Editing H.264, exporting with current settings results in transcode?

Hello, I just edited a H.264 (.mov) home video and exported it using "Current Settings". The original file size was 400 MB but the export resulted in a 4.5 GB file. FCP X obviously transcodes the original material. I've also tried exporting the same file using the "H.264" setting, the result then was a 300 Mb file. This corresponds to the cutting I've done but the export process still took a lot of time and CPU to finish which proves transcode taking place again. In the past I used Quicktime 7 Pro to cut and edit H.264, it never transcoded the files and the saving was quick an painless. Am I missing some settings here or is FCP X currently unable to edit H.264 and export it without transcoding the original material? Thank you

Hi Badunit,
thanks a lot for this clarification. It perfectly makes sense in the way you describe it.
Maybe you can give me an additional recommendation ?
At the end I need my film in h.264 format and of course I'd like the film to be in terms of quality as close to the original material as possible. Original files are AVCHD HA (so h.264 codec with 17Mbit/s) in 1080i resolution.
So far I have exported my material directly from FCP X (using either the "export to h.264" from FCP itself but also trying several h.264 export formats from Compressor). All these attempts ended up with a quality that is visibly worse compared to the original AVCHD file, even when I use a bitrate for the output that is much higher than the 17 MBit of the original material. Resolution is fine but scenes with fast moves are really bad in some cases. From a "naive" point of view this seems strange to me: An output file in h.264 25MBit/s should be as good as the input material that was h.264 17MBit/s, shouldn't it ?
From what you stated above, I now wondered if I should better export to ProRes first (thus building what you called the "master" in best available quality) and than build the h.264 file from the master with Compressor in a second step ? means: go the way "Highly compressed" -> Master -> "Highly compressed" instead of directly doing "Highly compressed" -> "Highly compressed" ? Would there be any difference ? Or is the material anyway transcoded to ProRes in the background when exporting to h.264.
Happy to receive any recommendations / experiences on this.

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Hopefully this works below are 2 screen shots to get the full video settings shown.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a230/_Draven_/Screenshot2014-03-07at170122_zpsdbe066b9.p ng
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I exported my 1080i project as QT movie with current settings but...

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Export as current settings question

Hello,
I have HDV video on my timeline, Setting is HDV 60i 1440x1080. I export it as Quick Time movie, leaving Current settings. But my resulting video is HDV 1080i 60, but with dimensions 1920x1080.
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Michael,
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Happy Holidays by the way.
x

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Can't export with same settings.

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these clips are from a Nikon D300s camera:
1280x720, 24 fps, progressivew, Quality 50.
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As I looked at the list of possible reasons, the 2nd one jumped out at me as I was exporting to the same name. Unfortunatley that wasn't the problem. Checking the other ones:
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Cameron

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@Mike – yes.
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this is really annoying, I export some footage that was AVCHD footage, as an mpeg 2 file and it looks great like it should, and then I export to H.264 to upload to the web and there is a bit more of an orange colored tint to it, its mostly noticeable when you see red in the image because it looks more orange than its supposed to, and I didn't put any color correcting effects on at all!
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Hdv current settings exported file dimension changes to 1920X1080

Hello,
I'm working with HDV-sourced footage (MPEG-2 at 1440X1080). I have a bunch of long clips I simply want to cut into smaller pieces for now. So, I've dragged the HDV footage into a sequence with HDV settings (ie. 1440X1080). I export with "Current Settings" as I want to maintain HDV file sizes and stay in the same codec as the camera and what the files were originally imported as. Then, when I check the codec in Finder, it says the files are MPEG-2 at 1920X1080. So, if the dimensions have changed, have I somehow changed the codec?

It never displayed as 1440, or at least it shouldn't have. If it did, everyone and everything would've looked squished and skinny. Your export, if it was anything other than HDV, would be 1920. Did you export ProRes, H.264, or something else? And if you exported HDV, open the clip in QT, and click on Window/Show Movie INspector. The inspector window will show you the actual encoded pixels, and the display pixels. The former should be 1440, and the latter should be 1920.

Final cut export with HDV

Hello I have one project with HDV sequences, Pal sequences and some Iphoto video exports.
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--Bob

Editing H.264, exporting with current settings results in transcode?

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