro, i don't even know why it an option: it will only be un-grayed out if you have Compressor) We selected "Mpeg-2 best quality DVD" we exported and it looked a heck of a lot better than the quicktime movie one( which is all i have available). I was wondering if any one has the name for a mpeg2 encoder, for mac, that is a plug in for quicktime so that i wont degrade quality doing quicktime movie and the exporting in a different program (if its a Quicktime plugin, i can do it directly within FC express. Please help!! Thanks so much!

(I'm not sure whether I understand your problem but here goes. Maybe there is no problem after all?).
Basically iDVD wants .dv or .mov -- it insists on encoding MPEG2 itself.
So: if your source is DV from a camcorder, you should use a DV stream .dv file (or DV-encoded .mov file) as an input to iDVD so there are no lesser quality intermediary codecs (like MPEG2!) ruining the final output to MPEG2.
Notice also that by default QT Player has a low resolution playback of DV files so don't judge the quality by that! You can turn on high quality playback via QT Player to see all quality (and maybe also those interlacing comb lines that are normal...).
BTW, AFAIK a long time there used to be an Apple MPEG2 encoder plug-in for QT but AFAIK it doesn't work with new Mac OS versions and has been superseded by Compressor. And if you use iDVD, you don't need either of them anyway.

Final Cut Express REALLY loud beeping noise?

i've been using Final Cut Express for a few months now,
i have just started to edit a new video and i was listening back the music to see if it was mixed right, then a REALLY LOUD beep started. my macbook was on volume 2 out of 16 and it sounded as tho i had my laptop of full! or louder :/
what is this?
the first time i played the music, it didn't happen, but the second time it did? - it also did the same thing the other day!
-it isn't because i haven't rendered my music, because all my music and video is rendered. the noise is 100% louder than the 'unrendered' beeping

Beeping is usually an artifact of using iMovie video in FCE.
What exactly are your sequence settings & clip properties? (Frame size, vid rate & compressor).
And are you really using Final Cut Express on a Lion (10.7.3) machine?

Input iphone movie to Final cut express

Can I use Compressor to convert an iphone movie to a format that Final Cut Express 4 will accept?

Yes. Compressor can transcode the H.264 to Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). It can also convert the 44.1 kHz audio to 48. (Note: you could also do this in MPEG Streamclip.)
Russ

What setting is the best for exporting Final Cut Express HD

I am new to final cut express HD. I have worked with iMovie and it was very easy to work with and exporting the movie was not too difficult.
I am curious as to what setting should I set to to export a movie file from final cut express HD. I've exported a short quicktime movie clip but it doesn't look as sharp. Could someone help me.

For DVD, export as Quicktime Movie NOT Quicktime Conversion.
You can drop the resulting QT file into iDVD or into Compressor if you are using DVD Studio Pro.
If you have chapter markers, make sure to select Chapter Markers in the export submenu.
Bear in mind that iDVD has a limitation of two hours; even if your movie is exactly two hours you will run into probs cause iDVD counts its menus, themes etc as part of that total running time.

Uploading Videos in Final Cut Express 4 HD

Well i have just recently bought a canon vixia hv40 along with Final Cut Express 4. Before Final Cut Express 4, the only experience i've had with editing software is imovie 6 HD and imove 09'. So its been kinda of tough figuring out this program, but one main question i have is how do you upload videos to youtube in HD. I see so many videos online that look awesome (shot with Canon Vixia HV40) and when i uploaded a video it had the black bars on the side and the quality was "ok". So if anyone could help me with this, i would be very thankful.
P.S. I own a Mac Notebook about 1yrs old

I don't have an HD camera, and I use FCE 3.5.1, but I can suggest that you export your video using Compressor. I have heard some concerns with Compressor, but the version which comes with 3.5.1 is great. It will take a little learning, but once you get the hang of it, its pretty easy to do.
Also, check Youtube to see what they say about the ideal format for uploading. Is it MP4? If so, then you want to output in that format. It could be .mov.
That's my thought on it.

How do I avoid rendering in Final Cut Express 4 ?

Someone mentioned synchronizing movie files and sequences but I am not sure what type of files either should be and how to do that. As of now I am using h.264 compressor for movie clips but I don't know if that is good.

Please repost in Final Cut Express forum; this is Final Cut Pro X forum.

Field encoding issue/ FINAL CUT EXPRESS

Hello, I am editing a video for television broadcast. The requirements ask for "Field Encoding Order:Bottom or Upper field first. We do not accept progressive."
Does any one know how to do this for FINAL CUT EXPRESS? Or do I need compressor?

What is your source material?
What is your Easy Setup (actually, your Sequence Setting)? Control-click the Sequence name in the FCE Browser, then select Item Properties. What does it say for Compressor, Vid Rate, Frame Size & Field Dominance?
The request indicates they want interlaced material. Unless you know you shot progressive, you probably already have interlaced video.

How do I export my video in 500x500 resolution? I know there's a feature in Final Cut Express that allows me to make custom dimensions when I export but I can't find the same in FCPX

How do I export my video in 500x500 resolution? I know there's a feature in Final Cut Express that allows me to make custom dimensions when I export but I can't find the same in FCPX.

Tom is right, BUT! ...the newest version of Compressor (41.) allows you to do just THAT! ...to export custom sizes.
It's easy. And... once you set it up, you can export DIRECTLY from FCPX, provided you've saved / added this scheme as a "destination" in the FCPX app.

Compressor in Final Cut Express?

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